IRS Scandal is moving into the "criminal offenses

The scandal surrounding those politically targeted IRS auditsgrew to massive proportions over the weekend, as the agency's initial denials - a fanciful story about "low level employees in the Cincinnati office" going rogue and launching a huge wave of audits targeting conservative and Tea Party groups across the nation - fell apart with dizzying speed. We now know that high-ranking IRS officials - notably Lois Lehrner, head of the agency's tax-exempt organizations division - knew about the problem as far back as June 2011, concealing this knowledge from congressional investigators.

This could lead to serious charges of perjury, which will give the investigation into the IRS scandal a different character than other Obama Administration controversies. In the case of Benghazi, for example, Congress has been trying to unravel a series of stunningly poor decisions, and a cover-up of the consequences. The results of this effort could be broadly described as career-damaging embarrassment for those involved. Democrat efforts to protect top Administration officials may yet require the sacrifice of a fall guy, or gal - State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland looks like an excellent prospect, as she's on record orchestrating thoseremarkable edits of the Benghazi talking points.

But the IRS scandal is moving into the "criminal offenses" category very quickly, and the threat of facing such consequences may loosen a few tongues. The minimal level of trust Americans must retain for the government is threatened - and, frankly, Obama-style super-government requires a much higher level of trust than assurances the IRS will not be abused to punish political dissidents. That seems like the veryleast we should be able to expect, even from a modest State run by small-government libertarians, doesn't it? Instead, the same IRS that used audits as a weapon against Barack Obama's political opponents is about to become the enforcement arm of his massive health-care program.