The Commentariat -- June 10, 2014
Internal links removed.
Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "The Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday shed light on the depth of the VA scheduling scandal and substantiated claims that rank-and-file employees were directed to manipulate records. The agency said more than 57,000 new patients have waited at least 90 days for their first appointments and that about 13 percent of VA schedulers indicated they were told to falsify appointment-request dates to give the impression that wait times were shorter than they really were. The information comes from the agency' s internal audit of 731 VA medical centers, which the VA released Monday." ...
... Thomas Burton of the Wall Street Journal: "The Department of Veterans Affairs stopped sending teams of turnaround experts to underperforming hospitals at the same time a growing number of VA facilities showed consistently high death and complication rates, internal agency records and interviews reveal.... Current and former VA doctors say the lag in scrutiny came at a time of turmoil when top managers of the agency, some of whom since have been ousted, played down the utility of measuring specific medical outcomes." CW: The article is firewalled. To access it, if you're not a WSJ subscriber, copy & paste a portion of the lede sentence into Google or another search engine. ...
... Stacy Kaper of the National Journal: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed Monday to take action imminently on expected reforms to the Veterans Affairs Department. The legislation, which was agreed to in principle last week, is still being drafted by Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Arizona Republican John McCain. But Reid promised Monday to bring the bill to the floor as soon as it's ready." ...
... CW Note: Alex Rogers of Time: Sanders & McCain introduced the bill yesterday. I can't find any other stories on the status of the bill.
Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama signed an executive order on Monday intended to lessen the college loan burden on nearly five million younger Americans by capping repayments at 10 percent of the borrowers' monthly income. Joined by indebted graduates in the East Room of the White House, Mr. Obama said the spiraling cost of higher education had put 'too big a debt load on too many people'":
Ian Lovett of the New York Times profiles the Las Vegas killers, who were antigovernment extremists "along the lines of militia and white supremacists." Here's a key sentence: When the two began shooting up the WalMart, "One man at the checkout area who was carrying a handgun tried to stop Mr. Miller, but did not notice that Ms. Miller was working in concert with her husband; she shot the man dead." CW: This entire episode is about what is wrong with the right wing. ...
... Charles Pierce: "... these two jamokes allegedly marinated themselves in the stew of guns and paranoia that bubbles daily in the conservative media from fringe radio hosts and chain e-mails all the way up to the polite precincts of the National Review Online and the Fox News Channel. That shouldn't surprise us any more. The enabling of dangerous loons and the empowerment by firearms thereof is simply a staple of conservative politics in this country, yet another fetish object, yet another set of conjuring words for the conservative priesthood, which (always) deplores the activity of a few while realizing in its heart of hearts that it has no political future at the moment, no real substantial constituency, without people like this...." Read the whole post. ...
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... there are some particular features of conservative political rhetoric today that help create an atmosphere in which violence and terrorism can germinate. The most obvious component is the fetishization of firearms and the constant warnings that government will soon be coming to take your guns. But that's only part of it. Just as meaningful is the conspiracy theorizing that became utterly mainstream once Barack Obama took office.... In our recent history, every election of a Democratic president is followed by a rise in conspiracy-obsessed right-wing populism." ...
... CW: The difference here is that in the past, few federal officeholders have fully embraced the insanity. Now, there's a large contingent in the House & some in the Senate who are -- or claim to be -- true believers.
... Adam Weinstein of Gawker features some of the Millers' right-wing Facebook remarks & "likes." A commenter notes that Jerad Miller wrote he would rather die than go to a "fema re-education camp." Thank you, Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck, et al. ...
... BUT if you are a regular reader of Right Wing News, you will already know that these crazed killers were socialists. (They get this insane rationale from the fact that the original Nazi party was officially the Socialist Democratic party [Sozialdemokratische Partei].) So now every super-crazed winger who does bodily harm is a socialist. Just like Obama. This, then, is the way the "respectable people" of Winger World will try to duck responsibility for their anti-government, anti-Obama, gun-worshipping fascism. The capacity for self-delusion is a bottomless pit. Via Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette, via Charles Pierce. ...
