The IRS official who revealed the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups on Friday did so on purpose -- by asking a tax lawyer to ask her about it at American Bar Association tax section’s annual meeting.
President Obama did call the bombing of the Boston marathon "terrorism" in a brief statement on the event Monday, saying instead, "We still do not know who did this or why. People shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all the facts."
After years of long hours and low-ish pay, many of President Obama's old aides are cashing in on their political connections. But as The New Republic's Noam Scheiber explains, there's some squabbling among the Obama alumni network over who looks like a crass sellout and who's a classy sellout.
President Obama may want to think twice about that sequester pay cut. His tax returns, released Friday, show that his main source of income -- which used to be royalties from the sale of his books -- is now his presidential salary.
Buried on page 51 of President Obama's budget proposal is a short section titled "Reform TVA" — where "reform" is likely to mean "privatize." It's the quiet beginning of a late chapter in the story of the New Deal, made necessary in part by Obama himself.
Senators have come up with compromises on immigration and gun control even though Washington was supposed to be paralyzed and President Obama's agenda was supposed to be pretty much dead, smothered by the fiscal cliff, the sequester, and the NRA.
Opponents criticize Wednesday's background check compromise, suggesting it wouldn't have prevented several high profile mass shootings. Indeed, of the 30 incidents since 2003 that we looked at, the new deal would quite possibly only have stopped one.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a confirmation hearing on Wednesday for an open spot on U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. — and it could open the door for the next Supreme Court nominee. Here's how.
Many Republicans were unaware that Obama's been offering chained CPI for a while. It seems they were also unaware that Grover Norquist, conservatives' No. 1 anti-tax activist and an important GOP ally for decades, opposes chained CPI as a bad deal and a tax increase.
By offering to raise taxes and cut entitlement spending at the same time, the new formal budget proposal from the Obama administration should sufficiently upset just about everyone who will have to vote on it.
It's always fun to watch President Obama go to music-related events, most especially because there's usually a good chance that he might get on stage to sing. Tuesday night was one of those nights. Except he didn't sing a thing!
President Obama, tired and clearly emotional, made another pitch for Congress to act on new gun restrictions Monday evening in Connecticut. His task: to translate the fury and urgency of the boisterous crowd in front of him into action in DC.
The 29,503,030 people who follow Barack Obama's Twitter account might see his picture, see his name, see that little blue verified account badge and think they're following the President — but it's not him.
President Obama called California Attorney General Kamala Harris to say he was sorry for calling her the hottest attorney general in all the land, White House press secretary Jay Carney explained Friday afternoon, after a ton of criticism that Obama acted like an unenlightened bro.
The proposals will include cuts to Medicare and Social Security and tax increases... which doesn't change what the president was offering Republicans last fall — but it does mean pundits will declare Obama is offering a serious budget for serious times, DOA or not.
President Obama revealed his secret adherence to fascist beauty standards when he praised the female California attorney general for being, like, mad hot at a DNC fundraiser Thursday afternoon in Atherton, California.
President Obama's trip to Denver today to lift up Colorado as "a model of what's possible" on gun control in D.C. The interesting comparison, though, isn't why Congress won't stand up to the NRA — that answer is obvious — but what happened to the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the state's gun lobby that is, if anything, more radical than the NRA.
In a measure of solidarity with those affected by the budget-slashing government sequestration, President Obama is giving up 5 percent of his salary for rest of the year, which is almost as admirable and sensible as a mansion-owner shutting off his marble fountains during a drought.
The economy is doing well, but could be doing better. So President Obama is reportedly reaching for a old idea that didn't work so well the last time.
Kid President welcomed the real-life president and first family to the makeshift stage during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, which is always high on the pomp and silliness, but not always quite this awkward. Also: terrifying Easter Bunny.
Speaking Friday in Miami, President Obama called for $21 billion in new national infrastructure investment. This is a strong break from past years — when he called for the creation of an infrastructure bank in the autumn.
The president's environmental moves, like today's announcement on gasoline emissions, seem to favor small dial-turns focused on economics and short-term health improvements. It's environmental smallball — and environmentalists may have given up on hoping for a home run.
