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Image: A general view of the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington

Let Me Start: IRS hearings underway

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

President Barack Obama speaks about the deadly tornadoes that hit Oklahoma earlier this week, May 21, 2013. (Photo by: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images).

Obama: We’ll be in Oklahoma ‘as long as it takes’

The enormous twister at least a mile wide with winds as strong as 200 mph ripped through Oklahoma City suburbs on Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, crushing a school, and killing at least 24 people. Read More

A tornado ripped through Oklahoma suburbs on Monday.

Let Me Start: Disaster in Oklahoma

The city of Moore, Oklahoma, has resumed the search for survivors this morning after Monday's massive tornado. Read More

A boy is pulled from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20, 2013. A tornado as much as a mile (1.6 kilometers) wide with winds up to 200 mph (320 kph) roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school. (AP Photo/ Sue Ogrocki)

Huge tornado rips through Oklahoma, killing at least 51

An enormous tornado at least a mile wide with winds as strong as 200 mph ripped through Oklahoma City suburbs on Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and killing at lleast 51 people. Read More

File Photo: United States Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke speaks behind a cache of seized weapons Tuesday, Jan 25, 2011 in Phoenix. A grand jury has indicted 20 people on firearms charges for allegedly participating in a ring that bought more than 700 guns that were to be smuggled into Mexico for use by a drug cartel. (AP Photo/Matt York)

The ‘Fast and Furious’ case: Untangling the IG report

The report comes as the DOJ is under fire for issuing a subpoena for Associated Press journalists’ phone records. Read More

File Photo: U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) speaks during a press conference with fellow Republicans on June 29, 2011 in Washington, DC.    (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images, File)

Wishful thinking? GOP searches for an IRS-Obama link

Sen. Rand Paul insists there's a revealing memo on the IRS scandal (although he hasn't seen it); Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says it shows a "culture of intimidation" within the Obama administration; and more GOPers are trying to tie the president to the IRS scandal without any evidence. Read More

The White House seen from the South Lawn in Washington. (Photo by Susan Walsh/AP)

Let Me Start: GOP ISO a White House scandal

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

May 12, 2013: Marine Corps wounded warrior, Ronnie Jimenez, celebrates his handcycling victory during the first day of Warrior Games competition at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Over 260 injured and disabled service men and women have gathered in Colorado Springs to compete in seven sports, May 11-16. All branches of the military are represented, including Special Operations and members of the British Armed Forces. (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

Fighting for gold in the Wounded Warrior Games

The Department of Defense and the U.S. Olympic Committee Paralympic Military Program have been teaming up since 2010 for the games. Service members from all branches of the military participate. Read More

Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R- Minn., speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Saturday, March 16, 2013. It may seem early, but the diehard activists who attended the three-day conference are already picking favorites in what could be a crowded Republican presidential primary in 2016.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Michele Bachmann’s ‘great news’ about Obamacare repeal

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

President Barack Obama answers questions during his new conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. (Photo by: Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)

Obama needs to ‘adjust the way he does business’

Chris Matthews on Obama's tumultuous week: 'He shouldn't have to read in the paper that some agency is screwing up... shouldn't have to learn second-hand about what his Justice Department is up to.' Read More

The Internal Revenue Service building at the end of the day in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 20, 2012. 
(Photo by Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

Let Me Start: The hearings begin

House Republicans are holding the first of several hearings on the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service. GOP Rep. Charles Boustany, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, says “I just refuse to believe that lower-level I.R.S. personnel were making these kinds of decisions.” Read More

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday night's Hardball.

‘Entirely appropriate’ that Obama didn’t know about AP probe, says Carney

When it comes to investigations, what should the president know and when should the president know it? Jay Carney and Michael Steele--not surprisingly--have opposing views. Read More

Chris

Look who’s talking: Cheney and Rumsfeld take on Benghazi

Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld weigh in on the Obama administration's response to Benghazi. Should they really be the ones giving national security advice? Read More

File Photo: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) walks to his office on Capitol Hill December 31, 2012 in Washington, DC. The House and Senate are both still in session on New Year's Eve to try to deal with the looming 'fiscal cliff.' (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images, File)

Why the GOP is a ‘party of presidential destruction’

Republians don't "so much want the White House - try to think of someone they honestly want to see there - as it wants to imagine that Barack Obama isn't really President after all," says Chris Matthews. Read More

President Barack Obama gestures during the joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Thursday, May 16, 2013, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. (Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)

Obama installs new IRS chief, continues offense

Action man! It was Obama’s third press conference this week as he works to convey competence and transparency. Read More

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 25, 2013. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

‘Not enough,’ GOP tells Obama

Obama has tried to wrest control of issues that have battered his administration: Benghazi, the AP phone probe, and the IRS scandal. But Republicans don’t seem to be loosening their grip on the commander-in-chief at all. Read More

President Barack Obama listens as British Prime Minister David Cameron speaks, during their joint news conference, Monday, May 13, 2013, in the East Room of the White House. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Let Me Start: Taking back the White House?

The trifecta of controversy that has plagued his administration over the past week is still swirling, but with the resignation yesterday of the acting IRS commissioner, the president may be starting to take back control. Read More

President Barack Obama REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

His second term at stake, Obama finally steps up

After a terrible week, the White House moved to take control of three issues that have plagued the administration: Benghazi, the IRS scandal and the Justice Department’s decision to seize phone records of AP journalists. Can the president regain his footing? Read More

President Barack Obama responds to a question during a news conference with Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron in the East Room at the White House May 13, 2013. (Photo by: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

President Obama has finally taken charge, but there’s more to be done

And now? "What he needs to do is accept his duty to do it, and show it, across the board," says Hardball host Chris Matthews. Read More

Michele Bachmann trying Google Glass. (Twitter via NBC's Luke Russert)

Michele Bachmann meets Google Glass

Michele Bachmann takes on cutting edge techonology, but not without a shout-out to her favorite news source. Read More