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Republican strategist Karl Rove says that Crossroads GPS, which is a part the American Crossroads super PAC that he founded, is a legitimate tax-exempt organization because it promotes "social welfare" like the NAACP.

During a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday about the IRS scrutinizing tea party groups, host Chris Wallace asked why Rove's political action committee qualified as a tax-exempt status as a social welfare group.

"Didn't the IRS have a problem in the wake of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling in getting a handle on the question of what groups did and didn't qualify under the tax code for 501(c)4 status?" Wallace wondered.

"Look, 501(c)4s have been around for a long time," Rove explained. "And the Democrats and the left have used these for years, these social welfare groups to do some politics and a lot of social welfare. NAACP voter fund, for example, ran a $10 million advertising blitz in 2000 against George W. Bush. The League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, National Abortion Rights Action League and so forth. All of them are 501(c)4s, and there are pretty clear rules about what you can and cannot do. You have to spend a majority of you money on social welfare and a minority of your money on political activity."

"So what happened is the Democrats had this for decades -- literally decades -- and no criticism at all, and then Republicans began in 2010 to say if it's good enough for them, we'll duplicate that structure as well. And then suddenly we get what we get, which is a huge bunch of activity aimed at conservative groups that are filing as 501(c)4s."

"The only advantage of a 501(c)4 is it allows you to take your contributions and not pay taxes on them," Rove insisted. "That's the one advantage that this allows you to do."

"And also the donors aren't revealed," Wallace pointed out.

"Well, because again, it's a social welfare organization," Rove agreed. "This literally goes back to the 1940s when criminal penalties were added for the revelation by the IRS of donors because southern attorneys general were attempting to get the donors to the NAACP."

After criticizing President George W. Bush's administration, the NAACP was hit with an audit in 2004 over accusations of improper political activity. At the time, the IRS insisted that the audit had been initiated by the Kentucky office and was not done for political reasons.

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Former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Sunday used the news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had scrutinized tea party groups to slam the agency's connection to President Barack Obama's heath care reform law.

Host Chris Wallace pointed out to Ryan on Fox News Sunday that the Treasury inspector general had suggested that a recent IRS scandal had been a "bureaucratic snafu" because tea party groups only represented 96 of the 298 groups that received special scrutiny about their tax-exempt status.

Ryan, however, insisted that the IRS had targeted conservative groups based on their political beliefs and "to suggest that this is some bureaucratic snafu, that's already been disproven."

"The other point I'd say is that as bad as this is, the person in charge of this bureaucratic snafu is now been put in charge of implementing Obamacare," he continued. "I mean, the IRS is now going to be granted huge amounts of unprecedented power over our health care in the implementation of Obamacare."

"And so this is just rotten to the core. This is arrogance. This is big government cronyism. And this is not what hard-working taxpayers deserve."

CBS News observed last week that there was no evidence that Sarah Hall Ingram, who headed the IRS office overseeing tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012, "sanctioned or was even aware of the targeting practices."

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White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday told Fox News host Chris Wallace that it was "offensive" to suggest that President Barack Obama had allowed last year's attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

In an interview with Pfeiffer on Fox News Sunday, Wallace explained that there were "lingering questions" about where the president was and what he was doing on Sept. 11, 2012 when the attacks happened.

Pfeiffer pointed out that Republicans had been spinning a "series of conspiracy theories," but the president had been updated about the attacks throughout the night by his national security team.

"Was he in the [White House] Situation Room?" Wallace pressed. "Do you not know?"

"I don't remember what room the president was in," Pfeiffer replied. "And that's a largely irrelevant fact. The premise of your question is that there is something that could have been done differently, okay, that would have changed the outcome here. The accountability review board has looked at this, people have looked at it, it's a horrible tragedy what happened. What we have to do is make sure it doesn't happen again."

"No one knows where he was or how he was involved or who told him there were know forces," the Fox News host insisted.

"The suggestion of your question is that somehow the president allowed this to happen," Pfeiffer observed. "The assertions from Republicans here that somehow the president allowed this to happened or didn't take action is offensive. It is absolutely offensive. And there's no evidence to support it."

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I'm not sure what else Rep. Adam Smith expected to hear from host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this weekend, since his network has been in full fake Benghazi outrage mode ever since the attacks in Libya, and taking the insanity to new heights ever since ABC helped legitimize the witch hunt last week -- but I was glad to see Wallace get some push back for continually parroting the GOP's talking points.

Wallace's response to some of Smith's criticisms was to say "I'm not a potted plant." That's always the case when he has a Democrat on the air. Every once in a while he decides to stop acting like one when a Republican is on.

Congressman Tears Into Fox News Host For Obsessing Over Benghazi Talking Points:

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) tore into Fox News’ Chris Wallace and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) for obsessing over the talking points U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used when talking to the media in the days following the attack in Benghazi, Libya rather than focusing on identifying the perpetrators of the killings. “I think the desire of the Republicans to create a scandal here has really undermined any ability to have a credible look at what actually happened,” Smith said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday alongside Rogers.

