By Eliot Nelson, Arthur Delaney & Ryan Grim
The White House and congressional Republicans traded barbs over twitter using #ObamacareInThreeWords, so today will likely end with the president and John Boehner flipping each other off over Snapchat. John Edwards is making his first public appearance in about a year, presumably to soften the ground for his New York mayoral bid. And the president wants broad authority to declare war, a privilege he'd better use before he's impeached next week. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, May 16th, 2013:
The House is voting on Obamacare repeal for the gazillionth time. Here's every vote in one video. It's strangely calming.
OBAMA WANTS MORE WAR POWER - Mike McAuliff has an actual scandal: "The war authorization that Congress passed after 9/11 will be needed for at least 10 to 20 more years, and can be used to put U.S. military boots on the ground anywhere, from Syria to the Congo to Boston, military officials argued Thursday. The revelations came in an extraordinary hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that surprised even some senators and lawyers who intently study the American use of force stemming from the terrorist attacks of 2001. 'This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I've been to since I've been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution today,' Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told four senior U.S. military officials who testified about the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force and what it allows the White House to do. King was not the only one surprised. So were legal experts called by the committee of offer independent comment on the issue. 'I learned more in this hearing about the scope of the AUMF than in all of my study in the last four or five years,' said Harvard Law Prof. Jack Goldsmith. 'I thought I knew what the application [of the AUMF] meant, but I'm less confident now,' he added later."
SECOND IRS OFFICIAL STEPPING DOWN - AP: "A second top Internal Revenue Service official has announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over the targeting of tea party groups. An internal IRS memo says Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, will retire June 3. Grant joins Steven Miller, who was forced to resign as acting IRS commissioner on Wednesday. As part of his duties, Grant oversaw the IRS division that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Grant joined the IRS in 2005." [AP]
LONGTIME WASHINGTON RESIDENT NOT HAPPY WITH POLITICO PROMOTION - There's something inherently wrong about a publication touting the endorsement of someone it's supposed to cover ("I'm Bashar al-Assad, and my weekend isn't complete without the Sunday New York Times! I immediately reach for Travel while my wife LOVES Sunday Styles") Roll Call: "A video posted on the Politico website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's chief of staff has been taken down after the Kentucky Republican's office objected to its placement on a page designed to solicit advertisers. The video, posted earlier this week under the 'audience' tab of Politico's advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: 'Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.' Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell's office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication... Senate ethics rules prohibit senators or Senate staffers from endorsing outside entities in their official congressional capacity...McConnell's office said Thursday that Politico wasn't up front about its intention to use the video on a page designed to attract advertisers. McConnell's office asked Politico to remove the video..." [Roll Call]
@HolmesJosh: McConnell entering #POLITICO into the Cong. record this morning entitled "Schumer Schemes To Hit GOP" http://tinyurl.com/7kj7axj
HEMP, MONSANTO COULD CROSS-POLLINATE FARM BILL - The Senate will take up the farm bill, and HuffPost Hill has a pair of scooplets for you, both pandering to the Internets. 1. A source says that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Judiciary Committee, will not object if Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduces an amendment to the farm bill to legalize industrial hemp. Leahy's committee has jurisdiction and there had been some behind-the-scenes turf-warring that threatened to derail hemp, but it looks to be back on track. 2. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will bring an amendment to repeal the so-called Monsanto Protection Act.
SARAH BLOOM RASKIN OCCUPIES THE FED - With Shahien Nasiripour: "A top Federal Reserve policymaker has raised the possibility that rising inequality may restrain economic growth for several years in a sign the central bank may be worried about the increasing gap between the rich and poor. 'In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis,' Fed governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said Thursday in a speech delivered in Washington. 'More research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come.'" [HuffPost]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - The latest news in employment agencies making unemployed people, sequester edition: "In the next couple of months, many employment office workers in the Northwest will join the unemployed. State labor agencies are having to make cutbacks in staffing. It's due to a combination of the economy getting better and federal budget cuts known as the 'sequester' setting in. Staffing at the local employment office usually moves in the exact opposite direction as the rest of the economy. When times are tough, unemployment rolls are booming. But the sequester is accelerating the other end of that cycle. In Washington, 400 people in the Employment Security Department are losing their jobs. Another 62 in Idaho have received notice. Twenty-seven Idaho Department of Labor workers face hours reductions." [opb.org]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
PRESIDENT WOULD LOVE NOTHING MORE THAN TO GO OFF DEEP END: REPORT - Alternately, some kind of "Half Baked" "F--- you! F--- you! F--- you! You're cool!" moment would be equally awesome. NYT: "Thwarted on Capitol Hill, stymied in the Middle East and now beset by scandal, President Obama has reached a point just six months after a heady re-election where the second term he had hoped for has collided with the second term he actually has... Mr. Obama also expresses exasperation. In private, he has talked longingly of 'going Bulworth,' a reference to a little-remembered 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a senator who risked it all to say what he really thought. While Mr. Beatty's character had neither the power nor the platform of a president, the metaphor highlights Mr. Obama's desire to be liberated from what he sees as the hindrances on him. 'Probably every president says that from time to time,' said David Axelrod, another longtime adviser who has heard Mr. Obama's movie-inspired aspiration. 'It's probably cathartic just to say it. But the reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you're saying.'" [NYT]
Pretty cool except for Bullworth's death wish and all...
