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1.) The Jim Jordan Grill — Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan grilled the former head of the IRS Douglas Shulman on Wednesday. TheDC’s Caroline May reports:
“Jordan explained that based on documents from the IRS, 132 different members of Congress contacted Shulman over the two year period the IRS was targeting conservative groups about the tax exemption issue. Jordan pointed out to Shulman that there had been 42 news stories about potential IRS targeting in that two-year timeframe as well. ‘So here is what everyone wants to know: You’ve got 132 members of the United States Congress contacting you about this issue, 42 news stories about this issue in the time period in question, and you never checked it out. You never researched it. I mean, are you sure you’re being square with us today, Mr. Shulman?’ ‘I am absolutely telling you the truth today,’ Shulman said.”
Jim Jordan’s grill seems tougher than George Foreman’s.
2.) The IRS scandal continues — The IRS imbroglio is not going away anytime soon — and for good reason. Charles Johnson reports for TheDC on a new development:
“Although White House Chief Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler claims to have learned about the IRS audit scandal only last month, she had three unprecedented one-on-one meetings last year with the Treasury Department’s chief lawyer, who has known about the inspector general’s investigation of the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative nonprofits since at least June 2012. The Treasury lawyer in turn has a long history of extreme left-wing agitation. Christopher J. Meade, Treasury Chief Counsel, met with Ruemmler on September 27th, December 11th, and December 13th, 2012, according to White House Visitor Records requests. The two had never met one-on-one prior to these meetings.”
3.) Keith Olbermann returns? — In yet another satirical scoop, TheDC’s Will Rahn and Jamie Weinstein have uncovered emails the former MSNBC host sent looking for a new job. Among the fake emails was one Olbermann “wrote” to MSNBC President Phil Griffin:
“It’s been a while, my friend. But as English poet and playwright Thomas Haynes Bayly once wrote in his 1844 masterpiece Isle of Beauty, ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ I know we had our tiffs and tantrums and I don’t think it is worth revisiting who or what was to blame for the series of unfortunate events that led to us parting ways. But I think we would both agree that for a period of time, as David Bowie might say, we were heroes, for more than one day. …The short of the letter is this, Phil: I bought a house in the Catskills a few months ago. In its basement I’ve started to host a nightly show to get into playing shape. I invite locals to come on as guests. I’m particularly fond of the local Orange Julius salesman. He’s talented — maybe another Maddow. …Take me back, Phil. I know you’ve heard I’ve been looking around. I want back in the game. I can’t say I’ll be perfect, but you have my sacred word that there’ll be no more carrying a whip to punish my staff for looking me in the eyes. You can count on that.”
See Griffin’s response and the fake Olbermann exchanges with the Emir of Qatar and Robert Mugabe by reading the full article.
4.) Where have you gone, Matt Labash — Matt Labash is inarguably among the top 100 online advice columnists in the D.C. Metro area. But his columns appear so infrequently. TheDC’s Matt Labash explains why:
“Probably because I’m not your advice-columnist Kunta Kinte, here to perform demeaning tasks at the whim of my slavemaster readers. Will I demean myself? Of course I will (see jeans question, above). But I do so on my own time. I’m not your wisdom-dispensing plaything — I have other responsibilities, too. Awesome ones. There’s the sock puppet ministry. Volunteering at the goat sanctuary. Needing to find a parking space at the ass-crack of dawn for my methadone truck when the Korean BBQ Taco Box and Curbside Cupcakes hog all the good spots on Farragut Square. And then there’s my lonely campaign to destroy the Twidiocracy. (Which despite my efforts, is still here — for now.)”
Read the piece to get Labash’s take on skinny jeans.
5.) Tweet of Yesterday —Jose Canseco: Who wants to spend a day with jose. Come into my world if u can handle it.
6.) Today in North Korean News — BREAKING: “Kim Jong Un Receives Letter from Foreigners”