While acknowledging that the administration’s initial assessment of Bengazi did not reflect what officials later learned about the incident, Smith criticized Fox for suggesting that that Rice’s remarks on five Sunday news shows presented a definitive picture of the events of Sep. 11, 2012.

“[The administration] didn’t reach conclusions the way you just presented that was that by the Sunday afterwards that the administration said here is what happened, here is our conclusion,” Smith explained. “But the president never said, no terrorism, no Al Qaeda. There was a dispute about how soon to lead to specific conclusions that now is being made into Watergate and Iran-Contra.” Read on...

As they went onto explain, President Obama and Hillary Clinton did describe the attacks as terrorism. For anyone having trouble keeping track of the latest round of lies, Media Matters has updates here: The Truth About The Right's Latest Benghazi Attacks .

As Smith rightfully noted during his interview, it would be a lot more productive if they focused on what actually happened and finding those that perpetrated the attacks, rather than debating how a memo was put together. Instead, now it's not just Fox, but all of our corporate media has decided to turn this into the next big "scandal." It's disgusting to watch to put it mildly.

Transcript via Fox below the fold.

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Yeah, he went there if you can believe it. Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace actually asked disgraced former South Carolina governor and now newly elected Congressman Mark Sanford if he plans on running for president, Does anyone think he'd ever ask, say Anthony Weiner, if he throws his hat into the ring for the New York mayoral race, that same question? I didn't think so.

WALLACE: Back in 2009, before all this personal stuff, you were exploring a possibility of running for president in 2012, even exploring the idea of setting up a nationwide organization. So the question is, does your political comeback now end as a Congressman from the 1st congressional district of South Carolina, or is there the possibility of higher office?

SANFORD: What I say is, one, people will begin to look at that fully. There's a big gulf between them looking at it fully and saying you ought to do this, that you ought to look at this, and me doing it. So I haven't pulled any tripwire on that front, but you're exactly right, a number of people were suggesting those kind of things. My focus... my focus is to be the absolutely best congressman that I can be for the 1st congressional district of South Carolina.

Wallace followed up by asking him what the Republican party needs to do to start winning national elections again, as though this wingnut is going to have anything to recommend other than his party moving even further to the right where he and his ilk have taken them. If Republicans are going to get any help with their so-called "rebranding effort" it's not going to come from the likes of Mark Sanford.

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Mark Sanford, the South Carolina congressman-elect who notoriously lied and said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was actually in Argentina having an affair, on Sunday compared Fox News to The National Enquirer after a host asked him if he had set a date to marry his mistress.

During a Mother's Day interview following Sanford's win in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, Fox News host Chris Wallace asked the former governor what he had learned from the scandal.

"You learn a lot!" Sanford asserted from his shotgun-adorned home on Seabrook Island. "You probably learn more in the valleys of life than you do in the mountain tops with regards to God's grace, with regard to the reflective grace through the people that you walk with on a daily basis. I have to say that I learned a lot about judgment, I learned a lot about forgiveness."

"You are now engaged to the women with whom you had the affair, Maria Belen Chapur," Wallace noted. "What did your four boys think of that and have they accepted her?"

"I'm not going to go into inter-family conversations," Sanford insisted. "But I would just say it is what it is."

"Do you have a date for your wedding and will your fiance come to Washington to live with you?" the Fox News host pressed, adding, "I feel like I'm The National Enquirer here."

"Exactly!" the South Carolina Republican laughed. "What is this Fox News or National Enquirer? So, I'm not going to make news on that front tonight -- or this morning."

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) on Sunday insisted that "no one is calling for military action in Syria" even though several lawmakers have called for a strike on the country's air defenses to create a no-fly zone.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) if the United States should "stand by and watch the slaughter continue" without taking military action.

"I have met with [Department of Defense] officials, I have looked at what the options -- at what the way the civil war is going, at how fractured the opposition is, at how Al-Qaeda is a huge part of that opposition," Smith explained. "And it's not that I'm not sure. Right now, my position is, if we were to go in there and try to arm rebel groups, it would make the situation worse and there would be an enormous risk of us getting dragged into a war that we don't know the first thing about how it would come out."

"Nobody is calling for military action in Syria. No one," Rogers declared. "There are some great options... This is not something we should be arguing about."

In fact, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Carl Levin (D-MI) suggested earlier this month that the U.S. should take out part of Syria's air defenses to create a no-fly zone.

"No one should think that the United States has to act alone, put boots on the ground, or destroy every Syrian air defense system to make a difference for the better in Syria," McCain explained. "We have more limited options at our disposal -- including limited military options -- that can make a positive impact on this crisis."

