Republicans Want to Slow Down the Scandals
Now that everyone is paying attention to the scandal stories Republicans have been pushing for months against President Obama, they have a bit of stage fright.
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ABC News' Jonathan Karl's revelation of the White House's role in 12 revisions to the Benghazi talking points propelled the story, long percolating in conservative media, into a bona fide scandal. But then CNN's Jake Tapper's revelation of what the emails actually said revealed that to be a fake scandal. So who lied to Karl?
Now that everyone is paying attention to the scandal stories Republicans have been pushing for months against President Obama, they have a bit of stage fright.
By our count, nearly half of the standing committees of the House of Representatives are looking at some aspect of the Obama administration that offers at least some whiff of political opportunity. You can't tell the players without our handy scorecard.
On Monday, after Obama called the ongoing theories a "sideshow," Rush Limbaugh floated a different theory that would make Obama's actions much worse, if not quite so treasonous. Rush was not alone in his floating; so long as there is an attack's aftermath with which to create more aftermath, he never will be.
Congressional Republicans have had little luck convincing anyone other than Fox News and its viewers that there's something scandalous about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazie. But to keep the story's momentum going a feedback loop has emerged in which Fox reports something, the House holds hearings on it, and then Fox reports on those hearings.
The short version of the news from the U.S. Postal Service today is that you're still going to get mail on Saturdays this fall. The long version is that federal budgets are far from set in stone, open to interpretation, and always up for dispute.
As lawmakers decry the Justice Department's treatment of Aaron Swartz, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa says he's launching an investigation into the matter.
Last week, the House oversight committee posted 166 pages of State Department communications from Libya. The documents were not classified, but they did contain the names of several Libyans who have been working various capacities with American officials in Libya.
Marco Rubio didn't see the humor in Obama's 'Romnesia' line; campaign aides have a minor preview bout on Face the Nation; David Axelrod doesn't understand NBC's polling.
Campaign flacks pump up expectations ahead of Tuesday's debate while other are still talking about Libya fallout. Also, Stephen Colbert explains Rachel Maddow's heavy influence on his show.
Once upon a time, about eight years ago, the Republican Party was seen as perfectly disciplined unified organism, responding in concert to its nerve-center's wishes and whims. Squabbling Democrats cowered before its discipline. Today, Rove is certainly not gone -- he's running a well-financed Super PAC that will surely be influential this election. But the sense of order in the GOP is.
On the day the House of Representatives votes to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents related to the Fast and Furious case, new reports show problems with the Republicans' theory of the case.
If you could choose how to spend the night before vote to hold you in contempt of Congress, would you go to a barbecue with the people who hold your fate in their hands? Eric Holder must really like hot dogs.
Three months after Mitt Romney's aide Eric Fehrnstrom told reporters that the general election campaign would be like an Etch-A-Sketch, in which Romney would shake off all the right-wing positions that make non-Tea Partiers cringe that he had to take during the Republican primary, it's worth asking: has he pulled it off?
For the last year, Rep. Darrell Issa has masterfully sustained the media hype surrounding his cause celebre Operation Fast and Furious, but at the final crucial moment, the vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt this week, he's setting himself up for a media blackout.
Darrell Issa appeared on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous and Fox News Sunday to sell his contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder; Rick Perry called President Obama's use of executive privilege "Nixonian;" and Tim Pawlenty shied away from some of his VP hype.
When Rep. Dan Burton shot a pumpkin in his backyard in an attempt to prove Vince Foster had been murdered by Bill Clinton's henchmen, he almost ruined Republican congressional investigations.
President Obama has granted Attorney General Eric Holder permission to assert executive privilege to withhold documents related to the failed gun-running operation Fast and Furious, The Associated Press reports, just as the House of Representatives was getting ready to vote on holding Holder in contempt of Congress for not turing the documents over.
Darrell Issa is going go ahead with holding Eric Holder in contempt of Congress on Wednesday, after the two sides couldn't come to a deal during a last minute meeting Tuesday evening, unless he gets documents relating to the Fast & Furious program by 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.
G.S.A. regional commissioner Jeffrey Neely had a rough Monday as he very publicly invoked his 5th Amendment rights during a Congressional hearing into his agency's spending scandal, and photos of him and his wife doing all that aforementioned spending leaked around the internet, thanks to ABC New's Jake Tapper.
Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, charged with investigating the $822,751 team-building conference the General Services Agency held in Las Vegas in 2010, has posted a pretty embarrassing video made during conference to his YouTube page, and, oof, it definitely doesn't make them look great.
Republican politicians are treading into murky (read: sexist) waters in the contraception debate.
House Oversight Committee chair Darrell Issa says he'll "move forward with the contempt process" against Attorney General Eric Holder if the Justice Department doesn't at least describe the Fast and Furious documents it won't turnover to Issa's committee, Talking Points Memo reports.
Attorney General Eric Holder testified before Congress today in what was the most confrontational hearing over the botched "gunwalking" scheme, a.k.a. Operation Fast and Furious, to date.
The National Park Service may begin arresting Occupy D.C. protesters. After a panel of House lawmakers pressed the agency to take action on Tuesday, National Park Police could soon crack down on those violating a law against camping.
As the House and Senate's anti-piracy bills increasingly look like they're on their way to the trashcan, Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Ron Wyden must be taking tap dance breaks, as they push forward their alternative piece of legislation: OPEN.
National Park Police will have a much harder time forcing out protesters camped in McPherson Square now that activists attracted by Tuesday's big rally have swelled the encampment's ranks.
The latest grumblings (or lack thereof) from the lawmakers on Capitol Hill suggest that they're coming around to the idea that the latest anti-piracy efforts in the House and the Senate might've been a little hasty.
After a Hollywood-heavy panel of witnesses at the first hearing for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last month thoroughly outraged everyone, the House of Representatives is bringing in the nerds.
Congress is really scaring the Internet lately, and California Republican Darrell Issa, one of the tech community's biggest proponents on the issue, is starting to catch flak for taking seemingly opportunistic approach to protecting the open web.
After quietly scheduling a last minute markup hearing, the House Judiciary Committee quietly but definitively put the Stop Online Piracy Bill (SOPA) on hold until "early next year."
A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn't have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he's built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA.
Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, is quickly becoming known as the most outspoken proponent of a free and open Internet, and according to a new Fast Company profile, his tech-savvy could reshape how Congress writes laws.
The community organizing collective ACORN may be disbanded but that doesn't mean Republicans are finished crusading against its former employees and tying them to the left-wing-tinged Occupy Wall Street movement.
A closer look at the reassignments following the embarrassing scandal
A staffer for the congressman changed his name when he left the financial firm
The GOP says a video filmed in the White House violates campaign finance law
Kenneth Melson was "closely involved" with the anti-gun trafficking operation
Congressman wants a better way to police White House staffer's Gmails
Fired for angering Politico reporters, former Issa spokesman heads to The Daily Caller
Rep. Darrell Issa is having a tweet-off and Rep. Steve King is winning
Howard Kurtz mistook Kurt Bardella, who was fired last week, for his boss
Rep. Darrell Issa's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, was fired for sharing reporters emails
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