Depsite rumors to the contrary, President Obama isn't giving up on gun violence. In an event at the White House on Thursday morning, the President averred that he continued to toil under the memory of the mass shooting in Newtown.
There are a few lessons for Washington in the new ABC/Washington Post poll released today. One is that (non-Republican) people still like Obama. The second is that one option for Congress to turn its horrible ratings around would be for it to actually do something.
Mark Warner became the latest member of the Senate to announce his support for gay marriage Monday afternoon — and perhaps the last to do so with any effectiveness. In the recent history of buzzer-beaters for political benefit, others have not been quite so advantageous on the once hot-button issue.
In a quiet news statement sent out at 3 p.m. on a Friday, the Obama administration officially withdrew the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals' D.C. Circuit, replacing John Roberts. The withdrawal leaves the court with only seven of its eleven members in place — and reemphasizes the problem of slow or blocked judicial nominations.
The civil rights movement wanted to integrate black people into American society. Obama, most Israelis, and Palestinians want a two-state solution. That takes more than changing hearts and minds of average people.
What's important about the NCAA tournament isn't who wins the championship. What's important is who gets humiliated by their embarrassing picks. For too long, celebrities and reporters have been immune to that humiliation. No longer.
Barack Obama knows how to work a crowd. While speaking to a group of 600 college students at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the President was briefly heckled by a lonestudent speaking in Hebrew. Here's the video of Obama's reaction.
President Obama, members of Congress, and their aides will have to enroll in Obamacare's health exchanges next year — Congress because they legally have to, and Obama because he publicly promised to.
On the same Barack Obama made his first visit to the West Bank as President and held talks with Mahmoud Abbas, militants in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel, underlining the divisions still faced between not just Israelis and Palestinian, but within the two factions.
President Obama faced a simple question: Did the dueling accusations about chemical weapons in Syria cross his supposed line to engage or not? Well, in a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, he said the line is still there, and chemical weapons are a "game changer" — he's just not sure who crossed it yet. But he's "deeply skeptical" the opposition did.
The President of the United States is in Israel, in case you hadn't heard. How did he spend his first presidential afternoon in the Holy Land? Let's take a visual tour, with vacation slides!
Did Syria use chemical weapons on its own people? If the verdict comes back "yes," then what? Will U.S. troops invade or bomb the country, as Republicans have suggested? Give the rebels all the guns they need? Welcome to the land of no consequences.
The world's most powerful basketball fan (sorry, friends of Rodman) has Indiana coming out on top. So, yeah, he's playing it pretty safe. Again. We'll see how that turns out for him.
Politico goes long this morning with a report finding that Salomon Melgen, the ophthalmologist and political donor who may have received favors from Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, also donated to other politicians! According to the Daily Caller, this is big news.
Barack Obama climbs aboard Air Force One tonight for what is, in some circles, the most anticipated trip of his precedency: a two-day visit to Israel and the West Bank.
Along with maybe a few actual viewers, they're brewing a high-profile controversy because, well, the actor who played the devil on Sunday night's episode maybe kind of sort of looks like the President of the United States.
Like many of the politicians at CPAC with ambitions for higher office, Michele Bachmann offered a vision of a new path forward for Republicans. Bachmann's was unique in that it combined a more inclusive message — "We care about people!" — with her signature cable news-ready attacks on President Obama.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The president of the United States chose not to reveal how he planned to decide on a highly controversial issue to a group of political opponents. This is only news because of what you may have read earlier.
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.
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.
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.
President Obama is finally having the dinner parties that Washington is so obsessed with in an attempt to get some Republicans to support a deal to replace the sequester that includes more tax revenue.
Bill Clinton does most things right. His entire life, the former president's done nothing but succeed tremendously at everything he does. But even Bubba messes up sometimes.
Attorney General Eric Holder has answered Sen. Ran Paul's question of whether the government can use a drone to kill an American citizen on American soil if that person is not engaged in combat: "The answer to that question is no."
In a subtlety-laden opinion piece, Jim Messina outlined the amendments to Organizing for Action's plans. Here's what has changed and what hasn't in response to critiques.
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