The Edge: Are the Scandals Fading?
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Are the Scandals Fading?
With Congress back in session Monday, the Republican-led House swiftly turned its attention to what has been an issue of overriding national concern to the GOP in recent weeks: nailing President Obama in a scandal. Any scandal.
But even as three separate House committees set to work digging into the IRS imbroglio, there was a growing sense that the worst may be over for the Obama administration, scandal-wise, for the moment. Obama's new pick to run the IRS, Danny Werfel, made his first appearance at a House Appropriations subcommittee Monday. Nonetheless, what is still missing is any evidence that any of this alleged misbehavior was directed from the White House or even the IRS's Washington headquarters, as House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., keeps alleging. ("We're getting to proving it," he told CNN on Sunday.)
As for the Benghazi scandal, Obama critics have been somewhat muffled since the administration released e-mails indicating that there was no cover-up of intelligence (although the GOP may have partly achieved its goal there, with Hillary Rodham Clinton's favorability ratings dropping).
So, one set of scandals may be fading. Is there another to come?
Michael Hirsh
mhirsh@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
LAUTENBERG DIES AT AGE 89. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., passed away early this morning due to complications from viral pneumonia, his office said in a statement. Lautenberg, 89, was the last remaining World War II veteran in the Senate. Lautenberg had been ailing for several months, and had not voted on the Senate floor since late February, with the notable exception of an April vote in favor of expanded background checks for gun sales. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to appoint a Republican to fill the vacancy until a special election is held. Lautenberg, who had been the oldest member of the Senate, had already opted to retire in 2014. Read more
Christie has tough decisions ahead in whom to appoint to fill Lautenberg's seat, National Journal's Josh Kraushaar reports. Read more
GIBBS HITS BACK AT ISSA OVER IRS ALLEGATIONS. Former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs challenged claims by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that IRS officials in Washington directed employees in the agency's Cincinnati field office to target conservative groups for additional scrutiny. "Republicans are on the verge of overplaying their hand publicly, and the American people will quickly lose interest on their side in this," Gibbs said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "To throw around the words 'liar' and 'perjury' as easily as he did is shameful." Former White House aide David Plouffe also took to Twitter, attacking Issa over the congressman's past run-ins with the law. Carney on Monday shied away from engaging on the matter. Read more
National Journal's Ron Fournier wants the Obama administration to meet its best new friend: a demagogic Republican. Read more
NEW IRS HEAD PROMISES CHANGE. Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel appeared Monday before a House subcommittee to address the controversy over the IRS's targeting of conservative groups for special scrutiny. In his opening statement, Werfel outlined his commitment to improving the agency, citing the installation of "new leadership" in several key areas, and vowing to be "open and transparent with the American people." Werfel noted the "significant and alarming problems identified in the report" from an inspector general's audit of the IRS, and said that he has called for full implementation of all nine recommendations in the report. "I am confident that we can address the problems that exist and move forward with a better and more effective IRS," Werfel told the panel.
