memeorandum: Nobody's Laughing Now — How pervasive is the Obama IRS scandal? (James Taranto/Wall Street Journal)

12:55 PM ET, May 14, 2013

Top Items:

IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups — Internal Revenue Service 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 …

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Nobody's Laughing Now — How pervasive is the Obama IRS scandal? — David Plouffe had an intriguing comment yesterday on the scandal involving selective tax-law enforcement against Tea Party groups. The manager of the 2008 Obama campaign who served as a top White House aide until this January …

Discussion: USA Today and Sister Toldjah

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups — Over the last two years, government watchdog groups filed more than a dozen complaints with the Internal Revenue Service seeking inquiries into whether large nonprofit organizations like those founded …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Wonkblog, Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, No More Mister Nice Blog, ABCNEWS, Jared Bernstein and Law Blog

Jeffrey Toobin / News Desk:

The Real I.R.S. Scandal — Washington's scandal machinery, rusty from recent disuse, is cranking back up to speed due to the alleged targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said …

Discussion: The Week, Outside the Beltway and The Fix

Lauren French / Politico:

IRS head Steven Miller: ‘Mistakes were made’ — Steven Miller is breaking his silence about the scandal that's engulfing the Internal Revenue Service. — Miller, the acting IRS commissioner, is quickly emerging as the focus of fury in Washington after an agency official acknowledged …

Discussion: CNN and Reuters

Politico:

Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill — Scandal politics are sweeping 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 …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Fix, FishbowlDC, BuzzFeed, msnbc.com, Mediaite and VodkaPundit

Steven T. Miller / USA Today:
IRS: ‘We should have done a better job’

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, The Hill, Democracy in America and National Review

New York Times:
The I.R.S. Audits Are Condemned

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NewsBusters, The Public Editor's Journal, Prairie Weather, DealBook, Red Alert Politics and The Raw Story

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:
Congress Put Pressure on the IRS to Investigate Conservative Tax-Exempt Groups

Discussion: Washington Examiner and The Raw Story

ProPublica:
IRS Office That Targeted Tea Party Also Disclosed Confidential Docs From Conservative Groups

Discussion: The Week, Associated Press, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, The Dish, Washington Post, Yourish.com, The PJ Tatler, Yahoo! News, Weasel Zippers and The Raw Story

Reid J. Epstein / Politico:
White House stuck on IRS scandal response

Discussion: Guardian, The Hill and Sister Toldjah

Daily Mail:
Revealed: The 55 questions the IRS asked one tea party group after more than two years of waiting …

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Rule of Law and The Gateway Pundit

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
I.R.S. Targeting of Conservative Groups Could Resonate in 2014

Discussion: Wizbang, msnbc.com, Wonkblog and Yahoo! News

Mark Sherman / bigstory.ap.org:

GOVT OBTAINS WIDE AP PHONE RECORDS IN PROBE — You are here — Home » Government and politics » Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, BuzzFeed, The Week, Wonkblog, Hit & Run, News Desk, Fox News, Open Channel, Lawyers, Guns & Money, msnbc.com, emptywheel, Guardian, WorldViews, The Volokh Conspiracy, Patterico's Pontifications, The Huffington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, USA Today, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Weekly Standard, Poynter, The Daily Caller, Wired, Erik Wemple, Right Wing News, Scared Monkeys, americanthinker.com, Taylor Marsh, Addicting Info, CANNONFIRE, CNN, The BLT, PJ Media, The Hinterland Gazette, NO QUARTER USA NET, The Moderate Voice, Washington Free Beacon, NationalJournal.com, Hot Air, Washington Examiner, Politico, Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Hullabaloo, Ed Driscoll, The Verge, THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE, The Gateway Pundit, SPJ News, National Review, The PJ Tatler, National Republican …, Philly.com, Mother Jones, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Sister Toldjah and Outside the Beltway, more at Mediagazer »

Associated Press:
Dems vow: ‘Hell to pay’ if IRS allegations ring true

Discussion: Jammie Wearing Fools

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Carl Bernstein: AP phone subpoena ‘outrageous, totally inexcusable’

Discussion: Reuters

Joe Battenfeld / Boston Herald:
Obama knee-deep in Nixon-esque scandal

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Journalists fume over DOJ raid on AP

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Riehl World News, Twitchy and The Hill

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
A Conflict of Interest? — TPM Reader SS thinks there's …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

John Cassidy / News Desk:
A.P. Scandal Raises Spectre of Big Brother

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette and The Daily Caller

Angelina Jolie / New York Times:

My Medical Choice — MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Gothamist, msnbc.com, Wonkblog, Mediaite, Guardian, Telegraph, Bangor Daily News, CNN, Taylor Marsh, KDVR.com, Daily Mail, canada.com, Feministing, News Desk, CBS DC, Shakesville, Yahoo! News, Forbes, Wizbang, Althouse, Wonkette and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Obama's claim he called Benghazi an ‘act of terrorism’ — “The day after it happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism.” — Once again, it appears that we must parse a few presidential words. We went through this question at length during the 2012 election, but perhaps a refresher course is in order.

