CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 17, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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NOT AN ACT OF PARTISANSHIP: IRS official denies intentional political targeting, lying to Congress… A huge increase in workload, rather than deliberate targeting, led to "foolish mistakes" and the political discrimination in the Internal Revenue Service cited by an inspector general's report, the agency's outgoing commissioner said Friday. – Tom Cohen

STATE POLITICS: First on CNN: Gun battle in states heats up as NRA steps in to recall Colo. Senate president… The national battle over guns is headed to the states in a major way. Already groups supporting more gun restrictions have been active on the local level. And now for the first time in almost two decades, the National Rifle Association is attempting to coordinate the recall of a top state legislator for having successfully passed further gun restrictions in his state, CNN has learned. – Jake Tapper

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 16, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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CONFIDENCE IN HOLDER: President Barack Obama said Thursday that he has “complete confidence in Eric Holder” and that “he is an outstanding Attorney General” during a news conference. Holder has been under fire since it was learned that the Justice Department obtained phone records from Associated Press reporters as part of an investigation of classified leaks.

‘SIMPLY UNACCEPTABLE’: Obama also used his joint press conference with the Turkish prime minister to address the fact that the IRS was prejudice against tea party and conservative groups that applied for non-profit status. “My main concern is fixing a problem,” Obama said. “We will be putting in new leadership that will be able to make sure that - following up on the IG audit - that we gather up all the facts, that we hold accountable those who have taken these outrageous actions.”

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 15, 2013 | 5 p.m.
- n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

BREAKING: First reported on CNN: White House releases 100 pages of Benghazi e-mails… The White House released more than 100 pages of e-mails on Wednesday in a bid to quell critics who say President Barack Obama and his aides played politics with national security following the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The exchanges detailing discussions between top Obama administration officials from multiple agencies suggest the CIA took the lead in developing talking points to describe the attack last September 11 that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. – Jake Tapper

TESTY: Attorney General Eric Holder and Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, two men who have locked horns before, clashed in a House Judiciary hearing Wednesday over the Obama administration’s nomination for secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. After Issa accused the Department of Justice of deliberatively trying to withhold information, the attorney general immediately interrupted him. “No, I am not going to stop talking now,” Holder said. “You have characterized something as something that goes to the integrity of people at the Justice Department. It is inappropriate and is too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress. It is unacceptable and it is shameful,” Holder said.

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 14, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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TABLES TURNED: JUSTICE TO EXAMINE IRS ACTIONS… Attorney General Eric Holder announced Tuesday he has ordered an investigation into the IRS targeting conservative groups. While the IRS has admitted that members of its Cincinnati office engaged in political targeting of some conservative groups, documents suggest at least three other offices did the same.

NIXONIAN? White House Press Secretary Jay Carney dismissed the comparison Tuesday that the Obama White House operates in similar fashion to the Nixon administration. “I can tell you that people who make those comparisons need to check their history because what we have here with one issue Benghazi is so clearly, as we are learning more and more a political sideshow, a deliberate effort to politicize a tragedy,” Carney said.

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 10, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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BREAKING: White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday the only changes made by the White House and the State Department to CIA talking points on the deadly Benghazi attack last year was a decision to change the description of the targeted facility from a consulate to a diplomatic post. Carney also said the Obama administration did not want to “jump to conclusions” about who may have been responsible for the Benghazi attack “before we had the facts,” adding later that we “were very open about what was known.”

TALKING POINTS: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION E-MAILS RAISE NEW QUESTIONS ON BENGHAZI… An e-mail discussion about talking points the Obama administration used to describe the deadly attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, show the White House and State Department were more involved than they first said in the decision to remove an initial CIA assessment that a group with ties to al Qaeda was involved, according to CNN sources with knowledge of the e-mails.

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 9, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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DEVELOPING: SPEAKER URGES WHITE HOUSE TO RELEASE BENGHAZI EMAILS... House Speaker John Boehner called on President Barack Obama today to release e-mails that he says show how the White House wanted to change the Benghazi attack “talking points.”

ANALYSIS: BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION BOTH LEGITIMATE AND PARTISAN… Tough legitimate congressional oversight or partisan politics? Leading Republicans say the former; most Democrats the latter. Truth is, it is both.– John King

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 8, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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SLAMMED: OBAMA ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE BLASTED AT BENGHAZI HEARING… Top Republicans and witnesses ripped the Obama administration's response to last year's deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, calling key executive branch officials unresponsive in the critical hours after the assault and uncooperative in the investigations that followed. Our goal "is to get answers because their families (of the victims) deserve answers," said California Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which heard from State Department "whistleblowers" at a hearing on Wednesday. – Alan Silverleib Dan Merica

MORE: For a full account of the House’s Benghazi hearing, scroll down to What Caught Our Eye.

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 7, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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NOT A CAREER CHOICE: The weight loss surgery Gov. Chris Christie underwent in February was not a precursor to seeking higher office, the New Jersey Republican asserted Tuesday. Christie, speaking in public for the first time since his surgery was revealed, said the decision instead was based on his commitment to his family. “It's not a career issue for me. It is a long term health issue for me. And that is the basis upon which I made my decision,” Christie said, saying that “the steps I've taken are for me, and Mary Pat, and the kids.” – Kevin Liptak

TONIGHT: Voters in coastal South Carolina will decide tonight who will fill the vacant U.S. House seat in the state's 1st Congressional District. The two leading candidates on the ballot are former two-term Gov. Mark Sanford, who's seeking political redemption as he runs for the seat that he once held for six years, and Elizabeth Colbert Busch. – Jim Acosta, Matt Hoye and Paul Steinhauser

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CNN's GUT CHECK | for May 6, 2013 | 5 p.m.
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MENTOR VS. MENTEE: IMMIGRATION REFORM PITS DEMINT VS. RUBIO… On Friday, Sen. Marco Rubio described former Sen. Jim DeMint as a “great man” and a “mentor.” On Monday, DeMint ran roughshod over the Senate immigration reform effort in part spearheaded by Rubio. – Ashley Killough

LATEST FROM BOSTON: A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation tells CNN that investigators believe that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was the one accessing Inspire magazine on the computer that came from the Cambridge apartment that he and his wife – Katherine Russell – shared. The official confirmed not only that the computer had Inspire magazine and other materials of interest on it, but that the Inspire materials included instructions on bomb-making. – Carol Cratty

MARKET WATCH: S&P closes at a record high of 1,618. NASDAQ adds 0.4%, while the Dow slips 4 points.

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