FROM THE BLOGS:

Don't hold your breath waiting for public opinion to turn against Obama
The Atlantic's Jill Lawrence says the President has a base of loyalists that wont quite and, at least for now, there is no evidence he was involved in any scandals. 

Obama's war on journalism
The Daily Beast's Nick Gillespie says that because many journalists have shared Obama's broad outlook on politics, they've been 'in the tank' with him too long. 

When did we vote to become Mexico?
Human Events' Ann Coulter says Sens. Marco Rubio, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and John McCain are working feverishly to turn the country into Mexico.

Power Corrupts
The Beacon's Randall Holcombe says the President is not working with Congress, he’s battling his opponents.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Issa immigration bill to boost high-skilled visas
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is preparing to introduce an immigration bill this week that proposes to boost the number of visas for highly skilled workers while eliminating the diversity visa program that Democrats are keen to preserve, The Hill's Jennifer Martinez reports.

IRS's Lerner pleads Fifth, insists she's done nothing wrong
IRS official Lois Lerner said she had not done anything wrong at a tense House hearing Wednesday but still invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, The Hill's Bernie Becker reports.

DAY'S END ROUND-UP

GOP itching for impeachment
Daily Intel's Jonathan Chait chronicles the Republican voices ready to impeach President Obama

Abortion may doom Republicans again
Salon's Irin Camron says arch-conservatives in Virginia provide another test for Republicans weighing the direction of their party

The Pinocchio Administration
National Review's Victor Davis Hanson says the Obama Administration won through intimidation and cover-up

Immigration reform bill more big government
Bill Kristol told the Laura Ingraham Show that the bill was "a classic, huge, Rube Goldberg, bureaucracy-creating" machine

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

McConnell won't block immigration bill
The Senate Majority Leader said that he would green light the bill despite protests from some conservative leaders, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports

White House threatens veto of Keystone bill
The House is set to pass legislation on Wednesday that would expedite construction of the pipeline, The Hill's Zack Colman reports

FROM THE BLOGS:

The Iranian elections don't matter
The American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin argues the presidency in Iran is more style than substance.

Social insecurity and the Obama administration
The Progressive's Clarence Lusane says President Obama is betraying himself and his base by agreeing to entitlement cuts.

The Hillary Clinton movie: the winners and losers
The New Republic's Michael Schaffer explains who is portrayed positively and negatively in an upcoming biopic about Hillary Clinton. 

Moorehouse grads reflection on Obama's commencement speech
The American Spectator's Ross Kaminsky writes an open letter to Anré Darel Washington in response to a CNN interview, urging the recent Morehouse College grad to consider conservative rather than liberal politics.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House supports Senate farm bill; calls for more subsidy cuts
The White House on Monday said it supports passage of the $955 billion Senate farm bill, while also calling for deeper cuts to subsidy programs, reports The Hill's Erik Wasson.

Team Obama digs in, fights to get agenda back on track amid scandals
The White House is circling the wagons as one of the most feverish periods of Obama’s tenure enters its second week, according to The Hill's Niall Stanage.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Political scandals don’t reach the Heartland
The Week’s Paul Brandus thinks the only Americans obsessed with Washington scandals live in Washington.

Bridging divide between two Americas
The Fix’s Chris Cillizza analyzes what polls say about how two sides of the nation reacted to recent political scandals

Politics is a rich man’s game
Mother Jones’s Andy Kroll reports on how a few key bankrollers are already influencing the 2016 election

Is conservatism a form of depressive realism?
The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher looks at how conservative thought has shaped various civilizations.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

AFL-CIO wages war against Facebook over immigration
The Hill’s Jennifer Martinez reports on how the nation’s largest labor group thinks the tech industry is harmful to the American worker.

White House knew about IRS targeting
White House officials knew about an inspector general report on the IRS applying a higher level of scrutiny to Tea Party groups prior to news on the matter becoming public but those officials did not inform president Obama, according to The Hill's Jonathan Easley.

FROM THE BLOGS:

Republicans shouldn’t let the facts speak for themselves
Daily Intel's Jonathan Chait says the conventional wisdom — that Republicans should soberly approach the three potential scandals facing the White House — should be ignored

White House scandals will help immigration reform
Slate's Dave Weigel argues the trio of controversies will give House Republicans cover to compromise on an comprehensive plan

Strange goings-on at the White House
National Review's John Fund says the president remains disengaged even as his inner circle plays politics

Five questions about the AP surveillance
Right Turn's Jennifer Rubin details her questions about the subpoena of reporter phone records

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Issa subpoenas Benghazi auditor Thomas Pickering
The House Oversight Committee chairman subpoenaed the co-author of the report after a heated exchange over public versus private testimony, The Hill's Julian Pecquet reports.

