The Commentariat -- Feb. 10, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Daniel Strauss of Politico: "... Carly Fiorina dropped out of the 2016 [presidential] contest on Wednesday, ending a campaign that failed to enlist enough support despite Republican voters' clear preference for a Washington outsider this cycle. I've said throughout this campaign that I will not sit down and be quiet. I'm not going to start now,' the former Hewlett-Packard CEO said in a statement. 'While I suspend my candidacy today, I will continue to travel this country and fight for those Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them.'" CW: With luck, the media won't cover her travels & fights.

Annie Karni of Politico: "As she looks toward the more diverse March states, [Hillary] Clinton is putting a new focus on race. The first salvo came Wednesday, when African-American elected officials and civil rights leaders supporting her campaign participated in a conference call to raise questions about Sanders' record on gun violence and criminal justice reform.... On a conference call with African-American surrogates for Hillary Clinton, civil rights leader and former NAACP president Hazel Dukes dismissed the significance of Bernie Sanders' participation in the March on Washington in 1963.... New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on the call that ... 'When you match up the record of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, there simply is no comparison.... She's been at the dance from the beginning of her career.' In contrast, 'Sanders has been missing in action on issues of importance to the African American community,' Jeffries said, characterizing him as 'a new arrival to the dance ... at the twilight of his career.'"

Nick Gass of Politico: "President Barack Obama will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary, but there is no doubt where he is leaning, according to former White House press secretary Jay Carney. 'I think the president has signaled while still remaining neutral that he supports Secretary Clinton's candidacy and who prefer to see her as the nominee,' Carney said on CNN Wednesday...." ...

... AP: "President Barack Obama returned Wednesday to the Illinois capital where he launched his national political career and appealed for help ridding politics of 'polarization and meanness' that discourage participation in civic life. In an address to the Illinois General Assembly, Obama said he regretted his failure to apply to Washington politics the lessons he had learned about working across the political aisle as a state senator. Changing the tone is possible, he said, but it 'requires citizenship and a sense that we are one.":

Matea Gold & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders took a few moments in his victory speech Tuesday night to make a small request of his supporters: 'Please help us raise the funds we need, whether it's 10 bucks, 20 bucks, or 50 bucks,' he said. The response was so overwhelming that his website buckled under the traffic. Between the close of polls and mid-afternoon Wednesday, his campaign brought in a record $5.2 million. Sanders is barreling out of New Hampshire in a position few anticipated when he first entered the 2016 White House contest: financially competitive with Hillary Clinton."

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Ta-Nehisi Coates, the award-winning writer who has become one of the nation's most influential voices on cultural and political issues, particularly touching on race relations, said Wednesday that he would be voting for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The decision by Mr. Coates, the recipient of a MacArthur 'genius grant' and ... winner of the National Book Award, came as something of a surprise: Last month, Mr. Coates, author of a widely read 2014 Atlantic essay, 'The Case for Reparations,' wrote two articles sharply criticizing Mr. Sanders over his opposition to reparations for slavery."

Marco Marco Marco Knew Christie Was on the Attack. Jeremy Peters & Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Mr. Christie had not just telegraphed the coming attack, he directly forewarned Mr. Rubio backstage on Saturday night as the two men waited for their names to be called by the ABC News moderators. 'I understand I am going to have a hard time tonight,' Mr. Rubio playfully told Mr. Christie. 'Yes, you are,' Mr. Christie replied, according to three people to whom he recounted the conversation. Todd Harris, a senior Rubio adviser, called the conversation 'completely fabricated.'" ...

... BUT Now Marco Marco Marco Is "Funny, Unscripted & Human." Jeremy Peters: "Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took questions from reporters aboard his charter flight to South Carolina for nearly 45 minutes.... As he spoke, he made it clear that he was entering a new phase of his campaign, one less burdened by the caution and message discipline that have made him seem mechanical and scripted at times."

Alex Isenstadt & David Strauss of Politico: "Chris Christie is expected to formally suspend his campaign later on Wednesday, according to a source close to the campaign, after finishing a disappointing sixth in the New Hampshire primary. The New Jersey governor was expected to spend part of the day reaching out to donors and top supporters to discuss his decision, the source said."

Charles Pierce has fun reflecting upon the outcomes of the primaries.

Driftglass Welcomes Michael Bloomberg: "... who better to step in out of the Beltway pundit's magic Centrist unicorn dreams and into the race... Who better to dump another shit-ton of money into a race already choking on the fumes of burning piles of cash...Who better to grab both the unruly anti-Wall Street Democrats and the unhinged, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant wingnut rabble by the scruff of the neck and tell them all to STFU and fall in line... than yet another New York billionaire!"

Jonathan Chait: "Among those shocked by Donald Trump's runaway victory in the New Hampshire primary was Eric Cantor, who had just a few weeks before made a bet that Trump would fail to win a single primary. The experience of being shocked should not come as a shock to Cantor. In 2010, Cantor invested some $15,000 in a fund that bet on higher inflation, which was widely predicted by conservatives at the time but utterly failed to come about. In 2014, he lost his primary despite internal polling that showed him 34 points ahead, and admitted he was 'absolutely' shocked by the defeat.... People who want to bet their money on Cantor's ability to see the future" can find him at his investment firm, advising wealthy people on what the future holds. CW: Love the accompanying photo of Cantor, adjusting his glasses in such a way as to remind potential investors that he is (a) a very smart guy (b) who can see into the future.

*****

Presidential Race

Yuuuge! Here's a clip from Sanders' victory speech:

     ... Update: Here's the full speech:

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Bernie Sanders is the future of the Democratic party.... Democrats especially if they are white, millennial and postgrad -- are increasingly likely to call themselves liberals.... It is true that younger blacks and Hispanics are also trending liberal, but for now, there are enough moderate and conservative older blacks and Hispanics to give Clinton some breathing room." CW: The Democratic party will fade to a faction if it can't bring along minorities & moderate white people. ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: ""Bernie Sanders is the future of the Democratic party.... Hillary Clinton's campaign -- and, frankly, many DC journalists -- has been repeatedly taken by surprise by the potency of some of Sanders's attacks, because they apply to such a broad swath of the party. But this is precisely the point. Sanders and his youthful supporters want the Democrats to be a different kind of party: a more ideological, more left-wing one."

... Eric Levitz of New York: "Sanders's victory is a remarkable triumph for a certain strain of American Jewish political thought. When asked about his spirituality at last week's Democratic debate, the Vermont senator replied, 'My spirituality is that we are all in this together and that when children go hungry, when veterans sleep out on the street, it impacts me.' Sanders's Judaism is the socialist, universalist sort that was conceived through centuries of Talmudic scholarship, incubated in sweatshop factories in New York and Chicago, and brought to life in the great labor struggles of the early 20th century."

