IRS agents are members of a union that is hostile to any opposition. Do you think they needed specific instructions?

The Dots Already Lead To Obama In The IRS Scandal

Abuse Of Power: Any scandal investigation that expects a "Eureka!" moment, a White House e-mail, or Oval Office smoking gun will be misguided. In fact, the dots are already connected directly to the president.

Barack Obama is not foolish enough to have a tape recording system hidden in his desk. And his administration staff are not careless enough to send one another incriminating e-mails.

If the president was behind the IRS unlawfully harassing conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, we can be sure the communications were all sotto voce and in persona, like any good Chicago political operator.

But as the Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel reminds us, Obama's 2008 campaign was demanding the Justice Department criminally prosecute conservative groups with 501(c)4 tax-exempt status. Then, last year, President Obama's re-election campaign "targeted private citizens who had donated to Romney groups."

The chief operative? Longtime Democratic Party lawyer Robert Bauer, general counsel for Obama's presidential campaigns, White House general counsel during Obama's first term, Democratic National Committee general counsel, and the Democrats' counsel in President Bill Clinton's Senate impeachment trial. And, not least, husband of Democratic political strategist Anita Dunn, White House communications director in Obama's first term, and now an MSNBC contributor.

Bauer is author of "Soft Money, Hard Law: A Guide to the New Campaign Finance Law," and serves on the American Bar Association's Advisory Commission on Election Law.

When you've got a legal Rottweiler like Bauer setting the cutthroat example to one and all within the Obama administration regarding the wishes of the president, does anyone really think he — or others in the administration — needed marching orders when it comes to the government's attitude toward opponents of Obama's ideology who were seeking tax-exempt status?

Does anyone really think Obama had to tell Bauer — or anyone else in the administration — if it was OK to, as John Dean once indelicately put it, "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies"?

The climate of hate for Obama's political enemies was well established among those around him even before he became president.

It's clear the president, without having to utter a word, approved all along the idea of going after them.