The Commentariat -- March 24, 2016

If you are interested in taking over Reality Chex -- that is, owning it to do with as you will -- please contact me. I am looking forward to discontinuing my work on the site but would like to see it continue "under new management." I'll help you get started. Thank you to all who have contributed over the years. If I don't find a suitable "buyer," I'll close down next Friday, April 1. -- Constant Weader

Afternoon Update:

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research is preparing to issue 17 subpoenas to medical supply companies and laboratories, seeking the names of researchers, graduate students, laboratory technicians and administrative personnel. The House investigation into how some of the nation's most prestigious universities acquire fetal tissue has prompted charges of intimidation and coercion, escalating a battle that some researchers fear could shut down studies seeking cures for Parkinson's disease, the Zika virus and a host of other conditions. Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who opposes most fetal tissue research because of its association with abortion, intends to issue the subpoenas on behalf of the Republicans on the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives." ...

... CW: Blackburn's move here is fascistic enough to impress Donald Trump. She's a successful publicity hound, a climate denier & otherwise standard-issue Tea party grande dame. If Trump picked Blackburn as his running mate, it would mitigate his unpopularity with women, & she'd be just the person to attack Hillary Clinton, if Clinton is the Democratic nominee. And Blackburn is willing: Washington Examiner: "U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn said Friday she'd be open to becoming GOP front-runner Donald Trump's vice president if he wins the nomination." So Marsha Blackburn is my entry in today's GOP Veepstakes.

Republicans Being Sorry for Stuff:

Amanda Marcotte, in Salon, on Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley's (R) hypocritical apology for extracurricular sex or sex-words or not-sex or whatever: "This is what Bentley should be apologizing for: Treating everyone else who isn't a straight man like their private, consenting sex lives that harm absolutely no one are some great evil to be snuffed out by denying them medical care and basic rights like marriage.... It's clear that Bentley thinks that being mildly embarrassed is punishment enough for a straight man caught having sexytimes. But the rest of us won't get off so easy. We're denied marriage rights, birth control, abortion access, and told we're a danger to our children."

"Today in Paul Ryan's Shadow Campaign for President." Charles Pierce: "Remember, he's sorry for all those terrible things he's said about the poor, but he might say them again, and he'll feel even more sorry. Biggest. Fake. Ever."

*****

BBC News: "President Barack Obama, who is on a visit to Argentina, has promised to release secret files concerning the US role in the military coup there 40 years ago that installed one of the region's most brutal regimes. He was speaking after talks with Argentine President Mauricio Macri. Mr Obama said US military and intelligence files from the era would be declassified for the first time":

David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday unsealed an indictment against seven Iranian computer specialists who regularly worked for the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, charging that they were behind cyberattacks on dozens of American banks and that they attempted to take over the controls of a small dam in Rye, N.Y. The indictment, while long expected, is the first time that the Obama administration has sought action against Iranians for a wave of computer attacks on the United States that began in 2011.... None of the named Iranians live in the United States and it is doubtful that they will ever make it to an American courtroom."

Alissa Rubin, et al., of the New York Times: "The Brussels suicide bombers included two Belgium-born brothers with a violent criminal past and suspected links to plotters of the Islamic State's Paris attacks last November, the authorities said Wednesday, raising new alarms about Europe's leaky defenses against a militant organization that has terrorized two European capitals with seeming impunity. One of the brothers was deported by Turkey back to Europe less than a year ago, Turkey's president said, suspected of being a terrorist fighter intent on entering Syria, where the Islamic State is based. Despite that statement, Belgian officials said neither brother had been under suspicion for terrorism until recently, an indication of the Islamic State's ability to remain steps ahead of European intelligence and security monitors." ...

... Joby Warrick & Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "As Belgian police delve into the backgrounds of the men behind Tuesday's attacks in Brussels, they are encountering a pattern familiar to investigators in Paris and other European cities targeted by the Islamic State: The shock troops used in the terrorist group's signature attacks are largely men already well known to local law enforcement -- not as religious radicals, but as criminals." ...

... Lori Hinnant & Paisley Dodds of the AP: "The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum chaos, officials have told The Associated Press." ...

... Josh Lederman of the AP: "A day after bombs ripped through Brussels, President Barack Obama declared that fighting the Islamic State is his 'No. 1 priority' and pledged that the United States will pursue the jihadist group until it is destroyed. 'I've got a lot of things on my plate, but my top priority is to defeat I ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world,' Obama said Wednesday. '... The issue is, how do we do it in an intelligent way?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicole Perlroth & Katie Benner of "the New York Times: Why are hackers willing to help the FBI unlock Apple's iPhone? Maybe because Apple, unlike other big tech companies, doesn't offer hackers a "bug bounty" when they alert the companies to programming flaws. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In an address billed as an examination of the future of politics, Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin on Wednesday admonished politicians in both parties for debasing political discourse.... It was a familiar role for the speaker: He has become something of a Washington scold.... In the most striking part of his speech, Mr. Ryan faulted himself for having referred to the 'makers and takers' in society when he was the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2012.... But what Mr. Ryan did not address in his speech has been the inability of Congress to turn those ideas into laws, even with Republican majorities in both houses, or to maintain much decorum in its own chambers." ...

... Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Yes, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) addressed the nation on Wednesday to once again rebuke GOP front-runner Donald Trump in all but name. But as Ryan waxed wishfully about what the Republican Party and our political dialogue should be, it almost sounded like he had given up trying to shift its inevitable march to disaster this presidential election -- and was laying the groundwork for the next. Possibly even his own.... Ryan has slowly, carefully been pitching himself as the Republican Party's anti-Trump, and Wednesday's speech sounded like he hoped to emerge as an alternative to a party burned by Trump for 2020." ...

... Driftglass puts it more simply: "There can be no end to political madness in this country until this kind of speech is laughed at every time anyone tries it."

... The Cowardly Ryan. Dana Milbank: Ryan "clearly would, despite his demurrals, like to be the consensus nominee. But to preserve his neutrality, and his presidential prospects, Ryan is making a corrupt bargain. There is no neutrality between good and evil."

... CW: 2020? I'm with Milbank. Ryan is thinking 2016. Just as he became the Reluctant Speaker, so he would like to become the Reluctant President. ...

The Vagina Dialog. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court weighed moral theology and parsed insurance terminology on Wednesday in an extended and animated argument that seemed to leave the justices sharply divided over what the government may do to require employers to provide free insurance coverage for contraception to female workers. A 4-to-4 tie appeared to be a real possibility, which would automatically affirm the four appeals court decisions under review. All four ruled that religious groups seeking to opt out of the requirement that they pay for the coverage must sign forms and provide information that would shift the cost to insurance companies and the government." ...

... Today's Word: "Hijack." Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "'Hijacking' is what a long list of religious institutions that object for reasons of faithto contraceptive methods have used to describe what they say the federal government will do to their health-care plans as it moves toward providing free birth control to those institutions' female employees and college students. And, if there was a startling moment during the ninety-four-minute hearing on Zubik v. Burwell, it came when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy deployed that word in obvious sympathy to those institutions." ...

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "In case you believed Wednesday's big contraception/religious liberty case at the Supreme Court was about contraception, or about religious liberty, you would be wrong. It's about Obamacare. Again. For the fourth time in four years. And in case you believed the court's conservatives have maybe come around on Obamacare -- well, no. They still hate it. But now they hate it in sound bites.... Specifically, the idea that Obamacare has 'hijacked' the nonprofit religious charity Little Sisters of the Poor (and others like it) and their insurance apparatus to force the horror that is Obamacare onto them." ...

... Clueless Geezers Want You Ladies to Get an Imaginary Healthcare Policy. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Judging by the questions from conservatives on the court -- all men -- they're still not fully aware of how every day people -- particularly women -- receive health care in the United States, or how health insurance actually works." ...