Isaac Chotiner of Slate: "Hillary Clinton's impressive concession speech Tuesday night, which followed Bernie Sanders' even more impressive win in the New Hampshire primary, was a bracing call for getting real.... What made the speech better than many of her previous efforts -- I'm not including her Goldman Sachs speeches, since we haven't seen those -- was that she mixed this practical approach to leadership with a surprising amount of heart":

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Bernie Sanders's nearly 22-point victory came after Mrs. Clinton's advisers had worked hard to lower expectations, but privately, many people close to Mrs. Clinton, including her husband, believed the state would once again serve as a lifeline." ...

... Annie Karni of Politico: "Both Hillary and Bill Clinton knew she would lose [in New Hampshire] -- but not by this much. Now, after a drubbing so serious as to call into question every aspect of her campaign from her data operation to her message, the wounded front-runner and her allies are actively preparing to retool their campaign, according to Clinton allies.... Clinton is set to campaign with African-American victims of law enforcement deaths, like Trayvon Martin's mother and Eric Garner's mother. And the campaign, sources said, is expected to push a new focus on systematic racism, criminal justice reform, voting rights and gun violence that will mitigate concerns about her lack of an inspirational message." ...

... Lisa Desjardins of PBS NewsHour: "Hours before official New Hampshire results appeared Tuesday, Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook conceded to staffers, supporters and some reporters that the Granite State race was lost, in a memo obtained by PBS NewsHour that urged the Clinton team to focus past February and on March."

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "One thing is certain: A major fight for the Democratic nomination lies ahead."

We're being ripped off by everybody. And I guess that's the thing that Bernie Sanders and myself have in common. We know about the trade. But unfortunately he can't do anything to fix it, whereas I will. The only thing he does know, and he's right about, is that we're being ripped off; he says that constantly; and I guess he and I are the only two that really say that. -- Donald Trump, on "Morning Joe" today...

... Greg Sargent: "In her concession speech..., Clinton continued to describe Sanders's success in limited emotional terms -- as if he is merely speaking to people's anger and frustration. Some pundits similarly describe Trump's appeal as an ability to harness 'anger.' Yet there's more to it than this. What both Trump and Sanders share is that they treat the problem as one of political economy, in which both the economic and political systems are rigged in intertwined ways, thus speaking directly to people's understandable intellectual assessment of what is deeply wrong with our system and why it no longer works for them." ...

... Michael Grunwald of Politico Magazine: "New Hampshire's unemployment rate is only 3.1 percent. New Hampshire's average gasoline price is only $1.98 per gallon. New Hampshire's murder rate is the lowest in the country, and so is New Hampshire's poverty rate. Also: New Hampshire's voters want serious change. That was the in-your-face message of last night's primary results, a widely predicted but still somehow viscerally shocking call for overthrow, on both sides.... The seething disgust that propelled Trump and Sanders to victory is hard to deny, and neither Clinton nor Kasich or Bush seems well-positioned to win a disgust-a-thon against more natural purveyors of disgust."

"A Racist, Sexist Demagogue Just Won The New Hampshire Primary." Ryan Grim & Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: Donald Trump's "resounding victory amid a crowded field of more experienced and accomplished candidates is a stunning turn of events for a party that vowed just four years ago to be more inclusive to minorities after failing to unseat President Barack Obama in the bitter 2012 election. What the GOP got instead is a xenophobic demagogue who's insulted pretty much everyone and even earned the endorsement of white supremacists. Trump's victory in New Hampshire likely points to a drawn-out slog between Trump and at least one of his rivals as they battle to secure enough delegates in hopes of winning their party's nomination...." ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Trump's victory, and the magnitude of his victory, is a political cataclysm for the Republican Party.... He more than doubled the support of the second-place finisher John Kasich. This gives Trump an early delegate lead going into nominating contests in South Carolina and Nevada, where he also enjoys commanding advantages in public polls.... Everything that's happened since last Monday has served as a reminder that the Republican establishment is hanging its fortunes on extremely thin reeds....

After Iowa, and despite a third-place finish, Rubio briefly benefited from a deluge of endorsements and campaign donations on the basis of the impression that he was both uniquely electable, and uniquely capable of uniting the party. These notions took hold despite widespread awareness of Rubio's thin resume and inability to act with a clear head under pressure. His momentum was thus extremely fragile and after one public demonstration that the concerns were valid, it collapsed. Tonight he finished fifth.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "For the establishment wing of the Republican Party, the picture just keeps getting bleaker.... The establishment lane is now more crowded than ever, with Rubio, Jeb Bush, and New Hampshire runner-up John Kasich heading for a brutal fight in South Carolina -- a state known for its rough-and-tumble political culture." CW: Really? Not if Chrisco drops out, as he seems likely to do. All the candidates are wing-nuts, but the perceived outsiders -- Trump & Cruz -- are battling for the same voters, & Rubio, too, is competing for the wing-nuttiest. If you squint, you can still see a path for Jeb!, where Trump, Cruz & Rubio duke it out for the crazies, Christie stays in New Jersey & the underfunded Kasich fades. Of course, there's always Carly! Oh, I forgot Ole Doc.

Andrew Ryan of the Boston Globe: "Senator Marco Rubio appeared to be heading for a distant fifth-place finish Tuesday in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, a stinging disappointment for a candidate who brimmed with momentum after his strong finish in Iowa.... 'I'm disappointed,' Rubio told supporters at his primary night rally. 'It's on me. I [did] not do well on Saturday night, so listen to this: That will never happen again.' Rubio added, 'We will win this election. Because if we do not win this election, we may lose our country.'" CW: So here's Marco once again portraying himself as the one-and-only savior despite his noxious remark that "There's only one savior and it's not me. It's Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins.'" We live on a pretty big piece of geography to get lost, but if HarpenCollins can lose Israel, I suppose anything is possible. ...

... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Marco Rubio accepted the blame for his disappointing fifth-place finish in New Hampshire but also pointed to another culprit: the media. 'What happened is obviously Saturday night the debate went the way it went, and then just the media coverage over the last 72 hours was very negative about it and so forth,' Rubio said Wednesday on 'Fox & Friends.'" ...

