JOSEPH CURL: Obama Tells A Whopper On IRS Scandal.

Fact: The IRS targeted conservative and tea party groups requesting tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election. That’s a fact.

Congress held hearings — embarrassing hearings. Three top Internal Revenue Service officials resigned. No heads rolled, but for the Obama administration, and the lawless Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., that amounted to a major scandal. Even White House spokesman Jay “Circus” Carney called the IRS’s actions “inappropriate.” Fact.

But President Obama, in an interview last week with sycophant Chris Matthews, now says the entire scandal was made up by the media.

“When we do things right, they don’t get a lot of attention,” the president said, no doubt sending a thrill up the MSNBC host’s leg. “If we do something that is perceived at least initially as a screwup, it will be on the nightly news for a week.”

Like, say, deploying the nation’s tax watchdog to target political opponents? Just a “screw up.” . . . Although the president is busy trying to change the subject, this time to income inequality, the IRS story just won’t disappear. Last week, Rep. Darrell E. Issa, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, had simply had enough. He called out the IRS’s chief counsel, William Wilkins, for saying “I don’t recall” a staggering 80 times during his congressional testimony last month.

“Your memory consistently failed when you were asked about information you shared with the Treasury Department,” the lawmaker wrote. “Your failure to recollect important aspects of the Committee’s investigation suggests either a deliberate attempt to obfuscate your involvement in this matter or gross incompetence on your part.”

Funny, the Obama administration, in Year 5, is totally fine with “gross incompetence.” Many warned that these guys weren’t ready for prime time. They said they were.

The only “screw up” was getting caught.