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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Controversies &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Controversies &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Timeline: The Benghazi E-Mails</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/16/timeline-the-benghazi-emails/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/16/timeline-the-benghazi-emails/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 18:20:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke Miller and Alex Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95806</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Eight months after the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi was attacked, leaving four Americans dead including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, new internal documents have provided a fuller sense of how the Obama Administration approached the aftermath. The e-mails confirm White House statements that they did not substantively edit the talking points over the description of the attack in Benghazi or potential perpetrators. However, press secretary Jay Carney&#8217;s assertion that the Administration made just a single semantic edit to the talking points appears to have been false. According to senior Administration officials, Carney had not reviewed the full e-mail chain when he said in November that &#8220;the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word consulate to diplomatic facility because consulate was inaccurate.” In fact, White House officials had a longer back-and-forth with the intelligence community, and the State Department objected to a substantial portion of the talking points that CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell ultimately cut. The following timeline has been compiled from the 100 pages of e-mails released to the press by the White House on Wednesday. Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, 11:15 a.m. After members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) ask for unclassified talking points on what happened in the Benghazi attack, the director of the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis writes an initial draft for the CIA. The White House is first notified at 11:17 a.m., but is not yet presented with the draft. Sept. 14, 12:23 p.m. The CIA&#8217;s Office of General Counsel recommends an edit to the first bullet point, so as not to impede any future criminal prosecution. Sept. 14, 3:04 p.m. These talking points are sent to then White House national-security spokesman Tommy Vietor, deputy national-security adviser for strategic communication Ben Rhodes, and other Administration officials. Sept. 14, 3:27 p.m.  A CIA official e-mails, &#8220;We still have a number of components coordinating here on these points and we will have further edits. We are multi-tasking due to the time constraints.&#8221; The official promises another version of the talking points around<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95806&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/carney-benghazi.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/carney-benghazi.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/carney-benghazi.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Carney Benghazi</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-11-09-pm.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 1</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-14-05-pm.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 2</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-16-54-pm.png?w=531" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 3</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-21-10-pm.png?w=596" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 4</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-12-46-21-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 12.46.21 PM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-49-28-pm.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP Denis</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-24-10-pm.png?w=518" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 5</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-1-10-42-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 1.10.42 PM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-1-00-00-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 1.00.00 PM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-1-12-37-pm.png?w=502" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 1.12.37 PM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-29-46-pm.png?w=494" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 7</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-11-52-44-am.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 11.52.44 AM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-11-54-21-am.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 11.54.21 AM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-11-56-00-am.png?w=527" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 11.56.00 AM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-34-06-pm.png?w=513" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 7</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-1-16-33-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 1.16.33 PM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-11-58-48-am.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 11.58.48 AM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-11-59-54-am.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 11.59.54 AM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-37-01-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi USUN</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-12-02-49-pm.png?w=404" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 12.02.49 PM</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-43-24-pm.png?w=504" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 8</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-12-05-51-pm.png?w=504" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 12.05.51 PM</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-39-58-pm.png" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 9</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-3-45-43-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Benghazi TP 10</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-16-at-12-14-04-pm.png?w=600" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Screen Shot 2013-05-16 at 12.14.04 PM</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Three Lessons from the Benghazi Emails</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/16/three-lessons-from-the-benghazi-emails/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/16/three-lessons-from-the-benghazi-emails/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95777</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The 100 pages of emails about Benghazi released by the White House on Tuesday evening provide a fascinating glimpse at the machinations of national security officials working under stress. The exchanges, which hashed out a set of talking points intended for members of Congress to use a few days after the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Libya that killed four Americans, tell us virtually nothing new about the now well-excavated story. But they do underscore a few important points: No one doubted a demonstration Every version of the talking points&#8211;which were first crafted by the CIA&#8211;asserted that a demonstration had occurred at the U.S. compound in Benghazi. &#8220;We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault&#8221; on the U.S. facilities, read the talking points. (Those facilities included a State Department post and a nearby CIA annex.) Throughout two days of exchanges that involved the CIA, FBI, State Department, and White House, no one ever challenged that claim, and that language survived to the end, even as many other phrases were deleted. It&#8217;s worth remembering that demonstrations against a notorious anti-Islamic amateur film actually had occurred in 20 other countries, a likely source of the early confusion. That undercuts the charge that the Obama administration ginned up a narrative about a nonexistent demonstration in Benghazi for political purposes&#8211;namely, to avoid explaining why al Qaeda-affiliated radicals were killing Americans in a country where the president had intervened militarily with apparent success. It is true that the final talking points were stripped of references to al Qaeda. But there may have been a reason for that. Early in the process, on the afternoon of Friday, September 14, the CIA&#8217;s general counsel warned colleagues about &#8220;express instruction&#8221; from law enforcement officials that &#8220;in light of the criminal investigation, we are not to generate statements about who did this.