The problems with a politicized IRS may be far more serious than we have yet suspected. Sarah Palin's brother Chuck Heath, Jr. posted the following on his Facebook account January 11^th:

 My father, who worked multiple jobs and faithfully and honestly paid his taxes for fifty years, had never heard a word from the IRS. In 2008, his daughter was tapped to run for vice president of the United States. Since that time, he has been, in his words "horribly harassed" six times by the agency. They've tried to dig up something on him but he's always operated above board.

Government and politics are ugly. Kudos to the few that are trying to clean it up. (hat tip: PJ Tatler)

Assuming that this is true, it represents either a remarkable coincidence, or (more likely) a pattern of political abuse by the most powerful and most feared arm of the federal government dealing directly with everyone who lives in or enjoys citizenship in the United States. This is frightening, to say the least. And in what may be even worse news, it appears that the shambolic "investigation" of the IRS targeting of conservative nonprofit groups is about to claim that there is nothing to see here, move on. Devlin Barrett of the Wall Street Journal:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't plan to file criminal charges over the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of conservative groups, law-enforcement officials said, a move that likely will only intensify debate over the politically charged scandal.

The officials said investigators didn't find the kind of political bias or "enemy hunting" that would amount to a violation of criminal law. Instead, what emerged during the probe was evidence of a mismanaged bureaucracy enforcing rules about tax-exemption applications it didn't understand, according to the law-enforcement officials.

While the case is still being investigated and could remain open for months, officials familiar with its progress said it is increasingly unlikely any criminal charges will result. That could change, the officials cautioned, if unexpected evidence is discovered that alters their thinking.

Gee, I guess when Lois Lerner took the Fifth Amendment, she was just kidding. There was no crime committed.

The New York Post editorializes:

Maybe the FBI is right, that it's just all a big misunderstanding, that IRS officials were only at the White House for Easter Egg rolls. Even so, our Constitution doesn't leave accountability to the judgement of the FBI. To the contrary, our system holds that the American people, through their elected representatives in Congress, have the right to know what their government is doing.

In short, if the threat of criminal charges has in fact been removed, there's no more excuse for Lois Lerner not to tell us, under oath, what she was apparently afraid to say in May.

It is time for an IRS Special Prosecutor. This is a lot more serious than Chris Christie making TV ads for New Jersey tourism.