Greg Dworkin discusses the lingering controversies, including some interesting variations in polling on the AP phone records. Also: the strange case of Josh Barro. The IRS story moves into a new phase, wherein Republicans insist that President Obama had to have known about what a field office of an independent agency was up to, and if he didn't, then that's evidence of a cover-up, too. Next, the Mother Jones reporting on AK-47 "build parties," where participants build their own unmarked and untraceable assault rifles. John McCain looks to defuse "nuclear option" showdown. Lamar Alexander pretends not to see the difference between the ACA and Iran-Contra. A shocking chart showing how the mix of sources of total federal revenues have changed since the 1950s. The Atlantic on "Why Private Schools Are Dying Out." The Teamsters blog notes that income inequality today actually outpaces income inequality in Renaissance Italy. The Medicis were pikers!

Greg Dworkin joined us to discuss Oklahoma's continuing recovery, and some of the factors that stand in the way of more widespread adoption of protective measures like the construction of "safe rooms" and basements in homes in "Tornado Alley." Then we catch up on the day's GunFAIL stories, noting once again the passive voice construction that makes accidental shootings a rootless, causeless consequence of freedom or something. Also, more notes on the gun-toting teachers of Utah story, prompted by a note from alpaca farmer, a former Utah resident. Seems the teachers interviewed left out one of the key arguments they once made against a bill that would mandate alerting parents when there's an armed teacher in their kid's classroom. And one of the folks quoted as supporting armed teachers, whose argument rested on those teachers being deemed trustworthy because they had to go through a permitting process, turns out to have been lobbying to repeal the permitting requirement entirely. And not only that, but the guy's actually been on my GunFAIL list before! Moving on, more facts about tax-exempt political groups, and more discussion of a possible "nuclear option" on nomination filibusters.

The day's news was obviously dominated by the Oklahoma tornado situation. In addition to providing our morning news and punditry roundup, of course, Greg Dworkin's an expert in disaster preparation, so we dove into that as well. And once again, disaster response reminds us that teachers are often first responders, and that first responders are unionized, public employees. Also: a peek into the thinking of the conspiracy-minded, and yet another reminder that despite it all, it's still the economy, stupid. We turned back to the gun issue to report another entry in wacky gun news, and to finish up the article about Utah's gun-toting teachers today, with more critique of the strange proclivity for insisting that there's a privacy right bound up in the Second Amendment. From there, an update on the 3D printing issue, a story about "Colorado's deadliest neighborhood," and a somewhat surprising investigation into the disciplinary records and backgrounds of Atlanta area school resource officers. Finally, a listener note seeking clarification in reporting about the "unanimous confirmation" of the new Energy Secretary. Was it unanimous consent, or a unanimous vote. And is there a difference between the two? Answers: yes and yes.

Greg Dworkin confirmed for us that the weekend political world was pretty much frozen in place in the middle of last week, so we'd have to look elsewhere for political news not involving Republicans making breathless but unfounded comparisons to Watergate. After a brief detour into the  Umbrellacaust, we moved back to the IRS story, reviewing a few more stories providing context that helps us separate it from shrieking about Watergate. First, Garance Franke-Ruta's piece (and yes, I know I mispronounced archetype!), "There Was No Surge in IRS Tax-Exempt Applications in 2010," then David Cay Johnston's, "Lois Lerner Must Resign," and Stephanie Mencimer's "Actually, Tea Party Groups Gave the IRS Lots of Good Reasons to be Interested." Off on a tangent, but not totally unrelated, was Keenan Steiner's, "How ex-Det. Guy Bowers became the biggest campaign donor of all." Finally, we had to get back to the gun issue, with the tragic story out of Hofstra University making headlines, but also a fascinating look at the concealed carrying teachers of Utah. A very revealing look, I thought, into the minds of folks who feel certain that introducing the presence of guns into the daily lives of our school kids is a decision they feel comfortable making for all of us, pretty much by themselves. Because liberty. Unless you disagree, in which case, their tyranny wins, because it's really liberty.

Wrapping up the week with Greg Dworkin, it seems the embers are dying in the "scandal" fires, one at a time. The Sunday shows always run a few days behind, though, because guests and topics are typically locked in by mid-week. On the radar today: Kevin Drum's "It's Official: Those Bogus Email Leaks Came From Republicans." Turns out that news outlets got burned by Republican sources, who told them they had damning emails, but it turns out the genuine article emails were very different from those "leaked" to the press. Armando joined in to press that point, and urge accountability for ABC News' Jonathan Karl, who indicated in his reporting that he'd actually obtained and reviewed the emails himself, but clearly had not. Also, the bizarre story of a holocaust denier who reinvented himself as a Hollywood conservative player, until he was recently outed. How do these fabulists get away with this stuff? A brief #GunFAIL update. And finally, a bit more exploration of the prospects for mid-session filibuster rules reform, drawing on Joan McCarter's post on Harry Reid's plans to call for a vote on Richard Cordray's nomination next week. And hey, in between, we plug show sponsor Audible, and let you know that listeners can sign up & get a free audio book download at audiblepodcast.com/kagro.