... CW: Dana Milbank has another amusing anecdote about Marco that slipped my notice: "The reviews [of Rubio's debate performance] were savage, and then, on Monday night, RubioBot malfunctioned again. 'Janette and I are raising our four children in the 21st century, and we know how hard it's become to instill our values in our kids instead of the values they try to ram down our throats,' he told supporters, then added: 'In the 21st century, it's becoming harder than ever to instill in your children the values they teach in our homes and in our church instead of the values that they try to ram down our throats.'... Had Rubio received scrutiny earlier, voters might have been able to find a candidate who didn't wilt in the spotlight. But Iowa and New Hampshire didn't serve their functions this time. Trump got in the way."

Clare Foran of the Atlantic: Chris "Christie won't even finish in the top five. An as-yet-incomplete vote tally shows him trailing Trump, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio. Speaking to supporters Tuesday evening, Christie announced that he'll go home to New Jersey where he'll wait to see how the final vote shakes out before making a decision about what comes next. He said he should be ready to make that decision tomorrow, and it sounds very likely that he may soon drop out of the 2016 race." CW: But thanks, Gov. Chrisco, for exposing MarcoBot, even if you did copy President Josiah Bartlett. ...

... Claude Brodesser-Akner of NJ.com: "Gov. Chris Christie is still waiting to exhale, but Republican experts are saying the New Jersey governor is all but certain to end his presidential campaign in New Jersey sometime Wednesday."

Josh Voorhees of Slate: Ohio Gov. John "Kasich’s surprise [second-place] showing actually turns the GOP's Trump-themed headache into a migraine."

Paul Krugman (Feb. 8): "... on economic policy -- which sort of matters -- Kasich is terrible, arguably worse than the rest of the GOP field. It's not just his balanced-budget fetishism, which would be disastrous in an economic crisis. He’s also a hard-money man.... He is viscerally opposed to monetary as well as fiscal stimulus in the face of high unemployment. So no, Kasich isn't sensible. He's just off the wall in ways that differ in some ways from the GOP mainstream. If he'd been president in 2009-10, we'd have had a full replay of the Great Depression."

At 8:00 pm ET, the New York Times has already called the New Hampshire primaries, declaring Bernie Sanders the winner on the Democratic side & Donald Trump the winner of the GOP race. (Front page.) CW: Not sure who made the projections; it's usually the AP. ...

... Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont rocked the American political establishment on Tuesday night, harnessing working-class fury to surge to commanding victories in a New Hampshire primary that drew energetic turnout across the state."

... Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders and billionaire Donald Trump have been projected as the winners of the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries in New Hampshire -- a remarkable victory for two outsiders who tapped into voter anger at the two parties' establishments, and each promised massive government actions to provide working people with an economic boost." CW: Really? Bernie Sanders is just like Donald Trump? Um, exactly what "massive government actions" has Trump promised? Oh, maybe Balz & Co. are referring to Trump's tax plan, which like all the other GOP tax plans, would make the rich richer & the government poorer. ...

... BUT Fox "News" had the results before noon! Nolan McCaskill & Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday -- according to a premature Fox News report. Citing every precinct reporting, Fox News' website accidentally published election results declaring Trump the winner with 28 percent support and 14 delegates."

The New York Times' primary results page is here. On the Republican side with 37 votes cast (yep, 37), there's a three-way tie on the Republican side: 9 votes each for Cruz, Trump & Kasich. Sanders leads Clinton 17-9, with 28 votes counted.

The New York Times' liveblog is here. Even before the polls close, it has some interesting tidbits: Ben Carson felt he had to telegraph his intention to stay in the race, Bernie couldn't find his car in downtown Concord, Hillary doesn't know what "went viral" means (suggesting to me she doesn't read the news; she has it read to her), & Donald Trump says (3:21 pm) he won't be calling people pussies when he's president: ("On 'Fox and Friends,' Mr. Trump argued again that he was not to blame for the use of the expletive..., which a woman in the crowd called out and Mr. Trump repeated. 'It was like a retweet,' Mr. Trump ... said. 'I would never say a word like that.'"

Eric Levitz of New York: "... if Sanders wins by a margin of 55 to 45 percent, Hillary Clinton will walk away with an even share of New Hampshire's delegates. Since our nation was founded on the principle of 'no taxation without an insanely convoluted process of electing representation,' as long as Clinton gets above 43.8 percent of the vote, she's entitled to half the state's delegates."

At the end of yesterday's Comments thread, contributor Elizabeth has a great first-hand report on her New Hampshire polling place. Her report jibes with the New York Times' banner headline (at 6:45 pm ET): "Voter turnout is said to be strong as polls near close." Most polls close at 7 pm ET.

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon: "There is an immense ideological gulf at the heart of the Democratic electorate that this campaign has exposed, and it cannot be easily papered over, no matter who wins."

Charles Pierce: "One thing about the Clinton team: because they've been the object of sophisticated (and well-financed) ratfcking for over 25 years, they've developed a real talent for opposition research their own selves." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Half a Dream." Charles Blow (Feb. 8): "... possibly the most damaging of Clinton's attributes is, ironically, her practicality. As one person commented to me on social media: Clinton is running an I-Have-Half-A-Dream campaign. That simply doesn't inspire young people brimming with the biggest of dreams. Clinton's message says: Aim lower, think smaller, move slower. It says, I have more modest ambitions, but they are more realistic. As Clinton put it Thursday in a swipe at Sanders, 'I'm not making promises that I cannot keep.' But the pragmatic progressive line is not going to help her chip away at Sanders's support among the young. That support is hardening into hipness." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "During the 2000 presidential campaign, one of the mantras of then-Gov. George W. Bush's campaign was that he would 'restore honor and dignity' to the White House. That line was always met with a roar of approval from people appalled by the White House indiscretions of President Clinton.... [The Republican] party has gone from craving honor and dignity to demanding bread and circuses. And Trump gives the faithful exactly what they want, no matter how vile."

McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "... to those who have known him longest, [Marco] Rubio's flustered performance Saturday night fit perfectly with an all-too-familiar strain of his personality, one that his handlers and image-makers have labored for years to keep out of public view. Though generally seen as cool-headed and quick on his feet, Rubio is known to friends, allies, and advisers for a kind of incurable anxiousness -- and an occasional propensity to panic in moments of crisis, both real and imagined." CW: Panic under pressure: an excellent qualification for a job that requires responses to multiple crises every day.

Tuesday's Biggest Winners -- Karl & the Supremes. Ken Vogel of Politico: "The Internal Revenue Service ― in a move signaling a lack of appetite for policing big-money campaign spending ― granted tax exempt status to a Karl Rove-conceived non-profit group that pioneered secret money-funded attack ads. The group..., Crossroads GPS..., has come to epitomize the new types of big-money spending made possible by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision. Elections watchdogs for years have accused it of violating tax and election laws by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads attacking Democratic candidates and boosting Republican ones ― all while failing to disclose its donors' identities or registering as a political committee with the Federal Election Commission."

