The Commentariat -- Feb. 17, 2016
Wowza! President Obama has two middle fingers: one for Senate Republicans & one for all the GOP presidential candidates. CW: I understand the tactical reasons for his reticence to criticize Republicans during his first term, but I surely wish he had spoken like this back in 2009 & '10. ...
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday offered an extended critique of the Republicans running to replace him, describing them as 'troubling' to people around the world and singling out Donald J. Trump as someone who would not be a serious president":
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is 'indisputably qualified for the seat,' and he scoffed at Republican suggestions that the process should be halted until after the November presidential election and a new administration takes office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell's message to the White House after Antonin Scalia's death on Saturday seemed unequivocal: Don't even bother sending a Supreme Court nominee to Congress, we won't act on it. But on Tuesday, some Republicans were signaling they're open to at least holding hearings, if not allowing a confirmation vote.... Essentially, the GOP message is this: We respect Obama's decision to make a nomination, even though that appointee stands no chance of being confirmed. It's a more nuanced view than an outright blockade, and suggests that the optics of barring a Supreme Court nominee from even a courtesy hearing are making some Republicans queasy." ...
... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had not ruled out holding hearings on President Obama's eventual nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 'I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,' Mr. Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. 'This is a very serious position to fill and it should be filled and debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator Sanders or whoever's nominated by the Republicans.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... This story has been updated with a shared byline: Steinhauer & Mark Landler. New Lede: "President Obama on Tuesday challenged Republicans to offer any plausible rationale for refusing to consider a Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia..., and he pledged to nominate someone with an 'outstanding legal mind' who cares about democracy and the rule of law. 'The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the Constitution demands that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either confirms or rejects. 'There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,' Mr. Obama said. 'That's not in the Constitutional text.'" ...
... Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg thinks the GOP's knee-jerk obstructionim is a sign the party is running skeert: "For a party with faith in itself and in the American project, a Supreme Court vacancy is worthy of a pitched, strategic battle. But Republicans don't believe they have a popular judicial or political philosophy, and they are so dependent on the court's activist conservative bloc that a potential shift of a single judge is deemed catastrophic." ...
... The Ladies & Gentlemen of the Right Have Left the Government. Steve Benen: "Republicans' willingness to cause a breakdown in modern governing isn't the result of broken laws, but rather, abandoned norms. Federal policymakers have long been able to do what GOP lawmakers are now doing, but traditionally, officials saw such tactics as simply unacceptable. There were certain steps responsible adults in positions of authority just would not take -- they could go to unprecedented extremes, but a sense of propriety led to a recognition that such radicalism should be avoided.... Before the Obama era and the radicalization of Republican politics, the idea of federal legislators trying to sabotage American policies seemed genuinely ridiculous, but that's no longer the case." ...
... CW: I think Benen is wrong on this. For all of my adult life, the House & Senate have been filled with obstructionists. In the bad old days they were Southern Democrats & a few Joe McCarthy & Barry Goldwater types. In the wake of the civil rights movement, they became Republicans from everywhere but the Northeast. Newt Gingrich shut down the government as surely as Ted Cruz would. Republicans delegitimized Bill Clinton even though many of his policies were pretty damned conservative. The big difference is that there are many more wingers in the Congress now, so many more that they have the power to shut down government functions -- as in this refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee -- and they do. I don't blame Republicans; I blame the ignorant bastards who vote for them. ...
... Charles Pierce: [CW: On January 20, 1801, months after Thomas Jefferson defeated him in the presidential race], "John Adams [who was a true 'lame duck' president,] went out and nominated John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States.... On January 27, 1801, Marshall was unanimously confirmed; the man who virtually invented the current role of the Supreme Court as an equal branch of the government was himself the nominee of a lame duck president. If you're going to argue what the Founders 'would have done' in a certain situation, it's helpful to look at what they actually did." (Emphasis added.) ...
... Emily Bazelon, in the New York Times Magazine: "If every justice must have credentials like those currently serving on the Supreme Court, then the definition of who is qualified has become exceedingly narrow.... Former federal judges were in the minority on the Supreme Court until the 1970s.... The politician who left the greatest mark on the court is probably Earl Warren, a former governor of California.... Maybe it's time for a magic ingredient -- one that would bring a kind of wisdom to the court it currently lacks and would shake up the inevitable political battle to come, by introducing an element of surprise." ...
... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before his funeral is held, offering the public a chance to pay their respects, court officials said Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Capitalism Is Way Too Awesome. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "During the 2008 financial crisis, Neel Kashkari worked tirelessly to save the nation's largest banks. As a senior Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he helped those banks grow larger than ever. On Tuesday, he said it was time to think about breaking them up. 'I believe the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy,' Mr. Kashkari said at the Brookings Institution, delivering his first public speech as the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.... 'We need to move before we as a society have forgotten the lessons of '08,' he said.... Mr. Kashkari's remarks caused a stir in Washington.... Mr. Kashkari is a moderate Republican and a former employee of Goldman Sachs.... [Sen. Bernie] Sanders ... released a statement on Tuesday saying he was 'delighted' by the speech."
James Queally & Joel Rubin of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year, according to a three-page decision handed down Tuesday." ...
... Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has released a statement in which he says that a court order that directs the company to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone could threaten the privacy of its customers. Mr. Cook's statement, a letter to Apple customers, was posted on the company's website on Tuesday night, several hours after a judge in California ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the gunmen in the December attack in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14 people. In his statement, Mr. Cook called the court order an 'unprecedented step' on the part of the United States government and he said that Apple would not comply." ...
... CW: Yes, Tim, because mass murderers have the expectation (even though they're dead) of privacy, too. And the order is an "unprecedented step" only because the lengths to which Apple has gone to encrypt its phones is unprecedented. That's nutso, buddy.
David Sanger & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to disable Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled." CW: Just remember, people, President Obama is a total wimp. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered a veiled rebuke of Bernie Sanders, arguing in a sweeping speech on the state of race in America that his fight to end economic inequality does little to address the systemic racism gripping the country." Clinton's full speech is here. ...
... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: In her speech, Clinton tied Republicans' refusal to consider any Obama nominee to racism:
The Republicans say they'll reject anyone President Obama nominates no matter how qualified. Some are even saying he doesn't have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he's not the real president.... You know that's in keeping what we heard all along, isn't it? Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about takers and losers. They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country. -- Hillary Clinton
Yeah, she's pandering. And yeah, she's right. Except the "paranoid fringe" is yuuuge. -- Constant Weader
Azi Paybarah of Politico: "Hillary Clinton took her campaign to shore up African-American support to Manhattan on Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in the offices of the National Urban League on Wall Street...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders sought Tuesday evening to rally black college students as he the continues efforts to make inroads with African-American voters. Speaking at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Sanders focused on his plan to reform the nation's criminal justice system and push for free college tuition....Sanders spoke of 'institutional racism' in his stop on a tour of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which was attended by more than 4,800 people, according to the school. Before the event, rival Hillary Clinton's campaign issued a statement slamming Sanders for leaving students at historically black colleges 'out in the cold.' Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Morehouse alum, argued in the statement that Sanders' plan for tuition-free school at public colleges and university doesn't invest in private colleges like Morehouse." ...
... Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "State Sen. Vincent Fort, the No. 2 Democrat in the Georgia Senate, flipped his endorsement on Tuesday from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. The Atlanta Democrat made his decision public just hours before Sanders is set to speak at a Morehouse College rally aimed at enticing black voters to give his campaign a second look." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Bill Scher in Politico Magazine on what & how Bernie Sanders could win even if he loses to Hillary Clinton.
Jacob Heilbrunn in Politico Magazine: "The most basic problem for the Republican Party isn't that Donald Trump is so strong, but that his competitors are so weak.... It was [George W.] Bush's rapid abandonment of a bromidic 'compassionate conservatism' and foreign-policy restraint that exposed the GOP as a fatally divided party devoid of ideas. Thus, in debunking the GOP's hollow men and bringing the Bush-Cheney era to a close, Trump is essentially kicking in a rotten door.... The irony of the new darling of the party's disenchanted base is that his open divergence from the putative ideology of that base is near-complete. Trump preaches Trumpism; he doesn't seem to care at all what the official party doctrine is supposed to be." ...
... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... the stubborn popularity of Mr. Trump, who defies Republican orthodoxy on issue after issue, shows how deeply the party's elites misjudged the faithfulness of rank-and-file Republicans to conservatism as defined in Washington think tanks and by the party's elected leaders." ...
... All Black Men Look Alike. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, [Donald] Trump repeatedly referred to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as 'Obama.' 'What Ted Cruz did to Obama, where he said that Obama had quit the race and take our votes," Trump began to say before being corrected by his audience. In fact, he was referring to an incident in which members of Cruz's campaign spread reports suggesting that Carson was dropping out of the race on the day of the Iowa caucuses." ...
... CW: Schreckinger's lede is tongue-in-cheek: "Donald Trump can't keep his Midwesterners straight." I'd say Politico does not allow its writers to indicate outright that Trump is so fundamentally racist that he "can't keep his black men straight." There are, of course, a few corollaries to Trump's Freudian slip, such as, "All Mexicans look alike." and "All A-Rabs look alike." It seems quite possible that President Trump would accidentally bomb Jordan when he meant to bomb Syria. ...
