Feds piling on

Here is a story I find disturbing. The people at True the Vote, a tea party group, were targeted by the IRS, and mysteriously at the same time were scrutinized by several other agencies, FBI, BATFE and even OSHA. They also had problems with a state agency involved in environmental regulations. They were sued by the Democratic Party of their state and an ACORN group. That's a big stack of problems to deal with.

This story raises important questions about the role and proper limits of government in our daily lives, questions of privacy, of fairness and equal justice, and of government powers wielded as a weapon in partisan politics. It may be that these questions all have simple and harmless answers, and this pile-on by government was just one of those things, coincidental to the political angle. But I have trouble believing in coincidences that big. Matters certainly look on their face as if the Democrats were simply out to get someone whose views they did not like, and brought to bear the many-faceted powers of the government to do it.

The officials involved have some 'splaining to do.