“Since 1974, the official residence of the vice president has been on the grounds of this astronomical agency of the United States,” Biden said.

One of the contestants correctly answered, ‘What is the Naval Observatory?”

The vice president also provided the clue for the “Daily Double.”

“The vice president is a member of the board of regents of this, ‘America’s attic,’” Biden said.

The question: What is the Smithsonian?

Biden recited clues about former vice presidents John Adams, John Tyler and John C. Calhoun.

This wasn’t the vice president’s first appearance on the “Jeopardy” game show. Last year, Biden provided the clues for a category called “Cars in America,” which included a plug for the auto bailout – an issue he often touched on during the campaign – and mentioned one of his favorite cars, a Corvette.

Anthony Weiner’s nascent mayoral campaign is off to a rough start.

Weiner made his candidacy for mayor of New York official in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, and since then there’s no indication that the process is going particularly well.

The former rising star in the Democratic Party can’t shake the scandal that forced him to resign from Congress, and he may be throwing fuel on the fire.

Asked this morning whether there was another shoe to drop in the sextweeting scandal that ousted him, Weiner admitted, Well, yeah.

“People may decide that they want to come forward and say here’s another email that I got, here’s another photograph, but I’m certainly not going to do that,” he said on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show.

He called the incident an “enormous private failing” that he couldn’t explain away.

“I was deceptive to my wife and I was trying to conceal from my wife this embarrassing thing that I had done,” Weiner said. “I reacted to it wrong.”

Not to mention that with friends like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who needs enemies?

Asked by reporters about Weiner’s run for mayor, Cuomo didn’t mince words.

“So if Anthony Weiner wants to run for mayor, he can run for mayor,” Cuomo said.

And if he wins?

“Shame on us,” he added.

Tell us how you really feel, governor.

And now there’s an even stranger twist to the tale.

Weiner’s lightly staffed campaign did roll out a new  glossy-looking website on Wednesday morning. The only problem? They used a skyline of Pittsburgh and not New York.

After the corners of the internet took notice , Weiner’s website looks a little different.

Hopefully, not too many New Yorkers noticed.

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Congressional and administration sources confirm that IRS director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner has been placed on administrative leave after she reportedly refused to resign.

Lerner came under fire this week when she chose to invoke her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself rather than testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican member of the Finance Committee investigating the IRS, said tonight that Lerner “refused to resign.”

“My understanding is the new acting IRS commissioner asked for Ms. Lerner’s resignation, and she refused to resign.  She was then put on administrative leave instead,” Grassley stated.  ”The IRS owes it to taxpayers to resolve her situation quickly.  The agency needs to move on to fix the conditions that led to the targeting debacle. She shouldn’t be in limbo indefinitely on the taxpayers’ dime.”

Earlier today, Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the committee, announced that he believes Lerner waived her right to refuse to testify when she read a statement and authenticated a document for the record during the hearing.

National Review Online first reported that the IRS had placed Lerner on leave.

According to NRO, Lerner emailed colleagues shortly before the news broke, announcing, “Due to the events of recent days, I am on administrative leave starting today. An announcement will be made shortly informing you who will be acting while I am on administrative leave. I know all of you will continue to support EO’s mission during these difficult times. I thank you for all your hard work and dedication. The work you do is important.”

IRS acting commissioner Daniel Werfel announced that Ken Corbin, currently the Deputy Director, Submission Processing, Wage and Investment (W&I) Division, has been selected to be the acting Director, Exempt Organizations, Tax Exempt/Government Entities Division.

“Ken is a proven leader during challenging times. He has strong management experience inside the IRS handling a wide range of processing issues and compliance topics as well as taxpayer service areas,” Werfel stated. “Combined with his track record of leading large work groups, these skills make him an ideal choice to help lead the Exempt Organizations area through this difficult period.”

During her brief statement at the hearing yesterday, Lerner declared her innocence before Issa dismissed her from the proceedings.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Issa, R-Calif., announced today that he is considering recalling Lerner before the committee for additional testimony.

“After consulting with counsel, Chairman Issa has concluded that Ms. Lerner’s Fifth Amendment assertion is no longer valid. She remains under subpoena,” Frederick Hill, communications director for Issa, said. “The committee is looking at recalling her for further testimony.”

ABC News’ Jeff Zeleny and Abby Phillip contributed to this report.

Watch video of Obama and the heckler here, but it was sort of beside the point – http://abcn.ws/12yUzYj

One Speech. Two Obamas. Drones vs. GTMO – You could argue that President Obama’s big address on terrorism was bipolar.

It began with an argument that the U.S. can target and kill people – even citizens – it suspects of being terrorists without a trial in foreign lands. And it ended with a patriotic plea for Americans to have more faith in the American legal system. America, he seemed to say in closing, you’re bigger than Guantanamo Bay.

The president lamented the killing of civilians, and he announced a three-prong criteria to make the targeted killings an even more focused, last resort with fewer civilian casualties.

A moment later he argued that civilian casualties can save other lives.

The bookend to Obama’s legal argument on drones, which effectively asked Americans to have faith in his extrajudicial judgment (unless Congress can come up with something better, was his patriotic plea to close Guantanamo Bay and have faith in the American judicial system.

“Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are holding a hunger strike. Is that who we are? Is that something that our Founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave to our children?,” he asked. “Our sense of justice is stronger than that.”

Here’s the full wrap from Abby Phillip – http://abcn.ws/12QK8AX

Here’s the text – http://abcn.ws/13OefKu

Sideshow to a Key Speech – Oh! and the President engaged a heckler today. “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to,” he told an audience at the National Defense University as CodePink’s Medea Benjamin berated him on Guantanamo Bay and his drone policy.  But that, as Jon Karl points out, was a sideshow to “one of President Obama’s most significant speeches, an attempt to mark a shift in what is known (but he does not call) the war on terror.”

Indeed, Karl points out that Obama effectively wove the heckling – its dissent and its message – into his speech.

The key line of the speech was in the broader point, per Karl:  ”This war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”

Karl’s full analysis is here: http://abcn.ws/16RfEmH

Obama Orders DOJ Review of Leak Investigation - There was also the matter of the DOJ review of the leak investigation he ordered.

Karl: “President Obama is also a little uneasy with the way journalists have been dragged into the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of national security leak investigations.  In fact, he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a 45-day review Justice Department guidelines on the issue.” http://abcn.ws/10Pl75c

Don’t forget: Much of what we know about the drone war is as a result of leaks. The drone war was, until today, still technically secret. The legal justification for the program was made public… with a leak. What Obama said has to do with the journalists accepting the leak and not the officials who bring the info to light.

Republicans Aim to Recruit, Elect More Women- Making sure that more  Republican women run for office and that they get  the support they need is the focus  of “Right Women, Right Now,” a new initiative by  the Republican State Leadership Committee to encourage and mentor GOP women considering a run for office. http://abcn.ws/11dPkuq (Shushannah Walshe)

Darrell Issa to Lois Lerner: Assertion of ‘Fifth’ Invalid- While Congress continues to investigate the Internal Revenue Service profiling case, House Oversight and Government Reform committee Chairman Darrell Issa has determined that a top IRS official’s refusal to testify during a hearing Wednesday is invalid. http://abcn.ws/10W3KQU (John Parkinson)

Ohio Voter Fraud ‘Does Exist’ But ‘Not An Epidemic’- In what was one of the 2012 election cycle’s most important battleground states, “voter fraud does exist,” Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted acknowledged in a report on Thursday. “But it is not an epidemic.” http://abcn.ws/14VRXpd (Garrett Bruno)

AccuWeather Chief: Tornado Warning Science ‘Is Not There’- As the people of Moore, Okla., grapple to recover following the devastating tornado that hit its community earlier this week, the head of a major weather forecasting service told a congressional subcommittee Thursday that the technology doesn’t yet exist to provide warning times of an hour or more before a tornado strikes. http://abcn.ws/12ZUSMl  (Arlette Saenz)

Emily’s List Endorses Allyson Schwartz for Governor of Pennsylvania- Emily’s List is backing Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) in her bid for governor of Pennsylvania, making their first endorsement of the 2014 gubernatorial cycle. The group, known for backing female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, is supporting Schwartz in her bid against Republican Gov. Tom Corbett. http://abcn.ws/1aaFw9S (Shushannah Walshe)

US Says 4 Americans Killed by Drones in Counterterror Strikes- Attorney General Eric Holder has disclosed in a letter to Congress that four Americans were killed by U.S. drones in the course of the government’s attacks on terrorists. http://abcn.ws/12Qhhg1 (Pierre Thomas, Chris Good)

Support for Legal Status Holds; So Do Sizable Partisan Divisions- Nearly six in 10 Americans back a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, with narrow preference for prompt action on the issue. Partisan divisions are sharp, a factor likely to be reflected in the full Senate debate ahead. http://abcn.ws/12PqyoF (Greg Holyk)

That bit of news was buried in the middle of the president’s hourlong speech today at National Defense University.

“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” President Obama said. “Our focus must be on those who break the law.”

And then the news: “I have raised these issues with the attorney general, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the attorney general to report back to me by July 12th.”

But don’t lose sight of the big picture – the heckler was a side show.  This was one of President Obama’s most significant speeches, an attempt to mark a shift in what is known as (but he does not call) the war on terror.

First, on the heckler:

The heckler hammered Obama over drone strikes and failing to shut down Guantanamo.  She was able to go on and on and on. At first the president seemed rattled, telling her, “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you exactly what I’m going to do…. You should let me finish my sentence.”

She quieted down, but only temporarily.

Moments later she started yelling again from the back of the room. “Now, this is part of free speech, is you being able to speak, but also you listening and me being able to speak. All right?” Obama said to applause.

But as the heckling continued, the president incorporated her dissent into his speech.

“I’m willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some slack because it’s worth being passionate about,” he said, adding,  “The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to.  Obviously — obviously I do not agree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn’t listening to me in much of what I said. But these are tough issues, and the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong.”

ABC News’ Luis Martinez reports that the heckler, long-time Code Pink protestor Medea Benjamin, was there as a member of the press.  Code Pink is an anti-war organization, and Benjamin represented herself as working for the blog Common Dreams.  According to a Defense official, the White House handled the press list.

But why was she allowed to keep interacting with the president?  “Because it’s America, because the president was making a speech about free speech,” the official said.  ”Secret Service won’t do anything unless it’s threatening to the president. We thought she’d stop. She didn’t … but when it was clear she was going to prevent the president from speaking, we asked her to leave and escorted her out.”

Now, the speech:

The president who dramatically expanded the CIA secret drone war, ordered a troop surge in Afghanistan and aggressively prosecuted leakers made a forceful defense of his actions and an even more forceful case for winding down the war on terrorism.

The key line:  “This war, like all wars, must end. That’s what history advises. That’s what our democracy demands.”

On Drones:

Memo to Rand Paul:   “For the record, I do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any U.S. citizen – with a drone, or a shotgun – without due process. Nor should any president deploy armed drones over U.S. soil.”

It’s not clear how that squares with the four Americans who have been killed on his watch in drone strikes (apparently with absolutely no due process).  But about American Anwar al-Awlaki, he said, “Of course, the targeting of any American raises constitutional issues that are not present in other strikes, which is why my administration submitted information about Awlaki to the Department of Justice months before Awlaki was killed and briefed the Congress before this strike as well.”

He talked about the need to limit the use of drone strikes and pointed to a presidential order he signed yesterday saying that such strikes would not be used to punish those who have attacked America. They would only be used when a terrorist who cannot be captured poses an imminent and ongoing threat and “there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.”

The downside of drone strikes:  “Any U.S. military action in foreign lands risks creating more enemies, and impacts public opinion overseas….  The very precision of drone strikes, and the necessary secrecy involved in such actions can end up shielding our government from the public scrutiny that a troop deployment invites. It can also lead a president and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism.”

On Guantanamo Bay

He renewed his call to close Gitmo and offered arguments based on both morality and self-interest.

Morality:  “I know the politics are hard. But history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it. Imagine a future 10 years from now or 20 years from now when the United States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not a part of our country. Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike. I’m willing to cut the young lady who interrupted me some slack because it’s worth being passionate about. Is this who we are? Is that something our founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave our children?”

Self interest:  “During a time of budget cuts, we spend $150 million each year to imprison 166 people, almost a million dollars per prisoner. And the Department of Defense estimates that we must spend another $200 million to keep Gitmo open at a time when we are cutting investments in education and research here at home and when the Pentagon is struggling with sequester and budget cuts.”

Bottom Line:  “Given my administration’s relentless pursuit of al-Qaida’s leadership, there is no justification beyond politics for Congress to prevent us from closing a facility that it should — should have never been opened.”

On Targeting Journalists in Leak Investigations

The president almost seemed to express regret for his Justice Department’s relentless pursuit of leak investigations.

“I’m troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.  Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs. Our focus must be on those who break the law.  That’s why I have called on Congress to pass a media shield law to guard against government overreach. And I’ve raised these issues with the attorney general, who shares my concern.”

Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RSLC, said the goal of the program, which was  started last year was but relaunched Thursday, was  to grow the Republican Party and “foster up-and-coming diverse voices, and to get new women to the table from the state level.

“We believe one of the ways to grow our Republican Party is by creating a strong pipeline of diverse leaders to put some new voices and fresh faces on the escalator to higher office, and we believe the first step to that is some of these state offices,” he said.

Of course. that’s not all. With more female candidates, there might be less chance of some of the damaging incidents that hurt the Republican Party in 2012 by male candidates such as Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock,  who made insensitive comments about rape and abortion.

Gillespie noted that “women candidates maybe have a better ear for how to talk about some of these issues and the right tone without compromising principles, for example, on the issue of life, but address them in a way that I think is more resonant with voters and less alienating of women.

“There have been times where how the issue was discussed had a negative impact on Republicans up and down the ballot, and I do believe that women candidates have demonstrated a greater ability to talk about the issue in a way that doesn’t alienate but is more persuasive and builds by attraction,” Gillespie said, answering a question raised during a conference call to relaunch “Right Women, Right Now” about how this initiative  could possibly limit those kind of comments in the next election cycle.

The main backers of  the initiative include Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell and Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

Harwell said she “understands” the issue of abortion “is a very emotionally high-strung issue” and “it touches people’s personal lives directly,” but approaching the  ”issue with a great deal of kindness” is what “earns the respect of voters.”

“I will say that what I’ve found in the female candidates that are running for office … is that they hold firm to their own personal convictions because this is a value vote,” Harwell said.

Kleefisch had another view, saying the “war on women is alliteration and fits great on a masthead.”

“In reality, it is basically asking women to be transparent and one-dimensional and vote on a single issue, and I’ll tell you that women are a lot more complex than a single issue,” Kleefisch said. “We care about the war on unemployment and that’s the one that the women in this group are fighting, the war on poverty, the battle of making sure ends meet every day in this country.

” I think it’s kind of insulting to say that women care only about a single issue and care about that most as opposed to making sure that their families are healthy and happy,” she continued, “and that they can pay their bills.”

Bondi, the first female attorney general of Florida, said the campaign would “spend unprecedented resources to elect a record number of women to state level offices.

“We need to take upon ourselves to encourage other women to say yes to leadership and that’s not always an easy thing to do and you put yourself on the ballot and we know the challenges faced when you say yes to this commitment and it’s up to us to ensure that other women have the support and encouragement to do the same,” she said.

Kleefisch said the group was doing more than just encouraging more women to run at the state level and would actively mentor women and provide support to help with work and family-life balance, saying she knows that “sometimes you feel like your entire life is spent going back and forth between Lincoln Day dinners and carpool obligations, but that’s the life that many women who have chosen to step forward and serve in this way are looking at. ”

One thing the group will not be doing is getting involved in primaries, even if it is a Republican woman who’s running. “We don’t engage in primaries as a rule.” Gillespie said, when asked about the number of Republican women who ran in 2010  but were defeated in their primaries by Republican men.

“One of the things we try to do is to work with the state party chairs and legislative caucus leaders and coordinate with them and try to identify qualified and quality women candidates and get them into the process,” Gillespie said. “We don’t want to recruit for women to run for seats where they can’t get the nomination [and] can’t win [or] have a credible chance at winning a general election for that matter.”

Republicans are not the only ones working to get  more women to run. Earlier this month, Emily’s List, known for backing female Democratic candidates who  support abortion rights, launched its  ”Madam President” campaign to get an early start on electing a female president in 2016. It backed its first gubernatorial candidate of the 2014 election cycle Thursday, endorsing Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania.

Husted, a Republican and the state’s chief elections official, said at a news conference and in an accompanying report that based on a survey of all of Ohio’s 88 counties conducted in the wake of last November’s election, 625 possible voting irregularities were reported across the state and 135 of them have been sent to law enforcement for further investigation.

Of the 135 investigated instances of fraud in Ohio, a state where President Obama beat Mitt Romney by some 166,214 votes, 20 of them involved voters who cast ballots in both Ohio and another state and will be referred to the Ohio Attorney General.

“Our effort to look into irregularities and root out voter fraud sends a strong message that no amount of fraud is acceptable,” Husted said in a statement. “If you cheat, you will be caught and held accountable.”

Other “irregularities” that surfaced in the post-election survey included double voting, standing in for another voter, and voting from an address from which an individual was not eligible, according to the secretary of state’s report.

Before Election Day in 2012, a federal judge blocked new voting laws proposed by Ohio Republican lawmakers that were aimed at reducing voter fraud by restricting early voting. Ohio requires voters provide proof of identity at polling places such as a driver’s license, bank statement or utility bill.

No instances of voter suppression were reported. In Ohio, more than 5.6 million ballots were cast in the 2012 election.

The results of Ohio’s review come on the heels of President Obama’s appointment of members to his Presidential Commission on Election Administration earlier this week. The commission is tasked with identifying ways to solve the problem of long lines and inefficient polling locations during the 2012 election. Members of the commission include former top lawyers for both the Obama and Romney campaigns.

After questions arose Wednesday surrounding the validity of IRS director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner’s assertion of her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself, Issa pledged to look into the matter, recessing the hearing rather than adjourning it in order to maintain his ability to later compel Lerner to testify.

Today, a committee spokesman announced Issa had concluded that when Lerner read a statement aloud and authenticated a document for the record, she waived her right to refuse to testify.

“After consulting with counsel, Chairman Issa has concluded that Ms. Lerner’s Fifth Amendment assertion is no longer valid. She remains under subpoena,” Frederick Hill, communications director for Issa, said. “The committee is looking at recalling her for further testimony.”

With lawmakers heading home today for the Memorial Day recess, it’s unlikely Lerner would be hauled back for testimony until at least June 3.

Lerner’s lawyer, William W. Taylor, III, did not have an immediate reaction to Issa’s statement this afternoon.

Today, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi indicated that Lerner’s assertion of the Fifth Amendment created more questions than answers.

“I don’t know that it’s in the public interest [to invoke the Fifth],” Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The American people deserve answers. I wish that she would have provided them. I don’t know what her basis is for taking the Fifth, [but] it’s her legal right.”

“Drip, drip, drip,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “Every day there’s something new.”

Boehner doubted President Obama’s explanation that he found out about the IRS problem through media reports, but he expressed “full confidence” in the ability of the congressional committees and FBI investigating the IRS “to get to the truth.”

“What is most troubling in this White House is that the lights are on but there doesn’t seem to be anybody at home. The IRS systematically violated the rights of Americans for almost two years,” Boehner said. “Treasury Department knew about this last year, and the White House was made aware of it last month. Yet no one — no one — thought that they should tell the president. Fairly inconceivable to me.”

Pelosi, however, defended the president’s apparent unawareness, excusing him for not knowing of the problems at the IRS among all of his other responsibilities at the time.

“The president doesn’t know about everything that is going on in every agency of government,” Pelosi said. “Should Mr. Boehner have known because this is his neighboring district,…Cincinnati, where the IRS office is? I don’t think you can hold [Boehner] accountable for what happened in that IRS office, but I think that obviously, the public will make its decision about it.”

“We expect people to ride out the storms in their bath tubs. That’s not acceptable. The only reason that’s the case is that we cannot yet scientifically determine far enough in advance the strength, the exact path, the location of where a tornado is going to form and where it’s going to go,” Barry Myers, chief executive officer of AccuWeather, told a House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee Thursday. “The science is not there. I don’t know how we’re going to get there. I think that’s what research is required to do.”

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration issued its first tornado warning for the twister that devastated Moore 16 minutes before the tornado developed.  Myers said that “with enhanced modeling, perhaps we might have known hours in advance exactly where the tornado would form, where it would touch down, how monstrous it would grow and its exact path.”

“Imagine being able to tell people an hour or two in advance to move out of the zone of danger and have them watch the tornado from miles away. Is it a pipe dream?” he said.

The hearing, which was held by the subcommittee on environment and scheduled several weeks prior to the Oklahoma tragedy, examined how to improve NOAA weather forecasting and discussed draft legislation to enhance weather-related research.

“Superstorm Sandy made clear what many in the weather community have known for years: Our model for weather prediction has fallen behind Europe and other parts of the world in predicting weather events in the United States,” Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, chairman of the subcommittee, said.

But while the hearing focused on boosting NOAA research and weather forecasting, an official from NOAA did not testify before the committee.

A committee aide said they invited Deputy NOAA Administrator Dr. Kathryn Sullivan to testify, but Ciaran Clayton, director of communications for NOAA, said they were unable to provide a witness because of “logistical and scheduling challenges” but “look forward to working with Congress on weather forecasting and related matters.”

The committee plans on working with NOAA to have someone from the agency testify on weather prediction research in the near future.

Image credit: Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images

By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone)

NOTABLES

• FIRST THINGS FIRST: Nearly six in 10 Americans back a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants, with narrow preference for prompt action on the issue in the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll. But partisan divisions are sharp — a factor likely to be reflected in the full Senate debate ahead, notes ABC News Pollster GREG HOLYK. Overall, 58 percent support providing a way for undocumented immigrants to remain in the country legally “if they pay a fine and meet other requirements,” vs. 38 percent opposed. Fifty-one percent, also says Congress should pass a legal status law now, either alone or along with stricter border control. Forty-five percent instead say border control should come first or oppose action on either step. http://abcn.ws/12PqyoF

• D’s VS. R’s: Seventy percent of Democrats support a path to legal status, as do 57 percent of independents — dropping to 42 percent of Republicans. Further, 52 percent of Republicans say Congress should pass border control first, or not act on either element of immigration reform. Forty-seven percent of independents share that view; it declines to 35 percent among Democrats.

