Since the IRS admitted it improperly targeted conservative and Tea Party groups last Friday, journalists have worked tirelessly to expose the full extent of the growing scandal.

The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin isn’t one of those journalists. Writing in the New Yorker, Toobin is asking the question that none of his peers thought to ask: “Did the I.R.S. actually do anything wrong?” If you have no problem with government agents demanding lists of what books you’ve been reading and people you associate with, along with a printout of all your social media postings, then go ahead and entertain Toobin’s question. But Toobin doesn’t want to discuss this part of the IRS’s overreach. Instead, he launches into a long lament about the need for stricter campaign finance laws. And the problem of lax campaign finance laws means IRS harassment of political organizations attempting to get 501(c)(4) tax exempt status is perfectly reasonable: