The Commentariat -- October 27, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Seething at the Export-Import Bank’s expiration, 62 Republicans voted with 184 Democrats Monday on a rarely used procedure to force a vote to reopen the bank with some modest reforms. Final passage will be Tuesday, sending the legislation to the Senate, where its outcome is unclear but where it counts the support of almost 70 of 100 senators."

*****

Boehner Cleans House. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders and the Obama administration are close to a crucial budget deal that would modestly increase domestic spending over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit. The accord would avert a potentially cataclysmic default on the government's debt and dispense with perhaps the most divisive issue in Washington just days before Speaker John A. Boehner is expected to turn over his gavel to Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. While congressional aides cautioned that the deal was far from certain, and the CW: That last of which is mighty stupid. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Update: "After five years of bitter clashes, Republican congressional leaders and President Obama on Monday night appeared to settle their last budget fight by reaching a tentative deal that would modestly increase spending over the next two years, cut some social programs, and raise the federal borrowing limit.... With Mr. Boehner's backing, the House moved with rare bipartisanship -- employing an even rarer legislative maneuver -- toward ... reauthorization of the 81-year-old Export-Import Bank, the government's lender of last resort for American exporters. The House voted, 246 to 177, to wrest a bill that would revive the bank's charter from a hostile committee chairman [-- Jeb Hensarling (RTP-Texas --] and set it up for House passage on Tuesday."

... The Washington Post story, by Kelsey Snell, is here. "House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) led the negotiations with the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Snell's updated story, reflecting the finalization of the agreement, is here. ...

... Greg Sargent says the deal is not too bad. "On Medicare and Social Security: Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, a group that strenuously opposes benefits cuts and argues for their expansion, tells me that the deal 'doesn't actually cut benefits or really hurt beneficiaries who aren't gaming the system.' Altman says the Medicare cuts are all on the provider side, which could harm beneficiaries at some point, but it's not a major concern. 'On the Medicare side, they limited their cuts to far in the future, and to providers," Altman says. ...

... CW: One tidbit I learned today: John Boehner actually knows his way around a kitchen, while his heir-apparent, Prince Paul, only pretends to. Look for the House to go totally fake under new managemement. ...

... Seung Min Kim, et al., of Politico: "The ink isn't even dry on a tentative two-year budget agreement, but conservatives in Congress are already pouncing.... Not only will the increased spending levels make for heartburn with conservatives, but many of the offsets touch on political hot buttons." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "If the deal comes to fruition, it will be a huge gift for Paul Ryan.... Ryan is likely to face much of the same conservative opposition that Boehner did, but the deal could make the Wisconsin representative's tenure less miserable.... Boehner met with House Republicans to outline the agreement on Monday night, and according to Representative John Fleming, he was confronted for going around House committees. 'I would say that we're very skeptical at this point,' Fleming said, when asked if he'll support the measure. 'He threw the committee chairmen under the bus.' Others complained that the GOP leadership made too many concessions to the White House.... Ryan was not involved in the negotiations.... Ryan has yet to comment on the deal.... Representative Raúl Labrador, a founding member of the Freedom Caucus..., [said,] 'I think it would be a wise idea for us to just move forward and let Ryan start negotiating this stuff.'... The Freedom Caucus is clearly not going to help Boehner make things easy for his successor."

Conservative Matt Lewis of the Daily Beast: "There's a lot of range between being a heartless, grandma-murdering ideologue and being an effete, squishy RINO -- but in a short period of time, Paul Ryan has run the gamut.... He would certainly be the most conservative Speaker of the House in modern history.... he would certainly be the most conservative Speaker of the House in modern history.... Once the conservative battle against the 'establishment' was about ideology; the 'Rockefeller Republicans' really were liberals. Today, the fight isn't about political philosophy. It's not about right versus left, but us versus them. Being an institutionalist (someone who doesn't want to figuratively burn everything down) is tantamount to being a liberal. Believing in prudence, experience, and wisdom once defined being a Burkean conservative; today, those values label you a RINO."

David Roberts of Vox: "The Benghazi committee is not even the worst committee in the House. I'd argue that the House science committee, under the chairmanship of Lamar Smith (R-TX), deserves that superlative for its open-ended, Orwellian attempts to intimidate some of the nation's leading scientists and scientific institutions. The science committee's modus operandi is similar to the Benghazi committee's -- sweeping, catchall investigations, with no specific allegations of wrongdoing or clear rationale, searching through private documents for out-of-context bits and pieces to leak to the press, hoping to gain short-term political advantage -- but it stands to do more lasting long-term damage."

Ryan Cooper of the Week explains -- more clearly & concisely than New York Times reporters did a few days ago -- how conservative scammers work & how their grift is turning the GOP ever-more radically right.

Jonathan Chait: Sen. Jim "Inhofe, the Environment and Public Works Committee chairperson, and Kentucky representative Ed Whitfield, the House Energy and Commerce Committee energy and power subpanel chairperson, are thinking of going to the Paris climate talks to persuade the diplomats there that the Republican party really is crazy & it really will derail any hopes of progress on climate change abatement. CW: These fellas will have little trouble convincing world leaders that they're nuts; besides, most already know.

Steve M. disagrees with Bill Daley's assertion (linked yesterday) that Sarah Palin was the canary in the coal mine of GOP dysfunction: "Maybe Palin's nomination represented a turning point -- although I don't know how can she can be regarded as much more of an ignorant simpleton than Dan Quayle or George W. Bush. I think it's more likely that what destroyed the GOP was not nominating a few simpletons, but rather a day-to-day reliance on the political equivalent of superstition."