• LOOKING AHEAD:  It’s too early to handicap the 2014 election in any serious way, but registered voters currently favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican in their congressional district by 48-40 percent, according to today’s ABC News-Washington Post poll. The result almost entirely reflects a current Democratic advantage in partisan affiliation. Among registered voters in today’s survey, 33 percent identify themselves as Democrats, 22 percent as Republicans; most of the rest are independents, and they split evenly in their 2014 preference. http://abcn.ws/12PqyoF

• EXCLUSIVE — OBAMA PICKS FORMER CAMPAIGN OFFICIAL TO TOP WHITE HOUSE POST: President Obama will nominate former campaign official Katherine Archuleta as director of the Office of Personnel Management today, according to a White House official, FUSION’s JORDAN FABIAN reports. Archuleta served as national political director for Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. She was the first Latina to serve in that role on a major presidential campaign, the White House said. Former OPM director John Berry’s term expired last month. Obama’s appointment of Archuleta comes after the president faced pressure from Latino advocacy groups to appoint Hispanics to serve in his second-term cabinet. More than seven in ten Latinos voted for Obama in last year’s election, but the number of Latino cabinet members is set to fall from two to one. OPM oversees the hiring of federal employees and the pension and insurance plans for federal retirees. That role has become increasingly important as the federal government grapples with across-the-board sequestration spending cuts. http://abcn.ws/10T9eza

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Assuming the Obama administration has nothing to hide in the IRS scandal, officials are doing a reasonably good job impersonating people who do. The IRS official who brought the scandal to public light and briefed reporters on what happened took her beating in front of Congress while taking some version of the Fifth. The White House has offered shifting explanations about who knew what and when they knew it. Most importantly, big questions – who ordered the tea party scrutiny? how did it not come out before the election? – remain. This scandal was going to take a while to play out in any event; little the administration did this week shortened that timeline.

ABC’s JEFF ZELENY: A splash of American Aristocracy will be on display today when Penny Pritzker faces her confirmation hearing as Commerce Secretary. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce Committee, will lead the questioning. But will there be an awkward moment as she explains a “clerical error” that caused her to underestimate her income by at least $80 million? Her family founded Hyatt Hotels and she’s worth $1.5 billion, which would make her one of the wealthiest Cabinet officials in history. The $80 million may be a rounding error for her, but to put it in perspective: It’s nearly the full amount of Rockefeller’s wealth. Yes, she’s still expected to be confirmed, but the sailing may not be as smooth as it seemed before her lawyers disclosed that clerical error on the eve of the hearing.

ABC’s DEVIN DWYER: National Security Council spokeswoman Laura Lucas says that top U.S. officials have been “closely” following the situation in London and in touch with their counterparts in the U.K. government in the wake of yesterday’s attack.  ”The White House and other relevant agencies of the U.S. Government have been in contact with the U.K. at various levels,” she said when asked about the administration’s response to the incident.  No word as of yet whether President Obama has spoken directly with Prime Minister Cameron.  She declined to discuss with specificity whether the U.S. was assisting in any way with the investigation.

ABC’s MICHAEL FALCONE: Just over 26,000 votes prevented Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel from making history this week. Greuel, the city controller was vying to become the first woman mayor of the nation’s second-largest metropolis, but her opponent, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, prevailed. “I may not have been able to break the glass ceiling,” Greuel told supporters yesterday, “but we sure made a crack in it.” Her loss dealt a blow to Emily’s List, a national organization devoted to electing Democratic women to office, which endorsed her in March and declared 2013 to be “The Year of the Woman Mayor.” Although Los Angeles was a top prize for Emily’s List, it is not the biggest. That distinction belongs to New York City where City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads a crowded field of Democratic mayoral contenders, which now includes former Rep. Anthony Weiner. And other women leaders are running in mayoral races in large cities around the country — in Houston, Minneapolis, Seattle, Dayton, Syracuse, Albany, Long Beach and Tulsa — to name a few. Just last week, voters in Omaha, Nebraska chose Republican Jean Stothert to be their next mayor. And there are plenty more opportunities: According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, more than 400 U.S. cities have held or will hold mayoral elections this year alone. http://abcn.ws/185Mmkr

BUZZ

OBAMA TO TALK DRONES. President Obama delivers a speech on the administration’s counterterrorism policy at 2 p.m. ET at the National Defense University. In lengthy remarks, the president is expected to clarify the use of drone strikes to kill terror suspects and unveil new policy guidance, ABC’s MARY BRUCE reports. According to a White House official, he will discuss “why the use of drone strikes is necessary, legal, and just, while addressing the various issues raised by our use of targeted action.” The president will also renew his push to close Guantanamo.

DID LOIS LERNER BOTCH FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS? After a key agency IRS official yesterday invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself during congressional testimony, Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa said he will review legal precedent in order to determine whether Lois Lerner, the director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS, could be held in contempt of Congress, ABC’s JOHN PARKINSON reports. Although Lerner, who’s at the center of the controversy, refused to answer questions from members of the committee, she read a brief statement into the record declaring her innocence. Furthermore, at the request of Issa, Lerner authenticated a document containing her written answers for the inspector general’s investigation of the matter. Those actions prompted members of the committee to question whether Lerner effectively waived her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment. “She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor, said. “You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination. That’s not the way it works.” Although Issa dismissed Lerner, at the end of the hearing he announced that the committee would recess rather than adjourn while he determines whether Lerner should be recalled before the panel. http://abcn.ws/16Pil8c

FORMER MISS AMERICA MAY TAKE ON MITCH MCCONNELL. Ashley Judd may not be running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, but another possible candidate is thinking about taking on Mitch McConnell and she has some local star power of her own: Former Miss America Heather French Henry, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE writes. French Henry, who was crowned Miss America in 2000 and is married to former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, told ABC News she is being “urged by a number of individuals in political leadership to contemplate the possibility of running for Senate” as a Democrat. “I feel I owe them the time and consideration to listen to their position,” Henry said in an e-mail. ”Is there a political race in my future? Possibly.  Is it this Senate race? I am not sure … Over the past year it has become apparent to me that I may enter politics.  I have become increasingly concerned about the direction and future of our country.  Therefore, I have agreed to meet and discuss all options including a race for U.S. Senate.” French Henry said her time contemplating a bid “will not be a prolonged process” and she “will make an announcement in the near future.” http://abcn.ws/11ZRfuk

SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMMIGRATION MARCH ON WASHINGTON. The current march on Washington won’t fill the National Mall, or see an influx of buses down Constitution Avenue. But what it will do is clog your inbox, notes ABC’s SERENA MARSHALL. You can only see it on your computer, or mobile device, but it’s out there: a two-day virtual march on Washington with the goal of demanding immigration reform. “We don’t see this as exclusive of a regular march,” Jeremy Robbins, director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, told ABC News. “It’s 2013 and the way we communicate is broader and different than it was a generation ago, and we want to be able to maximize all the ways we can to push Congress.” The event, which started today and goes until Thursday night, is organized by Mayor Bloomberg’s immigration forces in partnership with President Obama’s OFA (Organizing for Action) and asks viewers to send their senators emails, tweets and Facebook messages demanding immigration reform. http://abcn.ws/10lTo09

WHAT WE’RE READING

“PRESIDENT OBAMA’S 1979 PROM PHOTOS,” by Time Magazine’s Adam Sorensen. “Tucked away in someone else’s shoe box of adolescent artifacts, there might be a picture of you in garish clothes and with an outdated ‘do, your arm around a high school squeeze. The President of the United States is no different. These previously unpublished photos, obtained exclusively by TIME from Obama’s schoolmate Kelli Allman show a 17-year-old Barack Obama on the night of his senior prom. Barry spent his days at the Punahou School in Hawaii studying, shooting hoops and goofing off with his friends. Greg Orme, a fellow varsity basketball player, was Obama’s constant companion. ‘They were like brothers,’ says Allman. On prom night, the pair double-dated. Obama and his date Megan Hughes, a student at the Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, joined Orme at Allman’s house, where the two couples sipped champagne before going to the dance and then an after-party.” http://ti.me/10VdTgT

IN THE NOTES’ INBOX

–EMILY’S LIST MAKES FIRST GUBERNATORIAL ENDORSEMENT OF 2014 CYCLE. Emily’s List is backing Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) in her bid for governor of Pennsylvania, making their first endorsement of the 2014 gubernatorial cycle, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. The group, known for backing female Democratic candidates that support abortion rights, is supporting Schwartz in her bid against Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.  “Allyson Schwartz has an incredible track record of fighting for the women and families of Pennsylvania. Now it’s time for her to take that experience and dedication all the way to the governor’s mansion, where she will help get Pennsylvanians back to work, protect access to healthcare, and fight for seniors and veterans,” Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, said in a statement.  Schwartz, the only female member of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, currently represents the 13th congressional district of Pennsylvania and is serving her fifth term. She represents Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in Congress. Schwartz announced her gubernatorial campaign last month and as Schriock noted would be the first female governor of the state. http://abcn.ws/1aaFw9S

–DEMOCRATS UNLOAD ON VIRGINIA’S GUBERNATORIAL TICKET. The Democratic National Committee is out with a new video this morning attacking Virginia’s Republican candidates for governor and lieutenant governor as “Virginia’s Extreme Dream Team.” According to a DNC aide: “After just a few days of travelling around the state, it’s become abundantly clear the Republican ticket of Ken Cuccinelli and E.W. Jackson are way outside the mainstream of Virginia’s values. On social issues like women’s health and gay rights, E.W. Jackson has taken positions that would be harmful to his fellow citizens and used rhetoric that is offensive, demonizing and dangerous. In response to Jackson’s comments Ken Cuccinelli has called Jackson a “powerful voice” and said “I’m glad he’s on this ticket.” Cuccinelli and Jackson were cut from the same extreme right-wing cloth.” WATCH: http://youtu.be/iRomLijgMlc

–111 CONSERVATIVE ECONOMISTS SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM. An announcement from the American Action Forum: “More than 110 influential conservative economists released an open letter to Congressional leadership today supporting immigration reform and touting its economic and budgetary benefits for America. The letter, led by American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin, includes a who’s who of conservative luminaries: Nobel Laureate in Economics Edward Prescott, Art Laffer, Glenn Hubbard, Ed Lazear, Larry Lindsey, June O’Neill, George Shultz and more. The letter, signed by 111 economists, expresses support for broad-based immigration reform including a visa system that reflects America’s economic policy objectives. The signees look forward to a reformed and efficient legal immigration system that moves toward promoting economic growth over other objectives. As the letter states, the signees ‘believe a reformed and efficient immigration system can promote economic growth and ease the challenge of reforming unsustainable federal health and retirement programs.’” Read a copy of the letter and see the full list of co-signers: http://bit.ly/187SHfh 

WHO’S TWEETING?

@KevinMaddenDC: “Lawmakers really don’t like being outfoxed in their own house” – http://bit.ly/10Vp8Gc  #goodread #rollcall #caphill

@JillDLawrence: Excellent analysis of Cruz-Bush split on immigration, with some surprising history, by @bethreinhard @nationaljournal http://bit.ly/14UCJRe 

@JenniferJJacobs: Tonight, @ScottKWalker‘s Iowa visit serves as a 2016 test. “He’s the guy to watch in Iowa,” @ddkochel says. http://dmreg.co/14BztuE 

@RealClearScott: Long look at challenges facing Iowa caucuses & why IA is almost certain to remain first in ’16: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/05/23/under_fire_again_will_iowa_caucuses_remain_first_118518.html …

@amyewalter: The prom pic of Obama is pretty tame. How many among us have more to be embarrassed about in our own pics? (raises hand)

Overall, 58 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll support providing a way for undocumented immigrants to remain in the country legally “if they pay a fine and meet other requirements,” vs. 38 percent opposed. That’s similar to a 62-34 percent split last month.

