The Commentariat -- May 26, 2013

David Shribman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in a New York Times op-ed: "Fifty years ago, on Memorial Day in 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech in Gettysburg, Pa., that foreshadowed profound changes that would be achieved in only 13 months and that mark us still." CW: I discovered this speech about 5 years ago; it was remarkable, not just because Johnson was the leading politician of the "Solid South," but also because the President whom Johnson served was not nearly so advanced, at least in his public statements. Here's the full text.

Ethan Bronner, et al., of the New York Times: "The emerging details of [leak] cases show just how wide a net the Obama administration has cast in its investigations into disclosures of government secrets, querying hundreds of officials across the federal government and even some of their foreign counterparts."

Maureen Dowd doesn't let down Robert Gibbs, who complained last week that she always writes the same column. Today's column: "... Obama is trying to escape the shadow of the Bush presidency just as W. is trying to escape the shadow of the Bush presidency." Dowd tours Dubya's library: "You could fill an entire other library with what's not in W.'s."

Everybody's favorite whiney professor, Jonathan Turley, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.... The vast majority of 'laws' governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats." Turley suggests Republicans are right to block Richard Cordray's confirmation because he's to head up yet another agency with too much power.

AP: "The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday the bridge collapse in Washington state is a wake-up call for the nation. 'This is a really significant event and we need to learn from it, not just in Washington but around the country,' Debbie Hersman said after taking a boat ride on the Skagit River below the dramatic scene where a truck bumped against the steel framework, collapsing the bridge and sending two vehicles and three people falling into the chilly water." ...

... Mike Baker & Joan Lowy of the AP: "Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound. The crossings are kept standing by engineering design, not supported with brute strength or redundant protections like their more modern counterparts. Bridge regulators call the more risky spans 'fracture critical,' meaning that if a single, vital component of the bridge is compromised, it can crumple."

Conor Humphries of Reuters: "The Irish government is examining options to close a loophole in its tax system that has allowed multinational companies to significantly reduce taxes they pay on profits, the Sunday Business Post newspaper reported. Ireland has been criticized by British and U.S. legislators in recent weeks for the fact that multinationals like Apple and Google reduced their global tax bills by channeling profits through Irish subsidiaries."

Phil Stewart of Reuters: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called sexual assault a 'scourge' on Saturday as he addressed graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where a sergeant stands accused of videotaping female cadets in the showers."

Laura Bassett of the Huffington Post: "An all-male panel of House lawmakers considered a bill on Thursday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy across the United States, without exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother."

If enough people were praying He would've intervened, you could pray, Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms. -- Pat Robertson, on the Oklahoma tornado

... if your community is ravaged by a natural disaster, it's your fault. That [Robertson] chose not to blame the tornado on gay people is, however, a sign of progress. -- Steve Benen

The Lord Does Not Want You to Have Health Insurance. I think before [President Obama's] second term is over, we're going to see a miracle before our eyes; I believe God is going to answer our prayers and we'll be freed from the yoke of Obamacare. -- Michele Bachmann (also via Benen)

Benen also points to this exchange between theologian Wolf Blitzer & a tornado survivor. God bless that woman!

The Good News for Atheists! Citing scripture, Pope Francis says atheists can be redeemed through good works. CW: For what it's worth, I think Francis's interpretation of the passage in Mark is correct. It's an argument I've made before. It's only the Gospel of John -- naturally a favorite of fervent Christians -- that claims belief in Jesus is the only path to salvation. ...

... Rachel Donadio of the New York Times: "Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio..., has changed the tone of the papacy, lifting morale and bringing a new sense of enthusiasm to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Vatican itself, Vatican officials and the faithful say."

