Senator Mitch McConnell said Harry Reid is bringing the "culture of intimidation that we've seen at the IRS" to the Senate:
"What I fear is the majority leader is working his way toward breaking his word to the Senate and to the American people, and blowing up this institution, and making it extremely difficult for us to operate on the collegial basis we've operated on for over 200 years," said McConnell. "He wants to have no debate. Do what I say, and do it now. This is the culture of intimidation that we've seen at the IRS, that we've seen at HHS, at the FEC, at the SEC. And now here in the Senate. Do what I say when I say it. Sit down, shut up. Or we'll change the rules. We'll break rules to change the rules."
Texas senator John Cornyn asked former IRS chief Douglas Shulman to apologize to his constituents for the IRS's wrongdoings. Shulman refused. Here's the exchange:
"Mr. Shulman," said Cornyn, "I wonder if you have any words of apology for my constituents and others who feel like the public trust has been violated by IRS."
Testifying today on Capitol Hill, Douglas Shulman, the former IRS commissioner, says he "can't say" how the targeting of conservatives by the agency he once led happened:
A senator asks, "If you could just very quickly, in a nutshell, bottom-line: How did this happen?"
"Mr. Chairman," Shulman says, "I can't say that I know that answer."
Gabriel Gomez is an ambitious guy. In January, with Massachusetts senator John Kerry all but certain to be confirmed as secretary of state, the 47-year-old Gomez wrote a letter to Governor Deval Patrick. Between Kerry’s resignation and the special election to fill his seat in the Senate, Patrick, a Democrat, would need to nominate a temporary replacement. Though a lifelong Republican, Gomez tried to appeal to Patrick’s sense of bipartisanship and asked the governor to choose him.
Gabriel Gomez is an ambitious guy. In January, with Massachusetts senator John Kerry all but certain to be confirmed as secretary of state, the 47-year-old Gomez wrote a letter to Governor Deval Patrick. Between Kerry’s resignation and the special election to fill his seat in the Senate, Patrick, a Democrat, would need to nominate a temporary replacement. Though a lifelong Republican, Gomez tried to appeal to Patrick’s sense of bipartisanship and asked the governor to choose him.
Karen Handel, the former secretary of state of Georgia, is running for the Republican nomination for Senate next year. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
She made the announcement hours before the first day of a two-day state Republican convention. She becomes the fourth formal GOP candidate for the spot, with U.S. Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston.
Republican Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez continues to poll within single digits of his opponent, Democratic congressman Ed Markey, in the special election for Senate in Massachusetts. According to a new poll from PPP, first reported by BuzzFeed, Markey leads Gomez, a political newcomer, by 7 points, 48 percent to 41 percent.
As BuzzFeed points out, Markey may be shoring up the Democratic vote after a divisive Democratic primary:
Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, his party's nominee for Senate in next month's special election, asked a former House colleague not to show up to a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. earlier this week. A Markey staff member reportedly called Ben Jones, a former Democratic congressman from Georgia who also starred as Cooter in the television show The Dukes of Hazzard, to disinvite him from a fundraiser.
In a couple minutes, the top Republican in the Senate will say that "we’ve only started to scratch the surface of this scandal." Mitch McConnell will say those words in reference to the IRS-targeting-conservatives scandal, and will make those remarks on the Senate floor.
Democratic senator Joe Manchin calls the IRS's activities "unacceptable and un-American."
"“The actions of the IRS are unacceptable and un-American. Government agencies using their bureaucratic muscle to target Americans for their political beliefs cannot be tolerated. The President must immediately condemn this attack on our values, find those individuals in his Administration who are responsible and fire them," says the West Virginia Democratic senator.
Tom Price, a Republican congressman from Georgia, will not run for the U.S. Senate next year. Price told the Marietta Daily Journal that his "assessment at this point is the House is the battleground for politics in this country right now" and he will seek sixth term for his metro Atlanta House seat.
The National Rifle Association has a new ad defending Republican senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire for her vote against the Toomey-Manchin gun control amendment.
"Seen this TV ad paid for by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg? Don't believe it," the voiceover says. "Kelly Ayotte voted for a bipartisan plan to make background checks more effective." Watch the NRA's ad below:
Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate for Senate in Massachusetts's special election next month, has released his first ad. The spot is a biographical introduction for the political newcomer, a collection of snippets from Gomez's GOP primary victory speech last week and TV news reports about his candidacy.
"An aircraft carrier pilot, a Navy SEAL, Harvard business school grad," explains one newscaster in the ad.
"A new kind of Republican," says another. Watch the ad below:
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