... Judicial Malpractice. Kevin Drum: "These justices have already heard two major cases on Obamacare, and they've presumably read the briefs for this one. But they still seem unable to grasp the concept that you can't just go out to the exchange and buy a 'contraceptive policy.' Nor do they seem to care that even if you could, it would mean not being able to get contraceptives from your regular doctor, which for some women would cause real problems with continuity of care." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "It all reminds me of the three qualities President Obama outlined that he'd be looking for in a Supreme Court nominee....

There will be cases in which a judge's analysis necessarily will be shaped by his or her own perspective, ethics, and judgment. That's why the third quality I seek in a judge is a keen understanding that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook. It's the kind of life experience earned outside the classroom and the courtroom; experience that suggests he or she views the law not only as an intellectual exercise, but also grasps the way it affects the daily reality of people's lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly changing times.

... Obama Is Mean to Nuns. Charles Pierce: "The plaintiff's entire case is based on the sub rosa notion that a small order of nuns is being bullied by the big, bad government. (It's also based, on a deeper level, on a distrust and fear of female sexuality.)... In any event, Zubik is yet another example of what a dog in the manger is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Yet another blessing on the nation signed by Bill Clinton in his attempt to get re-elected, RFRA ... is the only reason Zubik (and, earlier, Hobby Lobby) even got this far. It is the reason that the preposterous argument that filling out a form is a 'near occasion of sin,' as the Sisters of St. Joseph used to call them, ever made it to the eight wise souls herein sitting in judgment. It's the reason why employees of all faiths may now have to submit to the anti-human dictates, and the bullshit theology, of an encyclical that American Catholics have been lubriciously ignoring for going on half-a-century."

Richard Painter, a Bush II lawyer, in a New York Times op-ed: "Judge [Merrick] Garland is just the kind of candidate we would have advised President Bush to nominate if he had been in this situation. A proven moderate, he has enjoyed widespread Republican support in the past.... It is time for the Senate to consider the Garland nomination. Judge Garland should get exactly what Justice Alito got in 2006: a hearing, perhaps with some bluster along the way, but a vote in the end, and confirmation.... If the Senate does not move forward with the Garland nomination now, a lot of senators could find themselves voting on a Supreme Court nominee in December while packing up their offices."

Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "In recent decades, rich black kids have been more likely to go to prison than poor white kids.... Hispanic participants who were less affluent in 1985 were more likely to be eventually incarcerated than their white peers with similar wealth, but less likely than black participants."

Alan Schwartz, et al., of the New York Times: "... an investigation by The New York Times has found that the N.F.L.'s concussion research was far more flawed than previously known. For the last 13 years, the N.F.L. has stood by the research, which, the papers stated, was based on a full accounting of all concussions diagnosed by team physicians from 1996 through 2001. But confidential data obtained by The Times shows that more than 100 diagnosed concussions were omitted from the studies.... The committee then calculated the rates of concussions using the incomplete data, making them appear less frequent than they actually were."

This really upset the scolds on "Morning Joe," who, as we know, are Very Serious People:

... That's kinda funny, because they weren't all upset when Mika & Jonathan Capehart danced through "the most serious election coverage in all of teevee" the day after 31 Americans were murdered by guns & 151 people went to the emergency room after a gun assault. (No, I don't know the exact date of Mika & Jonathan's routine, but those are the averages. They don't include the 55 people who commit suicide by gun daily or the 46 who die in accidentaly shootings daily.)

The NRA's version of "Hansel & Gretel."... Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "Hansel with a hunting rifle. Or Little Red Riding Hood's granny with a shotgun.... [These stories are featured] on the National Rifle Association's NRA Family website, which partnered with author Amelia Hamilton 'to present her twist on those classic tales' -- a series that has infuriated gun-control advocates, some of whom called it 'absolutely sick.' Gun-rights supporters say the stories -- which started with 'Little Red Riding Hood (Has a Gun)' and continued with 'Hansel and Gretel (Have Guns)' -- are a more peaceful alternative to the often disturbing fairy tales from childhood."

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "In her most vigorous assault yet on her Republican rivals, Hillary Clinton on Wednesday ridiculed the foreign policy prescriptions of [link fixed] Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, calling them 'reckless actions' that would alienate America's closest allies, demonize Muslims and empower Russia.... Yet in her own policy prescriptions -- which included an 'intelligence surge' to collect more data on the Islamic State, partnerships with Silicon Valley firms that have been suspicious of Washington, and beefing up security on soft targets like airport check-in areas -- Mrs. Clinton resisted calls to distance herself from the Obama administration's actions, and instead called for an acceleration of the approaches already underway."

Charles Pierce: "You want to know what it's like to be president of the United damn States, and there's nothing anybody can do about it, and you no longer have any fcks left in that big old bag to give?":

     ... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama on Wednesday delivered a sharply personal rebuke of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz for his call to institute surveillance on Muslim communities in response to the Brussels terrorist attacks. During a press conference in Argentina, Obama called such a proposal 'wrong and un-American' and said it would undermine the U.S. campaign against Islamic extremists.... 'I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which, by the way, the father of Sen. Cruz escaped for America,' the president said. '... The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense.'” ...

... Simon Maloy of Salon: "... Ted Cruz really isn't the guy to make the case that Obama is not acting presidential, given that his own response to the Brussels attack has been hysteria, demagoguery, and a foul sop to anti-Muslim sentiment.... He's proposed denying American citizens their civil liberties and using the heavy hand of the state to treat them as potential criminals for no other reason than their faith.... He sees a terrorist attack unfold overseas and his immediate instinct is to bomb things, violate religious freedom, and curtail civil liberties at home.... I'll happily take a 'cool' and 'detached' president over one who freaks out and proposes creating a discriminatory police state." ...

... Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "... Donald Trump accused Muslims of intentionally declining to report suspected terrorist activity in a Wednesday interview on ITV's 'Good Morning Britain.' 'When they see trouble, they have to report it. They are not reporting it; they are absolutely not reporting it, and that's a big problem,' Trump told host Piers Morgan.... British officials were quick to condemn Trump's comments as false and potentially dangerous." ...

... Ana Swanson of the Washington Post on the "Trump Network," a sleazy pyramid scheme (I mean "multi-level marketing model") that sold multivitamins supposedly engineered to the individual based on a costly fakey test. "Trump says he was not involved in the company's operations. But statements by him and other company representatives -- as well as a plethora of marketing materials circulating online -- often gave the impression of a partnership that was certain to lift thousands of people into prosperity. In fact, within a few years, the company fell on hard times, leaving some salespeople in tough financial straits." CW: In case you didn't notice, everything about Trump Network is a scam. Yes, that's your future Republican presidential nominee. See more below on the guy who imagines he will be Vice President Doctor Carson.

... E. J. Dionne: "The terrorist attacks in Belgium brought out the worst in Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Cruz demonstrated that his only focus right now is to find ways of out-Trumping Trump. He seeks words that sound at least as intolerant and as dangerous to civil liberties as the formulations that regularly burst forth from the Republican front-runner.... With large parts of the Republican establishment giving up on Kasich and embracing Cruz as the last anti-Trump hope, we can now look forward to a GOP race to the bottom in which fear itself is the only thing its leading candidates have to offer." ...

... Gail Collins: "How can things get worse for Republicans? Jeb Bush turned out to be a terrible candidate. Marco Rubio turned out to be an annoying twit. Donald Trump is a nightmare. Something had to be done, and so the solid, steady moderate elite decided the best strategy was to rally around ... Ted Cruz. Welcome to worse.... Maybe they think if Cruz is the spoiler at the convention, it'll be easier to shove him away to make room for a brand new superhero? (Looking at you, Mitt.)"

