The Commentariat -- Feb. 19, 2016
Tea Leaves. Michael Grunwald of Politico: "In the wide-ranging interview that often turned provocative, especially when he complained about the Democratic presidential race he decided to skip, the vice president flatly said an Obama nominee in the outspoken progressive mold of former Justice William Brennan is 'not going to happen.' Biden, who fiercely defended legislative prerogatives as the longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also volunteered that 'it was never intended for the president to pick whoever he wants and that's it.' And he suggested the Senate has the right to consider not only a nominee's philosophy, but how much the nomination would change the court, a common GOP talking point these days.... He said Obama also intends to nominate 'someone who has demonstrated they have an open mind, someone who doesn't have a specific agenda,' even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he shouldn't bother nominating anyone in his last year." ...
... Mitch McConnell & Chuck Grassley in a Washington Post op-ed: "We don't think the American people should be robbed of this unique opportunity [to allow the next president to nominate a Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia]. Democrats beg to differ. They'd rather the Senate simply push through yet another lifetime appointment by a president on his way out the door.... The Senate has not confirmed a nominee to fill a vacancy arising in such circumstances for the better part of a century." ...
... CW: Here's a "circumstance" for you fellas: New York Times: "The Senate has never taken more than 125 days to vote on a successor from the time of nomination; on average, a nominee has been confirmed, rejected or withdrawn within 25 days. When Justice Antonin Scalia died, 342 days remained in President Obama's term." ...
... Erica Martinson & Nathaniel Herz of Alaska Dispatch News: "Whomever President Barack Obama nominates to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R] thinks the nominee deserves to be vetted by the Senate." ...
... Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: "... the actuarial tables offer a somber prospect over the next four years. Scalia's departure is the opening act, not the conclusion, of a historic generational shift. If President Obama's pick is confirmed, the Court's moderate liberals will have a slight advantage in the head count. That's true for at least the next term, but not much longer. The new shape of the Court is much more likely to be determined by the next four years than by the next four months. The 'partisan balance' of the Court may shift more than once.... I suspect that [Chief Justice Roberts] does not believe that 'the American people' should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice' -- at least not a direct one.... The current Republican tantrum may change minds inside the marble palace; it may do more to break a Republican 'bloc' than Barack Obama ever could." ...
... Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "The number of white dudes becoming federal judges has plummeted under Obama.... Just 38 percent of district judges appointed by Obama have been white men. Under Bush, the figure was 67 percent, and under Clinton, it was 52 percent. By contrast, under President Reagan, fully 85 percent of judges appointed to district courts were white men." ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Of course this is exactly the kind of change that terrifies the conservative insurgency. But for the rest of us, it is a victory to keep in mind as we tally the legacy of our 44th President and consider the wealth of talent he has to chose from in a Supreme Court nominee."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose on Friday in the Supreme Court's majestic Great Hall, not far from the courtroom where he dominated the court's arguments for three decades and helped shape American law. His body will be placed on the same catafalque, on loan from Congress, that once held President Abraham Lincoln's coffin." CW: Seems appropriate. Lincoln proposed to free slaves & Scalia tried to enslave free Americans again. Roll over, Abe Lincoln. ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The White House on Thursday defended President Barack Obama's decision not to attend Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral.... 'There's so much rancor in politics and partisanship that we allow ourselves to get drawn into different corners to the extent that some people actually want to use the funeral of a Supreme Court justice as some sort of political cudgel,' White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. 'The president doesn't think that that's appropriate, and, in fact, what the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens, even when you don't agree on all the issues. And that's what he's going to do.'"
John Eligon of the New York Times: "In a test of Kansas' wide-ranging voter registration law, a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday challenged a provision that required residents to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, takes aim at a measure that was pushed through the Republican-led Legislature five years ago by Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach.... The A.C.L.U., saying that fraud claims were unfounded, brought the class-action suit on behalf of six Kansas residents who said they were left off the voter rolls after registering at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles."
New York Times Editors: "... Apple is doing the right thing in challenging the federal court ruling requiring that it comply [with a court ruling].... In a 1977 case involving the New York Telephone Company, the Supreme Court said the government could not compel a third party that is not involved in a crime to assist law enforcement if doing so would place 'unreasonable burdens' on it. Judge Pym's order requiring Apple to create software to subvert the security features of an iPhone places just such a burden on the company." ...
... Libertarian presidential candidate & anti-virus software guru John McAfee rips the government for demanding Apple provide a "back door" to encrypted messages on a dead San Diego terrorist's iPhone, then offers his team to decrypt the phone free of charge.
