The Commentariat -- May 9, 2014

Internal links removed.

Paul Krugman: "Last year..., 25 hedge fund managers made more than twice as much as all the kindergarten teachers in America combined.... The vast gulf that now exists between the upper-middle-class and the truly rich didn't emerge until the Reagan years.... The evidence suggests that hedge funds are a bad deal for everyone except their managers they don't deliver high enough returns to justify those huge fees, and they're a major source of economic instability.... Next time you hear someone declaiming about how cruel it is to persecute the rich, think about the hedge fund guys, and ask yourself if it would really be a terrible thing if they paid more in taxes." ...

A little twerp -- Andrew Sorkin -- interviews a little twerp -- hedge fund manager private equity executive Tim Geithner. CW: I didn't read it; if anybody finds anything interesting, please share. ...

... Sahil Kapur of TPM read it: "Bill Clinton told former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner that nothing would appease the populist 'blood lust' for bankers -- not even slitting the throat of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein in a dark alley." CW: According to Sorkin, Geithner's telling this story is evidence he has "personality." As far as I'm concerned, it's (even more) evidence that Clinton & Geithner were always in the tank for rich Wall Streeters. ...

... Hunter Walker of Business Insider also read it: "Geithner also told Sorkin he began asking Obama to let him leave Treasury in 2010. He said he even proposed alternative options [for Treasury secretary,] including Hillary Clinton and Erskine Bowles." CW: Fucking twerp. This is precisely why progressives give up & vote for Nader. (And, no, I'm not recommending that! But President Hillary will be President Mitt, minus the horrifying judicial appointees.) ...

... Do you think Hillary reads Krugman? Ha!

Tim Egan: The Koch brothers "have used a big part of [their] fortune to attack the indisputable science on climate change, to buy junk scholars, to promote harmful legislation at the state level, to go after clean, renewable energy like solar, and to try to kill the greatest expansion of health care in decades.... Yet, while these billionaire industrialists may win in the short term..., in the larger fight against progress and modernity the Kochs have already lost. Clean energy is here to stay, and no sane political party would try to take away the health care of eight million fellow Americans." ...

... Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Charles Krauthammer believes climate change is a mere superstition, just like the 'rain dance of Native Americans.'" The logic here? Sometimes meteorologists inaccurately predict the next day's weather, so they can't possibly know anything about climate trends over multiple years or decades. CW: Inexplicably, Krauthammer forgot to wear his Koch Industries T-shirt while delivering the billionaires' message.

CW: I Believe I'll Have a Subway Sandwich. Alan Pyke of Think Progress: Fred DeLuca, "the founder and CEO of Subway, says a minimum wage increase wouldn’t be such a bad thing for his stores and workers and believes it should be changed so that wages rise automatically with inflation. DeLuca's support is noteworthy in part because of the size of his business. Subway has the most locations of any fast food chain. While a majority of small business owners support a $10.10 wage hike, major corporations of that scale typically oppose raising wages.:

Julia Preston of the New York Times: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a strong warning on Thursday to public school districts nationwide not to deny enrollment to immigrant students in the country illegally."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A new pre-publication review policy for the Office of Director of National Intelligence says current and former employees and contractors may not cite news reports based on leaks in their speeches, opinion articles, books, term papers or other unofficial writings.... It says, 'The use of such information in a publication can confirm the validity of an unauthorized disclosure and cause further harm to national security.'"

New GOP Talking Point: Boko Haram abducted 200 Nigerian schoolgirls because Hillary Clinton is soft on terrorism. CW: If only those schoolgirls were white, this scandal could be the new Benghaaazi! ...

... Here's the old Benghazi. Dave Weigel: "Trey Gowdy is precisely the person the White House doesn't want investigating Benghazi.... To conduct hearings that may lead to impeachment, Republicans needed a leader who seemed unimpeachable." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "That congressional Republicans are contemplating [impeachment] so seriously when Barack Obama is already heading towards the exit -- and given the vast evidence a similar move backfired decisively in the 1990s -- shows how much pressure they are under from 'the base,' and how deranged the supposed Great Big Adults of the Republican Establishment have become. Maybe the glittering prospect of impeaching Obama while disqualifying HRC is just so bright that they aren't thinking straight." ...