... Greg Sargent: "Large percentages of GOP voters reject the GOP elite argument for giving the nomination to someone other than Trump at a contested convention, to spare the GOP a disastrous election, even as polls (and other evidence) also suggest GOP elite fears of a Trump disaster may be well founded." That is, Republican "leaders" plan to solve a problem by creating another, perhaps worse, problem. ...

... Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice: "Why on earth wouldn't [Republican voters] unite behind Trump? It's not the open bigotry they're unable to countenance after decades of trafficking in covert racism to gin up votes.Sure, Trump is embarrassing. But if the party grandees can just convert Trump to the Church of Austerity, he could continue to peddle the same old shit in a brand new package. No reason to think that couldn't be done fairly easily. Just prescribe some scripture -- Two Rand, perhaps." ...

... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Republicans desperate to stop Donald J. Trump from capturing the presidential nomination increased the pressure Wednesday on Gov. John Kasich of Ohio to quit the race, with Jeb Bush joining the growing number of party figures throwing their weight behind Senator Ted Cruz. Mr. Kasich refused, saying that he ... was the best option to stop Mr. Trump. But his argument was undercut by his dismal showings Tuesday in Utah and Arizona, where he won no delegates -- as well as by the surprise endorsement Wednesday morning by Mr. Bush of Mr. Cruz." ...

... Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "There are no more states like Utah [where Ted Cruz won all of the delegates] on the primary calendar. The stop-Trump forces have only been given a brief respite. But it was a significant one. If Trump had swept [Tuesday] night's contests, the race would effectively be over. It's no coincidence that Jeb Bush endorsed Cruz [Wednesday] morning, after Cruz proved that his efforts to deny Trump a majority of delegates were not entirely futile."

You may think that this is the end, Well, it's not. (Music by John Phillip Sousa, lyrics attributed to Fred Allen):

... If It Looks Like a Crook & Quacks Like a Crook.... Bonnie Kristian of the Week: "A super PAC called the 2016 Committee is still raising money for Ben Carson -- even though he ended his campaign weeks ago. 'The 2016 Committee will now kind of morph itself into the objective of having Dr. Carson be Donald Trump's running mate,' the founder of the fundraising group, John Philip Sousa IV..., told supporters last week.... [Sousa's superPAC] collects mainly small donations. And according to analysis ... by the Daily Caller, nearly half of the 2016 Committee's listed donors are retirees who may be on a fixed income. Though Sousa promises supporters that 'Whatever you send will be used carefully to put Ben Carson on the Republican presidential ticket in 2016,' in practice the committee has spent money on things like buying 450,000 copies of Sousa's own book and taking paychecks for hundreds of thousands of dollars."

NAME THAT VICE PRESIDENT. All of us, including Sousa (but maybe not Ole Doc himself), know that Stubby Fingers will not make Ben Carson his veep. But that raises the question, Who will the Mophaired Menace choose as his running mate? Let's have your best guess or a helpful suggestion we can pass along to @realDonaldTrump. Ridiculous recommendations accepted/unavoidable. Contest ends April 1.

Beyond the Beltway

Paul Egan & Matthew Dolan of the Detroit Free Press: "A task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder issued a hard-hitting report on the Flint drinking water public health crisis, slamming the catastrophe as a story of 'government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction and environmental injustice.' The 116-page report said the state's controversial emergency manager law contributed to the lead contamination crisis by removing governmental checks and balances. It called for a review of the law and said Snyder should look for alternatives to the current approach so that locally elected officials can be kept more engaged." ...

... Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The independent group faulted Snyder and his administration for failing to act even after 'suggestions to do so by senior staff members in the Governor's office.' The group said the state Department of Health and Human Services failed to quickly recognize the crisis and protect public health. It said the Flint Water Department 'rushed unprepared' into switching to a new water source in spring 2014 -- the Flint River -- without proper use of corrosion controls. Finally, the task force blamed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's delayed enforcement of federal drinking-water standards for 'prolonging the calamity.'" ...

... The report is here (pdf).

David Philipps of the New York Times: "North Carolina legislators, in a whirlwind special session on Wednesday, passed a wide-ranging bill barring transgender people from bathrooms and locker rooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates. Republicans unanimously supported the bill, while in the Senate, Democrats walked out in protest." CW: I hope all North Carolinians realize that they may now be required to show their birth certificates before entering any public restroom. Kinda beats voter ID, doesn't it? Oh, and just like those anti-abortion & anti-contraception laws, we learn that this law was designed to "protect women." Thanks, guys! ...

... This weird GOP obsession with other people's sexual identity & bathroom habits leads us to ...

... Today in GOP Sex News

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama [R] acknowledged Wednesday that he had made inappropriate and sexually charged remarks to one of his closest aides, but he denied an accusation that he and the woman had pursued a physical relationship.... Mr. Bentley's public demonstration of remorse came nearly seven months after Dianne Bentley, to whom the Republican governor was married for 50 years, sought a divorce, and just hours after [Spencer] Collier, the recently ousted leader of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, described what he saw as a history of improper conduct between the governor and [top aide Rebekah] Mason. Mr. Collier said that Mr. Bentley had, in 2014, effectively acknowledged an affair, and that it appeared to be continuing as recently as last month." ...

... It Depends on What the Meaning of "Sexual" Is. John Archibald of AL.com: "The tapes for which [Bentley] apologized were purportedly created by members of the Bentley family in 2014 as they tried to ascertain whether he was involved in a relationship. People close to the Bentley family allowed AL.com to hear portions of the tapes.... 'You know I just I worry about sometimes I love so you much,' Bentley is heard saying in a phone conversation with a woman he calls Rebekah. 'I worry about loving you so much.... You know what?' he goes on. 'When I stand behind you, and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, and I put my hands (unintelligible) and just pull you real close. I love that, too.' After being asked about that, Bentley reiterated that the relationship was not sexual." Includes audio....

... CW: So, hands on breasts, not sexual. Hands on (unintelligible), not sexual either. Also (from the audio), putting hands "under you," not sexual. "Doing what we did the other night, Baby," which requires "locking the door" also not sexual.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A previously unidentified victim of alleged sexual abuse by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has come forward to federal prosecutors and may seek to testify next month when Hastert faces sentencing in federal court in Chicago. The new accuser, labeled as 'Individual D' in court papers, is not the 'Individual A' to whom Hastert agreed to pay $3.5 million, setting off a series of events that led to the former speaker pleading guilty to illegally structuring $900,000 used in payments to the man.... Hastert defense attorney John Gallo said Tuesday that the former speaker doesn't plan to contest 'Individual D''s claims."

Way Beyond

Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "A former Bosnian Serb leader was found guilty of genocide and other charges Thursday for his roles in deadly campaigns during the country's war in the 1990s, including the massacres in Srebrenica, as an international tribunal announced a long-awaited reckoning for Europe's bloodiest chapter since World War II. Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of charges including genocide in connection with the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica enclave."

News Lede

Los Angeles Times: "Larry Shandling, the pioneering cable TV star and writer whose turn as a self-doubting talk show host on HBO's 'The Larry Sanders Show' during the 1990s helped redefine the television sitcom, has died. He was 66. The Chicago-born Shandling died of a heart attack, said his spokesman Alan Nierob."

The Commentariat -- March 23, 2016

If you are interested in taking over Reality Chex -- that is, owning it to do with as you will -- please contact me. I am looking forward to discontinuing my work on the site but would like to see it continue "under new management." I'll help you get started. Thank you to all who have contributed over the years. If I don't find a suitable "buyer," I'll close down next Friday, April 1. -- Constant Weader

Afternoon Update:

Josh Lederman of the AP: "A day after bombs ripped through Brussels, President Barack Obama declared that fighting the Islamic State is his 'No. 1 priority' and pledged that the United States will pursue the jihadist group until it is destroyed. 'I've got a lot of things on my plate, but my top priority is to defeat I ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world,' Obama said Wednesday. '... The issue is, how do we do it in an intelligent way?"

