The Commentariat -- March 27, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama met for the first time with Pope Francis on Thursday...." The Los Angeles Times story, by Kathleen Hennessey, is here. ...

... Fortunately, we have the brilliant nonpartisan reporters at Politico to put the meeting in context. Carrie Brown, et al.: "President Barack Obama was once the biggest superstar on the international stage. On Thursday, he headed here to benefit from the popularity of his replacement:Pope Francis. The 50-minute meeting was a rare chance for Obama to associate himself with a world leader whose cool factor far outweighs his own, and it comes at a critical time in his presidency."

White House: "Along with ... King Philippe and Prime Minister di Rupo of Belgium, President Obama delivers remarks at Flanders Field Cemetery":

Michael Shear & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama offered a sustained and forceful rejoinder against Russia on Wednesday, denouncing the 'brute force' he said it has used to intimidate neighbors like Ukraine and vowing that the United States 'will never waver' in standing up for its NATO allies against aggression by Moscow. In a speech meant as a capstone to his trip to Europe in the midst of an East-West confrontation with Russia, Mr. Obama addressed Moscow's justifications for its intervention in Ukraine point by point, dismissing them as 'absurd' or unmerited." Here's the transcript.

Here's video of a joint presser held earlier Wednesday:

Protest by Beethoven. The Odessa (Ukraine) Musicians for Peace & Brotherhood. Thanks to Haley S. for the link:

Eric Pfeiffer of Yahoo! News: "A new national survey of Americans without health insurance finds that more than half are not aware that the deadline to obtain coverage under the Affordable Care Act is less than a week away. The poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 61 percent of uninsured Americans either are not aware of the deadline or think it does not take effect until later than it does. Only 39 percent of uninsured individuals in the survey correctly identified the March 31 deadline." ...

     ... CW Note: The Obama administration has extended the deadline for some, but not for those whose excuse for not enrolling is "I had no fucking idea I had to try to sign up by March 31." ...

Another deadline made meaningless. If he hasn't put enough loopholes in the law already, the administration is now resorting to an honor system to enforce it. -- Speaker John Boehner

Another day, another Obamacare delay. -- Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)

... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "For each one of these extensions or delays, the ultimate question is whether they change the law's ability to realize its basic goals -- which, in this case, means encouraging people to buy new private health plans while maintaining a stable insurance market. Giving people a little extra time to enroll wouldn't seem to impede this kind of progress. If anything, it would seem to enhance it. And maybe that's what really bothers some of the law's fiercer critics."

Game-Changer. Brian Bennett of ESPN: "In a potentially game-changing moment for college athletics, the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Wednesday that Northwestern football players qualify as employees of the university and can unionize. NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr cited the players' time commitment to their sport and the fact that their scholarships were tied directly to their performance on the field as reasons for granting them union rights." The NLRB decision is here (pdf).

From Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker has more. The situation worsens, BTW. "New figures for 2012 from Saez, which came out too late to be included in Piketty's book, show the line hitting another new high, of more than fifty per cent."

Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "Reverse mortgages, which allow homeowners 62 and older to borrow money against the value of their homes that need not be paid back until they move out or die, have long posed pitfalls for older borrowers. Now many ... are discovering that reverse mortgages can also come up with a harsh sting for their heirs. Under federal rules, survivors are supposed to be offered the option to settle the loan for a percentage of the full amount. Instead, reverse mortgage companies are increasingly threatening to foreclose unless heirs pay the mortgages in full...."

Nicholas Kristof finds five wasteful welfare programs: "welfare subsidies for private planes..., welfare subsidies for yachts..., welfare subsidies for hedge funds and private equity..., welfare subsidies for America's biggest banks ... & large welfare subsidies for American corporations from cities, counties and states."

Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "One in 10 US secret service agents are aware of colleagues who have drunk excessively to the point they are 'a security concern', according to an internal survey of elite personnel whose responsibilities include protecting the president. Findings in the survey, buried in a recently released inspector general report, raise serious questions about the conduct of secret service agents, one of whom was found highly intoxicated at a hotel in the Netherlands on Sunday, hours before the arrival of Barack Obama this week." ...

... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "As the U.S. Secret Service arrived in the Netherlands last weekend for a presidential trip, managers were already on high alert to avoid any further embarrassing incidents involving agents. The agency's director had admonished supervisors after two counter-sniper officers suspected of drinking were involved in a March 7 car accident during a presidential visit to Miami, according to several people with knowledge of the incident. The driver passed a field sobriety test and was not arrested."

Darrell Issa Is Still at It. AP: John Koskinen, "the head of the Internal Revenue Service, told House Republicans on Wednesday that it would take years to provide all the documents they have subpoenaed in their probe of how the agency handled tea party groups' applications for tax-exempt status.... Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., warned him he should comply with the request 'or potentially be held in contempt' of Congress, a sometimes threatened but seldom-used authority." ...

... David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Thursday said on Thursday that the 'biggest tool we have is to shame' the Obama administration, but insisted that was not what he was trying to do with his investigations into the alleged IRS targeting of tea party groups."

Congressional Races

Do I have the best credentials? Probably not, 'cause, you know, whatever. -- Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass) on why New Hampshire voters should make him their U.S senator

I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm. -- Iowa State Sen. Joni Ernst, on why Iowa voters should make her their U.S. senator ...

... For some reason, Gail Collins doesn't think much of this crop of Senate hopefuls. Oh, she missed this genius:

We were fortunate growing up in the south. The president is a community organizer. You wonder if he ever worked with a poor person.... Insurance people they will tell you that they will go to a company and an employer will pay for everything, and there are some people who will not sign up. Turns out, those are my patients. They're illiterate. I'm not saying that to be mean. I say that in compassion. They cannot read. The idea they're going to go on the internet and work through a 16-page document to put in their data and sign up does not reflect an understanding of who is having the hardest time in our economy. -- Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician who is running for the Senate seat held by Mary Landrieu (D-La.)

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... Mississippi [is] the last major battlefield in the feud between the Tea Party and the Republican establishment. The state has become a well-funded proxy war" in the GOP primary race between Sen. Thad Cochran & TP challenger Chris McDaniel.

Millions in this country feel like strangers in this land. You recognize that, don't you? An older America is passing away. A newer America is rising to take its place. We recoil from that culture. It's foreign to us. It's offensive to us. -- Chris McDaniel

Black people are offensive to us. -- CW Dogwhistle Translation, as if you needed one

This nice-looking Republican gunman is running for Congress in Alabama. (Apparently he didn't read the ACA bill he shoots & shreds. He says he's going to replace it with a "market-based solution," unaware that the ACA is market-based; in fact, the market factor is what makes the law so cumbersome):

CW: I'm always a day late (at least) in linking Tom Edsall's New York Times column. This week he wrote about the Democrats' dismal prospects in the 2014 congressional elections -- not to mention the party's dismal chances in the 2016 presidential election. "The damage inflicted on the Democratic Party by the dysfunctional [Healthcare.gov] website and the reaction to it is hard to overestimate.... Going largely unmentioned in most analyses is the inability of the Obama administration to markedly improve the economy, which could end up playing a big role in the unraveling of the Democratic Party's electoral fortunes, not only in 2014 but also in 2016." ...

... Philip Bump of the Atlantic: "What Edsall glosses over, though, is that the congressional ballot data was artificially inflated by the complete train wreck of the government shutdown, which completely tanked Republican poll numbers. The Healthcare.gov mess certainly meant that the Democrats lost an opportunity to capitalize on a surprising lead -- a lead that was always bound to decline to some extent.

... CW: I still think David Atkins has it right about what's wrong. From a piece I linked a few weeks ago: "For a young voter or voter of color, voting for Democrats isn't a matter of hope for a better future. It's basically a defensive crouch to prevent the insane sociopaths from taking over. To provide real hope, Democrats would have to start pushing for a $15 minimum wage, for basic universal income, for single-payer healthcare, for a green jobs Apollo Program, for student loan forgiveness, and similar policies." If you want voter turnout, taking a "defensive crouch" won't do it. ...

