Chuck Todd Dooms "MTP"

Defunct video & related text removed.

UPDATE: You can watch a portion of Chuck's interview of President Obama here. Obama discusses immigration reform. Chuck repeatedly interrupts him. Edgy. NBC News will livestream the interview at 9:00 am ET Sunday. Maybe here. Update Update: Actually, here. Here's a clip of the clip:

Everything that’s been published about the incipient Chuck Todd Era of 'Meet the Press' indicates that the goal is to amplify the insufferable, backslappy culture that already pervades the Sunday shows. -- Simon Miloy of Salon

The big news yesterday came not via our usual, relatively reliable sources but from the consistently scummy "Page Six" gossip at the New York Post, via contributor Akhilleus. Emily Smith reports,

NBC is bringing in Luke Russert, son of the late beloved 'Meet the Press' host Tim Russert, as a regular panelist on the Sunday morning show in a bid to turn around its catastrophic ratings slide, Page Six has exclusively learned.

Also joining new moderator Chuck Todd’s team will be former Republican congressman and 'Morning Joe' host Joe Scarborough, who sources say 'is taking on a larger role within NBC News as a senior political analyst and would be one of the regular Sunday panelists.'

We’re told the move is part of a plan to bring a right-leaning voice to the program....

Nia-Malika Henderson of the Washington Post and a few others, including NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, are also said to be in the mix for a new panel.

I'm no admirer of former Clinton prosecutor Joe Scarborough. But I admit it does make sense to have him on "Meet the Press" to represent a right-wing point of view. If you don't listen to the actual words that come out of Joe's mouth, you'll find a personable, affable guy who is not nearly as caustic as the regular Sunday roundtable winger guests -- Mary Matalin, George Will, Peggy Noonan, Newt Gingrich. That Scarborough is obstreperously, proudly, serially, ignorant comes with the territory; it's a must for people of his political persuasion and depth.

Nia-Malika Henderson -- whom Chuck has apparently designated to be his minority BFF -- is fine, though sometimes her roots at Politico show. Chuck's choice, however, leads me to suspect that he was afraid to pick the smartest, quickest wit among NBC's on-air black personalities -- Joy-Ann Reid. Another good choice, whom Chuck rejected: Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry. I reckon Chuck didn't want a black lady sidekick who was way sharper than he is.

AND, if you must have an old person with whom the codgers who are your primary (only??) audience can relate, I suppose Mrs. Alan Greenspan isn't the worst choice. She isn't quite as insipid as, say Cokie Roberts, and she does have deep creds, having been the first credentialed woman reporter to cover the Grover Cleveland administration. (That's the second Grover Cleveland administration.)

It's also a swell idea to counter Mitchell with a youngish pundit, a news junkie whose interests give her a wide understanding of politics & public policy but who at the same time can connect with people who usually get their news from "The Daily Show." Because of msnbc, it so happens that the network has quite a few young, highly-qualified on-air personalities: Steve Kornacki, Chris Hodges Hayes,* Alex Wagner, Ari Melber, to name a few. msnbc also often has young guest commentators or stand-in hosts like Ezra Klein.

So, with all these excellent choices -- and of course with hundreds of other choices currently outside NBC -- Chuck opts for Luke Russert. To be fair, legacies aren't necessarily dopes. To be fair, the Boy Russert is a dope. OR, as Hamilton Nolan of Gawker put it in a piece titled "'Meet the Press' to be Reimagined as Garbage Dump,' perhaps in the context Chuck himself had in mind, Luke "is himself basically just a dim 29-year-old dude, a valuable new demographic for MTP." 

Alex Pareene nailed the Trouble with Luke a couple of years ago:

... plenty of nepotism beneficiaries are wonderful writers and talented people. If you’re raised by interesting people and get a good education at home and at the finest schools, you really ought to turn out pretty smart. But Russert is emblematic of the sort of nepotism that gives nepotism a bad name. He’s not a wonderful writer or a particularly talented person. And unlike Chelsea Clinton and her very silly 'reporting good news about people who do charity or something' beat, he’s actually got a real journalism job that someone else without the name Russert could be doing much more effectively. He’s not even particularly good on TV.

Here's Russert the Younger, just this week, showing his sports acumen: "So, let’s call a spade a spade. The reason Michael Sam isn't on any active rosters isn't because he can’t play and isn’t because of the media circus, the reason why there is a slowness to signing him to a practice squad is probably because he's gay." I have no idea why Michael Sam isn't playing pro ball, but I know you don't lead into a comment about a black person by "calling a spade a spade." Idiot. ...

... Being a young guy, Luke has an abiding interest in sports. Here, while filling in for Andrea Mitchell, he cuts off an interview with Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) to "take a phoner" with a Cleveland sports reporter who broke the news that Le Bron James had joined the Cleveland Cavaliers. (More on this from Matt Wilstein of Mediaite here.) ...