** Missy Ryan & Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "President Obama's most senior national security advisers have recommended measures that would move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq and Syria, officials said.... The debate over the proposed steps, which would for the first time position a limited number of Special Operations forces on the ground in Syria and put U.S. advisers closer to the firefights in Iraq, comes as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter presses the military to deliver new options for greater military involvement in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan."

** Ken Dilanian of the Washington Post: "The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned. The information adds to the evidence the site was familiar to the U.S. and raises questions about whether the attack violated international law.... The attack left a mounting death toll, now up to 30 people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will make his case on Tuesday for an overhaul of the nation's sentencing laws, telling a gathering of top law enforcement officials in Chicago that putting large numbers of nonviolent drug offenders in prison is neither fair nor an effective way of combating crime, White House officials said.... White House officials said Mr. Obama would take note of the unusually high murder rate in Chicago, his hometown, by also renewing his call for gun control measures, though the president is not expected to announce any new proposals to limit gun purchases."

Ciara McCarthy & Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "FBI director James Comey conceded on Monday that he had little evidence to support his theory that a recent increase in crime was caused by heightened scrutiny of the police, as the White House appeared to distance itself from his remarks. Addressing police chiefs at a conference in Chicago, Comey said he could not be certain that the so-called 'Ferguson effect' ... had led to a retreat by officers, but said this was 'common sense'.... Barack Obama's press secretary [Josh Earnest], however, said at a White House briefing on Monday that available evidence 'does not support the notion that law enforcement officers around the country are shying away from fulfilling their responsibilities'." CW: Aw, c'mon, Josh; when shit happens, it's "common sense" to blame minority activists. ...

... New York Times Editors: "Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey -- the increasingly desperate presidential candidate who is going nowhere fast -- ...on Sunday ... accused President Obama of encouraging 'lawlessness' and violence against police officers by acknowledging that the country needed to take both police brutality and the 'Black Lives Matter' protest movement seriously. The president is absolutely right. This movement focuses on the irrefutable fact that black citizens are far more likely than whites to die at the hands of the police.... The recent remarks of James Comey ... were not as racially poisonous as Mr. Christie's, but they were no less incendiary.... His suggestion plays into the right-wing view that holding the police to constitutional standards endangers the public.... His formulation implies that for the police to do their jobs, they need to have free rein to be abusive.... Mr. Comey's speculations about alleged pressure on officers to stand down shows that he hasn't begun to grasp the nature of the problem." ...

... Steve M.: "... Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has said similar things:

With Chicago's annual murder count soaring, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is laying blame on what he sees as the chilling effects of high-profile protests against police brutality and officers' fear of cell phone videos of their actions going viral. 'Officers themselves were telling me about how the news over the last 15 months have impacted their instincts -- do they stop, or do they keep driving? When I stop here, is it going to be my career on the line?' Emanuel said this week....

... See also related links under Beyond the Beltway below.

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The region that gave birth to civilization six millennia ago could soon witness a grim milestone in the history of urban development: the first cities to experience temperatures too extreme for human survival. A scientific study released Monday predicts that parts of the Persian Gulf could see lethally hot summers by the end of the century, thanks to human-induced global warming that is already contributing to soaring temperatures around the globe. The report's authors say coastal cities from Dubai to Iran's Bandar Abbas could experience summer days that surpass the 'human habitability' limit, with heat and humidity so high that even the healthiest people could not withstand more than a few hours outdoors." CW: The irony is that oil production, which has been the economic lifeblood of the region for a century, will be the death of it in the next century.

Presidential Race

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The Republican presidential campaign has focused all along on matters of honor more than matters of policy.... The ... candidates need a more formal way of settling the issues of honor that Trump has placed at the center of GOP politics.... Duels are the ideal solution.... And surely a party as firmly committed to NRA dogma would have no objections."

Unpossible! On our side, you’ve got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people? -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, GOP presidential candidate

... Poll Finds Nearly Half of Republican Primary Voters Are Idiotic. Jonathan Martin & Dalia Sussman of the New York Times: Ben Carson has taken a narrow lead nationally in the Republican presidential campaign, dislodging Donald J. Trump from the top spot for the first time in months, according to a New York Times/CBS News survey released on Tuesday. Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, is the choice of 26 percent of Republican primary voters, the poll found, while Mr. Trump now wins support from 22 percent, although the difference lies within the margin of sampling error.... No other candidate comes close to Mr. Carson and Mr. Trump." Not that the alternatives are way better.

Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "A new television ad by the Carson campaign aims to capitalize on his unusual experience and style of campaigning. The 30-second spot, which is airing in the Greenville, S.C., market, features Mr. Carson ... standing next to an empty cardboard box that says 'Washington political class' on one side and a sketch of the Capitol on another.... [In the end,] turning to the box, Mr. Carson concludes, 'There must be a good idea in there somewhere.'" ...

     ... Margaret Hartmann: "We recommend to 'stop comparing things to Hitler and the Holocaust.' That one's been in there for a while, so he might have to do some digging."