Local News

Craig Wolff of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: Rutgers University is trying to fix its image as a school that allows coaches to intimidate basketball players by hiring a new athletic director, Julie Hermann, who -- according to many of her former players at the University of Tennessee -- has a history of intimidating basketball players. Also, Hermann is apparently very good at blocking unpleasant memories. CW: personally, I don't think I would forget attending a wedding in which I was a bridesmaid, especially if video of that wedding was the basis of a successful lawsuit against me:

     ... Hermann also said she can't remember a letter all 15 of her players at Tennessee wrote to her in which they accused her of calling them "whores, alcoholics and learning disabled." CW: Either she has a really bad memory or she's a serial liar.

At Least One GOP Governor Is Serious about Expanding Medicaid. Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic: "Gov. Jan Brewer sent five bills to the scrap heap Thursday in a pointed gesture intended to prod lawmakers into a deal on the budget and her plan to expand Medicaid. The five vetoes, follow-through on Brewer's promise to block legislation until her top priorities move forward, capped a tense day that saw some lawmakers receive threats over their support for the plan to provide health care for more of the state's poor."

Fort Myers News-Press: "Former GOP Reps. Connie Mack IV of Florida and Mary Bono Mack of California are divorcing, only months after losing congressional races." CW: So much for those traditional family values that caused CoMa to contract an advanced state of hyper-homophobia.

Sean Whaley of the Las Vegas Review-Journal: "A constitutional amendment that would let voters decide whether to legalize gay marriage passed the final hurdle of the 2013 legislative session Thursday but still has a long way to go. Senate Joint Resolution 13 passed the Assembly on a 27-14 vote, bringing the process to get it to the ballot in 2016 to an end for this year. All the no votes were Republicans. Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, voted with Democrats. The proposed amendment must pass again in identical form in the 2015 legislative session before it can go to the ballot. Gov. Brian Sandoval's signature is not required." Thanks to Jeanne B.

Illinois Gets Real. Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "Illinois public schools will be required to include medically accurate information about birth control in their sex ed classes under a measure that the state legislature passed this week. HB 2675, which Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is expected to sign into law, will prohibit health classes from teaching abstinence-only curricula. Illinois' current law requires sex ed classes to emphasize abstinence as 'the expected norm,' and stipulates that 'course material and instruction shall stress that pupils should abstain from sexual intercourse until they are ready for marriage.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

News Ledes

New York Times: "A Connecticut man who was shot and killed by the local police at the start of the Memorial Day weekend was identified Sunday by state authorities as a 75-year-old Army veteran and founder of a military museum in Danbury." The Danbury News-Times story is here.

AP: "Two women died after being swept away by floodwaters after weekend rains deluged numerous roads in San Antonio, forcing more than 235 rescues by emergency workers who aided stranded motorists and homeowners at times using inflatable boats."

AP: "Officials reacted with outrage Sunday to an audacious attack by about 200 suspected Maoist rebels who set off a roadside bomb and opened fire on a convoy carrying Indian ruling Congress party leaders and members in an eastern state, killing at least 24 people and wounding 37 others."

New York Times: "The leader of the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah decisively committed his followers on Saturday to an all-out battle in Syria to defeat the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. He said the organization, founded to defend Lebanon and fight Israel, was entering 'a completely new phase,' sending troops abroad to protect its interests." ...

... AP: "A pair of rockets slammed into a car dealership and a residential building in strongholds of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia in southern Beirut on Sunday, wounding four people and raising fears that Syria's civil war is increasingly spreading into Lebanon. Lebanon's sectarian divide mirrors that of Syria, and Lebanese armed factions have taken sides in their neighbor's civil war."

Al Jazeera: "Brazil has said it plans to cancel or restructure $900m worth of debt in 12 African countries as part of a broader strategy to boost ties with the continent. Brazilian officials said on Saturday that President Dilma Rousseff, visiting Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to mark the African Union's 50th anniversary, was set to announce a new development agency alongside the cancellation that will offer assistance to African countries."