See PDF with full results and charts here.

A bare majority, 51 percent, also says Congress should pass a legal status law now, either alone or along with stricter border control. Forty-five percent instead say border control should come first – as preferred by some Republicans in Congress – or oppose action on either step.

Legal status and tighter border control both are included in a package approved Tuesday night by the Senate Judiciary Committee, with support from three of its eight Republican members and all 10 Democrats. Reflecting that outcome, this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds that 70 percent of Democrats support a path to legal status, as do 57 percent of independents – dropping to 42 percent of Republicans.

Further, 52 percent of Republicans say Congress should pass border control first, or not act on either element of immigration reform. Forty-seven percent of independents share that view; it declines to 35 percent among Democrats.

All else equal, potential effects of the issue in 2014 congressional races look like a wash. People who oppose a path to legal status are more likely than its supporters to call the issue a red line in their vote preference – but there are fewer of them, equalizing the overall effect. (Of course, all else in fact is not equal, given factors including the demographic and political makeup of congressional districts; turnout, including in primaries; the quality of opposing candidates; and the potential pull of other issues.)

Among groups, apart from partisanship, support for a path to legal status peaks among college post-graduates (72 percent), liberals (70 percent), Westerners (69 percent), nonwhites (68 percent) and 18- to 39-year olds (65 percent).

GUN CONTROL – On another contentious issue, this poll finds extensive unhappiness with the Senate’s recent rejection of expanded background checks for gun purchasers; 67 percent say it was the wrong thing to do, with 58 percent feeling that way “strongly.” That’s not unexpected, since 86 percent favored expanded background checks in an ABC/Post poll in March.

Notably, even among people in gun-owning households, 62 percent say it was wrong for the Senate to reject extending background checks to cover online and gun-show purchases.

Forty-one Republican senators and five Democrats voted against the measure. Criticism in this survey is focused on the GOP: Among Americans who favored the measure, 64 percent chiefly blame its rejection on opposition led by congressional Republicans, vs. 17 percent who mainly blame President Obama for failing to secure the needed votes.

But backlash against the National Rifle Association, a prime opponent of the law, is muted. Forty-four percent of Americans say the NRA has too much influence over gun laws; that’s up by 6 points from January, but to a level it’s seen before.

Compared with immigration reform, the background-check issue appears to pose clearer electoral risk. Among the many critics of the Senate action, 55 percent say they could not support a candidate who voted against expanded background checks. It’s a red line for fewer on the other side of the issue, 46 percent, and, as noted, there are many fewer of them.

MIDTERMS – While it’s far too early to handicap the 2014 election in any serious way, registered voters currently favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican in their congressional district by 48-40 percent, the largest Democratic midterm advantage since 2006. The party saw steep losses in the 2010 midterms.

The result almost entirely reflects a current Democratic advantage in partisan affiliation. Among registered voters in this survey, 33 percent identify themselves as Democrats, 22 percent as Republicans; most of the rest are independents, and they split evenly in their 2014 preference. Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 6 points in the 2012 presidential election and by 7 points in 2008, but they were even in the last two midterms – meaning the Democratic advantage holds only if their midterm turnout improves dramatically.

Finally, similar to the Democratic advantage in 2014 preferences, Obama leads the Republicans in Congress by 8 points in trust to handle immigration issues, 45-37 percent. The two, though, are essentially even in trust to handle gun control, 42-41 percent, and on both, the president’s own approval ratings are tepid – 46 percent on immigration, 44 percent on gun control.

METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone May 16-19, 2013, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including design effect. Partisan divisions are 33-22-38 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.

The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt-SRBI of New York, N.Y.

By Gregory Holyk and Gary Langer.

The group, known for backing female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, is supporting Schwartz in her bid against Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

“Allyson Schwartz has an incredible track record of fighting for the women and families of Pennsylvania. Now it’s time for her to take that experience and dedication all the way to the governor’s mansion, where she will help get Pennsylvanians back to work, protect access to healthcare, and fight for seniors and veterans,” Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, said in a statement.

In her statement, Schriock noted that they have been supporting Schwartz for “more than a decade,” adding, “We’re thrilled to be a part of her campaign to become Pennsylvania’s first woman governor.”

Schwartz, the only female member of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation, currently represents the 13th congressional district of Pennsylvania and is serving her fifth term. She represents Montgomery County and Northeast Philadelphia in Congress. Schwartz announced her gubernatorial campaign last month and, as Schriock noted, she would be the first female governor of the state.

Earlier this month Emily’s List launched a “Madam President” campaign with the goal of electing a female president in 2016.

Compiled by ABC News’ Carrie Halperin, Jayce Henderson, Amanda VanAllen and J.P. Lawrence

IMMIGRATION REFORM
ABC News’ Serena Marshall: “Social Media’s Immigration March on Washington” The current march on Washington won’t fill the National Mall, or see an influx of buses down Constitution Avenue. But what it will do is clog your inbox. You can only see it on your computer, or mobile device, but it’s out there: a two- day virtual march on Washington with the goal of demanding immigration reform. LINK

Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju: “Immigration reform vote search moves to full Senate” Getting immigration reform to the Senate floor took hours of negotiations and committee hearings, hundreds of amendments, a careful orchestration of public statements and backroom pressure to hold the Gang of Eight together. Many of the almost two dozen Republicans identified as possible supporters by the Gang of Eight are demanding changes that would make the bill significantly more conservative. They want stricter border security, tighter control on government benefits for newly-documented immigrants and tougher requirements along the pathway to citizenship. LINK

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
USA Today’s Gregory Korte:  “IRS official refuses to testify in Tea Party probe” The IRS official responsible for tax exemptions refused to testify to a House oversight panel investigating the agency’s treatment of conservative groups Wednesday. Citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Lois Lerner would not answer questions about how the IRS developed the “be on the lookout” list for Tea Party groups, what she did when she discovered it, and why she failed to tell Congress about it when asked directly. LINK

The Wall Street Journal’s John D. McKinnon and Siobahn Hughes: “Emails Offer New Details on IRS Targeting” Emails and other documents released Wednesday suggest the Internal Revenue Service’s procedures used to target conservative groups for added scrutiny were developed by lower-level employees. Republican lawmakers seized on the emails—written in 2011 about decisions made in 2010—as evidence that they were kept in the dark about the practice far too long. LINK

The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and Juliet Eilperin: “On IRS issue, senior White House aides were focused on shielding Obama” As soon as White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler heard about an upcoming inspector general’s report on the Internal Revenue Service, she knew she had a problem. The notice Ruemmler saw on April 24 gave her a thumbnail sketch of a disturbing finding: that the IRS had improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups. She shared the news with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other senior White House aides, who all recognized the danger of the findings. LINK

DRONES
The New York Times’ Charlie Savage and Peter Baker: “Obama, in a Shift, to limit Targets of Drone Strikes” President Obama plans to open a new phase in the nation’s long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military. In his first major speech on counterterrorism of his second term, Mr. Obama hopes to refocus the epic conflict that has defined American priorities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and even foresees an unspecified day when the so-called war on terror might all but end, according to people briefed on White House plans. LINK

 ABC NEWS VIDEO
“IRS’ Lois Lerner: ‘I Have Not Broken Any Laws’” LINK

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Ashley Judd may not be running for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, but another possible candidate is thinking about taking on Mitch McConnell and she has some local star power of her own: Former Miss America Heather French Henry.

French Henry, who was crowned Miss America in 2000 and is married to former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, told ABC News she is being “urged by a number of individuals in political leadership to contemplate the possibility of running for Senate” as a Democrat.

“I feel I owe them the time and consideration to listen to their position,” Henry said in an e-mail. ”Is there a political race in my future? Possibly.  Is it this Senate race? I am not sure … Over the past year it has become apparent to me that I may enter politics.  I have become increasingly concerned about the direction and future of our country.  Therefore, I have agreed to meet and discuss all options including a race for U.S. Senate.”

French Henry said her time contemplating a bid “will not be a prolonged process” and she “will make an announcement in the near future.”

French Henry says she is also weighing her responsibilities as a mother of two young children, her work as a dress designer and boutique owner, as well as a philanthropy she runs helping homeless veterans. The last is an issue she is closely involved with and would most likely be part of her platform if she does get into the race.

French Henry did not expand on who exactly she was talking to in Kentucky Democratic politics, but Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky), who was Judd’s biggest backer when she was thinking about getting into the race, told ABC News that French Henry would be “an outstanding Senate candidate.”

“She is a real source of pride for the Commonwealth, and her dedication to helping Kentucky families and veterans would provide real contrast to Mitch McConnell in 2014,” Yarmuth said in a statement.

Former Kentucky state treasurer and Democratic analyst Jonathan Miller said he thinks “if she decides to run and surrounds herself with a strong national team, I think she could make a decent run at it,” but he noted he “doesn’t know what her name recognition is now.”

“I know 10 years ago, when she was Miss America and married to the lieutenant governor, it was high,” Miller said, adding, “Anyone running against McConnell will have national support because they are running against McConnell.”

No Democrat has yet stepped forward to challenge McConnell, despite local polling that shows the Senate minority leader with lower than 50 percent in some surveys. Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is also considering a run for the Senate, and allies of hers say she is still actively making the decision.

McConnell has a war chest of almost $9 million and has already been running ads in the state. Those factors, coupled with the widely held belief in Kentucky and beyond that the race will be very nasty, seems to have stopped candidates from throwing their hats into the ring.

French Henry’s husband, Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for governor in 2007. Some of the controversies that he faced while in office and during his gubernatorial bid are sure to come up if she were to enter the race.

In 2009, Henry accepted a plea deal for misdemeanors related to misusing campaign funds during the 2007 gubernatorial bid. He was sentenced to over $500 in fines and 12 months in jail, but the jail time was suspended on the condition that he avoid further criminal problems for two years, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. 

The newspaper also reports that in 2003 when he was lieutenant governor, Henry paid $162,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that alleged he defrauded both Medicare and Medicaid programs as an orthopedic surgeon.

And it doesn’t end there. After the Henrys were married in 2000, the state auditor found that 25 state employees used 500 hours of their own personal leave, valued at $16,000, to work on the wedding. The Henrys ended up reimbursing the state for over $3,000 in wedding expenses and more than $4,000 in trips that Henry took to the Miss America pageant and the Democratic National Convention.

Miller said he doesn’t think the “significant problems her husband has had will affect her.”

“In the same way I don’t think Bill Clinton’s issues were attributed to Hillary,” Miller said. “They are very different, but I don’t think people will blame the wife for the husband’s failings.”

In 2003, French Henry struck and killed a bicyclist and mother of four as the woman was biking across the street.  She told her story on an episode of the Oprah Winfrey show detailing how distraught she was and the emotional toll it had taken on her and her family. There were no charges ever filed.

You can only see it on your computer, or mobile device, but it’s out there: a two- day virtual march on Washington with the goal of demanding immigration reform.

“We don’t see this as exclusive of a regular march,” Jeremy Robbins, director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, told ABC News. “It’s 2013 and the way we communicate is broader and different than it was a generation ago, and we want to be able to maximize all the ways we can to push Congress.”