... Brian Beutler: Nah, Boehner & company are just faking their Benghaaazi! (or #Benghazi) outrage. ...

... BUT Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg News: Yeah, Republican legislators really do believe their own hype. "A party incapable of seeing outside of its own propaganda bubble is unlikely to be able to govern competently.... Republicans have [built] an extensive aligned media that has all sorts of incentives to cocoon itself, while also building an extensive ideology of opposition to the 'neutral' media and, at times, to facts."

Annals of American Journalism, Ctd.

Amanda Hess in Slate: "While [Monica] Lewinsky expresses regret for her ill-fated relationship with [President] Clinton -- and many Americans have come to realize that Lewinsky got a raw deal -- [Maureen] Dowd is not yet ready to assume responsibility for her own role." AND the Pulitzer committee gave Dowd the prize for trashing Lewinsky.

And now that Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, has become topic one--again--for the GOP, the sycophants, the lackeys, the lazy, and the ideologues in the fourth estate, it's worth reviewing one of the earlier bungled attempts to remake a bad turn of events into a scandal of historic proportions. Reporter Joe Hagan, in NY Magazine earlier this week published an extensive look at the rise and fall of Lara Logan, disgraced CBS journalist whose highly questionable Benghazi report on 60 Minutes created a furor, a retraction, and a leave of absence. Logan's rise, attributable, says Hagan, to CBS's desire to balance its image on the right as a "liberal" organization, was aided by a need to look tough and amenable to conservative viewpoints. "'She got everything she wanted, always, even when she was wrong, and that's been going on since the beginning,' says a former CBS News producer who worked with her." ...

... Ann Friedman writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, considers the problems news operations get themselves into when they tie their brand too closely to personalities like Logan who have their own brand and their own following.

He meant well...

The re-imagining of George W. Bush continues apace. Matt Bai, writing on Yahoo, wants everyone to quit being mean. In his opinion, The Decider was actually a nice, sincere guy who meant well. All that business of thousands being killed, millions dispossessed and trillions wasted was just unfortunate. Steve M., at No More Mister Nice Blog begs to differ: " If you accept Bai's characterization of Bush -- that he was a decent guy who got in over his head, y'know, the way people do -- the point is that he's like a guy who sets up a storefront medical clinic in an underserved area even though he has no medical training and botches most of his procedures, often killing his patients or doing them some other form of permanent harm. Who the hell cares if someone like that is sincere? He's a menace." In fact, Bush really, really, really cares about all those people he sent to die for a made up war. Well, shit, I feel so much better about that now.

He goes on to review Peggy Noonan's latest delusion that Benghazi was much worse than Iran-Contra. (Her fever dream piece is behind a Wall Street Journal firewall. But...well, you know...) Why? Because Reagan meant well too. Sincerity must be the new route to a re-jiggered legacy. These people really do inhabit a different universe.

Senate Race

Tuck Chodd gives GOP Senate nominee Thom Tillis a hard time:

Beyond the Beltway

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Oklahoma's attorney general has agreed that the state's next execution should be delayed for six months following the botched execution last week."

Right Wing World: Haters Unite

There's no live and let live in Right Wing World. And there certainly is no golden rule. Or anything vaguely resembling comity. It's not enough for wingers to be against something. If you cross whatever Cloud Cuckoo Land line in the sand they draw, they will go after you. Today is the second day of the NFL draft and the wingnuts are ready to pounce. Jack Burkman, head of the Washington, D.C. lobbying firm J.M. Burkman & Assoc. who is seeking to ban gays from the NFL, says he intends to build a national coalition to boycott any football franchise that picks openly gay football player Michael Sam in the NFL Draft. Burkman promises that his attack will be "relentless". According to a call to arms on the Christian Post website, "The NFL, like most of the rest of American business, is about to learn that when you trample the Christian community and Christian values there will be a terrible financial price to pay," said Burkman.