As part of the White House's counteroffensive, the president proposed beefing up embassy security. Jen Bendery: "President Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to 'support and fully fund' his budget request for security at U.S. embassies, a move that puts the focus back on lawmakers and the role they can play in averting another attack like the one last year on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya...Obama's request reflects one of the recommendations of an independent accountability board tasked with reviewing the Benghazi attack. The board's final report calls for 'additional Marines ... as well as corresponding requirements for staffing and funding" at U.S. embassies.'" [HuffPost]
Via Yahoo, "The Benghazi messages: Browse administration emails like an inbox"
OBAMA NAMES IRS COMMISSIONER, DENIES KNOWLEDGE OF PROBES - We were really hoping the president would exonerate and appoint the Tax Masters guy... oh well. Side note: Here's his LinkedIn page. NBC News: "President Barack Obama will appoint [Daniel Werfel, current controller of the Office of Management and Budget] to the be the new acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner, an announcement made following a fresh declaration from the president that he knew nothing about the inspector general's report detailing improper IRS actions until it was leaked. After announcing the resignation of acting IRS Director Steven Miller on Wednesday evening, the president emerged Thursday afternoon to answer questions from the press about actions taken by IRS employees to single out conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups for extra scrutiny in their applications for nonprofit status. 'I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the I.G. report before the I.G. report had been leaked ... through the press,' said Obama." [NBC News]
@politico: The Senate has just confirmed the nomination of MIT physics professor Ernest Moniz for Energy secretary in a 97-0 vote.
White House is bringing in the cavalry: "Top Democratic strategists have been invited to the White House for a meeting Thursday morning with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The source presumes that the meeting is an effort to discuss ideas for damage control, as the White House faces an onslaught of questions regarding its handling of the Benghazi attack, the Internal Revenue Service scandal and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records." [CNN]
ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA TRYING TO PUT THE KIBOSH ON KEYSTONE OPPOSITION - With Lucia Graves: "Top officials from President Barack Obama's campaign arm, which was recently rechristened as Organizing for Action, are working to dampen the passionate grassroots opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, just as the organization launches its campaign against climate change, according to donors and OFA members. Leaders of the group have on multiple occasions told gatherings of activists and donors that OFA will not pressure the White House on Keystone regardless of its members' interest in the project, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would move heavy crude from the Canadian tar sands to the Gulf. The administration recently pushed back a decision on approving the pipeline to November, December or even 2014. OFA's refusal to press the administration on the controversial Keystone project is reminiscent of its decision not to pressure Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on gun purchase background checks, despite -- or perhaps because of -- OFA Chairman Jim Messina's close relationship with him. Baucus voted against the president and subsequently announced his retirement." [HuffPost]
DEMS WHO CALLED FOR PROBES INTO CONSERVATIVE GROUPS IN AN AWKWARD BIND RIGHT NOW - Sam Stein: "On Sept. 29, 2010, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sounded the alarm. The chair of the influential Senate Finance Committee, which plays an important oversight role of the tax code, said he had 'serious questions about whether such organizations are operating in compliance with the Internal Revenue Code.'... [This past week Baucus said,] 'These actions by the IRS are an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public's trust.' Targeting groups based on their political views is not only inappropriate but it is intolerable.'... One and a half years after Baucus' letter, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sent one of his own to the IRS urging the agency to 'investigate whether any groups qualifying as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code are improperly engaged in political campaign activity.'...Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also asked the agency if it intended to investigate these 'social welfare' organizations. " [HuffPost]
Try again, National Republican Congressional Commitee: "An attempt by the National Republican Congressional Committee to embarrass Democrats went awry on Thursday, when the group published a blog post riddled with errors. The post, titled '31 Democrats Who Are Huge Fans of the IRS Investigating Conservative Groups,' tried to connect Democratic lawmakers to the ongoing IRS scandal...It also turns out that two of the people in the list don't represent anyone in Congress because they've retired...The list of Democrats also included Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). While he remains in office, the man pictured was not the congressman; it's the former mayor of Medellín, Colombia -- Luis Pérez Gutiérrez." [HuffPost's Will Wrigley and Amanda Terkel]
They also got the outgoing IRS commissioner's name wrong.