COLLEGE REPUBLICANS SLAM PARTY IN 2012 POSTMORTEM. A report commissioned by the College Republican National Committee dissects the GOP's failures with the youth vote in 2012 and says the party is in a "dismal present situation," Politico reports. The 95-page report echoes a March report issued by the RNC. Read more
GOP GOVERNORS, LEGISLATURES AT ODDS OVER MEDICAID EXPANSION. Republican governors who have embraced Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act are facing opposition from GOP-held legislatures, The Washington Post reports. Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona aims to compel the Legislature to back her plan by vetoing unrelated measures until lawmakers approve the expansion. The Florida Legislature adjourned after rejecting Gov. Rick Scott's plan to expand Medicaid. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Ohio Gov. John Kasich hope to gain legislative backing for Medicaid expansion before the end of their respective sessions. Read more
ROMNEY GATHERING TO BRING TOGETHER DONORS, POSSIBLE 2016 CANDIDATES. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is hosting a three-day conference this week in Park City, Utah, that will offer major donors to his 2012 presidential campaign the opportunity to rub shoulders with potential 2016 candidates, the Los Angeles Times reports. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are scheduled to attend the gathering. The confab will also include some Democrats, with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Obama senior adviser David Axelrod also slated to participate. The event is being sponsored by investment firm Solamere Capital, which was founded by Tagg Romney and where Mitt Romney serves as executive committee chairman. Read more
NBC, MSNBC, AND SCOTUSBLOG TO OFFER JOINT COVERAGE OF MAJOR RULINGS. NBC News and MSNBC will join forces with SCOTUSBlog to cover the Supreme Court's upcoming decisions on affirmative action, the Voting Rights Act, California's Proposition 8, and the Defense of Marriage Act. "SCOTUSblog has become the go-to online source for news and analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court, read by anyone looking for dependable information – including the justices themselves," NBC's Pete Williams said in a statement. "The insight of Tom Goldstein will enhance our coverage." Read more
COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT, AL-QAIDA EDITION. Every governmental body needs to be held accountable by its people. Apparently, so does al-Qaida. Since taking over certain elements of civilian leadership in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, while also intensifying its fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, al-Qaida is now looking for feedback from the public. The terrorist organization has set up a department for people of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham to complain "against any element of the Islamic state, whether that be the Emir or a soldier," according to a post cited by the The Telegraph. Read more
TOMORROW
HEARING ON IRS TO FEATURE TARGETED GROUPS. A House Ways and Means Committee hearing Tuesday features organizations targeted by the IRS for special scrutiny as they applied for tax-exempt status.
HEARING ON SEXUAL ASSAULT IN MILITARY. A panel discussion Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee regarding legislation to combat sexual assaults in the military will feature as many as 20 witnesses, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey.
SEBELIUS TO FACE TOUGH QUESTIONS IN HOUSE HEARING. An appearance Tuesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce regarding her agency's fiscal 2014 budget request comes amid Republican criticism of her for urging private groups to provide financial support for implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
QUOTABLE
"In the end, all of you who decide to get involved in public service should aspire to have the same things said about you in whatever role that you play. That you were honest, that you were a fighter for the things that you believe in, and that you gave as good as you got. All those things can be said about Frank Lautenberg." – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (TPM)
BEDTIME READING
INSIDE THE CIVIL WAR AT A CONSERVATIVE CONSULTING FIRM. Buzzfeed looks into a civil war erupting within "one of the country's most in-demand political consulting firms," McKay Coppins writes. Ohio-based Strategy Group for Media has worked with at least 40 Republicans in Congress, and boasts work for 2012 presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann and other clients including 2016 hopefuls Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. "But even as the firm's clients, and the strain of Republicanism they represent, appear to be consolidating their gains in Washington, the Strategy Group is in a state of crisis," Coppins writes. Indeed, the head of the firm "is waging war on three of his former top aides in a bitter dispute that is, at its heart, over what it means to be truly Christian in American politics." Read more
OVERLOOKED
HOW STEVEN SEAGAL HELPED THE GOP STOP WORRYING AND LOVE RUSSIA. A group of GOP-led congressmen, with Steven Seagal as tour guide, have wrapped up a fact-finding trip to Russia, where they apparently failed to find any significant clues related to the radicalization of the brothers behind the Boston bombings. But the mission had a secondary effect: It looks like the group, which included Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, have found some rhetorical common ground with Russian officials, The Atlantic Wire reports. Read more
THE QUIRK
ROMNEY TRANSITION TEAM PERPLEXED BY GMAIL. With the release of the Romney campaign's transition plan comes an interesting tidbit from the administration-that-never-was: Apparently, when it came to scheduling meetings, the Outlook-using group of consultants and businessmen from Romneyworld had a difficult time adjusting to the General Services Administration, which used Gmail, Time magazine reports. "The e-mail and calendar solutions were Google-based products," the report reads. "For the sizeable portion of employees who were Gmail users, this posed no problem at all. From employees accustomed to Microsoft Exchange-based e-mail clients, there was initial resistance to convert." Read more
