Attorney Journal Eric Holder faced over four hours of questioning on the IRS, AP probe, Benghazi and other topics from members of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that the investigation into the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups will not be limited to the tax-exempt unit in the agency’s Ohio field office.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Va.) opening statement was interrupted by a Democrat on the committee.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.) held his grandchild during his questioning of Eric Holder in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said that the Justice Department secretly obtaining the Associated Press’s phone records impaired the First Amendment.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Attorney General Eric Holder sparred during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Wednesday. Holder called Issa’s conduct “shameful” and “unacceptable.”

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

And Eric Holder is seized by political quicksand.

Thanks for checking us out. Please take a look at the rest of our videos and articles.

To stay in the loop, bookmark our homepage.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller editorializes in USA Today, “The Internal Revenue Service recognizes that we should have done a better job of handling the influx of applications by advocacy organizations. Mistakes were made, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan motivation. We are — and will continue to be — dedicated to reviewing all applications for tax-exempt status in an impartial manner. We sought to centralize work in this area in 2010 because our office of Exempt Organizations observed a sharp increase in the number of section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) applications coming from groups potentially engaged in political campaign intervention. … There was a shortcut taken in our processes to determine which groups needed additional review. … The new procedures we have implemented ensure the mistakes we made won’t be repeated. We want to stress that our employees — all career civil servants — will continue to be guided by tax law and not by partisan issues.”

“The IRS’s Turn to Answer Questions”

The Washington Post editorializes, “Washington is now sinking its teeth into a real scandal: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) using ideological criteria to choose the targets of its attention. What we already know is bad enough. Given the seriousness of the charges and the unreliability of IRS disclosures so far, purposeful, sober investigation is exactly what is needed. At first, the IRS’s admission that it flagged applications for tax-exempt status from tea party-type groups brought reaction that broke along partisan lines. But on Monday, President Obama called the news ‘outrageous,’ adding: ‘I’ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it. And we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this.’ Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) joined other Democratic lawmakers to support an investigation in his chamber, something Republican leaders in the House had pledged on Friday. … Any unequal application of the law based on ideological viewpoint is unpardonable — toxic to the legitimacy of the government’s vast law-enforcement authority.”

“Top IRS Official Didn’t Reveal Tea Party Targeting”

The Associated Press reports, “Congress was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the Internal Revenue Service, even after acting agency Chief Steven Miller had been briefed on the matter. Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny, the IRS said Monday. At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny – despite being asked about it.”

“Chiefs at IRS Knew of Targeting”

According to The Wall Street Journal, “President Barack Obama said Monday those responsible for any improper scrutiny of conservative groups’ tax status would be held “fully accountable,” hours before it emerged that the current and former heads of the Internal Revenue Service were informed last May that tea-party groups had been targeted. The IRS said in a statement that acting Commissioner Steven Miller was first told by the agency staff on May 3, 2012, that some specific groups’ applications for tax-exempt status were improperly selected for extra scrutiny based on their names. But two top GOP lawmakers said Mr. Miller, who was named to the top IRS post in November, didn’t disclose the problems in subsequent letters sent to them—even as they and other congressional Republicans had raised questions about IRS scrutiny of tea-party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status. Mr. Miller couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday. Separately, investigators told congressional staffers Monday that Mr. Miller’s predecessor, Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008, was informed of the problems in May 2012, according to an aide.”

“The IRS Wants You”

The Wall Street Journal editorializes, “President Obama famously joked in a college commencement address in 2009 that he could use the IRS to target political enemies but of course he never would. It appears that people at the Internal Revenue Service didn’t think he was joking. That’s become clear since IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner admitted on Friday that the agency targeted conservatives for special tax-exempt scrutiny during the 2012 election season. The story has already blossomed into the latest abuse of government power, as documents show the IRS targeted tea party types and groups that specifically opposed the Obama Administration. According to an appendix to a forthcoming Treasury Inspector General report obtained by the Journal, in June 2011 the IRS expanded its special attention to groups that met the following criteria:

‘•”Tea Party,” “Patriots,” or “9/12 Project” is referenced in the case file.

• Issues include Government spending, Government debt, or taxes.

• Education of the public via advocacy/lobbying to “make America a better place to live.”

• Statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.’”

DOJ Seizes Associated Press Phone Records

The Associated Press reports, “The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’ into how news organizations gather the news. The records obtained by the Justice Department listed outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters, for general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn., and for the main number for the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery, according to attorneys for the AP. It was not clear if the records also included incoming calls or the duration of the calls. The government would not say why it sought the records. Officials have previously said in public testimony that the U.S. attorney in Washington is conducting a criminal investigation into who may have provided information contained in a May 7, 2012, AP story about a foiled terror plot. The story disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the spring of 2012 to detonate a bomb on an airplane bound for the United States.”

