Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) -- After a week of hearings in Washington and despite cloudy skies, President Obama is spending his Saturday afternoon on the golf course.

Obama's foursome included Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Senior Policy Advisor Sam Kass.

Obama has frequented the golf course often this spring, but until Saturday always with male golfing partners. Sebelius is the first woman to join the president on the golf course this year.

Sebelius was seen getting into the president's SUV before the motorcade left the White House.

Kass is also the executive director of Let's Move! and an assistant chef at the White House.

The president’s golf outing comes after the White House spent a week dealing with a series of political scandals, from the IRS targeting conservative groups seeking tax exempt status for extra scrutiny, to the administration’s release of a trove of e-mails about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year, to the Department of Justice obtaining phone records of Associated Press reporters.

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US House of Representatives(WASHINGTON) -- Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland delivers this week's Republican address, joined by Sen.  Mitch McConnell's Red Tape Tower, a seven-foot tall collection of "all the regulations already associated with President Obama's health care law." Harris, also a physician, argues for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and claims the law only limits job opportunities for Americans.

"Obamacare is knocking American off the ladder of opportunity, and the sooner we repeal it, the sooner we can start fixing health care for working families," Harris says in the address.

The Red Tape Tower, standing "20,000 pages high and seven feet tall," says Harris, includes "the taxes, the mandates, the tricks, the traps [and] the fine print" that he warns will be enforced by the IRS.

"If we've learned anything this week, it's that the IRS needs less power, not more. As a matter of fact, it turns out that the IRS official who oversaw the operation that that's under scrutiny for targeting conservatives is now in charge of the IRS's ObamaCare office," Harris says.

"As a physician for nearly 30 years, Ive always believed the power in our health care system should belong to patients and their families, not politicians -- and certainly not the taxman," he adds.

But Republicans' plan for jobs includes repeal of the president's health care law and focus on patient-centered reforms that include disease prevention research to improve care and bring down costs, Harris says.  

"This week marked the third time in three years that the people's House has listened to the people and voted for full repeal of the health care law," says Harris. "Now it's time for the Senate to listen to the people as well."

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Internal Revenue Service planted a question at an American Bar Association conference in order to reveal that it had inappropriately targeted conservative groups prior to the 2012 elections.  But members of Congress are questioning why they weren’t told earlier.

The question that prompted Lois Lerner, IRS director of tax exempt organizations, to apologize for the agency’s actions came from Celia Roady, a prominent Washington lawyer in private practice. Roady said that she received a call from Lerner the day before the May 10 conference, requesting that Roady ask a question about tax exempt groups.

“I received a call from Lois Lerner, who told me that she wanted to address an issue after her prepared remarks at the [American Bar Association] Tax Section’s Exempt Organizations Committee Meeting, and asked if I would pose a question to her after her remarks,” Roady said in a statement obtained by ABC News.

“I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we spoken about any of this before I received her call. She did not tell me, and I did not know, how she would answer the question.” (The event was not recorded.)

But at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Friday, lawmakers questioned why Lerner had appeared before the committee just days before the conference and failed to disclose what she knew about the targeting.

“A little more than a week ago Lois Lerner was in front of our Oversight Subcommittee. She serves as the director of the Exempt Organization Division, and she has been directly involved in this matter, yet she failed to disclose what she knew to this committee, choosing instead to do so at an ABA conference two days later,” Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., said on Friday morning. “This is wholly unacceptable.”

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller was grilled by Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) over what he called the IRS’s “scheme” to plant a question at the ABA but not inform Congress.

Miller said he spoke with Lerner about how to make the information in the inspector general’s investigation public.

“So we were going to do it at the same time, I believe, that our intent was to talk to [Congress] at the same time,” Miller said.

Asked by Roskam whether Congress was informed “at the same time,” Miller said, “It did not happen, I don’t believe.”

In a conference call with reporters on May 10, Lerner said that she did not publicly reveal the fact that the IRS had targeted conservative groups earlier because she had never been asked.

“Somebody asked me a question today, so I answered it,” Lerner said.

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ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Irate lawmakers Friday accused the acting IRS commissioner of misleading them about the agency's selective scrutiny of tea party-affiliated groups, demanding to know who was responsible and why no one told Congress about it.

"Why did you mislead Congress and the American people on this?" Louisiana GOP Rep. Charles Boustany, who chairs the Ways and Means panel's Oversight Subcommittee, asked Steven Miller.

"I did not mislead Congress or the American people," Miller replied.

Miller apologized but maintained that politics did not motivate the perceived targeting.

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"First and foremost, as acting commissioner I want to apologize on behalf of the IRS for the mistakes that we made and the poor service that [we] provided," Miller told the House Ways and Means Committee in his opening statement. "Partisanship or even the perception of partisanship has no place at the IRS."

Miller has effectively been fired by the Obama administration. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested his resignation, but Miller remains acting commissioner until his appointment expires June 8.

"I think that what happened here is that foolish mistakes were made by people who were trying to be more efficient in their workload selection," Miller told the committee.