&#8221; (MORE: Joe Klein: Benghazi and Dick Cheney&#8217;s Staggering Lack of Self-Knowledge) The CIA made the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95777&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/16/three-lessons-from-the-benghazi-emails/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/e9858d26b2494cadaf37f150d29af4e5-0.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/e9858d26b2494cadaf37f150d29af4e5-0.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/e9858d26b2494cadaf37f150d29af4e5-0.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">A Libyan man investigates the inside of the U.S. Consulate after an attack that killed four Americans, in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 12, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Scrambling To Find AP Leaker, Obama&#8217;s Administration Vindicates Bush</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/scrambling-to-find-ap-leaker-obamas-administration-vindicates-bush/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/scrambling-to-find-ap-leaker-obamas-administration-vindicates-bush/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 09:45:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Massimo Calabresi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95652</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After conducting 550 interviews and reviewing tens of thousands of documents, Justice Department investigators looking for the person who leaked details of a foiled al Qaeda bomb plot to the Associated Press in 2012 apparently still couldn&#8217;t make the case. So the feds faced a choice: subpoena the call records for 20 telephone lines used at work and home by AP reporters or risk failing to find the leaker. Choosing to use investigative tools Justice has resisted in the past, investigators not only went with the subpoena, they did it without notifying the AP. That decision shows three things. First, DoJ&#8217;s case against the leaker may be in trouble. Second, prosecutors are increasingly willing to intrude on media freedom. Third, George W. Bush and Barack Obama&#8216;s post-9/11 trend of limiting media oversight and expanding executive branch secrecy is continuing apace, whether Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder admit it or not. The records seizure was authorized by Deputy Attorney General James Cole because Holder recused himself from the case after the FBI interviewed him about the leaks, Holder said Tuesday. In a letter responding to protests from the AP, Cole said Tuesday that the department had issued the subpoena for the phone records as a last resort. Investigators had taken &#8220;all reasonable alternative investigative steps before even considering the issuance of a subpoena&#8221; for phone records, Cole wrote, and that the subpoena for the records was &#8220;drawn as narrowly as possible.&#8221; Taking Cole at his word, the breadth of the subpoena shows how far Justice still has to go. The subpoena covers call records, but not call contents, over the telephone lines of five reporters and one editor. That suggests investigators still don&#8217;t know who received the leak, let alone the identity of the leaker. If investigators decided not to subpoena the reporters notes before going for their phone records, it further suggests the feds don&#8217;t know where to start looking; if the feds already have subpoenaed notes, it means they haven&#8217;t found what they&#8217;re looking for. In a larger<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95652&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/scrambling-to-find-ap-leaker-obamas-administration-vindicates-bush/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/168745863.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/168745863.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/afd9484b1bca74216e145d2c49c8af45?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Inspector General Blasts IRS For Conservative Targeting</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/inspector-general-blasts-irs-for-conservative-targeting/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/inspector-general-blasts-irs-for-conservative-targeting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 22:20:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95641</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration strongly criticized the IRS in an audit released late Tuesday into efforts by the agency to target conservative groups for additional scrutiny before awarding tax-exempt status. The inspector general found that IRS employees inappropriately flagged organizations with &#8220;tea party&#8221; and &#8220;patriots&#8221; in their names for reviews that lasted years, and then asked for intrusive information including donor lists and the political activity of organization directors. Tea Party groups had complained of unfair scrutiny in early 2012 though the IRS denied wrongdoing at the time. The audit was undertaken at the request of congressional lawmakers following constituent complaints, and not at the request of the IRS. According to the audit, IRS officials maintained a &#8220;Be On the Look Out &#8221; spreadsheet listing names or phrases that would indicate groups that may be too political to receive  &#8221;social welfare&#8221; status as 501(c)4&#8242;s for additional review. The criteria laid out to the exempt organizations division in June 2011: “Tea Party,” “Patriots” or “9/12 Project” is referenced in the case file Issues include government spending, government debt or taxes Education of the public by advocacy/lobbying to “make America a better place to live” Statement in the case file criticize how the country is being run According to the audit, more than 300 groups were flagged for additional review by the IRS, of which 72 included the words &#8220;tea party&#8221; in the name, 11 included the phrase &#8220;9/12&#8243; and 13 included the word &#8220;patriots.&#8221; In early 2012 many of these groups received detailed questionnaires asking for information about their donors and the past and potential future political activities of officials. These were among seven unnecessarily intrusive questions asked, the inspector general reported. In response to the report, IRS officials maintained that the targeting of group names was not done for political reasons, but just for &#8220;efficiency&#8221; in flagging suspect groups. &#8220;We believe the front-line career employees that made  the decisions acted out of a desire for efficiency and not out of any political or partisan viewpoint,&#8221; said Joseph Grant, the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95641&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/irs.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/irs.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Internal Revenue Services</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>InAPpropriate?