Emily Crockett of Vox: "'Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil,' [Pope] Francis said. "In certain cases, as in this one [-- the Zika virus --]..., it was clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these mosquitoes that carry this disease.' If Pope Francis actually granted an exception for women in Zika-afflicted areas, it would be a huge deal. He has suggested before that the church should focus less on contraception and abortion issues -- but he hasn't actually proposed any policy changes. The church bans contraception and abortion outright. This has major public health consequences, especially for developing countries that are heavily Catholic, like in Latin America."
Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "New data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that January of 2016 was, for the globe, a truly extraordinary month. Coming off the hottest year ever recorded (2015), January saw the greatest departure from average of any month on record, according to data provided by NASA." CW: Oh yeah? The other day, it was 14 below where I live & it's 7 degrees right now, so these data couldn't be true.
Presidential Race
Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "When it comes to labor powerhouses in Nevada, few organizations quite match the Culinary Workers Union: 57,000 strong, more than 50 percent Latino.... But to the increasing distress of the two Democratic presidential contenders, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary Clinton, the union has decided to sit out the Democratic presidential caucuses [in Nevada] on Saturday, setting off a free-for-all for its members and adding to the increasingly tense and unsettled political atmosphere here.... Union leaders said they were staying on the sidelines because the demands of mobilizing behind either Mr. Sanders or Mrs. Clinton would divert resources, distract members and potentially polarize the union just as they are entering critical contract negotiations. The Culinary Workers will instead focus its resources on the general election, in which Nevada is almost certain to be pivotal." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Nevada was once supposed to be a firewall for Mrs. Clinton, its large minority population primed to accelerate her drive to the Democratic nomination. But after her narrow victory in Iowa and crushing defeat in New Hampshire, it has turned into yet another tight and unpredictable contest, in which Mr. Sanders stands to gain more from a victory, and Mrs. Clinton stands to lose more from a defeat.... Mrs. Clinton's aides have appeared to brace for the worst here, playing down expectations and shifting their attention to the South Carolina primary the following weekend and on the 11 states that hold contests on Super Tuesday, March 1." ...
... Jamie Self of the (South Carolina) State: "U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn will endorse Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the state's presidential primary, a Clinton campaign aide told The State Thursday night. The endorsement will come at 11 a.m. Friday at Columbia's Allen University, a source close to Clyburn also confirmed." ...
... Hope Yen & Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "So much for Bernie Sanders' big win in New Hampshire. Since then, Hillary Clinton has picked up endorsements from 87 more superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention, dwarfing Sanders' gain from the New Hampshire primary, according to a new Associated Press survey. Sanders has added just 11 superdelegate endorsements. If these party insiders continue to back Clinton overwhelmingly -- and they can change their minds -- Sanders would have to win the remaining primaries by a landslide just to catch up.... After the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders has a small 36-32 lead among delegates won in primaries and caucuses. But when superdelegates are included, Clinton leads 481-55, according to the AP count." ...
... Paul Krugman turns up the anti-Sanders volume, this time devoting his column to excoriating the fantastical economic projections made by an economist who is not associated with Sanders' campaign but whom Sanders' top campaign aides have praised. CW: Krugman's criticism of crazy projections is well-taken, but he should have mentioned that the economist he associates with Sanders is a Hillary Clinton supporter. ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post is similarly derisive of the numbers associated with the Sanders' plan, but at least she acknowledges the the economist who came up with the phony numbers is a Clinton supporter.
