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.
While bucking one of the administration's few proposals on firearms that Republicans might actually accept, Wayne LaPierre offered no new ideas — indeed, old ideas — during a speech that reveals the backwards thinking behind the gun lobby's future.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Think of it like an episode of Downton Abbey. While the folks upstairs have had their fun and run off to bed, the folks downstairs have their drinks and toast to the fact that they got it all done.
While some people might debate whether these alleged "alumni" of the Obama campaign were, in fact, surprised, there were still giggles, tears, chit-chat, and a lot of Bo the dog's wandering. There were also hugs. Here are some GIFs of those hugs.
Andrew Ross Sorkin on the myths of Davos, Elizabeth Economy on polluted Chinese water, John Cassidy on Obama's liberal agenda, Ruth Margalit on Israel's left, and William Pesek on Lew's strong dollar.
The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared on last night's Colbert Report, where host Stephen Colbert interrogated him about politics; the ascendance, election, and re-election of President Obama; and how race continues to bear on American life, both public and private.
The First Lady wore a bright red gown made of chiffon and velvet and designed by Jason Wu to the inaugural balls Monday. Red, surprisingly, has not been a very popular color among first ladies' inaugural gowns, despite its popularity in campaign signs.
How do you get the first post-inauguration interview with the president? How do you get the vice president to shake your hand? You yell at them from the crowd during the parade, apparently.
While there weren't a lot of groups actually registered for this year's inauguration, it was hard to miss the agitators in and around today's ceremony. Did they have an impact? Or were they just annoying?
At the end of his second inauguration ceremony, the president turned around in reflection: "I want to look out one more time because I'll never see this again." But Obama has had Obama nostalgia for much of the last year.
In his inaugural address, Barack Obama said repeatedly, "We, the people," those key and memorable initial words of the preamble to the Constitution, effectively moving us from 1776 to today.
According to a progression of photos, you can see the New York Senator and inaugural MC smiling behind Malia Obama, realize he'd been caught, then try to hide behind Malia again. But is it meme-worthy?
Let's take a look at the instant pundit reaction to specific segments of the inaugural address, from gay rights and health care to gun violence and climate change.
Some conservatives had feared for months, even years, that President Obama would wait till after he was reelected to unmask his a true political identity. Well, with his second inaugural address Monday, he finally showed them: Obama is a center leftist.
Conservatives are hate-watching Obama's inauguration -- can you blame them? -- and their complaints fit into two major categories.
"You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country's course." Here's the full text of Obama's inauguration speech, with video.
What an Inauguration Day it was. Countless memes, intimate moments, some fashion, viral videos, a lot of GIFs, and — oh, yeah — maybe some history. Here's your complete recap, with everything you need to know and (mostly) nothing you don't.
Paul Krugman on recapping Obama's first-term successes, Simon Johnson on Bernanke's successor, Jason Burke on al-Qaeda's non-resurgence, Alan Johnson on Israeli elections, and Penn Bullock on stand-your-ground laws.
The election was fought over lots of big issues — tax reform, immigration, how to wind down our wars — before the Newtown shooting added gun violence to the list. Here's a preview of what President Obama will say about them at his second inauguration.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Two NRA ads this week spread the false assertion that Washington's Sidwell Friends school has 11 armed guards stationed to protect its students. Here's how they got it wrong.
Obama's campaign team Obama for America is going to get a big makeover this weekend as a "501(c)4 social welfare group," which means it's an advocacy group that can accept extremely large anonymous donations — not unlike Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS.
A new poll finds that more than one-third of Americans agree with a theory about Obama that falls into the "birther" camp, and an overwhelming amount identify themselves as Republicans.
The First Lady's new Twitter handle (which, so far, has issued a single tweet) highlights one of the curiosities of political campaigning on social media.
Of the four things President Obama urged Congress to pass at his gun control speech Thursday, background checks seem like the least unpopular.
If you want to know how someone registered to vote as Barack Obama without a birth certificate, well, don't go there. But one key missing letter did let one prankster slip through the cracks as the president... until jury duty caught up with him.
