The IRS scandal is a ticking time bomb, with backup tapes of Lois Lerner’s e-mails discovered but so far not released and the news that the Justice Department was actively coordinating with Lois Lerner on targeting conservative groups for possible criminal prosecution, creating the obvious need for a special prosecutor.  Attempts by President Obama to dismiss the scandal as having not a “smidgen of corruption” have not persuaded the public.

Fox News has taken the kind of poll that the mainstream media would avoid like the plague (hat tip: Instapundit).

Seventy percent say the IRS investigation should last until “someone is held accountable.”  That’s down from a high of 78 percent in June 2013.  About one in five thinks it is time to move on (22 percent). (snip)

…majorities of Democrats (60 percent), independents (75 percent) and Republicans (78 percent) support lawmakers continuing to dig. 

The new poll also asked why the White House is refusing to release thousands of pages of documents related to the IRS targeting.  By nearly three-to-one people think it’s because the administration wants to keep its role in the scandal secret (63 percent) rather than to keep taxpayer information confidential (22 percent). 

With this kind of support, a joint House-Senate special committee on IRS corruption would enjoy public support and would be hard-to-impossible for the media to ignore.  There is so much smoke, including a Fifth Amendment plea, that the time may be coming when congressional Democrats need to think about their political future before pooh-poohing the scandal.

The IRS is by a wide margin the most unpopular arm of government.  My dream is that uncovering evidence of deep political corruption could set the stage for a full revamp of the taxation system in this country post-2016 that would include closing down the IRS entirely and substituting a smaller agency that would collect sales taxes.