IRS chief defends targeting as not illegal
Acting IRS chief Steven Miller said the scrutiny was "obnoxious" but not against the law, The Hill's Bernie Becker and Peter Schroeder report.

FROM THE BLOGS:

From Watergate to Lewinksy to Benghazi
National Journal’s Ron Brownstein says President Obama is joining a long line of presidents impacted by scandals in their second terms.

What Benghazi and the IRS scandals have in common
Townhall’s Michael Barone says both scandals show the White House attempting to win approval under false pretenses.

Generation Liberal
The Guardian’s Harry Enten says Millennials are liberal but haven't overtaken the electorate yet.

Can Big Government be ever stopped?
The American Conservative’s James Bovard reviews a new book by James Antle that looks at how politicians and activists can work to curb federal spending.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama nominates new IRS commissioner
The Hill’s Amie Parnes reports that President Obama has appointed the OMB’s Danny Werfel to be acting director of the IRS.

New rules for fracking
The Hill’s Ben Geman looks at the Interior Department’s revised proposal to regulate the oil and gas development known as “fracking.”

FROM THE BLOGS:

Destabilizing Syria in the name of stability
The American Conservative's Daniel Larison describes Rebeccah Heinrichs' demand for more meddling in Syria as 'wonderfully incoherent.'

IRS scandal goes nationwide
Kaylin Bugos of The American Spectator reports on Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to make the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS a nationwide criminal investigation.

Ex-IRS Director: Tea Party groups deserved scrutiny, but IRS bungled the job
Mother Jones' Andy Kroll discusses his interview with lawyer Marcus Owens.

Notes on a trumped up scandal
The New Republic's Noam Schreiber says the only real sin the IRS committed is the sin of political incorrectness — that is, of not even pretending it needed to vet all the new groups that wanted tax-exempt status.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

Obama summons top Treasury officials to discuss IRS scandal
President Obama will meet Wednesday afternoon with leaders from the Treasury Department to discuss the administration's response to the IRS scandal, reports The Hill's Justin Sink.

Senate panel to vote on arming Syrian rebels
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee panel is expected to vote next week on arming vetted Syrian rebel groups - the first time lawmakers have voted to approve arming Syrian rebels, reports The Hill's Julian Pecquet.

FROM THE BLOGS:

CIA warned of 'Jihadist' threat to Cairo Embassy
The Weekly Standard's Thomas Joscelyn says that one of the consequences that resulted from the changing of the Benghazi talking points is that it is now less clear what led to the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

Why big abortion shares Gosnell's guilt
Jeanneane Maxon writes in The Washington Times that common-sense regulations should be imposed on abortion clinics.

Planned Parenthood launches ads against Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate
The Huffington Post's Laura Bassett reports that Planned Parenthood is attacking on womens' rights issues Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) in a series of new web videos.

The IRS 'scandal' -- all smoke, no fire
Mark Sumner of the Daily Kos thinks that the extra scrutiny given to Tea Party groups by the IRS cannot accurately be classified as a witch hunt.

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House asks Schumer to reintroduce media shield law
The Obama administration wants Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to reintroduce legislation that provides additional legal protections to journalists, according to The Hill's Justin Sink.

Dems mull 'nuclear option' on filibuster to move EPA nominee McCarthy
Some Senate Democrats are now in favor of circumventing Republicans in order to get Gina McCarthy confirmed as EPA head, The Hill's Zack Colman reports.

FROM THE BLOGS:

The bogus Obama administration "low-level" employees argument
Town Hall's Katie Pavlich says the Obama Administration blames low-level government employees for each scandal that occurs under its watch.



Understanding the politics of the IRS scandal
Talking Points Memo's John Marshall says that the recent IRS scandal will rile up the base of the Republican Party just in time for next year's congressional elections.



Obama's leak hypocrisy
Commentary's Jonathan Tobin says the Obama administration is politicizing both sides of the argument when it comes to security leaks.

CIA's Russian spy flap: dumb and dumber
The Nation's Bob Dreyfuss notes that the capture of an American spy in Moscow couldn't come at a worse time for the Obama administration.



OTHER NEWS SOURCES:

White House: GOP fabricated leaked Benghazi email
White House press secretary Jay Carney blamed Republicans for falsifying emails to two media organizations that attempted to further frame the Obama Administration in a negative light for its handling of the terrorist attack at the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, The Hill's Justin Sink reports.



Hagel announces Pentagon furloughs
The Defense Secretary says that the furloughs replace other cuts that could have jeopardized national security, The Hill's Jeremy Herb reports.