memeorandum: You want a scandal? Here's a scandal. (Jonathan Bernstein/The Plum Line)

10:20 AM ET, May 14, 2013

Top Items:

GOVT OBTAINS WIDE AP PHONE RECORDS IN PROBE — You are here — Home » Government and politics » Govt obtains wide AP phone records in probe — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, WorldViews, TIME, msnbc.com, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Scared Monkeys, BuzzFeed, USA Today, americanthinker.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Poynter, THE DEFINITIVE SOURCE, The Volokh Conspiracy, Erik Wemple, emptywheel, Right Wing News, ThinkProgress, NationalJournal.com, The BLT, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, NO QUARTER USA NET, PJ Media, Addicting Info, CANNONFIRE, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Hullabaloo, National Republican …, The Gateway Pundit, Ed Driscoll, Hit & Run, The Verge, Wonkette, Wired, Philly.com, The PJ Tatler, SPJ News, National Review, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Outside the Beltway, Mother Jones, Mediaite, The Hinterland Gazette, White House Dossier, TalkLeft, Lawfare, Conservatives4Palin, The Lonely Conservative, Samizdata and American Spectator, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

IRS officials in Washington were involved in targeting of conservative groups — Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond …

Nicholas Confessore / New York Times:

Uneven I.R.S. Scrutiny Seen in Political Spending by Big Tax-Exempt Groups — Over the last two years, government watchdog groups filed more than a dozen complaints with the Internal Revenue Service seeking inquiries into whether large nonprofit organizations like those founded …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, ABCNEWS, Jared Bernstein, Law Blog, News Desk, msnbc.com and The Week

ProPublica:

IRS Office That Targeted Tea Party Also Disclosed Confidential Docs From Conservative Groups — The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year.

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

The Panopticon President — A new critique emerges. Fear of a narrow new government power at a scary moment. — Less than four months into President Barack Obama's second term, the hazy perception of a government reaching further and further into individuals' lives in an era of broad …

Discussion: Instapundit and Yahoo! News

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Journalists fume over DOJ raid on AP — Journalists on Monday called the news the Justice Department seized records from phone lines assigned to Associated Press offices and its reporters over a two month period “chilling” and a “dragnet to intimidate the media.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Riehl World News, Weasel Zippers and Twitchy, more at Mediagazer »

John Cassidy / News Desk:

A.P. Scandal Raises Spectre of Big Brother — If the three-strikes rule were in effect, President Obama would be heading for the dugout, bat in hand. First the alleged Benghazi cover-up, then the kerfuffle about the I.R.S. targeting conservative groups, and now the revelation that earlier …

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

A Conflict of Interest? — TPM Reader SS thinks there's some game-playing from the AP on this phone call record story ... I think there's still a very live question of whether this was a prudent action on the part of the DOJ, as maximal restraint should always be used when subpoenaing journalistic records.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Daily Kos

Politico:

Scandal politics sweep Capitol Hill — Scandal politics are sweeping Capitol Hill. — Just days after news broke that the IRS targeted conservative nonprofits, Speaker John Boehner's House committees will morph into mock courtrooms where the White House will be the defendant in what amounts …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Plum Line, msnbc.com, BuzzFeed, Mediaite and Wall Street Journal

New York Times:
The I.R.S. Audits Are Condemned

Discussion: The Huffington Post, FiveThirtyEight, The Raw Story, Prairie Weather and DealBook

Joe Battenfeld / Boston Herald:
Obama knee-deep in Nixon-esque scandal

Discussion: Associated Press, Weasel Zippers and Sense of Events

Daily Mail:
Revealed: The 55 questions the IRS asked one tea party group after more than two years of waiting …

Discussion: Red Alert Politics, The Hugh Hewitt Show, The Gateway Pundit and Rule of Law

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:
Under sweeping subpoenas, Justice Department obtained AP phone records in leak investigation

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Right Turn and Pundits Blog

Fox News:
Lawmakers rip Justice Department over AP phone records grab

Discussion: The Week and Washington Free Beacon

Josh Gerstein / Reuters:
Israel-related groups also pointed to IRS scrutiny

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Michael Isikoff / Open Channel:
AP calls government's record seizure a ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Israpundit and BuzzFeed

New York Times:
Phone Records of Journalists Seized by U.S.

