Essential Reads
Essential Reads is your one-stop source for the top stories of the day as reported by your favorite Washington Week panelists. It's a simple way to save time and stay informed about the news you need to know. Check it out every day!
May 21, 2013
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Obama’s Rating Steady in Face of Controversies, Likely Buoyed By Rising Economic Hopes
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, The Washington PostMajorities of Americans believe that the Internal Revenue Service deliberately harassed conservative groups by targeting them for special scrutiny and say that the Obama administration is trying to cover up important details about the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans last year.
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As Rich Gain Optimism, Lawmakers Lose Economic Urgency
By Jim Tankersley, The Washington PostWashington has all but abandoned efforts to help the economy recover faster — and lawmakers don’t seem worried that voters will punish them for it.
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What Services Should Immigrants Get?
By Fawn Johnson, National JournalWhat are immigrants in the United States entitled to? Tax breaks? Health care? Disability insurance? Food stamps? As the Senate Judiciary Committee wades through a major immigration bill, it is clear that there is no consensus, even among the bill’s sponsors, about how to treat the immigrants who would become legal residents under the legislation.
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May 20, 2013
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The Second-Term Scandal Plague
By Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal.
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Obama’s Trust-In-Government Deficit
By Dan Balz, The Washington PostWhatever else happens as a result of the multiple controversies that have engulfed the administration, one thing is clear: President Obama has failed to meet one of the most important goals he set out when he was first elected, which was to demonstrate that activist government could also be smart government.
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GOP Ponders How to Capitalize on Obama's Woes
By Charles Babington, Associated PressThe scandals dogging President Barack Obama are a political gift to Republicans. But it’s unclear how Republicans can best capitalize on Democrats’ woes, legislatively or politically.
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IRS Scandal Continues to Pressure White House
With John Harwood, CNBC
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Chinese Hackers Resume Attacks on U.S. Targets
By David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth, The New York TimesThree months after hackers working for a cyberunit of China’s People’s Liberation Army went silent amid evidence that they had stolen data from scores of American companies and government agencies, they appear to have resumed their attacks using different techniques, according to computer industry security experts and American officials.
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May 17, 2013
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With IRS Defanged, Politics Can Run Rampant
By Gloria Borger, CNN
One of the most perverse results of the IRS's lame, overzealous -- and possibly criminal -- behavior in looking into the tax-exempt applications of assorted advocacy groups is this: They're a lot safer from scrutiny today than they were yesterday.
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President On The Defensive
With John Harwood, CNBC
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Who is IRS Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel?
By Ed O’Keefe and Josh Hicks, Washington PostPresident Obama tapped Daniel Werfel on Thursday to serve as the new acting administrator of the scandal-plagued Internal Revenue Service, succeeding Steven T. Miller, who resigned under pressure Wednesday.
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Seib & Wessel: President Obama’s Awful Week
With David Wessel, Wall Street Journal Watch more -
Obama's No-Magic Metaphor: Useful for Syria Too
By Alexis Simendinger, Real Clear PoliticsPresidential history is dazzling in those moments when it time-travels in unexpected ways. Take Syria … and “magic.”
President Obama, standing in a spitting rain Thursday in the Rose Garden with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, lamented to reporters that the escalating civil war in Syria remains a giant headache for every leader who wants to see it end.
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Obama Responds to Criticism With 'Fix It' Strategy
By Christi Parsons and Kathleen Hennessey, Los Angeles TimesAt a news conference in a rainy Rose Garden on Thursday, President Obama and the Turkish prime minister had weighty matters to discuss — the bloody civil war in Syria, a disastrous Syrian refugee crisis and Turkey's strained relationship with Israel. But before they got too far into that, Obama had something else to say.
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What Would Dick Cheney Do?
By John F. Harris and James Hohmann, PoliticoIt took him a day or two to get started, but President Barack Obama this week signaled that he is going to follow the conventional Washington playbook for trying to tamp down scandal.
He has furrowed his brow, sacked an agency head, pledged transparency and cooperation with official inquiries and piously declared that no one is more troubled than him about any wrongdoing.
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Boston Suspect's Handwritten Confession
With Pete Williams, NBC News
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May 16, 2013
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I Was Promised a Cover-Up
By John Dickerson, Slate MagazineI was told there was going to be a cover-up. After reading the 100 pages of emails related to the Benghazi media talking points, I’m hard-pressed to find evidence for the most damning accusations against the president and his staff. If they were involved, they were once again leading from behind.
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IRS Commissioner Resigns in Wake of Tax Scandal
With John Harwood, CNBC
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An Onset of Woes Raises Questions on Obama Vision
By Peter Baker, The New York TimesThwarted 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.
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You Want Angry? I'll Show You Angry, Obama Says on IRS Scandal
By Beth Reinhard, National JournalUnder pressure to show who's boss, President Obama called a press conference late Wednesday to say he was “angry” that the IRS singled out conservative groups for extra vetting and to announce that the agency’s acting commissioner had been forced out.
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