Asked by Georgia GOP Rep. Tom Price whether he thinks the IRS's actions were "illegal," the outgoing commissioner said it is not.

"It is absolutely not illegal," Miller told Price.

Miller asked Price to clarify his question, which Price did: "Do you believe it is illegal for employees of the IRS to create lists to target individual groups and citizens in this country," the conservative congressman asked Miller.

"I don't believe it is. I don't believe it should happen," Miller said, after indicating that the legality of the IRS' practices is for others to decide.

Committee members grilled Miller on who at the IRS knew what, and when. Miller said that after initially becoming aware of problems last year with conservative groups' 501(c)4 applications, he asked an IRS official "to lead a team and take a look and see what was going on in terms of cases that had gotten those letters."

One employee was reassigned, and managers were instructed that the targeting should not continue, Miller said.

Miller said he became aware of the activity in May 2012.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asked Miller why he failed to mention it in July 2012, when he appeared before a subcommittee hearing and was asked about conservative groups' difficulties with the IRS.

"How can we not conclude that you misled this committee?" Ryan asked. "You knew of our concern of this targeting … You knew that, but you didn't mention this to the committee. Do you not think that that's a very incomplete answer?"

Miller said he didn't mention the actions because the question had implied political motivation, which he did not believe existed. Miller said he was only asked about letters from conservative groups.

"I did not mislead the committee. I stand by my answer then, and I stand by my answer now," Miller said. "Harassment that was part of that question implies political motivation."

At a July 25, 2012 subcommittee hearing on tax-exempt organizations, Texas GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant asked Miller about conservative groups that had complained of IRS scrutiny.

"I have been contacted by several of the groups in my district. And they feel like they are being harassed. I don't have any evidence that that is the case.

"But they feel like they have been harassed and feel like the IRS is threatening them with some kind of action or audit. What kind of a letter or action is taking place at this time that you are aware of?" Marchant asked Miller at that hearing, after Miller had been briefed on the scrutiny of tea party groups.

Miller responded, at the time, without mentioning the actions of which he now says he was aware.

"I am aware that there is an uptick of organizations that came into us for exemption," Miller said in July 2012. "So it was the determination letter process, not the examination process. I am aware that some 200 501(c)4 applications fell into this category. We did group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure quality. We continue to work those cases."

Ohio Republican Rep. Pat Tiberi pressed Miller on why he appointed Sarah Hall Ingram, who led the division in charge of tax-exempt organizations, to run the IRS's Affordable Care Act Office.

"Because she's a superb civil servant, sir," Miller explained, noting that he did not think Ingram was involved in the scrutiny of tea party groups.

In the course of asking extra questions of tea party groups, IRS officials requested lists of their donors. Miller told the committee Friday that he believes the agency destroyed those lists.

Miller also defended former commissioner Douglas Shulman's testimony in March 2012 that "there's absolutely no targeting," explaining that at that time, he and Shulman were aware of problems with conservative groups' processing, but not that keywords and groups' policy missions were being used to single them out.

"It was incorrect, but whether it was untruthful or not -- look, when you talk about targeting … it's a pejorative term," Miller said. "What happened here is that someone saw tea party cases come through, they were acknowledging that they were going to be engaged in politics. This is the time frame in 2010 when Citizens United was happening … people in Cincinnati decided, 'Let's centralize these cases.'"

Miller took issue with the term "targeting" multiple times.

"Again, I'm going to take exception to the term 'targeting,'" Miller said when Texas GOP Rep. Kevin Brady asked him, directly, who was responsible.

Miller said he prefers the term "listing" and that he didn't have any names of IRS employees to supply.

Both Republican and Democratic members voiced frustration with the activities, by any name, that Miller and others failed to mention to Congress before now.

"We are all outraged," New York Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley said.

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Comstock Images/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Despite her congressional testimony, the Internal Revenue Service on Friday denied that the former commissioner of tax exempt and government entities -- now running the agency’s health care office -- was in charge of the unit’s day-to-day operations after Dec. 2010.

Sarah Hall Ingram retained the title of commissioner, with oversight over tax-exempt groups, but the IRS says she moved to the agency’s Affordable Care Act office full time by the end of 2010, six months after the tax agency began selectively scrutinizing conservative groups.

Her successor as commissioner, Joseph Grant, said Thursday that he would retire from the IRS in early June.  Grant received the post on a permanent basis last week.

“Sarah has been assigned full-time to ACA activities since December 2010,” an IRS spokesman said in a statement. “Joseph Grant began acting as Commissioner [of tax exempt and government entities] in December 2010. Ingram was not running TE/GE on a day-to-day basis during the time frame in question.”

Despite the agency’s assertion Friday, however, Ingram maintained her title as commissioner of tax exempt and government entities, using it in testimony she delivered to congress in November 2011 and May 2012.

In late 2011, Ingram indicated that she served in two positions simultaneously.