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/inappropriate/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/inappropriate/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 13:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95592</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Today&#8217;s scandal: the Justice Department targets the Associated Press in a search for government employees who may have leaked classified information. The question is, how was this different from previous government attempts to track down inside sources who leaked secrets—as in the Valerie Plame/Scooter Libby fracas during the Bush Administration? There is one glaring difference. In the Plame case, the Justice Department openly subpoenaed the records of the journalists who reported the story—Matt Cooper, then of TIME, was one—and those journalists had the option of given up their records or going to jail. That&#8217;s the way it has worked in the past. There is a disputed grey line within First Amendment rights—journalists have a responsibility to protect our sources, government has a responsibility to protect classified information (such as the identities of the CIA&#8217;s non-official cover operatives like Valerie Plame). It isn&#8217;t pleasant, and there are legitimate differences about where First Amendment rights end and national security begins, but it is open and straightforward process. Apparently, what has happened in this case, is that the Justice Department short-circuited prior practices, received secret subpoena authority (from the FISA court?) and covertly went after the information that it had requested in the past. That seems to be a substantial rewriting of the rules, a significant truncation of First Amendment rights. I&#8217;ve gotten flack from the civil liberties community in the past. I&#8217;m not a First Amendment absolutist. I believe that the government has a responsibility to prevent terrorist attacks, which includes the right to track the messages of suspected terrorists. It also has the responsibility to keep the secret technologies used in this effort secret—which was apparently the bright line in the AP story. (It may have revealed previously covert methods the government used to prevent an Al Qaeda attack.) Before I pass judgment in this case, I need to know the following: 1. Why were the usual methods—public subpoenas etc—not used in this case? 2. Has the government changed the rules with regard to journalists seeking covert information? 3. If so,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95592&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxzlah.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">AP hack</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<title>The New GOP Case Against Obama: He’s Cheney!</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/the-new-republican-framing-of-obama-hes-a-lot-like-bush/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/the-new-republican-framing-of-obama-hes-a-lot-like-bush/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 09:45:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke Miller and Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95514</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Conservatives are not often fierce defenders of the media. But Monday&#8217;s news that the Justice Department obtained phone records for several Associated Press reporters as part of a national security leak probe raised a furor on the right, causing numerous Republicans to harshly criticize the Obama administration. While some may have genuine concerns about First Amendment protections, the right&#8217;s response also spotlighted an emerging Republican critique of Barack Obama as a Big Brother-style tyrant in charge of a power-abusing surveillance state. Before the AP news broke, conservatives were already up in arms over word that the IRS had targeted conservative groups for additional scrutiny, as well as new details about the controversial editing of talking points about last September&#8217;s terror attacks in Benghazi. Taken together, Republicans said the stories paint a picture of an administration willing to monitor and even menace its opponents and critics. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa linked all three DC scandals in a statement to reporters, charging that &#8220;top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves as above the law.&#8221; (MORE: White House: GOP Focus On Benghazi Tied To Mitt Romney) But the AP phone records produced a particularly surprising response. While Obama’s ardent prosecution of national security leaks has been well-documented in past years, particularly on the civil liberties left, it&#8217;s a relatively new cause for mainstream Republicans. “Whether it is secretly targeting patriotic Americans participating in the electoral progress or reporters exercising their First Amendment rights, these new revelations suggest a pattern of intimidation by the Obama Administration,” Doug Heye, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said in a statement to TIME. “The First Amendment is first for a reason,&#8221; added Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. &#8220;If the Obama Administration is going after reporters’ phone records, they better have a damned good explanation.” The explanation might be, in part, the angry cries from Republican members of Congress over the Associated Press reporting that appears to have triggered the Justice Department probe. In May 2012, the AP described<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95514&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/scandal_0513.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">U.S. President Barack Obama walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 2, 2013.</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Tries to Put Benghazi Back on the Fringe</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/angry-obama-tries-to-put-benghazi-back-on-the-fringe/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/angry-obama-tries-to-put-benghazi-back-on-the-fringe/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 16:44:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95469</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Barack Obama angrily batted away questions on Monday about his Administration’s response to the Benghazi attack, calling the recent furor over edited talking points a “sideshow.” Less than a week after emotional testimony in the House of Representatives brought the conservative obsession with Benghazi into the mainstream, Obama tried to contain the damage by framing the GOP focus on the attack as politically driven. “We dishonor [the victims] when we turn things like this into a political circus,” Obama said during a peevish joint press conference at the White House with British Prime Minister David Cameron. A week after the U.S. deputy chief of mission in Libya questioned the Administration’s official account of efforts to help the victims of the Sept. 11, 2012 assault, Obama tried to use his frustration to deflect new revelations that State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland edited intelligence-community talking points in the days after the attack to downplay potential security failures. &#8220;Suddenly, three days ago, this gets spun up as if there&#8217;s something new to the story,&#8221; the President added, saying the talking points reflected what he was being told by intelligence officials. &#8220;There&#8217;s no &#8216;there&#8217; there.&#8221; “The whole issue of talking points, frankly, throughout this process has been a sideshow,” Obama said, noting that the Administration called it an act of terrorism almost from the start. “Who executes some sort of cover-up or effort to tamp things down for three days? So the whole thing defies logic.