... AND in more basketball news, Luke hoped again hope that boxer Floyd Mayweather would buy the L.A. Clippers team after racist owner Donald Sterling was drummed from the league. Outside the ring, Mayweather likes to box, too. He "has dodged significant jail time several times in domestic violence cases in Las Vegas and Michigan," a string of "wins" that came to an end in Las Vegas, when a judge sentenced him to 90 days for beating up his then-girlfriend. Also, Mayweather has made racist remarks about at least one opponent. Perhaps in Luke's mind, that makes Mayweather a perfect replacement for Sterling.

Sports reporting aside, Luke's pragmatic intellectualism should be a great asset on "MTP." Here he is in an on-air discussion this past summer "about the drug war and the immigration crisis at the American border. The money quote: You know what's one way to fix all this, Alex? If people in America would stop doing drugs when they go out at nightclubs every frickin' weekend.' 'Wow,' host Alex Wagner replied. 'Luke Russert conducting his own war on drugs.'" C'mon, Alex. Luke Russert just solved two problems in one sentence. AND totally dropped the dudeness.

Well, Luke isn't an expert on everything. Marcy Wheeler reproduces the transcript of that time Dylan Ratigan took Luke to the woodshed for his support of free trade agreements -- "it's a jobs creator!" Luke was completely flummoxed that anyone would question the rectitude of free trade agreements, much less claim they fostered the slave trade, murders & bank fraud. "You threw me off my game there a little bit," he says to Ratigan. Ratigan is long-gone from msnbc. And Luke is moving up the ladder. I guess we know who was right!

If he doesn't know much about policy, Luke does know politics. In 2012, he tweeted that the Democrats' giving Elizabeth Warren a prime-time slot at there convention had no "benefit" since Warren was "such a lightning rod for criticism." Also, too, maybe Republicans shouldn't have allowed Mitt Romney to speak at their convention after that 47 percent remark resulted in so much sparkly criticism. Charlies Pierce remarked at the time,

Elizabeth Warren was a janitor's daughter, the first member of her family who graduated from college, who worked her way up to become a tenured professor at the finest law school in the country. And Luke Russert, who's passing idiotic class-based judgments against her, is ... incredibly not any of that.

As it turned out, the very popular Sen. Warren gave a helluva a convention speech. For a mere $10,000-$15,000, you can have Luke come speak to you personally. The chance of his coming close to delivering the likes of Warren's stemwinder: somewhere around Fed interest rates.

Luke does know from airline travel, & he is ready to advise the flying public. He doesn't think much of people who bitch & moan about TSA regulations. Andrew Kirell of Mediaite: "MSNBC resident dudebro reporter Luke Russert has a simple message for those complaining about new TSA rules that will require U.S.-bound passengers to turn on their cellular devices before boarding: 'Sack up!'” That's what he said on msnbc. I doubt if Chuck will allow Luke to use expressions like on the Real Network. Also, Luke really, really likes TSA-Pre -- he compares it to Moses' parting the Red Sea -- & thinks travellers should suck up (as opposed to sack up) and pay for it.

But even if he doesn't know much about a subject, Luke can always find an NRA handout or a Scott Walker press release to crib. From Daily Kos: Speaking to his guest Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, on the subject of gun control & school safety, Luke opined that "we need armed guards in the schools because, well, he has seen them at college football games. And increasing mental health services is a swell idea that should be paid for by gutting teachers’ pensions."

AND Luke has perfected the Beltway standard "both sides do it." When funnyman Louis Gohmert (RTP-Texas) "proposed an amendment to ban the president from playing golf until he resumed tours at the White House that had been canceled to prevent Secret Service furloughs due to automatic budget cuts," Russert told msnbc's Martin Bashir the move "looks bad on both sides." Bashir, amazed, challenged Russert, who stuck to his guns, insisting that cancelling White House tours was "petty." Of course, Bashir, like Ratigan, is gone from msnbc. And Luke is moving up the ladder. Lesson: do not fuck with the Scion of Tim!

"His Twitter feed," Alex Pareene wrote back in 2012, "presents a perfectly dull person with perfectly banal thoughts." It hasn't improved. After the Thad Cochran-Chris McDaniel primary, Luke tweeted that "only in America" could African-Americans do stuff in Mississippi. Probably true.

So just maybe Luke Russert is "dull" and "banal." But, people, it's the demographics. NBC may be stooping low, but they are stooping to conquer the kids. They have retained Luke to bring that youthful perspective to the stodgy Sunday mornings coming down. Herein is an awfully cute example of Russert's youthful perspective: he repeatedly asks Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi if having such an old lady as leader "prohibits the party from having a younger leadership & (stammer) hurts the party in the long term": 

(... Whoa, Nancy, don't get upset. At least Luke didn't kill you off before you died, as he did old Congressman Bill Young of Florida.) ...

