I think the body of my original statement had most of it... but let's further elaborate:
The IRS was using intelligent discriminators to identify potential political groups applying for tax-exempt status under a category reserved for groups that were only secondarily political.
IRS targeted groups that criticized the government, IG report says
Yes, the IRS did get overly zealous in its scrutiny. However, unlike the suggestion of parts of the media that would have you believe that people were targeted, harassed, audited or otherwise denied their rights. None of this happened. In fact, no taxpayers were harmed in the making of this "scandal" No one was denied the tax exempt status sought.
The default position of a 501(c)(4) application is that you get the tax exempt status, you get to simply declare yourself a 501(c)(4) and act accordingly. You do not have to apply for the status. However, entities that exist on the bubble between those that educate about social welfare and those with a political agenda (like Tea Party entities) are advised to obtain the blessing of the IRS, lest they later be declared not a 501(c)(4). The IRS CAN take away the status, but it does not grant the status. Curiously, however, this entire controversy was born and lived during the tenure of Douglas Shulman, a Bush appointee (who served until November 2012). He doesn't seem to be a likely guy to have a political agenda AGAINST conservative groups.
The reason there was no foul, is that no one lost their status as a result of this. They "crime" was they were asked a lot of questions. The link below is the actual "declaration" form.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/Form14449.pdf
501(c)4 vs 501(c)3 vs 527
501(c) organization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yes, the IRS used discriminators that singled out Tea Party groups, but they were the most prevalent and the most controversial (in terms of qualifying as a 501(c)(4) group) of the time. This is blown way out of proportion.