&#8221; In November, White House press secretary Jay Carney said only a small, semantic change had been made to the talking points. With his Administration’s credibility under assault, Obama spent 918 words arguing that the allegations were not to be believed, and accused Republicans of playing politics. “They’ve used it for fundraising,” he said. Until last week, the focus on the Benghazi attack had been the bailiwick of conservative news outlets and bloggers. Obama&#8217;s remarks were an attempt to knock the issue off the front page and back to the fringe. Instead his approach may add fuel to the fire. Obama’s<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95469&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/angry-obama-tries-to-put-benghazi-back-on-the-fringe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pol-obama-cameron-presser1-130513.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">British Prime Minister David Cameron listens as President Barack Obama speaks during their joint news conference in the East Room of the White House.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>The Lingering Questions About the Benghazi Controversy</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/the-lingering-questions-from-the-benghazi-controversy/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/13/the-lingering-questions-from-the-benghazi-controversy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 09:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Scherer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95424</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The cover-up is often worse than the crime, they say. And that’s true. But these days there is also a corollary in Washington: the partisan outrage over a potential scandal is often more confusing than the alleged cover-up. So it is with the unfolding Benghazi controversy, which Republicans are eagerly comparing to Watergate and Iran-Contra. Last week, Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, even invoked the possibility of impeaching President Barack Obama for his handling of the episode, despite the fact that Congressman Darrell Issa, the California Republican overseeing the House investigation, said on Sunday that Obama &#8220;is not a target.” Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, went on CNN Sunday to argue that lives could have been saved had the military responded quicker to the attacks in Benghazi, even though the Pentagon and the State Department have both concluded that this is not the case. (VIDEO: Michael Crowley on the Politics of Benghazi) As more facts have emerged, few of the tidy story lines about the September 11, 2012 attack have held up. Republicans have long maintained that the Obama administration misled the nation by blaming the assault on a spontaneous demonstration, but leaked documents now show the intelligence community independently held this same misconception in the days after the attacks. Meanwhile the White House finds itself trying to explain away old statements that are clearly contradicted by newly public facts. One of the most newsworthy developments took place on Friday in the White House briefing room, when Press Secretary Jay Carney attempted to deal with incongruities between his past statements and newly leaked documents. He boldly claimed there were no contradictions. Carney has repeatedly argued that the intelligence community&#8217;s talking points on Benghazi had not been substantially edited or rewritten. “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate,” Carney said last November. (MORE: Terror, Security,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95424&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxzf3e.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Officials are sworn in before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on &#34;Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage&#34; in Washington</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a467a0981ef8e059913a0aa44ba7df1b?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">michaelscherer</media:title>
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		<title>Senator: Obama Should Apologize for IRS Targeting</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/12/senator-obama-should-apologize-for-irs-targeting/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/12/senator-obama-should-apologize-for-irs-targeting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 May 2013 16:38:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Associated Press</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95417</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — Republicans said Sunday that the Internal Revenue Service&#8217;s heightened scrutiny of conservative political groups was &#8220;chilling&#8221; and further eroded public trust in government. Lawmakers said President Barack Obama personally should apologize for targeting tea party organizations and they challenged the tax agency&#8217;s blaming of low-level workers. &#8220;I just don&#8217;t buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees,&#8221; said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. &#8220;After all, groups with &#8216;progressive&#8217; in their names were not targeted similarly.&#8221; If it were just a small number of employees, she said, &#8220;then you would think that the high-level IRS supervisors would have rushed to make this public, fired the employees involved, apologized to the American people and informed Congress. None of that happened in a timely way.&#8221; The IRS said Friday that it was sorry for what it called the &#8220;inappropriate&#8221; targeting of the conservative groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware. But according to a draft of a watchdog&#8217;s report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner, senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011. (MORE: Klein: The IRS Scandal Shows Obama&#8217;s Management Flaws) The Treasury Department&#8217;s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said last week that the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. But on June 29, 2011, Lerner learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog&#8217;s report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with &#8220;Tea Party,&#8221; &#8221;Patriot&#8221; or &#8220;9/12 Project&#8221; in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said &#8220;the conclusion<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95417&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/cbef58d71daefb9ddab6c6b20018290c?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>IRS Admits To Targeting Conservative Groups Over Tax Status</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/irs-admits-targeting-conservative-groups-over-tax-status/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/irs-admits-targeting-conservative-groups-over-tax-status/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 19:47:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller and Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95364</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Internal Revenue Service acknowledged Friday that it had inappropriately targeted conservative political groups for additional scrutiny during the 2012 election cycle, an admission that set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill and could damage the Obama Administration. Lois Lerner, the official in charge of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, revealed the move Friday at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Association in Washington. Lerner said organizations whose names contained the phrase “tea party” or “patriots” were selected for additional reviews of their 501 (c) (4) tax-exempt status as social welfare groups. &#8220;That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate,&#8221; Lerner said, according to the Associated Press. &#8221;That&#8217;s not how we go about selecting cases for further review.