“My name is Sarah Hall Ingram and I’m commissioner of the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Operating Division at the Internal Revenue Service. And I also serve as the executive lead for the IRS Operational Planning and Implementation of the Tax Law Provisions of the Affordable Care Act of 2010,” she testified before the House Ways and Means Committee Nov. 15, 2011.

And in this May 2012 testimony in the Senate Finance Committee over Indian tribes’ tax-exempt status, Ingram testified in her capacity as commissioner of tax-exempt groups, despite the IRS’s assertion that she was only responsible for the Affordable Care Act after 2010.

According to an inspector general report, a group within the IRS’s Cincinnati office began the practice of scrutinizing tea party applications for 501(c)4 tax-exempt status in July 2010, during Ingram’s tenure over the tax-exempt and government-entities division.

Her subordinate, Lois Lerner, director of tax-exempt organizations, did not learn about the practice until June 2011.

Speaking during a congressional hearing Friday morning, outgoing acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller defended his decision to elevate Ingram to her latest position.

“She’s a superb civil servant, sir,” he said in response to a question from Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio.

When asked whether she was involved in the recent controversy, Miller said, “I wouldn’t imagine so.”

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David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Richard Milhous Nixon was “not a crook,” or so the 37th U.S. president would have us believe.  But such denials at a Nov. 17, 1973, news conference meant little or nothing by then, six months to the day after North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin opened two weeks of often-riveting, live televised hearings on the Watergate scandal.

Millions of U.S. households bore witness to the Senate Watergate Committee’s tactical destruction of White House subterfuge, methodically convincing Americans that perhaps “Tricky Dick” was more than some absurd distortion of the president’s legacy-in-waiting.

A month after the televised hearings, which started on May 17, 1973, an astonishing 97 percent of Americans had heard of Watergate, according to the U.S. Senate website.  And 67 percent believed that President Nixon had participated in a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington.

Nixon never confessed and declared that “I have never been a quitter” right before he did just that.

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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The House bipartisan “Gang of Eight” has reached an agreement in principle on immigration overhaul, including major points such as a pathway to citizenship, border security, health care and guest workers, a member of the group told ABC News Thursday night.

The lower chamber now expects to work out details next week before taking the Memorial Day break and introducing the bill June 4.

Over hoagie sandwiches, a two-hour meeting of a bipartisan group of congressmen nearly fell apart Thursday over who would pay for immigrant health care, the House “Gang” member said.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, was the last holdout, who had to call into the meeting from Idaho where his daughter had a recital, the member said.

Labrador, described as the most influential Republican in the House “Gang of Eight” because he represents Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s interests, finally agreed when language proposed by Democrats ensured that taxpayer money would not pay for immigrant health care.

Although not a member of the “Gang of Eight,” Wisconsin congressman and former vice presidential contender Paul Ryan was instrumental in bringing the Republicans along in the agreement.

The House bipartisan group that seemed to have stalled earlier Thursday announced it is finally moving forward on its own version of immigration overhaul.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Thursday that he was “concerned that the bipartisan group has been unable to wrap up their work.”

”I know that there are some very difficult issues that have come up, but I continue to believe that the House needs to deal with this and the House needs to work its will,” he said. “How we get there, we’re still dealing with it.”

But Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told reporters Thursday evening that the group has "an agreement in principle that we’re drafting."

That agreement was struck after the two-hour meeting late Thursday afternoon.

“It is a very well-thought out, responsible, serious, enforceable proposal,” he said. “I feel really, really, really, really comfortable with the fact that this is a very complete bill, that fulfills what I’ve always wanted, which is to fix what’s broken.”

The whole package will now be run past their respective leadership and colleagues before the final language is finished and reviewed. But Diaz-Balart said the bill “is imminent.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee has completed three days of markups and had addressed a total of 82 of the 300 amendments introduced to the legislation, which was written by the “Gang of Eight.” That meant they had earlier addressed more than a quarter of the amendments.

A spokesman for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told ABC News earlier Thursday that they were “making good progress and by far most amendments have passed on bipartisan basis.”

“Last week, we met for hours and worked through scores of amendments,” Leahy noted at Tuesday’s hearing. “Some termed our efforts ‘a lesson in democracy.’ Many noted that senators ‘showed a commitment to fairness and compromise.’”

A spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said earlier Thursday that “Leahy has said he is committed to completing work on this bill by the end of next week.”

That’s good news for the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who promised again Thursday to bring the immigration bill to the floor of the Senate as soon as it’s ready out of committee.

“As soon as it’s ready, I’m going to bring that immigration legislation to the floor,” he said. “We’re going to start on the farm bill Monday. I’m going to bring the immigration bill to the floor regardless of whether we have committed action on the farm bill. Although immigration is a complex and controversial issue that deserves ample time for thoughtful debate and consideration, it’s also too important to delay action any longer.”

For a significant piece of legislation, such as this, many days in committee are not unusual.

According to Congressional Quarterly (CQ), the markup for the Affordable Care Act took 13 days and 60 hours.

CQ reported that committee members and staff believed the Affordable Care Act was the longest markup period ever for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, with almost 500 amendments considered, compared to 300 on immigration.

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