BY WILLIAM F. GAVIN

As we reach the end of Phase One of the IRS scandals, the  situation looks roughly like this (I say roughly because things change quickly): a bi-partisan majority condemns the IRS, and President Obama has stated his own condemnation. The White House, through spokesman Jay Carney, says that neither the President nor any White House official knew anything about the persecution of conservatives while it was going on. The IRS  says the wrongdoing was not partisan in nature, but the result of carelessness, incompetence, and lack of supervision by superiors.

I think that last point is going to be key to Phase Two, when investigations start to take place. If indeed this possible (and I think very  probable) violation of civil rights was not directed by administration officials, then what we have here (so goes the argument), awful as it is, cannot be blamed on the administration or specifically on the President.

Mistakes were made.

“Mistakes were made” is the favorite passive response of those accused of wrong-doing. See, there was no one who made or caused the mistake–it just happened, bad as it is, but  we are going to pursue the makers of the mistake. This argument  is going to be the White House line throughout the investigation and it will be adopted by liberal  media outlets. How can we blame the President for the follies and possible crimes of the IRS, if neither he nor top White House officials knew anything about the wrongdoing?

This argument  is the “excluded possibility defense” in which a claim of not doing anything directly serves as a defense against blame. But, of course, there is another possibility: the President did not order anyone in the IRS to commit crimes, but his rhetoric created an atmosphere which contributed to–and I think  created–the demonization of conservatives. A leader does not have to directly be responsible for a crime, but can create a poisonous atmosphere in which others, trying to curry favor with him, do the unspeakable. Let me offer one historic example:

In 12th century England, there was a long, bitter squabble between Henry II and Thomas a Becket, his one-time ally who, when he became Archbishop of Canterbury, did not do the king’s bidding. At one point in the fight, Henry II, discussing the situation with his courtiers, asked: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four of his aides went off and  murdered Becket in his cathedral.

Now, strictly speaking, Henry II did not order the murder of Becket. All he did was ask a question in the presence of ambitious lackeys who thought they knew what he really meant. But Henry’s question created the atmosphere in which those who wanted to please him could act.

In 2010, liberals did not let a day go by without either making direct accusations or insinuating  that the Tea Party was made up of racists, bigots, anti-Semites, white supremacists, dangerous extremists, violence-prone thugs, and (of course) fascists. President Obama smeared them in his own way, by what he said and what he failed to say. He, the man of reason, the smartest guy in the room, the very model of what a liberal believes in, should have made a speech condemning not the Tea Party but his allies as they tried to destroy patriotic Americans for the crime of speaking their minds. But he was silent. And his silence spoke volumes.

Obama, through what he said and by his great silence, created the atmosphere which said, in effect: “Will no one rid me of these bothersome people, not our kind of folks at all, with their guns and their God and their xenophobia and their babbling about the Constitution?”

And now we’re all supposed to be surprised because some people in IRS took their cue, without having to be told? Obama and his friends had demonized the Tea Party.

And, by the way, don’t tell me how bad Nixon was. He’s not President. The Crown Prince of Civility and Reason is President, but his crown is slipping.

Editor’s Note: William F. Gavin was a speech writer for President Richard Nixon and long-time aide to former House Republican Leader Bob Michel. Among his books is his latest, Speechwright, published by Michigan State University Press.