Another faux scandal concocted by Republicans is crumbling like all the others. The alleged motive is that these groups were kept from fully participating in their activities until after the election. The reality is that you don't even need to apply to the IRS for 501(c)4 status. Organizations simply "self declare" as such, proceed with their activities and file their form 990.
The independent Inspector General, a Bush appointee, already found that there was no political bias. The heightened scrutiny of these groups was initiated by a self-described "conservative Republican" civil servant supervised by a Bush appointee while the IRS was being run by a Bush appointee.
The IG investigation and report found that the groups were properly being scrutinized to assess if they crossed the line from issue advocacy to partisan electioneering.
Since these obviously political organizations were trying to pass themselves off as charitable social welfare organizations, the real scandal may be the fact that none of them were rejected for such status.
Jim Ward