The IRS scandal is not much in the news these days, but it is not going away.  The more Obama’s minions stonewall this scandal, the more congressional Democrats discount the scandal, the more the leftist establishment media ignores this scandal, the more toxic it will be for the left.  In late November we learned that 30,000 of Lois Lerner’s lost e-mails have been found, but these e-mails have not yet been converted into readable form.

The utter contempt the Obama administration shows toward the oversight powers of Congress, toward the millions of information technology-savvy Americans who grasp the lying and silly explanations provided by the administration, and  toward federal judges who have ordered serious explanations for presumably “destroyed” e-mails is breathtaking and appalling. 

Once the new Republican Congress convenes in a few weeks, its leaders would do well to create a joint committee on the IRS scandal, elevating it to the highest levels of congressional action and putting the mendacious IRS flacks covering for Obama in an even more desperate situation – compounding lies already told to a House committee with new and flimsier lies told to a joint committee of House and Senate members.

Congressional Democrats on that committee who continue to parrot the transparent lies of IRS officials at some point become complicit in the cover-up of criminal misconduct – not in the legal sense, exactly, but certainly in the political sense.  Individual members might lose re-election or might find themselves discounted for any higher positions in government if they are seen as toadies for these Obama crooks.  Yet once Democrats begin to join in the chorus of Republicans in demanding real answers and agreeing that there is real wrongdoing, the whole defense of this investigation being a partisan witch hunt vanishes.

The leftist establishment media, by continuing to ignore the scandal and downplay the significance of this investigation, risks the last little fig leaf of notional journalistic competence and integrity.  Their utter obliviousness to fetid swamps of official misconduct could become the “real story” as this scandal unfolds.  Treating federal judges with contempt is also dangerous, because these judges have tools to force compliance that work. 

The real threat, however, comes from the knowledge that an incoming Republican administration in two years will be able to really investigate the cover-up and open up all the files currently kept from Congress and the courts.  There will, at that point, be absolutely nothing to protect those officials who have played “kick the can” on the theory that the public will forget about all this.  Federal prosecutors can then seek indictments of officials who have obstructed congressional investigations or obstructed justice.

Although some conservatives may fear a blanket presidential pardon to all those involved, after the November 2016 election, of course, this will not make the scandal go away.  It may, in fact, make the scandal even more transparent.  There would, at that point, be no privilege against self-incrimination that any of the guilty officials could use to hide the truth.  All those involved could be ordered to answer questions, put in jail if they refused, and convicted of perjury if they lied under oath (any pardon could not address future crimes like perjury).

These bad actors could also be sued in civil actions – no presidential pardon can protect against private lawsuits – and as more of the ugly mess oozes out, the seriousness of the civil wrongdoing will become clearer.  Big money judgments could be awarded against these thugs who bully citizens, and no one will have much sympathy for them.  As the extent of the scandal grows, there will be increasing pressure for bar associations to disbar all the attorneys, like Lois Lerner, who were up to their necks in the muck of this scandal.

All of these realities will make it increasingly likely that some of the people now hiding malfeasance and dishonesty by IRS officials and the White House will crack before November 2016, bringing this scandal to center front in the presidential election.   The need for putting the White House in Republican hands would then grow dramatically, rather like Watergate provided a strong argument that eight years of Republican presidential power was enough, when that presidential power was proven corrupt.

What makes this scandal worse for Democrats is that it is very easy for ordinary Americans to sink their teeth into: lying government officials, abuse of IRS power, and arrogant persecution of innocent countrymen by political thugs.

The IRS scandal is not going away…oh, boy, is it not going away!