During the discussion of the Internal Revenue Service scandal, there has been a repeated claim by defenders of the Obama administration that the Republicans are making much ado about nothing, since “progressive groups were also targeted.” The conservative response to the “progressive groups were also targeted” card has been somewhat clumsy.  Usually the right wing’s first instinct is to come up with numbers showing more conservative groups than left-wing ones getting heightened scrutiny from the IRS.  But it might be a misstep for conservatives to reinforce their criticisms of the IRS by simply showing that more conservative groups were on the BOLO (“be on the lookout”) list. Remember that Barack Obama has come under fire from critics on the far left, many of whom share, surprisingly, the view that the president has been held captive by corporate interests and is detached from the populist tenets he championed back in 2008....(Read Full Post)