memeorandum: Presbyterians Vote to Allow Same-Sex Marriages (Laurie Goodstein/New York Times)

5:30 PM ET, June 20, 2014

Top Items:

David S. Joachim / New York Times:

I.R.S. Head and Lawmakers Clash Over Missing Email — WASHINGTON — A Congressional hearing examining how the Internal Revenue Service lost thousands of emails sought by investigators turned into a shouting match on Friday, with Republicans on the panel accusing the I.R.S. commissioner of lying.

Discussion: Power Line

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

IRS commissioner: You know, e-mail isn't necessarily an “official record”; Update: IRS Manual says it is — Two House committees plan to get more aggressive in the next few days in the IRS targeting scandal after finding out a week ago that the IRS only keeps six months of server backups …

Discussion: Power Line, The Daily Caller, Ed Driscoll, Weekly Standard, Politico, The PJ Tatler and Twitchy

Economist:

A dog ate my e-mails — IF YOUR taxes are being audited and you tell the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that you just so happen to have lost the records relating to the period in question, you cannot expect much sympathy. The taxman has heard it all before, and “the dog ate my accounts” gets you nowhere.

Discussion: Washington Post and ProfessorBainbridge.com

Fox News:
IRS boss refuses to apologize over ‘cover-up’ claims ahead of Hill hearing on missing emails

Discussion: Fox News Insider, Business Insider, Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit

Susan Jones / CNSNews:
White House Learned of Lerner's Crashed Hard Drive 6 Weeks Before Congress

Discussion: protein wisdom and Weasel Zippers

Rachael Bade / Politico:
IRS chief defiant on Lois Lerner email loss

Discussion: RedState, Techdirt, Independent Journal Review, NewsBusters and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
White House notified of missing IRS e-mail 6 weeks before Congress?

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:

Exclusive: ‘Hillary Clinton Took Me Through Hell,’ Rape Victim Says — The woman at the center of the scandal over Hillary Clinton's defense of an alleged child rapist speaks out in depth for the first time. — Hillary Clinton is known as a champion of women and girls …

Gabriel Malor / The Federalist:

A Basic Primer On The Scott Walker Case For Ignorant Reporters — I'm going to tell you a true story, and then tell you how the news media is covering it. — This is a true story: in 2012, Democratic district attorneys in Wisconsin launched a secret probe known as a John Doe investigation …

Discussion: Hot Air, JSOnline, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Angry Bear, Althouse and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Washington Post:
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker suspected of coordinating with outside groups

Discussion: New York Magazine, Prairie Weather, The Moderate Voice and Power Line

Simon Maloy / Salon:
GOP's sudden scandal-mania: Why criminal probes and infighting are taking over the party

Discussion: Washington Post

Tim Alberta / NationalJournal.com:
Jeb Hensarling Sees ‘Green Light’ to Run for Leadership in November

Discussion: Hot Air and The Daily Caller

New York Times:
Wisconsin Governor at Center of a Vast Fund-Raising Case

Discussion: NewsBusters, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, The Mahablog, Commentary Magazine, Althouse and JSOnline

Scott Wilson / Washington Post:

President Obama took credit in 2012 for withdrawing all troops from Iraq. Today he said something different. — President Obama surprised a few people during a news conference Thursday by claiming that the 2011 decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq, a politically popular move …

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, Questions and Observations, The PJ Tatler, Patterico's Pontifications and Ed Driscoll

John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Obama Has Two Options on Iraq. Both Are Terrible.

Discussion: Informed Comment, The Dish, News Desk and American Power

Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post:
An enclave strategy for Iraq

Discussion: The Daily Caller, New York Times, Daily Kos and Lawfare

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post: Abdication has a price — Yes, it is true that there was no al-Qaeda …

Parade:

The President and Michelle Obama on Work, Family, and Juggling It All — This week, America's foreign policy is dominating the headlines, but it's the White House's second-term domestic agenda that's the focus of our Parade cover story. On Monday, June 23, the President and Mrs. Obama …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Politico, PoliticusUSA, ABC News, The Raw Story, The Week, National Review and The Huffington Post

Dave Boyer / Washington Times:

Obama talks tough to Mexico: Illegal-immigrant children won't get to stay — Tells Peña Nieto their countries must work to halt child surge — President Obama told his Mexican counterpart in a phone call Thursday that immigrants crossing into the U.S. illegally won't qualify …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, American Thinker, Patterico's Pontifications and The Gateway Pundit

Julia Preston / New York Times:
U.S. Plans to Step Up Detention and Deportation of Migrants

Discussion: Politico, ThinkProgress, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, The Verge, Hot Air and Fox News

James Oliphant / NationalJournal.com:
Welcome to the White House's Nightmare

Discussion: Washington Post and National Review

Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:

Shadowy Obama Megadonor Indicted On Fraud And Manslaughter Charges — A California grand jury has indicted Kareem Ahmed, a major donor to President Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, and 15 of Ahmed's associates in an alleged multimillion-dollar insurance kickback scheme.

Discussion: scpr.org, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and Washington Free Beacon

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

The New Map of the Middle East — So as I was saying.... First, a bit of housekeeping. I'm back at The Atlantic full-time. I'm going to be working mainly on stories for the magazine (I'm thinking of writing something on the case for reparations, for instance), but I'll …

Discussion: The Dish

New York Times:

Cochran Asking Blacks to Rescue Him in Republican Primary — JACKSON, Miss. — Bishop Ronnie C. Crudup stood before roughly a dozen of his colleagues at a weekly Baptist fellowship meeting last week and asked for their help in a fight that, until now, would have been unthinkable for a black pastor …

Discussion: Daily Kos, BREITBART.COM, Washington Post and Washington Monthly

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Kevin McCarthy to F&F crowd: Come visit — Incoming House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy reveled in his new title with the support of an enthusiastic crowd at a conference held Friday. — The California Republican, who was elected to the position Thursday, discussed his life story …

Discussion: Washington Post

Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:

5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Will Settle Suit for $40 Million — The five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned have agreed to a settlement of about $40 million from New York City to resolve …

Discussion: NY Daily News, Guardian, The Week, Gawker, Outside the Beltway, Althouse, Shakesville and Washington Post

Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:

Virginia Governor Bucks GOP On Medicaid Expansion (UPDATED) — Gov. Terry McAuliffe delivering his inaugural address. — CREDIT: AP Images/Patrick Semansky — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) plans to move forward with Medicaid expansion even without lawmakers' support, the governor announced on Friday.

Discussion: Associated Press, Virginian-Pilot, The Dixie Pig, The Huffington Post and RH Reality Check

David Wasserman / FiveThirtyEight:

What We Can Learn From Eric Cantor's Defeat — On May 30, 11 days before one of the biggest upsets in modern American politics blocked Majority Leader Eric Cantor's path to speaker of the House, one of his top aides emailed me in an unusually defensive tone.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Kurtis Lee / Denver Post:

HICKENLOOPER SILENT ON GUN LAW COMMENTS; SUPPORTERS AND FOES BAFFLED — After several days of fallout over his comments on gun control laws to a recent gathering of county sheriffs, Gov. John Hickenlooper has managed to baffle both victims-rights advocates and Second Amendment supporters.

Discussion: The Spot, Clayton Cramer and RedState