Sam, who came out in February will be the first openly gay player in the NFL if drafted. Luckily, some businesses, Visa, for one, are not too concerned about Burkman's threats.

The Commentariat -- May 8, 2014

Internal links removed.

CW: Light postings today & in the near future. I'm veddy, veddy busy. I'll do my best, but "best" won't be optimal.

They Have No Shame. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The House voted Wednesday to hold in contempt Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service official who is the focus of multiple investigations into whether the agency targeted President Obama's opponents. The vote gives a politically charged issue new prominence in an election year. In a contentious debate before the vote, Republicans made allegations of a Watergate-style inside job to cover up high crimes that helped steal a presidential election. Democrats invoked former Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and delusions of widespread conspiracy." ...

... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said the special committee he'll lead on Benghazi could continue into the 2016 campaign, when Hillary Clinton might be running for the White House. Asked about that possibility Wednesday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' Gowdy said the length of his work would depend on the administration's level of cooperation.... Some Democrats suspect Republicans want to keep Benghazi in the news to try to hurt Clinton if she runs for the White House in 2016, as expected. " CW: "Some Democrats"? How about "every sentient political observer"? ...

... Dan Merica of CNN: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she is 'absolutely' satisfied with what she knows about the Benghazi terror attack, and cast doubt on the intentions of House Republicans spearheading a select committee to investigate it."

... They Got Nothin'. Ed Kilgore: "All along, the underlying GOP J'Accuse! seems to be that the administration was ignoring an upsurge of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist violence, the relative absence of which since then would seem to be a show-trial-stopper if the inquisitors hadn't already moved along to second- and third-order questions about who 'covered up' what when." ...

... USA Today Editors: "After 13 inquiries, a select committee on Benghazi hardly seems the best way for Congress to spend its time." ...

... Even Tuck Chodd agrees "It looks like nothing more than a partisan stunt":

... Olivia Kittel, et al., of Media Matters answer anew "The Already Asked-And-Answered Questions Fox Wants To Know From The Benghazi Select Committee." Useful, if you need to counter your Foxbot brother-in-law.

ObamaCare Aversion Syndrome, Ctd. Robert Pear of the New York Times: "House Republicans summoned a half-dozen health insurance executives to a hearing Wednesday envisioned as another forum for criticism of the Affordable Care Act. But insurers refused to go along with the plan, and surprised Republican critics of the law by undercutting some of their arguments against it. Insurers, appearing before a panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee, testified that the law had not led to a government takeover of their industry, as some Republicans had predicted. Indeed, several insurers said their stock prices had increased in the last few years. The executives also declined to endorse Republican predictions of a sharp increase in insurance premiums next year, saying they did not have enough data or experience to forecast prices." ....

... CW: The GOP committee members' apparent surprise at the execs' testimony is an indicator that the bubbleheads actually do live in a bubble. They believe their own fake talking points. ..

... Jonathan Chait recaps "some of the predictions made by the critics [of ObamaCare] that have taken a factual beating.... They still have many predictions of doom that cannot be falsified for years and years to come.... But if they truly believe the arguments they have made -- that the law not only should not but cannot work -- shouldn't they be expressing, at minimum, some serious doubts?"

Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission called Wednesday on the agency's chairman [Tom Wheeler ]to delay a proposal for new net neutrality rules, throwing into doubt whether the chairman will be able to muster enough votes at an F.C.C. meeting next week to issue proposed rules. Jessica Rosenworcel, one of three Democrats on the five-member commission, said in a speech Wednesday that a delay was warranted because of a 'torrent of public response' to the idea that the commission's rules might create a fast lane on the Internet for companies willing to pay for it."

Digby, in Salon, on one effect of open carry laws: "... in the wake of the new Georgia law that pretty much makes it legal to carry deadly weapons at all times in all places, parents were alarmed when an armed man showed up at the park where their kids were playing little league baseball and waved his gun around shouting, 'Look at my gun!' and 'There's nothing you can do about it.' The police were called and when they arrived they found the man had broken no laws and was perfectly within his rights to do what he did.... Common sense tells anyone that a man waving a gun around in public is dangerous so the parents had no choice but to leave the park. Freedom for the man with the gun trumps freedom for the parents of kids who feel endangered by him.