A Different World. Jonathan Swan of the Hill: "... Jeb Bush says his brother George W. Bush responded in an 'awe-inspiring' way to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and suggests he would learn from his sibling's leadership if he wins the presidency. The Republican presidential candidate's comments, which were made in a staged conversation with his brother at a Bush family donor retreat in Houston on Monday, were another attempt to rebut Republican front-runner Donald Trump." CW: And all of the reality-based world. Well, I suppose Dubya's seven minutes reading "The Pet Goat" after he learned of the first WTC attack was awesome in a jaw-dropping way. Wait, wait. A "staged conversation"? That must have been awesome, too, if awesome also means "dopey." These people are just embarrassing. ...

... digby wasn't awed, either. ...

... David Jackson of USA Today: At the staged conversation, "George W. Bush said 9/11 underscores the need for a president who can deal with unexpected event[s]. He ascribed that quality to his younger brother, saying, 'I am absolutely certain given his background and his steadiness that he'd be able to deal with the unexpected.'" ...

... Here's Jeb! dealing with "the unexpected." During a punishing "economic freedom" forum organized by his arch-enemies the Koch brothers, an evil inquisitor rose from his hiding place in the audience & demanded that Jeb! name his favorite Marvel cartoon character. After hemming & hawing (but not for seven whole minutes!), Jeb! mustered the forces of his background & responded with Bush-family steadiness:

She looked kind of ... she looked pretty hot. I don't know which channel it's on, but I'm looking forward to that. -- Jeb!, on actor Melissa Benoist, who plays "Supergirl" on TV

Benoist is five years younger than Jeb's youngest child. -- Constant Weader

Cruz Tells Rick Donors He's a Phony; They're Impressed. Katie Zezima & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "For all his bashing of 'billionaire Republican donors' who 'actively despise our base,' [Ted Cruz,] the anti-establishment senator from Texas, is being bolstered by his own robust base of wealthy contributors.... Cruz's unorthodox campaign has hit on a fundraising formula that no other candidate has been able to match: raising millions from a robust base of grass-roots supporters while building a substantial network of rich backers.... Cruz has had trouble making inroads in New York financial circles or on Florida's donor-rich Gold Coast. But he is finding support among like-minded constitutionalists, religious conservatives, and oil and gas executives.... A Republican strategist well connected to the donor world [said]: 'When he's with major donors, they expect the guy they see with all the red meat, but they instead see an intelligent but toned-down lawyer with real bona fides. He will say things like, basically, "This is politics -- you've got go out there and sell and perform."'"

Beyond the Beltway

Jaeah Lee of Mother Jones: "Authorities in Richland County, South Carolina, are investigating a video that surfaced Monday showing a uniformed officer aggressively confronting a high school student.... The video, which appears to have been recorded on a cellphone by a classmate, shows a white male officer standing over a black female student sitting at her desk; moments later he grabs the student and flips her on her back. After dragging her across the floor, the officer says, 'Hands behind your back -- give me your hands.' The video has no additional context as to what led to or followed the altercation." Includes video. ...

... Steve M.: "Um, I thought cops were so intimidated by cellphones these days that they're afraid to do any policing at all. Looks like the school cop doing the body-slamming here has a history of committing similar acts of brutality against the kids. ...

... Tom Cleary of Heavy has the goods on Sheriff's Deputy Ben Fields, the cop in the video. ...

... The New York Times story, by Richard Fausset & Ashley Southall, is here.

Ole Miss Joins USA 150 Years after Civil War. Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Mississippi flag was taken down at the state's public university Monday morning, after student leaders, faculty and staff called for its removal because of its prominent Confederate emblem. It was a dramatic change for a university long proud of its southern traditions and ties to the Confederacy...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Totally texas! Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Norway, when a party goes wild, when a soccer match gets heated, when a rare swordfish shoots out of a fjord with a loud noise and a massive splash, there is only one appropriate response: 'Det var helt Texas!' ... That is totally texas!'... No, it's not really a compliment.... Norwegians have been using the term 'texas' (always lower case, often accompanied by an exclamation point) to mean 'exciting,' 'crazy' or 'out of control' for roughly half a century." CW: Hey, what do they know? They're socialists.

News Ledes

Guardian: "China reportedly summoned the US ambassador on Tuesday after Washington launched a direct military challenge to Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea with naval manoeuvres near two artificial islands in the region. State television reported that the Chinese vice-foreign minister, Zhang Yesui, had branded the move 'extremely irresponsible' when meeting with the US ambassador to China, Max Baucus."

The Commentariat -- October 26, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders and the Obama administration are close to a crucial budget deal that would modestly increase domestic spending over the next two years and raise the federal borrowing limit. The accord would avert a potentially cataclysmic default on the government's debt and dispense with perhaps the most divisive issue in Washington just days before Speaker John A. Boehner is expected to turn over his gavel to Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin. While congressional aides cautioned that the deal was far from certain, and the Treasury Department declined to comment, officials briefed on the negotiations said the emerging accord would call for cuts in spending on Medicare and Social Security disability benefits." CW: That last of which is mighty stupid. ...

... The Washington Post story, by Kelsey Snell, is here.

** Ken Dilanian of the Washington Post: "The Army Green Berets who requested the Oct. 3 airstrike on the Doctors without Borders trauma center in Afghanistan were aware it was a functioning hospital but believed it was under Taliban control, The Associated Press has learned. The information adds to the evidence the site was familiar to the U.S. and raises questions about whether the attack violated international law.... The attack left a mounting death toll, now up to 30 people."

Ole Miss Joins USA 150 Years after Civil War. Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: "The Mississippi flag was taken down at the state's public university Monday morning, after student leaders, faculty and staff called for its removal because of its prominent Confederate emblem. It was a dramatic change for a university long proud of its southern traditions and ties to the Confederacy...."