Al Jazeera: "Protests against seed giant Monsanto have been held across the US and in dozens of other countries. 'March Against Monsanto' organisers said they were calling attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the companies that produce it. Protests were being held in more than 250 cities on Saturday."

The Commentariat -- May 25, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

     CW: In the Republicans' weekly address, Sen. Jim Inhofe speaks of the tornado that hit Moore. He doesn't just ignore climate change; except for asking for handouts, he pretty much ignores the rest of the country because the "Oklahoma Standard" ensures that Okies will take care of themselves. Bernie Becker of the Hill reports.

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "The Obama Administration fought to keep a search warrant for James Rosen's private e-mail account secret, arguing to a federal judge that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time.... Yesterday, hours after President Obama said, in a speech at National Defense University, that he had asked Attorney General Eric Holder to review the Justice Department's policies concerning investigations of the media, NBC News reported that the warrant to search Rosen's e-mail account was personally approved by Holder." CW: which part of the First Amendment don't you understand, Eric? Ah. The "freedom of the press" part. I said Holder was a mistake as soon as Obama nominated him. I'm still right. ...

... Michael Isikoff of NBC News: "The Justice Department pledged Friday to review its policies relating to the seizure of information from journalists after acknowledging that a controversial search warrant for a Fox News reporter's private emails was approved 'at the highest levels' of the Justice Department, including 'discussions' with Attorney General Eric Holder." ...

... D. S. Wright of Firedoglake: "During Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony before the House Oversight Committee he made an interesting statement in response to a question from Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)... :

HOLDER: I would say this with regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. That is not something I've ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy. In fact my view is quite the opposite.

      ... Holder was under oath at the time raising the possibility of a perjury charge."

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: " Fox News chairman Roger Ailes yesterday released a statement describing that administration's actions as 'an attempt to intimidate Fox News.' But while Ailes and his team will no doubt try to spin this into a partisan confrontation, the First Amendment doesn't say that 'Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of The Fox News.' Especially given the AP phone records subpoena, the issue isn't some sort of political witch hunt against Fox. Instead, it's that the government put its desire to stop leaks ahead of the Constitutional right to freedom of the press without even giving the press a chance to defend itself. That's a problem that needs to be fixed." ...

... Leonard Downie, Jr., former executive editor of the Washington Post, in a long Post op-ed: "... the Obama administration's steadily escalating war on leaks, the most militant I have seen since the Nixon administration, has disregarded the First Amendment and intimidated a growing number of government sources of information -- most of which would not be classified -- that is vital for journalists to hold leaders accountable. The White House has tightened its control over officials' contacts with the news media, and federal agencies have increasingly denied Freedom of Information Act requests on the grounds of national security or protection of internal deliberations." ...

... The Big Chill. Christine Haughney of the New York Times: reporters who cover national security say their sources are drying up. CW: So I guess this crackdown on leaks thing is working.

... The Press Is Really Whiney. Jack Shafer of Slate Reuters takes a contrarian POV: "... all this legal battering of the press, while real, hardly rises to the level of war.... Obama's wholesale deflation of their standing has made comrades out of ideological enemies. How else to explain Len Downie hollering 'Nixon' at the same time Fox News's Roger Ailes is invoking 'McCarthy' to denounce the Obama administration?" CW: I largely disagree with Shafer's conclusion, but he makes a number of valid points in reaching it. Also, he uses the phrase "prelude to a kiss-off." ...

... Also, as Schafer wrote the other day, Rosen is a lousy investigative reporter: "Rosen's journalistic technique, if the Post story is accurate, leaves much to be desired. He would have been less conspicuous had he walked into the State Department wearing a sandwich board lettered with his intentions to obtain classified information and then blasted an air horn to further alert authorities to his business." Plus, his big scoop-di-doo was stupid." CW: and it seems to me it did, at least marginally, cause a national security risk -- for no good reason -- & could possibly endanger some covert agents.

