Benghazi:

John Cole explains the big news – the way ABC News got played by ‘sources’. Like many marks, Jonathan Karl still doesn’t want to admit he and ABC got conned.

Thomas Pickering going public apparently stung Chairweasel Issa enough that Mr Pickering has been subpoenaed to testify, but in a closed session. Issa claims there will be public testimony later, but neither Pickering nor I believe it. There will be ‘leaks’ from this testimony, and they will be distortions. I’m sure ABC will publish them anyway.

As Charlie Pierce noted the wingers are upset by Benghazi but not very clear about where it is.

IRS:

Digby found a piece about the Cincinnati IRS office that tells us that under 200 people are trying it deal with over 60,000 non-profit applications per year. The furor is over less than a hundred applications from that total. People were attempting to speed up the processing.

Even Texas judges can figure out that some tea party groups are PACs, not nonprofits.

Once again, for the IG and the media – of course the process was targeting political groups. Political groups don’t qualify for 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. Read the law!

I’m willing to bet that any application for 501(c)(4) that had ‘volunteer fire department’ in their name got fast-tracked to approval. Names have significance.

AP Leak Hunt:

Marcy Wheeler has been following the AP phone records seizure.

I know I should be upset by this, but I’m having a hard time forgetting about how Nedra Pickler of the AP provided cover for the Hedgemony when it started the process that enabled the DOJ to do this. You reap what you sow. If it was being done to McClatchy I would be fuming, fussing, and ranting about it.

Update: I almost forgot. Zero is really feeling the effects of all of these scandals – his approval rating is going up.