&#8221; In a conference call with reporters Friday afternoon, the agency said the errors were limited to a group of IRA workers in its Cincinnati office, who singled out 300 applications for tax-exempt status for review. One-quarter of those were conservative groups. None of the groups had their status revoked, but some withdrew their applications in the face of requests to divulge their donors. &#8220;Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale,&#8221; the IRS said in a statement. &#8220;We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system.” Workers were looking for signs that the groups were primarily focused on political activity, which would have violated their tax status. Campaign finance groups have long complained that political groups have improperly received tax-exempt designations despite using their money to influence elections. The admission by the IRS was made ahead of a forthcoming report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. It comes a year after Tea Party groups first complained they had been subjected to undue scrutiny because of their political leanings. An IRS spokesperson would not comment on whether any disciplinary actions were taken against the responsible employees. The revelations incensed congressional Republicans and appeared to validate Tea Party complaints. &#8220;The fact<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95364&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/tea-party-patriots.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Tea Party Patriots</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
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		<title>Steve Cohen is Master of the Media</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/12/steve-cohen-is-master-of-the-media/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/12/steve-cohen-is-master-of-the-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:00:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=92817</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Steve Cohen, a Democratic Congressman from Tennessee, says he has figured out how to game the media: just send a titillating tweet, then delete it. Here&#8217;s the crux of the strange, meta skirmish that ensued when an eccentric congressman with a bone to pick decided to turn the tables on the prurient Beltway press. On Tuesday night, Cohen attended a concert at the White House that showcased music from Memphis, including the stylings of &#8217;80s rocker Cyndi Lauper. Later that night, the congressman, who represents Memphis, sent a tweet to the 59-year-old Lauper: &#8220;@cyndilauper great night,couldn&#8217;t believe how hot u were.see you again next Tuesday.try a little tenderness.&#8221; Twenty-one minutes later he deleted the note, the second of two he wrote to Lauper that evening. The scrubbed tweet got picked up by a website called Politwoops, a Sunlight Foundation project that archives all deleted tweets by members of Congress. By Friday morning, Cohen— who also gave a tribute to Lauper on the House floor on Thursday, was catching heat in the blogosphere. Cohen claims this is what he expected to happen. He has been in this situation before. About halfway through the State of the Union in February, Cohen tweeted a message to a pretty young blonde who told him via Twitter that she&#8217;d seen him on TV: &#8220;@victoria_brink nice to know you were watchin SOTU(state of the union).Happy Valentines beautiful girl. ilu.&#8221; Then he deleted the message. When Politwoops discovered it, the media assumed they had a sex scandal on their hands. Turns out the 24-year-old woman was Cohen&#8217;s long-lost daughter. The lawmaker, who is a bachelor, evidently held a grudge. “Just because she’s posed in a bikini, it was assumed I’m screwing her,” Cohen told the Daily Beast Friday. &#8220;It hurt my daughter and my relationship with her.&#8221; So he crafted and deleted the tweet, he says, to get the gotcha media to rush to assumptions— and publicize his district&#8217;s musical legacy in the process. (It could also be the case that Cohen concocted the strange explanation to excuse an errant<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=92817&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ap080713024273.jpg?w=122</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ap080713024273.jpg?w=122" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ap080713024273.jpg?w=122" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Steve Cohen</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<item>
		<title>When an Enemy is an Ally: Mitch McConnell Gets a Boost from Alleged Wiretappers</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/11/when-an-enemy-is-an-ally-mitch-mcconnell-gets-a-boost-from-alleged-wiretappers/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/11/when-an-enemy-is-an-ally-mitch-mcconnell-gets-a-boost-from-alleged-wiretappers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:41:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=92758</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Mitch McConnell and his advisers told reporters that the &#8220;professional Left&#8221; was behind a &#8220;Nixonian&#8221; ploy to bug his campaign headquarters and leak the tape of an opposition-research session, most observers interpreted the charge as clever spin. McConnell&#8217;s team had taken a routine but unsavory story — his campaign weighing how to bury prospective opponent Ashley Judd — and turned it into a masterful display of umbrage-taking. McConnell pointed the finger Tuesday at a little-known Democratic group called Progress Kentucky.  &#8221;Last month, they were attacking my wife&#8217;s ethnicity,&#8221; he told reporters. &#8220;And unbeknownst to me, they were also bugging my headquarters in Nixonian fashion.&#8221; This too seemed like a red herring. Any group can be painted as a bogeyman, but Progress Kentucky is particularly small-fry: last year the so-called super PAC raised all of $1,005, and spent just $18. They garnered a lot of attention with one ugly (and since-deleted) tweet. But the charge may not have been farfetched. On Thursday a Democratic official in Kentucky told Louisville&#8217;s NPR affiliate that members of Progress Kentucky boasted about recording the meeting. Jacob Conway, a member of the executive committee of the Jefferson County, Ky., Democratic Party, tells the network: “They were in the hallway after the, I guess after the celebration and hoopla ended, apparently these people broke for lunch and had a strategy meeting, which is, in every campaign I&#8217;ve been affiliated with, makes perfect sense&#8230;One of them held the elevator, the other one did the recording and they left. That was what they told to me from them directly&#8230; Apparently the gentlemen overheard the conversation and decided to record it with a phone or recording device they had in their pocket. Could&#8217;ve been an iPhone, could&#8217;ve been a Flip camera or something like that.&#8221; Conway told NBC News that he came forward now to dissociate the group from the Democratic Party. But the upshot of the episode is that instead of a news cycle or two of pundits chewing over whether it&#8217;s fair game for the most powerful Republican<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=92758&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/11/when-an-enemy-is-an-ally-mitch-mcconnell-gets-a-boost-from-alleged-wiretappers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rtxyfah.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/rtxyfah.jpg?w=200" />
