The Commentariat -- May 24, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Baylorgate. Former Special Prosecutor Impeached or Something over Sexual Assault Cover-up. Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle: "Baylor refused to confirm or deny a report that it planned to fire school president Kenneth Starr in response to the sexual assault scandal rocking the school's football program. On Tuesday morning, Scout.com's Chip Brown reported that Starr had been fired. The Waco Tribune-Herald later published a story saying that numerous current and former regents wouldn't confirm or deny the report. Baylor issued a statement of its own Tuesday afternoon: 'The Baylor Board of Regents continues its work to review the findings of the Pepper Hamilton investigation and we anticipate further communication will come after the Board completes its deliberations. We will not respond to rumors, speculation or reports based on unnamed sources, but when official news is available, the University will provide it. We expect an announcement by June 3.' Baylor is accused of failing to respond to rape or sexual assault reports filed by at least six women students from 2009-2016. There were reports of rape and assault against at least five Baylor football players, with two of those players - Tevin Elliot and Sam Ukwuachu - being convicted of rape." -- CW
*****
Oliver Holmes of the Guardian & agencies: "Barack Obama has said Washington supports Vietnam's territorial claims against Beijing in the South China Sea and promised it greater access to security equipment. 'In the South China Sea, the US is not a claimant in current disputes, but we will stand with our partners in upholding key principles like freedom of navigation,' the US president said in a speech in Hanoi." -- CW ...
... Simon Denyer of the Washington Post: "China warned President Obama on Tuesday not to spark a fire in Asia after he announced the lifting of a longstanding embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam. Obama unveiled the historic step on Monday during his first visit to Vietnam, insisting the move was 'not based on China' while simultaneously acknowledging that both nations share a common concern about China's actions in the South China Sea." -- CW
Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "According to US officials, the [Obama] administration has deals in place to send approximately two dozen longtime Guantánamo detainees to about half a dozen countries." -- CW
Jonathan Chait: "... it has begun to dawn on some conservatives that the Republican Party faces a distinct handicap: The Democrats will have two popular ex-presidents to campaign for them, and the GOP will have none." Why, oh, why is that? Conservatives attribute this to "bad luck," but "The answer, I'd suggest, is something along the lines of by governing competently rather than presiding over a flaming wreck of a presidency. But this answer presumes a level of introspection ... that is absent from both columns, and from conservative thought in general." -- CW
Ron Brownstein of the Atlantic: "One of the key trends in modern American politics is what I've called the class inversion -- the shift since the 1960s of working-class whites from the Democratic Party to the Republican, and the parallel movement of more white-collar whites from the GOP to the Democrats since the 1980s. A Clinton-Trump race that could prove more competitive than many expected threatens to finally uproot the last vestiges of the class-based political alignment that defined U.S. politics from Franklin Roosevelt through the 1960s." -- CW
John Sides of the Washington Post: "Our internal pictures of the opposite party are terribly inaccurate. When asked about the groups historically associated with each party, we think these groups make up a vastly larger fraction of each party than they really do. In other words, we think each party is essentially a huge bundle of stereotypes -- and this tendency is particularly pronounced when we're characterizing the opposite party.... The more we exaggerate the differences in the social bases of each party, the more tribal partisanship becomes." CW: Hey, how about this, Professor? Ninety-eight percent of Republicans are greedy bigots. The remaining two percent are confused. AmIrite?
Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "In November, 17 states will have voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election. Eleven of those states will require their residents to show a photo ID. They include swing states such as Wisconsin and states with large African American and Latino populations, such as North Carolina and Texas. On Tuesday, the entire 15-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans is to begin hearing a case regarding the legality of the Texas law, considered to be the most stringent in the country." -- CW
Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Former President Jimmy Carter, who has long put religion and racial reconciliation at the center of his life, is on a mission to heal a racial divide among Baptists and help the country soothe rifts that he believes are getting worse. In an interview on Monday, Mr. Carter spoke of a resurgence of open racism, saying, 'I don't feel good, except for one thing: I think the country has been reawakened the last two or three years to the fact that we haven't resolved the race issue adequately.' He said that Republican animosity toward President Obama had 'a heavy racial overtone' and that Donald J. Trump's surprisingly successful campaign for president had 'tapped a waiting reservoir there of inherent racism.'" -- CW
Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "One Of The Most Aggressive Gerrymanders In The Country Just Lost In The Supreme Court.... On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal brought by three Republican members of Congress who hoped to maintain [Virginia's] old [gerrymandered] maps. Though the Court's decision in Wittman v. Personhuballah expresses no view on the merits of the case, it effectively allows the lower court's order to stand." -- CW
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a black Georgia death row inmate who claimed that prosecutors kept African Americans off the jury that convicted him of murdering an elderly white woman. The court ruled 7 to 1 that Georgia prosecutors had improperly considered race when selecting a jury to judge Timothy Tryone Foster. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. Justice Clarence Thomas, the lone African American on the court, dissented, saying that the evidence that prosecutors acted improperly was not strong enough to overturn Foster's conviction." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
Brief Return of Sanity. Richard Wolf of USA Today: "The Supreme Court gave a black death-row prisoner new life Monday by ruling that prosecutors unconstitutionally barred all potential black jurors from his trial nearly 30 years ago. The 7-1 verdict, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, reversed Georgia courts that had refused to consider claims of racial discrimination against Timothy Foster for the murder of an elderly white woman. The ruling is likely to fuel contentions from death penalty opponents that capital punishment is racially discriminatory." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... AND ...
