TPM Editors’ Blog Opinions, Context & Ideas from TPM Editors

Hmmmm…

You may recall that the IRS scandal emerged in unusual fashion: an acknowledgement of it by an IRS official during a Q&A at a tax lawyers conference in Washington a week ago today. (TPM’s Eric Lach reported earlier this week on the circumstances of the revelation and how stunned members of the audience were when it happened.)

Today, under questioning from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), acting IRS Director Steven Miller seemed to acknowledge that the question in the Q&A was planted. But his answer wasn’t entirely clear, and Nunes oddly failed to follow up. More soon.

Casting A Wide Net

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) opened this morning’s hearing on the IRS scandal with a fusillade against the “rotten” U.S. tax system and the Obama administration’s “culture of cover-ups - and political intimidation.” He also warned darkly that “every civic group in America is at risk - the Knights of Columbus, the Rotary, the JC’s, the American Legion and VFW clubs.”

But Camp alleged that the scandal goes beyond just the targeting of conservative groups for additional scrutiny of whether they were impermissibly engaged in partisan political activity. He pinpointed a total of “five serious violations” by the IRS (from his prepared remarks):

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‘Why Are They So Bad At This Game?’

TPM Reader RP wonders why Democrats aren’t going to town over the doctored quotes from the Benghazi emails:

Longtime reader, but this is the first time I’ve commented or written.

Watching the Dems (lack of) reaction to the news that Republicans much fabricated self-serving quotes (or misquoted if you care to be generous about it) from the Benghazi e-mails and fed them to the press makes me wonder (again) why are they so bad at this game?


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Wow, This is Pretty Epic

Generally, once partisan, tendentious sources leak information that turns out to be wrong, nothing’s ever done about it. That’s for many reasons, some good or somewhat understandable, mostly bad. But on CBS Evening News tonight, Major Garrett did something I don’t feel like I’ve seen in a really long time or maybe ever on a network news cast. He basically said straight out: Republicans told us these were the quotes, that wasn’t true. Quick transcript after the jump …

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