The event, which started today and goes until Thursday night, is organized by Mayor Bloomberg’s immigration forces in partnership with President Obama’s OFA (Organizing for Action) and asks viewers to send their senators emails, tweets and Facebook messages demanding immigration reform.

“We tried to leverage all the different social media tools for all the different purposes,” Robbins said in order to garner attention for the event.

President Obama even retweeted former Florida governor Republican Jeb Bush: “Delaying solutions will only make the problem grow. NOW is the time for immigration reform. Join the #iMarch…”

Twitter chats with Bloomberg kicked things off this morning. Google hangouts, Mashable and Tumblr are all resources used for the iMarch.  The event will live stream music and documentaries with the goal to push people to their website, where they make it easy for users to quickly locate their senator and, with just a click of the mouse, send a message.

One of the things that make this march different, Robbins says, is the flexibility it allows.

“If you are relying just on typical ways of lobbying, physical marches, etc., those are very powerful tools and we use all of them,” he said. “One of the benefits of a virtual match is there are no hotel rooms to book, no permits to obtain…. So you can time the virtual march to when it’s going to be most effective in the debate.”

Just yesterday the Senate Judiciary committee voted to send the immigration bill to the full Senate for debate.

The launch of #iMarch saw the biggest political thunderclap of all time, reaching over 45 million users. A Thunderclap is a way for many users to coordinate their social media messages to post simultaneously.

“We don’t want to pretend that we are starting from scratch, but this is a new area and this is just a start,” Robbins said. “We are going to keep pushing, keep marching and see this through the entire Senate and then see it through the House.”

After a key agency IRS official today invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself during congressional testimony, Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa said he will review legal precedent in order to determine whether Lois Lerner, the director of Exempt Organizations at the IRS, could be held in contempt of Congress.

Although Lerner, who’s at the center of the controversy, refused to answer questions from members of the committee, she read a brief statement into the record declaring her innocence. Furthermore, at the request of Issa, Lerner authenticated a document containing her written answers for the inspector general’s investigation of the matter.

Those actions prompted members of the committee to question whether Lerner effectively waived her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

“She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor, said. “You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination. That’s not the way it works.”

Although Issa dismissed Lerner, at the end of the hearing he announced that the committee would recess rather than adjourn while he determines whether Lerner should be recalled before the panel.

“Ms. Lerner may have waived her Fifth Amendment rights by addressing core issues in her opening statement and the authentication afterwards,” Issa, R-Calif., said as he brought the hearing to a close. “Although I excused Ms. Lerner subject to a recall, I am looking into the possibility of recalling her and insisting that she answer questions in light of a waiver.”

A Republican committee aide said the application of the Fifth Amendment has nothing to do with House or committee rules, but rather is a constitutional question. The aide said courts have interpreted that the Fifth must be asserted in the absolute, not partially.

“Congress is respective when witnesses assert the Fifth, but if it’s not asserted properly, you’re not refusing to testify based on constitutional protection,” the aide explained. “Because you don’t want to answer certain questions, there’s a potential contempt of Congress.”

Sources also believe Lerner’s decision to read a statement into the record while invoking the Fifth may have been unprecedented for congressional testimony.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, said he does not personally believe Lerner waived her rights with her actions today, but he said the committee should look into the issue.

“This is not a courtroom,” Cummings, D-Md., said. “In a courtroom that might have been the case. It’s a legal question.”

Cummings added that Lerner was acting on advice of counsel, and he doubted her legal team would have permitted her to deliver a statement if it would jeopardize her right to invoke the Fifth.

One constitutional expert noted that generally people who claim the Fifth in hearings give no statement and it would be “unusual” to give a statement and still claim the Fifth.

“Most witnesses claiming the Fifth will not tempt fate by answering any questions,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina constitutional law professor who specializes in the relationship between Congress and the executive branch. “I suppose the witness might argue he or she is claiming the Fifth for limited purposes but then needs to have someone spell out the relevant scope.”

ABC News’ Abby Phillip contributed to this report

Just over 26,000 votes prevented Los Angeles mayoral hopeful Wendy Greuel from making history this week.

Greuel, the city controller was vying to become the first woman mayor of the nation’s second-largest metropolis, but her opponent, City Councilman Eric Garcetti, prevailed.

“I may not have been able to break the glass ceiling,” Greuel told supporters on Wednesday, “but we sure made a crack in it.”

Her loss dealt a blow to the outside groups, particularly labor unions, which poured millions of dollars into the effort to elect her, and to Emily’s List, a national organization devoted to electing Democratic women to office, which endorsed her in March and declared 2013 to be “The Year of the Woman Mayor.”

“While Los Angeles missed out on an opportunity to make history, Emily’s List remains focused on investing in a pipeline of women leaders — because today’s mayors are tomorrow’s governors, congresswomen, senators and presidents,” Marcy Stech, the group’s national press secretary said in a statement.

Although Los Angeles was a top prize for Emily’s List, it is not the biggest. That distinction belongs to New York City where City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads a crowded field of Democratic contenders to replace current Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Quinn, however, got some high-profile opposition on Wednesday when former Congressman Anthony Weiner jumped into the race.

But even with Weiner in the picture, a Quinnipiac University poll out on Wednesday shows Quinn in the lead with the support of 25 percent of New York City voters compared to 15 percent for Weiner. (If no candidate receives 40 percent of the vote in the September primary, the top two will compete in a run-off).

Other women leaders are running in mayoral races in large cities around the country:

• In Houston, current Mayor Annise Parker is running for re-election this year. Parker, who has served as mayor since 2010, formally kicked off her re-election campaign earlier this month.

• In Dayton, Ohio, City Commissioner Nan Whaley recently emerged from a three-way mayoral primary to advance to the November general election. Whaley, who won more than 50 percent of the vote, will face off against former judge A.J. Wagner.

• In Syracuse, New York, Stephanie Miner is also up for re-election. In 2009, she became the first woman to serve as the city’s mayor.

• In Long Beach, California, City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske is vying to become the first openly-gay woman mayor of the Southern California city. She launched her campaign this March and will compete in an April 2014 primary.

• In Albany, New York, Democrats see an opportunity to elect City Treasurer Kathy Sheehan to the city’s top job. If elected this November, she would be Albany’s first female mayor.

All five of those candidates have won the backing of Emily’s List. And it’s not just Democratic women who have their eye on city hall. Just last week, voters in Omaha, Nebraska chose Republican Jean Stothert to be their next mayor. She trounced incumbent Jim Suttle with 57 percent of the vote to become the first woman to win the seat.

Prominent women are also running in mayoral races in Minneapolis, Seattle, Tulsa, among other cities. As of January, the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University noted that 217 women currently serve as mayors in U.S. cities with populations over 30,000.

And there are plenty more opportunities: According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, more than 400 U.S. cities have held or will hold mayoral elections this year alone.

ABC’s Garrett Bruno contributed reporting.

(J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

Bill Nye may be known as the Science Guy, but his Twitter feed reveals that he has another interest – politics.

Early Tuesday morning Nye wondered what Oklahoma senator and well-known climate change denier Jim Inhofe thought about the tornado that devastated Moore, Okla.

Inhofe did not respond to the question on Twitter and was unavailable for comment when contacted by ABC News.

Oklahoma City was hit hard again. Has anyone asked Oklahoma Senator Inhofe about the three large storms in the [past] 14 years?

— Bill Nye (@TheScienceGuy) May 21, 2013

Although Nye and Inhofe have not directly exchanged words about the tornado devastation in Oklahoma or climate change, both men have repeatedly made their opposing opinions known.

Nye openly discussed the importance of investigating climate change as the recent tornado system developed across Oklahoma. In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, Nye said that tornadoes were driven by heat, which increases the chances of more dangerous storms.

“You’ve got to figure that if there’s more heat driving the storm then there’s going to be more tornadoes,” Nye told Morgan.

.

At the other end of the climate spectrum, Inhofe has called global warming “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated to the American people” and argued that Earth is entering a period of cooling rather than warming on the Senate floor. During the 2010 Washington, D.C., blizzard, Inhofe and his family built an igloo on the National Mall and placed signs labeling it “Al Gore’s New Home” as part of a GOP response to talks on global warming that were happening at the time.

The New York City mayoral race got much more interesting Wednesday with Anthony Weiner’s entry, asking New Yorkers in a video to give him a second chance and saying that he’s “learned some tough lessons.” His wife, Huma Abedin, is standing next to him with her own pitch: “We love this city. And no one would work harder to make it better than Anthony.”

The video makes it clear that the famously press-shy Abedin–a longtime aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and friend to the Clinton clan– is on board despite her husband’s fall from grace in 2011 when he resigned from Congress after he was caught tweeting lewd photographs of himself to other women.

But her longtime boss and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who officiated at Weiner and Abedin’s wedding, are staying out of the race. Both of the Clinton camps told Politico that because of connections to many of the candidates, they won’t be endorsing anyone.

“Secretary Clinton knows all of the candidates, she has worked with many of them, and is close with many of them, so won’t be weighing in one way or the other,” Hillary Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement to Politico. Bill Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna told Politico, “President Clinton has too many friends in this race who have been good to him and his family. He wishes them all well, but won’t be getting involved.”

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is running and was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager for her 2000 Senate campaign, and whether Clinton is eyeing another run for the White House or not, it would make little sense picking a candidate running against Christine Quinn, who could be the first woman and openly gay mayor of New York, or the man vying to be the city’s second black mayor, Bill Thompson.

Evan Stavisky, a Democratic consultant and a partner at the Parkside Group consulting firm, said their presence could continue to hang over the race because of their connections and stature, but will have little effect if they stay on the sidelines.

“Obviously, when you have two political stars as bright as Hillary and Bill Clinton, and when those two stars are married to each other and living and working in the New York City metropolitan area, their stars shine even brighter and their shadows have an even wider impact,” Stavisky said. “However, the candidates running for New York City mayor are all well known and well defined in their own right.”

Stavisky noted that the Clintons have long held ties in New York all the way back to Clinton’s first run for president in 1992 when he won New York City helping to win the state, aiding him in his Democratic primary fight against Jerry Brown.

“Anyone running for office with ties to the Clinton family will be defined by those relationships, but the reality is many New York Democrats have ties to the Clinton family…. It’s not going to be a determinative factor in the race.”

A former Hillary Clinton aide from her 2008 presidential run agreed, saying, “I don’t think it will play much of a role at all.”

“I don’t think they are incentivized to play a role and instead I think they are inclined to stay away as far as [possible],” the former aide said. When it comes to supporting Weiner, Hillary Clinton is “damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.”

The aide is referring to the fact if Clinton is weighing a 2016 run, she won’t want to align herself with someone as scandal-scarred as Weiner, but not backing him she “risks upsetting one of her closest and longest serving confidantes.”

“It’s a sticky situation when you look at Weiner alone,” the former aide said. “The Clintons are as a big of a deal in New York as anywhere else, perhaps a bigger deal, but they haven’t really weighed in to contentious or contested races like these.”

There are some exceptions where Bill Clinton has endorsed in primaries, including campaigning last month for Wendy Gruel in the Los Angeles mayor’s race. Gruel conceded to Eric Garcetti in that race Wednesday.

Basic Books

Excerpted from FOREIGN POLICY BEGINS AT HOME: THE CASE FOR PUTTING AMERICA’S HOUSE IN ORDER by Richard N. Haass by arrangement with Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, Copyright © Richard N. Haass, 2013.