Other News

** Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked implementation of President Obama's ambitious proposal to limit carbon emissions and reduce global warming while the plan is challenged. The court granted a stay request from more than two dozen states, utilities and coal miners who said the Environmental Protection Agency was overstepping its powers. The court's decision does not address the merits of the challenge, but indicates justices think the states have raised serious questions.... The court's four liberal justices objected to the decision...." ...

... Jonathan Chait on the implications: "Democrats need to hold on to the White House or literally risk planetary disaster." CW: Gives new meaning to Kate Madison's call to "Remember the Supremes!"

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday sent his final annual budget proposal to a hostile Republican-led Congress, seeking $19 billion for a broad new cybersecurity initiative and rejecting the lame-duck label as he declared that his plan 'is about looking forward.' The budget for fiscal year 2017, which starts Oct. 1, would top $4 trillion, although only about one-quarter of that is the so-called discretionary spending for domestic and military programs that the president and Congress dicker over each year. The rest is for mandatory spending, chiefly interest on the federal debt and the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits that are expanding as the population ages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "At the center of the final budget of President Obama's term is a concession that the major macroeconomic trends of the past two generations -- particularly the loss of benefits that once went with formal employment relationships -- are largely irreversible. In laying out proposals from improving access to 401(k) plans to supplementing the incomes of workers who accept lower wages after losing jobs, the president laid out a clear, if limited, view of government's role in the labor market. Inside the budget is a detailed agenda to ease the anxieties of workers weighed down by job insecurity and income volatility." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The release of President Obama's eighth and final budget on Tuesday has forced into the open the seething tensions that never really went away after a spending agreement was reached last year, in part to ease [Paul] Ryan's transition into the speaker's suite. That deal set spending until the end of October of this year, at levels that the president adhered to and Senate Republicans hope to make stick. But a core group of House Republicans who gave Mr. Ryan a pass back then now say they want to toss those numbers out like so much flotsam and pass their own budget with far tighter spending restrictions."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Ted Cruz blocked the Senate from confirming State Department nominees for the third time in the past week, even though the Texas Republican is campaigning in New Hampshire. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tried on Monday evening to get unanimous consent to confirm Samuel Heins to be ambassador to Norway and Azita Raji to be ambassador to Sweden. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, objected, and said he was doing so on behalf of Cruz, who has spent much of the last week campaigning in New Hampshire...."

... Hurts the Bottom Line. Daniel Victor New York Times: "Having women in the highest corporate offices is correlated with increased profitability, according to a new study of nearly 22,000 publicly traded companies in 91 countries. The study, released Monday by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a nonprofit group based in Washington, and EY, the audit firm formerly known as Ernst & Young, found that despite the apparent economic benefits, many corporations are lacking in gender diversity. Almost 60 percent of the companies reviewed had no female board members, and more than 50 percent had no female executives. Just under 5 percent had a female chief executive."

David Jolly of the New York Times: "The United States Army will deploy hundreds of soldiers to the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where government forces have been pushed to the brink by Taliban militants, a military spokesman said Tuesday.It will be the largest deployment of American troops outside major bases in Afghanistan since the end of the NATO combat mission in 2014."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Adrienne Varkiani of Think Progress: "A statement released Tuesday by Doctors Without Borders confirms that a hospital in the Dara'a Governorate in Syria was hit by an airstrike on February 5. The airstrike on the hospital killed three people and wounded an additional six, according to the statement. The Talas hospital, which is close to the Jordanian border, is still partially damaged. It is the 13th health care facility to be attacked in Syria this year alone, according to Doctors Without Borders, which has documented such attacks in the past."

The Commentariat -- February 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday sent his final annual budget proposal to a hostile Republican-led Congress, seeking $19 billion for a broad new cybersecurity initiative and rejecting the lame-duck label as he declared that his plan 'is about looking forward.' The budget for fiscal year 2017, which starts Oct. 1, would top $4 trillion, although only about one-quarter of that is the so-called discretionary spending for domestic and military programs that the president and Congress dicker over each year. The rest is for mandatory spending, chiefly interest on the federal debt and the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits that are expanding as the population ages."

Charles Pierce: "One thing about the Clinton team: because they've been the object of sophisticated (and well-financed) ratfcking for over 25 years, they've developed a real talent for opposition research their own selves." ...

... "Half a Dream." Charles Blow (Feb. 8): "... possibly the most damaging of Clinton's attributes is, ironically, her practicality. As one person commented to me on social media: Clinton is running an I-Have-Half-A-Dream campaign. That simply doesn't inspire young people brimming with the biggest of dreams. Clinton's message says: Aim lower, think smaller, move slower. It says, I have more modest ambitions, but they are more realistic. As Clinton put it Thursday in a swipe at Sanders, 'I'm not making promises that I cannot keep.' But the pragmatic progressive line is not going to help her chip away at Sanders's support among the young. That support is hardening into hipness."

*****

Presidential Race

CW: Might be the first time I've seen a guy wearing jeans & a bowtie. I'm kinda liking the look. That's Tom Tillotson, the "moderator" of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Photo via the Washington Post.It's a lovely, sunny morning in South Central New Hampshire, the temps are in the high teens & some schools are closed for election day. Get out & vote, people. ...

... Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: "The first votes were cast Tuesday in New Hampshire following a final campaign blitz as candidates crisscrossed the state and leveled blistering attacks on rivals in a primary that appeared likely to set the tone for the wild nominating races ahead." ...

... Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks have a conversation about the New Hampshire primaries. Collins: "I was particularly offended by Marco Rubio's performance in Iowa. (That's a surprise, since I would have sworn nobody could top Ted Cruz.) He kept falling back on 'Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins.'... Marco Rubio instantly attacked the president [after Obama visited a Baltimore mosque] for 'pitting people against each other.' Now Marco Rubio is an all-purpose twit, but this was one of his worst moments. The guy who loves to wave his specific faith in the public's face. And he's shocked, shocked when the president demonstrates tolerance and compassion for an embattled religion."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "With a snowstorm bearing down on [New Hampshire] and threatening to derail the final crush of campaign events on Monday, Republicans jockeyed for position in the hope of outperforming recent polls that suggest that Donald J. Trump is the favorite to win the state, with Senator Marco Rubio and a glut of establishment candidates locked in a battle for second place.... Hillary Clinton, speaking [Monday] morning to WBZ radio, a Boston station that reaches the voter-rich cities and counties of southern New Hampshire, said she was confident that her aides and volunteers were ready to help voters reach the polls on Tuesday no matter how bad the weather."

