This is where we are with the IRS scandal: bogged in a subset of a subset of a subset of a war. Today's volley was the releasing of an interview transcript. World War IRS.
The Maryland legislature voted to make it the 18th state to ban capital punishmen. While good news for the men currently on the state's death row, the move is mostly symbolic for any push to end the practice globally.
That was quick: The governor of Louisiana apparently no longer thinks his party is stupid. He reused lengthy portions of a January speech on Friday at CPAC, but left out the most controversial remarks, like calling his own party "stupid."
Taking the CPAC stage to cheers for his first major speech since November, Romney did not in any way name what his mistakes might be, instead reprising a 2012 stump speech for a 2013 version of the party that he left necessarily vague.
A Republican New York State Assemblymember who last June voted against legalizing marijuana in the state was ticketed for possession of marijuana, which is still illegal in the state of New York due to political opposition.
If it takes personal association with a minority group for members of Congress to act on their behalf, perhaps an overview of the demographics of Congress can provide some insight into our political debate. Here's how it breaks down, by gender, ethnicity, net worth, and sexual orientation — in charts.
Why did Republicans lose the 2012 elections when so many Republicans really didn't like President Obama?
All that attention the National Rifle Association leader has gotten since the Newtown shooting might be getting to him.
New government data suggests that spiking gas prices are making everything else more expensive — data that could help the president on Friday as he continues to make the case for expanded investment in alternative fuel sources.
The conservative provocateur was the coolest thing at the first day of the annual conservative gathering, even though he died a year ago.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has some news for Paul Ryan and House Republicans: Obamacare was a losing battle.
A federal grand jury has been convened to examine the relationship between the New Jersey senator and a Florida doctor in an episode which may end up doing as much damage to the reputation of the senator as to the conservative website that attacked him.
He was a controversial pick for a speaking slot at CPAC, with organizers saying Trump was wildly popular with attendees. But it's hard to say why. He doesn't know how to give a political stump speech, and that was evident on the floor Friday morning.
As part of a mini press-tour to set up his first presidential trip to Israel next week, Barack Obama told an Israeli television station that Iran is at least a year away from developing a nuclear weapon.
A woman in Argentina says that her rejection of a young male suitor more than 60 years ago, drove the heartsick boy to join the priesthood. Oh, and his name just happened to be Jorge Bergoglio.
Portman says the reversal stems from his 21-year-old gay son coming out to him two years ago, as he now becomes the first Republican Senator on that side of the controversial issue as it heads for landmark arguements in the Supreme Court.
With the nuclear test and Kim Jong-Un's crazy statements about "breaking waists," things are obviously heating up with North Korea. It's cool, though, because the Pentagon is ready with buckets of water to throw on this fire.
The ever-savvy White House digital team has figured out how to turn the administration's most appealing asset into internet traffic: story time with Vice President Biden.
Even when answers seem to arrive on the controversial Benghazi attack, the questions never fade away: Faraj al-Shibli, a man thought to be involved in the September 2012 attacks on the American consulate, has been captured in Libya, according to two sources speaking to CNN, as Republicans back home refused to let the issue fade.
Rand Paul presented old ideas as new ones in his I'm-the-future-of-the-GOP speech to CPAC Thursday, while Marco Rubio presented newish ideas as old ones.
The marathon filibusterer brought his invigorated libertarian stump speech to an enraptured audience (and Metallica), inveighing that the GOP needs to change by returning to the classical principles spelled out in the country's constitution.
The partisan divide on proposed gun legislation has only sharpened in the 90 days since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, and votes in the Senate's Judiciary Committee now suggest that high-profile reforms — from the most controversial to the most popular — may be in more trouble than anyone might have imagined.
Explaining that he wanted to preempt liberal critiques of his speech, one of which (he predicted) was his lack of new ideas for the Republican Party, Rubio declared, "We don't a new idea. The idea is called America, and it still works." Also: water joke.
Yes, Kim Jong-un's state news agencies have been even more absurd than usual lately. But, no, North Korea did not film, produce, and distribute a four-and-a-half-minute propaganda film depicting the harrowing lives of Americans forced to eat snow and live in tents as the country around them collapses.
The only things that have changed from the bracket-laden budget fight of the campaign are a few specific numbers, like switching the second two in "2012" to a three. Indeed, Washington is gearing up for an Obama-Ryan budget rematch — and it's a contest that each side seems all too eager to have.
The World According to Dick Cheney, a documentary about America's most powerful and polarizing vice president ever, debuts Friday on Showtime. The subject saw it weeks ago — and is none too happy with the product.