During Greg Dworkin's morning roundup, we wondered whether maybe the biggest casualty of this week's scandalpalooza has really been the Benghazi hoopla. Conservative fire remains concentrated on the IRS story, though that seems to be the one that offers the most angles for firing back. But it works as a way of not concentrating on what was, until last week, the zOMG stories of the century: the debt & deficit, now plummeting at record pace. Discussion of the IRS story continued around selections from FiveThirtyEight's "I.R.S. Approved Dozens of Tea Party Groups Following Congressional Scrutiny," an old LA Times article on IRS targeting of a liberal California church, the actual Nixon White House tapes regarding political use of the IRS, Rick Perlstein's "Washington Misses the Point on the Tea Party and the IRS," Mark Sumner's "The IRS 'scandal'--all smoke, no fire," and David Cay Johnston's "The other IRS scandal." Armando chimed in from the road on these stories as well. Finally, a word about the ridiculous "wish we'd had some AR-15s up in Boston" talking point, and a short catch-up on new filibuster reform talk.

Greg Dworkin gave us a round-up sampling on the three "scandals" of the week, the 37th attempt of the House Republicans to repeal Obamacare, and Stanley Fish's question, "Is the N.R.A. Un-American?" Meanwhile, what's suddenly missing from the conversation? Debt & deficit hawkery. Is it the "scandal" feeding frenzy? Or is it because both have dropped precipitously, so the narrative is falling apart? Next, a detour back through #GunFAIL, including the continuing child-on-child shooting spree, and some fact-finding on claims that accidents at gun shows just don't happen, or are super-rare anomalies. Then, back to the IRS story, featuring the 2011 Mother Jones series, "Tea Party Patriots Investigated." Seems some of the Tea Party's own grassroots think some of the groups scrutinized probably deserved it.

Washington's focus on "scandal" continued today, to no one's surprise. Armando called in on the IRS, Benghazi and AP stories, plus the truly astounding Washington Post "fact check" of the "act of terror" versus "terrorist act" flap. We expanded the discussion to the entirety of the "Republican scandal management playbook," bringing in Jon Perr to discuss his Sunday Kos post on the subject. Also, information both old and new begins to emerge that appears to indicate that grassroots Tea Party activists had as much motive to target the big name, big money "Tea Party" astroturf groups for IRS scrutiny as anybody. Meanwhile, isn't it amazing how this is never reported as a distraction, or as "poisoning the well" against the prospects of a "Grand Bargain?" Your "liberal media," folks.

Death panels! I mean, Demon Pass! I mean, Benghazi! I mean, IRS! Yeah, we probably shouldn't feed this, but there's so many tangential issues tied up in how we treat charges of politicization of federal agencies, we just had to take a look. Greg Dworkin reminded us all too briefly that there are other things happening in the world, specifically the decision of what to do in Newtown, CT with the now-vacant Sandy Hook Elementary School building. But local decisions, like national ones, are political by nature, and the dynamics are surprisingly familiar. For the most part, the rest of the show was given over to the weekend's IRS blow-up. We recall the Republicans' own effort to "defund the left" through the mid-90s-era Istoook amendment, targeting federal grantees involved in what they felt was "improper" political activities, as well as Newt Gingrich's efforts to shoehorn his own political activity into a tax-exempt context. And the Bush-era audits of the NAACP, Greenpeace and others. We discussed Ezra Klein's take, and were reminded by it of the Bush administration's politicization of the US Attorneys and the wider DOJ (including the voting rights section, which created its own political targeting problems). And Alex Seitz-Wald's compilation of the many, many things Republicans have used of late to suggest impeachment, paired with Michael Tomasky's look at the subject. Finally, we read Daily Kos' own Jon Perr on "Benghazi and the Republican scandal management playbook."

Drawing on the information from past #KITM shows, you can convert frustrated WalMart shoppers into anti-WalMart evangelists, one at a time! Jonathan Chait on "Why Left and Right Economics Can't Just Agree." Catholic hospital ditches Catholic doctrine when it might cost them money. Twitter star @UnitedLiberals joins us to discuss Kutztown (PA) University's decision to sorta-kinda loosen their on-campus gun policy, ALEC's latest anti-transparency play, campaigns-in-a-box, increasing concerns over "political intelligence" consulting, and other issues under which Liberals are typically United.