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 … Read More
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?
As Benghazi ‘scandal’ crumbles, Woodward begs for relevance, compares scandal to Watergate. Watch.
The House Ways and Means Committee has the first shot at IRS officials in a hearing tht gets underway at 9 a.m. ET. The main witness will be Steven Miller, who was just ousted* as acting IRS director and before that role had been deputy commissioner. You can watch the proceedings live here. Read More
Hunter Walker reports on what one election law expert calls “the most blatant and shameful” voter suppression effort Ohio has yet seen. Read More
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): Read More
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.
Testimony in Italy today revealed that former PM Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous ‘Bunga Bunga’ sex parties not only included women dressed as “sexy nuns and nurses” but also dressed as President Obama.
Drinking with friends, Colorado women accidentally shoots and kills herself with her new assault rifle.
This is delightfully bizarre: an actual planted question. Not the fever dream of conspiracists. But an actual, real life, planted question. A rare species.
Acting IRS Director Steven Miller has confirmed that the question that revealed the IRS’ inappropriate targeting of conservative groups was planted. It was arranged ahead of time to be asked during a Q&A at a tax lawyer’s conference in DC. The IRS knew the inspector general’s report would be coming out soon and this was their nascent effort to get ahead of the story. You see how that turned out.