... ALSO, this doesn't inspire confidence that Democrats are your friends:

... Democrats Behaving Badly

Josh Richman, et al., of the San Jose Mercury-News: "In a stunning criminal complaint, State Sen. Leland Yee has been charged with conspiring to traffic in firearms and public corruption as part of a major FBI operation spanning the Bay Area, casting yet another cloud of corruption over the Democratic establishment in the Legislature and torpedoing Yee's aspirations for statewide office. Yee, D-San Francisco, highlights a series of arrests Wednesday morning that included infamous Chinatown gangster Raymond 'Shrimp Boy' Chow, whose past includes a variety of charges including racketeering and drug crimes." ...

... OR, as Charles Pierce puts it, "... the FBI seems to be accusing him of having wandered into a Dashiell Hammett novel." ...

... Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times: "A criminal complaint released Wednesday says [Yee] ... wanted donations in return for connecting an Italian gangster from New Jersey with an international arms dealer. The gangster was an undercover federal agent. Although Yee is better known as a gun control advocate in the Capitol, the complaint says he talked tough about having shady contacts who could obtain automatic weapons."

Mark Washburn, et al., of the Charlotte Observer: "Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon [D] was arrested Wednesday on public corruption charges, with the FBI alleging he took tens of thousands of dollars in bribes -- including $20,000 in cash delivered in a briefcase last month to the mayor's office where he also solicited $1 million more. Cannon resigned Wednesday evening. He was arrested that morning at a SouthPark apartment used by undercover FBI agents after the mayor turned up expecting another payment, sources say."

Paul Egan of the Detroit Free Press: "Wayne County [Detroit] Circuit Judge Wade McCree, who carried on an affair with a woman who had a case before him, is removed from office and will face a six-year suspension if he gets re-elected in November, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled today." McCree is a Democrat, appointed by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. ...

... AND This Mystery Crook. Dan McGowan of WPRI: "State Rep. Nicholas Mattiello was overwhelmingly voted speaker of the Rhode Island House Tuesday, just five days after state and federal investigators executed two search warrants that targeted former Speaker Gordon Fox's [D] East Side home and State House office."

... Elsewhere Beyond the Beltway

** Karen Matthews of the AP: "New York state has the most segregated public schools in the nation, with many black and Latino students attending schools with virtually no white classmates.... The report by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California at Los Angeles looks at enrollment trends from 1989 to 2010. In New York City, the largest school system in the U.S. with 1.1 million pupils, the study notes that many of the charter schools created over the last dozen years are among the least diverse of all, with less than 1 percent white enrollment at 73 percent of charter schools. 'To create a whole new system that's even worse than what you've got really takes some effort,' said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project and an author of the report." ...

... CW: Of course the easiest way to mitigate school segregation is to have adults quit paying attention to what color the neighbors are when they look for a place to live.

Paul Egan & Kathleen Gray of the Detroit Free Press: "Michigan's governor [Rick Snyder (R)] said the nearly 300 same-sex marriages performed Saturday in the state are legal, but Michigan won't recognize them because of a stay put on a judicial decision that would allow for the unions."

Gubernatorial Race

Joshua Miller of the Boston Globe: "Democrat Martha Coakley, one of 10 hopefuls aiming to succeed Governor Deval Patrick, is the front-runner in both the Democratic primary and against Republican Charlie Baker, according to a new poll. Among likely Democratic primary voters, she led the next closest Democratic candidate, Treasurer Steven Grossman, by 31 points, a new WBUR-FM survey conducted by The MassINC Polling Group found."

A Painful Debate. Akilah Johnson of the Globe: During a Tuesday night forum among Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates on LGBTQ issues, Democratic candidate Steve Grossman was "in the throes of passing a kidney stone." The story has inspired a Twitter account @GrossmansStone, with entries like, "Will you have Urethra Franklin sing at your inaugural?"

News Ledes

New York Times: " In the first barometer of global condemnation of Russia's annexation of Crimea, Ukraine and its Western backers persuaded a large majority of countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to dismiss the annexation as illegal, even as Russia sought to rally world support for the idea of self-determination.... The resolution garnered 100 votes in favor, 11 votes against, with 58 abstentions."

New York Times: "Australia announced on Friday morning that it had moved the search area for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 nearly 700 miles to the northeast, the latest in a long series of changes by the authorities on where they think the plane might have disappeared."

CNN: "A new classified intelligence assessment concludes it is more likely than previously thought that Russian forces will enter eastern Ukraine...." CW: No kidding.