Introduction

This relatively short book is predicated on a consequential idea: The biggest threat to America’s security and prosperity comes not from abroad but from within. The United States has jeopardized its ability to act effectively in the world because of runaway domestic spending, underinvestment in human and physical capital, an avoidable financial crisis, an unnecessarily slow recovery, a war in Iraq that was flawed from the outset and a war in Afghanistan that became flawed as its purpose evolved, recurring fiscal deficits, and deep political divisions. For the United States to continue to act successfully abroad, it must restore the domestic foundations of its power. Foreign policy needs to begin at home, now and for the foreseeable future.

Foreign Policy Begins at Home is a book that I never imagined writing. Sandpaper off the nuances and subtleties, and this is a book that argues for less foreign policy of the sort the United States has been conducting and greater emphasis on domestic investment and policy reform. For someone such as me, a card- carrying member of the foreign policy establishment for nearly four decades, this borders on heresy.

What got me to this point? More than anything else it began with the second Iraq war (begun in 2003) and the Afghan troop surge initiated in 2009. I mention both because my differences over the trajectory of American foreign policy are not with a single party. Many participants in the foreign policy debate in both parties appear to have forgotten the injunction of for- mer president and secretary of state John Quincy Adams (that America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy”), along with the lessons of Vietnam about the limits of military force and the tendency of local realities to prevail over global abstractions. As was the case with Vietnam, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan (as of 2009) was a war of necessity; more important, neither was a justifiable war of choice. In both cases, the interests at stake were decidedly less than vital. In both cases, alternative policies were available that promised outcomes of comparable benefit to this country at far less cost. And in both cases, history and even a cursory study of the societies in question suggested that ambitious attempts to refashion the workings and political cultures of these countries would founder. What is more, all this was predictable at the time. Now, with the advantage of hindsight, we can see that more than a decade of enormous sacrifice has hurt this country’s reputation for judgment and competence and failed to produce results in any way commensurate with the human, military, and economic costs of the undertakings. Such an imbalance between means and ends makes no strategic sense at the best of times; it is even less defensible now, when the United States faces difficult challenges to its solvency.

This book grows naturally out of two previous books of mine. The Reluctant Sheriff, published in 1997 in the early years of the post-Soviet, post-Cold War era, argued the United States, at a time when it enjoyed extraordinary advantages and possibilities to influence other governments, risked squandering a unique chance to bring about lasting change in the world by aiming too low and trying too little in the way of erecting new international institutions able to contend with emerging global challenges. The second, published in 2005 and called The Opportunity, made the case that the United States was trying to do too much of the wrong thing (most notably, the 2003 Iraq war) and again argued for greater efforts to establish enduring international arrangements that would help tame globalization and curb the all-too-real economic and security threats to American interests and global order.

Where this book differs most from my previous books is in its focus on domestic policy, for remaking ourselves more than the world. There are, of course, external challenges, including but hardly limited to a rising China, a militarized North Korea, an Iran possibly moving to acquire nuclear weapons, an un- stable Pakistan, violent terrorists, and a warming planet. These are real and justified concerns that warrant serious responses. But what makes the situation particularly worrisome are a large number of internal developments, including a burgeoning deficit and debt, crumbling infrastructure, second-class schools, an outdated immigration system, and the prospect for a prolonged period of low economic growth. Many of the foundations of this country’s power are eroding; the effect, however, is not limited to a deteriorating transportation system or jobs that go unfilled or overseas owing to a lack of qualified American workers. To the contrary, shortcomings here at home directly threaten America’s ability to project power and exert influence overseas, to compete in the global marketplace, to generate the resources needed to promote the full range of US interests abroad, and to set a compelling example that will influence the thinking and behavior of others. As a result, the ability of the United States to act and lead in the world is diminishing. I would prefer not to test the notion that this country requires a full-fledged crisis, be it in the form of a run on the dollar or some catastrophe brought about by terrorists or nature, to get its government to do what needs doing, in part because if it does, it will be that much more painful and expensive to address the shortcomings of America’s economy, schools, immigration policy, infrastructure, and much more.

I write all this with the expectation I may well be caricatured on two fronts. One possibility is that I will be depicted as a defeatist, just another apostle of American decline. So let me be as clear as I can: I believe the United States enjoys great strengths and great potential. The US economy is the world’s largest and is still growing; the best in American higher education is the best in the world; this society remains remarkably innovative and adaptive; its endowment of fresh water, energy, and arable land is nothing less than bountiful; and the population is relatively “balanced” in that it suffers from neither the bulges in young people nor old people that characterize so many other societies around the world. Recent breakthroughs in domestic oil and gas production thanks to new technologies and techniques are but the latest example of this country’s ability to handle the significant challenges it faces.

But to say the United States is not in decline is something different from suggesting Americans ought to be sanguine with where they are and where they are heading. Given its considerable endowments and advantages, this country is clearly under- performing. Meanwhile, many other countries are performing better than they did in the past, and in some areas are doing better than the United States. The combination of these trends bodes poorly for the ability of the United States to compete economically and to shape international events.

I also anticipate being denounced as an isolationist. Isolationism is the willful turning away from the world even when a rigorous assessment of national interests argues for acting on their behalf. Isolationism makes absolutely no sense in the twenty-first century. Even if it wanted to, the United States could not wall itself off from global threats such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation, trade and investment protectionism, pandemic disease, climate change, or a loss of access to financial, energy, or mineral resources. Borders are not the same as barriers. The US government must be active in addressing these threats. There are also opportunities to be had, including the possibility of lifting hundreds of millions and potentially billions of people out of poverty, increasing the quality of life as well as life expectancy, expanding individual freedom, and settling disputes before they lead to armed conflict. Embracing isolationism would accelerate the emergence of a more disorderly and dangerous world, one that would be less safe, less free, and less prosperous. Isolationism would be folly.

At the same time, the United States must become significantly more discriminating in choosing what it does in the world and how it does it. Hard choices need to be made. It is not simply that it needs to recognize that the limits to its resources require it to be exacting in setting priorities; it must also recognize the limits to its influence. The United States needs to rethink what it seeks to accomplish abroad. Americans must distinguish between the desirable and the vital as well as be- tween the feasible and the impossible. For the past two decades, American foreign policy, consumed with remaking large parts of the greater Middle East, has quite simply overreached. There is a strong case to be made that US attention and efforts should be better distributed around the world, with greater focus on the increasingly critical Asia-Pacific region and the Western Hemisphere and somewhat less on the Middle East; there is an even stronger case that US foreign policy should focus not so much on what other countries are within their borders and more on what they do outside their borders. This will be difficult at times, as situations will arise in which standing aside will appear to be immoral or strategically shortsighted or both; that said, the United States needs to balance its desire to do good with its ability to do good—as well as with the need to do many other things on behalf of its citizens at home and its interests abroad.

To mount an effective foreign policy the United States must first put its house in order. The most obvious reason is resources. National security does not come cheap. Money—lots of it—is required to field a capable modern military with a broad range of missions, to generate necessary intelligence against a broad range of threats, to protect the homeland against a broad range of contingencies, to carry out diplomacy and dispense assistance to promote a broad range of interests. The United States now spends close to $800 billion a year on these tasks—roughly one- fifth of all federal spending and some 5 percent of total GDP. The economy must grow at traditional rates (near or above 3 percent) and domestic spending that does not qualify as investment must be kept in check if this country is not to be forced to choose between national security and all else. Alas, the US economy is now growing at only half this rate, while domestic spending that has nothing to do with investment is rising.

The United States is far more likely to find itself threatened and attacked if it is perceived to be weak and vulnerable. A strong United States will discourage would-be competitors or adversaries from going down the path of confrontation. A strong United States would make others more likely to work with it than against it. And a strong United States would be better able to deal with any foe that miscalculated.

The United States must also put its house in order if it is to avoiding placing itself in a position of high vulnerability to forces or actions beyond its control. Right now the US government requires an inflow of more than $1 billion a day to support a gross federal debt that stands at about $16 trillion and increases by more than $1 trillion a year. We can look to our own history to see what can happen when foreign governments obtain this kind of leverage. In 1956, the US government, furious over Great Britain’s participation in the invasion of Egypt after Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal, blocked international loans the British needed to avert a collapse of their currency. The British government of the day was forced to back down. Now imagine what might happen were China to threaten a similar action against the United States amid a crisis over Taiwan or the South China Sea.

Another scenario is simply one in which money markets lose confidence in America’s ability to manage its own finances and start to exact a higher price for their continued willingness to lend money. This would force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, not for the traditional purpose of cooling inflationary pressures, but rather to attract needed dollars that demand a higher return given concerns over American credit-worthiness. This would spell disaster for an economy barely out of recession. This scenario might have come to pass already had it not been for the Eurozone crisis, which removed a viable alternative to the dollar. But Americans cannot count on Europeans to forever do the wrong thing, or on China’s remaining unwilling to allow its currency to take on an international role.

Then there is the power of example. A successful American economy, one that is generating wealth and jobs and innova- tion, along with a successful American political system and society, one that is willing and able to take difficult but necessary decisions, presents not just the image but the reality of a country functioning at a high level, one with political freedom, a high and rising standard of living, and social mobility. This is a model other countries will want to emulate. The battle of ideas is far from over; indeed, it has grown more intense with the economic success of China and other authoritarian regimes, with the difficulties experienced by the mature democracies in 2008 and subsequently, and with the dramatic developments that have taken place across the Middle East starting in late 2010. Foreign policy is not just about what diplomats say and soldiers do: It is also about the example a country sets.

It is also true that a more effective foreign policy would redound to the benefit of Americans at home, with more resources to be spent on and in their society, be it by individuals or the federal, state, and local government to enhance the quality of life, standard of living, or security. A more peaceful and organized world would create conditions in which the American economy should thrive. And a thriving economy—one growing at relatively robust levels—will improve the lot of most Americans. This is important, as tolerance for income and wealth inequality tends to be greater if everyone’s situation is improving. Absent such growth, social and economic mobility will atrophy and class frictions will increase, leaving the population focused inward.

It is not too late for the United States to put its house in order. It is not simply a case of necessity; currently it has an extraordinary opportunity to do so. The world is a relatively forgiving place now and for the foreseeable future. There is no twenty-first-century equivalent to what Germany was in the first half of the twentieth century and the Soviet Union was in the second. Of course, there are actual and potential threats to American interests and well-being, but none rises to the existential. China could in theory come to challenge the United States for primacy, but it is far from assured that it will have the means and the appetite to do so. In any event, and as will be dis- cussed, any such challenge is neither inevitable nor imminent. The United States is fortunate to have something of a strategic respite; how long-lasting and extensive it will be will, of course, depend in part on the decisions and actions of others. But even more it will depend on how successful the United States proves to be at repairing the foundations of its power, how disciplined it can be at wielding that power, and how wise it is in providing others an incentive to share in the building and operating of the international order.

This book is divided into three parts. The first focuses on the world, on the principal features of the international system a generation after the end of the Cold War, just over a decade after 9/11, and half a decade after the onset of the American and then global economic crisis. The picture is one of American primacy—first among unequals, if you will—but also one of widely diffused power and technology in a world lacking in mechanisms for dealing with most of the challenges that already exist or soon will; a world in which some regions show far more dynamism than others; an era in which it is often difficult to translate power into influence; and a time in which governments are finding it hard to manage at home and cooperate abroad.

