This article originally appeared on TownHall.com:

Why do Conservatives insist on getting in their own way? They couldn’t have asked for a better week, one White House scandal following another like so many tumbling dominos. Yet rather than simply sit back and watch the administration self-destruct, Tea Party groups are planning to rally in front of IRS buildings on Tuesday in cities across the country. Demonstrations that can interrupt the current news cycle, which is almost too good to be true! Why do conservatives want to lose so often?

The Scandal-Palooza of the past week doesn’t just have legs; it has momentum. Like Usain Bolt, it’s fast and seemingly unstoppable. Just when you think it’s over, it comes back even stronger. It’s the White House seizing AP phone records so as to control the news cycle after an al-Qaeda terror plot was foiled in Yemen. It’s the IRS withholding tax exempt status for Tea Party, conservative, and pro-Constitution groups, and asking the most invasive and personal questions. It’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius raising money for Enroll America, a private nonprofit organization formed for the purpose of encouraging Americans to sign up for insurance this fall, while CEOs and bigwigs of corporations are subjected to her Obamacare mandates. And, of course, Benghazi…

(As Seton Motley of Less Government reminded me on my radio show, this list doesn’t include Operation Fast and Furious and the murder of Brian Terry or the EPA FOIA request scandal. Add them.)

As the week went on, even the progressives could not get their heads around the scandals, the lack of urgency from the White House nor the nagging feeling that President Obama was not up to the task of, well, being president. Over at The Washington Post, Dana Milbank wrote about AG Eric Holder’s response to questions about the Justice Department gathering the AP phone records.

On and on Holder went: “I don’t know. I don’t know. . . . I would not want to reveal what I know. . . . I don’t know why that didn’t happen. . . . I know nothing, so I’m not in a position really to answer.”Holder seemed to regard this ignorance as a shield protecting him and the Justice Department from all criticism of the Obama administration’s assault on press freedoms. But his claim that his “recusal” from the case exempted him from all discussion of the matter didn’t fly with Republicans or Democrats on the committee, who justifiably saw his recusal as more of an abdication.

Just a day earlier, his column bore the headline, “Obama, the uninterested president.”

While Milbank was calling Holder out on the carpet, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (His Tingleness!) went to town on Obama. His claim – the steering wheel doesn’t control the car. He went on, wondering what part of the Presidency does Obama like?

So what part does he like? He likes going on the road, campaigning, visiting businesses like he does every couple days somewhere in Ohio or somewhere. What part doesn’t he like? He doesn’t like lobbying for the bills he cares about. He doesn’t like selling to the press. Does he like giving orders or giving somebody the power to give orders? No. He doesn’t seem to like being an executive.

And that very week David Axelrod, in many ways Obama’s Capo Di Tutti Capi (just don’t let Valerie Jarret hear you say that. Speaking of, where is Valerie Jarret in all of these scandals? I mean, where is she? Anyway, back to Axelrod…) speaking to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, said that government is too vast for the president to know everything is happening.

The biggest progressive names in the world are making the conservative (really, America’s) case! Milbank calling Holder purposefully ignorant. Matthews wondering if Obama even likes his job. Axelrod clearly making the case that government is too big. Victory is in sight. Why get in the way?

By way of context, I’m a Tea Party member. I helped organize the original Tea Party events in Los Angeles, and I’ve spoken at rallies and educational forums across the country. I’m convinced that fundamental Tea Party principles – Constitutional government, free markets, fiscal responsibility – still resonate with Americans. And that these scandals (specifically the IRS attacks) will usher in a resurgence of the Tea Party, and make 2014 a very uncomfortable election for Sen. Harry Reid and Co.

Like nearly all in the movement, I am infuriated and disgusted with the IRS, with the administration, and with the sickening elitism that permeates Washington, DC. But to rally in front of IRS offices is, at this point, self-destructive. It takes the focus off the scandals themselves and the administration’s arrogance in talking about them. It gives the press, which has covered the scandals, if begrudgingly (except for the AP phone records story…they are really livid about that) something else to talk about.

There will be a right time to rally. But it should not be about the Tea Party’s (justifiable) anger towards the IRS. It should be about Americans coming together to express their disgust with government overreach and abuse. It should be less about the Tea Party and more about the future of America.

But the time is not now. People are just learning about these scandals and their breadth. They are just now learning about their government’s abuses and lies, and how the press helped those lies spread. That is a true victory.

A rally now will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Shame on us for not knowing how to win.

This article was originally posted on TownHall.com:

The only way I know we still live in a relatively free nation is that, at times, the truth does come out. The IRS announced that, yes, it did give extra scrutiny to tax returns that included the name “tea party” or “patriot” as part of their exempt applications. Too bad for Boston that the names Tamerlan and Dzhokhar weren’t on that IRS watch list.

The IRS admits its blatantly illegal actions:

IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.

The Tea Party has been an American institution since 2009, emerging as a response to years of massive government expansion and unyielding waste. A amalgamation of autonomous grassroots groups, the Tea Party advocates for basic principles of Constitutionalism, open markets, fiscal responsibility and shrinking the bloated federal government. Of course, the administration and the mainstream media hate the Tea Party and do everything they can to vilify, demonize and systematically destroy it.

Many have raised the warning flags on this government intimidation. Radio host Mark Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation first moved on this subject in March, 2012. LLF demanded an investigation into the “Exempt Organization” (EO) division. Levin wrote:

“Recent media reports indicate that the EO Division is using inappropriate and intimidating investigation tactics in the administration of applications for exempt status submitted by organizations associated with the Tea Party movement,”

But it wasn’t just targeting Tea Party groups. It was targeting Tea Party groups during the 2012 election. It was, by every standard, electioneering. It’s as if the IRS stood in front of polling places with billy clubs and black berets. But instead of having to walk the streets, they used the threat of law suits and fines – said another way, it’s retaliation.

It’s not the first time the IRS has engaged in these types of attacks. The Jewish Press reported that pro-Israel group Z Street sued the IRS in 2010, claiming it was unfairly targeted, and its tax exempt status request received that same “extra scrutiny.” The IRS informed them there would be, “…a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.”

We call it what it is. Retaliation.

The IRS, in the tradition of former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and current Congressional rapscallion Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), issued an apology on behalf of the entire department, expecting that would make the issue go away:

“That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” Lerner said at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association.

“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” she added.

Apologies won’t do. Only firings, denied pensions and/or jail time will suffice. Those individuals responsible for these travesties cannot be allowed to hide behind a department-wide apology. They must be exposed and held personally accountable. Any elected official who finds this types of selective enforcement schemes acceptable should be voted out of office. And a media personality who does so cannot be trusted. Ever.