Nicole Perlroth & Katie Benner of the New York Times: Why are hackers willing to help the FBI unlock Apple's iPhone? Maybe because Apple, unlike other big tech companies, doesn't offer hackers a "bug bounty" when they alert the companies to programming flaws.

The New York Times has what it is still calling the "latest updates of President Obama's trip to Latin America." The "latest update," as it turns out, was posted yesterday evening, when the President was still in Cuba. (He's in Argentina now.) There are some interesting posts nonetheless.

*****

Presidential Race

Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump would lead either Ted Cruz or John Kasich in a two-way race, according to the results of a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday. On the Democratic side of the race, 50 percent said they would prefer Hillary Clinton as their party's nominee, while 38 percent wanted Bernie Sanders and 10 percent did not know. Matched up against Trump and Cruz, both Clinton and Sanders lead by as much as 14 points, as is the case of Sanders' lead in a hypothetical race with Trump. On the other hand, Kasich outperformed both Democrats when tested head-to-head, leading Clinton 47 percent to 39 percent and Sanders 45 percent to 44 percent."

The Party of Slime. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Within a matter of seconds on Tuesday night, Donald Trump tweeted -- and deleted -- an apparent threat involving Ted Cruz's wife.... 'Wow Sen. Ted Cruz,' it read, 'that is some low-level ad you did using a picture [of] Melania in a G.Q. shoot. Be careful or I will spill the beans on your wife.'... Within a few minutes, he tweeted a new version with the same not-so-veiled threat.... Make America Awesome's Liz Mair [who used the Melania photo in an ad] tweeted that 'Donald Trump is so desperate to beat Cruz that his team has been pushing around rumors she's a criminal w a mental illness for weeks now.' This appears to be a reference to [a] depressive episode..., when police in Austin encountered Heidi Cruz by the side of a highway, distraught." CW: I believe it was way back yesterday when I said Rubio had better be careful because Trump might attack his wife. I was kidding; I should have been dead-serious.

Cranks & Losers Unite. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush ... endorsed Ted Cruz on Wednesday, becoming the most prominent member of the Republican establishment to support the Texas senator as he tries to slow Donald J. Trump's efforts to capture the presidential nomination.... With his endorsement of Mr. Cruz, Mr. Bush is sending two messages to voters: Reject Mr. Trump, and do not keep Mr. Kasich's candidacy alive." CW: Nice to see Jeb! is still a man of principle, endorsing the worst over the worser for pragmatic reasons. Either that or Kasich was mean to him.

AP: "Ted Cruz is suggesting he'd find a place for Republican rival John Kasich in his future administration if Kasich agrees to drop out of the presidential race and supports him." CW: Since Cruz no doubt knows a quid pro quo violates federal law, his bid was coy: after urging Kasich to leave the race, "In an interview Wednesday on CNN's 'New Day,' Cruz said of Kasich: 'I think he'd be a tremendous addition to an administration.'"

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) plans to deliver Wednesday a repudiation of the 'disheartened' state of American politics, a lengthy speech that comes amid the increasingly toxic Republican presidential primary that he has tried to steer away from in public comments.... Advisers view the speech, which will take place inside his former stomping grounds of the Ways and Means Committee hearing room, as a chance to firmly establish Ryan, 46, as the adult in national Republican politics and to get activists focused on the emerging agenda that the still-new speaker is trying to craft." CW: And remind convention delegates that Ayn Ryan would be an exceptional presidential nominee. I'll give Ryan this: he is a master of the art of the dog whistle, whether using it to diss "urban voters" for relying on "free lunches" or promote himself.

CW: Whatever the late-term machinations, we know the Republican nominee for president of the United State will be a scary, vile creep who already has promised to do irreparable harm to the nation & beyond.

Primary Results

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump overwhelmed their rivals in the Arizona primaries on Tuesday.... But Senator Bernie Sanders thrashed Mrs. Clinton in the Idaho and Utah Democratic caucuses, demonstrating his enduring appeal among liberal activists even as she closes in on the party's nomination. And Senator Ted Cruz, who won the Republican contest in Utah, captured more than 50 percent of the vote, giving him all 40 of the state's delegates and sustaining hope among Mr. Trump's opponents that he can be slowed, if not stopped."

Greg Sargent: The reason Trump is winning is that he is openly practicing white-identity politics. CW: When Trump said in January, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?" he was right. Trump voters don't care what he says or does as long as they feel sure Trump is going to Make American White Again.

Democrats

Arizona. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Clinton is leading Sanders 61 to 36 percent. With 2 percent counted, the AP has called the race for Clinton. With 94 percent counted, the vote is 58-40, Clinton.

Idaho. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Sanders has won the state, 78 percent to Clinton's 21 percent.

Utah. With one percent counted, Sanders is leading Clinton 48 to 45 percent. With 11 percent counted, the AP has called the race for Sanders. He currently has 75 percent to Clinton's 24 percent. With 82 percent counted, the tally is 80-20, Sanders.

Republicans

Arizona. With less than one percent of the vote counted, Trump is leading with 45 percent, followed by Cruz with 20 percent & Kasich with 10. With 2 percent counted, the AP has called the race for Trump. With 94 percent counted, the vote is Trump 47, Cruz 25, & Kasich 10.

Utah. With 2 percent counted, Cruz is leading with 62 percent, Trump 23 percent & Kasich 15. If Cruz can finish with more than 50 percent of the caucus vote, he will get all 40 delegates. The AP has called the race for Cruz. With 85 percent of the vote counted, Cruz has 69 percent, Kasich 17 & Trump 13. With 94 percent counted, the results are Cruz 69, Kasich 17, Trump 14.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton portrayed herself on Tuesday as the only presidential candidate who has presented a detailed plan to defeat the Islamic State, which took responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Brussels earlier in the day." CW: Oh, I don't know. Here are some other "detailed plans":

... The Totalitarians

I would close up our borders to people until we figure out what's going on.... We're taking in people without real documentation, we don't know where they're coming from, we don't know what they're -- where they're from, who they are.... If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding. You have to get the information from these people. -- Donald Trump, Tuesday morning, in response to the terror attacks in Brussels

... Peter Holley & Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "Experts across the political spectrum harshly criticized Trump's statements. Appearing on Fox News to discuss the attacks in Belgium, Michael Chertoff, who was the secretary of homeland security in the George W. Bush administration, labeled the candidate's ideas 'preposterous.'... During an appearance on MSNBC, terrorism expert Malcolm Nance said Trump's 'bluster' in the wake of Tuesday's attacks was hampering U.S. intelligence and the armed forces." ...

... Aaron Rupar of Think Progress: "Asked during his Fox appearance about what else he'd do in response to the attacks in addition to closing the southern border and banning Muslims, Trump said he [would] give the American people a 'pep talk.' 'I guess I would just talk to the people and give them, frankly, a pep talk,' Trump said. 'We need spirit in our country, okay.'" ...

     ... CW: If you are wondering what a Trump "pep talk" would look like, contributor Janice provided a pretty good picture. I just noticed she did so on the Ides of March, in an excellent comment that indirectly led to the end of Reality Chex (unless an "angel" comes forward to save it). Ironically, the Ides bode well for me, as I now have an opportunity to create an actual life in my waning years. I can't quite picture that life, but I'll think of something. ...