New York Times: "After three weeks of urgent negotiations with the interim government in Kiev..., the International Monetary Fund announced on Thursday an agreement to provide Ukraine up to $18 billion in loans over two years to prevent the country's default."

Washington Post: "A Thai satellite spotted 300 floating objects in the southern Indian Ocean, where authorities say the flight of the missing Malaysia Airlines ended more than three weeks ago."

The Commentariat -- March 26, 2014

Internal links removed.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday publicly endorsed a plan that Justice Department and intelligence officials have developed for a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Agency's phone call records program, saying that he believed it would resolve privacy concerns without compromising the program's utility as a counterterrorism tool." ...

     ... The Guardian story, by Spencer Ackerman & Julian Borger, is here. ...

... Michael Shear & Alison Smale of the New York Times: "President Obama vowed on Tuesday that the United States would use its military to come to the defense of any NATO country that is threatened, sending a warning to the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, about the consequences of further aggression along the border with Eastern Europe":

... New York Times Editors: "If President Obama really wants to end the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records, he doesn't need to ask the permission of Congress, as he said on Tuesday he would do. He can just end it himself, immediately.... The immediate question, though, is why the president feels he needs to wait for Congress before stopping mass collection." ...

     ... CW: Aw, c'mon. Obama wants GOP members of Congress to feel the pain. He'll enjoy watching them vote for eavesdropping, & so will some of their Democratic opponents.

... Carol Leonnig & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Three Secret Service agents responsible for protecting President Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on administrative leave Sunday after going out for a night of drinking, according to three people familiar with the incident. One of the agents was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway.... The hotel staff alerted the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands after finding the unconscious agent Sunday morning, a day before Obama arrived in the country, according to two of the people."

Via John Cole of Balloon Juice.Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a long and lively argument that touched on medical science and moral philosophy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed ready to accept that at least some for-profit corporations may advance claims based on religious freedom." ...

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "A divided Supreme Court seemed inclined to agree Tuesday that the religious beliefs of business owners may trump a requirement in President Obama's Affordable Care Act that they provide their employees with insurance coverage for all types of contraceptives." ...

... Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker: "There were two lessons from Tuesday's argument in the Hobby Lobby case in the Supreme Court. First, it's very important that there are now three women Justices. Second, it's even more important that it takes five votes to win.... There is no such thing as a women's position on this case or on any other issue. But there is such a thing as women's voices, and with this case, especially, it was important that they be heard. On this day at the Supreme Court, they were." ...

... ** Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "One thing that was immediately clear Tuesday morning: There is finally a women's team at the high court." ...

... David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "And why shouldn't the government force corporations to cover abortion?" ...

... Even Ruth Marcus, the David Brooks of the Washington Post, is sensible about the implications of the Hobby Lobby case. ...

... Groucho prefigures the Mind of Anthony Kennedy. Thanks to Akhilleus for making the connection (see today's Comments):

Bloomberg News (via the L.A. Times): "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Obama administration in a dispute over taxes on severance compensation, overturning a lower court decision that could have forced the IRS to refund more than $1 billion. The court said that payments to laid-off workers are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, or FICA. It was a victory for the Internal Revenue Service...." The ruling was unanimous.

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline. Federal officials confirmed Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension."

Jane Perlez & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Michelle Obama's weeklong trip to China seemed to start as a spring break holiday with her mother and daughters but has turned out to include far more substance -- and politics -- than the cheerful advocate of fitness and healthful eating often displays at home. At a high school [in Chengdu, China] on Tuesday, Mrs. Obama pointedly told students that the United States championed 'the right to say what we think and worship as we choose,' even as she conceded that Americans still lived those ideals imperfectly and that minorities had struggled to overcome a legacy of discrimination."

Dominic Rushe of the Guardian: "... bitcoin is not a currency. The Internal Revenue Service ruled Tuesday that the controversial cryptocurrency and its rivals will be treated as property, not cash, for tax purposes. The ruling had been expected and marks another step in the wider attempt to make bitcoin mainstream. In its notice, the IRS said bitcoin would be treated much like stock or other intangible property."