David Firestone of the New York Times: "The most striking thing about President Obama's speech on counter-terrorism yesterday was his eagerness to end the 'global war on terror' and redefine it as a series of smaller-scale skirmishes. And the most striking thing about the reaction of Republicans was their stated refusal to end it, their longing to keep it going as the pinnacle of national priorities.... Anti-terrorism is a definitional position for a party that spent decades using Communism as a foil and seemed lost after the Soviet Union fell." ...

... CW: also underlying GOP saber-rattling are two things: some Republicans are too simple-minded to think beyond knee-jerk machismo; others assume the public is too simple-minded to think beyond knee-jerk machismo, so talking tough is just good PR. As Jim Fallows wrote (linked yesterday), Obama treated his listeners as adults as he explained the complexities of American foreign policy; unfortunately, the opposition party is operating at the level of youthful video-war-games aficionados. ...

... "Steve Coll and Dexter Filkins talk to Amy Davidson about the speech Obama gave on Thursday":

Brian Beutler of TPM: "... in California, where the state government and advocacy groups are actually interested in doing Obamacare right, things are looking pretty good. They're standing up their exchanges and it turns out premiums for basic bronze and more comprehensive silver health plans will actually come in lower than anticipated. This is almost unambiguously good news for Obamacare.... "All the states trying to make the law fail will look very stupid and terribly craven if California pulls this off." ...

... Jeffrey Young of the Huffington Post has the data on which Beutler based his post. ...

... ** GOP War on Poor People. NEW: Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The refusal by about half the states to expand Medicaid will leave millions of poor people ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance under President Obama's health care law even as many others with higher incomes receive federal subsidies to buy insurance.... More than half of all people without health insurance live in states that are not planning to expand Medicaid." These states include Texas, Florida, Kansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. ...

... Paul Krugman: "The whole political calculus was supposed to be that Republicans in red states could point to the horrors of Obamacare and ride them to political victory. Instead, it looks as if we're going to see blue-state residents reaping the benefits of a functional health care system, while red-state residents are denied many of those benefits, for what looks like no better reason than mean-spirited spite -- because what's going on is, indeed, mean-spirited spite." ...

Oh Yeah? Don't be so smug, Krugman. The IRS is rifling through your most intimate medical files:

When people realize that their most personal, sensitive, intimate, private health-care information is in the hands of the IRS that's been willing to use people's tax information against political opponents of this administration, then people have pause and they pull back in horror. -- Michele Bachmann, May 20

Bachmann has made a sweeping claim.... There is no evidence to support this assertion, and she is simply scaring people when she repeats it on television. Bachmann thus continues her record-breaking streak of outlandish claims.-- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post, SO

Oh. Never mind. -- Constant Weader

Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "In the 84 years that the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has been calculated, it doubled during the terms of only four presidents before Barack Obama's election in 2008. This month that number rose to five as the index climbed to more than twice what it was when he took office." The other 4 presidents were FDR, Eisenhower, Reagan & Clinton. "... none came close to the average annual gain so far under Mr. Obama."

Gail Collins considers whether women or Ted Cruz have done more to get Senators working together again. And here's that moment Collins refers to "in the State of the Union address when President Obama called for more bridge repair projects and John Boehner failed to applaud" (unfortunately, the camera cuts away from Boehner quickly [I guess because he didn't applaud]):

... Jonathan Chait puts John McCain's outbursts against his Tea Party colleagues in context: "McCain is a cranky man in general, and the latest punks he told to get off his lawn include tea-party hoodlums Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.... McCain's disagreement over what appears to be a technical point of Senate process is actually a fundamental split over the party's approach toward Obama. The conservatives want to continue their stance of total opposition and instigating crises -- the stance that has defined the party throughout the Obama era -- while McCain wants to engage in compromise and negotiation." Read the whole post. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein disagrees with Chait's analysis: "... it's a combination of electoral incentives and personal vendettas." CW: I think they're both right.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Friday that the 'Gang of Eight' immigration bill doesn't have enough votes to pass the Senate. The bill won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 13-5 vote, but Menendez said it lacks the 60 votes necessary to clear the Senate -- despite the bill's four Republican co-sponsors."