... CW: The majority of the Supremes may declare these open-carry laws constitutional, but they clearly violate the central tenet of the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independant, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness." Anyone who feels "free" to pursue his bliss while a guy is waving a gun in his face is as crazy as the gunman. A person without a gun is not "equal" to or "independent" from a loon with a loaded firearm. Too bad the Declaration carries no weight of law.

** Adam Weinstein of Gawker: "In all the furor over Tal Fortgang -- the privileged white Princeton freshman who wrote so passionately about how he's not a privileged white guy -- no one, not even the New York Times, noted that his post was made possible by a conservative group that bankrolls and grooms college kids for right-wing leadership."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who is in a difficult race for re-election, invited President Obama to visit the tornado-devastated town of Vilonia, despite Obama's unpopularity in Arkansas. "Mr. Pryor, a two-term incumbent, stood right behind Mr. Obama as he made his remarks, and the president made sure to point out the senator's leadership role in the tornado recovery efforts. He praised Mr. Pryor; Vilonia's mayor, James Firestone; and Gov. Mike Beebe and Representative Tim Griffin, for being 'hands-on, on the ground throughout these difficult days.'"

Lisa Desjardins of CNN: " The election-year attention on women lands directly on the House floor Wednesday, after Republican leaders decided to allow a vote on a National Women's History Museum, changing their approach to the issue. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, has pushed the idea of a national women's museum for over 17 years. Her bill to trigger the first step, a museum commission, has passed the House and Senate before, but during separate sessions of Congress. In each case a Democratic majority in one chamber approved the museum commission but Republicans in the other blocked it.... Maloney is quick to credit her bipartisan cosponsor, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who personally made the case for the museum to key GOP leaders in the House." CW: Turns out Blackburn is good for something, even if it is any election-year ploy.

Gail Collins: often their gone-viral videos outlast the candidates. Collins reprises several outrageous campaign videos, but concentrates on this one, which I've embedded before:

... Afterword. (By Collins): "Winteregg's employer, a conservative Christian college in Cedarville, Ohio, was not amused and fired him from his job as adjunct professor of French. It's always unfortunate when educators get punished for their outside political activities. On the other hand, I believe I speak for all of us who have been adjunct professors when I say it's unlikely that we are talking about losing a living wage."

Annals of American Journalism, Ctd.

Jonathan Cohn demonstrates once again that if your only source of news is the Right Wing World Gazette, you will be ignorant.

Joe Strupp of Media Matters: "News veterans and journalism ethicists are urging CBS News to reopen the investigation into the discredited 60 Minutes Benghazi report following new questions about correspondent Lara Logan's actions and concerns that an earlier internal review did not do enough to reveal all the facts.... This week, New York magazine uncovered [also linked on the Commentariat a few days ago] new internal details about the report and how it got on air, several of which were inconsistent with what was found in CBS' internal review.... According to New York, Logan relied heavily on a highly partisan source, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, when crafting her report, while internal CBS office politics allowed the story to air without standard vetting - neither of which were disclosed by the initial internal review."

Eating Their Young. Amanda Marcotte in Salon: Over there at Fox "News," where the median-age viewer is 68 (great demographic), the new "war" is a war on young people. It seems -- for the first time in history! -- the kids are going on spring break where they wear skimpy bathing suits, get drunk & have sex. Tut, tut and tut.

Gubernatorial Race

Peas in a Pod. Chris Christie, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, traveled to Maine today to stump for Gov. Paul LePage. Christie promised to spend big for LePage, who is in a three-way race. Mario Maretto of the Bangor Daily News: "Democrats on Wednesday agreed LePage and Christie were cut from the same cloth. 'They both claim to be straight talkers who tell it how they see it, but as we've all learned the hard way, they're masters of the absurd tirade, which have embarrassed the people of their states,' [Vermont Gov. Peter] Shumlin[, head of the Democratic Governors Association,] said during a conference call with reporters. Shumlin and the Democratic Governors Association highlighted LePage's record of inflammatory comments and notable controversies ... including when he called the IRS the 'new Gestapo' and told the NAACP they could 'kiss my butt,' as well as a document-shredding scandal at the state Center for Disease Control."

