Via Ed Morrissey, Jeffrey Lord at the American Spectator has tracked down either a fascinating coincidence or a smoking gun that puts Obama right in the middle of the IRS scandal.

(Note AS website isn't loading at the moment - no doubt because of massive traffic)

According to the White House Visitors Log, provided here in searchable form by U.S. News and World Report, the president of the anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley, visited the White House at 12:30pm that Wednesday noon time of March 31st.

The White House lists the IRS union leader's visit this way:

Kelley, Colleen Potus 03/31/2010 12:30

In White House language, "POTUS" stands for "President of the United States."

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department's Inspector General's Report, IRS employees -- the same employees who belong to the NTEU -- set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union -- the union for IRS employees -- met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS "Determinations Unit Program agreed" to open a "Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases." As stated by the IG report.

The NTEU is the 150,000 member union that represents IRS employees along with 30 other separate government agencies. Kelley herself is a 14-year IRS veteran agent. The union's PAC endorsed President Obama in both 2008 and 2012, and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles to anti-Tea Party candidates.

Putting IRS employees in the position of actively financing anti-Tea Party candidates themselves, while in their official positions in the IRS blocking, auditing, or intimidating Tea Party and conservative groups around the country.

Lord presents compelling evidence and makes a reasoned, logical argument. Read the entire article for some additional background on executive orders and other meetings between Kelley and Obama.

But, in the end, the possibility of coincidence is still there. The role that coincidence plays in history is undeniable and even the most outrageous juxtapositions that one would think couldn't possibly happen, do indeed occur.

The tragic coincidence of Oswald getting a job at the book deposity less than 2 months before Kennedy visited Dallas is one such coincidence. How about the coincidence of the terrorist Gavrilo Princip who remarkably, happened to be buying a sandwich in a shop when the Archduke Ferdinand's car - having taken a wrong turn - stopped right in front of the door, allowing the young assassin to kill the duke and begin the series of events that led to World War I.

These are the "What If's" of history and to ignore coincidence is to be made to look foolish.

 We don't know what the president and union chief talked about. Nor do we know what we have here except some very troubling facts. At the very least, there are questions that Congress needs to ask the right people.

Thomas Lifson adds:

Everyone, even Dana Milbank, knows that President Passerby is not a detail guy, that he doesn't involve himself in the details. So why is he meeting with the head of one of the government employee unions? He doesn't do routine meetings. So what was the important business that required a presidential appointment for Kelley?

Okay, this is not enough to convict in a court of law, but it is a damning peice of evidence nonetheless.

Rick Moran responds that, "actually, we'd have to know if he meets with other govt employee union heads. Could be routine."

So let's find out.