... Katie Zezima & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said following Tuesday's terrorist attacks in Brussels that law enforcement should 'secure' Muslim neighborhoods, a comment that drew swift criticism. 'We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,' Cruz said in a statement issued after the attacks...." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Looking at this state of affairs, with a dangerous, ghettoized European Muslim population and a much less threatening, well-assimilated American Muslim population, Cruz proposes to treat American Muslims like European ones. He endorses racial profiling of 'Muslim neighborhoods.'... This is the kind of madness that now prevails for foreign-policy logic in this party. Cruz, of course, has appointed raging paranoic Frank Gaffney as a foreign-policy adviser. Gaffney has called Barack Obama 'America's first Muslim president.' Perhaps Cruz envisions the special law patrols to include the neighborhood of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, to prevent the (further) radicalization of its Muslim occupant." ...

... Steve Benen: "... how would Cruz determine what a 'Muslim neighborhood' is? How many Muslim Americans does it take, exactly?... What would law-enforcement officials do in these areas, exactly? After a neighborhood has been 'secured' to Cruz's satisfaction, does the Republican envision a semi-permanent police presence to monitor Americans in the area based on their faith...? According to Cruz..., the plan would be to prevent radicalization. One wonders if he realizes the extent to which such a plan actually encourages the opposite." ...

... Steve M.: "... does Senator Cruz think the mostly non-Muslim neighborhood that was the home to Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik should be 'patrolled and secured'? Or the mostly non-Muslim neighborhood where Farook's mother lived? Or maybe Senator Cruz thinks Muslims should be rounded up and compelled to live in all-Muslim neighborhoods, to allow more effective patrolling and securing." ...

... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "Gov. John Kasich of Ohio on Tuesday cautioned against monitoring Muslim-Americans after the attacks in Brussels, saying that such a step would create division and harm the country's ability to gather intelligence. His comments came after one of his rivals, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, called for law enforcement 'to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.'" ...

... MEANWHILE. Eliza Collins & Katie Glueck of Politico: "John Kasich and Ted Cruz called on President Barack Obama to leave Cuba and come back to the U.S. -- or go to Brussels -- following deadly terrorist attacks in the heart of Europe on Tuesday." CW: Yes, what Belgium need right now is a Great American Butinski creating an additional security nightmare & giving speeches in English. ...

... Also, too, wingers are very upset that President Obama went to a baseball game in Cuba while Brussels was burning.

** David Smith of the Guardian: AIPAC "has denounced Donald Trump for his blunt criticism of Barack Obama at its conference in Washington on Monday.... [Trump] was cheered by some delegates at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (Aipac) event when he said: '... He may be the worst thing that ever happened to Israel.' But on Tuesday morning the Aipac president, Lillian Pinkus, broke from the planned agenda to distance the organisation from Trump's remarks. Other Aipac leaders stood with her on stage. 'Last evening, something occurred which has the potential to drive us apart, to divide us,' Pinkus said. 'We say unequivocally that we do not countenance ad hominem attacks and we take great offence against those that are levied against the president of the United States of America from our stage.' She added: 'While we may have policy differences, we deeply respect the office of the United States and our president, Barack Obama. There are people in our Aipac family who were deeply hurt last night and for that we are deeply sorry.'"

Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: Donald Trump "... plans to release a list of 5-10 names sometime in the next week. He says that, if given the opportunity to name a Supreme Court justice, he will limit his selection to the names on that list. At a press conference on Monday, Trump also revealed an unusual detail about how he is determining which names should be on the list. 'Heritage Foundation and others are working on the list,' according to Trump. Heritage is a think tank known for its stridently conservative views and its unorthodox approach to mathematics." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Not only has Heritage had a long history of vetting Republican appointees; its current president, Jim DeMint, is arguably the most reliable of 'constitutional conservatives,' a man who believes conservative policy prescriptions ought to be permanently protected from the occasional liberal majority via a divinely inspired and unchanging Supreme Law."

David Fahrenthold & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Aides to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said this week that his charitable foundation made a mistake when it donated $25,000 to a political committee backing Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a potential violation of federal rules prohibiting charities from aiding political candidates. The Donald J. Trump Foundation compounded the error by not listing its 2013 gift to the pro-Bondi group ... in its filings with the IRS that year.... The donation ... was controversial because it came as Bondi was reviewing whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University.... Bondi, a Republican..., never took action against Trump University. When questions arose at the time, the group and Trump defended the donation."

Gabriel Sherman of New York: "Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is considering suing BuzzFeed over an article alleging that he made unwanted sexual advances toward female journalists covering the candidate -- perhaps doing so under the influence of alcohol.... Trump has a history of suing journalists and likes to call reporters 'disgusting.' At a press conference in February, Trump said his administration would look into 'opening up libel laws' to punish unfriendly news organizations. 'When they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles we can sue them and win lots of money, he said. 'We're going to have people sue you like you've never got sued before.'"

Other News & Views

Kamilia Lahrichi of USA Today: "President Obama met with Argentinian President Mauricio Macri Wednesday during the visit to the South American country in a bid to strengthen ties with what is the continent's third largest economy.Security for the visit was beefed up in the wake of the terrorist attacks that shook Brussels Tuesday morning."

Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura & Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "Two bombers who carried out deadly attacks on Tuesday at Brussels Airport have been identified as brothers with criminal records, public broadcasters in Belgium reported on Wednesday. The brothers were identified as Khalid el-Bakraoui, 27, and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 30, whom the police had been seeking since the March 15 raid on an apartment in the Forest district of Brussels, the radio station RTBF reported, citing police sources. At least one of the brothers is believed to have died in the attacks at the airport. A third attacker has not been publicly identified and was still at large." ...

... Alissa Rubin, et al., of the New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed responsibility for deadly bombings that traumatized Brussels on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people at the main international airport and in a subway station at the heart of the city, near the headquarters of the European Union. Hours later the police found an unexploded bomb, loaded with nails, in a Brussels house search, along with chemicals and an Islamic State flag." ...

... Griff Witte, et al., of the Washington Post: "Belgian police released surveillance images of three men pushing luggage carts at the Brussels airport. They asked for help in identifying one man dressed in white, who they said was on the loose. Local reports said police believe that the other two men died in the explosions." ...

... Spencer Ackerman & Amanda Holpuch of the Guardian: "Authorities are set to bolster security at American airports and other transit hubs in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, although officials say they do not have credible intelligence about terrorism in the United States. The Transportation Security Administration will send additional personnel and security measures 'to major city airports in the United States, and at various rail and transit stations around the country', announced Jeh Johnson, the US secretary of homeland security, who called it a 'precautionary measure' rather than a response to a specific threat." ...

... The Guardian's liveblog for today is here. The Guardian's liveblog for March 22 is here. The New York Times' current liveblog is here. ...

... Roger Cohen of the New York Times: "President Obama's slow-but-steady strategy to defeat the Islamic State is clawing back a little territory in Syria and Iraq but is doing nothing to dent the charismatic appeal of the militant group, disrupt its propaganda or prevent it from killing Europeans." CW: OR, Everything Is Obama's Fault. ...

... Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "The terror attacks in Brussels on Tuesday pose the worst kind of foreign policy dilemma for President Obama, pitting his instincts, which tell him that he's doing all he can to defeat the Islamic State, against intense political pressure to do more.... The reality -- as Obama learned in the aftermath of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. -- is that impressive battlefield statistics and reasoned calls for restraint mean little in the climate of fear generated by terror strikes."