Jon Ralston: "The Federal Election Commission has sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's campaign, asking for more information on why he listed an expenditure of more than $11,000 $16,000 in 'holiday gifts.' The gifts, I have learned, were purchased from his granddaughter, Ryan Elisabeth Reid, who is a jewelry vendor in Berkeley, CA. The gifts were later passed on to donors and supporters.... Reid has previously been asked to explain holiday gifts to his Ritz Carlton doorman by the FEC."

Beyond the Beltway

Kathleen Gray & Gina Damron of the Detroit Free Press: "The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday extended a stay on last week's ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman that struck down the Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage."

Congressional Races

Peter Hamby of CNN: "A leading Democratic pollster predicted a 'sobering' turnout disadvantage for her party in this year's midterm elections and called on Democrats to articulate 'a bigger economic agenda' this fall. 'There is a huge turnout disadvantage and challenge,' Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said Tuesday at a breakfast with reporters. 'There is always a challenge in turnout in an off year, but it's really dramatic this time.'" ...

... Steve Erickson of the American Prospect suggests that impeaching Obama will be/is the purity test for Republican candidates this year & for 2016 GOP presidential hopefuls. CW: Are Republicans that crazy? Maybe.

Stupid Democratic Trick/Shades of Mitt. Ed Tibbetts of the Quad City Times: "Democratic Senate hopeful Bruce Braley apologized Tuesday for comments at a fundraiser at a Texas law firm in which he said if Republicans took control of the Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley, a 'farmer from Iowa who never went to law school,' would chair the Senate Judiciary Committee." Nothing like stroking slick big city lawyers at the expense of rural voters in a rural state. Idiot. Yeah, Bruce, Chuck is an ignorant hick, but he's not as stupid as you are.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the most senior adviser to Osama bin Laden to be tried in a civilian United States court since the Sept. 11 attacks, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring to kill Americans and providing material support to terrorists."

Seattle Times: "Wednesday's grim search of the Oso-area mudslide has revealed additional victims. 'There are finds going on continually. They are finding people now,'said Steve Mason, a fire battalion chief leading the westside operation." ...

     ... Update: "Emergency managers now believe up to 90 people may be missing in the mudslide that destroyed a community near Oso, Snohomish County last Saturday."

AP: " Within days of Crimea being swallowed up by Russia, the lights began flickering out. Officials in the peninsula accused Ukraine of halving electricity supplies in order to bully Crimea, which voted earlier this month in a referendum to secede and join Russia."

Washington Post: "New satellite images taken in recent days show more than 100 objects -- some as long as 75 feet -- that may have come from missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Wednesday. The images, which Hishammuddin called the 'most credible' lead so far in the search for the vanished Boeing 777 airliner, revealed items in the water nearly 1,600 miles from Perth, Australia."

The Commentariat -- March 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

** Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Obama administration is preparing to unveil a legislative proposal for a far-reaching overhaul of the National Security Agency's once-secret bulk phone records program in a way that -- if approved by Congress -- would end the aspect that has most alarmed privacy advocates since its existence was leaked last year, according to senior administration officials. Under the proposal, they said, the N.S.A. would end its systematic collection of data about Americans' calling habits. The bulk records would stay in the hands of phone companies, which would not be required to retain the data for any longer than they normally would. And the N.S.A. could obtain specific records only with permission from a judge, using a new kind of court order." ...

     ... CW: Why, this does sound like an election-year issue to me. By contrast, a proposed House bill would strengthen rather than weaken the NSA's data collection program: it "would have the court issue an overarching order authorizing the program, but allow the N.S.A. to issue subpoenas for specific phone records without prior judicial approval."

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama and the leaders of the biggest Western economies agreed on Monday to exclude President Vladimir V. Putin from the Group of 8, suspending his government's 15-year participation in the diplomatic forum and further isolating his country. In a joint statement after a two-hour, closed-door meeting of the four largest economies in Europe, along with Japan and Canada, the leaders of the seven nations announced that a summit meeting planned for Sochi, Russia, in June will now be held in Brussels -- without Russia's participation." ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan proposal to provide more than $1 billion in aid to the new Ukrainian government survived a procedural vote in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for final passage later this week. But the vote came after Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) suggested that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Crimea by delaying the vote." ...

