Issa tried to prompt Lerner to respond to subsequent questions; she refused. Given that there has been discussion of exploring criminal charges in the case, this was probably good legal advice. Nor is it likely that if Lerner had testified, the result would have done much to improve the IRS' terrible public relations track record on the issue.

Other testimony was provided by Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George (who also testified in front of the House Ways and Means and Senate hearings), Former Commissioner Douglas Shulman (who also testified in front of the Senate), and Deputy Secretary Neal S. Wolin, who hadn't appeared before.

Issa described the rationale for the hearing as being that "the IG report indicts IRS for a colossal management failure, but leaves many questions unanswered." That statement came out two days before the first hearing, six days before the Senate's. Given the breadth of the IG report, and that two of the people called to testify would already have testified, it's not clear what answers Issa and the Oversight Committee expected.

What the committee did expect, it got: The chance to speak sternly to IRS officials, as their colleagues have already done. It's political fruit hanging so low that it's fallen in their laps — obvious misbehavior by one of the least-popular government agencies. Members of Congress, right and left, each took a turn to lambaste the witnesses, though Wolin was mostly left alone.

Update, 12:20 p.m.: One of the only suggestive responses came late in the hearing, in a response from George to Issa. Issa asked if the IG had uncovered other BOLO lists — "be on the look out" lists like the one that listed "Tea Party" as a criteria for further review. George indicated that there were other lists, using a variety of criteria: local chapters of national organizations, groups tagged for fraud, etc. Issa followed up: Was there a BOLO list for groups like MoveOn? "I'm not in a position to give you a definitive response on that at this time." Issa, clearly surprised, tried to clarify: But were there other political BOLOs? George repeated his response. Since the IG's original investigation was narrowly focused, further study may still find new filtering mechanism, it appears — maybe even ones using other political criteria.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney asked George if he thought there was a violation of the law. He didn't. Maloney said she would push to see that it was. "Do you agree that [this] doesn't represent our democratic values?," Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio asked Shulman. Shulman grimaced. Issa pressed George to explain why he didn't reveal details of the investigation to Congress before the audit was done; George explained that this wasn't proper procedure. (Before the hearing ended, Issa released a statement to the press on the topic.)