GOODBYE TIN-FOIL HAT.

I mentioned the other day that some of the brethren think Obama used mind control like some kind of supervillain to get his minions to persecute the Tea Party. Today James Taranto takes this to a whole new level.

First he recounts some recent secret-message fantasies by various press dopes. For example, Kimberley Strassel says Obama "publicly call[ed] out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed." I guess "harrassed" was part of the telepathic rather than the verbal component of the President's public statements, as I don't recall hearing them or seeing them in the transcript -- or maybe Obama's magic powers rendered all but bureaucrats blind and deaf to them.

Then Taranto explains:

Jaded political observers listened to Candidate Obama and heard (depending on their leanings) either a viciously desperate politician or a feisty fighter. Agents of the government heard President Obama, their ultimate boss, urging them to turn their attention toward evildoers. 

As we've repeatedly argued, if that is the extent of Obama's involvement in the scandal, it is much more worrisome than if the persecution of dissidents was carried out under his direct orders. It would mean that the government itself--the permanent institutions of the state, not just the administration currently in office--has turned against the citizenry and the Constitution.

So, if Obama directly told IRS officials to intimidate the TP people, it wouldn't be as bad as if he used mind-rays to make it happen on the zombie hordes. Of course if they had evidence of direct non-magic intervention by Obama, I'm sure they would be happy to have it to put in a bill of impeachment. But they don't, so they have to impeach Washington, if only figuratively, as Obama's magic co-conspirators.

It doesn't say much for their cause that even as the hearings proceed, they're devoting this much effort to the Harry Potter version.