... Here are the full remarks delivered yesterday by President Obama & Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam:

Gene Robinson: "Blaming poverty on the mysterious influence of 'culture' is a convenient excuse for doing nothing to address the problem. That's the real issue with what Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said about distressed inner-city communities. Critics who accuse him of racism are missing the point. What he's really guilty of is providing a reason for government to throw up its hands in mock helplessness." ...

... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The long-term unemployed are not lazy. Nor are they coddled, hammocked or enjoying a coordinated, taxpayer-funded vacation. They are, however, extremely unlucky -- and getting unluckier by the day."

Simon Maloy of Salon makes a point different from, but vaguely related to, one I made yesterday. Maloy sees the day coming when the Koch brothers & the GOP agendas diverge: "As extreme as they often are and as infuriatingly obstructionist as Republicans can be, they are still vulnerable to prevailing public sentiment and beholden to the realities of governing. The Kochs answer only to themselves. They act according to self-interest and the interests of their tax bracket." There are cracks emerging, at the state level, between the Koch agenda & that of local elected Republicans.

Charles Pierce: "Bravo to Stephanie Simon of Tiger Beat On The Potomac for her deep reporting on how taxpayer dollars are being used to fund the teaching of creationist nonsense in direct conflict with the Constitution, several decisions in the federal courts, over 200 years of scientific achievement, and basic common sense.... This week, the 'religious liberty' scam in the Hobby Lobby case is going before the Supreme Court. I am sure that there will be a 'religious liberty' argument made in defense of making American students dumber when they get out of school than they were when they went in. Dear Mother of Jesus, we are a heavily armed nation of fkwits." ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog has a long, informative post on the so-called "religious liberty" cases the Court will hear today. ...

     ... Update: Here's Denniston's take on this morning's oral arguments. CW: Please don't tell me the right cares about "family values" when the winger justices appear to be ready to let strangers decide what medical treatment -- and specifically treatment that determines who actually is in a family -- a woman can have. (BTW, Hobby Lobby pays its workers more than do its competitors -- well above minimum wage, even for part-timers.)

... Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "There's something that makes the current Supreme Court different from some of its recent predecessors. The justices got religion." ...

     ... CW: Worth noting, as Barnes does not: this puts the Court even more out of touch with the American public, which is becoming less, not more, religious. (The liberals on the Court, as Barnes details, are not strict adherents to their faiths.) ...

... The most righteous president of my lifetime:

Not. Our. Fault. (But We'll Ruin You if You Say It Is.) Hilary Stout, et al., of the New York Times: "It was nearly five years ago that any doubts were laid to rest among engineers at General Motors about a dangerous and faulty ignition switch. At a meeting on May 15, 2009, they learned that data in the black boxes of Chevrolet Cobalts confirmed a potentially fatal defect existed in hundreds of thousands of cars. But in the months and years that followed, as a trove of internal documents and studies mounted, G.M. told the families of accident victims and other customers that it did not have enough evidence of any defect in their cars...."

Gossip Report. Fred Barbash of the Washington Post: "Reid Cherlin, a former White House press aide, has written a critical look at the first lady's office in the current issue of the New Republic. Entitled, 'The Worst Wing: How the East Wing Shrunk Michelle Obama,' the piece consists primarily of unnamed former aides complaining about her 'leadership style' and their inability to cultivate a good relationship with her.... Cherlin worked in the 2008 Obama campaign and was an assistant press secretary in the White House until March 2011." ...

... CW: Cherlin's piece, which I haven't gotten around to scanning, is here. Nice that the New Republic published it when the First Lady & her top staff are on the other side of the world.

Beware, people. Some crooks look like this.... Eric Lipton of the New York Times: " Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, the highest-ranking woman in the House leadership and a rising star in the party, may have improperly used her House office staff and financial resources to help bolster her political career, the Office of Congressional Ethics has concluded." CW: Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. I'm shocked, shocked that Mrs. American Pie would cheat the taxpayers & compromise her staff in this way. Why, she seemed evah so sweet & wholesome. As Pepe suggests, the successful thief does not "disgruntle" the help. ...

