President Obama made headlines in Minneapolis on Thursday, rolling out his “phony scandal” rhetoric to address the cascade of questionable acts now receiving public outrage, and not just from Republicans. In a stunning rebuke, the dominant newspaper in the state of Minnesota, the very left-wing and politically correct Star-Tribune of Minneapolis has editorialized a demand for a special prosecutor:

The old caution against ascribing to malice what can be explained by incompetence is worth keeping in mind when evaluating a high-profile blunder in either the private or public sector, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

But the latest twist in the long-running controversy — the eye-rollingly convenient loss of IRS e-mails — moves the needle from ineptitude and toward the other, more troubling end of the spectrum. While the lost e-mails aren’t definitive proof of an orchestrated effort by the IRS or the Obama administration, the recent news that thousands of e-mails were obliterated in a computer hard-drive crash in 2011 is tough to swallow, not only for technology professionals, but also for an increasingly tech-savvy public.

Americans deserve better answers than the current bitterly partisan political process is likely to yield, especially when such a powerful agency has come under suspicion. Congressional Republicans including Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen, along with some Democrats, have called for a special prosecutor to investigate how the IRS handled petitions from conservative groups for tax-exempt status.

That’s a necessary step, and the request should be expediently heeded by the Obama administration. 

This is strong evidence that President Obama is in serious trouble. His nostrums no longer work, even on those predisposed to demonize Republicans and back The First Black President.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit presciently warns that the choice of a prosecutor lies in Eric Holder’s hands, and it can be expected that he would appoint someone who is an apparatchik who’ll just run out the clock until 2017.

That is a caution worth noting. Nevertheless, it is vital for the political health of the nation for generatiosn to come that the corruption at the IRS be rooted out, and the corruptors sent to prison where they belong.