The Commentariat -- July 21, 2013
** Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker on what Alexander Hamilton would have thought of the filibuster. In this short post, Hertzberg dissects & discards every single speech & remark about the "wisdom of the Founders" in creating a Constitution in which a minority compromises majority rule....
... CW: Our government would be functioning in a much different -- and more liberal -- way if we had true representative government. (And before you say, "Oh, yeah; look at the House," let me remind you that more Americans voted for Democrats than Republicans in the last Congressional election AND the Constitution does not contemplate the "Hastert Rule," in which a majority of the majority party must favor a bill before the speaker will bring it to the floor for a vote, an invention which gives a small minority of the House veto power over majority preferences. So, ferinstance, the Senate's immigration bill would likely pass the House today, but Speaker Boehner is bowing to the Tea Party nativist racist bloc & refusing to move on it.)
The Half-Life of the Religious Right. Steve Benen: a new Brookings Institution study "document[s] an important trend: religious social conservatives represent about 28% of the population, but they're slowly being eclipsed by a younger, diverse group of religious progressives.... It's a similar demographic issue that's facing the Republican Party: among Americans 66 and older, 47% self-identify as religious conservatives and only 12% consider themselves religious progressives. Among Americans 33 and younger, religious conservatives not only trail religious progressives, the right also finds itself outnumbered by secularists."
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times has the backstory on the Obama administration's aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers & leakers.
CW: Driftglass has a fine post on the hypocrisy of Glenn Greenwald & the Outrage Caucus. "even the slightest, actual debate style-pushback against anything that flows from the keyboard of Mr. Greenwald is instantly shredded and dismissed by the Outrage Caucus as a 'vicious and vehement' attack by the obedient slaves of imperial power." Read the whole post. For some while, I thought I was alone in being sick of Glenn, but Greenwald's recent celebrity has brought attention to "his stampeding ego and petty grudges," which many liberals -- including those he attacked -- have ignored in the past. Thanks to James S. for the link. ...
... P.S. It should go without saying (but unfortunately I have to write special messages to Glennbots) that left-leaning critics of Greenwald's particular sociopathy still appreciate the useful facts & issues he brings to light.
The Corporate Person Prevails Again. Elise Viebeck of the Hill: "A key plaintiff against the Obama administration's birth control mandate won a temporary court injunction Friday allowing it not to provide birth control as part of its employee health plan. Hobby Lobby, a national, for-profit chain of arts and crafts stores, was granted the preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton." Via Steve Benen.
Lauren French of Politico: "For J. Russell George, Thursday was about damage control. Testifying before the deeply divided House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Treasury inspector general responsible for penning the report that fueled the IRS scandal went to great lengths to defend his findings -- and his credibility." ...
... One great way for George to regain credibility is to investigate whether or not Tea Partier Christine I-Am-Not-a-Witch O'Donnell was the victim of an IRS campaign of "political intimidation."
Maureen Dowd is covering the Whitey Bulger trial.
Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker on the history of "stand your ground" a/k/a "no duty to retreat," a peculiarly-American, pro-violence cultural tradition. ...
... President Polyanna Experiences a Moment of Clarity. Charles Pierce on the President's "breaking the redemptive covenant." CW: Pierce hits the right notes here, & he writes them into a riff that explains pretty much every Obama failure. ...
... Biographer David Maraniss of the Washington Post on Barry Obama & his experiences as a young black man. ...
... Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Conservatives didn't even wait for President Obama to finish his deeply personal remarks on Trayvon Martin's killing and the role of race in America to go ballistic, accusing the president of being a 'Racist in Chief' who is 'trying to tear our country apart.'"
Missed this one. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post (July 17): "An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said. The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May. It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions."
Gubernatorial Race
Katie Glueck of Politico: "Virginia's gubernatorial hopefuls bashed each other for 90 minutes Saturday over jobs, the ethics scandal that has consumed Gov. Bob McDonnell and social issues as they faced off in their first debate of the most closely-watched election of 2013. Republican state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli depicted Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, as a Washington insider with a business record that's much less impressive than the Democrat has claimed. McAuliffe painted Cuccinelli as an ideologue on social issues who should not be believed when he says his priority is jobs. ...
... Robert McCartney of the Washington Post writes that McAuliffe -- who's never held elective office -- managed to look "mostly gubernatorial" in the debate.
Presidential Race
Jonathan Bernstein argues in Salon that Ted Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton. CW: Bernstein doesn't say so, but I think the major reason Cruz would be a viable candidate is that -- unlike Michele Bachmann & Herman Cain, fer instance (both of whom Bernstein compares unfavorably with Cruz), Cruz is not stupid. So far he hasn't seen any reason to pretend to be a mainstream politician, but I'll bet he knows how.
News Ledes
AP: "Searchers rummaging through vacant houses in a neighborhood where three female bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags should be prepared to find one or two more victims, a police chief said Sunday.... A 35-year-old registered sex offender in custody is a suspect in the deaths...."
Guardian: "Two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week, when a training exercise went wrong, the US Navy said, angering environmentalists."
New York Times: "Chris Froome, the lanky Kenya-born Briton who has dominated professional stage-race cycling all year, rode to victory in the 100th Tour de France on Sunday, cheered by thousands who gathered near the Arc de Triomphe in the race's first-ever twilight finish."
New York Times: "Japanese voters appeared to hand a decisive victory on Sunday to the governing Liberal Democratic Party in upper house elections, restoring the once-discredited party to a virtual monopoly on political power for the first time in six years."
Guardian: "King Philippe I has become Belgium's seventh monarch after the abdication of his father, Albert II, amid uncertainty about the power of the monarchy to heal the fractured country."