Between the I.R.S. and Benghazi, Mr. Cool Gets Hot

A couple of weeks ago, I was complaining to my editor that writing about President Obama’s second term was getting a little dull, and what we needed was a good scandal. Hey, presto! According to the Tweeps, the talking heads, and Matt Drudge, we now have not one but two of them: Benghazi redux, involving an alleged coverup, and the discovery of a purported I.R.S. “enemies list” that brings to mind our old friend Tricky Dick. Small wonder the White House moved Monday morning’s scheduled press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron from the Rose Garden, where space is limited, to the East Room.

As the two leaders’ talks overran a bit, the excitement was almost too much to bear, and so were the clichés. “We are on pins and needles waiting for them,” Jake Tapper said on CNN. Over on Fox, where Christmas had arrived early, Brett Baier intoned, “The question is how high did it go? Who knew what when?” Baier was talking about the I.R.S. supposedly targeting conservative groups, which even Lawrence O’Donnell, who was doing an early shift on MSNBC, deemed a story with “legs.” His guest, David Corn, of Mother Jones, a magazine that sides with the President’s Republican critics about as often as Haley’s Comet comes around, agreed. “No weasel words should be the motto of the White House today,” he said.

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