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			<media:title type="html">Senate Minority Leader McConnell holds a news conference with fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>McConnell Campaign Seeks FBI Probe of Secret Tape</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/09/mcconnell-campaign-seeks-fbi-probe-of-secret-tape/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/09/mcconnell-campaign-seeks-fbi-probe-of-secret-tape/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:43:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Altman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ashley Judd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitch McConnell]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=92432</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell&#8217;s re-election campaign has asked the FBI to investigate how a liberal magazine obtained an audio recording of a private strategy meeting in which aides discussed how to defeat Ashley Judd if the actress ran against McConnell next year. The tape, released Tuesday on the website of Mother Jones magazine, captures McConnell and a cadre of aides discussing the possibility of attacking Judd for her mental health, her views on religion and gender issues, and a range of policy positions. According to Mother Jones, the recording is of a Feb. 2 meeting at the Louisville headquarters of McConnell&#8217;s re-election campaign. At the time, Judd, a Democrat, was mulling a challenge to the Republican Senate leader, who faces re-election in 2014. She has since decided not to run. Jesse Benton, McConnell&#8217;s campaign manager, told TIME the meeting consisted of &#8220;a very small group of senior strategists,&#8221; and dismissed the possibility that someone in the room could have leaked the recording. (MORE: Ashley Judd Targeted in Withering New Ad) &#8220;We’ve always said the left would stop at nothing to attack Sen. McConnell, but Watergate-style tactics to bug campaign headquarters are above and beyond,&#8221; Benton said in a statement. “Senator McConnell’s campaign is working with the FBI and has notified the local U.S. Attorney in Louisville, per FBI request, about these recordings. Obviously a recording device of some kind was placed in Senator McConnell’s campaign office without consent. By whom and how that was accomplished presumably will be the subject of a criminal investigation.” The recording captures a presentation at which aides review opposition research of Judd&#8217;s personal history and policy positions. McConnell&#8217;s voice is heard on the tape, describing the process as the &#8220;Whac-A-Mole period&#8221; of the campaign. &#8220;When anybody sticks their head up, do them out,&#8221; he seems to say. Mining a potential opponent&#8217;s past statements for damaging nuggets is standard procedure for any campaign, though the secret recording lays bare how brutal the process can be. The tape captures McConnell aides noting Judd&#8217;s hospitalization for mental-health reasons and playing<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=92432&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/04/09/mcconnell-campaign-seeks-fbi-probe-of-secret-tape/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/164064983.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks to the press after the weekly Senate Republicans policy luncheon on March 19, 2013 in Washington, D.C.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/41a5f1af68b9fd647df540c67f1a464a?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Alex Altman</media:title>
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		<title>RNC Chair Urges &#8220;Dignity and Respect&#8221; for All After Michigan GOP Official’s Facebook Post On “Filthy” Homosexuals</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/28/rnc-chair-urges-dignity-and-respect-for-all-after-michigan-gop-officials-facebook-post-on-filthy-homosexuals/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/28/rnc-chair-urges-dignity-and-respect-for-all-after-michigan-gop-officials-facebook-post-on-filthy-homosexuals/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Zeke J Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=91614</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Republican National Committee did little Thursday to quell the uproar over a controversial Facebook posting by committeeman Dave Agema of Michigan on “filthy” homosexuals that has prompted calls for his resignation or removal from the party&#8217;s leadership. On Wednesday, Agema copy-pasted an article by “Frank Joseph, M.D.” entitled “Everyone Should Know These Statistics on Homosexuals” onto his Facebook page. The article includes the statement that “part of the homosexual agenda is to get the public to affirm their filthy lifestyle.” The posting was quickly flagged and denounced by a group of young Republicans, including precinct delegate Dennis Lennox, operative Brad Fingeroot, and many college Republicans. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t about what we believe either politically or as women and men of faith,&#8221; the Republicans said in a statement to reporters late Wednesday. &#8220;This is about common decency and realizing that you cannot win an election by insulting a wide swath of the electorate, whose votes our Republican Party needs to once again form a national majority. We do not have confidence in Mr. Agema representing the best interests of our fellow Michigan Republicans and as a result ask him to resign from his seat on the Republican National Committee.&#8221; RNC Chairman Reince Priebus responded to the controversy in a statement to TIME Thursday: “The party’s position on traditional marriage is clear but as I have been saying, all human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” he said. But Priebus stopped short of directly condemning Agema. One GOP insider says the message should be clear, however: &#8220;Anyone who publishes something like that is too stupid to be a member of the committee; his comments are the opposite of what Reince has been advocating.&#8221; That response echoed remarks by Michigan GOP chairman Bobby Schostak, who implied that the statement “undermines” the party platform but did not repudiate the posting or call for Agema to step aside. &#8220;Our party remains in support of traditional marriage but that should never be allowed nor confused with any form of hate or discrimination toward anyone,&#8221; he said<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=91614&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/28/rnc-chair-urges-dignity-and-respect-for-all-after-michigan-gop-officials-facebook-post-on-filthy-homosexuals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/970_sl_gay_marriage_supreme_court_0328.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/970_sl_gay_marriage_supreme_court_0328.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/970_sl_gay_marriage_supreme_court_0328.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Gay Marriage</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/b456c5209a547a000e0b869f3333aa77?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">zekemiller</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/8594705151.jpeg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Dave Agema</media:title>