Unpossible! On our side, you've got the No. 2 guy [who] tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people? -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, GOP presidential candidate

*****

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of people with modest incomes are at risk of losing health insurance subsidies in January because they did not file income tax returns, federal officials and consumer advocates say. Under federal rules, anyone who receives an insurance subsidy must file a tax return to verify that the person was eligible and received the proper amount of financial assistance based on household income.... Many of the people potentially affected have incomes so low that they would not otherwise have to file tax returns. But if they received insurance subsidies in 2014, they were required to file this year."

A Disaster Waiting to Happen. Ashley Halsey & Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "Railroad industry lobbyists have flooded key members of Congress with cash in a so-far successful effort to get them to postpone the installation & implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), an automatic braking system, even though the National Transportation Safety Board "has investigated 145 rail accidents since 1969 that PTC could have prevented, with a death toll of 288 and 6,574 people injured.... [Meanwhile,] the number of rail tank cars carrying flammable material in the United States has grown from 9,500 seven years ago to 493,126 last year, thanks to the boom in domestic oil produced in the Bakken oil fields.... A federal official familiar with [the] 2008 negotiations [establishing the deadline, said,] 'The railroads were in the room, and [Association of American Railroads] and those guys were the ones who said 2015 was doable. They did not embrace the deadline, but they said it was a fair bill.'..."

Sellouts! Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: GOP base says Freedom Caucus members who support Paul Ryan for speaker are no longer crazy enough. ...

... BUT. Gery Legum of Salon: Ryan is already caving to the Crazy Caucus. ...

We know that the Ryan budget is very hostile toward federal employees. It would dramatically cut their effective pay. The Ryan budgets have always looked to federal employees as a piggy bank to be used to reduce the deficit rather than as an important resource to provide services to the American people. -- Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), whose district includes 1,000s of federal workers

Bill Daley, President Obama's former chief-of-staff, says in a Washington Post op-ed that GOP dysfunction began with Sarah Palin: "Palin's blatant lack of competence and preparedness needs no belaboring.... Now the 'settle for flash' aura of Palin's candidacy looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions.... Once McCain put Palin on the ticket, Republican 'grown-ups,' who presumably knew better, had to bite their tongues. But after the election..., they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party. They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014."

"Free Mitt Romney!: Paul Krugman: "... a few days ago Mr. Romney couldn't help himself: he boasted to the Boston Globe that 'Without Romneycare, we wouldn't have had Obamacare' and that as a result 'a lot of people wouldn't have health insurance.'... Mr. Romney quickly tried to walk his comments back, claiming that Obamacare is very different from Romneycare, which it isn't, and that it has failed. But you know, it hasn't.... From the point of view of the Republican base, covering the uninsured, or helping the unlucky in general, isn't a feature, it's a bug...: the base is actually willing to lose money in order to perpetuate suffering."

New York Times Editors: "Clearly, concealed carry does not transform ordinary citizens into superheroes. Rather, it compounds the risks to innocent lives, particularly as state legislatures, bowing to the gun lobby, invite more citizens to venture out naïvely with firearms in more and more public places, including restaurants, churches and schools. College campuses are the latest goal for the gun lobby -- a perverse marketing campaign after the gun massacre that took 10 lives this month at a community college in Oregon."

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: "A widening internal investigation at Volkswagen is focusing not only on who was responsible for installing illegal software designed to fool emissions testers, but also on which managers may have learned of the deception and failed to take appropriate action, a person briefed on the inquiry said. The failure of people inside the carmaker to sound warnings about illegal engine software has emerged as a crucial element of the scandal, in which 11 million cars were programmed to produce far fewer emissions during laboratory testing than they did under normal driving conditions."

Marisa Bellack of the Washington Post: "... there was a 19th-century echo in the American Cancer Society's announcement this past week of revised guidelines for breast cancer screening. Whereas anxiety was once a reason for aggressive medical intervention, it is now invoked to avoid intervention -- an argument that is both patronizing and unscientific. There may be good reasons for women in their early 40s to forgo regular mammograms, but this isn't one of them.... There doesn't seem to be as much concern about a hysterical response to a prostate cancer screening."

Rebecca Ruiz of the New York Times: "This fall, legal claims of wage theft in professional cheerleading have spread from the N.F.L. to the N.B.A., and basketball teams' treatment of female performers is under intense scrutiny. Lauren Herington, a former dancer for the Milwaukee Bucks, sued the team in federal court in Wisconsin last month, charging that she had been paid well under the minimum wage during the 2013-14 season."

Mary Chapman of the New York Times: "Minutes before their contract was set to expire, the United Automobile Workers union and General Motors announced a tentative agreement Sunday night on a new national agreement covering about 52,000 employees."

AP: "A video of the joint raid of a prison in Iraq by US and Kurdish forces in which 70 hostages held by Islamic State (Isis) were rescued has been released. Helmet-camera footage, released on Sunday, shows the raid on Thursday of the prison, which was controlled by Isis militants in Hawija, 9 miles (15km) west of the city of Kirkuk.... US army Master Sgt Joshua Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, was killed during the operation, officials said on Friday. He is the first American to die in combat as part of the US Operation Inherent Resolve." Includes video.

