Former IRS exempt organizations division Director Lois Lerner now has the dubious distinction of having had two major congressional committees tell the Department of Justice that she may have broken multiple federal civil and criminal statutes, as well as the internal policies and procedures of her agency. There will be much else to be said in coming months about the federal tax agency illegally targeting conservative and Tea Party nonprofits for harassment and politically motivated interference during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns. At this point, however, three facts stand out.

First, it ought to be clear by now to any reasonable person reviewing the evidence made public Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee and previously by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Lerner actively directed the targeting of these groups solely on the basis of their political views. As Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said in a letter yesterday to Attorney General Eric Holder, “Lerner willfully used her authority to subject specific organizations to adverse treatment in defiance of IRS controls. Lerner directed subordinates to subject specific right-leaning groups to increased scrutiny and audits, and even the denial of exempt status.” Camp’s panel found “no evidence she directed reviews of similarly situated left-leaning groups.”