Key Q: just how far GOP machine & US cons will go 2 try 2 regain complete political control of fed gov. Any 1 who thinks they know is a fool
— @billmon1 via TweetDeck
WaPo:
Benghazi e-mails show back and forth between agencies on talking points
The internal debate over how to describe the Sept. 2012 attack did not include political interference from the White House, according to the e-mails release.
But so what? The Village has decided to be poutraged no matter what the voters think (and they don't think much of this).
Greg Sargent:
A lot of liberal bloggers have harshly criticized Politico’s big, much-discussed piece today reporting that “the town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.” If Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei claim this to be the case, then it’s self evidently true, though it’s unclear that the consequences of this will be quite as bad as VandeAllen suggest they might.
It turns out that “the town,” as a term describing Washington’s political and media elite, actually has a history that goes back to elite Washington’s disdain for Bill Clinton. That history is well explained here by Digby, who ultimately coined the phrase “the Village” as a catch-all description of Washington’s insular ways.
In that context, I’d argue that the Politico piece is actually quite useful, in the sense that it’s very candid about how certain aspects of “the town” actually work.
If there's a reason normal people disdain political pundits, this story is it. Deficits dropping? Medicare costs dropping? Both proving Simpson and Bowles are FOS? Who cares? Poutrage because Obama something something, beltway reporters insulted. That's what matters.
David Cay Johnston:
The other IRS scandal
Required context for a controversy
The burgeoning “scandal” over how the IRS chose for review 75 applicants for tax-exempt status puts on full display an unfortunate tendency in journalism—to quote people accurately without explaining the underlying context. Yes, it is as wrong for IRS employees to select groups to scrutinize based on their names as it is for police to stop and frisk young people based on the color of their skin. Still, the facts here are not so black-and-white as with racial profiling.
There is a scandal in all of this—several, actually, and some are more significant than the one that is getting all the attention. As the story unfolds, here are some important points to keep in mind:
This is the best piece you'll find on the IRS stuff. Must read.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Charles Blow:
You have to take their glee in sorrow with a grain of salt. For them this is more about their scandal lust than what’s scandalous. These people have been searching for a scandal — Kenyan birth certificates and a Michelle Obama “whitey” tape — for years. The fact that they now have something solid and not made of sand is going to make sad souls happy. That’s to be expected.
What’s not to be expected — but has become depressingly predictable — is to watch liberals rending their garments and gnashing their teeth in woe-is-us doom chanting. The overreaction is exhausting and embarrassing.
EJ Dionne:
Isn’t it odd that many Republicans who demanded a thorough investigation a year ago are now condemning the Justice Department for doing what they asked for? Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus even called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign, saying he had “trampled on the First Amendment.”
It’s a funny thing about media leaks: They are either courageous or outrageous, depending on whether they help or hurt your political party.
Connecticut isn't done with its
Sandy Hook Advisory Commission:
The other main section of the report focuses on gun violence. The commission suggests a more in depth look at the gun issue.
“There is actually, for lack of a better word, a federal ban on research into gun violence and utilizing any of those statistics, the same way we utilize statistics in car crashes to make cars safer,” Jackson said.
Partnering with universities to create a Connecticut-based institute to study gun violence is the commission’s top recommendation, Jackson said.
Although state legislators may begin acting on the report’s recommendations as soon as next month, Jackson said the commission’s job is only about 25 percent complete.
The commission will begin to look at the topic of mental health issues beginning Friday.
This is completely in line with
recommendations from my own physician group.
Reuters:
The Justice Department's controversial decision to seize phone records of Associated Press journalists was just one element in a sweeping U.S. government investigation into media leaks about a Yemen-based plot to bomb a U.S. airliner, government officials said on Wednesday.
The search for who leaked the information is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington and has involved extensive FBI interviews of personnel at the Justice Department, U.S. intelligence agencies, the White House's National Security staff and the FBI itself.