Presidential Race

Philip Elliott of the AP: "The Republican National Committee wants to take more control over how the party picks a White House nominee. The RNC was to meet Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, to choose members who will effectively set the calendar for 2016's long list of potential presidential contenders. If the party's chairman, Reince Priebus gets his way, the GOP will pick its nominee more quickly than during past contests and have fewer debates in which candidates could criticize each other. The RNC also was expected to put penalties in place for candidates who don't follow the committee's plans."

Beyond the Beltway

... Whitewash Is Expensive. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "The cost to New Jersey taxpayers for Gov. Chris Christie's internal inquiry into lane closings at the George Washington Bridge is likely to reach several million dollars, outpacing early estimates and touching off urgent attempts to reduce the cost, according to newly available documents and interviews."

Patrick Marley, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "After 24 hours of legal maneuvering in a politically charged investigation of Gov. Scott Walker and his allies, an appeals court late Wednesday handed prosecutors a victory, preventing for now the destruction of evidence from the case. The three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago stayed U.S. District Court Rudolph Randa's preliminary injunction from Tuesday stopping the John Doe investigation, saying he had overstepped his authority. The appeals court ruling also said Randa cannot order prosecutors to destroy evidence they have collected in the five-county probe."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine vowed Thursday to press ahead with a referendum on independence, defying Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise call for Sunday's vote to be postponed."

Guardian: "A majority of the jurors who this week convicted [Cecily McMillan,] an Occupy Wall Street activist, of assaulting a New York police officer have asked the judge in her case to not send her to prison."

The Commentariat -- May 7, 2014

Internal links, obsolete video & graphics removed.

Justin Gillis of the New York Times: "The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.... The study, known as the National Climate Assessment, was prepared by a large scientific panel overseen by the government and received final approval at a meeting Tuesday. The White House, which released the report, wants to maximize its impact to drum up a sense of urgency among Americans about climate change -- and thus to build political support for a contentious new climate change regulation that President Obama plans to issue in June." ...

... CW: Here's President Obama's "Climate Action Plan." Hmm, I wonder who is "contentious" about it. ...

... Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "Republican critics immediately pounced on new report as a political tool for Obama to try to impose a regulatory agenda that would hurt the economy. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky mocked what he described as the hypocritical stance of 'liberal elites' who demand strong action on climate change while failing to reduce their own carbon footprint." ...

... Laura Barron-Lopez & Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "An impasse over amendments is threatening to scuttle a vote on legislation to build the Keystone XL pipeline, despite Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-La.) insistence Tuesday that she is within two or three votes of a filibuster-proof majority. The deal offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) gave Keystone supporters a vote on their pipeline, but only if Republicans allowed an up-or-down vote on an energy efficiency bill now on the Senate floor. Republicans are now demanding votes on five GOP amendments to the energy efficiency bill, and Reid on Tuesday said he would not allow any of them."

Finally, Some Democrats Who Can Handle the Truth

Kathryn Wolfe of Politico: "Sen. Jay Rockefeller unloaded on lawmakers Tuesday, accusing some of blocking efforts to solve urgent problems during Barack Obama's presidency 'because he's the wrong color.' Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who will retire at the end of the year, made his comments during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on transportation funding, saying he's confounded by the 'lack of will to keep ourselves from dropping into rivers and rolling over bridges that are no longer there.'" ...