LADY LOBBYISTS NOT EARNING AS MUCH AS BRO LOBBYISTS - On the one hand, this is an injustice. On the other hand, they're lobbyists. Still, it's important that men and women equally pervert American democracy and at comparable pay levels. We Can Do It!(?) Bloomberg: "Women led eight of Washington's 50 most politically active trade lobby groups and earned about $600,000 less than their male counterparts, according to salary data compiled by Bloomberg. The female chief executive officers were paid an average of $1.31 million in 2011, compared with $1.93 million paid to the 42 male CEOs. That means they made about 68 cents for every dollar paid to a man -- a bigger salary divergence than the 72 cents women earned against every $1 paid to a man in the wider economy, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau... Only one woman -- Pamela Bailey of the Grocery Manufacturers Association -- placed in the top 10 ranking of the best-paid industry lobby executives. Even so, her annual compensation lagged behind that of the highest earners in the Bloomberg Government survey, including Thomas Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute." [Bloomberg]
Harry Reid revealed that he has a gay niece, but his niece's sexual orientation won't make Mitt Romney's tax returns public. Jen Bendery: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has long been a supporter of legislation to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. But on Wednesday, he revealed a more personal reason for his support. 'My niece is a lesbian,' Reid said during a sit-down with reporters. 'She's a schoolteacher. Her employment shouldn't be affected with that. We should have a law that says that, not just the good graces of wherever you work.' Reid's niece declined to be interviewed or to give her name. But per Reid's spokesman, she was fine with Reid making her sexual orientation public. Reid recalled meeting the president of the Human Rights Campaign in the 1990s and being encouraged to get behind the Employment Non-Discrimination Act." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Quadruplets are entertained by their father.
JOHN EDWARDS: STILL ALIVE - Still from a mill town, too, we suppose. Also still probably a terrible human being. AP: "Former presidential contender John Edwards is setting out on the speaking circuit. The former U.S. senator and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee from North Carolina is scheduled to appear June 6 at a private retreat in Orlando, Fla., for lawyer clients of the marketing firm PMP. Edwards has remained largely out of public view since his May 2012 acquittal on one charge of campaign finance fraud. A judge declared a mistrial on five other criminal counts after jurors couldn't agree if Edwards illegally used campaign money to hide his pregnant mistress as he ran for president in 2008. An itinerary says Edwards will speak for about 45 minutes as part of a program titled "Historic Trials of the Century." Edwards earned millions as a personal injury lawyer before entering politics." [AP]
COMFORT FOOD
- View from atop the Washington Monument scaffold. [http://huff.to/17v5Xua]
- Everything wrong with "Jurassic Park" in under three minutes -- pfffft. [http://huff.to/16C71Ms]
- Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" overlayed onto a segment from "Soul Train." [http://bit.ly/19z0Pls]
- A deer crashes through a bus' windshield, survives, proceeds to walk around the bus. [http://bit.ly/14s3zzP]
- The internet as one, extremely terrifying toy set. [http://chzb.gr/16AlYPi]
- The "Game of Thrones" theme performed with some wicked shredding on a killer ax. [http://huff.to/10uhhCe]
- Do you need your small toe? Short answer: No. Addendum: Please don't cut it off. [http://bit.ly/11HA3JJ]
TWITTERAMA
@whitehouse: It's. The. Law. #ObamaCareInThreeWords, pic.twitter.com/yCHSmuxkKj
@dcbigjohn: the most powerful people in the world are now trolling each other on twitter. anyone have a link to rosetta stone's mandarin package?
@SabrinaSiddiqui: Obama had an umbrella and so did Nixon. Draw your own conclusions. http://bit.ly/YMWHfK #punditry
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e
The House is voting on Obamacare repeal for the gazillionth time. Here's every vote in one video. It's strangely calming.
