July 17, 2013 --

That's a headline you won't see in The New York Times, which, July 4, carried a front-page story declaring that conservative groups were not the only ones singled out for scrutiny of applications for tax-exempt status.

And to bolster this strained attempt by the Times to "perplex the understanding," to cite a phrase of Chief Justice John Marshall in Gibbons v. Ogden, the paper quoted Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) who, acknowledging that conservative groups were probably targets, added, "'but it might well have been more than that.'" Republicans, obviously, have not absorbed the lesson Marshall provided at the end of his Gibbons opinion: that "ingenious minds...may so entangle and perplex the understanding, as to obscure principles, which were before thought quite plain, and induce doubts where, if the mind were to pursue its own course, none would be perceived."

If there was no partisan intent by the IRS (and others in the Obama administration?) vis-a-vis applications from conservatives, why did IRS official Lois Lerner, presently on administrative leave, appear rueful about targeting conservative groups, two months ago, and why were conservative groups hit with voluminous and intrusive questionnaires, their applications not acted on for months on end, and information provided by conservatives leaked to leftist groups. Also, why did Ms. Lerner cite the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee?

If Democrats were "outraged" by Target-gate, as claimed in a Wall Street Journal editorial, June 29/30 -- and as suggested in a June 29 Washington Post editorial--why have Democrats moved in lockstep to support Ms. Lerner's claim that in making substantive comments before the Oversight committee she did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights?

LPR has seen no Democratic outrage towards Ms. Lerner's attempt--successful, thus far -- to stonewall the Oversight committee. Democrats, rather, are jumping at any opportunity to claim that newly discovered "evidence" justifies an end to the matter. That Republicans seem to have no clue what the Democrats are up to must clearly add to the Democrats' political glee.

Meanwhile, a news item in The New York Times, July 10, reported that House Republicans would cut the IRS budget for 2014 by $3 billion. Senate Democrats, however, would hike the IRS budget by $1.3 billion -- to give IRS officials even more bonuses and parties for harassing conservatives?