vixen strangely makes a very clever point: tea party groups claim they were targeted for partisan reasons. they couldn't have been targeted for partisan reasons unless they themselves are partisan. if they are partisan groups, they don't deserve the tax exemption they don't deserve the tax exemption they applied for and deserve greater scrutiny.
i don't think that logic dispels the entire controversy. the bottom line is that a lot of overtly partisan groups apply for a tax exemption that is not supposed to go to partisan organizations. groups on all sides of the political spectrum do that, and so in a perfect world they all would get greater scrutiny. it is a problem for the government to selectively apply scrutiny to some groups instead of others for political reasons. however, the remedy for that problem would be for the IRS to scrutinize every group applying for the exemption (or maybe more of a random sample of everyone), not that it lay off everyone as the conservatives seem to be saying.
i don't think that logic dispels the entire controversy. the bottom line is that a lot of overtly partisan groups apply for a tax exemption that is not supposed to go to partisan organizations. groups on all sides of the political spectrum do that, and so in a perfect world they all would get greater scrutiny. it is a problem for the government to selectively apply scrutiny to some groups instead of others for political reasons. however, the remedy for that problem would be for the IRS to scrutinize every group applying for the exemption (or maybe more of a random sample of everyone), not that it lay off everyone as the conservatives seem to be saying.