... Jordan Fabian of Fusion: "Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (D) said Tuesday that a 'big reason' why he left the Republican Party was because many in the GOP were hostile to President Obama due to his race. Crist, who is running for his old office against Gov. Rick Scott (R), said in an interview with Fusion's Jorge Ramos that he felt uncomfortable with his previous party affiliation. Republicans are perceived as 'anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, [and] anti-gay,' he said, and they refuse to compromise with Obama. The ex-governor said he feels, 'liberated as a Democrat.' ... [Crist] holds a double-digit lead in at least one poll over Scott, who suffers from poor approval ratings." With video.

Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday indicated he would comply with a House GOP subpoena to testify about Benghazi and other questions from the new select committee appointed by House Speaker John Boehner. But in his first comments on the topic since renewed attention to it began in the last week, Kerry batted away the inquiry into the September 2012 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi as a 'partisan' effort that won't bring forward anything that isn't already known."

Monica Lewinsky writes a (firewalled) piece for Vanity Fair, reflecting on her relationship with President Clinton, etc. The editors provide an overview here. ...

... The woman Lewinsky calls Moremean Dowdy is on the story. Natch. MoDo is fairly unkind to Lewinsky, but she sure jumped at the chance for yet another Return to ClintonWorld, a place she's never left behind. ...

... Ruth Marcus thinks Lewinsky did Hillary Clinton a favor by writing about the affair now, well before Clinton announces her candidacy for president & by disputing Rand Paul's criticism of Bill Clinton. ...

... The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "With Hillary Clinton almost assuredly running for president in 2016, Monica Lewinsky's Vanity Fair piece ... set off a lot of people's conspiratorial alarm bells, with some suspicion anti-Clinton forces might have been behind it. But on The O’Reilly Factor tonight, Lynne Cheney suggested it might have actually been pushed by Clinton's team themselves.... She said, 'I really wonder if this isn't an effort on the Clintons' part to get that story out of the way. Would Vanity Fair publish anything of Monica Lewinsky that Hillary Clinton wouldn't want in Vanity Fair?'"

Jason Leopold of Al Jazeera: "Email exchanges between National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Google executives Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt suggest a far cozier working relationship between some tech firms and the U.S. government than was implied by Silicon Valley brass after last year's revelations about NSA spying."

So You Think You Want to Live in ... Russia. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "Russia has taken another major step toward restricting its once freewheeling Internet, as President Vladimir V. Putin quietly signed a new law requiring popular online voices to register with the government, a measure that lawyers, Internet pioneers and political activists said Tuesday would give the government a much wider ability to track who said what online. Mr. Putin's action on Monday, just weeks after he disparaged the Internet as 'a special C.I.A. project,' borrowed a page from the restrictive Internet playbooks of many governments around the world that have been steadily smothering online freedoms.... Besides registering, bloggers can no longer remain anonymous online, and organizations that provide platforms for their work such as search engines, social networks and other forums must maintain computer records on Russian soil of everything posted over the previous six months." ...

... ALSO, no dirty words.

Annals of American Journalism, Ctd.

The Liberal Media. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "A majority of American journalists identify themselves as political independents although among those who choose a side Democrats outnumber Republicans four to one, according to a new study of the media conducted by two Indiana University professors."

This report drives wingnut paranoia. ...

... Steve M.: "Right-wingers don't go into journalism because they're propagandized to hate journalism. Don't blame liberals, or the 'liberal media,' for that."

Congressional Races

Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The Republican establishment scored a major win when North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis won the nomination for U.S. Senate with 46 percent of the vote. By avoiding a runoff election, he can focus on his campaign against vulnerable Democratic Senator Kay Hagan. House Speaker John Boehner easily beat his three primary opponents in Ohio, and tea party candidates were mostly unsuccessful in the two states' other House primaries." ...