Yesterday President Obama signed "a bill designating the Congressional Gold Medal commemorating the lives of the four young girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing of 1963":

President Obama gave the commencement address yesterday at the U.S. Naval Academy (see yesterday's Commentariat for a link to a New York Times report on his speech):

Local News

J. J. Hensley of the Arizona Republic: "A federal judge's ruling that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office engaged in racial profiling against Latinos could bring significant changes to the agency's controversial approach to immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow issued a lengthy ruling that prohibits sheriff's deputies from using race as a factor in law-enforcement decisions, from detaining people solely for suspected immigration violations and from contacting federal immigration authorities to arrest suspected illegal immigrants who are not accused of committing state crimes." The decision is here. ...

... bmaz of emptywheel: "The decision is long at 142 pages, but it is beautiful and contains specific findings of fact and conclusions of law that will make it hard to reverse on appeal...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "One of the top officials in the Archdiocese of Newark has been forced out for failing to properly monitor the activities of a priest who had been forbidden from having contact with children, the archdiocese announced on Saturday. The dismissal of Msgr. John E. Doran, who reported to Archbishop John J. Myers, is the latest fallout from a sexual abuse scandal that stretches back more than a decade."

Boston Globe: "On this dreary, drizzly morning, thousands of runners and their supporters came out to finish what they started [-- the Boston Marathon --] jogging the final mile from Kenmore Square to the finish line and reclaiming the long-imagined moment they were denied."

AP: "Gay-rights campaigners and their opponents clashed at an unsanctioned rally in the Russian capital on Saturday, but a heavy police presence in kept the two sides apart at that country's first-ever gay pride march. Russian police said they arrested at least 30 gay rights campaigners and Christian Orthodox vigilantes in Moscow."

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2013

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will address Naval Academy graduates on Friday morning.... White House officials said Mr. Obama is likely to address the sexual assault issue in his speech to the graduates in Annapolis. Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense, is expected to do the same at the West Point graduation on Saturday." ...

     ... Update. New Lede: "President Obama used a commencement speech before Naval Academy graduates on Friday to urge them to follow an 'inner compass' and to warn that rising numbers of sexual assaults in the military threatened to erode America’s faith in the armed forces."

This war, like all wars, must end. -- Barack Obama

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday announced new restraints on targeted killings and narrowed the scope of the long struggle with terrorists as part of a transition to a day he envisions when the nation will no longer be on the war footing it has been on since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ...

... The prepared text is here. Toward the end, Obama went off script several times to respond to a heckler. It was, IMHO, an impressive speech that addressed numerous matters, including the issue of journalistic freedom:

Jim Fallows of the Atlantic highlights important points of the President's speech. (CW: Of course I would like Fallows' take as he picked the same one I did as the overarching message.) ...

... Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "One first impression left by President Obama's much-anticipated speech ... is that of the contrast between Bush's swagger and Obama's anguish over the difficult trade-offs that perpetual war poses to a free society. It could scarcely be starker." ...

The President's speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory. -- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: President Obama's GOP Senate critics respond. CW: the usual suspects with the usual whining. They raise some valid issues, but shouldn't they be helping to solve these conundra instead of just bellyaching? ...

... Saxby there should have caught the top of Rachel Maddow's show. Osama bin Laden's central demand & reason for killing Americans was to force the U.S. to get its military bases out of his home country of Saudi Arabia. We did. Quietly. The same week George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq (April 2003). Similarly, after the deadly bombing of the U.S. barracks in Beiruit, Lebanon, in 1983, carried out to force U.S. peacekeeping troops out of Lebanon -- Ronald Reagan pulled the troops out of Lebanon. What about that, Saxby?