Let no one again say that the White House is too mean to reporters. A Biden aide tried to assure fairness among the media pool, albeit in an unorthodox way: by making a reporter delete photos he'd taken at an event.
The First Lady covering Vogue for the second time is one of those events that so instantly and obviously fascinates inquiring eyes of both the political and fashion worlds that it begs for comparison.
Pundits are skeptical about whether President Obama will be able to charm Republicans into agreeing to a "grand bargain," but Republicans have plenty of tips for the president for getting a deal done.
Meet Scott Prouty. On any given day you might find him tending bar, saving women from crocodile-infested waters or recording videos that change the course of history. No big deal.
Cybersecurity is a top priority this year for President Obama, and concerns are growing about a potential attack that could cripple the nation's infrastructure. Here are the three areas where the country is most vulnerable to a cyberattack.
Republican senators inserted several gun rights measures into a bill to fund the government through September, including one that says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives must attach a disclaimer to any gun data saying it "cannot be used to draw broad conclusions about fire-arms-related crimes."
The only thing keeping Michelle Obama out of elected office is Michelle Obama. If Sandberg really wants to start a social movement, maybe she can start with a single "ambition gap": the First Lady's. It might even keep those newfound rumors of a Hillary-Michelle ticket going.
From the White House to the Republican movement and Twitter to TV, Trump has been even more absurdly vocal than usual on politics of late, if that's even possible. And the worst part? Everyone's giving him a soapbox, and not just Fox News. Actually, the worst part is that this is all probably a ploy for Celebrity Apprentice ratings.
"It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party," said Republican South Carolina House Member Kris Crawford in an interview about how he supported a Medicaid expansion despite his party affiliation. Now just guess what he did next.
A word of advice for elected officials: If the veterans charity you're working with owns a string of Internet cafés which specialize in cash-prize "sweepstakes," you might want to steer clear. And not introduce legislation on their behalf.
Now that the sequester has settled in, we've learned that Republicans do not feel much urgency to protect defense spending. After President Obama's dinner diplomacy failed to produce a grand bargain, it doesn't look like they were after party invitations. And, now, we're learning that Republicans aren't all that enthusiastic about entitlement reform, either.
Universal background check legislation is stumbling forward in the U.S. Senate and collapsing in state legislatures, despite still-strong poll numbers. But the conventional wisdom on just how many American gun sales go unchecked might be based on a myth.
Later today, Americans will finally get to meet the cater-waiter who recored and then leaked the video revealing Mitt Romney's now infamous "47 percent" comments.
Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, took the stand in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and an ambitious expansion of the Pentagon's Cyber Command.
Paul Ryan is Washington's top chart man, and, as expected, was flanked by a chart when he presented the House Republican budget Tuesday. But terrifying charts of impending fiscal fears — and in bright blocks of color — are not a new thing.
And now, the Senate Democrats' budget proposal, in charts. It is ... less detailed than the 91-page Republican House budget announced by Paul Ryan earlier on Tuesday, mostly because it's only intended to steal Ryan's thunder.
The 36-year-old son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush — and nephew of former President George W. Bush — announced his run for Texas land commissioner on Tuesday afternoon, making him the latest (and youngest) Bush to set his eyes on political office.
President Obama's biggest problem used to be that he wasn't schmoozing with Congress. His biggest problem now is that he's schmoozing with Congress. Who gave him such terrible advice? The very same reporters who were demanding he get snacks with senators in the first place, obviously.
Schumer's place-holder bill emerged from the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, but on a narrow, party-line vote. That leaves Schumer searching for an authentically conservative co-sponsor who might provide some cover on background checks.
Ryan's 91-page budget is not a budget document; it is a political baseline. From that standpoint, it's already a success. But here's what it actually looks like.
President Obama is headed to Capitol Hill this week, starting Tuesday afternoon, in his continued pursuit of that mythical grand bargain — taking a page from the playbook of the greatest president who never lived.
Ryan defends his plan to cut $5 trillion in government spending over 10 years by saying it will create jobs, and dismisses critics of his budget by suggesting they're blowing things out of proportion. But the world already has hard evidence that he's wrong on both counts.
In case you missed the most boring hack in the history of hacking — unless you're worried about the terms of Kim Kardashian's mortgage (it's 30 years!) — allow us to get you up to speed.
If you are easily surprised, you will be surprised to learn that former senator Joe Lieberman (D-I-Conn.) has taken a position with a conservative think tank in Washington.
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