It was Washington conventional wisdom that Obama would do nothing on guns once the outrage over the Newtown shooting quieted. But he signed 23 executive actions meant to reduce gun violence, and began a major push in Congress. What changed?
Gun advocates are already in a fit over one of the president's directive regarding healthcare professionals. Except that the order actually just preserves a legal expectation for doctors to report on their patients that has existed for 37 years.
President Obama signed the actions into immediate law, saying that "we must act now" even as Congressional action looms.
The President just announced his highly-anticipated proposals for new gun control legislation, including 23 executive orders designed to tackle the issue.
Debra Saunders on the White House press corps, Maureen Dowd on President Standoffish, Simon Jenkins on EU membership, Karin Klein on the right to die, and Mark Mills on California's fracking goldmine.
As the White House prepares to unveil its gun-violence proposals Tuesday, the NRA has released an attack ad calling President Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for having armed protection of his daughters but not believing that putting an armed guard in every public school in America is the only way to stop school shootings.
President Obama will reveal a two-part package to combat gun violence at the White House on Wednesday, though the specifics of his plan remain relatively mysterious.
President Obama is looking at issuing 19 executive actions on gun control, and while gun enthusiasts fear a gun ban that can't happen by executive order, there is one proposal that should make the gun lobby plenty nervous: allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence.
Jeffrey Toobin on Obama's gay marriage stance, David A. Bell on France's domestic malaise, Matthew Yglesias on dueling hedge-fund managers, Dana Milbank on Obama's new bad-cop routine, and Mark Frazier on an aging China.
President Obama said at his press conference Monday that he'd like to socialize with Republicans, but they aren't responding to his overtures. So which is it, a remote president or an opposition party that refuses to hang out with him?
The president said at his press conference Monday that he wouldn't negotiate "ransom" with hostage-taking terrorists, which is how he is construing the House GOP threat. So what's left to do if we actually hit the debt limit?
"What I will not do is have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people," President Obama said at his press conference Monday.
In the final press conference of his first term, President Obama focused almost entirely on the debt ceiling fight and gun control, accusing Congress of collecting "ransom" while saying that gun proposals including an assault weapons ban "make sense."
Antonio Villaraigosa on immigration reform, George Packer on Southern Republicans, Jennifer Welsh on France's intervention in Mali, Chris Cillizza on the Senate losing its lions, and Gary Younge on Obama's Iraq amnesia.
So, Obama's big second term inauguration is a little more than a week away, and apparently they're really behind on financing. Like, $10 million behind.
According to a Friday letter from Speaker John Boehner to the White House, President Obama's annual State of the Union address is scheduled for Tuesday, February 12, which also happens to be one the most otherwise boring TV nights of the year.
The easiest way for the United States to keep paying the debts it owes is for Congress to raise the debt ceiling like it usually does. However, House Republicans do not want to do it the easy way. Silly problems call for silly solutions of which there is no shortage.
Right now, the White House press corps has been wondering — as it should! — whether, President Obama nominated three white guys to his cabinet, women are being shut out of the Oval Office. But, if we're going to look at photos, we can't help but notice that another Oval Office crew has a nearly all-male look: the White House press corps.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis has resigned, according to multiple reports. This means President Obama's cabinet will have one less woman, unless he picks a woman to replace her.
Vice President Joe Biden's use of the words "executive action" has the National Rifle Association and the Drudge Report freaking out. But, relax guys: President Obama can't do that much on guns with an executive order. If he wants a big change in gun laws, he still has to go through Congress.
Beyoncé is reprising her role as Obama's inauguration serenader. Oh, and Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor will be there, too. Not that a lot of Beyoncé fans know who James Taylor is, exactly.
President Obama will name White House chief of staff Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary Wednesday, Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reports, saying it's a "Done deal."
There are several key differences between President Obama's cabinet picks in 2009 and in 2013. This term there are more longtime Obama allies. This term he's showing more "confidence in his choices," picking fights with Republicans. And this term he's picking a lot of white males.
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