It stated: "approximately one-third of the applications identified for processing by the team of specialists included Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names, while the remainder did not. According to the Director, Rulings and Agreements, the fact that the team of specialists worked applications that did not involve the Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 groups demonstrated that the IRS was not politically biased in its identification of applications for processing by the team of specialists."

The TIGTA decided that there was bias because "we determined during our reviews of statistical samples of I.R.C. § 501(c)(4) tax-exempt applications that all cases with Tea Party, Patriots, or 9/12 in their names were forwarded to the team of specialists" between May 2010 and May 2012 (emphasis added).

Though the Treasury inspectors found that one third of the groups given special scrutiny probably should not have been, they declined to say in their May report what the political leanings of theses improperly selected groups were: "We reviewed all 298 applications that had been identified as potential political cases as of May 31, 2012. In the majority of cases, we agreed that the applications submitted included indications of significant political campaign intervention. However, we did not identify any indications of significant political campaign intervention for 91 (31 percent) of the 296 applications that had complete documentation."

Most likely, these improperly selected cases were -- like the selected cases that the IRS has released data on so far -- a mixture of liberal, conservative, and neutral (civic pride, good government, etc.) in outlook.

More flawed than the selection process -- which flagged groups that should not have been given extra scrutiny as well many that appropriately received it but which were selected using improper criteria, according to the TIGTA report -- were the lengthy delays in processing applications and the excessive and intrusive questions asked of the selected groups. According to the report, 58 percent of inquiries asked of those groups were later deemed unnecessary.

***

Below, the list of 48 nonconservative groups identified by Tax Analysts in their inquiry.

Table 1. Nonconservative 'Centralized' Tax-Exempt Organizations

Organization Name Status Mission or Description

1. Across the 501(c)(3) Educational arm of No

Aisle Foundation Labels, a centrist

policy advocacy group;

encourages

bipartisanship on

Capitol Hill.

2. ALICE (American 501(c)(3) Provides a Web-based

Legislative and public library of

Issue Campaign progressive law on a

Exchange) wide range of issues in

state and local policy

("a very partial

antidote to ALEC

[American Legislative

Exchange Council], the

corporate-backed