"For months, the Tea Party cases sat on the desk of a lone specialist, who used 'political sounding' criteria — words like 'patriots,' 'we the people' — as a way to search efficiently..."

"... through the flood of applications for groups that might not quality for exemptions, according to the I.R.S. inspector general. 'Triage,' the agency’s acting chief described it."

The NYT looks into the "understaffed Cincinnati outpost" of the IRS based on "interviews with current and former employees and with lawyers who dealt with them, along with a review of I.R.S. documents" and portrays them as confused and "alienated from the broader I.R.S. culture."