... Simon Maloy of Salon: "... pretty much every one of Trump's rivals ... also wants to throw up some sort of wall-like structure on our frontier with Mexico. At the Reagan Library debate last September, Marco Rubio said the first step towards immigration reform is 'we must secure our border, the physical border, with -- with a wall, absolutely.' Ted Cruz says all the time that 'we're going to build a wall' and jokes that he's going to get Trump to build it for him. Ben Carson thinks 'the border wall is a good start' but is also open to other security measures, like drone strikes along the border.... If we're going to go with the 'Pope questioned Trump's Christianity' interpretation, then we have to expand that out to pretty much every Christian in the Republican Party, which is a lot of people. That's why you're seeing Republicans like Rubio and Jeb Bush -- Catholics both -- pushing back against the pope's statement, even though it's being widely interpreted as an attack on their chief rival for the GOP nomination. The way they see it, the pope didn't attack Trump, he attacked a key policy platform of the party." ... ... More Christian Than the Pope. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said it was 'disgraceful' that Pope Francis questioned his faith on Thursday and suggested that his presidency would be the answer to the Vatican's prayers because he would protect it from terrorists if elected." Trump said in a statement, "No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith. They [the Mexican government] are using the pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant." (Emphasis added.) Trump's full statement is here. ... ... CW: The most hilarious part of Trump's statement is the highlighted bit, inasmuch as Trump has a long history of questioning President Obama's faith. I seriously doubt faithful Roman Catholics will be amused at Trump's criticizing the Pope. ... ... Nick Gass of Politico: "The White House weighed in on Thursday afternoon, with press secretary Josh Earnest delivering a cutting comment during the daily briefing. 'I will, however, though, extend to Mr. Trump the courtesy that he has not extended to the president and not use this opportunity to call into question the kind of private, personal conversations that he's having with his god,' Earnest said." ... ... Jenna Johnson & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... Pope Francis added the strongest voice yet to a growing chorus of world leaders taking a stand against the celebrity candidate -- condemning Trump's hard-line immigration agenda and suggesting he was not a Christian because of it.... First was the British prime minister, who called Donald Trump 'divisive, stupid and wrong.' Then came Britain's Parliament, which denounced him with colorful language. The French prime minister, the Turkish president and a Saudi prince also weighed in: The Republican presidential front-runner, they agreed, was a demagogue disgracing the United States." CW: Don't worry, Donald. Vladimir Putin & Kim-Jong Un probably find you likable enough. ... ... "Pope Francis, Tear Down That Wall." Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Supporters of Donald J. Trump were quick to suggest on Thursday that Pope Francis was being hypocritical to criticize as un-Christian Mr. Trump's proposal to build a wall between the United States and Mexico because the pontiff himself lives in Vatican City, a small state with sturdy walls of its own.... But scholars who study Medieval Italy and the history of the Roman Catholic Church dismissed those criticisms as the product of a basic misunderstanding of both the geography and the history of Vatican City. There are, to be sure, formidable walls in Vatican City, and much of of the site, including the gardens and the modest guesthouse that is home to Francis, is set behind them. But the walls do not entirely enclose the city-state, and in the modern era they are not meant to, historians said." ... ... Nick Gass: "During a taped telephone interview aired during ABC's 'Good Morning America,' co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Trump if he thought his statement slamming the pope's remark would hurt him going forward, including in Saturday's South Carolina primary.... Repeating his usual rhetoric about building a wall to keep out drugs and undocumented immigrants, Trump commented that Francis' remarks were 'a little bit lighter ... than the press portrayed after I read a transcript.' The pope's precise words do not specifically mention Trump but rather speak in general religious terms about anyone who constructs a wall instead of building bridges. During Thursday night's town hall event on CNN, the businessman had already begun dialing back his rhetoric, calling Francis 'a wonderful guy.' In an interview on MSNBC, Jeb Bush said he thought 'it was probably inappropriate for the pope to intervene at the -- in the height of a contested primary in that way.'" ... ... Steve M. reminds us that right-wingers have been attacking Pope Francis for some time. So don't expect this to be the downfall of the Donald." ... ... Sarah Posner of Rolling Stone: "It's almost as if Trump sees himself as the Henry VIII of reality TV (though he didn't need any permission for his divorces). He's hinting, not too subtly, that allowing immigration would tie the country closely to Rome, an ugly insinuation given the history of anti-Catholicism in American politics. He wants to divide -- Catholics from each other, Americans from Catholics, immigrants from 'real' Americans -- and create a new American church, one in which he is the divinely ordained King, and reading the Bible is optional." ... ... Also too, as digby points out, "He hasn't ruled out beheading either." ... ... Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of BuzzFeed: "For months, Donald Trump has claimed that he opposed the Iraq War before the invasion began -- as an example of his great judgment on foreign policy issues. But in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump said he supported an Iraq invasion. In the interview, which took place on Sept. 11, 2002, Stern asked Trump directly if he was for invading Iraq. 