CBS' Bob Schieffer unleashes on White House official: 'Why are you here today?' “I don’t want to compare this in any way to Watergate … but I have to tell you, that is exactly the approach the Nixon administration took. You’re taking exactly the same line” 

Rubio blames Obama for the latest scandals Sen. Marco Rubio’s efforts to reform immigration may be drawing skepticism from many conservatives. But scandals facing the White House have allowed him to shift his message back to the one that made him a star in the first place: The threat to America posed by excessive government. "What we’ve seen in the last seven or eight days have really shaken me," Rubio said. "History teaches us that when government is too large and too powerful, no matter who’s in charge, it will lead to abuses."
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What's Behind the Benghazi Hearings? Barbra StreisandSinger; Actress; Director; Composer; ActivistSometimes in the face of national tragedy, politics should take a backseat. The hypocrisy of turning Benghazi into a deliberate cover-up scandal is preposterous at a time when the nation faces so many serious problems.Remember Whitewater and the "travel office" non-scandals of the 1990s? The Republicans and certain media outlets wasted the nation's time and millions of dollars in pursuit of alleged wrongdoing by First Lady Hillary Clinton. It was all sound and fury signifying nothing. Two decades later, the same script is being revisited about the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which the president and Secretary Clinton clearly labeled a "terrorist act."

Why IRS investigation is already Obama's Watergate – and Benghazi, too Since Watergate, every two-term president has had a second-term scandal. First-term mistakes and hyperpartisanship make probes – like those into Benghazi and the IRS – almost inevitable.

The prospect of al-Qaeda getting chemical weapons is drawing closer For all the agonising in Western capitals about whether to channel weapons to “moderate” rebel militias in Syria and the renewed attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war, one issue above all others is dominating the thinking of military planners, intelligence agencies and their political masters: the increasing danger of the regime’s vast stock of chemical weapons getting into the hands of groups with links to al-Qaeda.Mr Obama’s other red line—the passing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of jihadist terrorists—is, according to intelligence sources, in real and possibly imminent danger of being breached. According to these sources, the past few weeks has seen a flurry of nervous activity that could result in intervention of some kind but which is also giving new urgency to diplomatic efforts to end the conflict. However great Vladimir Putin’s distaste for doing anything to help the West over Syria, the Russian president should in theory be no keener on seeing chemical weapons in jihadist hands than Mr Obama. Though the regime is believed to have tried desperately to consolidate its stocks of chemical weapons in areas it still controls, it has so much of the stuff—around 1,000 tonnes of mustard gas, sarin and the even more lethal VX held at about 12 sites—that in the chaos engulfing the country some will almost inevitably fall into rebel hands sooner rather than later unless something is done. Indeed, Jabhat al-Nusra, the most powerful rebel faction and the one with closest links to al-Qaeda, reportedly came very close to capturing a stockpile near Aleppo earlier this year. A senior NATO official argues that, whereas it is premature to talk about al-Qaeda getting hold of chemical weapons, conditions on the…

President faces a gulf between two Americas Chris Cillizza  Have the past 10 days been the inevitable result of government run amok? Or much ado about nothing?In one America, the events of the past 10 days have exposed the true colors of President Obama and his administration. From edited talking points about the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, to the secret seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters to the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, a single message has emerged: This is the inevitable result of government run amok.

Politicians who cross the NRA soon feel the wrath of gun-rights group Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz Even conservative lawmakers who go against the NRA are labeled as traitors and face negative ads.

  White House aide: IRS scandal will not distract from policy agendaWhite House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer defends administration's handling of recent controversies, says "partisan fishing expeditions" won't distract the White House from pushing President Obama's policy agenda.

US's escape from an economic mess Larry Elliott America's economic structure, its leaders' ability to make rapid political decisions and cultural memories of the Great Depression have been the engine of its recovery.From a European perspective, the world's biggest economy looks in reasonable shape. It may not be firing on all cylinders but the economy is expanding and jobs are being created. That cannot be said of the eurozone, where unemployment has risen to a record one in eight of the workforce and the economy has contracted for the past 18 months.

McConnell Bashes 'Culture of Intimidation' On Sunday's 'Meet the Press,' Senator Mitch McConnell didn't mince words when criticizing President Obama's administration for the IRS scandal. 'The president demonizes his opponents,' said McConnell. 'The nanny state is here to tell us all what to do, and if we start criticizing, you get targeted.'