... Russert, who understandably took flak for asking such an insulting question of Pelosi, fielded the shrapnel as a reflection of his super-dudeness: “I think honestly if someone else had asked that question it wouldn’t have been as big as it was. I think there’s a desire by people to sort of frame it as 'Nancy Pelosi goes after Luke Russert ... DUN DUN DUN.'”

Should you think Luke-Boy is full of himself, he begs to differ:

Now, should you want to be on? Yes. Everyone’s competitive; everyone wants to be on TV, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if I’m on 100 times instead of 106 times, it’s not the end of the world for me.... I’m more than content doing the things that are doled out.

AND He's Got Talent. Just ask him:

The news media is a results-oriented business. I don’t think a company like NBC would pay me if I wasn’t qualified and wasn’t able to produce on this level.... There will always be people who will say, ‘Oh, he’s only gotten where he is because of his father,’ and that certainly helped. But I’ve been able to stay here because of me.

Given Luke's documented lameness, you may be asking, "Why are they doing this?" My own theory is that NBC News is a self-perpetuating mediocrity, the suits -- including those who wear skirts -- aren't very bright, don't give a flying fuck about journalism & think goals like "excellence" & "integrity" are for wusses. But I wouldn't discount Driftglass's theory either:

Meanwhile, unless this is some eleven-dimensional chess, Inception shit and someone has gotten into Luke Russert's dreams and convinced him to get in there and deliberately tear down his Daddy's empire, none of this makes a lick of sense.

* Thanks, Barbarossa.

The Commentariat -- Sept. 6, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama has delayed action to reshape the nation's immigration system without congressional approval until after the November elections, bowing to the concerns of Senate Democrats on the ballots, White House officials said on Saturday. The decision is a striking reversal of Mr. Obama's vow to take action on immigration soon after summer's end. The president made that promise on June 30, standing in the Rose Garden, where he angrily denounced Republican obstruction and said he would use the power of his office to protect immigrant families from the threat of deportation."

Alix Bryan of CBS Richmond: Bob "McDonnell will have his license to practice law removed once the Virginia State Bar receives notice of his felony convictions. There is also chance that he could lose his pension, due to a law he signed into effect in 2011. The legislation states that retirement benefits are forfeited upon certain felony convictions. This means that McDonnell could lose the pensions he earned while serving as an Army Reserves lieutenant colonel, Virginia Attorney General, and as a lawmaker in the House of Delegates." CW: Now that would be ironic. The value of his pensions is far more than the value of the gifts he & Maureen took from Williams. ...

... Dahlia Lithwick: "Whatever shame [the McDonnells] brought on the office of governor by their dealings with Williams was overshadowed by the shame of their legal strategy. The jurors must have felt unimaginably filthy listening to gruesome tales of a 'nutbag' first lady, rebuffed letters from the governor trying to resolve marital spats, and tween-grade text messages to a man Maureen McDonnell was allegedly 'obsessed with.' As the jurors begin to talk, we may begin to get some insight into why they came down so hard on the former first couple. But one possibility is that you just can't explain lies with lies. And the McDonnell strategy always seemed to be just that: 'We couldn't have been lying to you about our finances, Virginia, because we were too busy lying to you about everything else." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker: "As the jury seems to have recognized..., the stories about Maureen's fascination with Williams and Bob's emotional absence were never more than a distraction. The defense didn't make legal or emotional sense, and it didn't fit the facts of the case. There is no requirement, in the law or anywhere else, that we love our co-conspirators, or even that we find them tolerable. A couple can be spiteful and venal all at once." ...

I would love to spend about a month on a beach. Just reading books. I've got 25 books on my night stand.... I got a bunch of them there I'd like to read. But that, honestly, a little R and R and a lot of pleasure reading is what I'd like to do. -- Bob McDonnell, August 15, 2013, in answer to a question about how he'd like to spend his post-gubernatorial days

Things always work out for the best. Bob will now have plenty of time to read those books. Too bad about the beach thing. -- Constant Weader

... Tim Noah of msnbc: "To whatever extent the 2009 [Virginia] governor's race turned on family values, Virginia voters couldn't, in retrospect, have been more wrong in finding [Bob] McDonnell superior to his Democratic opponent, Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds. McDonnell wouldn't accept a plea bargain to spare his family. Deeds, by contrast, nearly died for his this past November. A judge had ordered Deeds's 24-year-old son Gus, who suffered from severe mental illness, to be committed involuntarily. But a hospital bed couldn't be found, and so Deeds took him home, where Gus stabbed his father multiple times in the head and chest before shooting himself dead. In a speech in March, Deeds called the son who very nearly killed him 'my hero.' It's hard to resist comparing that statement with some of the things McDonnell said on the stand about a wife who merely yelled at him." ...

