Key Arizona Tea Party groups say IRS did not give them additional review

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6. You can't do random samples or mathematical formulas for these things

This is not like doing tax audits. This is about whether Group A fulfills the criteria for being a social welfare organization. So you have to look at every group that applies -- but you may have to look at some of them more closely than others.

The argument is over the basis for choosing which ones to look at more closely. If you have two groups, one called the "Angry Patriot Take Back Our Country from Them Folks What Don't Deserve It Society" and the other one called the "Help Distressed Puppies and Kitties be Adopted by Little Old Ladies Society," which one is more likely to be involved in unauthorized political activity?

It sounds as though the IRS folks may have adopted some prejudicial shortcuts at a time when lots of right-wing groups were applying for tax-exempt status -- kind of the equivalent of cops using racial profiling to decide who to single out for stop-and-frisk. But it would be equally misguided to, say, stop every 10th kid who passes by without applying common sense to your choices.

It's a delicate balance, especially at a time when the IRS is underfunded, and simply saying "they were wrong" doesn't get at the underlying problem.