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Three scandals, Beltway style

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:40:00 +0000

Dan Pfeiffer, a Senior Adviser to the president for strategy and communications, did all the Sunday shows last week, in an effort to address the troika of scandals that Washington is currently fixated on. It was probably the best thing the White House could've done, on a morning when those shows were inevitably going to be full of gleeful piling on. It was also just adding fuel to the fire. The political press is in scandal coverage mode and as long as Congress plays along nothing can shut the machine off until each scandal runs its course.

Let's recap the scandals, in case you have been too busy having message board debates about Star Trek or deciphering new Kanye lyrics to pay attention:

1. Benghazi. Republicans insist the White House did something evil and incomprehensible involving talking points following the September 11, 2012 attack on the American consulate in the Lybian city. Recently, the White House released an email chain showing the process of drafting and revising the talking points.
2. The IRS. The IRS reportedly targeted conservative nonprofits for extra scrutiny of their tax-exempt status.
3. The Associated Press. The Justice Department sought access to, and received, a massive trove of phone data of AP journalists, as part of its investigation into a leak.

Pelosi: Fiscal cliff deal must include tax hikes for rich

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Nancy Pelosi, who this week announced she would stay on as Democratic House leader, told ABC's "This Week" that a fiscal cliff deal will have to include tax hikes for the rich.

“Just to close loopholes is far too little money,” Pelosi said in the interview. “If it’s going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher income people have to pay their fair share.”

Sunday show round up

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:49:00 +0000

With just one day to go before the final presidential debate, which will focus on foreign policy, the Sunday shows were awash with Obama and Romney surrogates trotting out party lines on foreign policy topics du jour -- predominantly the Libya embassy attacks and Iran.

Iran

Fox News Sunday saw Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tow a hawkish line on Iran, calling the crippling program of sanctions currently in place a "miserable failure." "Time for talking is over he said," echoing Bibi Netanyahu's call for the U.S. to draw "red lines" over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We should be demanding transparency and access to their nuclear program," Graham said.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) defended the sanctions program against Graham's attacks, "There's unrest in the streets of Tehran and the leaders in Iran are feeling it," he said.

David Axelrod echoed Durbin's point during his appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," "They're [Tehran is] feeling the heat. And that's what the sanctions were meant to do. So if they're sensible, they're looking at that and saying it's time to set aside our nuclear ambitions and save our economy."