“White House: ‘No knowledge’ of AP phone record seizure”

The Hill reports, “The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press telephone records. ‘Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,’ White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. Carney said the White House had no involvement in the Justice effort.  … The Justice Department said in a letter to the AP on Friday that it had gathered records on at least 20 office, cell phone, and home phone numbers — including the AP’s desk in the House of Representatives press gallery. The AP believes the records seizure was related to a leak investigation regarding a 2012 story about the CIA foiling a bomb plot in Yemen. The Obama administration has aggressively investigated the disclosure of classified anti-terror information in recent years, subpoenaing journalists from the New York Times and Washington Post.”

DOD to Trim Employee Furlough Days

The Associated Press reports, “The Defense Department is poised to trim the number of civilian furlough days from 14 to 11 or fewer as it tries to find ways to deal with mandatory spending cuts, and is likely to let the military services expand the types of workers that will be exempt from the unpaid day off requirements, military officials say. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to announce a decision on the hotly contested issue as early as Tuesday, and officials said the final decision continues to be refined. Defense officials said that at this point, notification deadlines and other administrative requirements make it difficult for the department to squeeze in more than 12 furlough days by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. They said some senior leaders wanted to reduce the furloughs as much as possible, perhaps to nine or fewer.”

Are Sequester Cuts Hitting Smokey The Bear? 

Reuters reports, “Shrinking budgets mean fewer firefighters will be available this summer even as unusually dry weather has increased the risk of fire in much of the U.S. West, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned on Monday. ‘As a result of sequester and across-the-board cuts we will have about 500 fewer firefighters at the Forest Service than we would otherwise have,’ said Vilsack. Cuts known as sequestration are forcing government agencies to reduce spending. They went into effect on March 1 after a gridlocked Congress failed to resolve fiscal fights and find an alternative to the sequestration. The Forest Service relied on 10,500 firefighters during last year’s fire season. With 48 percent of the continental United States under moderate to exceptional drought conditions and an insect blight having weakened western forests, the risk of fire is high as summer approaches, said Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service. … About 70,000 communities are situated on the fringes of wilderness across the country and so are particularly vulnerable, officials said.”

Obama Rallies Donors While Blaming GOP For Gridlock

Bloomberg reports, “President Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters at film mogul Harvey Weinstein’s home that Republican “hyper-partisanship” is to blame for holding up his second-term agenda. Speaking to a group of Democratic donors in New York City that included entertainer Justin Timberlake and actress Jessica Biel, Obama pledged to find ways to work across the aisle, even as he faulted Republicans for creating gridlock in Washington. ‘My thinking was after we beat them in 2012 that might break the fever,’ he told donors gathered yesterday evening at the West Village brownstone of Weinstein, head of the independent studio Weinstein Co. ‘It’s not quite broken yet, but I am persistent and I am staying at it.’ The $16,200 per person event was the first of three Obama fundraisers yesterday for the Democratic Party campaign committee ahead of the 2014 congressional elections. … ‘If we’ve got folks on the other side who are prepared to cooperate, that is great and we are ready to go,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, if there are folks who are more interested in winning elections than they are thinking of the next generation, then I want to make sure there are consequences to that.’”

Federal Revenues Up But Not for Long

Red Jahncke, president and CEO of The Townsend Group, editorializes in The Wall Street Journal, “There were many happy faces in Washington on Friday with the Treasury Department’s announcement of robust tax revenues for April. Individual income-tax receipts surged to $240 billion for the month, taking the total for 2013 to $483 billion. This is far greater than the $393 in tax revenues the federal government collected for the first four months of 2012. The increase far surpassed the Congressional Budget Office projections in February. The influx surprised the CBO and many other observers, but it shouldn’t have. Neither should the dramatic drop that is likely to follow, though policy makers will be tempted to behave as if the revenue flood will continue. Much of the increase in 2013 receipts is due to final tax payments for 2012 deriving from a rush to realize long-term capital gains before the 15% ‘Bush’ tax rate on such gains expired at the end of 2012—and before the new 23.8% rate on long-term capital gains for higher-income taxpayers took effect on Jan. 1. How do we know this? Because virtually the same tax change occurred during the Reagan years, when the long-term capital gains tax rate jumped eight points, to 28% in 1987, when the Tax Reform Act took effect, from 20% in 1986. …The danger is that lawmakers and planners on the federal and state levels will mistake the current tax-revenue influx as a surge to a new, long-lasting plateau. It isn’t.”

IRS spokesmen also did not respond to repeated emailed and telephone inquiries that CNSNews.com made between Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning asking if the IRS intended to comply with the committee’s demand–and if not, why not.

On Friday, the Associated Press broke the news that Lois Lerner, head of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division, had told an American Bar Association conference that the IRS had targeted for heightened scrutiny groups whose tax-exempt status applications included the words “tea party” or “patriot.”