Contra Krugman & others, Citizens for Tax Justice, a progressive think tank, suggests Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan would be good for all but the wealthy: "A new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' recently released 'Medicare for All' tax plan finds that Sanders' health-related taxes would raise an estimated $13 trillion over 10 years. The analysis also finds that the plan would raise average after-tax incomes for all but the top income groups." CW: As Krugman has argued, the cost savings for average Americans wouldn't necessarily make Sanders' Medicare for All a Panacea for All: unless it is incredibly well-structured & -managed (think V.A. here), there would be tradeoffs. ...

... Dana Milbank: "Bernie Sanders is no revolutionary." CW: Yeah, & I noticed Bernie combed his hair for the last debate (or maybe had the assistance of a hairdresser!). What a sell-out. ...

... Paul Waldman, in the American Prospect, has a much better take on Sanders' & Clinton's relationships with "the establishment." Yes, Clinton is a member in high standing, but a President Sanders would certainly work closely with the Democratic "establishment," most of whom share his goals, if not his optimism that those goals might be achievable. Neither President Bernie nor President Hillary would be able to "change Washington" in any meaningful way.

It's Always the Staff's Fault. Glenn Thrush & Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied with their campaign's messaging and digital operations they are considering staffing and strategy changes after what's expected to be a loss in Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, according to a half-dozen people with direct knowledge of the situation. The Clintons -- stung by her narrow victory in Iowa -- had been planning to reassess staffing at the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters after the first four primaries, but the Clintons have become increasingly caustic in their criticism of aides and demanded the reassessment sooner, a source told Politico."

... On Rachel Maddow's show, Hillary responds to the Politico story:

I have no idea what they're talking about or who they are talking to. We're going to take stock but it's going to be the campaign that I've got. I'm very confident in the people that I have. I'm very committed to them; they're committed to doing the best we can.... We're moving into a different phase of the campaign. We're moving into a more diverse electorate.... So, of course it would be malpractice not to say, 'OK, what worked? What can we do better? What do we have to do new and different that we have to pull out?' ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "You can take that one of two ways: 1) of course, they're going to continually assess how they're doing and make adjustments if necessary; or 2) holy cow they're freaking out and everyone will get fired!" ...

     ... Jennifer Shutt of Politico: "David Axelrod took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Hillary Clinton's political strategy in New Hampshire, following news that her campaign is considering shaking up its staffing after an expected loss there. 'When the exact same problems crop up in separate campaigns, with different staff, at what point do the principals say, "Hey, maybe it's US?",' the former top aide to President Barack Obama tweeted." ...

... Pete Williams of NBC News: "In a letter disclosed Monday in a federal court filing, the FBI confirms one of the world's worst-kept secrets: It is looking into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server." ...

... Hillary, Not Necessarily "Cozy" with Wall Street. Kevin Drum: "I think it's safe to say that Clinton has hardly been a scourge of the banking industry. Until recently, her main interests were elsewhere. But if there's a strong case to be made for 'coziness,' I've failed to find it." ...

... BUT. Ben White of Politico: "When Hillary Clinton spoke to Goldman Sachs executives and technology titans at a summit in Arizona in October of 2013, she spoke glowingly of the work the bank was doing raising capital and helping create jobs, according to people who saw her remarks. Clinton, who received $225,000 for her appearance, praised the diversity of Goldman's workforce and the prominent roles played by women at the blue-chip investment bank and the tech firms present at the event. She spent no time criticizing Goldman or Wall Street more broadly for its role in the 2008 financial crisis. 'It was pretty glowing about us,' one person who watched the event said. 'It's so far from what she sounds like as a candidate now. It was like a rah-rah speech. She sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director.'... Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon dismissed the recollections a[s] 'pure trolling,' while the Clinton campaign declined to comment further on calls that she release the transcripts of the three paid speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs, for which she earned a total of $675,000." ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: Hillary "Clinton and her allies are making increasingly overt -- and clumsy -- appeals to feminist solidarity, as she struggles in her Democratic presidential primary battle against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The reactions ... suggest that it could be backfiring, at least in New Hampshire, a state proud of its tradition of electing women.... The gender question was inflamed over the weekend, after [Gloria] Steinem and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, both supporters of Hillary Clinton, made statements upbraiding women who are not.... Unlike in Iowa, where Clinton won women by 11 percentage points, she is struggling for their votes [in New Hampshire]." ...

... Roger Simon of Politico: "In Iowa, though Hillary won the women's vote overall, she lost women ages 30-44 to Sanders by a hefty 21 percentage points and women ages 17-29 by a stunning 70 percentage points.... Clearly, the Clinton campaign must now do something. So in order to win over women ages 17-29, it has brought out [Madeleine] Albright, age 78, and Gloria Steinem, age 81, as surrogates. And you can see why campaign consultants get the big bucks. The strategy? Shame women into voting for Clinton." ...

... Amanda Marcotte in Salon: "While it's always tempting to reach for cheap explanations when other women disagree, feminists need to resist the hags-vs-bimbos narrative with all our might.... Perhaps seeing a woman out there, every day, doing the hard work of being the President of the United States could go a long way towards showing that women really are more than these reductive stereotypes, that they are full human beings with the same complex, nuanced concerns that men are assumed to have without question." ...

     ... CW: Yup. Looked how well this worked out for black people. Finally racism is over. Probably Donald Trump will take today off from the campaign trail so he call attend a black history seminar & work on his proposed legislation for slavery reparations. Kum. Bye. Yaaaaaah!

CW: Here's one thing you can count on: every vote in the GOP primaries will be a vote against climate change abatement. Jeremy Schulman of Mother Jones on the Republican presidential candidates' opposition to climate science. Includes data about New Hampshire voters' views.

Elevating a Conversation about Torture. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump echoed a supporter during a rally on the eve of the New Hampshire primary Monday night who called his Republican presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) a 'pussy.' Trump was touting his hardline stance against terrorists from the Middle East when he mentioned Cruz's response during the debate Saturday on the use of waterboarding. 'Honestly I thought he'd say, "absolutely" -- and he didn't,' Trump said.... 'She just said a terrible thing,' Trump said, stopping his own remarks at the arena in Manchester and pointing out a woman in the audience, beckoning her to raise her voice. 'You know what she said? Shout it out, 'cause I don't want to,' Trump continued. 'OK, you're not allowed to say -- and I never expect to hear that from you again -- she said ... he's a pussy.'" ...

