POLITICIZING THE IRS: IRS anti-Tea Party scandal gets real — senior IRS officials aware of targeting. “This is getting real. Yesterday it was just some ‘low level’ employees involved. Now AP is reporting that senior IRS officials were aware of the targeting.”

Here’s the story: “A federal watchdog’s upcoming report says senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011. The disclosure contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who repeatedly assured Congress that conservative groups were not targeted. . . . The Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The Associated Press obtained part of the draft report.”

So that’s why they released the story early — they knew it was coming out anyway. (Bumped).