From what I have read about this, congress passed a law creating these nonprofit educational groups which granted them nonprofit status IF their primary mission was public education and not political operations ... and tasked the IRS with investigating and discerning the difference. Frankly, I can hardly imagine how else they could have taken on this difficult job. It would seem that they are being excoriated for raising the very questions that they were ordered to ask

I am no tax lawyer, or attorney of any sort, but that seems to be the gist of what I have seen about this. The IRS did NOT simply take it upon themselves to conduct these reviews.