“That was wrong,” Lerner said. “That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review.”

“The IRS would like to apologize for that,” Lerner said.

The AP reported that Lerner claimed the practice was initiated by low-level IRS workers in Cincinnati and was not politically motivated.

After this news broke, Rep. Charles Boustany, chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, sent a letter Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller. The letter instructed the IRS to provide the committee by Wednesday with “all communications containing the words ‘tea party,’ ‘patriot or ‘conservative,’” and the “names and titles of all individuals involved in this discrimination.”

On Friday afternoon, after the committee sent this letter to the IRS, CNSNews.com contacted IRS spokesman Dean J. Patterson via telephone and asked him a series of written questions by email. One of the questions was: “Does the IRS intend to comply with this request?”

The IRS did not respond to CNSNews.com on Friday.

On Monday, morning CNSNews.com asked IRS Spokesman Patterson via email: “Will the IRS comply with the committee’s request to provide these things by Wednesday?”

When IRS Spokesman Patterson had not responded by Monday afternoon, CNSNews.com followed up with this if question: “If the IRS does not intend to comply with the House Ways and Means Committee’s request for ‘all communications containing the words ‘tea party’ ‘patriot’ or ‘conservative’” and the “names and titles of all individuals involved in” discriminating against tea party and conservative groups by subjecting their applications for tax exempt status to heightened scrutiny, on what basis would the IRS refuse such a request from the congressional committee that has oversight over it?”

On Tuesday morning, CNSNews.com asked the House Ways and Means Committee if the IRS had indicated to the committee whether it intended to comply with the committee’s request for the communications and names. A committee spokesperson said: “We have not yet received a response from the IRS or gotten indication that they will respond.” The spokesperson noted that “the date we requested all materials is tomorrow.”

CNSNews.com then contacted the IRS press office again and was put through to the voicemail of IRS Spokesman Patterson. CNSNews.com left a message asking, again, whether the IRS intended to comply with the committee’s request.

CNSNews.com then contacted IRS Spokesman Anthony Burke and put the question to him verbally and via emails that were carbon copied to both Burke and his colleague Patterson.

These IRS spokesmen did not immediately respond.

Acting IRS Commissioner Miller is now scheduled to testify in the Ways and Means Committee on Friday alongside Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, whose office has conducted an as-yet unpublished audit of the IRS  in this matter.

President Obama and his party had a bad case of the Mondays.  Senate Democrats lost their prized recruit in South Dakota, despite intense effort to clear the path for her.  Worse, a new poll showed Gabriel Gomez neck and neck with Ed Markey - who appears to be in danger of letting the Massachusetts Special Election slip away from Democrats.

And that was the good news.

It was scandal Monday for the party in control of Washington. First, President Obama angrily took to the microphones to denounce accusations of a cover-up on Benghazi (you know it’s bad when even the New York Times Editorial Board calls the Administration’s answers about talking points “inept”).

From there, attention shifted to the IRS targeting conservative groups scandal. More and more continues to drip out, but it remains unknown who decided to target conservatives and why. Republicans and Democrats in Congress are determined to investigate, according to NBC.  “I just don’t buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Sunday on the CNN program “State of the Union.”

Then things got really ugly and journalists became outraged that the Justice Department had secretly obtained months of phone records of Associated Press journalists.  This Huffington Post story includes a sampling of the reaction: Reporters and commentators outside the AP professed themselves to be equally angered. “The Nixon comparisons write themselves,” BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith tweeted. Margaret Sullivan, the public editor for the New York Times, called the story “disturbing.” Washington Post editor Martin Baron called it “shocking.” CNN’s John King described it as “very chilling.” Speaking to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, a lawyer for the AP called the DOJ’s actions “outrageous,” saying they were “a dagger to the heart of AP’s newsgathering activity.”
BuzzFeed’s Kate Nocera was perhaps more pithy, writing simply, “what in the f–k.”

That had to be it… right? Nope, there was still more.  HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a scandal of her own after asking private health care companies to contribute funds to a nonprofit to help implement the Affordable Care Act.  Senator Lamar Alexander compared it to an “Iran-Contra style health care scandal” that “may be illegal, should cease immediately and should be fully investigated by Congress.”

This has to be a record for most simultaneous Administration scandals at one time, making the 6th year itch election even itchier for Democrats. National Journal notes the 2014 implications: “Imagine you’re a red-state Democrat contemplating a run for Senate.”  Read this email from start to finish again, then put yourself in those shoes. “It certainly gives Democrats looking to run in Republican states pause about taking on very difficult challenge,” said Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster. “It’s hard enough when you’re running uphill. But when the wind is in your face, it makes it even more difficult.”