... The ACLU responds. Via Jonathan Bernstein. ...

... Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Arguably, no agency has changed more in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks than the C.I.A., and no agency could be affected more by the new direction of the secret wars laid out by American officials on Thursday. More than half of the C.I.A.'s work force joined the agency after 2001, and many of those new officers have spent the years since almost exclusively on the work of man-hunting and killing. Some American officials and outside experts believe it could take years for a spy agency that has evolved into a paramilitary service to rebalance its activities."

Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "The House approved a Republican proposal Thursday to allow interest rates on federal student loans to rise or fall from year to year with the government's cost of borrowing, ending a system in which rates are fixed by law. The proposal cleared the GOP-led House on a largely party-line vote of 221 to 198, but it faces opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate and a veto threat from the Obama administration. The legislation responds to a looming deadline: On July 1, unless the law is changed, rates for a certain type of new loan for undergraduate students in financial need will double to 6.8 percent, from 3.4 percent."

Jonathan Chait: absent any evidence that the President was directing the IRS to hassle wingers, the IRS story has nevertheless metastasized into a right-wing/GOP conspiracy theory based wholly on the presumption that Obama Is a Bad Guy. ...

... Obama Is a Bad Guy, one supposes, is also the underlying premise of numerous fantastic right-wing theories, including my newest favorite: that the Moore tornado -- though it could have been a natural phenomenon -- might well have been a "government weather weapon." Yes, this is as crazy a theory as I've heard, & it wouldn't be humorous if it had not been pitched by radio host Alex Jones, a popular guy among "former Rep. Ron Paul and current Sen. Rand Paul; Fox News figures Lou Dobbs and Andrew Napolitano; gun activists Ted Nugent and Larry Pratt; and climate misinformer Marc Morano [who] have all repeatedly appeared on Jones' show," according to an April 16 report by Ben Dimiero & Eric Hananoki of Media Matters. ...

... Bernie Becker & Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "Congressional Republicans are skeptical the IRS's treatment of conservative groups warrants a special prosecutor, fearing that step could limit their own investigation into the agency.... A special prosecutor concentrating on criminal violations, they say, might not look into ways Tea Party groups were harmed that fall short of a crime." CW: Right. Because a special prosecutor would step on Republicans' sworn duty to carry on endless sensationalist hearings right through election season 2014. And 2016. ...

It scares me: Who will appoint the special prosecutor? Holder! Do I really want the administration that I don't trust appointing a prosecutor right now? I think not. -- Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.)

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Lois Lerner, the head of the Internal Revenue Service’s division on exempt organizations, was put on administrative leave Thursday, a day after she invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to testify before a House committee investigating her division's targeting of conservative groups. Lawmakers from both parties said Thursday that senior I.R.S. officials had requested Ms. Lerner's resignation but she refused, forcing them to put her on leave instead. Whether her suspension will lead to dismissal was unclear, given civil service rules that govern federal employment." ...

A president that touts ego, power, and a hatred for dissent above everything else, that's Barack Obama, that's the leader of this country. I don't think this administration realizes that the First Amendment wasn't a suggestion. The Bill of Rights is not a wish list, it's a set of non-negotiable limits on the federal government. -- RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Monday evening ...

I don't think this Lois Lerner did herself or the scandal any favors by pleading the Fifth Amendment yesterday, which -- whether you agree with it as a basis of law or not -- implies there are some criminal aspects of the investigation.... I understand. I went to law school. I get it.... You don't need to plead the Fifth if you've done nothing wrong.... If you have an administration that says they've done nothing wrong & this is just a bunch of low-level people in Cincinatti, & then you have Lois Lerner come forward & plead the Fifth, I think it raises questions. -- Reince Priebus, Thursday morning

Sometimes, it's such a short distance between you and your own petard. -- Charles Pierce

Apparently the Fifth Amendment is "just a suggestion" which is debatable "as a basis of law." -- Constant Weader

... the [Fifth Amendment] privilege protects the innocent as well as the guilty. -- U.S. Supreme Court, per curiam.

