Inspector General reviews 5,500 e-mails, finds NO evidence of political targeting of Tea Party groups by IRS. Can this "scandal" finally be considered dead?

"I have an agenda, Stop trying to confuse me with the facts!"

Courtesy of Bloomberg:  

An inspector general’s review of 5,500 e-mails among Internal Revenue Service employees found “no indication” that their scrutiny of Tea Party groups was politically motivated, according to documents being released today by Democrats. 

An e-mail from a top investigator in the inspector general’s office bolsters Democrats’ claims that anti-tax Tea Party groups received extra scrutiny because of confusion and unclear direction, rather than an attempt to hurt Republican-leaning organizations. 

“The e-mail traffic indicated there were unclear processing directions and the group wanted to make sure they had guidance on processing the applications so they pulled them,” the investigator said in the e-mail, dated May 3, just 11 days before the inspector general’s report criticizing the IRS came out. “This is a very important nuance.” 

The partially redacted documents also contain information that supports Democrats’ contention that “progressive” groups were scrutinized and Republicans’ assertions that Tea Party groups applying for nonprofit status were treated differently. 

The documents are being released by Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who is questioning the quality of the report from J. Russell George, the inspector general for tax administration.

I asked the question in the headline whether THIS was finally enough evidence to put this thing to rest and convince the Republicans that they  were beating the crap out of a clearly deceased horse.However sadly I already know the answer.

This from the Huffington Post: 

Internal Revenue Service officials from Washington and the Cincinnati office at the center of the controversy over IRS scrutiny of conservative groups are set to testify in Congress next week. 

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said the not-yet-named officials will appear on July 18 before the panel, which is investigating the matter. 

"This hearing will examine why decisions to elevate cases to more senior levels of the IRS led to unjust delays and unfair treatment of Tea Party applications," Republican Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said in a statement on Wednesday.

I know, right?

My only assumption about this is that Issa is determined to keep this issue open as long as possible in the vain hope that while digging he will somehow uncover a REAL scandal that he can then focus on much like how the misguided Whitewater investigation against President and Hillary Clinton stumbled across Monica Lewinsky.

This is how the Republicans do politics these days.

And they have substantial help from Fox News, who just the other day reran their "Special Report" on Benghazi. Which of course was yet ANOTHER "devastating scandal" that was going to take down this President and his administration.

Just imagine how much we could be accomplishing if we had Republicans in office willing to work in good faith with the Democrats, rather than constantly on alert for possible conspiracy theories, and opportunities to damage the Presidents credibility.