The Commentariat -- December 3

Having reviewed the Pentagon report, having spoken to active and retired military service members and having discussed the matter privately with Defense Secretary (Robert) Gates and others, I accept the findings of the report and support repeal based on the secretary’s recommendations that repeal will be implemented only when the battle effectiveness of the forces is assured and proper preparations have been completed. -- Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass)

Jim Fallows of The Atlantic remembers a "broad-minded, tolerant" John McCain, & writes, "Seeing him now is surprising not simply because it reminds us: this man could be the sitting president, but also because it again raises the question, how did he end up this way?" ...

... AP: "The top uniformed officers of the Army and the Marines told a Senate panel Friday that letting gays serve openly in the military at a time of war would be divisive and difficult, sharply challenging a new Pentagon study that calculates the risk as low." New York Times story here.

Greg Sargent: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore) "is working behind the scenes to build support for a rules change that would force Senators to actually filibuster on the floor." Here's a pdf of Merkley's memo to fellow senators.

AP: "An austere deficit-cutting plan by President Barack Obama's budget commission has failed to win the supermajority required to force a quick vote in Congress. The plan won support from 11 of 18 commission members. Fourteen were needed for official approval."

George Zornick of Think Progress: Bush officials are gloating over the "tax-cut trap" they laid when they talked Congress into passing "temporary" tax cuts. ...

... Paul Krugman thinks President Obama should be wearing a "Kick Me!" sign on his backside. CW: I disagree, & if my comment doesn't make the cut, I'll post it. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones draws a nice little picture of the Obama tax cut plan (blue) v. the GOP plan (red). Drum didn't have enough room on his blog to depict the total GOP tax cut for the richy-richest, but you get the idea. Notice that under the White House plan, everybody, including the super-rich, get some cut. ...

... Sam Stein: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says that if Obama caves on tax cuts for the wealthy, he'd better hope Sarah Palin is his opposition in 2012, implying of course that Obama couldn't beat anyone else.

... We Can't Say This Often Enough. Lori Montgomery & Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post: "The private discussions [between the White House & Republicans], which parallel a more public set of talks, have left many Democrats grousing that President Obama is being too quick to accommodate his adversaries, who are still a month away from taking control of the House and expanding their presence in the Senate." ...

... ** Chicken Crap. CBS News: "Republicans have argued that the midterm elections have given them a mandate on ... the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.... According to a new CBS News poll, however..., 53 percent of Americans want the Bush-era tax cuts extended only for households earning less than $250,000 per year. That roughly matches the proposal put forth by the White House.... Just 26 percent of Americans say they support extending the cuts for all Americans, even those earning above the $250,000 level, which is the GOP proposal." CW: Obama is caving to Republicans on something the public doesn't want & is fiscally disastrous because it's what he wants. ...

My drill sergeant was fond of telling privates that they could 'fuck up a wet dream.' I think that is an apt description of the Democrats handling of the tax issue, unless, like me, you’re slowly coming to the realization that they are equal parts incompetent and equal parts slaves to the money party. -- John Cole of Balloon Juice, who is just catching on to what I've been saying for months

... Jonathan Chait of The New Republic on Paul Ryan: "Ryan's record is mostly (but not consistently) anti-government, consistently opposed to downward redistribution of income, and absolutely rock-solid consistent against anything that reduces the deficit. Ryan favored all the Bush tax cuts and Medicare benefit, favors the unpaid-for permanent extension of those tax cuts, and opposed the Affordable Care Act.... Ryan, like many conservatives, prefers to reside in an alternate universe....  You can negotiate with somebody who has different preferences than you do. But negotiating with somebody who inhabits a different reality is very difficult."

Ed O'Keefe & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon is increasingly worried that Congress will not act to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, a scenario that defense officials fear would prompt federal courts to intervene and immediately allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces instead of giving the military several months or years to prepare.

Washington Post op-ed, Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, Lawrence S. Eagleburger & Colin L. Powell, all of whom served as secretaries of state for Republican presidents, make "the Republican case for ratifying the New START treaty."

