"Democratic rhetoric is becoming ever more desperate and overheated as we approach the November midterm elections. ... 

"What is going on? Increasingly, journalists who cover the White House are concluding that the smears are part of a conscious strategy to distract voters from Obamacare, the sluggish economy, and foreign-policy reverses; the attacks are intended, the thinking goes, to drive up resentment and hence turnout among the Democratic base. 

"Major Garrett, the CBS White House correspondent, has talked with White House aides who confirm that the administration is working from the theory of 'stray voltage,' as developed by former White House senior adviser David Plouffe. 'The theory goes like this,' Garrett wrote. 'Controversy sparks attention, attention provokes conversation, and conversation embeds previously unknown or marginalized ideas in the public consciousness.' ... 

"The White House, of course, denies that deliberate deception is its strategy. But they’ve been caught too often in the web of their own cynicism."

“On this glorious day, we remember our brave men and women in uniform who are separated from their families by great distances. We pray for their safety and strength, and we honor those who gave their lives to advance peace and secure liberty across the globe.  

"Happy Easter. May God bless you, and may God bless our great Nation.”

"[I]t’s true that six months after that catastrophe, people can actually sign up for ObamaCare. It’s also likely true that the program’s worst possible fate — in which it literally collapses on its own because its overall insurance pool holds far more sick people than healthy people — has been avoided. 

"But the idea that, by meeting their obligations under the law, those 7 million signers-up have thereby indicated their support for ObamaCare, or their approval of it, or have ensured its success, is simply delusional."

"Strangely, many of the same people who insist that Mr. Bundy must be made an example of for the sake of the rule of law protest at the same time that it is not only impossible but positively undesirable for the federal government to deploy federal resources to rectify the federal crime of jumping the federal border. ... 

"The relevant facts are these: 1) Very powerful political interests in Washington insist upon the scrupulous enforcement of environmental laws, and if that diminishes the interests of private property owners, so much the better, in their view. 2) Very powerful political interests in Washington do not wish to see the scrupulous enforcement of immigration laws, and if that undercuts the bottom end of the labor market or boosts Democrats’ long-term chances in Texas, so much the better, in their view. 

"This isn’t the rule of law. This is the rule of narrow, parochial, self-interested political factions masquerading as the rule of law."

"Since taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama has formally proposed a total of 442 tax increases, according to an Americans for Tax Reform analysis of Obama administration budgets for fiscal years 2010 through 2015. 

"The 442 total proposed tax increases does not include the 20 tax increases Obama signed into law as part of Obamacare. 

"'History tells us what Obama was able to do. This list reminds us of what Obama wanted to do,' said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform."

"A veteran Justice Department lawyer says that Attorney General Eric Holder has politicized the department in a way he hadn’t seen before. In short, 'Holder is the worst person to hold the position of attorney general since the disgraced John Mitchell.' 

"Now in his sixth year as attorney general, Holder has increasingly tilted the department in an ideological direction. ... 

"Of course, when you call Holder out on his biases and selective enforcement, he cries racism. ...   

"Congress is angry at Holder not because of race, but because justice is only reserved for his Democratic allies.

"His only respect for the law is his belief that he and President Obama are above it."

"Two months ago, a petition bearing more than 110,000 signatures was delivered to The Post, demanding a ban on any article questioning global warming. The petition arrived the day before publication of my column, which consisted of precisely that heresy. 

"The column ran as usual. But I was gratified by the show of intolerance because it perfectly illustrated my argument that the left is entering a new phase of ideological agitation — no longer trying to win the debate but stopping debate altogether, banishing from public discourse any and all opposition. 

"The proper word for that attitude is totalitarian. It declares certain controversies over and visits serious consequences — from social ostracism to vocational defenestration — upon those who refuse to be silenced."

"New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.  

"Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.

"'Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional agency scrutiny, communication records between your staff and IRS officials – which you did not disclose to Majority Members or staff – indicates otherwise,' the letter to Cummings states. 'As the Committee is scheduled to consider a resolution holding Ms. Lerner, a participant in responding to your communications that you failed to disclose, in contempt of Congress, you have an obligation to fully explain your staff’s undisclosed contacts with the IRS.'"

"It’s an election year, which means the Democrats’ crass politicization of important women’s issues is gearing up once more. ... 

"By reintroducing political documents disguised as legislation that doesn’t actually solve a problem, and then screaming about the anti-women Republicans who have the audacity to question whether or not these bills are necessary or effective, they’ve turned women into political pawns in an effort to distract voters from economic policies that have failed women — and men — in nearly every aspect of their daily lives. ... 

"The cost of college tuition is at an all-time high, as is student debt. And many experts are bracing for the cost of health-insurance premiums to skyrocket under Obamacare.  

"But never mind all that — the President wants you to know he supports women, and those meanies in the GOP don’t."

"If women were paid 77 cents on the dollar, a profit-oriented firm could dramatically cut labor costs by replacing male employees with females. Progressives assume that businesses nickel-and-dime suppliers, customers, consultants, anyone with whom they come into contact — yet ignore a great opportunity to reduce wages costs by 23%. They don't ignore the opportunity because it doesn't exist. Women are not in fact paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men. 

"Administration officials are (very) occasionally challenged on their discrimination claims. The reply is that even if lower average female pay is a result of women's choices, those choices are themselves driven by discrimination. Yet the choice of college major is quite free, and many colleges recruit women into high-paying science or math majors. Likewise, many women prefer to stay home with their children. If doing so allows their husbands to maximize their own earnings, it's not clear that the families are worse off. It makes no sense to sue employers for choices made by women years or decades earlier. 

"The administration's claims regarding the gender pay gap are faulty, and its proposal to make it easier for women to sue employers for equal pay would create a disincentive for firms to hire women."