Seize the day,

Brad Dayspring
@BDayspring

Brook Hougesen
@Brook_H

2014 BATTLEGROUND SONAR

(AK, AR) Reid protecting Pryor, Begich on guns
Aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid huddled recently with Mr. Bloomberg to dissuade him from broadcasting attack ads against two of the most endangered 2014 Democratic incumbents, Mark L. Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska. Mr. Reid must keep these otherwise-loyal lieutenants in the Senate because they usually provide critical votes for such Democratic causes as Obamacare, even though they represent states that are red, Republican and growing more that way. If Mr. Pryor and Mr. Begich lose next year, the Republicans would be just four races short of a majority.

(MASSACHUSETTS) GOP group hits Markey for ’90s House bank scandal
A new web video from the National Republican Senatorial Committee hits Senate hopeful Edward J. Markey for his involvement along with more than 300 other members in a check-bouncing scandal more than 20 years ago. Although the video is currently not backed by any money online or on TV, the fifty-second video gives a window into a potential line of attack Republicans may use against the longtime congressman in paid advertisements in the run-up to the June 25 special election.

• A Gomez Surge in Mass. Senate Race?
• Poor marks for Senate candidate Markey’s energy record

(SOUTH DAKOTA) DSCC recruit Herseth Sandlin’s decision not to run surprises Democratic insiders
Political observers and Democratic insiders alike said they were surprised by former congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin’s decision not to run for office again next year. Herseth Sandlin announced Monday that she will not run for the open U.S. Senate seat, for which she was highly recruited by national Democrats. She also passed on a run for governor or her old U.S. House seat, and will instead spend the coming years with her family and at her job as general counsel for Raven Industries in Sioux Falls.

• Democratic primary brewing?
• South Dakota unwinnable for Dems, and DSCC holds much of the blame.

(NEW HAMPSHIRE) Sen. Ayotte is doing the right thing on gun violence
As current and former New Hampshire police chiefs, we’ve been following the national debate on how to prevent mass shootings. All of us in law enforcement want to stop violence and keep our cities and towns safe. And we’re glad that Sen. Kelly Ayotte is at the table, putting her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general to good use.

ON THE TWITTERS

@AFPMichigan- Economic News… Democrat Congressman Gary Peters Praises Michigan’s GOP-Led Recovery: http://ow.ly/kY3Cq  @MichCapCon #MITCOT

@kakukowski- VIDEO: NBC’s Lisa Myers: Obama Admin has History of Intimidating Reporters & Sources http://bit.ly/19neE6n

@thehill- Business groups fear being blindsided by new regulations http://j.mp/13uRStp  by @misswilson @ben_goad

@JohnCornyn- IRS targeting of conservative groups began in 2010 http://fb.me/1hN9CTsGj

@politico- Carl Bernstein rips White House over AP subpoena: http://politi.co/10vKLeW

NATIONAL RADAR

(BUZZFEED) The Panopticon President - A new critique emerges. Fear of a narrow new government power at a scary moment.

(NATIONAL JOURNAL) Obama’s Struggles Hampering Democratic Recruitment
Imagine you’re a red-state Democrat contemplating a run for Senate. Here’s what you’ve seen during the opening months of President Obama’s second term: A still-tepid economic recovery, a culturally polarizing agenda on immigration and guns, and fears of the health care law’s possibly haphazard implementation.The White House’s uneven start to the second term shows little sign of improving. Questions about what administration and State Department officials knew about the origins of last year’s deadly attack on a consulate in Benghazi have hounded them since last week’s congressional hearing. The explosive revelation Friday that the IRS targeted conservative nonprofit groups seems certain to put Obama officials on the defensive for the foreseeable future.

(POLITICO) Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill
Just days after news broke that the IRS targeted conservative nonprofits, Speaker John Boehner’s House committees will morph into mock courtrooms where the White House will be the defendant in what amounts to a number of high-stakes political trials.

(WASHINGTON POST) Obama’s second-term blues set in
Well, that didn’t take long. Four months into a fresh four years, President Obama is already assuming the familiar crouch of a scandal-struck second-termer.

(REUTERS) U.S. proposes rule on Medicaid payment cuts for hospitals
The U.S. government on Monday issued a proposed rule for cutting payments to hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of the poor, including a $500 million reduction in fiscal 2014, as part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.

• Health insurance tax ‘scares the daylights’ out of some small-business owners

SCOOBY SNACKS

Angelina Jolie Undergoes Preventative double mastectomy to avoid possible breast cancer

’24′ Returning To Fox With Kiefer Sutherland On Board

Hypochondriac’s Guide to Which New Killer Disease Will Kill You

Bill Hader Leaving ‘SNL’

Beefy Crunch Burrito Becomes the McRib of Taco Bell

In dispute over IHOP bill, parolee accused of running over man twice with car

Man finds 40,000 bees in his wall

Road-builder bulldozes one of biggest Maya pyramids in Belize; police open criminal probe

Witches In Swaziland Banned From Flying Broomsticks Higher Than 150 Meters