It's like House of Cards without the cunning. -- Joe Coscarelli of New York

... Josh Gerstein of Politico speculates on why the prosecution -- same lead prosecutor, BTW -- won the McDonnells corruption case but lost the John Edwards corruption case, even though the Edwards case involved a lot more money & centered around Edwards' extremely sleazy behavior.

Annie Gowen, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine agreed Friday to a temporary cease-fire, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, raising the prospect of at least a brief respite in an increasingly bloody conflict. At a NATO summit in Wales, President Obama welcomed the announcement while expressing skepticism that the separatists and their Russian backers would adhere to the truce and other commitments." ...

... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "As the truce went into effect, fighting that had raged throughout the day around the strategic port city of Mariupol tapered off, and Ukrainian soldiers could be seen pulling back to their bases. But in interviews, the troops said they had not yet received orders to stand down."

Phil Stewart & Julien Ponthus of Reuters: "The United States said it had created a 'core coalition' on Friday to battle Islamic State militants in Iraq, calling for broad support from allies and partners around the world but ruling out committing ground forces. [U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck] Hagel told ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark that they, with the United States, formed the core group for tackling the Sunni militant group." ...

... Hayes Brown of Think Progress compares President Obama's 'core coalition' against ISIS with President Bush II's 2003 "coalition of the willing." ...

... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "There's widespread frustration in both chambers and both parties about President Obama's admission that 'we don't have a strategy yet' to deal with ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But now the lack of strategy is actually protecting Obama from oversight because Congress can't authorize or reject what it can't understand. In fact, the White House has been totally mum on how it plans to legally justify the air war in Iraq after the temporary authority granted to it in the War Powers Resolution expires.... With only two weeks in September to legislate, there's little to no chance Congress will act before its next recess, which means the issue will be punted to the post-election lame duck session."

Mitt Romney, first-runner up in the 2012 presidential beauty contest, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Russia invades, China bullies, Iran spins centrifuges, the Islamic State (a terrorist threat 'beyond anything that we've seen,' according to the defense secretary) threatens -- and Washington slashes the military." ...

... Paul Waldman: "In a comically ridiculous op-ed, the failed presidential candidate explains why the largest military on earth is actually a scrawny loser getting sand kicked in its face." CW: I'd say the vast Not-President Romney financial empire includes some flagging munitions stocks.

CW: This is obvious, but it's worth highlighting. The Republican party is never, ever going to reconstitute itself as "the Party of Lincoln" because it now owns the Confederacy. Jonathan Chait: "Given that the alliance between the white South and the Republican Party has grown more firm than ever, it is hard to imagine how the party can refashion itself along Lincolnian or Rooseveltian lines."

Steve Benen explains the hacking of Healthcare.gov to shoot-first-and-never-ask-questions GOP critics: "Was healthcare.gov hacked? Not really. A test server was uploaded with 'denial of service' malware -- a practice 'so common that it's attempted 28 different times every hour.' The healthcare.gov site itself was unharmed. Was healthcare.gov specifically targeted? No. Was any consumer information compromised? No. Was any data transmitted? No. Was there an attempt to steal data? No. Was the website knocked offline? No."

Steven Pinker in the New Republic on "the trouble with Harvard." "... it's common knowledge that Harvard selects at most 10 percent (some say 5 percent) of its students on the basis of academic merit.... Elite universities are nothing close to being meritocracies. We know that because they don't admit most of their students on the basis of academic aptitude. And perhaps that's what we should try next."

Beyond the Beltway

... Michael Keys of the Blot: "The chief of police for the Ferguson Police Department misled members of the media and the public when he asserted that his hand was forced in releasing surveillance footage that purported to show 18-year-old resident Michael Brown engaged in a strong-arm robbery at a convenience store.... When questioned by members of the press about the tape -- which apparently had nothing to do with the fatal shooting of the unarmed teenager -- [Ferguson Police Chief Tom] Jackson told reporters that he was legally obligated to release the tape because members of the media had submitted an open records requests for it.... 'We got a lot of Freedom of Information requests for this tape, and at some point it was just determined we had to release it. We didn't have good cause, any other reason not to release it under FOI.' ... A review of open records requests sent to the Ferguson Police Department found that no news organization, reporter or individual specifically sought the release of the surveillance tape before police distributed it on Aug. 15." (Emphasis added.) Read Keys' whole report, or at least click on his site, please. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the lead. ...