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, Hullabaloo, Wonkette, Scared Monkeys, Patterico's Pontifications, Weasel Zippers, Conservatives4Palin, Power Line, Hot Air, The Dish, Althouse, This ain't Hell …, The PJ Tatler, CNN and The Lonely Conservative

FLNation / The Florida Nation:

RNC FL Hispanic Director is Now a Democrat — I've known Pablo Pantoja for years. We were both in the same graduate program at Florida State University. We bonded because we were both also state employees at the time. However, Pantoja had another, another job.

Discussion: The Plum Line, Hullabaloo, msnbc.com, Daily Kos, The Maddow Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, Naked Politics, Yahoo! News, Booman Tribune and First Read

Chris Gentilviso / The Huffington Post:
Pablo Pantoja Turns Democrat: RNC Florida Hispanic Director Cites GOP ‘Intolerance’ In Making Party Switch

Discussion: Rumproast and TheBlaze.com

Adam Peck / ThinkProgress:
RNC Director Of Hispanic Outreach Quits Party And Registers As A Democrat

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Adam C. Smith / Tampa Bay Times:
Fed up, RNC's Fla Hispanic outreach director becomes Democrat

Discussion: Politico

M.L. Johnson / greenbaypressgazette.com:

7-year-old boy gets handwritten letter from Biden — MILWAUKEE — A Wisconsin boy wrote Vice President Joe Biden with an unusual suggestion for making the nation safer: Create guns that shoot chocolate bullets. — On Monday, he got an unusual response: A handwritten note from Biden on vice presidential stationery.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, Wonkette and Jammie Wearing Fools

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Pelosi: If Boehner Were A Woman, They'd Call Him ‘Weakest Speaker In History’ (VIDEO) — House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has drawn no shortage of critics - even within his own party — but his predecessor thinks he's getting off easy. — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Balloon Juice

Kevin Robillard / Politico:
‘Weakest speaker in history’?

Discussion: The Hill and Daily Kos

RT:

CIA agent trying to recruit Russian intelligence officer detained in Moscow - FSB — Russia's counterintelligence agency has detained a CIA agent in Moscow trying to recruit an officer of the Russian secret service, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced. The agent was operating under guise of career diplomat.

Discussion: CBS News, BuzzFeed, bigstory.ap.org, New York Times, BBC, The Week, WorldViews, Taylor Marsh and Scared Monkeys

Tara Palmeri / New York Post:

Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World — They are 1 percenters who are 100 percent despicable. — Some wealthy Manhattan moms have figured out a way to cut the long lines at Disney World — by hiring disabled people to pose as family members …

Discussion: Gothamist and The Raw Story

Pew Global Attitudes Project:

The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union — Overview — The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Forbes, Pew Research Center, Via Meadia, Eurointelligence, Guardian and New York Times

hrw.org/rss/news:

Syria: Brigade Fighting in Homs Implicated in Atrocities — Video Appears to Show Commander Mutilating a Corpse — Human Rights Watch has reviewed graphic evidence that appears to show a commander of the Syrian opposition “Independent Omar al-Farouq” brigade mutilating the corpse of a pro-government fighter.

Discussion: TIME, Israel Matzav, normblog and Hullabaloo

BBC:
Anger at Syria ‘heart-eating video’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, TIME, Reuters and Real Science

Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:

Bill Hader to Leave ‘Saturday Night Live’ — With just one departure, “Saturday Night Live” is losing its excitable “Weekend Update” city correspondent, Stefon; its frenetic incarnations of James Carville, Al Pacino, Vincent Price and Julian Assange; and any number of unctuous, self-satisfied game-show hosts.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Senate Democrats: Nuclear option for filibuster is back on the table — Senate Democrats frustrated with the GOP's blocking of a string of President Obama's nominees are seriously weighing a controversial tactic known as the “nuclear option.” — The option — which would involve Democrats …

Jonathan Bernstein / The Plum Line:
You want a scandal? Here's a scandal.

Discussion: ACS Blog

Hayes Brown / ThinkProgress:

Dick Cheney: Benghazi ‘One Of The Worst Incidences I Can Recall In My Career’ — Former Vice President Dick Cheney weighed in on Benghazi last night, saying the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya was “one of the worst incidences” he could recall.

Discussion: AMERICAblog and The Hinterland Gazette