Presidential Race

Digby, in Salon, on politics as teevee drama. "Bill and Hillary Clinton ... are the stars of the nation's longest running TV soap opera.... Hillary Clinton is the biggest political star of all. Along with her husband, she has been in the harsh spotlight of national politics for 25 years, and has gone through more ups and downs, heartache and triumph than your average Telenovela heroine."

Eric Bradner of CNN: "Bernie Sanders says his criticism of Hillary Clinton's 'shouting' on gun control has nothing to do with her gender.... Sanders criticized the "shouting" from both sides on gun issues in the first Democratic presidential debate. Clinton said Saturday in Iowa that Sanders' remarks came with a gender-related undercurrent. She said: 'I'm not shouting. It's just that when women talk, some people think we're shouting.' Sanders on Sunday laughed at her suggestion that his remarks were about gender." ...

... Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Nearly eight years after [Hillary] Clinton was humbled by a third-place finish in Iowa, she has gone to great lengths to demonstrate her commitment to winning the state that first propelled Barack Obama to the presidency. But in a campaign that seems to be testing every long-held assumption about the electorate, Mrs. Clinton is facing a stiff challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont that is again showcasing her difficulties with liberal activists in a state where she and her husband do not have deep ties."

Charles Pierce: "Iowa Democrats had themselves a rollicking, yabba-dabba-doo time at the annual Slave-Raper, Indian-Slaughterer fundraising rodeo on Saturday in Des Moines.... All three of them came into Hy-Vee Hall knowing that the putative Democratic frontrunner had reasserted herself in a very serious way. Their respective reactions to this change in circumstances created a change in tone, an awareness that, to become president, you not only have to sell your vision to the country, but you also have to beat somebody.... Without mentioning her name, Sanders relentlessly portrayed Clinton's base-pleasuring moves in this campaign as the same kind of cold political calculations that, in the past, she had made in supporting the Iraq War and the Defense of Marriage Act."

Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delayed making a decision about a potential presidential campaign for months, in part because of the tears of his 11-year-old granddaughter. That time for family healing after the death of her father, the vice president's son Beau, in May ultimately meant he would not be able to win, Mr. Biden said ... in an interview televised on Sunday night on CBS's '60 Minutes.'" ...

... You can watch the interview, by Nora O'Donnell, of Vice President & Dr. Biden here.

It has not been easy for me. I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars. I came into Manhattan, and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with interest. But I came into Manhattan and I started buying properties, and I did great. -- Donald Trump, relating his rags-to-riches story

You know, many successful people start out with nothing. The poor, hapless Donald began his career a millon dollars in debt! Plus interest! -- Constant Weader

A Kindlier, Gentler Trump? Yeah, Right. Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "'When I'm president I'm going to unify the country,' the property billionaire told CNN on Sunday, in a surprise call for more civility in politics. 'A lot of people think I'm a tough guy, but actually I am a nice guy,' he added. 'Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably and it's all hatred. I think it hurts both parties, it hurts the country.'" Of Hillary Clinton's appearance before the Benghaazi! committee, Trump said, "It was very partisan. The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it." CW: If it's "all hatred," Mr. Birther, the hatred is coming from you & your side.

The press has a lower approval rating than Congress. They're scum. -- Donald Trump, in New Hampshire this morning

Like Jeb!, Trump Has Other "Cool Things" He Could Be Doing. This isn't so easy. I can be at other places at 7 in the morning, not on live television all over the world. -- Donald Trump, same rally

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "... Marco Rubio has defended his common and much-criticised absences from Senate business, saying: 'Voting is not the only part of the Senate job.' Speaking to CNN in an interview broadcast on Sunday, the Florida senator also deflected the suggestion that his own statement this week, that federal employees who did not perform in their roles should be fired, could be turned back on him. Rubio has the worst voting attendance record in the Senate this year." ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: Action figure Marco Rubio can't stand the glacial pace of his day job, so he has most quit doing the job, & he won't be doing it in the future.

Still Crazy ... AND Cruel & Sexist. Jonathan Martin: "... Ben Carson said Sunday he believed that abortion should be outlawed even in cases of rape and incest, comparing the procedure with slavery. 'I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way,' Mr. Carson said on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' citing 'the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.'" ...

... AND, since he hasn't figured out a way to compare abortion to Hitler, he compares women who seek abortions to slaveholders. ...

... But Now, Back to Hitler. Kyle Balluck of the Hill: "... Ben Carson is defending comments in which he said an armed Jewish population could have stopped the Nazis.... Carson also said there should be no compromises on the Second Amendment." He got straight on Noah Webster v. Daniel Webster this time, however. ...

... Fire Chuck Todd! CW: Todd, being the fake journalist that he is, lets Carson get away with repeating his fake history. After Dr. Ben repeats his little history-of-the-Holocaust malarkey, Chuck moves right along to the next, unrelated question, never citing historians who say Carson is wrong on every aspect of the story. If you want to know why a crazy man has a shot at becoming POTUS, the answer is Chuck & Co. Evidently Chucky thinks "Meet the Press" means "meet and greet," a mixer sort of happening where folks can show up to chat & make friends with the show's staff. ...

... Still Baffling. Chris Wallace can't understand Dr. Ben's prescription for Medicare. Apparently, neither can Dr. Ben. "When Wallace pressed him on his past indication he would eliminate Medicare, Carson said he’s perfectly capable of changing his mind." Includes video. You figure it out. I think he's saying you're on your own, buddy.

