You can tell a Washington scandal is nearing ripeness when people start calling for the appointment of a special counsel to conduct the investigation. So it is today with the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

The calls to date come from two distinct groups: One consists of Republicans/conservatives who either sincerely believe only a special counsel can get to the bottom of things or who think siccing a special counsel on the Obama administration is the best way to inflict maximum political damage. The other, more liberal-leaning, is made up of people who think Obama can get his second term back on track by a conspicuous gesture to restore public trust and who incidentally also believe a special counsel won’t turn up much that is damaging.

Now, opinion on this subject is hardly unanimous. Let me join strange bedfellows Andy McCarthy and Michael Tomasky in agreement that a special counsel for the IRS investigation is a truly terrible idea.

McCarthy’s view is that a special counsel will shut down the flow of public information about the IRS abuses for months if not years as everyone clams up because of the criminal investigation, thereby undermining any chance of public accountability for the Obama administration. Tomasky, on the other hand, believes that that a special prosecutor would destroy the administration: “A special prosecutor . . . has no constraints on time or money. He can just keep turning over rocks until he finds something that smells suspicious. Of all the undemocratic institutions we suffer with in our democracy, it’s far and away the most undemocratic.” In the end, these are not exactly arguments against interest. McCarthy’s view is that Obama will be worse off politically without a special counsel, Tomasky’s that he will be worse off with one.

No, no, a thousand times no.

Either way, President Obama will sooner or later be confronted with a choice: He can accept the view that appointing a special counsel would be a good gesture to restore his credibility and, incidentally, dump the whole investigation into the secrecy of a grand jury room for years. He will also have the consolation that because the old independent counsel statute expired without renewal in 1999, the selection of a special counsel would not fall to a three-judge panel looking at Kenneth W. Starr’s updated C.V. but to people he could trust not to empower a partisan opponent. In the alternative, Obama can take the view that an independent counsel investigation could easily get out of hand and cripple the White House politically.