Dana Milbank: "To be sure, [Rep. Charlie] Rangel deserved punishment for his wrongs, which included failing to pay taxes on his Dominican beach home and improperly using his office for charitable fundraising. But in the 30 minutes allotted to him for his defense on the House floor Thursday evening, Rangel and his friends made a compelling case that he was being punished for doing things that lawmakers do routinely. ...

... More Milbank: "Republicans gained control of the House last month on a promise to 'restore the Constitution.' So it is no small irony that one of their first orders of business is an attempt to rewrite the Constitution." CW: and what a great name -- they call this first Constitutional Amendment they are proposing the "Repeal Amendment"; its aim is to return power to the states.

Jamie Dimon. New York Times photo.Roger Lowenstein , writing in the New York Times Magazine, profiles Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, calling him "America's Least Hated Banker." "Dimon sees himself as a patriotic citizen who helped his country in a time of crisis.... Critics say that, as a part — even a solvent part — of a failed system, he should be grateful for the government’s assistance rather than stridently critical, as he has been, of some of its reforms. Dimon, they note, took advantage of the crisis to acquire Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, and J. P. Morgan emerged from the crisis as a vastly larger institution." ...

... BUT Simon Johnson calls him "Our Most Dangerous Banker." Johnson lays out why Dimon's dream of an even larger, more interconnected international bank is a disaster waiting to happen.

Ben Smith & Byron Tau of Politico: "... an analysis by POLITICO found that at least $140 million in stimulus money has gone to faith-based groups, the result of an unpublicized White House decision to spend government money, where legal, supporting religiously inspired nonprofit groups."

Scott Shane, et al, of the New York Times: "From hundreds of diplomatic cables, Afghanistan emerges as a looking-glass land where bribery, extortion and embezzlement are the norm and the honest man is a distinct outlier.... The cables make it clear that American officials see the problem as beginning at the top." ...

... Helene Cooper & Carlotta Gall of the New York Times document Hamid Karzai's fall from favor, as reflected in the WikeLeaks cables.

Michael Scherer of Time has the backstory on "why Nigerian authorities are coming after Dick Cheney."

The Commentariat -- December 2

President Obama & Vice President Biden meet with new governors:

AP: "President Barack Obama firmly defended his signature health care bill to a roomful of newly elected governors Thursday, many of them Republicans elected by railing against him and the expanding reach of the federal government."

Reid Wilson of the National Journal: "Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget."

Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy) blocked an unemployment bill which in a Senate speech he said he deplored because it extended unemployment benefits beyond 99 weeks. But the bill does not extend benefits beyond 99 weeks; it extends benefits beyond 26 weeks.

Igor Volsky of the Wonk Room: "McCain ... openly impl[ied] that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen was not living up to the expectations of leadership because he did not ask the troops if they favored repealing the [DADT] policy." With video. ...

... Adm. Mullen & Secretary Gates tear into Sen. McCain's objections to DADT repeal:

... More here, with a bit of repetition, but compelling exchanges:

With all due respect, Mr. Chairman and Sen. McCain, it is true that, as chairman, I am not in charge of troops. But I have commanded three ships, a carrier battle group and two fleets. And I was most recently a service chief myself. For more than 40 years I have made decisions that affected and even risked the lives of young men and women. You do not have to agree with me on this issue. But don't think for one moment that I haven't carefully considered the impact of the advice I give on those who will have to live with the decisions that that advice informs. I would not recommend repeal of this law if I did not believe in my soul that it was the right thing to do for our military, for our nation and for our collective honor. -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, reacting to John McCain's criticism of his leadership

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' opening testimony before a Senate Committee on DADT:

AP: "Directly challenging the Pentagon's top leadership, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain on Thursday snubbed a military study on gays as flawed and said letting gays serve openly would be dangerous in a time of war." ...

... AND Yahoo News: Update: "Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen shot back at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for implying that Mullen is not in charge of troops and is thus not qualified to say that the military should end its ban on openly gay service."