The second part of the book is more prescriptive, focusing on what the United States should and should not do abroad. The theme is one of a more discriminating foreign policy, both in what is sought and what is spent, complemented by a more disciplined domestic policy. The book will argue for the adoption of a new American foreign policy, one defined by a doctrine that would bring to an end an era characterized by large land wars designed to refashion countries in the greater Middle East, and replace it with an approach to the world that would place greater emphasis on the Asia-Pacific and Western Hemisphere, on instruments of statecraft other than the military, and on shaping more how other governments act beyond their bor- ders rather than within.

The book’s third part is also mostly prescriptive, but focuses on how America should tackle its internal challenges. The recommendations address the budget, energy, education, infrastructure, and immigration. The book also suggests economic policies that, if adopted, should stimulate growth, and political reforms that, if introduced, would make it more likely that the country’s leaders would, or at least could, do what needs doing.

The stakes are enormous. The world will not sort itself out absent US leadership. This is not a call for unilateralism, which in most instances is not a viable option. Nor is it a reflection of American arrogance. It is simple fact. No other country has the capacity, habits, and willingness to take on this responsibility. Without such a benign force, order never just emerges. No invisible hand is at work to sort out the geopolitical marketplace. The question is whether the visible hand of the United States will be up to the challenge. One sincerely hopes for this to be so, as nothing less than the future of this country and the character of the twenty-first century are in the balance.

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The president will meet with families affected by the devastation and thank first responders during his visit to the Oklahoma City area, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

Obama has directed his administration to provide all available resources to help in the recovery. “As a nation, our full focus right now is on the urgent work of rescue and the hard work of recovery and rebuilding that lies ahead,” Obama said in a White House statement Tuesday. “Our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today, and we will back up those prayers with deeds for as long as it takes.”

A massive tornado struck the suburban town of Moore on Monday afternoon, devastating schools and homes and killing 24 people.

                                                                                        (Image Credit:  Mel Evans/AP Photo)

The woman challenging Chris Christie in his gubernatorial re-election bid in New Jersey, Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, is out with her first television ad today.

The ad begins running this week and is a more than $1 million buy, a Buono campaign aide said.

The ad’s goals are two-fold: hitting her opponent on the state of the economy and introducing herself to voters where she still has low name recognition. Buono, 59, has had digital ads, including one released this week poking fun at the pronunciation of her last name, but this is the first one New Jersey residents will see in their pricey New York City media market. It will run on network and cable television, per the aide. It is is not running in the Philadelphia market, the other market New Jersey residents in the southern part of the state see. It is also one of the nation’s most expensive markets.

WATCH THE AD HERE

“To hear Gov. Christie tell it, everything in New Jersey is going just fine. Well I see another New Jersey with 400,000 unemployed. One of the worst jobless rates in the country. Working and middle class families have seen costs soar, from property taxes to college tuition,” Buono says in the 30-second ad before introducing her story to New Jersey.

“I know that struggle, because I lived it. My dad was an immigrant who worked as a butcher. Working my way through school, I was able to pull myself up. I’m Barbara Buono. As your governor, I’ll fight to give every New Jersey child the same chance I got.”

Christie’s spokesman Kevin Roberts responded to the ad, saying in a statement, “As the architect of Jon Corzine’s budgets, Barbara Buono was central to those disastrous policies that brought New Jersey to the brink of catastrophe.”

“Barbara Buono may be ‘very proud’ of her tenure as Jon Corzine’s budget chair, but New Jerseyans know that we cannot go back to the failed era of more taxes, more debt and fewer jobs under Jon Corzine and Barbara Buono,” Roberts said.

HERE’S CHRISTIE’S OWN AD ATTACKING BUONO

Despite the financial and polling differences between the two candidates – Christie, 50, has wide margins in both – Christie himself put out an attack ad going after Buono last week.

“Meet Barbara Buono. Jon Corzine’s budget chair now running for governor. Buono voted 154 times to raise our taxes,” a narrator says before naming the taxes and pivoting to Christie. “Let’s not turn back the clock. Chris Christie’s record: four balanced budgets, no new taxes for anyone, the best job growth in a decade and the most education funding ever.”

It ends as others have with Christie looking out at the Jersey Shore, a topic that has also come under some scrutiny this week as Democrats have cried foul at separate state tourism ads that feature Christie and his family.

Democrats are calling them publicly funded campaign ads, while Christie supporters point out that they are running outside of New Jersey and the company that made the ads said data research showed Christie would be the most effective messenger.

The ad controversy might be getting some heat from Democrats, but he is still beating Buono by a wide margin in recent polls. A poll out earlier this month from NBC News-Marist has Christie up 34 points over Buono, 62 percent to 28 percent.

Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s director of  Exempt Organizations who is at the center of the controversy after the agency targeted conservative organizations for gratuitous scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination today at a congressional hearing examining the scandal.

Lerner quietly took her seat at the witness table this morning, standing and raising her right hand as she swore to tell the truth alongside other senior IRS officials testifying at the hearing.

When it became her turn to speak, Lerner read a brief statement into the record, declaring her innocence.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Lerner then said that while she “would very much like to answer the committee’s questions,” her counsel advised her to assert her constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of the hearing.

“Because I’m asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I’ve done something wrong. I have not,” she reiterated. “One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals, and that is the protection I’m invoking today.”

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, entered into the record written answers that Lerner provided for the inspector general’s investigation. Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the committee, said he had not seen the document and asked Lerner to authenticate her answers.

The document was passed the Lerner, who put on her glasses to skim through it.

“This appears to be my response,” she said.

“So it’s your testimony?” Issa of California asked. “As far as your recollection, that is your response?”

“That’s correct,” Lerner answered.

Republicans on the committee quickly interjected, challenging that Lerner gave up her right to remain silent and should be compelled to answer questions from members.

“She just testified. She just waived her Fifth Amendment right to privilege,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a former federal prosecutor, said, “You don’t get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination. That’s not the way it works. She waived her right to Fifth Amendment privilege by issuing and opening statement. She ought to stand here and answer our questions.”

Members of the public watching in the committee room applauded enthusiastically.

Issa continued to quiz Lerner, who then declined to answer any further questions.

“Is it possible that we could narrow the scope of questions and that there are some areas that you would be able to answer any questions on here today?” Issa asked.

“I will not answer any questions or testify today,” she responded.

Issa followed up: “Ms. Lerner, would you be willing to answer questions specifically related to the earlier statements made under oath before this committee?”

“I decline to answer that question for the reasons I’ve already given,” she deadpanned.

Issa then dismissed Lerner from the hearing, and she quickly left the committee room.

When reporters caught up to Lerner in a back hallway as she made her way to her vehicle, she was guarded by a handful of U.S. Capitol Police officers and her legal team, and she ignored questions from the media about her decision to take the Fifth.

The frustration over her silence was shared on both sides of the aisle. During the hearing, Rep. Stephen Lynch warned Lerner that her silence could compel Congress to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation.

“If this committee is prevented, by obstruction or by refusal to answer, the questions that we need to get to the bottom of this, you will leave us no alternative but to ask for the appointment of a special prosecutor or appointment to special counsel to get to the bottom of this,” Lynch, D-Mass., said. “I hope that’s not the approach of the IRS going forward because there will be hell to pay if that’s the route that we chose to go down.”

While the IG’s report found that the scandal was not the result of political motivations, Issa criticized the IRS for failing to meet its objective as an independent agency.

“We knew then that something seemed to be wrong. We knew then that there was smoke. We knew then that, in fact, something just didn’t seem to be right,” he said. “Many people believe that the IRS is an independent agency. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Image credit: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

By MICHAEL FALCONE (@michaelpfalcone)

NOTABLES

• IN THE HOT SEAT: Lois Lerner, the top IRS official who is at the center of the controversy for the targeting of tea party and other conservative groups, will refuse to answer questions at a congressional hearing today and invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, ABC’s JEFF ZELENY reports. She is set to appear before the House Oversight Committee. Congressional aides said yesterday that they received a notice from Lerner’s lawyers that she would not answer their questions because it is now part of a criminal investigation. “She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation, but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” according to a letter that her lawyer, William Taylor, sent to Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the committee, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. A congressional aide told ABC News that she is still expected to appear at the hearing, which begins at 9:30 a.m. ET. http://abcn.ws/1a2qpzu

• WHY SHE MATTERS: Lerner’s testimony is key, members of Congress believe, because she found out in June 2011 that terms like “tea party” and “patriots” were being used to flag tax-exempt requests. Lerner is in charge of overseeing requests for tax-exempt status.

• GOP FILES FOIA REQUEST: Today the Republican National Committee sent a Freedom of Information Act request letter to the IRS in order to “make the facts available for the public” according to a statement from RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “As each day passes, Americans find ourselves with more questions about the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and donors — and what the White House and Treasury Department knew and when,” Priebus said. “The Obama administration may not be eager to address the important questions, but Americans deserve answers. What other words were used to target organizations? Were taxpayers audited as a result of their political donations? How involved were employees at IRS headquarters, and how much did White House and Treasury officials communicate with the IRS?” Read the RNC’s letter: http://bit.ly/ZcT4SY

• CONSERVATIVES GO TO COURT: The first groups that claim they were unfairly scrutinized by the IRS filed suit against the agency in federal courts, seeking damages and the granting of their long-delayed tax-exempt status application, ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE reports. True the Vote, a Houston-based voter watchdog group, filed a complaint in federal court in Washington, D.C., yesterday over what it is calling “unlawful actions by the IRS in the processing of its application for exempt status.”  The group says it has been waiting three years for its tax exempt status to either be granted or denied, first applying in July of 2010. During that time, the group’s president Catherine Engelbrecht told ABC News she has been personally audited and even visited by agents from the Bureau of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. True the Vote is working with the ActRight Legal Foundation on the suit and the group says this is “just the first of several cases” they plan to file against the IRS. Another group, the American Center for Law and Justice, is planning on bringing a suit against the IRS as well. Theirs will be on behalf of at least 17 tea party groups, but possibly more. http://abcn.ws/12TiguV

THE ROUNDTABLE

ABC’s RICK KLEIN: Every once in a while — and it’s been a great, great while — the process works. Pause to admire the work of the Senate Judiciary Committee (as even opponents of the bill did by late yesterday) no matter where you stand on comprehensive immigration reform. The work was truly bipartisan; lawmakers cut deals and kept to them; both sides won some and lost some. By one definition, a “stronger” bill means a stronger vote, and it’s impossible to imagine the bill getting more yes votes in the committee than the 13 secured yesterday, against 5 nos. It may all have been an exercise to win Sen. Orrin Hatch’s vote, but that worked. The prospects for a strong Senate vote, which brightens chances in the House, look strong. The path gets harder from here, but at least other committees – and those pursuing other issues, too – have a model.

ABC’s DEVIN DWYER: The wife of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner has broken her silence to let everyone know where she stands. Huma Abedin not only appears by her husband’s side in a new ad announcing his bid for mayor of New York City, she offers an unequivocal endorsement of his campaign.  ”We love this city. And no one would work harder to make it better than Anthony,” she says direct to camera.  Her words are no small thing in a race that will certainly involve discussion of marriage, infidelity and the role of women in politics.  Abedin also puts to rest doubts about a high-profile role in her husband’s post-scandal career, despite the public embarrassment she endured when he was caught tweeting lewd pictures of himself to other women. http://abcn.ws/12TiguV

OKLAHOMA UPDATE: A White House official tells ABC’s ANN COMPTON: “Overnight, the President continued to receive updates from his team on the ongoing response in Oklahoma. Yesterday, following a morning call to the Mayor of Moore Oklahoma, Glenn Lewis, the President spoke again to Governor Fallin expressing his concern for those who had been impacted and to reiterate that he had directed his Administration to provide all available resources to support the response led by the Governor and her team. Last night, the President also spoke with Senator James Inhofe to make clear that FEMA stood ready to continue to support the people of Oklahoma through the immediate response phase as well as the recovery, and to let the Senator know that Oklahomans remained in his thoughts and prayers. … As of this morning, FEMA has more than 400 personnel already on the ground supporting the response, including three national Urban Search and Rescue Teams, an Incident Management Assistance Team, as well as personnel focused on helping survivors register for and receive the federal assistance made available by the major disaster declaration signed by the President on Monday night. As of 2 a.m. this morning, more than 1,000 individuals affected by the tornadoes and severe weather in Oklahoma had registered for assistance with FEMA.”

