Obama calls Omar probe appalling; backlash reads his own IRS's Tea Party file back to him.

…(cont) I've been turning Frank's fence over all week because of the dates on this. The next day, the 13th, The Hill reported that Omar's campaign was fundraising off the same raid, agents inside her house while a fundraising email went out calling the investigation baseless and partisan.

Two days after that, on the 15th, the Wall Street Journal and, separately, the Washington Examiner both reported what the "very carefully" turned out to be for: officials confirmed the investigation is aimed at stripping Omar of the citizenship she obtained in 2000 — five years after she arrived in this country — and deporting her. The reason given on the 12th and the reason confirmed on the 15th were not the same reason.

On the 18th, border czar Tom Homan talked to the Guardian about where that citizenship question goes next. The same week, Barack Obama called the whole investigation "appalling" — that's NBC's word for his word, and the quote holds up.

Today, the 19th — a Monday — Fox News reports that Obama's defense of Omar triggered instant conservative backlash, people citing his own administration's IRS targeting of Tea Party nonprofit groups back at him. The Daily Caller ran the identical news under a different headline: "Future presidents, in either party, won't do the same." I've read that line a few times now. Which future presidents is it asking me to picture, and which thing is it asking me to picture them not doing? The headline doesn't say. It just lands next to the IRS line and lets the reader do the rest.

That's Frank's fence again, if you think about it. Two true things sitting next to each other, daring you to assume they're the same true thing. The investigation into Representative Omar was, on the 12th, "very carefully." On the 15th, it was denaturalization and deportation. Both descriptions came from the same investigation. Neither one was false when it was said.

Excuse me — before you go, one more thing. The Justice Department that searched a sitting congresswoman's home over a case it wouldn't name is the same department that has promised the midterms will see "no interruption," the same week it sued California's election officials over noncitizen voting claims. Does the record say whether "no interruption" describes what happens to the vote — or just describes what the department does to everything around it?