Part of this mess has to do with Campaign Finance Reform which was a huge debacle. But once you(your org) wants tax-exempt status you deal with the consequences. Repeal 16th Amendment!

(Just to start off, the IRS also targeted Occupy and other progressive groups. If the claim that the Administration is stifling dissent has any merit, it must be noted that they are no more tolerant of criticism from the left than they are of action on the right.)

The tax-exempt status of social welfare groups originated with the IRS. It giveth and it taketh away. See this history on the Wall Street Journal Blog:
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2013/11/26/the-...

"The statute, described as a precursor to section 501(c)(4), aimed to patch up a gap in the law and carve out exemptions for “organizations which could not qualify as charitable, educational, or religious, but whose activities somehow benefited the general public,” wrote Case Western Reserve University law professor Laura B. Chisolm in a 1988 article for the Indiana Law Journal.

Over the years, the IRS expanded the exemption into more political territory, allowing 501(c)(4) groups to engage in lobbying and other political activity.

The “notion that the section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization category is an appropriate classification for politically active charitable organizations seems to have originated with the IRS in the 1950′s,” wrote Ms. Chisolm."

Read the IRS Rules here:
http://www.irs.gov/Charities-
The Accounting Today website for CPAs has a summary of the current status of the IRS actions.
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Trea...

"The Treasury is issuing the guidance in response to a recommendation in a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration on how the IRS selected inappropriate criteria for screening applications from tax-exempt status from various groups. Ahead of the release of the TIGTA report. Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations, touched off a firestorm of criticism of the IRS after she disclosed in May that the agency was using terms such as “Tea Party,” “Patriot” and “9/12” to filter through applications for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status from conservative organizations. It later emerged that the IRS was also using terms like “progressive” and “Occupy” to filter out applications from liberal groups. Lerner was eventually forced out of the agency along with other officials such as former acting commissioner Steven T. Miller."