SAL RUSSO: IRS scandal symptom of intrusive government: Controversy indicative of a federal bureaucracy that has expanded beyond control. “When the IRS story broke, it seemed immediately plausible to us. As the Tea Party Express conducted its national bus tours, we heard local Tea Party groups from all over the country complaining about IRS delays with inappropriate and intrusive questions. This unfairness was so pronounced that it was obvious that there was a deliberate attempt to suppress these groups. Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media ignored and dismissed these legitimate grievances as false conspiracy theories.”

UPDATE: Cincinnati Fox19: The claim that the ongoing IRS scandal is limited to low level employees is falling apart.

The six Cincinnati workers we have identified, who sent scrutinizing letters to conservative groups with words including “patriot, liberty, tea party or 9-12” in their names are Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr, Stephen Seok, Liz Hofacre and a woman identified only as Ms. Richards.

But was all of this done at the hands of a small group of Cincinnati employees working together? During Friday’s congressional hearing, that appeared to be the theme. Now, that explanation just became less likely.

Thanks to two FOX19 sources connected to the IRS, we now understand the chain of command for these workers.

Mitchel Steele, Carly Young, Joseph Herr and Liz Hofacre are IRS agents. Stephen Seok is a supervisor IRS agent.

But according to the IRS employee directory that FOX19 has obtained exclusively, each of these agents has a different manager and then above them a different territory manager.

That is important because while it may sound reasonable to the average person that these workers began targeting groups on their own, the IRS structure is designed to prevent that.

Read the whole thing. And watch out guys — you keep committing acts of journalism, you may get your phones tapped.