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With the rumbling of so much scandal ripping through Washington this week—woeful stories about Benghazi, the DOJ subpoena of journalists' phone records and the IRS unfairly targeting conservative groups—it's hard to keep track of all the terrible.

Even lawmakers sometimes struggle.

At Rep. Steny Hoyer's weekly meeting with reporters on Tuesday, the Maryland Democrat was asked if he was concerned about the DOJ seizing phone records from Associated Press journalists working in the House press gallery in the Capitol building.

Hoyer's answer was well-delivered: Articulate, clear, firm and precise.

One problem: He responded to the wrong scandal.

"The IRS activity was inappropriate, inconsistent with our policies and practices as a country, very concerning, needs to be reviewed carefully," Hoyer, one of the top-ranking House Democrats, said in response to a question from Fox News' Chad Pergram about the DOJ. "We need to ensure that this does not happen again, and we need to find out how long it continued, when it was stopped. It is my understanding—there was a front-page story on this at the [Washington] Post—it's my understanding that [IRS official] Lois Lerner, who was apparently overseeing this, at some point in time found out about this and said ..."

When Hoyer named Lerner, Pergram interrupted.

"We're talking about two things," Pergram, who apparently had not heard the first mention of the IRS, said from across the table, "You said Lois Lerner and the IRS."

Another reporter sitting closer to Hoyer, Public Radio International's Todd Zwillich, learned over and said softly, "He's talking about the AP story."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, excuse me," Hoyer said, pausing briefly. "Whatever happened, we need to find out why it happened. But clearly it should not have happened. I don't know enough about whether there was a warrant sought."

Boom. He nailed it!

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