Top Items:
Vince Coglianese / The Daily Caller:
IRS's Shulman had more public White House visits than any cabinet member — Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president's Cabinet.
RELATED:
USA Today:
War on leaks threatens your right to know: Our view … Intimidation tactic serves to hide all manner of government secrets. — When President Obama talked about reporters and reporting last week, he struck a conciliatory chord. Obama said he was troubled “that leak investigations may chill …
Discussion:
Guardian and PoliticusUSA
Carol Cratty / CNN:
Holder runs into roadblocks on off-the-record meetings on leaks — Washington (CNN) - Attorney General Eric Holder's plans to sit down with media representatives to discuss guidelines for handling investigations into leaks to the news media have run into trouble.
Discussion:
Politico, Fox News, Weasel Zippers, Taegan Goddard's …, The Right Scoop and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »
Michael S. Schmidt / New York Times:
Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I. — WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey, a former hedge fund executive and a former senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as the director of the Federal Bureau …
New York Times:
Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries — WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a lightning rod of Republican attacks during President Obama's first term, is now contending with a new round of criticism over the Justice Department's campaign against leaks to the news media.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Fix, National Review, The Huffington Post, Open Channel and Firedoglake
Jordy Yager / The Hill:
Attorney General Holder on the ropes — Attorney General Eric Holder is in the midst of perhaps the most serious challenge of his career over his department's investigation of government leaks to journalists. — The battle-scarred head of the Justice Department (DOJ) …
Discussion:
americanthinker.com
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Eric Holder To Meet With Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
Eric Holder To Meet With Washington Bureau Chiefs Amid Leak Investigation Criticism (UPDATE)
Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:
ACLU Defends News Organizations For Rejecting Off-The-Record Meeting With Attorney General
ACLU Defends News Organizations For Rejecting Off-The-Record Meeting With Attorney General
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Right Turn and Politico
Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
NYT Will Not Attend Holder Meeting With Media
NYT Will Not Attend Holder Meeting With Media
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Poynter, Mediaite and Washington Wire, more at Mediagazer »
Dylan Byers / Politico:
N.Y. Times will not attend DOJ session, citing opposition to off-the-record provision
N.Y. Times will not attend DOJ session, citing opposition to off-the-record provision
Discussion:
Restoring Liberty and Weasel Zippers
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Too dumb to check: Holder's huddle with media on press freedoms will be ... off the record …
Too dumb to check: Holder's huddle with media on press freedoms will be ... off the record …
Discussion:
americanthinker.com, The PJ Tatler and Weekly Standard
Mike Allen / Politico:
HOLDER TO MEET WITH BUREAU CHIEFS …
HOLDER TO MEET WITH BUREAU CHIEFS …
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Plum Line, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Yahoo! News, USA Today, Variety and ABCNEWS
Quinnipiac News + Events:
Release Detail — May 30, 2013 - American Voters 4-1 Want Special Prosecutor For IRS, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; But Fixing Economy Is More Important, Voters Say 3-1 — American voters say 76 - 17 percent, including 63 - 30 percent among Democrats, that a special prosecutor …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Hill, The Plum Line, Taegan Goddard's …, Weasel Zippers, Post Politics, CNN, Right Turn, Politico, ABCNEWS and Wall Street Journal
RELATED:
Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Obama's poll numbers hold up despite the storm of scandal — Obama's 7 percentage-point positive margin in Gallup is better than where he stood before the IRS scandal broke. — President Obama's approval ratings have increased since a trio of controversies involving his administration began dominating the news cycle.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Kevin Cirilli / Politico:
Poll: President Obama job approval rating down
Poll: President Obama job approval rating down
Discussion:
americanthinker.com and The Gateway Pundit
Lynn Sweet / Chicago Sun Times:
Bobby Rush rips Mark Kirk's mass gang arrests proposal as ‘elitist white boy solution’ — Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) is highly critical of a proposal by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) for mass arrests of 18,000 Gangster Disciples, telling the Sun-Times on Wednesday that Kirk's approach is …
Discussion:
Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story, Post Politics and The Hinterland Gazette
New York Times:
Salvadoran Court Denies Abortion to Ailing Woman — MEXICO CITY — El Salvador's highest court on Wednesday denied an appeal from a woman with a high-risk pregnancy to be allowed to undergo an abortion, upholding the country's strict law banning abortion under any circumstances.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Althouse, RH Reality Check and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
RELATED:
Katie McDonough / Salon:
El Salvador Supreme Court denies critically ill woman lifesaving abortion
El Salvador Supreme Court denies critically ill woman lifesaving abortion
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and susiemadrak.com
Rich Lowry / Politico:
The Lois Lerner state — It is appropriate that the worst scandal of the Obama administration— the IRS targeting of conservatives — is a scandal of administrators and bureaucrats, of otherwise faceless people endowed with immense power over their fellow citizens and running free of serious oversight from elected officials.