... Lydia Wheeler of The Hill: "The Supreme Court dimissmed a GOP challenge Monday to a court remedy for an unconstitutional congressional redistricting plan in Virginia. A unanimous court held that Reps. Rob Wittman and other Republicans from Virginia, including Reps. Randy Forbes and David Brat, lacked standing to pursue the appeal because none of them could show they were injured by the new court-ordered race-neutral plan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... Akhilleus: Bet you can't guess the lone dissenter in the first case. There'd have been two if you know who was still around. In the Virginia case, I'm surprised the standing argument worked, even though it's one of Roberts' favorite strategems for refusing to act on a claim. Brat and the other Virginia Confederates could sustain great injury now that their power grab has been found unconstitutional. They could be voted out of office in a truly democratic election. Jeez, Johnny, c'mon. ...
... Thomas Advocates Low-Tech Lynching. Ian Millhiser: "In his dissenting opinion, Justice Thomas appears astounded that his colleagues could care that new evidence shows that Foster's constitutional rights were violated. 'The notion that this "newly discovered evidence" could warrant relitigation of a Batson claim is flabbergasting,' Thomas writes.... Indeed, Thomas appears much more concerned with the extra work Foster is going to create for himself and his fellow justices than with the fact that a man was going to be executed unconstitutionally." -- CW ...
... Charles Pierce: "Before we go on, it's important to remember that Justice Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall, the legal titan who first brought down separate-but-equal and who drove a stake through the heart of Plessy v. Ferguson.... [The Foster case] was so nakedly About Race, although nothing ever is About Race, and the prosecutorial misconduct so egregious, that it revolted even Chief Justice John Roberts, the man who never misses a chance to declare the Day Of Jubilee." -- CW
Kim Palmer of Reuters: "A federal judge in Cincinnati temporarily blocked the implementation of a[n Ohio] state law that would have effectively de-funded 28 Ohio Planned Parenthood clinics, in a ruling on Monday. U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett granted a two-week stay halting the diversion of federal funding in a ruling on a May 11 lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Southwest Ohio. The Ohio law signed in February by Republican Governor John Kasich stripped $1.3 million in federal taxpayer funds from any healthcare organization that provides abortion services. The law was scheduled to go into effect on Monday." -- CW
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors are investigating campaign contributions to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), and what they consider to be suspicious personal finances, as part of a public integrity probe that has lasted for more than a year, according to two officials familiar with the inquiry." -- CW
Presidential Race
Rachel La Corte of the AP: "More than a million voters have sent in their ballots for Washington state's presidential primary, even though the results will be used only to allocate delegates to the Republican National Convention. Washington has both a presidential primary and a caucus system. Democrats opted for the caucus system to allocate their delegates and will therefore ignore the results of Tuesday's primary.... Sanders overwhelmingly won the district caucuses March 26." -- CW
Trump economics is a recipe for lower wages, fewer jobs, more debt. He could bankrupt America like he's bankrupted his companies. I mean, ask yourself: How can anybody lose money running a casino? Really. -- Hillary Clinton, Monday ...
... Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "... Hillary Clinton has turned down an invitation to debate Senator Bernie Sanders ahead of California's primary, her campaign said on Monday. The announcement came hours after Mrs. Clinton unleashed a biting critique of Donald J. Trump while addressing a union convention, mocking his business record and offering a glimpse at how she might confront him in the general election. Mr. Sanders's campaign last week tentatively accepted an invitation by Fox News to participate in a debate before California's June 7 primary, and expressed hope that Mrs. Clinton would agree to face off against the senator." -- CW ...
... Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: "An army of Hillary Clinton's surrogates in battleground states will blast Donald Trump on Tuesday over his past statements about the housing market and his business record, according to a campaign aide. The coordinated push is the first of their efforts to frame the likely Republican nominee in the minds of swing voters...." CW
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "... Hillary Clinton should not pick a senator from a Republican-controlled state as her vice president, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned Monday. 'If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no. I would do whatever I can, and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing,' Reid told MSNBC's 'AM Joy' when asked about the possibility of Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) or Sherrod Brown (Ohio) being named Clinton's No. 2. Reid added that he would 'yell and scream to stop that.'" -- CW ...