'Yeah I guess so,' Trump responded. 'I wish the first time it was done correctly.'... Trump's comments on Stern are more in line with what he wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, where he advocated for a 'principled and tough' policy toward 'outlaw' states like Iraq.'... Trump, asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper at a town hall on Thursday about the Stern interview, said, 'I could have said that.'" ... ... Katie Glueck of Politico: "Trump on Thursday night again claimed he had opposed the war in 2002-2003, and then he additionally said that George H.W. Bush had handled Iraq correctly in 1992's Operation Desert Storm--statements which are both at odds with his 2002 claims." ... ... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post also was disgusted by MSNBC's Morning Joe & Mika Trump Fan Club Revue: "Any hour-long session with Donald Trump that doesn't ask him about [his shameful racism & bigotry] is a puff session. Allowing this fellow to pronounce on entitlement reform, strategies on the Islamic State, campaign tactics, Iraq, Jeb Bush, health-care reform, gun rights, Supreme Court nominations and other such topics without grinding through an extensive accounting of his racism and bigotry is an outrage only sightly less egregious than the candidate's own." ... ... Charles Pierce calls the "town hall" a "one-hour infomercial that Joe Scarborough ran on behalf of Donald Trump.... Roll over, Eric Sevareid and tell Ed Murrow the news." Aamer Madhani, et al., of USA Today: "A judge will hear arguments on Friday from an Illinois voter alleging that Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is not a 'natural-born citizen' and should be disqualified for the party's nomination. Lawrence Joyce, an Illinois voter who has objected to Cruz's placement on the Illinois primary ballot next month, will have his case heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago. Joyce's previous objection, made to the state's Board of Elections, was dismissed on February 1. He appealed the decision and was granted a hearing for Friday before Judge Maureen Ward Kirby." ... ... Breaking: Ted Cruz Is Still Ted Cruz. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "The Marco Rubio campaign is livid Thursday after the Ted Cruz campaign released a website that includes a photoshopped image of their candidate shaking hands with President Barack Obama.... Among the red flags that the image is fake... who shakes with their left hand? Certainly not the right-handed Rubio.... The Cruz campaign doubled down, telling CNN that they believe the image is authentic." ... ... Understanding Marco. He has a history of flipflopping & shirking his duties. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post reports on Marco Rubio's practices in Tallahassee. ... ... He's Still at the Flipflopping. Greg Sargent: "In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Rubio clarified that on Day One of his presidency, he will end President Obama's executive action protecting the DREAMers -- people brought here illegally as children -- from deportation.... Here's what he said in February 2015, according to Politifact: 'What I'm not advocating is that we cancel it right now at this moment, because you already have people that have signed up for it. They're working, they're going to school. It would be deeply disruptive. But at some point, it has to come to an end.'" ... ... He's Still at the Shirking. Katie Glueck of Politico: "Marco Rubio's last-minute cancellation at a conservative confab Thursday night instantly became fodder for rival candidate Ted Cruz, with the event's pro-Cruz organizer [confederate nut Mark Levin] calling it 'pretty damn rude.'... Rubio communications director Alex Conant said in an email that following scheduling issues, the candidate was 'running super late.' The team sent surrogates Rep. Trey Gowdy and Sen. Tim Scott in Rubio's place," but Levin didn't allow them to speak. Beyond the Beltway Beyond Belief. Scott Thistle of the Maine Sun Journal: "Maine Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday added his voice to the ongoing debate regarding the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created with the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia last Saturday. LePage sided with former governor and U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, saying President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement for Scalia. 'I'm a big constitutionalist,' LePage said. 'If it's in the Constitution, I think it means something.'" Senate Race Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: "Last year, [Alan] Grayson [D-Fla.], who was first elected to Congress in 2008, made a passionate speech denouncing trade with dictatorships or countries that employ forced labor. But weeks earlier, his family cashed in a long-held investment in a mining company that derives its revenue almost entirely from Eritrea, an east African country labeled 'a pariah state' by Human Rights Watch in part for its system of forced labor in service of a government that hasn't held an election since 1991. Grayson said he wasn't aware of the 2013 report criticizing the company." Way Beyond "We'll Always Have Paris." Tim Egan presents a picture of Paris apres the terrorist attacks. It's still Paris, according to Egan, albeit a Paris with armed soldiers around every corner. News Ledes New York Times: "Harper Lee, whose first novel, 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 10 million copies and became one of the most beloved and most taught works of fiction ever written by an American, has died. She was 89." New York Times: "American warplanes struck an Islamic State camp in Libya early Friday, targeting a senior Tunisian operative linked to two major terrorist attacks in Tunisia last year. The airstrikes, on a camp outside Sabratha, about 50 miles west of Tripoli, killed at least 30 Islamic State recruits at the site, many of whom were believed to be from Tunisia, according to a Western official...."
Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,' [Pope] Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. The pope ... also waded into the question of