This IRS Search Term Scandal is a sham, a fake scandal. Listen closely, though, and you’ll hear conservatives freak about being held accountable for their conduct.

Since 2012, some managers of the Obama administration knew about the search term, and so did conservatives. But, it didn’t become the Search Term Scandal until Darrell Issa, the 1%’s tool and Republican Congressman who has vowed to probe the Obama administration into paralysis, asked a friendly inspector to investigate the use of the search terms. The report came out, making clear that there was no political motivation, no intercession by the President, just undiplomatic use of search terms.  Having successfully blown it up, the conservatives are now free from talking about the economy, jobs or immigration reform.

The real problem is that the Koch brothers and other 1%ers really were using these tax exempt entities as a way to push secret dollars into political campaigns through a tax free filter. And, now, the Koch brothers get a huge victory. Because not only did they get to turn extra review into a fake witch hunt – they also have scared the IRS away from bothering them again. And, they get to blame President Obama in the process, even though it is clear that he had nothing to do with it. The trouble is that it is politically impossible for the IRS – or any other watchdog – to investigate crimes committed by a political party, because they’ll be discredited for persecuting that political party. The crime – according to conservatives – was that the IRS tried too hard to find violations.  Along the way, we’ve lost the distinction between persecution and prosecution. If a group is breaking the law, then investigating them and then charging them is prosecution. If a group is not breaking the law, then going after them is persecution. We cannot have a healthy or stable America without prosecution or with persecution – the trouble is too many people don’t know the difference.