... Paul Waldman: "One alternative scenario: if Clinton pickedWarren and she resigned her Senate seat immediately, there would be an early special election that could elect another Democrat in time for the start of Clinton's presidency." -- CW
Cathleen Decker of the Los Angeles Times: Campaigning in California over the weekend, Bernie Sanders & Bill Clinton appear to have declared a truce. "Gone were some of Sanders' harshest condemnations of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and Bill Clinton's tenure in the White House. Gone too was Bill Clinton's occasional belittling of the Vermont senator's policy proposals." -- CW
Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Sen. Bernie Sanders was given unprecedented say over the Democratic Party platform Monday in a move party leaders hope will soothe a bitter split with backers of the longshot challenger to Hillary Clinton -- and Sanders immediately used his new power to name a well-known advocate for Palestinian rights [-- James Zogby --] to help draft Democratic policy." -- CW ...
... Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Top Bernie Sanders supporters Dr. Cornell [sic.] West and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will be among those on the Democratic Party's important Platform Drafting Committee after the Vermont senator won a key concession as he looks to leave his mark on the party's platform." -- CW ...
... CW: Worth mentioning here: Cornel West is a blowhard loon, who, to say the least, does not play well with others. He belongs on a platform committee (or any committee) like a fox belongs on a committee of broody hens fighting for free-range justice.
Jose DelReal & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump is reviving some of the ugliest political chapters of the 1990s with escalating personal attacks on Bill Clinton's character amid a concerted effort to smother Hillary Clinton's campaign message with the weight of decades of controversy. Trump's latest shot came Monday when he released an incendiary Instagram video that includes the voices of two women who accused the former president of sexual assault, underscoring the presumptive Republican nominee's willingness to go far beyond political norms in his critique of his likely Democratic rival." -- CW ...
Eric Levitz of New York: "On Monday, the grotesquely misogynistic Republican nominee released an Instagram ad titled, 'Is Hillary really protecting women?' The 15-second spot layers clips of women tearfully accusing Bill Clinton of sexual assault over a menacing photograph of the former president smoking a cigar -- until the voices of the victims are drowned out by Hillary Clinton's maniacal laughter." -- CW ...
... digby: "In other words, there is nothing he won't do to win. And as he's made clear in the past, he believes that once you have won something, you are given license to bully and dominate.... When are we going to start thinking about this is psychological terms? That's not a normal way of thinking for a well-balanced, mature adult." -- CW ...
... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "frequently proclaimed himself to be an admirer of [Bill] Clinton.... For years, Trump dismissed or minimized the sex allegations against Clinton, even after [Kathleen] Willey and [Juanita] Broadderick went public with their claims. His main concern is that Clinton did not handle the public relations of the Lewinsky scandal right; Trump dismissed the women involved as losers and not attractive. Trump even suggested that Americans would have been more forgiving if Clinton had slept with more beautiful women. Trump's bottom line, even years later, was that the Clinton sex scandals were 'totally unimportant.'" -- CW ...
... AND Kenny Likes Bill. Bill Clinton is the most gifted politician of the baby boomer generation. His genuine empathy for human beings is absolutely clear. It is powerful, it is palpable and the folks of Arkansas really understood that about him -- that he genuinely cared. The 'I feel your pain' is absolutely genuine. -- Ken Starr, Whitewater Independent Counsel, this week
Dana Milbank: "A generation after Ronald Reagan denounced the 'welfare queen,' the Grand Old Party is evidently on the verge of nominating its first welfare king.... The Post's Drew Harwell reported over the weekend that, for at least two years in the late 1970s..., Trump paid no federal income taxes. Several tax experts I spoke with said it's entirely possible that Trump has continued to report negative income -- and therefore not pay taxes -- because of loopholes and dubious deductions that benefit powerful real estate interests.... The corporate welfare Trump receives is nothing to be proud of -- not least because Trump ... has condemned corporate executives who 'make a fortune' but 'pay no tax.'" -- CW
Ed Kilgore on the dying of the right -- or at least the fading of #NeverTrump. -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Joe Heim & Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A judge found police officer Edward M. Nero not guilty of all criminal charges in the case of Freddie Gray, whose death last year in police custody sparked riots and widespread anger in the city. The acquittal by Judge Barry G. Williams, announced Monday in a packed courtroom, is the first verdict reached in the Gray case. Nero is the second officer to face trial on charges related to Gray's arrest and subsequent death. The first officer's trial ended in a hung jury." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Alison Smale of the New York Times: "Alexander Van der Bellen, a 72-year-old economics professor and former Green Party leader, won Austria's cliffhanger presidential election on Monday, defeating his far-right rival by the slimmest of margins and pledging to unite the divided country. Austria had to wait almost 24 hours after polls closed on Sunday for the authorities to count almost 700,000 valid mail-in ballots." -- CW ...
... CW: If you followed the Austrian election at all, you know that it could have gone either way. AND, as Steve M. notes, "... the demographics of this election look very similar to polls of the U.S. presidential election -- not just in terms of social class or place of residence, but in terms of gender."