The Obama Administration and the Shadow of Scandal

Attorney General Eric Holder is being grilled by a Congressional committee today about possible scandals in two agencies with investigative powers. The Obama Administration stands accused of abusing its powers to uncover leaks to reporters and make sure that taxes are being paid. In both cases, the devil is in the details. Was a terrorist threat really bad enough to justify the FBI's massive seizure of phone records from the Associated Press? Did the IRS target right-wing groups for partisan reasons or because they were more likely than liberal groups to be looking for tax exemptions? With the White House on the defensive against Republicans — and the national press corps — we update both stories.