Bushed, Bothered & Bewildered. Eli Stokols of Politico: A "closed-door summit [in Houston] for Jeb Bush's richest donors was meant to be a pep rally, a reunion for loyalists eager to celebrate the family legacy with two former presidents. But as George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush draw supporters together under gray skies and unrelenting rains, the gathering has become a rescue operation for a candidate who looks unable to meet the expectations of the family brand. Many of these dedicated Bush supporters are no longer denying that the guest of honor is unable to connect with a GOP electorate that has become increasingly fractured and stridently ideological since -- and in reaction to -- his brother's presidency.... 'I look at this party now and I hardly recognize it,' one Florida-based donor said." ...

... "A Tale of Two Establishment Favorites." John Cassidy of the New Yorker contrasts the status of Jeb!'s campaign with that of Hillary's. ...

...Steve M. makes a telling point: "It's a quitters-never-win kind of family (though the persistence is usually accompanied by the employment of amoral attack dogs like Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, and Karl Rove, an approach Jeb isn't taking yet)." In raw politics, the above-the-fray noblesse oblige 'tude works only if your staff operates more like Tricky Dick's dirty-tricks plumbers.

HaHaHaHaHa. Melissa Cronin of Gawker: "New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ... nearly missed his 9:55 Amtrak train from DC to New York. Then, he didn't get the seat he wanted on the train. Then, to make things even worse, he got kicked out of the quiet car!" Fellow passenger Alexander Mann told Gawker, "He got on last minute yelling at his two secret service agents I think because of a seat mixup, sat down and immediately started making phone calls on the quiet car. After about 10 minutes the conductor asked him to stop or go to another car. He got up and walked out again yelling at his secret service.' Mann also said that Christie was having an intense phone conversation, repeating the phrases, 'this is frickin' ridiculous' and 'seriously?! seriously?!'" CW: Wonder if the actual word Christie used was "frickin'." ...

... Maggie Haberman: "Aides to Mr. Christie said the episode was far less dramatic than what was portrayed in the Gawker account.... A spokeswoman, Samantha Smith, said that the governor was not yelling.... At least one other person backed up Ms. Smith's account." CW: Aw, shucks. I prefer to think he was yelling & carrying on. ...

... Guardian: "... Chris Christie said on Sunday the Black Lives Matter protest movement was creating an environment that could put police officers at risk. Speaking on CBS, he said: 'I don't believe that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers.' He also accused President Obama of supporting the movement and encouraging 'lawlessness' while not backing up law enforcement." CW: Which is, of course, an absolute crock. If I were seated in the quiet car next to Gov. Crisco, I'd be yelling at him.

CW: How to tell when a presidential contender is finished: news outlets do a dump of their research on a candidate they haven't reported on in weeks. Here's Politico's entry:

Matt Katz: Chris "Christie was on the train returning from an appearance on CBS's Face The Nation, where he went further than most Republican presidential candidates by alleging that the Black Lives Matter movement calls for killing cops. But that extraordinary comment about a critical American civic issue was lost as Gawker's account of Christie screaming on his phone, drinking a McDonald's strawberry smoothie -- and just being so Christie -- lit up political Twitter.... In 2011...," etc. CW: Ben & Scary's new flavor of the month is Carson Candy Nutty Swirl. Christie Creme Triple Chunky Monkey has been retired. ...

... AND here's today's New York Times entry:

... Michael Barbaro: "Those who worked with [Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard] described an exhilarating, blunt, self-punishing figure who stayed in the office until 1 a.m. (and expected aides to do the same) -- a boss who could be warm, even nurturing, but who could abruptly turn cold and unforgiving." CW: Sorry, Carly. The Frozen Caramel Fiorina has melted.

Senate Races

She's Ba-a-a-ack! Burgess Everett & Elena Schneider of Politico: "Republicans have had enough of Sharron Angle, the one-time Senate hopeful who crashed and burned against then-Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010. And now the GOP in Nevada and Washington is trying to chase her out of another campaign that could again jeopardize the party's chances of capturing Reid's Senate seat. Angle's very public flirtation with a primary bid against Rep. Joe Heck, the party favorite to take on Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, is reviving Democratic dreams and Republican nightmares from the 2010 election."

Timothy Cama of the Hill: "Sen. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) came out in support late Sunday of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulation that seeks a 32-percent cut in the power sector's carbon dioxide emissions. Ayotte, who faces a tough reeelection bid in a state that voted for President Obama in the last two presidential cycles, is the first congressional Republican to openly endorse the rule dubbed the Clean Power Plan.... New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan is seeking the Democratic nomination to face Ayotte, and would be seen as a top-notch challenger. She's already attacked Ayotte on climate, signaling she intends to make it an issue in the race. Hassan on Friday called for the state's congressional delegation to support the climate plan. She accused Ayotte of siding 'with corporate special interests over New Hampshire's environment,' arguing the senator had fought to protect tax breaks for oil companies and voted to block the EPA from moving forward with regulations to reduce carbon emissions."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Argentine voters sent the country's presidential race into a runoff on Sunday, boosting hopes in the opposition after Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, made a surprisingly strong showing against the candidate endorsed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, according to partial results released by the electoral authorities."

Washington Post: "A massive earthquake rocked northeastern Afghanistan on Monday with tremors felt across the region from Pakistan to Central Asia, leaving dozens dead amid collapsed buildings and panicked stampedes with officials bracing for possible further casualties."

The Commentariat -- October 25, 2015

Internal links removed.

