A quote from Jillian’s invaluable piece this morning:

If these efforts are intentional, politically motivated, and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.

That’s from Representative Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), in a threatening letter to True the Vote, a tea-party offshoot focused on having clean elections. But the gentleman from Maryland has said more than he intended: His words much more accurately describe the actions of the IRS in targeting tea-party groups. If Jillian’s story is indicative, they did so abetted by a number of regulatory agencies. 

The story of Catherine Engelbrect’s harassment at the hands of multiple regulatory agencies highlights a critical fact: With a legal and regulatory environment as complex (and sometimes contradictory) as our own, practically anybody can be found guilty of a violation at any time, given a sufficiently motivated regulator. With congressional Democrats leaning on the IRS (and possibly other agencies) to go after tea-party groups and other conservatives, the spectacularly abusive actions of the agency were a forgone conclusion. While Congress is investigating what exactly the IRS was up to, it might take a look at itself: All communications between members of Congress and the IRS, OSHA, and other agencies regarding conservative-leaning nonprofits should be made available for public scrutiny. We might be able to trust Congress to investigate the IRS, but we cannot trust Congress to investigate Congress.