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		<title>Bob Ney, &#8220;Sideswiped&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/08/bob-ney-sideswiped/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/08/bob-ney-sideswiped/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:39:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=90066</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wednesday night Bob Ney, the only Congressman convicted in the 2006 Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, spoke two blocks from the Capitol at the old politicos hangout, the Monocle. A C-SPAN duo and crowd of twenty to thirty gathered around the 5’8’’ 58 year-old to hear about his new book, Sideswiped: Lessons Learned Courtesy of the Hit Men of Capitol Hill, which has recently attracted press from almost every major political media outlet for its portrait of Speaker of the House John Boehner. In the handout given to those present, next to a bar with free drinks and across from the table with some juicy shrimp and delicious chicken quesadillas, was a list of quotes from the book, the first three on Boehner. There are around 5000 first-edition copies, according to Ney’s publisher, Changing Lives Press, and they must know why the book will sell.  Sideswiped calls Boehner’s life in Congress: A maintenance job…he was considered a man that was all about winning and money. He was a chain-smoking, relentless wine drinker who was more interested in the high life- golf, woman, cigarettes, fun, and alcohol. Ney spices up his depiction of Boehner with a few salacious stories of alleged misbehavior. Claims Ney: one night at the Capital Grille Boehner got drunk and took a female staffer home; Boehner regularly gave hand outs- free Barclay cigarettes from his lobbyist and campaign checks on the House floor; Boehner called one of his staffers a “fag;” Boehner broke out into “all-out wailing” after he was ousted from chairman of the House Republicans Conference in 1998.  In 2006, Ney dropped out of his reelection race after serving for 11 years, and he now says Boehner convinced him to go by promising him a well-paying private job and money to pay the lawyers defending him against the Justice Department&#8217;s Abramoff investigation. Neither the job or the money ever materialized, Ney says. On Tuesday, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told the Washington Post, &#8220;This is a convicted felon with a history of failing to tell the truth making a lot of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=90066&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/03/08/bob-ney-sideswiped/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/bob-ney.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">US Rep. Ney leaves a federal courthouse in Washington after pleading guilty in a corruption scandal</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/509f545dfcf07266c1eb847a42170416?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>Understanding the GOP&#8217;s Benghazi Obsession</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/understanding-the-gops-benghazi-obsession/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/understanding-the-gops-benghazi-obsession/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:30:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88720</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For the past five months, the Republican message on foreign policy has been defined by a single word: Benghazi. Ever since the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. compound in that Libyan city, Republicans have obsessed over the episode. Mitt Romney made Benghazi a favorite talking point in the 2012 campaign home stretch. More recently, Republicans have invoked Benghazi to shoot down one would-be Cabinet nominee, Susan Rice, and delay two others, Chuck Hagel and John Brennan. They have dragged a parade of Administration officials, including Hillary Clinton, to testify before Congress. And they are still not satisfied. “We have had a massive cover-up,” Republican Senator John McCain said on Meet the Press last weekend. “There are so many answers we don’t know.” We do know quite a lot: the State Department has released a thorough independent report that resulted in the firing of four employees. Pentagon officials like Leon Panetta have explained why they couldn’t quickly send reinforcements to the scene. And the genealogy of those infamous talking points — upon which Rice relied when she appeared on several Sunday talk shows days after the attack — has been described in considerable detail. But it’s the President that McCain and his colleagues are really after now. What exactly was Barack Obama doing while the compound was under attack? Did the White House insist on scrubbing the words terrorism and al-Qaeda from the intelligence community’s talking points for political reasons, lest Obama’s campaign narrative about the demise of the al-Qaeda terrorism threat be undermined? Many Democrats say Republicans are exploiting a tragedy for tawdry partisan gain. But the GOP’s political profit isn’t obvious. Polls show that most Americans don’t think the Obama Administration has misled the public. And with Clinton testifying for hours on live television about the attacks, they largely fumbled the opportunity. The Republican lobbyist-strategist Ed Rogers told NPR he doubts the wisdom of pressing the issue so intensely. Benghazi is starting to resemble the “Fast and Furious” scandal, which consumed the right’s attention for months even as voters and<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88720&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/understanding-the-gops-benghazi-obsession/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/pol-gop-benghazi-0221.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">From left: Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain at a press conference on the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, in Washington D.C., on Feb. 14, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Why the “Obamaquester” Label Won’t Last</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/why-the-obamaquester-label-wont-last/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/why-the-obamaquester-label-wont-last/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:07:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katy Steinmetz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88691</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[They’re called stunt words: sometimes witty, often fleeting terms concocted for some particular, premeditated use. This week’s hot political stunt word is Obamaquester, a Republican fusion meant to assign blame for the automatic spending cuts set to take effect on March 1. But Obamaquester is not a neologism likely to last—or even to follow in the footsteps of a term such as Obamacare, a stunt word currently ingrained in our lexicon. Linguist Allan Metcalf devised a clever five-part test in his book Predicting New Words for whether such neologisms will succeed. It goes by the acronym FUDGE. F is for “frequency of use.” House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans were calling the upcoming deadline “the president’s sequester” before school started last year. In recent weeks, they have been promoting the term “Obamaquester” on their lecterns and in social media. Yet according to Twitter index Topsy, that term has only been used about 600 times in the past week, compared to more than 18,000 for sequester (and roughly 625,000 for Justin Bieber). U is for “unobtrusiveness.&#8221; Successful words, Metcalf&#8217;s edict says, don&#8217;t call attention to themselves. The relatively catchy Obamacare, for instance, had its way paved by Hillarycare, which was a tongue’s wag from their parent, healthcare. Sequester is gangly on its own, and Obamaquester has all the grace of a malfunctioning robot. In fact, Obamaquester’s most salient feature is arguably how obtrusive it is. D is for “diversity.” The word needs to be used by various people in sundry situations. While Obama, and therefore Democrats and a wide swath of voters, eventually embraced Obamacare, the President has little reason to take credit for the unpopular sequester. Some conservatives, such as Rep. Justin Amash and Sen. John McCain, have rejected language that pins the sequester entirely on Obama, given how many Republicans helped vote that measure into law. Even if everyone in Washington took up the buzzword, it&#8217;s doubtful that the cumbersome, super-specific Obamaquester would make it outside the Beltway. G is for “generation.” Lasting nouns, for example, often take on metaphorical meanings or<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88691&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/21/why-the-obamaquester-label-wont-last/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/obamaquester.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/obamaquester.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/obamaquester.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">John Boehner Obamaquester</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/05bfb17f05eff70efc8061bb1a213e86?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Katy Steinmetz</media:title>