Richard Winton of the Los Angeles Times: "A top FBI official said it would take at least two weeks to determine whether investigators can open the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook without help from Apple. Assistant Director David Bowdich said in an interview Tuesday that the Washington office of FBI became aware of a third-party claim that it could unlock the iPhone on Sunday evening. Bowdich said that third party -- who he would not identify -- did demonstrate the ability to unlock the phone in testing. That is why the agency asked a federal judge to delay a hearing in its legal battle against Apple."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The bitter impasse over the nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland is raising a once unthinkable possibility: Presidents may no longer be confident of filling a Supreme Court vacancy unless their party controls the Senate.... While they have balked at some court picks, Democratic-controlled Senates have confirmed multiple nominees offered by Republican presidents on the principle of granting deference to a presidential choice. (The last time a Republican Senate considered a nominee by a Democratic president was in 1895.)" ...

     ... CW: Senate Republicans are also holding up lower court nominees. Given the tenor of today's Republican party, it seems likely that Democrats will hold the White House for years, but there's no telling which party will control the Senate. If Republicans continue to prevail there, theoretically the entire federal court system could dwindle to a few elderly coots presiding in district courts. Thanks, Mitch & Chuck!

Irin Carmon of MSNBC: "The anti-birth control coverage camp is returning to the Supreme Court Wednesday... Now that Scalia's death has robbed the plaintiffs of a fifth vote, the nonprofit objectors face two unappealing outcomes: Losing entirely, or a 4-4 tie that leaves in place the lower court opinions that backed the Obama administration. In other words, a lose-lose."

Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "The Supreme Court issued a deadlocked ruling Tuesday, its first since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The court tied 4-4 in a case involving whether a pair of wives should be held financially responsible for the failure of their husbands' real estate endeavor.... The outcome of Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore leaves in place a lower court ruling that affirmed that the bank did not discriminate against the women. But it also means the Supreme Court did not resolve [a] pair of conflicting lower court rulings on the matter. A decision from the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled directly on this case, conflicted with a prior ruling from the 6th Circuit on a similar issue."

Gail Collins answers questions about her job.

Beyond the Beltway

Marissa Liebling of Project Vote: "As expected, last week Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed an election bill into law. Significantly, the bill provides for online voter registration.... The most harmful provision buried in the bill effectively stops groups from organizing community voter registration drives.... Local and national groups, including Project Vote, joined together to show lawmakers that the proposed online registration system would not be available to all eligible electors, disproportionately impacting students, veterans, older individuals, low-income people and people of color.... Presented with this information, lawmakers refused to amend the law to preserve community registration drives or to expand access to the online registration system. We then asked Governor Walker to veto this provision."

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: Donnell Flora of Chicago, who gave his 14-year-old niece a gun to shoot her schoolmates over a dispute about a boy, has received a 100-year-sentence. The niece shot & killed one girl & critically wounded another. She will be tried for murder in juvenile court.

News Lede

Washington Post: "Joe Garagiola, who transformed a mediocre playing career in baseball into almost six decades as a popular and joyously self-deprecating broadcaster, becoming the sport's ambassador to the American public and a host of the 'Today' show, died March 23 in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 90."

The Commentariat -- March 22, 2016

If you are interested in taking over Reality Chex -- that is, owning it to do with as you will -- please contact me. I am looking forward to discontinuing my work on the site but would like to see it continue "under new management." I'll help you get started. Thank you to all who have contributed over the years. -- Constant Weader

Alissa Rubin, et al., of the New York Times: "A series of deadly terrorist attacks struck Brussels on Tuesday, with two explosions at the city's main international airport, and a third in a subway station at the heart of the city. According to news agencies, 13 people were killed at the airport, and 15 in the subway bombing, while 30 others were wounded. Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium said there were 'numerous' dead. 'We were fearing terrorist attacks, and that has now happened,' he said. At least one of the two explosions at the airport appeared to have been set off by a suicide bomber, officials said."

The Guardian's liveblog of developments is here. New York Times live updates are here.

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "President Barack Obama has been briefed about the series of explosions that tore through Brussels on Tuesday morning, leaving at least 27 people dead and dozens more wounded.... He is giving a speech later on Tuesday morning at the Grand Teatro in Havana and is expected to address the attacks then.... Secretary of State John Kerry was closely monitoring the situation, the State Department said in its own statement, and extended his condolences to the victims.... The Justice Department said Attorney General Loretta Lynch has also been briefed about the activity in Brussels."

President Obama spoke in Cuba about the terror attacks in Brussels:

Nolan McCaskill: "The Islamic State is winning, a former CIA deputy director under President Barack Obama said Tuesday in reaction to the terrorist attacks in Belgium. Michael Morell, who has served as acting CIA director twice, outlined the Islamic State's goals: to spread its ideology and caliphate to other parts of the world while also creating fear in the West with its attacks -- the latter being an action it carried out Tuesday when a series of explosions struck Brussels, the Belgian capital. While the U.S. is having success diminishing the Islamic State's caliphate in Syria, Morell said, the terror group is 'growing rapidly in the rest of the world.'"

This is a subject that is very dear and near to my heart, because I've been talking about it much more than anybody else. And it's probably why I'm number one in the polls. -- Donald Trump, this morning on NBC's "Today" show ...

... Alex Shepard of the New Republic: Donald Trump reacted to the Brussels terrorist attacks by talking about his poll numbers. "And, when pressed by Today's Matt Lauer, he said that if it were up to him, Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam would have been tortured, or worse."

*****

Juliet Eilperin & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "President Obama addressed the Cuban people directly for the first time Tuesday morning, saying he had come 'to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.' The address in Havana's newly renovated Gran Teatro, before an audience of invited guests of the U.S. and Cuban governments, represented the keystone event in Obama's 2¹ / ₂-day visit to the island. Speaking before Cuban President Raúl Castro and other government dignitaries, Obama outlined his vision of the future to ordinary citizens here, and to Cuban Americans at home": ...

Karen DeYoung & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "In an extraordinary news conference Monday afternoon, President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro sparred over human rights, the Guantanamo prison and their views of their own countries and the world, even as both hailed Obama's historic visit here as a new step in normalizing relations. The event was marked by a jarring juxtaposition of diplomatic formality and public jousting, as Castro responded to questions from American reporters by either ignoring them or dismissing them as misguided. At one point, he challenged a U.S. journalist to 'give me a name' of any alleged political prisoner here. For his part, Obama seemed to relish the opportunity to display his comfort in discussing both the things they agreed on, and those they did not. The public exchange was virtually unprecedented in Cuba":

... Paul Waldman: "Meanwhile, somewhere in Miami, Marco Rubio explained to the guy delivering his pizza why this trip was a terrible idea." ...

... Julie Davis & Damien Cave of the New York Times: "President Obama and President Raúl Castro discussed a path toward normalizing relations, a shift begun in late 2014 when, in a stunning announcement, they embarked on the restoration of full diplomatic relations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Sara Jerde of TPM: "The conservative blogosphere had a collective melt down after President Barack Obama took a picture in front of a mural of Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara on Monday in Havana's Revolution Plaza.... The Washington Examiner wrote that the picture created a 'fresh wave of fury.' The Drudge Report splashed the photo across its homepage with the caption 'Mission Accomplished.'"

... Steve Benen: "... when presidents travel abroad, sometimes they're photographed with politically controversial images in the background. Ronald Reagan was seen in 1988 delivering comments below a Vladimir Lenin bust and the USSR's flag.... The image drew no meaningful criticisms from Democrats. George H.W. Bush was pictured -- more than once -- in front of a Mao portrait in China. It wasn't a big deal, either." ...

... THEN AGAIN, Charles Pierce reproduces a picture of "President Reagan presid[ing] over a wreath-laying ... at the base of a brick cemetery tower looming over the graves of nearly 2,000 German soldiers, including 49 SS troops." (Second link is to contemporaneous NYT report.) That's different:

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The FBI may have found a way without Apple's assistance to unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Justice Department officials said Monday. Less than 24 hours before a highly-anticipated hearing over access to the phone was set to begin, Justice Department lawyers requested a delay. A federal judge agreed to postpone the oral arguments in which Apple and the U.S. government were set to face off over whether a court could force Apple to help the FBI unlock the phone."