Sharon LaFraniere & Andrew Lehren of the New York Times: "... an analysis by The New York Times of tens of thousands of traffic stops and years of arrest data in [Greensboro, N.C., a] racially mixed city of 280,000, uncovered wide racial differences in measure after measure of police conduct. Those same disparities were found across North Carolina, the state that collects the most detailed data on traffic stops. And at least some of them showed up in the six other states that collect comprehensive traffic-stop statistics." ...

... CW: This is the type of reporting, BTW, that according to FBI Director James Comey, would constitute "the additional scrutiny and criticism of police officers..., [which] may have led to an increase in violent crime in some cities as officers have become less aggressive.... Mr. Comey said that he had been told by many police leaders that officers who would normally stop to question suspicious people are opting to stay in their patrol cars for fear of having their encounters become worldwide video sensations. That hesitancy has led to missed opportunities to apprehend suspects, he said, and has decreased the police presence on the streets of the country's most violent cities." Most people would call this a purposeful work slowdown or just plain dereliction of duty. What Comey is suggesting here is that First Amendment rights to freedom of speech & of the press cause violence because the police don't want to get caught on tape roughing up citizens. Comey is suggesting that a police state is less violent, or safer, than one that respects human rights. ...

... Amy Brittain of the Washington Post: "There have been "800 fatal shootings by police so far this year.... But only a small number of the shootings -- roughly 5 percent -- occurred under the kind of circumstances that raise doubt and draw public outcry, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The vast majority of individuals shot and killed by police officers were ... armed with guns and killed after attacking police officers or civilians or making other direct threats."

Katie Zezima of the New York Times: "Faced with mounting and bipartisan opposition to increased and often high-stakes testing in the nation's public schools, the Obama administration declared Saturday that the push had gone too far, acknowledged its own role in the proliferation of tests, and urged schools to step back and make exams less onerous and more purposeful. Specifically, the administration called for a cap on assessment so that no child would spend more than 2 percent of classroom instruction time taking tests. It called on Congress to 'reduce over-testing' as it reauthorizes the federal legislation governing the nation's public elementary and secondary schools."

Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "President Obama compared the 'gloomy' Republican Party to grumpy cat, the dour-faced feline Internet celebrity, on Friday. Pouting in his best imitation of the cat that spawned a thousand memes, Obama was met with raucous laughter from attendees at the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum":

Rachel Bade of Politico: "Amid growing Democratic accusations of overreaching, especially on the matter of Hillary Clinton's emails, Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee are now reconsidering how aggressively to pursue the email scandal that's been dogging the Democratic front-runner." ...

... Maureen Dowd criticizes Hillary Clinton's management of the Libyan crisis, post-bombing. She describes Hillary as the prime mover behind the decision to go into Libyan & therefore the one who should have been most on top of the situation: "When you are the Valkyrie who engineers the intervention, you can't then say it is beneath you to pay attention to the ludicrously negligent security for your handpicked choice for ambassador in a lawless country full of assassinations and jihadist training camps." CW: I think both Dowd & Republicans give Hillary too much credit here -- as even Dowd acknowledges, both Samantha Power & Susan Rice were behind the U.S. invasion, too. Oh, & Britain, France & Canada. Dowd completely forgets about them. But she has a point. Hillary isn't a lot better than Dubya at planning an after-invasion. All Middle-Eastern countries are not alike, but there is only one democracy in the Middle East: Israel. (Kuwait is a partial democracy, & Tunisia is working at it.) You might think there's reasons for that.

Juan Cole: "The fruitless carnival barking that was the GOP Benghazi inquisition did the nation the disservice of taking focus off the things really wrong with US policies, and places there really was wrongdoing. So here are some suggestions for real investigations." CW: Sorry, Juan, a GOP-led Congress never does "real investigations."

** Jimmy Carter, in a New York Times op-ed, promotes a five-nation plan to end the Syrian conflict. Read it.

Carol Morello & Hugh Naylor of the Washington Post: "Israel and Jordan have agreed to take steps aimed at quelling a wave of violence, starting with the installation of security cameras on the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Saturday. Speaking after meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah II, Kerry told reporters that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to King Abdullah's suggestion to install the 24-hour cameras at the holy site, which has been a focus of long-standing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. 'This will provide comprehensive visibility and transparency,' Kerry said. 'It could be a game-changer in discouraging anybody from disturbing the sanctity of the holy sites.'"

Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "A three-week global assembly called by Pope Francis to re-examine church teaching on marriage and family in the modern era ended with bishops stopping short of allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to take communion, but encouraging their fuller participation in the church. The bishops drew a hard line against any acceptance of same-sex marriage, saying in their final document that it is not 'even remotely analogous' to marriage between a man and a woman. They added that gay people should be respected and not subjected to 'unjust discrimination' -- a reiteration of prior church teaching. The next steps are now in the hands of Pope Francis...."

Presidential Race

Jennifer Jacobs & Kevin Hardy of the Des Moines Register: "The three Democratic presidential candidates used adrenaline-filled pop music, emotional ballads and fiery speeches Saturday to try to catch the same tailwind that Barack Obama captured at the Jefferson Jackson dinner eight years ago. The 'JJ' dinner is Iowa Democrats' biggest party of the year, the signal that it's the final stretch before the first-in-the-nation caucuses on Feb. 1.... Front-runner Hillary Clinton arrived for the landmark event in a position of strength, but instead of coasting, unleashed the star power of her husband and pop superstar Katy Perry at a free concert that attracted thousands, then gave a confident, conversational speech to thousands of the party's most trusty activists. " With video. ...

