I don't think Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus quite understands the notion of "unbiased," at least not from this tweet promoting the GOP's latest fundraising campaign:
If you want to investigate how the IRS handles tax-exempt applications from political groups, by all means, go ahead, but why limit to conservative groups? After all, the IRS is responsible for determining the status of all non-profit applications, not just those of conservatives.
Obviously, the reason that guys like Reince only want to focus on the conservative side of the equation is that they want people to believe their conspiracy theory that the IRS is "targeting" conservative groups and conservatives groups alone. But the truth is that any group that applies for a special benefit like nonprofit status is subject to scrutiny. In fact, the scandal would be if the IRS didn't review the applications and simply rubber stamped them.
Nonetheless, for a Republican Party that is operating on fumes when it comes to actual substance, this "issue" is one of the most important ones they've got in 2014. And this week, Republicans are putting it at the center of their universe:
Congress returns to Washington this week for another three-week stretch that will take them all the way to a St. Patrick's Day recess in mid-March. With a budget passed, a spending deal approved and other leftover work from 2013 completed, lawmakers are increasingly turning their attention towards the midterm elections.
That's why this week is "Stop Government Abuse Week" in the House. House Republicans plan to hold votes this week on 12 measures that they say are designed to curtail government abuse and address some of the best-known recent scandals at federal agencies.
If this sounds familiar, your memory isn't playing tricks on you. Republicans held a "Stop Government Abuse Week" last year as well, at the end of July, right before their summer recess.
And to prove just how much they believed in Stopping Government Abuse™, when Republicans returned from their vacation in September, they shut the government down. What will they come up with this time?