First Read: “One reason why is because Benghazi has already been litigated so much (at congressional hearings, at two presidential debates, during Susan Rice’s consideration for the secretary of state job). But Friday’s revelation that the IRS had targeted conservative-sounding names (and not liberal-sounding ones) in applications for tax-exempt status will trigger new congressional hearings and new questions for the president and his team. More significantly, the IRS news is a political gift to a Republican Party whose base was strained on immigration (remember that Heritage Foundation study?) and even on guns (remember the tough questions Sens. Kelly Ayotte and Jeff Flake were getting?). Now, you’re seeing a GOP base united by two things they absolutely dislike: President Obama and the Internal Revenue Service. The news also is a gift to Republicans like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, or any incumbent Republican in Washington hoping to avoid a tough primary in 2014 — they get to demagogue the heck out of this story and show they will stand up for the Tea Party.”

Glenn Thrush:
“President Barack Obama genuinely believed he could buck the
second-term curse of fecklessness and scandal that afflicted the last
three two-term presidents, even if history — and his
adversaries — suggested otherwise. The combination of clever and
determined Republican resistance on nearly every front, bad luck,
Obama’s overconfidence in his capacity to leverage a decisive reelection
victory into legislative clout and his own administration’s past
mistakes have left the president feeling deeply frustrated, even
angry — and eager to find a way to recapture the offensive.”

First Read: “For the Obama White House, if there’s one common theme to both the
Benghazi and IRS stories, it’s how slowly it responded to them.”

Investigators have found that the IRS “scrutinized conservative groups for raising political concerns over government spending, debt and taxes or even for advocating making America a better place to live,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The latest details about the IRS handling of applications for tax-exempt status by tea party, patriot and other conservative groups in recent years were provided to congressional investigators by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.”

“It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review. And I think that it’s very disappointing that the president hasn’t personally condemned this and spoken out.”

— Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in an interview on CNN.

“Not four months after his ambitious inaugural address, President Obama finds himself struggling to move his legislative agenda through an unbudging Congress,” the Washington Post reports.

“And over the past week, two flaring controversies — one over his administration’s handling of the killing of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya, the other over Internal Revenue Service employees targeting tea party groups for special scrutiny — have dominated the discussion in Washington.”

“It is far from clear how big a political liability either will turn out to be. At a minimum, they represent diversions working against a president who is keenly aware of how little time he has left to achieve big things. And they are a test of the insular Obama team’s skill at keeping its footing in an environment of hyperpartisan politics and hair-trigger media.”

Stu Rothenberg: “The last five presidents elected to a second consecutive term – Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush – all suffered through problems, ranging from economic and foreign policy to personal.”