At least David Brooks doesn't like Republicans, either:

Two segments in which Rachel Maddow compares racial integration of the military & repealing DADT:

... Here's the New York Times report on the Pentagon's DADT study. You can read the report here. ...

     ... Politico Update: "President Obama says the Pentagon's 'don't ask, don't tell' review 'confirms' that most service members are comfortable working alongside gays. Obama also called on the Senate on Tuesday to 'act as soon as possible' on legislation repealing the ban on gays serving in the military so he could sign it 'this year.'"

Andrew Sullivan on "The Dickishness of the GOP": "I see no other coherent message or strategy since 2008. Just opposition to everything, zero support for a president grappling with a recession their own party did much to precipitate, and facing a fiscal crisis the GOP alone made far worse with their spending in the Bush-Cheney years. There is not a scintilla of responsibility for their past; not a sliver of good will for a duly elected president. Worse, figures like Cantor and McCain actively seek to back foreign governments against the duly elected president of their own country."

Peter Goodman in the Huffington Post: "In Washington, the agenda has long since moved on from bailing out megabanks to figuring out how to stop paying for things that regular people need -- luxuries like health care, retirement benefits and unemployment insurance." ...

... Daniel Indiviglio of The Atlantic: See? Goldman Sachs is bullish on the economy. ...

** "Too Big to Succeed." Thomas Hoenig, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, in a New York Times op-ed, says that to restore integrity to the financial system, Congress must enact legislation similar to Glass-Steagall: "Taking similar actions today to reduce the scope and size of banks, combined with legislatively mandated debt-to-equity requirements, would restore the integrity of the financial system and enhance equity of access to credit for consumers and businesses. Studies show that most operational efficiencies are captured when financial firms are substantially smaller than the largest ones are today."

Neil Irwin & Jia Lin Yang of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve pumped trillions of dollars into all manner of banks, investment firms and major companies during the financial crisis, according to documents released Wednesday that reveal for the first time the full scope of the Fed's emergency lending.... The Fed said it does not anticipate incurring any losses; indeed, many of the programs have turned a profit for shareholders." ...

... Junk for Cash. Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Lehman Brother’s collapse in the fall of 2008 inspired panic on Wall Street, but it also presented a little-noticed opportunity for the country’s remaining elite banks: They could now receive cheap Federal Reserve loans without posting quality collateral. As part of an emergency loan program, the Fed accepted as collateral more than $1 trillion in junk-rated investments from Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and others...." ...

We’re talking about huge sums of money going to bail out large foreign banks. Has the Federal Reserve become the central bank of the world? I think that is a question that needs to be examined. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, "who wrote the provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that required the Fed disclosures" ...

... Sen. Bernie Sanders & Eliot Spitzer discuss the Fed's generosity to Wall Street:

... Sudeep Reddy of the Wall Street Journal: "Top Federal Reserve officials are pressing lawmakers to pair a long-term plan for deficit reduction with new short-term fiscal stimulus to boost an economy that the central bank admits needs more help than it can provide."

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio wonders out loud how Democrats are losing a fight where Republican plan to extend massive tax cuts for the rich & Democrats want to extend of jobless benefits.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama appears to be building momentum for Senate approval of a new arms control treaty with Russia by the end of the year, but it may have to come at the expense of other legislative priorities with far greater support among his liberal base."

Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The results of parliamentary elections in Afghanistan have brought a new period of uncertainty, deepened skepticism of the government and stirred volatile ethnic fault lines."

When everything is classified, nothing is classified.... The hallmark of a truly effective internal security system would be the maximum possible disclosure, recognizing that secrecy can best be preserved only when credibility is truly maintained. -- Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, in his Pentagon Papers opinion, 1971

"WikiLeaks' War on Secrecy." Massimo Calabresi of Time: "The number of new secrets designated as such by the U.S. government has risen 75%, from 105,163 in 1996 to 183,224 in 2009.... The number of documents and other communications created using those secrets has skyrocketed nearly 10 times, from 5,685,462 in 1996 to 54,651,765 in 2009. Not surprisingly, the number of people with access to that Everest of information has grown too.... As more individuals handle more secrets in more places around the world, it naturally becomes harder to keep track of them. But more than that, it diminishes the credibility of the government's judgment about what should be secret."