OBAMA WANTS MORE WAR POWER - Mike McAuliff has an actual scandal: "The war authorization that Congress passed after 9/11 will be needed for at least 10 to 20 more years, and can be used to put U.S. military boots on the ground anywhere, from Syria to the Congo to Boston, military officials argued Thursday. The revelations came in an extraordinary hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that surprised even some senators and lawyers who intently study the American use of force stemming from the terrorist attacks of 2001. 'This is the most astounding and most astoundingly disturbing hearing that I've been to since I've been here. You guys have essentially rewritten the Constitution today,' Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told four senior U.S. military officials who testified about the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force and what it allows the White House to do. King was not the only one surprised. So were legal experts called by the committee of offer independent comment on the issue. 'I learned more in this hearing about the scope of the AUMF than in all of my study in the last four or five years,' said Harvard Law Prof. Jack Goldsmith. 'I thought I knew what the application [of the AUMF] meant, but I'm less confident now,' he added later."
SECOND IRS OFFICIAL STEPPING DOWN - AP: "A second top Internal Revenue Service official has announced plans to leave the agency amid the controversy over the targeting of tea party groups. An internal IRS memo says Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's tax exempt and government entities division, will retire June 3. Grant joins Steven Miller, who was forced to resign as acting IRS commissioner on Wednesday. As part of his duties, Grant oversaw the IRS division that targeted tea party groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Grant joined the IRS in 2005." [AP]
LONGTIME WASHINGTON RESIDENT NOT HAPPY WITH POLITICO PROMOTION - There's something inherently wrong about a publication touting the endorsement of someone it's supposed to cover ("I'm Bashar al-Assad, and my weekend isn't complete without the Sunday New York Times! I immediately reach for Travel while my wife LOVES Sunday Styles") Roll Call: "A video posted on the Politico website featuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's chief of staff has been taken down after the Kentucky Republican's office objected to its placement on a page designed to solicit advertisers. The video, posted earlier this week under the 'audience' tab of Politico's advertising page, features Josh Holmes and identifies him with the title: 'Chief of Staff, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, KY.' Holmes spends the first half of the video explaining his job, with shots taken inside McConnell's office, and the second half of the video explaining why he reads the Washington publication... Senate ethics rules prohibit senators or Senate staffers from endorsing outside entities in their official congressional capacity...McConnell's office said Thursday that Politico wasn't up front about its intention to use the video on a page designed to attract advertisers. McConnell's office asked Politico to remove the video..." [Roll Call]
@HolmesJosh: McConnell entering #POLITICO into the Cong. record this morning entitled "Schumer Schemes To Hit GOP" http://tinyurl.com/7kj7axj
HEMP, MONSANTO COULD CROSS-POLLINATE FARM BILL - The Senate will take up the farm bill, and HuffPost Hill has a pair of scooplets for you, both pandering to the Internets. 1. A source says that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chair of the Judiciary Committee, will not object if Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduces an amendment to the farm bill to legalize industrial hemp. Leahy's committee has jurisdiction and there had been some behind-the-scenes turf-warring that threatened to derail hemp, but it looks to be back on track. 2. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will bring an amendment to repeal the so-called Monsanto Protection Act.
SARAH BLOOM RASKIN OCCUPIES THE FED - With Shahien Nasiripour: "A top Federal Reserve policymaker has raised the possibility that rising inequality may restrain economic growth for several years in a sign the central bank may be worried about the increasing gap between the rich and poor. 'In my view, the large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis,' Fed governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said Thursday in a speech delivered in Washington. 'More research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come.'" [HuffPost]
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - The latest news in employment agencies making unemployed people, sequester edition: "In the next couple of months, many employment office workers in the Northwest will join the unemployed. State labor agencies are having to make cutbacks in staffing. It's due to a combination of the economy getting better and federal budget cuts known as the 'sequester' setting in. Staffing at the local employment office usually moves in the exact opposite direction as the rest of the economy. When times are tough, unemployment rolls are booming. But the sequester is accelerating the other end of that cycle. In Washington, 400 people in the Employment Security Department are losing their jobs. Another 62 in Idaho have received notice. Twenty-seven Idaho Department of Labor workers face hours reductions." [opb.org]
Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill
PRESIDENT WOULD LOVE NOTHING MORE THAN TO GO OFF DEEP END: REPORT - Alternately, some kind of "Half Baked" "F--- you! F--- you! F--- you! You're cool!" moment would be equally awesome. NYT: "Thwarted on Capitol Hill, stymied in the Middle East and now beset by scandal, President Obama has reached a point just six months after a heady re-election where the second term he had hoped for has collided with the second term he actually has... Mr. Obama also expresses exasperation. In private, he has talked longingly of 'going Bulworth,' a reference to a little-remembered 1998 Warren Beatty movie about a senator who risked it all to say what he really thought. While Mr. Beatty's character had neither the power nor the platform of a president, the metaphor highlights Mr. Obama's desire to be liberated from what he sees as the hindrances on him. 'Probably every president says that from time to time,' said David Axelrod, another longtime adviser who has heard Mr. Obama's movie-inspired aspiration. 'It's probably cathartic just to say it. But the reality is that while you want to be truthful, you want to be straightforward, you also want to be practical about whatever you're saying.'" [NYT]
Pretty cool except for Bullworth's death wish and all...
