I don't think there's much doubt about Darrell Issa's colleagues' efforts to focus on IRS targeting of tea partyers when, in fact, the IRS's target list included progressive as well as conservative groups. Republicans are twisting in the wind a bit -- a sight we can all enjoy while it continues.
For anyone who knows much about the 501(c) process -- in which reviewers are looking for political groups trying to pass themselves off as "social welfare" organizations in order to be exempted from paying taxes -- it makes sense to "target" any group that engages in political activities. My own "targeting" took me to YouTube's library of videos of tea partyers engaging in political demonstrations, demonstrations that often included initiating confrontations with bystanders, rough stuff, and very clearly the use of political signage and clothing.
Seriously: the history of the tea party is a political history, not a history of kindly volunteers creating non-partisan opportunities for voters. They painted the targets on their own backs.