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		<title>Jesse Jackson Jr. Faces Federal Fraud and Conspiracy Charges</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2013/02/15/jesse-jackson-jr-faces-federal-fraud-and-conspiracy-charges/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2013/02/15/jesse-jackson-jr-faces-federal-fraud-and-conspiracy-charges/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 14:03:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Madison Gray</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88351</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88351&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2013/02/15/jesse-jackson-jr-faces-federal-fraud-and-conspiracy-charges/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/nat_jackson_021513.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Jesse jackson Jr.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">joetimemag</media:title>
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		<title>The Man Behind Robert Menendez’s Troubles</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/18/the-man-behind-robert-menendezs-troubles/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/18/the-man-behind-robert-menendezs-troubles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2013 10:45:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Ezra Fieser/ Boca Chica</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88302</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Correction appended: Feb. 18, 2013 Every day in a steady stream, hundreds of trucks line up at the Multimodal Caucedo port in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, with shipping containers bound for the rest of the world. Mostly they carry bananas, clothes and other legal exports. Sometimes they are full of cocaine. In recent years, the containers have become one of the favored methods for drug traffickers operating in the Dominican Republic, security officials say. Perhaps that’s because the country’s sole X-ray machine scans less than 5% of the containers. Efforts to solve that problem are at the root of a growing scandal surrounding a powerful U.S. Senator, New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, and a high-flying Florida ophthalmologist, Salomon Melgen, who is among the Democratic Party’s biggest donors. A decade ago, the Dominican government signed a deal with a private company to provide more X-ray machines. But because of high costs and claims that the deal gives the company a monopoly, it’s been held up in court; the machines were never installed. That’s left in limbo the contract, worth upwards of $500 million over 20 years, and the company that now holds it, Florida-based Boarder Support Services, which was formed by Melgen. (MORE: Bob Menendez’s Very Bad Week) Enter Menendez, who soon began pushing U.S. officials to force action on the stalled contract, even as he flew on Melgen’s private jet and received at least $700,000 in campaign contributions from him. Menendez has denied any impropriety. “Nobody has bought me,” he told the Spanish-language Univision in an interview. He said his focus in bringing up the subject at a Senate hearing last year was to limit drug trafficking. Melgen, who is known to enjoy hobnobbing with powerful political types, has kept a low profile since the allegations emerged. Through a spokesman, he declined a request to speak with TIME. In a statement through his lawyer, Alan Reider, Melgen says he “acted appropriately at all times.” In interviews with friends and family and through public records, a portrait has emerged of Melgen<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88302&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/18/the-man-behind-robert-menendezs-troubles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/sl-menendez-0218.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey waits for the start of a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Jack Lew on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 13, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<title>The Long War Over the &#8220;War on Terror&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/15/the-long-war-over-the-war-on-terror/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/15/the-long-war-over-the-war-on-terror/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:45:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katy Steinmetz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Controversies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=88153</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Soon after he took office in 2009, Obama purposefully stopped using one of his predecessor&#8217;s favorite catchphrases. Neither the President nor his counterterrorism team publically referred to the global war on terror. That refusal has been a battering ram for conservatives ever since, one that Rep. Michele Bachmann is now pushing as a reason to oppose John Brennan as CIA Director. In an op-ed published this week, the Tea Party darling decried Brennan&#8217;s nomination—in part because he does not refer to the “war on terror.” Obama started explaining his distaste for the phrase in his presidency’s early days. “It is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations,” he said in a February 2009 interview on CNN. “But that those organizations aren&#8217;t representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community … You know, words matter in this situation.” In other words, he says global war on terror is dangerously vague. He&#8217;s anxious to be clear that whatever conflict the U.S. has is with bad actors such as Al-Qaida, who may be Islamic, and not Islam itself. Later that year, then counterterrorism advisor Brennan elaborated during a speech in Washington, D.C. The President doesn’t use the phrase war on terror, he said, because “terrorism is a tactic”—and no amount of success will ever allow Obama to promise that a tactic has been defeated. The President doesn’t use the descriptor global, Brennan said, because it supports “the misleading and dangerous notion that the U.S. is somehow in conflict with the rest of the world,” and makes groups like Al-Qaida sound like super-organized, supranational foes. Critics such as Bachmann paint opposition to the phrase as a mistakenly narrow focus on Al-Qaida. (She quotes Brennan saying &#8220;We are not waging a war against terrorism …We are at war with Al Qaeda and its extremist allies.&#8221;) Critics such as former Gov. Tim Pawlenty have painted it as a kind of cowardice, a refusal to acknowledge the dangers of “radical Islamic terrorism&#8221; and an overweening concern about being politically correct. Despite the Obama Administration’s public advocacy against<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=88153&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/02/15/the-long-war-over-the-war-on-terror/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Controversies</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/2012-election/controversies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/war-on-terror.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Fort Hood Holds Remembrance Ceremony</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">Katy Steinmetz</media:title>
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