memeorandum: Chaffetz: Obama impeachment ‘possible’ over Benghazi attack (Thomas Burr/Salt Lake Tribune)

6:25 AM ET, May 15, 2013

Top Items:

Understanding the Politics of the IRS Scandal — 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.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, The Impolitic and The Week

Gregory Korte / USA Today:

IRS gave liberals a pass; Tea Party groups put on hold — WASHINGTON — In the 27 months that the Internal Revenue Service put a hold on all Tea Party applications for non-profit status, it approved applications from similar liberal groups, a USA TODAY review of IRS data shows.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Riehl World News

Jonathan Weisman / New York Times:

U.S. Report on I.R.S. Audits Cites Failures in Management — WASHINGTON — An inspector general's report on the investigation of the Internal Revenue Service's effort to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny blamed ineffective management at the agency for failing to rein …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Hit & Run, The Week, DealBook and msnbc.com

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Inspector General: IRS' Ineffective Management Allowed Tea Party Targeting — WASHINGTON — The IRS used “inappropriate criteria” when judging organizations hoping to gain a tax-exempt status and allowed that criteria to stay in place for 18 months, according to a Treasury Inspector General …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Mother Jones, The PJ Tatler and Hot Air

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:

Franklin Graham: IRS targeted us, too — The IRS came after Billy Graham, too, his son charged Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama. — Franklin Graham, the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the family's international humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah and The Gateway Pundit

Abby D. Phillip / ABCNEWS:

IRS Asks for Reading List, Tea Party Group Sends Constitution — (Image Credit: Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images) — When Marion Bower decided to start her tea party organization in 2010, she didn't know that it would take nearly two years for the Internal Revenue Service to approve her request for tax-exempt status.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report and The PJ Tatler

Fox News:
Lawmakers say IRS targeted dozens more conservative groups than initially believed

Discussion: Hot Air, National Review, The Daily Caller and Patterico's Pontifications

Byron Tau / Politico: Lerner's name on IRS letter to conservative group

CNN:
Report finds IRS targeted conservative groups, delayed applications

Discussion: Reuters, Politico and The Strike Zone

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid urges Congress to crack down on ‘masquerading’ political groups

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
NAACP Chair Emeritus: ‘Legitimate’ For IRS To Target ‘Admittedly Racist’ Tea Party: ‘Taliban Wing’ Of Politics

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and The Gateway Pundit

Wynton Hall / BREITBART.COM:
PROGRESSIVE GROUP: IRS GAVE US CONSERVATIVE GROUPS' CONFIDENTIAL DOCS

Discussion: Power Line, The Week, The Daily Caller, The Spectacle Blog, The Hill, Outside the Beltway and Washington Post

Jake Tapper / The Lead with Jake Tapper:

CNN exclusive: White House email contradicts Benghazi leaks — This story has been updated from its original version. — CNN has obtained an e-mail sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama about White House reaction to the deadly attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi …

Thomas Burr / Salt Lake Tribune:

Chaffetz: Obama impeachment ‘possible’ over Benghazi attack — • Rep. Jason Chaffetz says President Barack Obama's handling of the government's response to the Benghazi terrorist attack could be an impeachable offense and vows to continue digging at the “lies of highest magnitude” from the White House.

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Joan Walsh / Salon:

Who doctored a White House email? — CNN appears to have undermined a scoop that damaged the White House — Was ABC News used by someone with an ax to grind against the State Department? It looks possible. A key email in its “scoop” that the administration's “talking points” …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Goppers and The Raw Story

CNN:

CNN exclusive: White House email contradicts Benghazi leaks — CNN has obtained an email sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama, in which the aide discusses the Obama administration reaction to the attack on the U.S. posts in Benghazi, Libya. The actual email differs …

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, The Plum Line, Yahoo! News, Gawker, The Political Carnival, PoliticusUSA and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Apparently Erroneous Reporting About Allegedly Erroneous Reporting

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:
Did Someone Leak Doctored Benghazi Email?

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:
More Details on Benghazi Talking Points Emerge

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Taylor Marsh, msnbc.com, Mediaite, Riehl World News, The Week and News Desk, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Holder Defends Justice Department in Journalists' Records Seizure — WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday defended the Justice Department's sweeping seizure of telephone records of Associated Press journalists, describing the article by The A.P. that prompted …

Discussion: CNN, Slate, The Volokh Conspiracy, Taylor Marsh, Yahoo! News, emptywheel, TalkLeft, The Political Carnival, Mother Jones, ap.org and THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE, more at Mediagazer »

Reuters:
Inside the AP: Fear, determination

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Power Line, CNN, National Review, The Huffington Post, Politico, Informed Comment, Riehl World News and The Hill

David Yonkman / Associated Press:
Carl Bernstein: AP Phone Scandal a ‘Nuclear Event’

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Conservatives4Palin and The PJ Tatler

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Carney: Obama believes the press ‘needs to be unfettered’

Discussion: Politico, The Political Carnival and Philly.com

Washington Post:
IG report: ‘Inappropriate criteria’ stalled IRS approvals of conservative groups

Discussion: Wonkblog, The Huffington Post, The Fix, The Volokh Conspiracy and Chicago Boyz

Ian Swanson / The Hill:
Holder recused himself from DOJ decision to seize AP records

Discussion: The Verge, The Impolitic and Outside the Beltway, more at Mediagazer »

CBO's Publications:

Updated Budget Projections: Fiscal Years 2013 to 2023 — If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion, CBO estimates, the smallest shortfall since 2008. Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit this year …

Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, National Review, PERRspectives, AEIdeas, The Maddow Blog and Daily Kos

Matthew Yglesias / Slate: The CBO's Projected Budget Deficits Just Shrank by Hundreds of Billions of Dollars

Politico:

D.C. turns on Obama — The town is turning on President Obama - and this is very bad news for this White House. — Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama - and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Instapundit, Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog and Conservatives4Palin

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

Race And IQ. Again. — I should know better than to bring this up again. But the effective firing of a researcher, Heritage's Jason Richwine, because of his Harvard dissertation should immediately send up red flags about intellectual freedom. I am not defending the Heritage report …

Discussion: Democracy in America, Guardian, Daily Kos, Brad DeLong, Dana Goldstein, Althouse and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Why Washington scandal-mania may save Medicare and Social Security — The Monica Lewinsky scandal may have helped save Social Security in the late 1990s. Now the scandal fever currently gripping Washington — IRS, Benghazi, Associated Press phone records — may save Social Security and Medicare two decades later.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, American Prospect and Hullabaloo

RT:

US Navy launched its first drone from aircraft carrier — The US Navy has successfully catapulted a prototype drone from an aircraft carrier on Tuesday, which is the first step in a program designed to begin fielding drones on all Navy carriers between 2017 and 2020.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice