President Obama hosts Hanukkah reception

Former IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman, who was in charge of the agency when the practice of scrutinizing conservative groups was initiated, said that the White House and the Treasury Department did not sanction or suggest IRS employees' targeting practices.

After IRS official Lois Lerner invoked the Fifth Amendment to decline to testify before Congress today, several Republican congressmen said she had waived her right to avoid self-incrimination by providing an opening statement that alluded to her innocence. "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," said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., based on answers he received from a Treasury Department inspector general about the IRS targeting conservative groups, said, "The American people today should not have confidence that this is an isolated incident."

Insisting that she's "done nothing wrong," Lois Lerner, the IRS official in charge of the division that targeted conservative nonprofit groups for additional scrutiny of their applications for tax-exempt status, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during congressional testimony on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters FEMA has enough money "right now" to tend to the devastation left by a monster tornado in Oklahoma, but assured that "if there's more money needed, we're gonna take care of it."

After meeting with Burmese President Thein Sein, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he believes because of the steps the former pariah state has taken toward democracy, "enough progress has been made in Burma to where implementation of the sanctions this year is actually not a good idea."