... In case you think Trump supporters will be all upset to find out their candidate is a hard-wired racist, Charles Pierce, with the help of Public Policy Polling, will disabuse you of that notion. ...
... Oh, & here's Trump, allowing himself to be dragged into the Scalia-was-murdered conspiracy theory. Listen to the audio. I love the part about how a "U.S. marshall appointed by Obama himself" was part of the cover-up. The charge is a little vague, but then conspiracy theorists do have to sort of gloss over facts or invent them outright. ...
... MEANWHILE, Torturing Women Is Hilarious. Mike Zapler of Politico: "When Marco Rubio vowed to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open if he becomes president, a man in the crowd piped up with a suggestion: 'Waterboard Hillary!' The standing-room-only crowd at a campaign rally laughed in approval, and Rubio played along. 'I don't want to know what he said .. the press is here,' Rubio joked. 'I didn't hear what they said," he added with a shrug. "I know it wasn't a bad word, that's all that matters.'" CW: Think about that for a second. Rubio thinks a "joke" about torturing a former first lady & secretary of state is laugh-worthy; he just doesn't want to get caught on tape saying so. He also thinks he's qualified to be POTUS.
Have We Mentioned that Republicans Don't Care about Deficits? Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: ... Ted Cruz's plan to impose a flat 10 percent tax on all personal income and greatly lower the corporate tax rate would cost the federal government at least $8.6 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis. The plan would be the second most expensive tax proposal in the GOP presidential field, with only businessman Donald Trump offering a proposal that would add more in government debt over the next 10 years, according to data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... CW: Gosh, however will Tailgunner Ted make up for that honking big deficit? Oh, I know, cut programs for the needy & the deserving. Luckily for me, That Damned Cat has turned up her nose at the catfood pate', so I've got enough to keep me in kitty-canapes for quite some time. Always look on the bright side of life. ...
... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls 'a false attack ad' from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. 'The ad falsely claims "Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants." Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants,' wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
... CW: So in the last 24 hours the top three GOP candidates have showed, among their other many stellar qualities, that one is a racist, one is a sadist & one is a whiney baby who dishes it out but can't take it. Millions of real Americans will vote for these assholes. ...
... In other whiney-boy news, Jeb! wants CBS "News" to apologize to him for mentioning reaction to a tweet of his titled "America" that featured a picture of a gun with Jeb!'s name on it. People urged him not to commit suicide. ...
That engraved gun Jeb! seems to think represents America!? Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "While the company [that manufactures & gave Jeb! the gun] is known as FN America, it is actually a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a foreign corporation based in Belgium.... During World War II, the company was requisitioned by the Nazi military and its factories produced thousands of weapons for Axis troops, including pistols carried by Nazi officers and pilots.... Today, FN Herstal supplies countless arms to the U.S. military...."
... AND in communal whiney news, Jonathan Chait has an excellent post on winger reaction to Donald Trump's heretical remark that George W. Bush was the POTUS on September 11, 2001. "Republicans have walled inconvenient facts about the Bush administration's security record out of their minds by associating them with crazed conspiracy theorists. It is epistemic closure at work: Criticism of Bush on 9/11 and Iraq intelligence is dismissed because the only people who say it are sources outside the conservative movement, who by definition cannot be trusted. The possibility that the Republican Party itself would nominate a man who endorses these criticisms is horrifying to them." ...
All right, you've covered your ass now. -- President George W. Bush, responding to the CIA's presentation of the briefing memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," August 6, 2001 ...
... Martin Longman, in the Washington Monthly, writes a succinct history lesson on the George W. Bush administration's serial denials of an impending Al Qaeda attack.
Beyond the Beltway
Adding Insult to Injury. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Flint residents were paying more for their [poisonous] water than just about anyone else in the country.... In January 2015, the Flint water system charged more for its services than any other of the 500 water utilities in [a] survey [conducted by the non-profit Food & Water Watch]." (Also linked yesterday.)
Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal judge Tuesday ordered Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to remain in custody pending trial on a complaint stemming from his 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up his cattle grazing on public land. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart found Bundy, 69, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee, citing his 'ongoing defiance of federal court orders.'... A six-count federal complaint out of Nevada charges Cliven Bundy with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, interference with commerce by extortion and two counts of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence." ...
... The government's complaint is here. It's a doozy. The memo seeking Bundy's detention is here. It's an even creepier read.
Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "An embattled University of Missouri professor has again found herself to be the subject of public scrutiny, after a video surfaced that shows her engaged in a verbal confrontation with police. Melissa Click, an assistant professor in MU's communication department, was suspended last month, in the wake of an encounter she had with a student journalist during protests on the Columbia, Mo., campus in the fall." Includes video. CW: The Post is too fastidious to say so, but elsewhere I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)