WHAT WE’RE READING

“HEADS WON’T ROLL AT THE IRS,” by Politico’s David Nather and Rachael Bade. “Lawmakers pressing for more heads to roll at the Internal Revenue Service are going to be disappointed. ‘Why weren’t more people fired?’ Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) demanded at a hearing Tuesday on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, channeling the frustration of his colleagues. Turns out it’s not so easy. In fact, it appears that no one has been formally reprimanded and a spokesperson for the union representing IRS workers said it hasn’t been called to help any employees yet. Most employees involved in the targeting program are covered by protections for federal workers that could drag out the termination process. … Here’s a quick guide to what it would take to show IRS officials the door.” http://politi.co/11aHrpJ

BUZZ

IMMIGRATION REFORM BILL HEADS TO THE FULL SENATE. The bipartisan Senate “Gang of Eight” held together despite an onslaught of amendments and some efforts to kill its comprehensive immigration reform bill, ABC’s JIM AVILA and SERENA MARSHALL report. Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill 13-5, largely intact, to the full Senate for a vote. It is the first step in a series of hurdles for immigration reform that includes increased border security, a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants and reforms to legal immigration designed to streamline the process. The committee vote was met with cheers of, “Yes, we can,” by those in the room. It took the 18 senators five days for markups and they considered 300 amendments, with many of those that passed doing so in a bipartisan nature. Overall, 48 Republican amendments passed. “I don’t think there has been a markup on such a complex bill that has been this open,” Sen Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during closing remarks. http://abcn.ws/192C7fM

NEXT STEPS: The bill will now head to the full Senate for more debate and a vote. “Now the real work begins to see if we can reform this bill before we send it to the House,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during his remarks last night. The separate House “Gang of Eight” said last week it had agreed in principle on its own bill and expected to write its legislation and introduce it after the Memorial Day recess.

MAYORAL MOVEMENTS:

–LOS ANGELES WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR ITS FIRST WOMAN MAYOR. Votes are still being counted, but with nearly eight points separating the candidates in the Los Angeles mayoral runoff, City Controller Wendy Greuel called City Councilman Eric Garcetti early this morning to concede the race, ABC’s RICK KLEIN reports. Garcetti tweeted a brief victory statement: “The hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let’s make this a great city again.” Garcetti, at 42, will be the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century, and becomes the first Jew elected mayor of Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city. But Greuel’s loss is a disappointment to women’s political groups that saw the possibility of electing female mayors in both L.A. and New York this year, among other cities. More from the L.A. Times’ Seema Mehta and Laura J. Nelson: http://lat.ms/12LW3jz

–ANTHONY WEINER JUMPS INTO NEW YORK RACE. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner officially entered the mayoral contest in New York City this morning with a campaign video touting his plan for middle class New Yorkers and taking, head on, the scandal that ended his Congressional career. “I’ve made some big mistakes and I know I’ve let a lot of people down,” Weiner said in the video, which features a cameo by his wife, Huma Abedin. “But I’ve also learned some tough lessons. I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it for my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you.” However, a new Quinnipiac University poll out this morning shows voters are not particularly supportive of a Weiner run — they said 49 to 38 percent he should stay out of the race in the survey taken before his announcement. Nevertheless, Weiner is running second in a crowded Democratic primary field. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is the leader at 25 percent, with Weiner at 15 percent, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former Comptroller William Thompson tied for third place at 10. A candidate needs 40 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off. http://bit.ly/14Okywr

TOM COLE: OKLAHOMA NEEDS HELP, NOT A FUNDING BATTLE. Republican Rep. Tom Cole, whose district took a direct hit from a powerful tornado on Monday, said the residents of the tornado ravaged towns in Oklahoma need help, not a political battle over funding in Washington, ABC’s ABBY PHILLIP reports. “Once a disaster starts, to me that’s the end of a discussion. Now we need to focus on the Americans that are in a difficult spot,” Cole told ABC News in an interview. “They don’t need to be watching a big political battle, they need to be sure they’re getting help.” Cole is one of only two members of Oklahoma’s seven-person Congressional delegation that voted in favor of a bill funding disaster aid after Superstorm Sandy, raising questions about whether they would change their stance on emergency funding in light of a tragedy in their own state. Oklahoma’s Republican Sen. Tom Coburn on Monday reiterated his opposition to funding disaster relief without first identifying corresponding budget cuts, if Congress is forced to allocate additional funds. Cole said he believes that the $11 billion the Federal Emergency Management Fund has in its disaster relief fund should be enough to cover the rebuilding and relief efforts in Oklahoma. But he added that, like with Sandy, relief should come first. http://abcn.ws/ZbWYLS

IRS ‘BLEMISH’ PROMPTS SCORN FROM UNAPPEASED SENATORS. Douglas Shulman, the former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said yesterday he was “dismayed and saddened” that his agency had improperly targeting conservative groups, but declined to offer a direct apology and dismissed suggestions that he mislead Congress, ABC’s JEFF ZELENY notes. The testimony from Shulman, who was making his first public appearance since the IRS controversy broke into the open two weeks ago, did not satisfy members of the Senate Finance Committee. He faced more than three hours of stern questioning from Democrats and Republicans, but said “I don’t believe I was aware” when asked why he had not informed Congress about potential problems percolating at the IRS office in Cincinnati. “I agree that this is an issue that when someone spotted it, they should have brought it up the chain and they didn’t,” Shulman said. “Why they didn’t, I don’t know.” Shulman, who was first appointed by President George W. Bush, acknowledged that the scandal had placed a “blemish” on the IRS. But he said the task facing the IRS was “very, very, very, very difficult,” given the rapid rise of groups seeking tax-exempt status. http://abcn.ws/13IOTh3

NOT IMPRESSED: Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the committee, ordered a second round of questioning after he said Shulman’s answers had been unsatisfactory. “The American people have every right to be outraged,” the Democrat said. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was among the committee members who expressed outrage with Shulman. “The buck doesn’t stop with you?” asked Cornyn, who repeatedly pressed for an apology. “I certainly am not personally responsible for creating a list that had inappropriate criteria on it,” Shulman said. He added, “This happened on my watch. I very much regret that this happened on my watch.” With a stern tone, Cornyn replied, “I don’t think that qualifies as an apology.”

NOTED: TREASURY SECRETARY DEFENDS HANDLING OF IRS SCANDAL. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew called the unfair scrutiny the Internal Revenue Service gave some tea party groups “outrageous methods,” adding that while the “conduct was not politically motivated it was unacceptable and inexcusable.” “Administering the tax code without any hint of bias is a solemn obligation that must be carried out with the highest of standards,” Lew said in a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday, according to ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE. Lew said he has directed incoming Acting Commissioner Daniel Werfel, who begins Wednesday, to “carry out a thorough review,” including “making sure that those who acted inappropriately are held accountable for their actions,” as well as “examining and correcting any failures in the system that allowed this behavior to happen,” and “taking a forward-looking view in determining whether the IRS has systemic problems that need to be addressed.” http://abcn.ws/16L5VyP

DONALD TRUMP: ‘OUR COUNTRY’S GOING TO HELL’. In a speech at a Republican political event in Michigan last night, real estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump told his audience, “our country’s going to hell.” Trump spoke at the Oakland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner in Novi, Michigan. And in an interview with ABC News before the event, Trump said that of all the scandals plaguing the Obama administration, the unanswered questions about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi concerned him the most. “I think the worst is Benghazi because people have died — and really viciously died,” Trump said. The billionaire New Yorker spoke at last night’s gathering as did the state’s GOP Gov. Gov. Rick Snyder. Trump’s special counsel and chief political adviser, Michael Cohen, told ABC News that his boss has been a sought-after speaker at GOP events. “I suspect Mr. Trump will be doing many more of these over the years to come,” Cohen said. “His no nonsense straightforward and pragmatic approach resonates with Americans. His underlying theme is always about making America great again.” More coverage of Trump’s speech: http://bit.ly/16LUKWF

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

GAY RIGHTS ADVOCATE SEEKS TO OVERTURN BAN ON GAY BOY SCOUTS. As the Boy Scouts of America prepares to vote tomorrow on a proposal that would change its long-standing policy of excluding gay boys from Scout units, the executive director of Scouts for Equality, a gay rights advocacy group, is hopeful that the proposal will pass–but says this is just the first step. “This is a good step in the right direction, we want youth protection throughout the entire program, and it looks we’ll be able to see that on the 23rd,” executive director Zach Wahls told Top Line’s RICK KLEIN and OLIVIER KNOX. “But after that, we have to make sure that we are telling Scouts that when you turn 18 you are still welcome in the program.” The proposal up for vote will not change the BSA’s policy of banning gay adult leaders. To Wahls, changing that policy is not just political, it’s personal. “As the straight Eagle Scout son of a lesbian couple, I know exactly how important lifting the ban on adults is,” he says. http://yhoo.it/11aGSft

IN THE NOTES’ INBOX

BLOOMBERG, JEB BUSH, RAHM EMANUEL, CONDI RICE KICK OFF VIRTUAL IMMIGRATION REFORM PUSH. “The Partnership for a New American Economy, Organizing for Action (OFA), and Republicans for Immigration Reform today kicked off the March for Innovation (#iMarch), the largest-ever virtual march on Washington in support of bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform. … Beginning at 8:30 this morning with a Twitter Town Hall led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that will include Jeb Bush, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Condoleezza Rice — just a day after the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” immigration bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee — top #iMarch supporters will take part in a pass-the-baton style event that will feature a number of online venues and digital tools including Huffington Post Live, Google Hangout, Thunderclap, Twitter Town Halls, Facebook, Reddit, Vine, and others. All of this activity will help drive thousands and thousands of supporters to www.MarchForInnovation.com where they will be able to use social media and digital call tools to urge their elected officials in Washington to pass comprehensive immigration reform.” Full list of events: http://www.marchforinnovation.com/event-schedule

WHO’S TWEETING?

@AlexConant: Grover Norquist writes that Senate immigration bill “is rooted in strong conservative principles.” Must read: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/21/time-for-sensible-immigration-reform-is-now/ …

@hilaryr: Tim Cook’s forthright testimony is a model for CEO’s educating Cong on real world. If they don’t like it, change it. http://wapo.st/16LMcPu 

@HotlineReid: Good point from @KennethBaer: Obama’s pollster, Benenson Strategy Group, conducted the LAT/USC poll that got LA Mayor’s race right.

@politicoroger: Weiner promises wi-fi on NY subways? Maybe the whole wi-fi & sexting thing is something he should stay away from.

@ron_fournier: Americans are inspiring “@JohnBerman: Meeting some of the most amazing people in Moore, OK. Inspiring”