Not to mince words: "The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they're seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration's credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged."

After a second round of very intrusive questions, the Tri Cities Tea Party concluded it was being targeted for a turn-down.

"You want government workers who are alert to their own tendency toward bossiness; who ladle out their power carefully, gram by gram; who are aware that they are not really as benevolent and disinterested as they seem to themselves. Most of all, you want people with a strong sense of self-restraint."

"On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough."

Jonathan Chait writes: "As they attract more and more scrutiny, the Benghazi and the IRS stories both look increasingly benign. Reporters...have heroically attempted to justify lumping these incidents together as “scandals” with the common theme of dangerous big government overreach. One could no less persuasively lump them into the “narrative” of government employees making good-faith efforts to undertake difficult judgments in the face of implacable partisan opposition exploiting raging paranoia."

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, the columnist argues, is unfairly blamed in the talking-points saga.

A perfect storm of embarrassing revelations, and Obama's people can't get their stories straight.

The man makes no sense on the internet tax and other topics. Making sense is not the point.

"It is looking more and more like the new campaign from the state’s love-him-or-hate-him initiative promoter is being greeted with a roaring silence from business. After two notable campaigns in which many of the state’s leading business interests raised millions for Eyman and pushed his measures over the finish line, he has found no business-community support for his latest proposal."

A top aide to Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon is leaving weeks before Reardon's own promised resignation. The aide claims he was set up after porn, including some that appeared to be home made, was found on a government lap top he had used.