IRS slow drip. An inspector general’s report on the IRS singling out of Tea Party groups shows that poor management led to the agency’s extra review of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status, but that mishandling is still unresolved. Responding to the report on Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama called the findings “intolerable and inexcusable” and says he’s ordered Treasury Secretary Jack Lew “to make sure that each of the Inspector General’s recommendations are implemented quickly.”
USA Today reports that the IRS approved liberal groups during the same time while conservative groups got extra scrutiny: “As applications from conservative groups sat in limbo, groups with obviously liberal names were approved in as little as nine months.
What impact could the mounting scandals have on the 2014 midterms for Democrats? Politico takes a look: While Democrats are ” talking tough about the administration and taking the first steps to detach themselves from the president…some in the GOP are urging caution: They say the party needs to avoid appearing so eager to damage Obama and score political points that it undermines what looks like their best shot in three years to go on the offensive.”
Holder in spotlight. Attorney General Eric Holder will be heavily pressed on both the IRS and AP scandals on Wednesday, as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee at 1 p.m. today. On Tuesday, Holder defended the move, calling the article that revealed a foiled Al Quaeda terrorist plot in Yemen as “the top two or three most serious leaks that I’ve ever seen” in his career. The New York Times reports that the AP is “still examining whether any telephone companies had tried to challenge the subpoena on its behalf before cooperating” but that at least two ournalists’ personal cellphone records “were provided to the government by Verizon Wireless without any attempt to obtain permission to tell them so the reporters could ask a court to quash the subpoena.”
Try, try again? The GOP will hold another vote to repeal Obamacare on Thursday — making it more than three dozen times they’ve tried to repeal the president’s signature legislation. The New York Times: “Liberals mock Republicans for what they dismiss as a waste of time….Indeed, the Republican House leadership is sensitive to the perception that they are squandering even more time on a repeal vote that is going nowhere.
Jessica Taylor