New York Times Editors: "The refusal by Senate Republicans to consider the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court vacancy has rightly prompted indignation. But it is only the most glaring example of unreasonable intransigence by lawmakers who have turned the process of appointing senior federal officials into a political game.... Beyond having crucial positions unfilled, the bruising nomination battles are making senior government jobs unappealing to the most qualified and sought-after individuals."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has closed its espionage investigation into the former American diplomat Robin L. Raphel and will file no charges, her lawyer said Monday, ending a case that had put her under a cloud of suspicion over her ties to Pakistan for more than a year. F.B.I. agents raided Ms. Raphel's home and office in 2014, looking for evidence that she was spying for Islamabad, which Ms. Raphel adamantly denied. 'It was clear from the outset that this investigation was based on a fundamental misunderstanding,' Amy Jeffress, a lawyer for Ms. Raphel, said in a statement that sharply criticized government officials for revealing details of the investigation to reporters."

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the AP: "There's growing evidence that most of the dramatic gain in the number of Americans with health care coverage is due to President Barack Obama's law, and not the gradual recovery of the nation's economy. The health care law has been difficult to navigate for consumers, and its skinny policies can expose patients to high medical bills. But it's becoming a backstop for millions of Americans in a changing economy.... That could pose a political risk for Republicans running against 'Obamacare' in the GOP primaries as they shift to the general election later this year.... Hillary Clinton has already previewed how Democrats might use the issue this fall, frequently reminding voters they risk losing some popular benefits if the health care law is eliminated. Meanwhile, a nonpartisan analysis of Trump's initial outline for repealing and replacing the health care law found it would push millions back into the 'uninsured' category."

A Show about Nothing. Lauren French of Politico: "Call it the Seinfeld Congress -- all about nothing. It's gotten so small-ball that one congressman, a chairman of a highly influential committee, introduced legislation last week to recognize the national significance of magic. 'It doesn't surprise me at all. They are going to need magic to save their party,' joked Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who heads the House Democrats' messaging arm. 'The American people are used to a Republican do-nothing Congress, they are now getting used to a Republican ridiculous Congress.' All this non-activity comes as the House is set to take a nearly three-week vacation. The Senate skipped town last week."

Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "The nations of the world agreed years ago to try to limit global warming to a level they hoped would prove somewhat tolerable. But a group of leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that permitting a warming of that magnitude would actually be highly dangerous."

Presidential Race

Both parties are holding presidential primaries in Arizona today, & caucuses in Utah. Democrats caucus in Idaho, & Republicans hold a convention in American Samoa.

Stephen Collinson of CNN: "On the eve the next 2016 contests, each of the remaining presidential candidates appeared Monday night on CNN to take on issues ranging from foreign policy to their own political futures." The page includes video clips & reported highlights.

Anthony Salvanto, et al., of CBS News: "More than half of voters have unfavorable views of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump; each has a net negative rating in the double-digits.... Trump and Clinton's unfavorable ratings (57 percent and 52 percent respectively) are the highest in CBS News/New York Times Polls going back to 1984, when CBS began asking this question." CW: If this translates into low voter turnout in November, as I suspect it will, that's bad for Democrats.

Paul Waldman: "... while [Bernie Sanders] probably won't be president, given the place where he started, that isn't anything like the failure it is for a different kind of candidate. No one expected Sanders to get as far as he did -- maybe not even Sanders himself. When the campaign is over, he'll have a lot of reasons to call it a success."

Dan Merica of CNN: "Bill Clinton, while campaigning for his wife in Spokane, Washington, on Monday, seemingly knocked President Barack Obama's legacy in a riff that his aides said was unintended. 'If you believe we can rise together, if you believe we've finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics, then you should vote for her,' the former president said about his wife.... A Bill Clinton aide later clarified that the former President was 'referring to the GOP's obstructionism and not President Obama's legacy.'" ...

... Gaffe Clean-up. Nolan McCaskill: "Hillary Clinton's campaign early Tuesday morning pushed back against reports that former President Bill Clinton called President Barack Obama's policies 'awful,' insisting that only Bernie Sanders' campaign would openly attack the sitting president.... on Monday night [Sanders] said he didn't know that he'd 'call President Obama's 72 straight months of job growth an "awful legacy."'"

Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton pledged on Monday that she would stand unyieldingly with Israel and warned that her potential Republican rival, Donald J. Trump, would be an unreliable partner for one of America's closest allies. In a rock-ribbed speech in Washington that previewed how she might confront Mr. Trump on foreign policy in a general-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton said, 'We need steady hands, not a president who says he's neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who-knows-what on Wednesday.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charles Pierce: "It was as remarkably hawkish an address as HRC has delivered during this campaign, and it was an indication that pivoting toward the general election and pivoting toward 'the middle' are not necessarily the same things. It also was an indication of how tough she's going to be on He, Trump if the two wind up running against each other." ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "What was striking is how Clinton positioned herself to Trump’s right on the issue of Israel and the Palestinians.... She's unlikely to pay any real price for having nothing to say on Israel that is at all encouraging to anyone who wants a lasting peace. Maybe that's just being realistic. But it's still nothing to cheer about." ...

... Michelle Boorstein & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: At AIPEC, "Slams on Iran, President Obama and Hillary Clinton triggered applause. But not only that. Hundreds of rabbis and others stood in separate groups once [Donald] Trump took the podium and simply walked out in protest, activists said. Many went directly to locations at the Verizon Center to pray and study Torah." When Trump criticized Obama, the crowd was "ROARING with applause," according to Ben Silverstein of J Street. ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump expressed his solidarity with Israel in passionate terms on Monday, promising a gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that as president he would always stand up for it against its enemies in the Middle East.... He assailed the United Nations and the Obama administration for failing to side with Israel and promised to take a hard line against Iran." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Trump opened his speech by saying, 'I'm not here to pander to you about Israel.' As with so many of the Donald's statements, this turned out to be less than true. The GOP front-runner touted his experience in defending Israel -- experience that apparently consists of lending Rudy Giuliani his plane and heroically agreeing to serve as the grand marshal of a pro-Israel parade in 2004. He then pledged his animosity for AIPAC's sworn enemies -- Iran, the United Nations and Barack Obama." ...

... Sarah Posner in the Week: "Israel Hayom, the free daily newspaper owned by Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, appears to be on a mission to make ... Donald Trump palatable to the Israeli public. In the so-called Adelson primary, Trump, who has boasted that he'd never let a Jew buy him off, is not angling for Adelson's generous campaign contributions. He just wants his fawning press coverage."

Under the Lion's Mane, a Gentle Pussycat. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's foreign policy smacks of bluster and bellicosity. He is, as he often says, ready to 'knock the hell out of ISIS.' But that kind of rhetoric appears to mask a far different philosophy, that of an inward-looking politician whose views represent a dramatic break with years of Republican Party orthodoxy. From the Middle East to Europe to Asia, Trump's instincts appear shaped by his belief that too much has been asked of the United States and that it's time for other nations to shoulder a far bigger share of the financial and other burdens of dealing with a world of dangerous terrorists and aggressive states such as Russia and China." ...

... The full transcript of the Q&A is here. The Guardian has a summary here. CW: My debate advice to Hillary or Bernie: When you walk out on the stage & shake hands with Trump, say, "My, what small hands you have!" He'll go Rumplestiltskin...

