First Read points out there a danger for Republicans in pushing the IRS scandal too hard.

“Already, the Benghazi talking-point emails don’t reveal the political conspiracy that many Republicans and conservatives had openly theorized, and they also reveal that Susan Rice — whose reputation was dragged through the mud — was a relatively innocent victim (though no one likes to be exposed as someone who was simply following a set of talking points about which they had little input). What’s more, the Benghazi emails have all come down to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s concerns. Were they simply about trying not to hinder the investigation into the Islamic extremists in the attack (as Democrats say)? Or were they about trying to clean the State Department’s hands (as Republicans allege)?”

Greg Sargent: “The key thing to keep in mind is it’s an open question whether the GOP base will let Republicans ‘pace themselves.'”

Washington Post: “The most corrosive political scandals are the ones that feed a pre­existing story line — which is why the White House could have difficulty putting the current ones behind it any time soon. In the view of President Obama’s adversaries, recent revelations add evidence to arguments that they have been making about the president all along: that he would do or say whatever it took to get reelected; that his is a philosophy of rampant, invasive big government; that he has not acted within the constraints of the Constitution; that he regards those who oppose him with contempt.”

The Week: Have the scandals already reached their peak?

“In recent days, Democratic strategists have all but begged President Obama to take control of a deepening public relations disaster that threatens to derail his second-term agenda,” Politico reports.

“On Wednesday evening, Obama did just that. The White House released 100 pages of emails and documents showing the evolution of the administration’s talking points about the Benghazi attack. Just over an hour later, Obama himself came to the podium to announce that he’d directed his Treasury secretary to request the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner — and had gotten it.”

“So did two decisive actions on one rapid-fire news night stop the bleeding?”

President Obama announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked for and accepted the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller over the targeting of conservative political groups seeking tax exempt status.

Obama pledged to put new safeguards and work with Congress in its oversight role in response to the scandal noting that “the good news is it’s fixable.”

The IRS has pinpointed two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office as being principally responsible for “overly aggressive” handling of Tea Party requests for tax-exempt status over the past two years, CNN reports.

The Week looks at a bombshell report that wasn’t.

Thomas Roberts invited me on a panel with Irin Carmon and Judd Legum to discuss the scandals that have at least temporarily sidetracked President Obama’s agenda.

[Read more…]

All 45 Republican senators signed a letter to President Obama calling for his full cooperation in a congressional investigation into IRS targeting of conservative political groups.

From the letter: “This type of purely political scrutiny being conducted by an Executive Branch Agency is yet another completely inexcusable attempt to chill the speech of political opponents and those who would question their government, consistent with a broader pattern of intimidation by arms of your administration to silence political dissent.”