... UPDATE: ALSO, they were leftists. "... someone waving around a gun yelling 'this is a revolution' is the very definition of a leftist." CW: This claim is equally absurd. See, for instance, J. J. MacNab's May2014 report on the right-wing Sovereign Movement, which she wrote to help explain the Cliven Bundy standoff with the Bureau of Land Management.
Gregory Korte of USA Today: "Public opposition to the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for captive Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has less to do with Bergdahl himself and more with how President Obama handled the transfer, according to a new USA TODAY/Pew Research Center poll. The poll shows 43% of Americans say it was wrong for Obama to make the deal, compared with 34% who say it was the right thing to do." Those "Republican strategists" (see Helene Cooper remark below) are doing their jobs, & the "liberal media" have dutifully obliged. ...
... Lauren French & John Bresnahan of Politico: "House Republicans came out of a more than hour-long classified briefing by top national security officials on Monday complaining they'd learned nothing new about the incident that has't already been disclosed in the news media. GOP lawmakers, in particular, were upset that an estimated 80 to 90 executive branch officials in the Pentagon, White House and the intelligence agencies, but no members of Congress were informed beforehand, including the chairs of the House and Senate intelligence panels." CW: For why that might be, see Sen. Saxby Chambliss's comments, highlighted in yesterday's Commentariat.
Stupid Congressman of the Week (So Far). Emily Atkin of Think Progress: Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) argues that humans can't cause climate change because dinosaurs became extinct before people were driving around in cars. CW: As Skeptical Science wrote some while back this argument is, "equivalent to seeing a dead body with a knife sticking out the back, then arguing the death must be natural because people died naturally in the past." Also, Miller in the past has blamed God for climate change. Atkin notes, "Miller's home state of Florida also happens to be one of the places in the United States that is most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change."
Simon Shuster of Time: "Ukraine's new President Petro Poroshenko wants to see Russia punished for what he calls the 'tragedy' that befell his country this year. But even as Russia has annexed one region of Ukraine and encouraged a violent rebellion in two others, Ukraine does not have the option of breaking off ties with the Kremlin, Poroshenko told Time in his first interview since taking office. His government has no choice but to seek 'an understanding' with Russia, he says, even if for no other reason than the hard reality of Ukraine’s geography."
Ron Fournier of the National Journal claims: "In the 18 months since I began writing columns focused on the presidency, virtually every post critical of Obama has originated from conversations with Democrats. Members of Congress, consultants, pollsters, lobbyists, and executives at think tanks, these Democrats are my Obama-whispers. They respect and admire Obama but believe that his presidency has been damaged by his shortcomings as a leader; his inattention to details of governing; his disengagement from the political process and from the public; his unwillingness to learn on the job; and his failure to surround himself with top-shelf advisers who are willing to challenge their boss as well as their own preconceived notions." ...
... CW: I'd be surprised if Fournier had any real Democratic contacts. This just sounds like some nobodies griping & Fournier loving it. The "charges" are pretty vague. As for this being some sort of "news," progressives -- myself included -- & some Democratic officials have been criticizing Obama since the transition.
Helene Cooper, who reported last week on the men in Bowe Bergdahl's unit who came to the Times via "a Republican strategist" to accuse Bergdahl of deserting said the men "had clearly been coached." The original report, by Cooper & others, is here. CW: Nice use of the passive voice there, Helene. Whoevah do you supposed coached the men? Let's see. As Rosie Gray & Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed reported last week, the guy hooking up the soldiers with the media was Richard Grenell, a Crazy John Bolton protoge' & former Romney campaign aide.
CW: It's true that the Washington Post editorial pages serve as a retirement home for ex-Bush aides & other riffraff. Still, isn't it time to retire George Will? In a column last week he complained that "... capacious definitions of sexual assault that can include not only forcible sexual penetration but also nonconsensual touching," and that universities are encouraging women to make false claims of sexual assault by "mak[ing] victimhood a coveted status that confers privileges."
All Hillary All the Time, Ctd.
Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aggressively defended her handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack and declined to offer any evaluation of what, if anything, she would've done differently. 'No,' Clinton said, when asked by ABC's Diane Sawyer if she 'missed the moment' to prevent the attacks."