     ... CW: See, if you even hint at exercising caution before torturing prisoners, you're a pussy. Cruz, BTW, is not opposed to waterboarding; he says it does not meet the legal definition of torture, but that h'd use it sparingly. During the last GOP debate, Trump said, 'I'd bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.'"

Could you let go of my breast, please? -- WCBS reporter Marcia Kramer, to a Secret Service agent protecting Donald Trump, at a Manchester, New Hampshire, hotel

... Bad News, Good News. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "'I can look at their faces and say, "Look, you can't come here,'" [Donald] Trump said after 30 year-old Darren Ornitz of Greenwich, Connecticut, asked the billionaire businessman -- who owns a home there -- whether he would be willing to personally bar Syrian children from resettling there." But he said it nicely. Because "I have a bigger heart than anybody in this room."

Shakezula (how I wish professional pundits would use their real names!) of LG&M: "A gay voter took Rubio to task for being a homophobic weasel.... 'A middle-age gay man confronted Senator Marco Rubio here on Monday over his opposition to same-sex marriage, pointedly asking, "Why do you want to put me back in the closet?" "I don't," Mr. Rubio replied. "You can live any way you want."' Provided that way you want to live doesn't involve the state recognizing your marriage, giving you the same benefits as opposite sex couples or you know ... being treated like a human being, whaddya complaining about?" BTW, Marco approached the voter in a diner; the guy didn't accost him. ... Also, too, at the same diner, Marco told a 92-year-old woman that Sen. Lindsey Graham (a "bachelor"!) isn't gay. Because that would be too horrible to contemplate. ...

... Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Oooh! Marco Rubio & MSNBC host Joe Scarborough are having a feud! "In an election season marked by animosity, egos and insults, this feud ... follows two men from the swamps of Florida politics to a presidential cycle in which Mr. Rubio, 44, has emerged as a leading candidate, and Mr. Scarborough, 52, as one of his fiercest critics.... In an interview Saturday, Mr. Scarborough could not hide his disapproval of Mr. Rubio, describing him as 'programmed' and 'risk averse.' And after Mr. Rubio's debate performance on Saturday appeared to validate his critique, Mr. Scarborough took something of a victory lap. 'I've been criticized for saying Marco looks too robotic, too prepackaged, and too young,' he wrote in a text message. 'But everything I've said alone for months is now being repeated this morning by everyone else in the political world. My critiques weren't personal: they were right.'"

Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "What's missing from much of the discussion [about Marco Rubio] is that Rubio is embracing some of the most lunatic ideas on the right -- and he's managing to do so without most in the media hearing the dog whistle.... [Rubio's] real message goes ... into the dark heart of the conspiracy theories and twisted loathing of Obama that has persisted on the right for the last seven years.... And there's no escaping the racial undertones of this argument, because that's where so many on the right find the explanation for Obama's supposed hunger to bring woe and misery down upon us.... In some of the debates it has become almost comical, as every question Rubio gets on any subject is answered with a diatribe about Obama's malevolent schemes.... Rubio was going to be the candidate of the future, yet he's presenting himself as the candidate who is as disturbed, as unsettled, and as angry as you are that the past is slipping away." ...

Tom LoBianco & Ashley Killough of CNN: "Despite being backed by the monumental Right to Rise super PAC, Jeb Bush said Monday he would 'eliminate' the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for super PACs." CW: Oh, wow. Jeb! is practically a librul. Oh, wait, read on: "'If I could do it all again I'd eliminate the Supreme Court ruling' Citizens United, Bush told CNN's Dana Bash. 'This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can't be held accountable for the spending of the super PAC that's their affiliate.'" So, um, the problem with Citizens United is that it doesn't give the politicians enough control over their big-bucks supporters.

Contributors today persuaded me to read David Brooks' column: President "Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I'm beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him."

Senate Race

Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times: "Republican Senate candidate Rocky Chavez, an Oceanside assemblyman and former Marine colonel, abruptly dropped out of the race Monday evening just as the first GOP debate was about to begin.... He said it was crucial for a GOP candidate to survive the June 7 primary, and he insinuated that the top three Republicans in the race could splinter their party's vote and allow Democratic hopefuls Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana to have the ballot to themselves in November. '... I think the best role I can fill for the Republican Party and moving the agenda forward ... is to run for my Assembly seat, since I'm not going to be running for the United States Senate,' Chavez said. With that, Chavez walked off the debate stage and out of the studio. Under California's top-two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary, regardless of party, will face off in the general election."

Other News

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama sends Congress his eighth and last annual budget proposal on Tuesday, a lame-duck executive's accounting of national priorities that Republican leaders have branded sight unseen: dead before arrival.... Breaking with a 41-year-old tradition, the Republican chairmen of the House [Tom Price (Ga.)] and Senate [Mike Enzi (Wy.)] budget committees announced that they would not even give the president's budget director, Shaun Donovan, the usual hearings in their panels this week.... But some new ideas that the administration previewed in recent weeks, including on cancer research, opioid abuse and military projects, could have more life than Republicans care to admit." CW: This is Joe Wilson's "You lie" on steroids. It's premeditated & institutional. This isn't John Boehner refusing to go to state dinners; it's top members of Congress refusing to perform the fundamentals of the people's business because the president comes from the other party is black.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "In the latest cyberattack targeting the federal government, an intruder gained access to information for thousands of employees at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, but officials said Monday that there was no indication that sensitive information had been stolen."

Ekow Yankah in a New York Times op-ed: "White heroin addicts get overdose treatment, rehabilitation and reincorporation, a system that will be there for them again and again and again. Black drug users got jail cells and 'Just Say No.'" CW: The contrast is stark, but Yankah has unwittingly written into his essay one reason for the different responses that transcends racism: because of the economic disparity between black & white, crack use led to violent crime in way that, as far as I know, today's heroin epidemic has not. People of every race had more reason to fear black users than white.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Nigel Duara of the Los Angeles Times: Reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's highest-circulation newspaper, are beginning to feel the heavy hand of its new owner, casino magnate & serious winger Sheldon Adelson.