Discussion:
Pirate's Cove
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
Annals of the Security State: ‘Is Puerto Rico in America?’ — Here are two more, from people willing to go on the record under their real names. Previous entries here, here, here. … Now, from David Rivera, who runs a small business in San Diego: … No more “analysis” at the moment.
Washington Post:
Officials: Man who knew Boston bombing suspect was unarmed when shot — A Chechen man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent last week during an interview about one of the Boston bombing suspects was unarmed, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. — An air of mystery has surrounded …
Discussion:
Sky Dancing, LewRockwell.com Blog and emptywheel
Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:
TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows — Fox News Channel maintains a handsome lead in primetime and total day, while primetime runner-up CNN continues a healthy climb from the lows of 2012. — “The Rachel Maddow Show” — HLN's wall-to-wall coverage …
Kevin Liptak / CNN:
With campaign in rearview, Ann Romney says there were mistakes — (CNN) - No presidential campaign is perfect, Ann Romney admitted Thursday - even her husband's bid for the White House in 2012. — Speaking solo for the first time since November's election loss, Romney said on CBS …
Discussion:
Politico
Spencer Kornhaber / The Atlantic Online:
Arrested Development's Crazy, Existential Message: We're All In This Together — Netflix's absurd fourth season of the show has a surprising lot to say about the real world. — This is the first (not-spoilery!) post in a series from Atlantic writers on Arrested Development's fourth season.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
Rick Madonik / Toronto Star:
Rob Ford video scandal: Mayor Ford said he knew where video was, sources say — The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with an unusual May 17 session in his office. … Toronto Mayor Rob Ford speaks during a press conference at City Hall …
Discussion:
Gawker, The Raw Story, Balloon Juice and Blazing Cat Fur
Jim Tankersley / Washington Post:
Sequester not biting District yet — In the months since the automatic federal spending cuts known as the sequester took effect, the Washington area has added 40,000 jobs. Income-tax receipts have surged in Virginia, beating expectations. Few government contractors have laid off workers.
Discussion:
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Weekly Standard, Outside the Beltway and Wonkblog
Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Mounting legal woes spurred Democratic leader's resignation — The head of Georgia's Democratic Party said Wednesday that he would resign amid mounting legal problems and growing pushback from fellow Democrats who feared his leadership could complicate the party's comeback bid.
CBO's Publications:
The Distribution of Major Tax Expenditures in the Individual Income Tax System — A number of exclusions, deductions, preferential rates, and credits in the federal tax system cause revenues to be much lower than they would be otherwise for any given structure of tax rates.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News and Los Angeles Times
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Ted Cruz opens up on immigration … What, exactly, is Ted Cruz's position on comprehensive immigration reform? There's no doubt the outspoken and still very new Texas senator opposes the Gang of Eight proposal. From that, some Democrats and commentators on the left have concluded that Cruz …
Joe Muto / Salon:
I was a liberal mole at Fox News: From Bill O'Reilly to Roger Ailes, here's all the inside dope — Inside the beast: O'Reilly hates Hannity. Producers know what's acceptable. Everyone fears a call from Roger Ailes — Excerpted from “An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside …
Discussion:
The Impolitic