... CW Note: A few weeks ago, a couple of readers sent me this image of Michael Brown, who is pointing a gun at the camera & holding a wad of cash in his teeth. I think the readers got the images from their right-wing friends or relatives. The images have appeared all over the winger blogosphere & have showed up in the comments sections of legitimate news outlets. I figured the picture was of a kid being a jerk. And it is. But Michael Brown isn't the jerk. KCTV of Kansas reports that the man in the photo is Joda Cain, an accused killer from Oregon.

Senate Races

John Judis & Brian Beutler of the New Republic: Kansas Senate Democratic nominee Chad "Taylor dropped out [of the race], he claims, under assurances from the Kansas Secretary of State's office that his official withdrawal would remove his name from the ballot. But the Kansas Secretary of State is Kris Kobach -- a veteran GOP vote suppressor and one of the intellectual forces behind 'self-deportation.' He serves on [Sen. Pat] Roberts' honorary campaign committee. And on Thursday, he pulled an apparent bait and switch. Taylor's name, he concluded, will remain on the ballot. Election law guru Rick Hasen writes that though Taylor has a case, the question of what the courts will do is a tossup.... Normally [Republicans make] it hard for Democrats to vote in the first place. This time around it means trying to trick low-information Democrats into voting for a candidate who isn't running. But it's still voter suppression." ...

... The Disappearance of Pat Roberts. Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report: "Roberts' long-time campaign manager LeRoy Towns told The Wichita Eagle after the [primary] race was over. 'He went back home for two days or three to rest. I think he's going to come back here the first of next week,' said Towns, referencing Roberts' home in Virginia. Towns' comments seemed tone deaf considering Roberts was dogged by residency questions throughout the race.... 'He does intend to spend every moment between now and the election in Kansas, I think, that he can,' Towns also told the Eagle. But, according to Republicans familiar with the race, that just hasn't happened.... Roberts has not been actively campaigning for about a month now." Via David Nir of Daily Kos.

Thom Tillis, Throwback. Michael LaRosa of msnbc: North Carolina GOP nominee Thom "Tillis, who referred to [Sen. Kay] Hagan [D-N.C.] simply as 'Kay' during the hour-long debate and came under fire by some for taking a condescending tone toward Hagan, questioned the Senator's ability to comprehend budgets, math and policy.... 'I'm actually insulted by his comments, [Hagan] said. 'I was a Vice President of a bank. I wrote billion dollar state budgets in North Carolina. I understand math.'" CW: She's also on the Senate Banking Committee. ...

... Here's Tillis during Tuesday's debate whacking Hagan again & again for, you know, being a silly little woman who just can't understand big-boy subjects like math:

Gail Collins: "Republicans in close elections suddenly turn into cheerleaders for over-the-counter birth control pills. A negative and suspicious mind might almost suspect they were following a script." ...

... CW: Also, of course, this could force women to pay for this own contraception instead of getting it "free" under their insurance policies. ...

... Cathleen Decker of the Los Angeles Times in a straight news report: "Under the healthcare law, contraceptives are to be available without a co-pay. If the medication becomes available over the counter, most will not be covered by health insurance, meaning that drugs that have become more affordable would suddenly be less so."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 5, 2014

Internal links removed.

Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A federal jury Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption.... After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the McDonnells' alleged misdeeds ... found that they lent the prestige of the governor's office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse.... The former governor was convicted of 11 corruption-related counts pending against him, though acquitted of lying on loan documents. The former first lady was convicted of eight corruption-related charges, along with obstruction of justice. Maureen McDonnell was acquitted of lying on a loan document.... [The McDonnells] face decades in federal prison, though their actual sentence could fall well short of that. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 6, 2015. The moment the first guilty verdict was read, Bob McDonnell closed his eyes tightly, shaking in his seat as he wept.... Defense attorney Henry 'Hank' Asbill, saying he 'didn't expect' this outcome, assured reporters the McDonnells would appeal." ...

... The New York Times story, by Trip Gabriel, is here. The Richmond Times-Dispatch story, by Frank Green, et al., is here. The paper's front page currently links to several related stories. ...

... Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post interview three of the jurors. "Three jurors interviewed said their decision did not turn on any one piece of evidence or the testimony of any one of the 67 witnesses they heard, but the accumulated weight of evidence mounted by prosecutors day after day.... Defense attorneys argued that Robert and Maureen McDonnell's marriage was so broken they could not have conspired to use the governor's office to push the products of businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for gifts. But [juror Robin] Trujillo said that seemed implausible since the McDonnells were living together until a week before the trial and prosecutors produced numerous e-mails and other correspondence showing the pair had discussions about finances and regularly coordinated other plans." ...

     ... CW: That simple, common-sense observation makes you wonder how the McDonnells & their lawyers ever thought the "broken marriage" defense -- whether real or fake -- would work.

... Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: Maureen McDonnell "took the role of long-suffering political wife to a new level. She was flayed, demeaned, belittled and besmirched in court. And she didn't say a word.... All that the McDonnells said they appreciated when they ran for office -- family values, honesty, transparency and that integrity -- was lost not just in their transactions with Williams, but, more important, in the way they acted in that courtroom." ...

... Rachel Maddow elaborates on Bob McDonnell's epic hypocrisy:

In Other Political Corruption News.... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The communications and financial statements of Jesse Benton, an operative with close ties to Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have been subpoenaed in the grand jury investigation into the alleged bribing on an Iowa state senator in 2012. Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog on Thursday posted part of the subpoena."

John-Thor Dahlburg & Julie Pace of the AP: "Seeking to counter Russian aggression, NATO leaders approved plans Friday to post several thousand troops in Eastern Europe who could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the new unit would send a clear message to potential aggressors, namely Russia.... Confronting another pressing international crisis, Rasmussen said NATO stands 'ready to help' Iraq fight back against a violent militant group, but noted that the Iraqi government has not made any such request." ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... I'm baffled, even troubled, by the contradiction between what [President Obama is] saying and what he's doing [regarding Ukraine].... One could make a case for this week's lofty rhetoric or last week's realpolitik-infused restraint -- but not for both, simultaneously. And to speak of noble principles, while acting on narrower interests, only raises false hopes and sows deeper disillusionment once they're dashed."

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "The building blocks for a lengthy military and political assault on Islamic State (Isis) forces were being put in place on Thursday after Barack Obama and David Cameron agreed the principles of a campaign that will extend through Kurdish northern Iraq, Sunni Iraq and possibly into Syria itself. Cameron made clear that the campaign is dependent on the formation of a broad-based non-sectarian government in Baghdad, ideally by the Iraqis' own deadline of 14 September, as well as support from key countries in the region, including Jordan and Turkey." ...

** Peter Beinart on how the beheadings of James Foley & Steven Sotloff have changed the politics of U.S. Middle East policy. CW: What I don't know that Beinart explains well enough is that a single person who is usually realistic can become a "Jacksonian," at least momentarily, when s/he sees barbaric acts of violence committed against innocent people who might have been the neighbor kids. A good example: Vice President Biden, a highly-knowledgeable pragmatist, who this week promised to follow the jihadists to "the gates of hell." (Beinart claims Biden's rhetoric was strategic.) Yes, there are people who are consistently, even philosophically, aggrieved & vengeful, but I think most of us can be shocked into a retaliatory mood.

... Frank Rich: "... Obama's deliberateness in the face of ISIS’s provocations as well as Putin's -- his refusal to follow the trigger-happy foreign policy of the Bush-Cheney era -- is to be applauded. You will notice that the crowd of pundits and (mostly Republican) politicians insisting that Obama 'do something' about these horrors

... Rand Paul in Time: "Some pundits are surprised that I support destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militarily. They shouldn't be. I've said since I began public life that I am not an isolationist, nor am I an interventionist. I look at the world, and consider war, realistically and constitutionally." CW: Paul's piece falls exactly into the frame Rich illuminates. It's a parody of itself. Paul also claims -- without offering an evidence other than to assure(/warn) us he's just like Ronald Reagan -- that he is not a flip-flopper. ...

... "Rand Paul's Epic Flip-Flop." Benjy Sarlin of msnbc: "The main reason 'pundits' may be surprised, however, is because of Paul's past statements, many of which seem to contradict the hawkish strategy the hypothetical Paul administration apparently would have implemented years ago to contain ISIS. When ISIS initially captured large swaths of Iraqi territory in June, Paul's response was mainly to criticize former President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for enabling ISIS's rise by launching the US. invasion of Iraq. In fact, Paul specifically argued that Obama didn't deserve scorn for failing to prevent the insurgent gains as a result. And while his new op-ed criticizes Obama for saying he still hasn't decided on a strategy to confront ISIS, Paul himself has made similar comments in arguing there might not be a viable strategy to defeat ISIS." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Arguing that his motto 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay." ...

... Christina Marcos of the Hill: "Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Wednesday that he plans to introduce a bill when Congress reconvenes next week that would authorize the use of military force against terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)." ...

... Jim Newell of Salon: "Frank Wolf's [proposed bill] will codify the president's authority to basically bomb whomever he wants, wherever, and whenever, forever.... Wolf is a longtime Northern Virginia congressman whose district contains many defense contractors. He's retiring at the end of this term.... One could consider this AUMF Wolf's parting gifts to the military-industrial complex with whom he's had such a mutually beneficial relationship over the years."