Beyond the Beltway

Rob Kuznia of the Washington Post: "In California, once a national innovator in draconian policies to get tough on crime, voters and lawmakers are now innovating in the opposite direction, adopting laws that have released tens of thousands of inmates and are preventing even more from going to prison in the first place. The most famous is a landmark ballot measure called Proposition 47, which in 2014 made California the first state in the nation to make possession of any drug -- including cocaine and heroin -- a misdemeanor. More astonishing is the state's decision to show leniency toward violent offenders...." ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Officials say that Washington [state] accidentally released as many as 3,200 prisoners earlier than scheduled over a period of more than a decade.... The early releases[, first caused by a coding error,] date as far back as 2002, but even though the Department of Corrections learned about the issue years ago, a fix wasn't made and the public wasn't notified until recent weeks.... according to corrections officials, dozens of the inmates released early in recent years committed crimes while they were out.... Questions remain about the sheer number of inmates involved, the length of time this error continued and why it kept happening long after authorities were alerted."

Oregonian: Militants are still holed up in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Here's a roundup of the latest developments.

News Lede

New York Times: "Artur Fischer, a German inventor who registered more than 1,100 patents, including the first synchronized camera flash and an anchor that millions of do-it-yourselfers use to secure screws into walls, died on Jan. 27 at his home in Waldachtal, in southwestern Germany. He was 96."

The Commentariat -- February 8, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Could you let go of my breast, please? -- WCBS reporter Marcia Kramer, to a Secret Service agent protecting Donald Trump, at a Manchester, New Hampshire, hotel

Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Oooh! Marco Rubio & MSNBC host Joe Scarborough are having a feud! "In an election season marked by animosity, egos and insults, this feud ... follows two men from the swamps of Florida politics to a presidential cycle in which Mr. Rubio, 44, has emerged as a leading candidate, and Mr. Scarborough, 52, as one of his fiercest critics.... In an interview Saturday, Mr. Scarborough could not hide his disapproval of Mr. Rubio, describing him as 'programmed' and 'risk averse.' And after Mr. Rubio's debate performance on Saturday appeared to validate his critique, Mr. Scarborough took something of a victory lap. 'I've been criticized for saying Marco looks too robotic, too prepackaged, and too young,' he wrote in a text message. 'But everything I've said alone for months is now being repeated this morning by everyone else in the political world. My critiques weren't personal: they were right.'"

*****

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Bill Clinton =uncorked an extended attack on Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, harshly criticizing Mr. Sanders and his supporters for what he described as inaccurate and 'sexist' attacks on Hillary Clinton.... What began as a testimonial to Mrs. Clinton's leadership and a statesmanlike lecture on her approach to issues evolved into an angrier recitation of grievances against Mr. Sanders and his fervent supporters." ...

     ... Annie Karni of Politico has more on Bill Clinton's attack on Sanders. ...

     ... Greg Sargent: "... one has to hope this latest episode is not a harbinger of more to come along the lines of what we saw in 2008. Hillary and her campaign have worked hard to avoid being tagged as the establishment candidate who believes she's entitled to a coronation.... But if the goal is to dispel that narrative, it won't be helpful to have an ex-president who also happens to be your husband angrily ridiculing and belittling the appeal of a spirited challenger who has engaged millions of young voters into the political process in a way you haven't." ...

... Steve Friess of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton made a quick detour Sunday afternoon from the campaign trail in New Hampshire to express her outrage directly to the residents of ... [Flint, Michigan,] over the scandal that poisoned their municipal water supply.... She takes credit for goading the Republican governor to accept federal help...." ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "The Democratic National Committee and host CNN announced on Sunday that the March 6 Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be held in Flint, Michigan. The choice is meant to draw attention to the plight of the city...."

... Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The feminist writer Gloria Steinem apologized on Sunday for remarks about young women who support Bernie Sanders, not long after Hillary Clinton defended Madeleine Albright over her comment that there is 'a special place in hell' for women who do not support Clinton. Steinem posted her apology to Facebook, writing that she 'misspoke' on Friday when ... [she] said women 'get more activist as they grow older. And when you're younger, you think: "Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie."'... 'Madeline has been saying this for many, many years,' Clinton said [on "Meet the Press" Sunday]. 'She believes it firmly, in part because she knows what a struggle it has been, and she understands the struggle is not over.'" ...

... Greg Grandin of the Nation on Hillary Clinton's long, friendly relationship with Henry Kissinger, the architect of policies that led to "3, maybe 4 million deaths." One thing to bear in mind is that diplomats, including secretaries of state, are obliged to say nice thing about people they hold in contempt. Look at Grandin's piece for evidence of a continuation of Kissinger's policies & philosophy, not for the nice things Clinton & Kissinger have said to & about one another.

Andy Borowitz: "Scandal rocked Bernie Sanders's Presidential campaign on Friday as the candidate was forced to admit that he received free checking from several big banks."

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The Iowa Democratic Party on Sunday updated the results of the Iowa caucuses after discovering discrepancies in the tallies at five precincts, but the final outcome remains unchanged.... Hillary Clinton still places first in the caucuses with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, the party said in a statement. Primary rival Bernie Sanders comes in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent. The total net change gives Sanders an additional 0.1053 state delegate equivalents and strips Clinton of 0.122 state delegate equivalents. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who dropped out of the race after the caucuses, also received an additional 0.0167 state equivalent delegates."

CW: Somewhere in this great land, possibly in New Hampshire corner of it, the Marco puppetmaster, whoever he may be, is kicking himself for telling Marco, "Whatever happens in the debate, stay on message." ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Marco Rubio's "GOP rivals argued Sunday that the debate undercut the central case for Rubio's candidacy -- that his political agility and youthful, charismatic persona make him best positioned to challenge the Democratic nominee. And they claimed a renewed -- and seemingly justifiable -- rationale to soldier on past New Hampshire, which would mean that the mainstream Republican vote would probably continue to splinter among several candidates."

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Marco Rubio on Sunday defended his performance in Saturday night's Republican presidential debate, in which he was widely panned for coming off as scripted in a tense exchange with Chris Christie.... 'Actually, I would pay them to keep running that clip, because that's what I believe passionately,' Rubio said, reiterating once more his point about Obama deliberately harming the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... There's No There There There. CW: Here's what Marco Marco Marco doesn't get or is pretending he doesn't get): if your schtick is to accuse the POTUS of subversive activity or whatever, then you have to find more than one way to say it; you have do say he did this & he wants to do that. You have to have some facts or at least some made-up crap to back up your assertion. All MMM has is a couple of canned applause lines asserting that President Obama is a malevolent force. A not-too-bright child can handle that (and be just as cute spouting his lines). There's no evidence that Marco even knows, beyond his prepared material, what awful things Obama is supposed to have done. ...