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, msnbc.com and The Caucus

Justin SInk / The Hill:
White House: ‘No knowledge’ of AP phone record seizure

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

The Week:
Why did the Obama administration spy on the Associated Press?

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, Weasel Zippers and BuzzFeed

CNN:
AP blasts feds for phone records search

Discussion: Yahoo! News

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
Justice Dept. secretly seized AP reporters' phone records

Discussion: Politico and The Volokh Conspiracy

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
President Obama waited 3 days to address the IRS scandal. Why?

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation Blog, Hot Air, Washington Post, Scared Monkeys, Politico and Post Politics

Angelina Jolie / New York Times:

My Medical Choice — MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Guardian, Telegraph, Bangor Daily News, Yahoo! News, KDVR.com, Forbes, Wizbang, CNN, Althouse, Shakesville, CBS DC, The Jawa Report, canada.com, BBC, The Agonist, The Times of Israel, TMZ.com, The Huffington Post, WFPL, Daily Mail, Balloon Juice and Mediaite

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Obama's claim he called Benghazi an ‘act of terrorism’ — “The day after it happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism.” — Once again, it appears that we must parse a few presidential words. We went through this question at length during the 2012 election, but perhaps a refresher course is in order.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Althouse, The PJ Tatler, Power Line, CNN, The Lonely Conservative, National Review and Twitchy

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Pelosi: If Boehner Were A Woman, They'd Call Him ‘Weakest Speaker In History’ (VIDEO) — House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has drawn no shortage of critics - even within his own party — but his predecessor thinks he's getting off easy. — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) …

Discussion: Balloon Juice and The Hinterland Gazette

The Huffington Post: Nancy Pelosi: If John Boehner Were A Woman, People Would Call Him ‘The Weakest Speaker In History’

Jonathan Bernstein / The Plum Line:

You want a scandal? Here's a scandal. — Want a real Washington scandal — one worse than the (phony) Benghazi scandal and the (apparently real, but apparently limited) IRS scandals combined? Try the continuing, and possibly accelerating, obstruction of executive branch nominees by Senate Republicans.

Discussion: ACS Blog, Booman Tribune, The Maddow Blog and Campaign for America's Future

Alexander Bolton / The Hill: Senate Democrats: Nuclear option for filibuster is back on the table

RT:

CIA agent trying to recruit Russian intelligence officer detained in Moscow - FSB — Russia's counterintelligence agency has detained a CIA agent in Moscow trying to recruit an officer of the Russian secret service, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced. The agent was operating under guise of career diplomat.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, bigstory.ap.org, New York Times and BBC

Pew Global Attitudes Project:

The New Sick Man of Europe: the European Union — Overview — The European Union is the new sick man of Europe. The effort over the past half century to create a more united Europe is now the principal casualty of the euro crisis. The European project now stands in disrepute across much of Europe.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Forbes, Guardian and New York Times

FLNation / The Florida Nation:

RNC FL Hispanic Director is Now a Democrat — I've known Pablo Pantoja for years. We were both in the same graduate program at Florida State University. We bonded because we were both also state employees at the time. However, Pantoja had another, another job.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, msnbc.com, Yahoo! News, First Read and Taegan Goddard's …

Jessica Farris / TheDenverChannel.com:

Aurora PD: Student suffers ‘significant injury’ in accidental shooting at Rangeview High parking lot — Gun fired as man tried to put it in glove box — AURORA, Colo. - Aurora police are investigating an accidental shooting that happened in the parking lot of Rangeview High School and left one student injured Monday.

Discussion: The Raw Story

The Boston Globe:

First deadline passes with 24 in Boston mayoral field — They are career politicians and neophytes, influential community organizers and persistent gadflies, radio station founders and a justice of the peace. — They are almost entirely men and come disproportionately from a handful of neighborhoods …