... Links to the Register's complete coverage are here. Bernie Sanders' full speech is here. Hillary Clinton's full speech, taped in pieces, is here. And, if you've got 2 hours & 15 minutes to spare, C-SPAN is the way to go. ...

... Karen Tumulty & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "The two leading Democratic presidential contenders on Saturday night drew their clearest and sharpest distinctions yet. At a high-profile Democratic party dinner here, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took a series of veiled, yet unmistakable jabs at former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying that he would govern on principle. Where Sanders' address represented a new and more aggressive posture against the frontrunner, Clinton delivered one that was close to her standard stump speech, in which she made the argument that she would be a fighter who would find common ground and deliver results."...

... Annie Karni & Glenn Thrush of Politico: In Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Clinton warms up the crowd before performer Katy Perry's concert for Hillary Clinton. It was his first campaign appearance this year. ...

Rachel Maddow interviewed Hillary Clinton (aired Friday):

     ... The full transcript is here.

Kristina Wong of the Hill: "... Donald Trump on Saturday mocked fellow contenders Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at a rally in their home state of Florida. Trump teased Bush, a former Florida governor, for his recent decision to lay off campaign staff and cut salaries by 40 percent, and for his planned retreat with donors in Texas on Sunday. 'Bush has no money, he's meeting today with mommy and daddy, and they're working on his campaign,' Trump said at the rally in downtown Jacksonville, Fla. 'He's a guy wants to run our country and he can't even run his own campaign. Think of it,' he added." He also took a shot at Ben Carson's religion: "'I'm Presbyterian. That's down the middle of road,' he said. 'I mean, Seventh-day Adventist I don't know about.'" ...

... Major Garrett of CBS News: "Jeb Bush will attend a finance meeting this weekend in Houston convened by former President George H. W. Bush and attended by Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, CBS News has learned. The session, designed to assess where Bush's candidacy stands in the face of large-scale staff cutbacks and underwhelming poll numbers, will also be attended by Bush's mother, Barbara Bush. The governor's campaign confirmed the meeting will be held Sunday and Monday." ...

This sounds way more like an intervention than a meeting. -- Daniel Drezner, on Twitter (See also other snarky commentary gathered by Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice at the linked page.) ...

... Ashley Killough of CNN: "A day after slashing salaries and cutting campaign staff..., [Jeb Bush] got an enthusiastic reception and delivered one of his strongest campaign performances to date. He tore into Donald Trump repeatedly and roused some in the crowd to their feet on answers about the military and foreign policy. Bush took part in a town hall series hosted by South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, drawing an audience of more than 500 people, about twice the number Bush normally attracts on the campaign trail." ...

Blah blah blah blah, that's my answer, blah blah blah. -- Jeb Bush, responding to reports that he has cut back his campaign

Nice to learn Jeb! is as articulate as ever. -- Constant Weader

... But, Wait. He's not stopping at "blah blah blah." Which is a mistake:

I've got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. That is a joke. -- Jeb!, at that "strong campaign performance" in South Carolina

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "In some ways, that might be one of the most honest things Jeb has said this campaign. But letting folks know that he has other cool things he'd rather be doing than fighting for the nomination reeks of the kind of entitlement folks have come to expect from the Republican establishment." CW: I doubt Jeb! does actual "cool things." If he does, he does them awkwardly. "Jeb!" & "cool" are fairly antithetical.

Gubernatorial Race

Kevin Robillard of Politico: "A private investigator working for Sen. David Vitter's gubernatorial campaign [in Louisiana] was arrested Friday and charged with illegally recording a conversation involving a local sheriff, throwing a last-minute wrench into Saturday's all-party primary as other campaigns pounced on the news.... [Sheriff Newell] Normand, a Republican, is a backer of Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne in the governor's race.... 'So we know this about David Vitter. He's cheated, he's lied and now he's been caught spying,' Dardenne says direct to the camera in a web ad his campaign shot late last night."

Kevin Robillard : "Sen. David Vitter spent the summer on a glide path to becoming Louisiana's next governor. But even if Vitter earns a spot in the general election after Saturday's all-party primary, the Republican's ascension to the governor's mansion is in serious trouble. Vitter is still blessed with the most financial backing of any of the candidates and near-universal name recognition in the state. But over the past few months, his approval ratings have slipped underwater after Vitter's opponents -- including two fellow Republicans -- have spent significant time and money rehashing Vitter's 2007 prostitution scandal."

... UPDATE. Julia O'Donoghue of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Democratic state Rep. John Bel Edwards and Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter will continue their heated battle for governor in a Nov. 21 runoff after finishing 1-2 in the primary election Saturday. The Edwards-Vitter pairing was no surprise. Edwards was all but guaranteed 30 percent of the vote as the only major Democrat running; he ended up with 40 percent. Vitter was the candidate of choice for conservative Republicans, but was a distant second with 23 percent. In the end, the two other Republicans in the race -- Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle and Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne -- couldn't piece together coalitions big enough to overcome Vitter's conservative appeal. Vitter may be popular with his 'super Republican' base, but polling shows he has 'high negatives' among other groups of voters."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Poland's chief right-wing opposition party, out of power for nearly a decade, came roaring back in parliamentary voting Sunday, apparently seizing control of the government with a platform that mixes calls for higher wages with appeals to traditional Catholic values."

New York Times: "Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of conflict."