... Kyung Song of the Seattle Times: " The House Ethics Committee on Monday declined to open a formal investigation into allegations that U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers misused her campaign and congressional funds -- a decision that rules out potential ethics charges or sanctions against the Spokane Republican for now. However, two lawmakers on the bipartisan panel will continue reviewing the complaints, which were filed in 2013 by Todd Winer, McMorris Rodgers' former spokesman."

The Washington Post debunks every premise of a Koch brothers anti-ObamaCare ad targeting Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado:

... And yet. And yet. The Post gives this lying piece of crap only two Pinocchios.

Beyond the Beltway

Harvey Rice, et al., of the Houston Chronicle: "The Houston Ship Channel, where up to 168,000 gallons of oil were spilled after a barge and a tanker collided last weekend, will remain closed until Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said late Monday.... Oil washed up on tourist beaches in Galveston Monday, two days after the collision, an official said. Government records show the Miss Susan has been involved in a string of 20 accidents and incidents reported to the Coast Guard in the past dozen years, including two other accidents that occurred when the boat was pushing barges containing oil or asphalt."

AP: "The lawyer hired to represent North Carolina's environmental agency during a federal investigation into its regulation of Duke Energy's coal ash dumps once represented the utility company in a different criminal probe. The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources has hired Mark Calloway of Charlotte to help respond to 20 grand jury subpoenas the agency and its employees have received after the Feb. 2 spill at Duke's Eden plant, which coated 70 miles of the Dan River in toxic sludge.... A former federal prosecutor who now specializes in white-collar defense, Calloway represented Duke during a 2004 federal investigation into the company's accounting practices."

David Schwartz of Reuters: "A federal judge admonished Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and a chief deputy on Monday for critical remarks directed at a sweeping court ruling that found their deputies racially profiled Latino drivers.... 'I intend to have my order followed,' said U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who required Arpaio and [Chief Deputy Jerry] Sheridan to attend the court hearing. Snow ordered Arpaio last year to stop using race as a factor when making law enforcement decisions...."

Michael Van Sickler of the Tampa Bay Times: "Changes adopted Wednesday to a House bill expanding the scope of Florida's controversial 'stand your ground' law would severely limit access to court records in the self-defense cases.... A 2012 Tampa Bay Times investigation reviewed 200 cases, including ones that wouldn't be available if lawmakers approve the new language, and found that the law was used inconsistently and led to disparate results.... [Rep. Matt] Gaetz,] who filed the amendment] has been a forceful advocate for the 'stand your ground' law. He famously vowed last year that he wasn't going to change 'one damn comma' in the law after hearings were announced in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

John Reitmeyer & Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "A story published in The New York Times quoting the New York attorney leading the probe [New Jersey Gov. Chris] Christie launched in January is the first hint there is evidence to back Christie's claims that he played no role in the lane closure plot carried out by a top aide and his appointees at the Port Authority.... Critics have faulted Christie's internal review, saying it was being headed by an attorney with deep ties to the governor's mentor, Rudy Giuliani, and to the Port Authority itself. And one of the lawyers who, according to a source, is interviewing Christie's staff for this review earned a contract from Christie when he was U.S. attorney and her daughter served as an intern in the governor's office." See also yesterday's Commentariat.

Anthony York & Mark Barabak of the Los Angeles Times: "Late in life, at age 75 and apparently done seeking higher office, [California Gov. Jerry] Brown has reinvented himself again, this time as the anti-politician politician. He shuns most trappings of the office. There's no motorcade, no entourage. The governor showed up at the elections department with a lone campaign advisor and his wife, who snapped a photo using her smart phone. Brown fashions many of his own speeches, veto messages and even press releases. His staff in the governor's office is about half that of his Republican predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who employed as many as 230."

Presidential Election 2016

Matea Gold & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who along with his wife plowed more than $92 million into efforts to help mostly losing candidates in the 2012 elections, is undertaking a new strategy for 2016 -- to tap his fortune on behalf of a more mainstream Republican with a clear shot to win the White House, according to people familiar with his thinking."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Oleksandr Muzychko, an ultra-nationalist member of Ukraine's recent protests who was wanted in Russia for alleged war crimes, was shot dead late Monday in the western Ukrainian city of Rivne, according to reports by Russian news outlets, RT and Interfax. There were conflicting accounts of what happened to the man also known as Sashko Biliy."