Clifford Krauss & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier ... ruled on Thursday that BP was grossly negligent in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout that killed 11 workers, spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches.... Judge Barbier also ruled that Transocean, the owner of the rig, and Halliburton, the service company that cemented the well, were negligent in the accident. But the judge put most of the blame on BP, opening the way to fines of up to $18 billion under the Clean Water Act." ...

... "The Law & the Profits." Charles Pierce: "Economic royalism, and the political infrastructure carefully designed to support it, took a beating Thursday in several courts, even if you don't count the one that convicted the McDonnells in Virginia."

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's civil rights investigation into the police department in Ferguson, Mo., will focus on whether officers there made discriminatory traffic stops, mistreated prisoners and used excessive force in the years before last month's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday."

This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, in re: Troy Davis (2009)

... Dahlia Lithwick: Justice Antonin Scalia has repeatedly cited the heinousness of Henry Lee McCollum's crime as justification for the death penalty. "Having shown that he never committed that crime, it seems high time to ask whether, in the view of some Supreme Court justices, that would have even made a difference had we executed him.... It never fails to astonish me that the same conservatives who argue that every last aspect of big government is irreparably broken and corrupt inevitably see a capital punishment system that is perfect and just." CW: To Lithwick's long list of what went wrong with the initial case against McCollum & Leon Brown, I'd add "racism."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "A unanimous panel of federal judges in Chicago ruled Thursday that laws banning same-sex marriage in Indiana and Wisconsin are unconstitutional, becoming the third appeals court to rule that gay couples must be allowed to marry.... 'The grounds advanced by Indiana and Wisconsin for their discriminatory policies are not only conjectural; they are totally implausible,' wrote Circuit Judge Richard Posner, an influential jurist chosen for the bench by President Ronald Reagan."

Sarah Kliff of Vox: "In major cities across the country, Obamacare premiums are falling. That is not normal; health-insurance premiums nearly always go up and up and up. They rarely, if ever, decrease."

Ian Millhiser has a useful piece on the importance of the D.C. Court of Appeals' decision to re-hear Halbig v. Burwell, the case in which the plaintiffs are attempting to gut the ACA. ...

... Jonathan Chait puts the plaintiffs' chances before the full panel at zero. ...

... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "The real significance of [the] announcement is how it affects the Supreme Court. The architects of the lawsuit had already petitioned the justices, asking them to take up the case and issue a final, authoritative ruling.... But the best pretext for the justices to take the case would be a split among Circuit Court rulings -- i.e., one decision upholding the lawsuit and one rejecting it. As of this morning, that split no longer exists." ...

... Brian Beutler: If the plaintiffs in Halbig prevail, "Millions of people would lose their health insurance in service of teaching Congress a lesson about the importance of legislative draftsmanship. That's not a very becoming political argument, though, so the Halbig supporters have stapled a grandiose claim to their core challenge. Because many of the people who would lose their insurance would also qualify for an exemption from the law's insurance coverage mandate, they frame it as a principled campaign for liberty.... The conspicuous thing about the Medicaid freedmen and those who would be freed from the individual mandate is that they're disproportionately black and poor. ACA rejectionism isn't enhancing their liberty at all."

Peter Shroeder of the Hill: "The gap between the nation's wealthiest and the rest of Americans has expanded in recent years.... A new study released Thursday by the Federal Reserve found that gains in income have been 'far from uniform' over the last few years, with those making the most doing significantly better than everyone else. Those at the bottom of the scale continued to see their real incomes shrink from 2010-2013, while those in the middle of the pack saw little change, meaning their paychecks still fell behind where they were before the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the nation's wealthiest saw broad income gains."

Paul Krugman: "Europe, which is doing worse than it did in the 1930s, is clearly in the grip of a deflationary vortex, and it's good to know that the central bank understands that. But its epiphany may have come too late. It's far from clear that the measures now on the table will be strong enough to reverse the downward spiral."

Benghaaazi! David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Five commandos guarding the C.I.A. base in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 say that the C.I.A. station chief stopped them from interceding in time to save the lives of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and an American technician during the attack on the diplomatic mission there.... The accusation that the station chief, referred to in the book only as 'Bob,' held back the rescue opens a new front in a fierce political battle over who is at fault for the American deaths."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorney General Eric Holder reaffirmed Thursday that the Justice Department will not seek to jail New York Times reporter James Risen in connection with a criminal case charging a former CIA officer with leaking national security secrets to the journalist."

NBC News: "Chuck Todd will interview President Barack Obama on 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. The exclusive interview, which marks Todd's debut as permanent moderator of 'Meet the Press,' will cover the threat of ISIS, U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine, the Ebola virus outbreak, the coming midterm elections and other news of the day...." CW: Very disappointed Chuck didn't go with McCain. The old folks in Peoria are going to be awfully upset.

