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The Daily Rundown

How partisanship matters in political comeback attempts

Anthony Weiner
10:04 AM on 05/24/2013

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

Top Democrat: ‘Fresh leadership’ needed at IRS

Karly Schledwitz12:44 PM on 05/24/2013

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen says he's glad the embattled IRS official has been placed on administrative leave, calling her departure the right step as investigations continue into the agency's targeting of conservative groups. Read More

Republicans begin early state stops ahead of 2016

2:10 PM on 05/24/2013

Trivia time! Friday’s trivia answer

12:33 PM on 05/24/2013

Most Recent

US President Barack Obama speaks about his administration's drone and counterterrorism policies, as well as the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, May 23, 2013. Obama said Thursday he had signed new policy guidance regulating the conditions when the United States can use unmanned airborne drones to kill terror suspects abroad. The guidance includes requirements that a target must pose a continuing "imminent" threat to Americans, and says lethal action can be be used only if a suspect cannot feasibly be captured, and there is a legal basis for acting. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

First Read Flash: ‘War on terror’ redefined


8:27 AM on 5/24/2013

Obama said in a Thursday speech that the U.S. has reached a "crossroads" in its fight against terrorism and defended the use of drones as effective and life-saving. Read More

Image: Teacher Audrey Benes speaks to her kindergarten class at Walsh Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois

Trebek: ‘Geography is neglected’ in U.S. curriculum

Karly Schledwitz
10:28 PM on 5/23/2013

The Jeopardy host says that geography is more important than ever to students, even as it continues to be underfunded in education. Read More

Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner is sworn in before testifying to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee May 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating allegations that the IRS targeted conservative non-profit organizations with the words "tea party" and "constitution" in their names for additional scrutiny. Lerner, who headed the division that oversees exempt organizations, plans to assert her constitutional right not to answer questions. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

GOP congressman: Lerner waived Fifth Amendment right

Karly Schledwitz
2:59 PM on 5/23/2013

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

Internal Revenue Service Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner leaves a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after refusing to testify May 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. The committee is investigating allegations that the IRS targeted conservative non-profit organizations with the words "tea party" and "constitution" in their names for additional scrutiny. Lerner, who headed the division that oversees exempt organizations, exercised her constitutional right not to answer questions. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Former WH chief of staff: Obama admin ‘made the right call’ in IRS handling


12:27 PM on 5/23/2013

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

Mike Wallach

#TDRGoodMorning from Mike on a Bike


11:32 AM on 5/23/2013

Meet the latest winner of our #TDRGoodMorning challenge: Mike Wallach from the Montour trail near Pittsburgh

Thanks to everyone who submitted. Make sure to… Read More

Former Sen. Scott Brown (Photo by AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

State shopping? Not a successful strategy for pols

Jessica Taylor and Chuck Todd
8:40 AM on 5/23/2013

State shopping usually doesn't work out well for a hopeful pol, with carpetbagger charges writing themselves, and tenuous ties to a state are easy for opponents to attack. Read More

President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, left, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and the service secretaries, service chiefs, and senior enlisted advisers to discuss sexual assault in the military in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 16, 2013. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

First Read Flash: Defensive moves


8:32 AM on 5/23/2013

President Obama will outline the administration's plans to begin shifting authority over drone operations from the CIA to the military. Read More

File Photo: Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee January 26, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images, File)

GOP conference chair: IRS ‘smells of manipulation’

Karly Schledwitz
1:05 PM on 5/22/2013

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

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti with supporters at an election night party at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California, May 21, 2013. (Photo by: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters).

New mayor in LA: Eric Garcetti


11:41 AM on 5/22/2013

The city councilman, who will be the city's first Jewish mayor, defeated fellow Democrat Wendy Greuel in Tuesday’s runoff election, bringing an end to the bitter, two year long race. Read More

Then-House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., listens to testimony during a hearing on legal issues relating to football head injuries on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

First Read Flash: Weiner’s comeback begins


8:21 AM on 5/22/2013

The disgraced former congressman officially announces for New York City mayor, while it's City Councilman Eric Garcetti who will be Los Angeles' next mayor. Plus: Lerner to plead the 5th in IRS hearing. Read More

Immigration reform advocates pray before the start of a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in the Senate Hart Building on May 9.