... "Software Glitch." Paul Krugman: "While Mr. Rubio did indeed make a fool of himself on Saturday, he wasn't the only person on that stage spouting canned talking points that are divorced from reality. They all were, even if the other candidates managed to avoid repeating themselves word for word.... The truth is that the whole G.O.P. seems stuck in a time loop, saying and doing the same things over and over. And unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie 'Groundhog Day,' Republicans show no sign of learning anything from experience.... The whole G.O.P. seems stuck in a time loop, saying and doing the same things over and over. And unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie 'Groundhog Day,' Republicans show no sign of learning anything from experience." ...

     ... CW: While he's at it, Krugman manages to praise Hillary & get in a dig at Bernie. ...

... Kevin Drum thinks Marco Marco Marco's debate performance may have ended his career. CW: He sure got a long way on platitudes & attacking absent opponents. ...

... "... Maybe His Ventriloquist Was Stuttering." Charles Pierce: "The general hilarity has tended to obscure what Rubio actually was saying. (And saying, and saying, and saying...) He was accusing the president of monumental and deliberate acts of subversion in office. This is a stunning charge, especially from a one-term pipsqueak whose memory banks jam whenever he steps an inch beyond his actual depth." CW: Haven't read that point elsewhere, & it is well-taken. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: One thing Marco Marco Marco reminds us of is, if not the low intelligence quotient of our billionaire class, then the low IQ that class of greedy bastards is willing to put into the White House to endanger all Americans & everybody else who gets in our way. This isn't the first time we've been provided a stark reminder that many a billionaire is a numbskull or worse -- for some reason the 2000 election comes to mind -- but when the billionaire who has been leading the GOP presidential race has been exposed as a featherweight fascist, the favored candidate of the uber-rich has proved to be a Doofus! & big money geniuses' second runner-up is poor Johnny Johnny Johnny One-Note, it's impossible not to notice that many of those billionaires & multi-millionaires need assistants to help them put their pants on one leg at a time. ...

... AND, Once Again, the GOP Establishment Bets on a Lame Horse. Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "At Saturday night's debate, Republicans wanted Marco Rubio to soar and Donald Trump to stumble. The opposite happened."

The Apogee of the Bully. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: Chris "Christie was gleeful on Sunday. In the morning, he appeared on CNN's 'State of the Union' from Manchester, New Hampshire. He bumped into Hillary Clinton in the green room. They shook hands and she congratulated him on his debate performance. 'I'll see you in the fall,' Christie told her as she departed.... During a swing around [New Hampshire], Christie was throwing punches in every direction. During his ninety-minute event in Hampton, he ridiculed Donald Trump, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio." ...

I think that the anointment [of Rubio] is now over, so that changes the entire race.... I am ready to roll right into South Carolina. -- Chris Christie, yesterday ...

... Chrisco Made the Snowplows Run on Time. Steve M.: "But what was Christie saying here? He was saying that being required to deal with strictly domestic problems makes him more qualified to be president that a U.S. senator, even though senators deal with foreign as well as domestic policy. He was saying that getting the streets plowed is all the job experience a potential president needs." CW: Read the whole post. I haven't seen this point made elsewhere, either. But I do think Steve is right to compare Christie's "qualification" for POTUS with Scott Walker's (remember him?) well-covered gaffe in which he claimed he could handle ISIS terrorists because he had "taken on 100,000 protesters" (mostly schoolteachers!). (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... E. J. Dionne has quite a different take: "It's not clear what Christie did for his own candidacy, but he performed a service by reminding his party that running a government is serious work and ought to be respected. That this was revelatory shows how far contemporary conservatism has strayed from the essential tasks of politics."

Bradford Richardson: "Following attacks from primary rival Jeb Bush about his past use of eminent domain..., Donald Trump on Sunday accused the Bush family of using the practice to build a baseball stadium in Texas. 'Eminent domain is a very important thing,' Trump said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'Jeb Bush doesn't understand what it means, and if you look into the Bush family -- I found this five minutes ago -- they used eminent domain for the stadium in Texas, where they own, I guess, a piece of the Texas Rangers.'" ...

... CW: Here's a little history on that, from Dan McGraw of Reason (May 2005): "

One of the most famous eminent domain cases involved ... baseball's Texas Rangers, at the time owned by George W. Bush. [The Rangers] convinced local voters to approve a 1991 tax increase that helped build a new $191 million stadium. The city of Arlington used eminent domain to acquire the property from hundreds of private owners, claiming that the stadium was a 'public use.'.... Several property owners were lowballed, and court decisions increased their take. (The city, not the team, was responsible for the larger payments. The compensation for one 13-acre plot was increased from $877,000 to $5 million, for example.)

The stadium clearly benefited the Rangers' owners more than anyone else: Bush turned his initial $600,000 investment into $15 million when the team was sold in 1999. But it has produced little of the promised economic benefit to Arlington, and there has never been a real 'public use' factor aside from baseball fans' paying their money to see games.

Katie Glueck of Politico: "Ted Cruz on Sunday said he opposes requiring women to register for a potential draft, breaking with Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, all of whom indicated support for opening up the Selective Service to women during Saturday night's debate." ...

... the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn't make any sense at all. -- Ted Cruz, on forcing women, specifically his daughters, to register for a draft

CW Translation: U.S. soldiers are fat psychopaths who routinely kill American women.

CW: If you suspect a racist subtext here, I'm with you.

Other News & Opinion

AP: "President Barack Obama is asking Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to help fight the Zika virus. In an announcement Monday, the White House said the money would be used to expand mosquito control programs, speed development of a vaccine, develop diagnostic tests and improve support for low-income pregnant women."

Michael Wines & John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The crisis in Flint, Mich., where as many as 8,000 children under age 6 were exposed to unsafe levels of lead after a budget-cutting decision to switch drinking-water sources, may be the most serious contamination threat facing the country's water supplies. But it is hardly the only one. Unsafe levels of lead have turned up in tap water in city after city -- in Durham and Greenville, N.C., in 2006; in Columbia, S.C., in 2005; and last July in Jackson, Miss., where officials waited six months to disclose the contamination -- as well as in scores of other places in recent years."

Beyond the Beltway

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Five top officials in Crystal City, Tex., were arrested Thursday under a federal indictment accusing them of taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and helping the operator of an illegal gambling operation.... The indictment swept up the city's mayor, mayor pro tempore (who both have city council votes) and a council member, as well as the city manager, a former city council member and the alleged gambling operator, Ngoc Tri Nguyen.... A fourth person on the city council, Marco Rodriguez, was arrested last month on human smuggling charges."

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black 19-year-old and an unarmed bystander in December has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million in damages from the teenager's estate, an unusual legal approach based on a claim that the young man's actions leading up to the gunfire were 'atrocious' and have caused the officer 'extreme emotional trauma.'"