The Week looks at a bombshell report that wasn’t.
How Can Obama Move Past Scandals?
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.
GOP Senators Ask for Obama’s Full Cooperation
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.”
Why Republicans Should Stop Comparing Obama to Nixon
Charles Krauthammer: “But the one advice I give to Republicans is stop calling it a huge scandal. Stop saying it’s a Watergate. Stop saying it’s Iran Contra. Let the facts speak for themselves. Have a special committee, a select committee. The facts will speak for themselves. Pile them on but don’t exaggerate, don’t run ads about Hillary. It feeds the narrative for the other side that it’s only a political event. It’s not. Just be quiet and present the facts.”
IRS Approved Liberal Groups as Conservative Groups Waited
USA Today reports that as applications from conservative groups sat in limbo waiting for IRS tax exempt approval, “groups with liberal-sounding names had their applications approved in as little as nine months. With names including words like ‘Progress’ or ‘Progressive,’ the liberal groups applied for the same tax status and were engaged in the same kinds of activities as the conservative groups.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has an interesting look at what Tea Party groups experienced as they were being scrutinized by the IRS.
The Politics of the IRS Scandal
Josh Marshall: “We’re just at the front end of investigating the IRS scandal. And all the standard blah blah blah about how we don’t know just what we’ll find. But I think we do know pretty much exactly what the political implications will be. And they’re significant.”
“The primary effect is that for some time to come — and likely through next year’s election — it allows elected Republicans to get right on the same page with the Tea Party and what the Tea Party essentially is, which is the ideological base of the Republican party, which is pretty much unchanged for the last 25 years.”
The Week: But will Republicans overplay it?
McConnell Says Obama is Stonewalling Investigation
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) suggested President Obama was not being forthcoming in the controversy surrounding IRS targeting of conservative groups, Reuters reports.
Said McConnell: “I’m calling on the president to make available, completely and without restriction, everyone who can answer the questions we have as to what was going on at the IRS, who knew about it, and how high it went. No more stonewalling.”
Three Scandals Makes it Harder
First Read: “While the president’s defiant tone on Benghazi probably would have been enough to quell things under normal circumstances, the times aren’t normal right now. The rule of three (toss in IRS and AP) means the president’s credibility is truly on the line right now with the public. No amount of denial or outrage will be as persuasive to the public right now and the president’s political foes know it. And that’s why you saw some senators yesterday going even further, hitting the White House on the implementation of health care or Mitch McConnell who attempted to use the IRS news to connect the dots and claim a concerted effort was taking place all over the government to target conservatives or limit freedoms. Many of these charges are baseless but the environment right now for the White House is a mess and they are in a position where it’ll be a lot easier for issues to stick to them. The Teflon is wearing off.”
Jill Lawrence wonders whether the drama “could be dramatic enough to move even the phlegmatic Obama
administration to action. Three concurrent scandals or controversies are
just too many. Could that mean we will be bidding farewell soon to
Attorney General Eric Holder?”
Chiefs at IRS Knew of Targeting
President Obama said “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 Wall Street Journal reports.
“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.”
The Washington Post reports “officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed.”
The Week: 4 scandalous elements of the IRS debacle.
IRS Scandal Unifies Republicans
New York Times: “Since last year’s elections, Republicans in Congress have struggled for traction on their legislative efforts, torn between conservatives who drove the agenda after their 2010 landslide and new voices counseling a shift in course to reflect President Obama’s re-election and the loss of Republican seats in the House and the Senate.”
“But the accusations of I.R.S. abuse are sure to fuel an effort that appears to be uniting dispirited Republicans and their conservative political base: investigating Mr. Obama and his administration. Republicans are pushing a portrayal of an administration overreaching its authority and punishing its enemies.”
The Washington Post says the series of revelations suggest “it could grow into a major political problem for Democrats over the coming months.”
Maybe There Was a Coverup?
New Yorker: “It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like the idea of a coverup was just a Republican obsession. But now there is something to it.”
The Week: Should Hillary Clinton testify on Benghazi again?
Andrew Sullivan: “It all reminds me of Whitewater.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
— An IRS statement after disclosure that disclosure that the agency was targeting conservative groups for exams.
Sanford Settles Trespassing Dispute with Ex-Wife
Rep.-elect Mark Sanford (R-SC) and his ex-wife, Jenny, “settled a complaint she brought alleging Sanford has repeatedly violated their divorce agreement by entering her home without her permission,” the AP reports.
“As part of Wednesday’s deal, he admits he violated the agreement on Feb. 3 and on other occasions. Under the consent order signed by both parties, a family court judge will withhold sentencing as long as Sanford abides by the provisions of their 2010 divorce decree that says neither party may enter the other’s home without permission.”
“Sanford also agreed to pay his ex-wife $5,000 in fees and court costs.”
Sanford Was Punished by Voters But Still Won
Nate Silver: “It would be wrong to conclude that voters did not punish Mr. Sanford at all for his extramarital affair. In fact, a reasonable number of voters did appear to hold it against him. Last November, Mitt Romney won South Carolina’s First District by 18 percentage points. Since Mr. Romney lost the election to Barack Obama by roughly four percentage points nationwide, that means the First District is about 22 percentage points more Republican than the country as a whole.”
“Mr. Sanford defeated his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, by nine percentage points instead – so one quick-and-dirty estimate is that Mr. Sanford’s personal history cost him a net of 13 percentage points. It just was not enough to flip the election result in such a conservative district.”
Steve Kornacki: “In hindsight, no one should be surprised.”
University is the Last Refuge After Political Scandal
New York Times: “The traditional path to an academic job is long and laborious: the solitude and penury of graduate study, the scramble for one of the few open positions in each field, the blood sport of competitive publishing. But while colleges have always courted accomplished public figures, a leap to the front of the class has now become a natural move for those who have suffered spectacular career flameouts.”
Larry Flynt Endorses Mark Sanford
In a video, Larry Flynt called Mark Sanford a “sex pioneer” and endorsed his congressional bid in South Carolina.
Flynt said “no one has done more to expose the sexual hypocrisy of traditional values in America today.”
He added: “His open embrace of his mistress in the name of love, breaking his sacred marriage vows, was an act of bravery that has drawn my support.”
GOP Operative Charged with Extortion and Stalking
Adam Savader, who worked for former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, “has been charged with federal stalking charges after allegedly threatening to expose nude photos of women,” the Daily Caller reports.
Savader “was arrested after women complained to law enforcement that he told them he would distribute nude photos he found of them to friends and family unless they provided more naked photos, according to a news release by the FBI.”
Quote of the Day
“In the age of constant communications, our politics has devolved to the point that political rehab is now the norm.”
— Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, quoted by Politico, adding that “there is no distinction between private and public life… everything is public.”
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