As part of the White House's counteroffensive, the president proposed beefing up embassy security. Jen Bendery: "President Barack Obama called on Congress Thursday to 'support and fully fund' his budget request for security at U.S. embassies, a move that puts the focus back on lawmakers and the role they can play in averting another attack like the one last year on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya...Obama's request reflects one of the recommendations of an independent accountability board tasked with reviewing the Benghazi attack. The board's final report calls for 'additional Marines ... as well as corresponding requirements for staffing and funding" at U.S. embassies.'" [HuffPost]
Via Yahoo, "The Benghazi messages: Browse administration emails like an inbox"
OBAMA NAMES IRS COMMISSIONER, DENIES KNOWLEDGE OF PROBES - We were really hoping the president would exonerate and appoint the Tax Masters guy... oh well. Side note: Here's his LinkedIn page. NBC News: "President Barack Obama will appoint [Daniel Werfel, current controller of the Office of Management and Budget] to the be the new acting Internal Revenue Service commissioner, an announcement made following a fresh declaration from the president that he knew nothing about the inspector general's report detailing improper IRS actions until it was leaked. After announcing the resignation of acting IRS Director Steven Miller on Wednesday evening, the president emerged Thursday afternoon to answer questions from the press about actions taken by IRS employees to single out conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups for extra scrutiny in their applications for nonprofit status. 'I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the I.G. report before the I.G. report had been leaked ... through the press,' said Obama." [NBC News]
@politico: The Senate has just confirmed the nomination of MIT physics professor Ernest Moniz for Energy secretary in a 97-0 vote.
White House is bringing in the cavalry: "Top Democratic strategists have been invited to the White House for a meeting Thursday morning with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, according to a source familiar with the meeting. The source presumes that the meeting is an effort to discuss ideas for damage control, as the White House faces an onslaught of questions regarding its handling of the Benghazi attack, the Internal Revenue Service scandal and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records." [CNN]
ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA TRYING TO PUT THE KIBOSH ON KEYSTONE OPPOSITION - With Lucia Graves: "Top officials from President Barack Obama's campaign arm, which was recently rechristened as Organizing for Action, are working to dampen the passionate grassroots opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, just as the organization launches its campaign against climate change, according to donors and OFA members. Leaders of the group have on multiple occasions told gatherings of activists and donors that OFA will not pressure the White House on Keystone regardless of its members' interest in the project, a 1,700-mile pipeline that would move heavy crude from the Canadian tar sands to the Gulf. The administration recently pushed back a decision on approving the pipeline to November, December or even 2014. OFA's refusal to press the administration on the controversial Keystone project is reminiscent of its decision not to pressure Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on gun purchase background checks, despite -- or perhaps because of -- OFA Chairman Jim Messina's close relationship with him. Baucus voted against the president and subsequently announced his retirement." [HuffPost]
DEMS WHO CALLED FOR PROBES INTO CONSERVATIVE GROUPS IN AN AWKWARD BIND RIGHT NOW - Sam Stein: "On Sept. 29, 2010, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) sounded the alarm. The chair of the influential Senate Finance Committee, which plays an important oversight role of the tax code, said he had 'serious questions about whether such organizations are operating in compliance with the Internal Revenue Code.'... [This past week Baucus said,] 'These actions by the IRS are an outrageous abuse of power and a breach of the public's trust.' Targeting groups based on their political views is not only inappropriate but it is intolerable.'... One and a half years after Baucus' letter, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) sent one of his own to the IRS urging the agency to 'investigate whether any groups qualifying as social welfare organizations under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code are improperly engaged in political campaign activity.'...Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) also asked the agency if it intended to investigate these 'social welfare' organizations. " [HuffPost]
Try again, National Republican Congressional Commitee: "An attempt by the National Republican Congressional Committee to embarrass Democrats went awry on Thursday, when the group published a blog post riddled with errors. The post, titled '31 Democrats Who Are Huge Fans of the IRS Investigating Conservative Groups,' tried to connect Democratic lawmakers to the ongoing IRS scandal...It also turns out that two of the people in the list don't represent anyone in Congress because they've retired...The list of Democrats also included Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). While he remains in office, the man pictured was not the congressman; it's the former mayor of Medellín, Colombia -- Luis Pérez Gutiérrez." [HuffPost's Will Wrigley and Amanda Terkel]
They also got the outgoing IRS commissioner's name wrong.