"We could use our precision strike capabilities to target Assad's aircraft and SCUD missile launchers on the ground without our pilots having to fly into the teeth of Syria's air defenses. Similar weapons could be used to selectively destroy artillery pieces and make Assad's forces think twice about remaining at their posts. We could also use Patriot missile batteries outside of Syria to help protect safe zones inside of Syria from Assad's aerial bombing and missile attacks."

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Rep. Jason Chaffetz was more than happy to help continue the Republican witch hunt on Benghazi this Sunday, but as Josh Israel over at Think Progress took note of, when pressed by Chris Wallace about his claims that there are witnesses from the State Department who are being threatened by their bosses, he couldn't name any examples.

Asked about a claim by a witness’s lawyer that whistle-blowers had been blocked from testifying (a claim rejected by the Department of State), Chaffetz said that “more than one” witness has indeed been “suppressed” by the Obama administration. [...]

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) quickly debunked his colleague: “There’ve been two attorneys involved here, the only reason they haven’t received information is that they haven’t asked for it yet… there has not been a request for documents from these attorneys to the State Department.”

The only “retaliation,” Lynch noted, was that one of the witnesses wants a reassignment and a promotion and feels he’s being retaliated against because has not yet gotten the promotion.

As they reminded their readers and we have here as well, there are plenty of reasons why anything Victoria Toensing, who is representing some of these potential witnesses, attaches her name to, and who has been peddling conspiracy theories for months now, ought to be looked at with more than just a healthy dose of skepticism.

Full transcript below the fold.

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A regular Fox News commentator on Sunday said that teen pregnancies should be "celebrated," and pointed to President Barack Obama's speech to Planned Parenthood and the alleged horrific crimes of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell as part of "what’s wrong with our culture."

Fortune magazine's Nina Easton told Fox News host Chris Wallace that the Obama administration was in a "tough spot" after a federal judge ruled that women of all ages should have access to emergency contraception like the Plan B morning-after pill, even though the Food and Drug Administration had previously tried to limit access for girls younger than 15.

"I do think there’s a case to be made for conservatives or anybody who cares about the rate of abortions in this country to deregulate birth control more, although I also understand a need for parents to be involved," Easton explained. "One of the things out of all of this news, including the president’s speech to Planned Parenthood and this Gosnell case of murdering babies, is we’re looking at a culture that produces 1.2 million abortions a year. We’re losing sight of that fact."

"I would say that in addition to deregulating birth control, another thing we need to do is celebrate young women who bring a baby to term and find an adoptive parent," she opined. "There’s such a stigma today to being an adoptive birth mom that you’re more willing to admit that you’ve had an abortion than that you are delivering a healthy newborn to a loving family."

"What’s wrong with our culture that that’s where we are today?"

Think Progress' Aviva Shen observed on Sunday that Easton had "offered up Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood and the Gosnell trial as evidence of how young women who choose to carry babies to term for adoption are being stigmatized."

"Easton glosses over the difficulty involved in maintaining a normal life for 9 months as a pregnant teenager," Shen wrote. "Moreover, birthmothers under 17 are more likely to change their minds about the adoption and keep the baby, making them vulnerable to dropping out of high school and a permanent cycle of poverty that entraps the majority of teen moms."

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Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday told Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) that he was "getting off track" when he suggested that Republicans were hypocrites for continuing to attack President Barack Obama's administration over last year's attacks in Benghazi after pressuring the State Department to cut funding for security personnel by voting to cut embassy funding.

During a discussion to promote upcoming testimony by whistleblowers who Republicans say will tell the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the Obama administration intimidated them into not speaking out about the attacks in Benghazi, Lynch pointed out that Fox News had not made Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) answer for his vote to cut security funding.

"We're talking about -- including my colleague, Mr. Chaffetz -- when Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and the State Department asked for additional funding for embassy security, they all voted no," Lynch said.

"No, no, no," Chaffetz grumbled.

"We're getting a little bit off the track," Wallace interrupted.

"They've already admitted this on CNN," Lynch added.

"I understand there's an issue about security, it's a little bit off the track," Wallace insisted. "I want to try to stay on course here."

"No, this is the point!" Lynch pressed. "They're complaining about a lack of security at the embassies after they voted against funding for security at the embassies. That's what they're complaining about... Is that not related?"

"The chief financial officer for the State Department sent in an email that finances had nothing to do with the decisions about funding at the facility," Chaffetz replied. "This is a facade, it's a distraction. There are four people dead here, Chris."

"And I want to talk about... Let's talk about beforehand," Wallace said, changing the subject. "Two weeks ago, the Republican chairs of five House committees -- and I will agree with Congressman Lynch here, it was just the Republicans, not the Democrats -- issued an interim report on Benghazi in which they charged that then-Secretary of State Clinton misled Congress when she said she had never seen any request for more security."