Carrying He-Said/She-Said Past Absurd. The Economist publishes -- then withdraws, with apology -- a review of a book about slavery in which "Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains." The reviewer complains, "This is not history; it is advocacy." Jonathan Chait comments on the review. Even though he hasn't read the book! he opines, with contemptuous understatement, "I can think of reasons other than ideological bias to explain why almost all the black people would be victims, and the white people villains, in a book about white people who captured black people and subjected them to torture, rape, murder, humiliation, and oppressive forced labor."

Senate Races

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "National Republicans on Thursday moved to take control of the campaign of Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas by sending a longtime party strategist to the state to advise him, a day after his hopes for re-election and those of his party for taking control of the Senate were threatened by the attempted withdrawal of the Democrat in the race. Also on Thursday, the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach [RTP], ruled that the Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, could not withdraw his name from the ballot, a move likely to set off further legal challenges in the race.... Mr. Taylor said in a statement on Thursday that the secretary of state's office had told him the day before that his letter requesting that his name be removed from the ballot 'was sufficient' for him to withdraw from the race." ...

... Here's Taylor's full statement regarding his interaction with Kobach's staff member, Brad Bryant, Director of Elections & Legislative Matters. This is important. Taylor withdrew his name according to instructions provided by the official whom Kobach put in charge of electionsSounds like Kobach, who is a colossal dick on every count (except maybe he likes puppies, I don't know), pulled a fast one. Taylor's statement, in part:.

I specifically asked Mr. Bryant if the letter contained all the information necessary to withdrawn my name from the ballotgain confirmed with Mr. Bryant that this notarized letter removed my name from the ballot. Mr. Bryant said 'Yes,' affirming to me & my campaign manager that the letter was sufficient to withdraw my name from the ballot.... [After a secretary of state employee notarized my notification] I again confirmed with Mr. Bryant that this notarized letter removed my name from the ballot. 'He again said "Yes.'"

... Dave Helling & Brad Cooper of the Kansas City Star: "Late Thursday, Taylor vowed to challenge [Kobach's] decision.... Wednesday afternoon, [Kobach's] office pulled Taylor's name from the list of candidates running in the state. Just hours later, it was back -- as legal questions swirled around the withdrawal announcement." ...

... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Kobach was asked about Taylor's statement after announcing his decision Thursday. 'At no time did Mr. Bryant state that the filing that Mr. Taylor gave was sufficient,' Kobach said." ...

He is partisan, and mean, and he has made an unmitigated mess of our electoral system. He ought to keep his hand out of this one. -- Joan Wagnon, Kansas Democratic Party Chair, on Kris Kobach

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "Assuming Taylor is telling the truth -- and given Kobach's history as a bigoted right-wing lunatic I'd trust him over Kobach any day of the week -- then Kobach is going to have a hard time explaining what appears to be a nakedly partisan move." ...

... Here's a tiny bit of background on Kobach, courtesy of Kos.

Jamison Foser: "The Iowa Senate race between Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley offers the clearest example of a politician's hypocrisy you'll ever find: Today Ernst took the precise position on the Social Security retirement age that she criticized Braley for just hours before. Via Paul Waldman.

Beyond the Beltway

Laura Bischoff of the Dayton Daily News: "A GOP-backed law that eliminated 'Golden Week' -- a window when Ohioans could both register and vote in the same week -- and that curbed early voting is unconstitutional and can't be enforced, according to a ruling issued Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Peter Economus. Economus granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by the NAACP of Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio and a host of church groups and voting rights advocates. The plaintiffs challenged Senate Bill 238, which Gov. John Kasich [R] signed into law in February, as well as directives issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted [R]. Economus said in his 71-page ruling that they were unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Via Charles Pierce.

Living While Black. David Perry, in Daily Kos, on four incidents in which police tased black men for sitting, walking, hands-in-pockets, hands-in-air. In only one of the four cases is there an indication the black man had committed a crime -- fleeing from police. That man, tased 13 times, died.

News Ledes

AP: "U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month streak of hiring above 200,000 and posting the smallest gain in eight months. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. But the rate dropped because more people without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed. Employers also added 28,000 fewer jobs in June and July than the government had previously estimated."

Guardian: "Hours before a ceasefire is expected to take effect in eastern Ukraine, after a significant breakthrough in the five-month conflict, heavy shelling has been heard east of Mariupol port. A commander of a Ukrainian volunteer militia based in Mariupol told Reuters: 'We were under fire all night but we are still keeping the rebels at bay. They are facing us with tanks and artillery.'"

Hill: "A hacker breached HealthCare.gov in July and uploaded malicious software, apparently intending to use the system in future cyberattacks against other websites. The break-in ... was discovered last week by federal health officials, who said no personal data was taken. It is the first successful, confirmed hack of the federal health insurance exchange that went through a rocky launch last year."