... Washington Post Editors: "... his answers left little doubt how radical a risk the nation would be taking in entrusting the White House to him. There was, first, a breezy willingness to ignore facts and evidence.... No one can match the chasm between his expansive goals and the absence of proposals to achieve them." ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump revealed part of his foreign policy advisory team and outlined an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs during a wide-ranging meeting Monday with The Washington Post's editorial board.... Trump said that U.S. involvement in NATO may need to be significantly diminished in the coming years, breaking with nearly seven decades of consensus in Washington." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Team of Crackpots. Missy Ryan of the Washington Post follows up. Here's the headline: "One of Trump's foreign policy advisers is a 2009 college grad who lists Model UN as a credential." CW: But the kid isn't the worst of them. ...

... Michael Crowley of Politico: "Donald Trump's new lineup of little-known foreign policy advisers isn't exactly assuaging concerns about the Manhattan real estate mogul's readiness to be commander in chief.... Befitting a candidate who has threatened to cut off Muslim immigration into the U.S. "until we figure out what the hell is going on," Trump's roster includes two Middle East analysts who view Islamic Sharia law within the U.S. as a dire threat -- even though many conservatives consider the issue a fringe obsession." ...

... Claire Landsbaum of New York: At his meeting with the Washington Post, "Donald Trump Says He'll Fix Racism by Being "a Cheerleader for the Country.'" CW: That should work.

... AND there's this. Karen Attiah of the Washington Post, who attended the meeting with Trump: "I asked Trump a policy question. Then he called me 'beautiful.'"

Trump's "Demographic Trap." Greg Sargent: "All of the things that Trump might say and do to drive up white turnout -- particularly working class white turnout -- would also likely drive up nonwhite turnout. So there's no reason to expect a major boost in turnout from one group and not the other...."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Monday charged that CNN was fueling violence at Donald Trump's rallies by spending too much time reporting on violent incidents at his campaign events."

Nolan McCaskill: "'The problem with the country right now [is] it's so divided, and people like Elizabeth Warren really have to get their act together because it's going to stay divided,' [Donald Trump] told reporters during a news conference Monday. Trump also referred to Warren as 'the Indian' -- a swipe at the controversy that touched her Senate campaign after it was revealed that she had in the past claimed minority status, citing Native American ancestry." ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "As [Donald] Trump arrived in [Washington, D.C.,] to deliver a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, [Elizabeth] Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Mr. Trump had skipped out on debts, managed scam businesses and used bankruptcy laws to keep his father's empire afloat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill has moreon Warren's Twitter strikes against Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ryan Cooper of the Week: "... despite the goons surrounding him, [Donald Trump] doesn't have an official paramilitary group..., and it's sort of hard to imagine building one out of the elderly people who make up the bulk of conservative voters. But there is another group that is ready-made to serve as Trump's stormtroopers: the police. Whether they will jump on the Trump bandwagon may be the key to whether Trumpism becomes a movement of outright fascism.... It's disturbingly easy to imagine Trump co-opting some police to act as his paramilitary wing." CW: Maybe this is idle speculation. And maybe not.

Brian Beutler: "The notion that President Obama played some substantial role in awakening the Donald Trump phenomenon has evolved from a form of buck-passing that conservatives once struggled to justify into a full-blown conventional wisdom.... There are above-board ways to argue that Obama isn't blameless in Trump's rise.... [For instance,] Obama could have done much more to mitigate the foreclosure crisis he inherited.... These are significant errors, and any good-faith effort to comprehensively reckon with Trump's rise should include them. The way conservatives are implicating Obama, by contrast, is meant to serve the rather different purpose of avoiding that reckoning altogether."

Charles Pierce: On Sunday, Chuck Todd asked "former former Sarah Palin ventriloquist Steve Schmidt" why the anti-Trump contingent isn't rallying around Trump runner-up Ted Cruz. Of course Schmidt didn't given a straight answer because that would "demonstrate how completely movement conservatism has caused the Republican Party to fck itself. And these are things we do not say." So Pierce provides the actual answer. ...

... MEANWHILE, it seems the Nastiest Man in Washington has been looking in vain for a smiling, baby-faced friend. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign has been exploring the possibility of forming a unity ticket with ex-rival Marco Rubio -- going so far as to conduct polling looking into how the two would perform in upcoming primary states.... But Rubio's camp is uniformly dismissive of the idea." ...

... CW: Marco should be careful. His wife Jeanette was a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, & there are some risque photos of her out there on the Intertubes. You never know what Cruz & friends might do if Rubio continues to refuse to cooperate. But here's a clue:

... Emily Crockett of Vox: "An anti-Donald Trump Super PAC is running ads to try to convince Mormons not to vote for Trump -- by slut-shaming his wife, Melania.... [One ad by Make America Awesome] features Melania Trump posing nude and mocks the idea that she could be the first lady one day. The photo comes from a shoot Melania did for British GQ in 2000." ...

... McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "The goal [of the ad campaign] is twofold: increase turnout among LDS voters, and urge them to strategically consolidate around Ted Cruz, who is close to the 50% winner-take-all threshold in Utah."

Robert Draper in the New York Times Magazine on why Republican establishment types don't like John Kasich. For one thing, he's "sanctimonious and rude."

Beyond the Beltway

In my next life, when I come back, I want to be someone in the WTA [Women's Tennis Association], because they ride on the coattails of the men. They don't make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky. If I was a lady player, I'd go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport. They really have. -- Raymond Moore, CEO of the Indian Wells, California, Tennis Garden Club, Sunday ...

... Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times: "Raymond Moore stepped down from his posts as chief executive of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California and tournament director of the BNP Paribas Open late Monday, one day after his comments about female tennis players drew strong rebuke from many in tennis, including the tournament's runner-up Serena Williams.... Moore ignited controversy Sunday morning at a news conference when he asserted that women's tennis players owed a debt of gratitude to stars of the men's game."

Way Beyond

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Russia warned on Monday that it was prepared to act unilaterally in Syria against groups that it said were breaking the cease-fire there, injecting a volatile new element into a conflict that has been calmer in recent weeks. Russia's Defense Ministry said the country's military was ready to strike as early as Tuesday against groups that it said were violating the cease-fire unless U.S. leaders agree to discuss a Russian proposal for how to maintain the peace. So far, Russian warplanes have been observing the cease-fire, U.S. officials say. The ultimatum may be as much a negotiating gambit with the United States as it is a warning...."

Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "The International Criminal Court broke new ground Monday by adding rape to a war-crimes conviction, finding the former vice president of Congo guilty of abuses -- including sexual crimes -- in connection with a militia intervention in the neighboring Central African Republic. It was the first time the Netherlands-based court has convicted anyone of sexual violence since it was launched in 2002, raising the possibility of future prosecutions that include accusations of rape and related abuses as elements of war."

Bill Chappell of NPR: "The manhunt for terrorism suspect Salah Abdeslam ended with his arrest Friday -- and on Monday, police said they've also learned the true identity of one of his alleged accomplices in the deadly Paris attacks in November. That suspect is Laachroui Najim, who used a fake name and is wanted for arrest. Police say Najim, 24, used the alias Soufiane Kayal to rent a safe house used by the attackers in Belgium -- and that he's one of two men who were with Salah Abdeslam in a car that was checked by Hungarian police on Sept. 9.... The other man in that car died last Tuesday, when police conducted an anti-terrorism raid in Belgium. He had initially been identified as Samir Bouzid -- but police say that was a fake identity, and that the man was actually Mohamed Belkaid, a 35-year-old Algerian."

News Ledes

Toronto Sun: "Tributes are pouring in for former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who died Tuesday at age 46. The family confirmed Ford succumbed to cancer -- 18 months after doctors discovered a softball-sized malignant tumour in his abdomen."

Washington Post: "Andy Grove, the refugee from Hungary who became one of the pillars of Silicon Valley and, as both scientist and executive, was a principal figure in the rise of the Intel Corp. and a symbol of the world-wide computer revolution, died Monday. He was 79."