... Fareed Zakaria in Time: "The WikiLeaks documents, by contrast [with the Pentagon Papers], show Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated publicly.... The cables also show an American diplomatic establishment that is pretty good at analysis." ...

... David Corn of Mother Jones: WikiLeaks cables show that "the Obama administration, working with Republicans, was actively pressuring the Spaniards to drop the investigation" of Bush administration officials who participated in authorizing the torture of suspected enemy combatants. The six officials Obama & Republicans got off the hook were Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Douglas Feith, Jay Bybee & John Yoo. ...

AP: "Sweden's Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a court order to detain WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual molestation. The 39-year-old Australian, who denies the accusations made by two Swedish women after his visit to the country in August, had appealed two lower court rulings allowing investigators to bring him into custody and issue an international arrest warrant."

C. J. Chivers of the New York Times: "scores of secret American cables from recent years, obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to several news organizations, show that beneath the public efforts at warmer ties, the United States harbors a dim view of the post-Soviet Kremlin and its leadership, and little hope that Russia will become more democratic or reliable." ...

... C. J. Chivers: "In Georgia, diplomats appeared to set aside skepticism and embrace Georgian versions of important and disputed events.... The last cables before the eruption of the brief Russian-Georgian war showed an embassy relaying statements that would with time be proved wrong." ...

Today, we are all Georgians. -- John McCain, August 12, 2008 ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A trove of diplomatic cables, obtained by WikiLeaks ... disclose a perception by American diplomats that Canadians 'always carry a chip on their shoulder' in part because of a feeling that their country 'is condemned to always play "Robin" to the U.S. "Batman."'” ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... the self-proclaimed whistleblower website [WikiLeaks] and its eccentric founder, Julian Assange, were the subjects of bellicose threats from politicians and world leaders, but to this day have faced fewer immediate legal consequences than those selling fake Coach handbags and unauthorized Disney DVDs."

Gail Collins makes sport of the lame duck Senate. She notes that they did get one bill passed: one that is supposed to bring the FDA into the 21st century. Collins notes that

... the bipartisan bill, which would overhaul the nation’s food safety system, still has to go back to the House, so there’s plenty of time to screw it up.

The Times moderators have again held back my comment, so here it is, with an additional boost from Rachel Maddow & Sen. Stabenow:

According to Roll Call, the Senate has already screwed up the food safety bill. It seems the Senate added tax provisions, and only the House has the Constitutional authority to initiate revenue-raisers. House Democrats are planning to block the bill. How about that? The Senate can't pass a bill without violating the Constitution!

As for Lamar Alexander's confidence in the "White House’s willingness to negotiate away taxes on the rich," I'm with Alexander. The minute we learned President Obama had outsourced negotiating duties to Tim Geithner, I figured the die was cast. Does anybody really think Geithner is going to draw a line in the sand and refuse to repeal tax breaks for his millionaire & billionaire friends on Wall Street? What a terrible thing to do as the holiday season is upon us.

I got a kick of the President today when he claimed Republicans were just engaging in political posturing and that "at the end of the day people of good will can come together and recognize that ... we're going to be able to solve this problem (of the tax cuts)." You would think he didn't notice that all 42 Republican Senators signed a letter saying they were going to obstruct everything until they got their way. And then, as we all know, once they get their way, they're going to obstruct everything. Here are Rachel Maddow & Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow forcefully making the same point:

I hope Congress does get "in a holiday mood," because they're going to be spending the holidays in Washington, D.C. Let's hope it snows, so the Jim Inhofe family can build another igloo this year as proof positive there's no such thing as global warming.

The Inhofe family builds an igloo at their Washington, D.C. home. Winter 2009-2010.