Alexandra Jaffe: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is pushing back on former Defense Secretary Robert Gates' assertion that her opposition to the 2007 Iraq troop surge was politically motivated. 'I think he perhaps either missed the context or the meaning because I did oppose the surge,' Clinton told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an interview that will air Monday night. 'The public had given up,' she added. 'This is not politics in electoral, political terms. This is politics in the sense of the American public has to support commitments like this. I opposed the surge.'" ...
... Chris Good of ABC News runs down "21 revealing quotes from the Sawyer interview.
Noam Scheiber of the New Republic describes Hillary & Barack's "marriage of convenience." CW: This is politics as usual, even "normal human relations" as usual, & is the way most reasonable officials negotiate disagreements with members of their own party. (Do you publicly rebuke your spouse or your good friend when s/he says something you disagree with? Probably not.)
Joni Ernst's Husband Is Just as Classy as She Is. Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed: "Last year, the husband of Iowa Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst, her party’s nominee for Senate made his opinion known about Hillary Clinton on Facebook. 'Truly more of a hag now than when she was 1st Lady!” Gail Ernst wrote, sharing a Benghazi-related image." The Ernst campaign has criticized her Democratic opponent for "using imagery that ... 'degrades and insults Iowa women.'"
Congressional Races
Cameron Joseph & Alexandra Jaffe of the Hill: "Voters go to the polls on Tuesday in Arkansas, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia. Tea Party challenges to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are the marquee contests, and no federal races are on the ballot in North Dakota or the Arkansas runoffs."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was once thought to be among the Republican incumbents most vulnerable this year to a Tea Party challenge. But the most pressing question on Tuesday is not whether he will finish first in the party primary, but whether he can avoid a runoff by capturing more than 50 percent of the vote in a seven-person field."
Beyond the Beltway
Laura Vozella & Michael Laris of the Washington Post: "Virginia Republicans snatched control of the state Senate on Monday, immediately ending a budget stalemate by pushing Democrats to agree to pass a spending plan without Medicaid expansion, Gov. Terry McAuliffe's top priority. The power shift forced Senate Democrats to yield after a protracted standoff that had threatened to shut down state government in less than a month, according to several lawmakers with direct knowledge of the deal. Democratic negotiators agreed in a closed-door meeting Monday to pass a budget without expanding health coverage to 400,000 low-income Virginians." ...
... CW: David Firestone of the New York Times is as pissed at the Virginia state senator who quit the senate so Republicans would have the majority they need to stop Medicaid expansion in the state: "Phillip Puckett, resigned today, paving the way for his daughter, Martha Puckett Ketron, to win an appointment as a domestic court judge..., proving yet again that personal ambition and venality often outweigh political principle.... Until earlier this afternoon, it looked as though Mr. Puckett would take a job as deputy director of the state's tobacco commission, which is led by a Republican legislator. But he ultimately walked away from the offer after furious Democrats accused him of accepting a bribe." ...
... Jamelle Bouie in Slate: "Puckett didn't just sell out his Democratic colleagues, he sold out thousands of his constituents -- indifferent to their health and well-being -- for little more than some cheap nepotism. No, the Republicans he helped aren't much better; they would rather wage an ideological crusade against Obama than aid the voters who support them. Still, say what you will about right-wing extremism, at least it's an ethos. And given the choice, I would rather have an opponent with conviction than an ally who couldn't be bothered to care."
AP: "U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has sold his home in Searchlight and several mining claims to a gold mining company."
News Ledes
AP: "Israel's parliament on Tuesday chose Reuven Rivlin, a veteran nationalist politician and supporter of the Jewish settlement movement, as the country's next president, putting a man opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state into the ceremonial but influential post."
New York Times: "Martha Hyer, an Oscar-nominated movie actress who starred alongside Humphrey Bogart, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine in the 1950s and 1960s, died on May 31 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 89."
Washington Post: "Five American troops were killed in southern Afghanistan in a rare friendly fire airstrike that struck a team of Afghan and U.S. troops conducting a security operation ahead of Saturday's presidential runoff vote, U.S. and Afghan officials familiar with the incident said Tuesday."