The targeting of Tea Party and other right-leaning groups by the IRS is a major scandal. Yet, as Walter Olson notes, some of the Administration’s critics have gone a bit overboard trying to tie the scandal to the White House.
It’s one thing to note the lopsided political contributions of IRS employees, including those in the relevant office (as reported by Tim Carney). It is quite another to try and tar some of the officials involved because of alleged political ties of their spouses simply because they work at a major law firm and the firm (or its partners) made political contributions to the President or anyone else. Making such charges, as Olson notes, amounts to “firing blanks.”