LADY LOBBYISTS NOT EARNING AS MUCH AS BRO LOBBYISTS - On the one hand, this is an injustice. On the other hand, they're lobbyists. Still, it's important that men and women equally pervert American democracy and at comparable pay levels. We Can Do It!(?) Bloomberg: "Women led eight of Washington's 50 most politically active trade lobby groups and earned about $600,000 less than their male counterparts, according to salary data compiled by Bloomberg. The female chief executive officers were paid an average of $1.31 million in 2011, compared with $1.93 million paid to the 42 male CEOs. That means they made about 68 cents for every dollar paid to a man -- a bigger salary divergence than the 72 cents women earned against every $1 paid to a man in the wider economy, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau... Only one woman -- Pamela Bailey of the Grocery Manufacturers Association -- placed in the top 10 ranking of the best-paid industry lobby executives. Even so, her annual compensation lagged behind that of the highest earners in the Bloomberg Government survey, including Thomas Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Thomas Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute." [Bloomberg]
Harry Reid revealed that he has a gay niece, but his niece's sexual orientation won't make Mitt Romney's tax returns public. Jen Bendery: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has long been a supporter of legislation to ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. But on Wednesday, he revealed a more personal reason for his support. 'My niece is a lesbian,' Reid said during a sit-down with reporters. 'She's a schoolteacher. Her employment shouldn't be affected with that. We should have a law that says that, not just the good graces of wherever you work.' Reid's niece declined to be interviewed or to give her name. But per Reid's spokesman, she was fine with Reid making her sexual orientation public. Reid recalled meeting the president of the Human Rights Campaign in the 1990s and being encouraged to get behind the Employment Non-Discrimination Act." [HuffPost]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Quadruplets are entertained by their father.
JOHN EDWARDS: STILL ALIVE - Still from a mill town, too, we suppose. Also still probably a terrible human being. AP: "Former presidential contender John Edwards is setting out on the speaking circuit. The former U.S. senator and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee from North Carolina is scheduled to appear June 6 at a private retreat in Orlando, Fla., for lawyer clients of the marketing firm PMP. Edwards has remained largely out of public view since his May 2012 acquittal on one charge of campaign finance fraud. A judge declared a mistrial on five other criminal counts after jurors couldn't agree if Edwards illegally used campaign money to hide his pregnant mistress as he ran for president in 2008. An itinerary says Edwards will speak for about 45 minutes as part of a program titled "Historic Trials of the Century." Edwards earned millions as a personal injury lawyer before entering politics." [AP]
COMFORT FOOD
- View from atop the Washington Monument scaffold. [http://huff.to/17v5Xua]
- Everything wrong with "Jurassic Park" in under three minutes -- pfffft. [http://huff.to/16C71Ms]
- Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" overlayed onto a segment from "Soul Train." [http://bit.ly/19z0Pls]
- A deer crashes through a bus' windshield, survives, proceeds to walk around the bus. [http://bit.ly/14s3zzP]
- The internet as one, extremely terrifying toy set. [http://chzb.gr/16AlYPi]
- The "Game of Thrones" theme performed with some wicked shredding on a killer ax. [http://huff.to/10uhhCe]
- Do you need your small toe? Short answer: No. Addendum: Please don't cut it off. [http://bit.ly/11HA3JJ]
TWITTERAMA
@whitehouse: It's. The. Law. #ObamaCareInThreeWords, pic.twitter.com/yCHSmuxkKj
@dcbigjohn: the most powerful people in the world are now trolling each other on twitter. anyone have a link to rosetta stone's mandarin package?
@SabrinaSiddiqui: Obama had an umbrella and so did Nixon. Draw your own conclusions. http://bit.ly/YMWHfK #punditry
Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e
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