Immigration bill–minus LGBT provision–moves to full Senate


9:46 PM on 5/21/2013

The full Senate will now get to debate and vote on a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. But a provision allowing same-sex couples to apply for visas for spouses or partners was dropped. Read More

A scene of fire and destruction in Moore, Oklahoma after a tornado ripped through the area on May 20, 2013. (Photo by Sue Ogrocki/AP)

Okla. tornado ‘looks worse’ than deadly 1999 Moore twister


12:21 PM on 5/21/2013

Former Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., and former Okla. reporter Lois Romano say the tornado that hit the town of Moore on Monday looks as bad, or worse, than the 1999 twister that caused $1.4 billion in damage. Read More

Two girls stand in rubble after a tornado struck Moore, Okla., May 20, 2013. A tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday, killing dozens while destroying entire tracts of homes, piling cars atop one another, and trapping school children beneath rubble. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

Oklahoma Rep.: ‘This is not a normal tornado’


11:33 AM on 5/21/2013

“Even though people had warning, they went to their normal shelter locations, but it wasn't enough," said Republican Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma Tuesday. Read More

Rescue teams pull a boy from beneath a collapsed wall at the Plaza Towers Elementary School following a tornado in Moore, Okla., on May 20, 2013. (Photo by Sue Ogrocki/AP)

First Read Flash: Oklahoma Tragedy


8:22 AM on 5/21/2013

At least 51 people are dead, 20 of them children, after a devastating tornado made a direct hit on Moore, Okla., in suburban Oklahoma City. Read More

Ken Cuccinelli

E.W. Jackson nomination shakes up Va. race for Cuccinelli


3:40 PM on 5/20/2013

The nomination of E.W. Jackson during Saturday’s Virginia GOP convention is about to make an already lively off-year contest in the Old Dominion even more interesting. Read More

File Photo: Speaker of the New York City Council Christine Quinn attends The 2013 Greater New York Human Rights Campaign Gala at The Waldorf-Astoria on February 2, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images)

Big city turnovers: The 5 mayor races to watch in 2013


8:58 AM on 5/20/2013

Many key mayoral posts around the country will all be up for grabs this year--some for the first time in a generation. Ones to watch: New York City, Detroit, Boston, Charlotte, N.C., and Minneapolis. Read More

File Photo: Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at Tidewater Community College on October 17, 2012 in Washington, DC. This is Romney's first campaign appearance since his debate with President Barack Obama last night. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images, File)

First Read Flash: Tea Party Virginia?


8:38 AM on 5/20/2013

E.W. Jackson pulled an upset to win the nomination for lieutenant governor on Saturday. The problem for the GOP ticket now -- do they defend Jackson amid a barrage of controversial past statements? Read More

File Photo: Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., works in his office in the Rayburn building on Capitol Hill on Thursday, August 2, 2012. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, File)

Two Dems in top races voted with GOP on health care repeal


4:18 PM on 5/17/2013

Reps. Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, had the two closest House races in the country in 2012, and they're top GOP targets looking ahead to 2014 once again. Read More

Image: File of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivering remarks at the State Department in Washington

Watch: 2016 dominated by Benghazi this week


12:39 PM on 5/17/2013

The week in 2016 chatter was dominated by a proxy fight over Benghazi, as Republicans tried to use new revelations from Wednesday's White House document dump to put chinks in Hillary Clinton's 2016 armor. Read More

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks at a gun violence summit at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. (Photo by Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

Bloomberg anti-gun group features Aurora family in targeting Sen. Flake


12:26 PM on 5/17/2013

In a TV ad, Caren and Tom Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the Colorado movie theater shooting last summer, say Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake didn’t keep his promise to support tougher background checks. Read More