There may still be over 1,200 days until the 2016 presidential election, but you wouldn’t know it from all the action in early primary states, with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker heading to Iowa and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul stopping in New Hampshire. Read More

First Mark Sanford, now Anthony Weiner. In political rehabilitation after scandals, political makeup often reigns supreme. We've got a list of other comeback stories to watch in the next election cycle. Read More

It's a pivotal moment for the president who needs to keep his second term moving forward. The IRS scandal is still simmering, and the national security speech didn't assuage all his critics--or even his supporters. Read More

For over a year before the IRS controversy broke, one well-connected Washington insider led the charge to stoke the story. And she has no intention of letting up. "There's a very good chance that it will lead to people who are very highly placed politically," Cleta Mitchell tells MSNBC. Read More

Illinois Republican Rep. Peter Roskam said IRS official Lois Lerner's statement to Congress that she had "done nothing wrong" in the agency's targeting of conservative groups was a "big mistake." Read More

Former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta said the Obama administration made the right decision not to tell the president about the ongoing investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Read More

Sen. Ted Cruz brought Republican Party infighting to the public stage on Wednesday, slamming his colleagues as untrustworthy on the matter of spending. Read More

Oklahoma’s Sen. Tom Coburn believes any aid given to his state following the deadly and destructive tornadoes that devastated his home state must be offset by spending cuts. Read More

President Obama will make his first major counter terrorism speech of his second term today. He plans to put limits on the nation's use of unmanned drone strikes that have rankled liberals and libertarians alike. Read More

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) says it's beginning to look like a cover-up within the IRS has taken place to mask wrongdoing over the agency's targeting of conservative groups. Read More

Lois Lerner's decision to take the fifth stirred up anger among Republicans. "She ought to stand here and answer our questions," Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina declared during a heated congressional hearing. Read More

Tea Party groups hope the scandal at the IRS fires up their base the same way as heath care reform did in 2010, plus other political stories that are driving our day. Read More

Demonstrators organized by the Tea Party Patriots groups rallied in front of IRS offices across the country Tuesday to protest the recent revelations of improper targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups, arguing that the agency's actions "stole the election." Read More

Kentucky’s Sen. Mitch McConnell has seized on the IRS scandal as he heads into a 2014 reelection bid, a move that may help him shore up support on the right. Read More

New details from press secretary Jay Carney are at odds with the impression the White House gave last week, raising questions about whether it’s being fully forthcoming in its public statements on the issue. Read More

Treasury Department officials were told last year about a probe of the IRS's handling of applications from political groups. But no evidence has yet emerged that key damning details about the targeting were known beyond the IRS itself. Read More

The chief White House lawyer learned last month that the Inspector General at the Treasury Department had finished his audit of the IRS, and its heightened… Read More

If you feel like you lost track of Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann since her failed 2012 presidential bid, this has been the week to remedy that. With 17 months until the 2014 midterm election, Bachmann is out with her first campaign ad. The subject? Obamacare! Read More

The long-time senator from Maine engaged in Congress' fight outside the institution because she didn't think there was a way to alter the political equation from the inside, she said during an Afternoon Mo Joe web-exclusive interview. Read More