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Let Me Start: The hearings begin

House Republicans are holding the first of several hearings on the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service.
The Internal Revenue Service building, Washington DC.  (Photo by Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)
The Internal Revenue Service building, Washington DC.

House Republicans are holding the first of several hearings on the scandal at the Internal Revenue Service. Republicans will want to know whether the idea to scrutinize Tea Party and conservative groups was born within the IRS, as the Inspector General's report says, or whether it goes higher into the administration. Rep. Charles Boustany, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, says “I just refuse to believe that lower-level I.R.S. personnel were making these kinds of decisions.”

Republicans once again voted to repeal Obamacare, a fool's errand that has no chance of ever becoming law because the Senate won't go along with it and the president, of course, won't sign it. But make no mistake: Republican zeal over the IRS scandal is all about trying to dismantle Obamacare, and this may be their last chance.

Former ambassador Thomas Pickering joins us on Hardball tonight to set the record straight on Benghazi. And now that we know more about those emails, it sure looks like a case of Republican hyperbole.

As Republicans continue to block everything President Obama proposes, including cabinet and judicial nominees, Senate majority leader Harry Reid is once again considering changing the filibuster rules in what many in Washington are calling "the nuclear option".