... This part of the discussion among Prince Rebus, John Heilmann & PretendDem Harold Ford -- from the same "Morning Joe" show -- is interesting, too. Heilmann, BTW, is not a partisan; he's an even-handed journalist who obviously sees no reason to give Squeaky a pass on his sleights of hand -- "we must wait for the facts, which are that Obama is the mastermind of a vast criminal operation." (Notice how Squeaky doesn't see anything wrong with that "logic.") Also, Jeanne B. & I were unaware there were 132 Democratic Senators:

... Juliet Eilperin & Ed O'Keefe: "House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is inclined to recall Internal Revenue Service official Lois G. Lerner to testify before his panel, but will await recommendations from committee lawyers, the nonpartisan House Counsel, other outside legal experts and committee Democrats before making a final decision, he said Thursday." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "In a dramatic departure from existing White House procedures, President Obama requested today that his staff start cc’ing him on stuff." ...

... ** Norm Ornstein, writing in the National Journal, gives the IRS story some needed context: it "is all about disclosure of donors, and about political actors trying to find ways to avoid disclosure. And we should be clear that the ability to conceal donors, to launch stealth attack ads, or to threaten lawmakers with such ads if they don't support the policy preferences or legislative goals of the donors is something the Supreme Court rejected 8-1 in the famous Citizens United decision. But political professionals on both sides of the aisle, through their high-priced campaign lawyers, have for many years probed for ways to finesse the law and the norm of disclosure endorsed by the Supreme Court (most eloquently, by the way, by Justice Antonin Scalia)." Read the whole article.

Surprise! Tom Curry of NBC News: "With one of President Barack Obama's key nominees on the verge of being confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appeared to edge away Wednesday from an idea that some Democrats are calling for: enacting a change in Senate rules to stop filibusters which delay votes on Obama appointees. During a debate on the Senate floor with Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Reid said, 'I'm not saying we're going to change the rules' regarding the filibuster, but argued that the Senate must move faster to confirm Obama nominees." ...

... BUT on Thursday, McConnell Blinked. Brian Beutler of TPM: "McConnell caved Thursday morning on the Senate floor. A small cave. But a cave nonetheless. [Sri] Srinivasan will be confirmed [as a judge in the DC Circuit Court] Thursday afternoon. But the 'cave' is only a small part of the story.... McConnell is actively trying to undermine Reid's efforts to present Republicans with a Sophie's choice between dropping their filibuster threats against nominees they oppose and standing by as Democrats do away with the filibuster on presidential nominees altogether." ...

     ... Update. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Sri Srinivasan – the principal deputy solicitor general President Obama has nominated to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was confirmed in a 97 to 0 vote Thursday. The vote is significant for several reasons. Srinivasan is the first D.C. Circuit nominee confirmed since 2006...."

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Post: "Even though one might think there's an incentive for both sides to eventually find an equilibrium in which Republicans block some nominees but not quite enough to trigger the nuclear option, the chances for miscalculation are pretty large." ...

... Bernstein: "... it's absolutely ridiculous that a unanimous pick took eleven months.... Having given up on Srinivasan, will Republicans now blockade the remaining three vacancies on the DC Circuit Court, perhaps on the bogus pretext that those judges aren't actually needed? ... And ... it would help if there actually were nominees for those three vacancies." ...

... Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) explains to Chuck Grassley (RDopey-Iowa) what "packing the court" means after Grassley complains 5 times that Democrats are attempting to pack the D.C. Circuit Court, a preposterous assertion. Via Dylan Matthew of the Washington Post:

Thursday morning on the Senate floor, John McCain ripped Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee, who is a frequent co-conspirator with Tailgunner Ted & Li'l Randy:

... Greg Sargent: "Tea Party Senators have pushed their disregard for basic governing norms so far that even fellow Republicans are calling them out for it.... As McCain rightly pointed out, the Tea Party demand is effectively is that Republicans must not negotiate over the budget 'unless certain conditions are imposed' on the negotiations beforehand 'that happen to be important to a small group of United States Senators.' ... This is really remarkable stuff, and again goes to a basic fact about today's politics, which is that Tea Party lawmakers have -- willfully, it seems -- decided that they no longer have any obligation to engage in basic governing."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a step its chief executive called 'compassionate, caring and kind.' ... The Scouts did not consider the even more divisive question of whether to allow openly gay adults and leaders." ...

... Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee: "... when I read yesterday that the Boy Scouts had come up with what can only be described as a pathetic Solomon-like decision of allowing gay boys to join the scouts, but not allowing gay men to be scout leaders, I had to observe that this is perhaps the worst signal that could be sent to aspiring gay scouts. That message is: you're ok as a gay child, but it's not ok to be a gay man. We think you'll eventually become a pervert." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Paul Krugman: "... the really remarkable thing about 'Abenomics' -- the sharp turn toward monetary and fiscal stimulus adopted by the government of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe -- is that nobody else in the advanced world is trying anything similar. In fact, the Western world seems overtaken by economic defeatism.... So, how is Abenomics working? The safe answer is that it's too soon to tell. But the early signs are good...."

Plus ça change.... An excellent post by Eric Lipton & Ben Protess of the New York Times on how banks are writing financial "regulation" bills again. "The cordial relations [between bank lobbyists & members of Congress] now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank." CW: How could this happen? "The lawmakers who this month supported the bills championed by Wall Street received twice as much in contributions from financial institutions compared with those who opposed them, according to an analysis of campaign finance records performed by MapLight, a nonprofit group."

Local News

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Anthony D. Weiner ... re-emerged on the city's political stage Thursday as his essential, unadulterated self, at once gratingly self-mythologizing and charmingly self-effacing." ...

... Former Congressman, Currently Unemployed. Will Accept Mayoralty of Any Major U.S. City. Azi Paybarah of Capital New York: "The New York City skyline is one of the most recognizable in the world. The skyline portrayed in the banner on Anthony Weiner's campaign website isn't it. It's Pittsburgh. To be precise, the banner shows the top of what appears to be the Roberto Clemente Bridge." The photo has since been swapped out & Weiner's marketing firm "takes full responsibility." Via Gawker. ...

... Oh, Great. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Former congressman and newly announced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) said in an interview Thursday morning with WNYC-FM that there could be women coming forward with more e-mails or photos from the inappropriate digital conversations that led to his resignation in 2011."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Haynes Johnson, a distinguished Washington Post journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for civil rights coverage in the 1960s and later sought to pierce the mysteries of the politics and gamesmanship of the capital, died May 24 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was 81."

Dan Sligh describes his "rough day" after he & his wife plunged in their truck into the Skagit River after an I-5 bridge in Washington state collapsed:

Seattle Times photo.

Seattle Times: "A chunk of Interstate 5 collapsed into the Skagit River near Mount Vernon on Thursday evening, dumping two vehicles into the icy waters and creating a gaping hole in Washington state's major north-south artery. Officials said the highway will not be fixed for weeks at the very least. Rescuers pulled three people with minor injuries from the water after the collapse, which authorities say began when a semitruck with an oversized load struck a steel beam at around 7 p.m....The bridge, built in 1955, was inspected twice last year and repairs were made.... The bridge is classified as a 'fracture critical' bridge by the National Bridge Inventory. That means one major structural part can ruin the entire bridge, as compared with a bridge that has redundant features...."

Reuters: "A North Korean envoy told China's president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take 'positive actions' to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, bluntly told a North Korean envoy on Friday that his country should return to diplomatic talks intended to rid it of its nuclear weapons, according to a state-run Chinese news agency."