... CW: Hey, let's see what kind of guy is an "establishment Republican":

... Greg Sargent: Tillis, an arch-conservative, has his vulnerabilities. Fer instance, in a 2011 video, being circulated today by Sen. Kay Hagan's campaign, "Tillis said we have to 'divide and conquer' those on public assistance, by getting those who really need it -- the sick -- to turn on and look down at those who 'choose to get into a condition that makes them dependent on the government.' Speaking of that latter category, Tillis added: 'At some point, you're on your own. We may end up taking care of those babies, but we're not going to take care of you.' ... Tillis not only opposed the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, which would have expanded coverage to 500,000 people he would represent; he also boasted in an ad that he was personally responsible for stopping that outcome 'cold.'" ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... what Tillis is talking about is pitting people with disabilities against those who can't find work or sufficient wages to live on -- getting the former, in fact, to look down on the latter. That's a new one, to me at least.... What a nasty, nasty piece of work. And this is the 'Republican Establishment' candidate for the Senate. Tells you a lot about them, eh?" ...

... Brian Beutler on the Tillis video: "Class warfare? Check. Racist dog whistle? Check. A belabored explication of the political utility of racist dog whistling? Check.... His statement is an implicit admission that the road to building majority support for a conservative policy agenda runs through the exploitation of white racial resentment":

... Kate Nocera of BuzzFeed: "Tillis, who has generally led in polling, has gotten enormous support from Karl Rove's group American Crossroads, the Chamber of Commerce, and Mitt Romney.... The notion that Tillis is just a part of the get-along establishment has baffled some in the state. When Tillis became speaker of the House, he passed sweeping conservative reforms to education, and blocked medication expansion in the state. He passed anti-abortion legislation and voting reforms that have enraged Democrats in the state, spurring large weekly protests known as 'Moral Mondays.'"

Eliana Dockterman of Time: "Former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken was ahead in the North Carolina Democratic congressional primary by a slim margin Wednesday morning. The former singer led his opponent, former state Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco, by only 372 votes with all precincts reporting, making the race too close to call according to the Associated Press."

Give Me My Shoes or Give Me. Death. Now this is going to sound outrageous, I'd rather see another terrorist attack, truly I would, than to give up my liberty as an American citizen.... And as a Constitutional conservative, it angers me that we are giving up our liberty to the bureaucratic TSA and spying on our own people in the name of false security and that has to stop. -- Bob Johnson (R), Georgia Congressional candidate (the primary is May 20)

Beyond the Beltway

Daniel Bice & Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "A federal judge ordered a halt Tuesday to the John Doe investigation into campaign spending and fundraising by Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and conservative groups, saying the effort appeared to violate one of the group's free speech rights. In his 26-page decision, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa in Milwaukee told prosecutors to immediately stop the long-running, five-county probe into possible illegal coordination between Walker's campaign, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and a host of others during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections.... The plaintiffs have been shut out of the political process merely by association with conservative politicians,' wrote Randa, who was appointed to the bench in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush. 'This cannot square with the First Amendment and what it was meant to protect.' ... Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat," plans to appeal. Thanks to Nadd2 for the link.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to take steps Wednesday to pull Ukraine back from an escalating cycle of violence, asking pro-Russian separatists in the country to postpone a Sunday referendum on independence and indicating that he may be willing to recognize a national election later this month. The effort marked a significant shift in tone from the hard line that Putin and other top Russian officials have taken for months toward the acting government in Kiev...."

New York Times: "Islamist insurgents have killed hundreds in a town in Nigeria's northeast this week, the area's senator, a resident and the Nigerian news media reported on Wednesday, as more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the militants, known as Boko Haram, remained missing."

Washington Post: "The man arrested Tuesday afternoon when he followed the Obama daughters' motorcade made a mistake and was simply confused about D.C. roads, the U.S. Secret Service confirmed Wednesday. An Internal Revenue Service computer worker, the man does not come to downtown Washington often and did not realize he was trailing a Secret Service motorcade."

New York Times: "A Thai court on Wednesday ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra removed from office, a highly divisive move and a victory for the powerful antigovernment movement that has sought to overthrow the government in Bangkok for the last six months."

AP: "Access to the White House complex was halted for about an hour Tuesday after a vehicle followed a motorcade carrying President Barack Obama's daughters through the gates. Uniformed agents immediately stopped the vehicle after it trailed in behind the motorcade at about 4:40 p.m. EDT, the Secret Service said. The driver, identified as Mathew Evan Goldstein, 55, was arrested and charged with unlawful entry."