The Commentariat -- October 1, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Republicans on the Planned Parenthood Inquisition complained about Cecile Richards' high salary. BUT Margo Sanger-Katz & Claire Miller of the New York Times: "Her pay puts her in the top 1 percent of all earners in the United States. But her salary is actually on the low side when it is compared with executive pay at other large nonprofits. When compared with the pay for hospital executives running nonprofit health care organizations of similar budgets, it is actually well below the norm."

*****

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "With only hours to spare on the last day of the fiscal year, Congress approved a temporary spending measure to avert a shutdown and keep the federal government operating through Dec. 11. In the House, the measure was approved only because of strong support by Democrats.... In one last display of their fury, House Republicans on Tuesday adopted another resolution to cut off government financing to Planned Parenthood. The resolution was to be sent to the Senate, where Democrats were certain to block it.... The temporary spending bill does nothing to resolve the core disputes between Republicans and the White House, setting up even bigger battles in the months ahead." ...

... David Lawder & Richard Cowan of Reuters: "President Barack Obama signed the spending extension into law later on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement."

Carl Hulse & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "A long-awaited bipartisan proposal to cut mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders and promote more early release from federal prisons is scheduled to be disclosed Thursday by an influential group of senators who hope to build on backing from conservatives, progressives and the White House. The comprehensive plan, which has the crucial support of Senator Charles E. Grassley, the Iowa Republican who heads the Judiciary Committee, is the product of intense and difficult negotiations between Republicans and Democrats who hope to reduce the financial and societal costs of mass incarceration that have hit minority communities particularly hard."

The Hypocrites Revolt. Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "House Republicans on Wednesday sharply repudiated Rep. Kevin McCarthy's comments that suggested the Benghazi oversight committee had succeeded by tarnishing Hillary Clinton, saying it undermined their party's messaging on a key issue and raised questions about his ability to be the GOP's top communicator.... Speaking to CNN's Wolf Blitzer..., Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said McCarthy should apologize, saying the California Republican made an 'absolutely inappropriate statement.' Privately, Republicans were outraged by the remarks, saying the House majority leader had given Democrats unfounded ammunition to argue that the committee's investigation is squarely being driven by politics...." ...

... Steve M. on House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's supposed gaffe, acknowledging that the Benghaaazi! investigations are nothing more than partisan strategy to undermine Hillary Clinton: "Beyond the acknowledgment of an obvious fact -- that the committee's goals are entirely political -- notice that McCarthy doesn't even bother with the right's usual phony sanctimony about Benghazi.... I guess the pretense that this is about lost lives is being dropped.... The conventional wisdom about McCarthy is that he's not one of the lunatic zealots, but in this interview he's certainly trying to establish his lunatic-zealot cred." See also Tom McCarthy's report linked under Presidential Race. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The idea that Republican members of Congress will clutch their pearls in horror that McCarthy defended their performance is a big reach, in my opinion. These folks are so beyond the norms of behavior that you'd expect of your children that it's absurd to hold them to those kind of standards. When one of them gets caught in a lie, that's a badge of honor, and it's not even remotely problematic to get caught telling the truth if the truth is that you've been lying."

Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner secretly met with Rep. Trey Gowdy Tuesday to encourage him to jump into the race for House majority leader, a dramatic attempt by the chamber's top Republican to try to influence the intraparty election.... But Gowdy (R-S.C.) said late Tuesday that he had no interest in running for the No. 2 position in House leadership, and he would prefer to remain atop the Benghazi select committee." ...

... Here's Rachel Maddow's segment on Kevin McCarthy's excellent verbal skills. Pathetic :

Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: John Boehner's "failures, political and substantive, were due mostly to cowardice.... Boehner adopted an extreme version of the so-called Hastert rule, named for his predecessor as Speaker, Dennis Hastert, who is now under indictment for alleged financial crimes connected to blackmail payments (he has pleaded not guilty). The Hastert rule holds that the Speaker should never allow a vote on a bill unless it's supported by a majority of the Republican caucus. But Boehner's approach was to keep bills off the floor that were opposed by a minority of Republicans -- the Tea Party caucus, which only numbers about fifty -- effectively giving them a veto over the work of the House.... And what did Boehner's cowardice in the face of the Tea Party stalwarts get him? They forced him out anyway. Boehner built his career around keeping his job, and he still failed." Thanks to Diane for the link.

The Chaffetz File. Carol Leonnig & Jerry Markon of the Washington Post: "An assistant director of the Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman critical of the service be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday. 'Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,' Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. 'Just to be fair.' Two days later, a news Web site reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 and been rejected.... The report by John Roth, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, singled out Lowery, in part because of his senior position at the agency. The report also cited Lowery's e-mail as the one piece of documentary evidence... of the desire for the information to be public." Although dozens of Secret Service members knew about the info on Chaffetz, the agency's director Joseph Clancey claims he was not in the loop. CW: Oh, shame on the leaker(s) & ha ha ha.

Amanda Marcotte in Slate: "Despite all the hand-waving about fetal tissue, Tuesday's [Planned Parenthood] hearings were a confirmation that the attacks on Planned Parenthood are a proxy for the larger religious-right movement to reverse the sexual revolution brought to Americans by feminism and reliable contraception.... Deluging people with bloody fetus pictures isn't dissuading them from their enthusiasm for affordable contraception that makes stress-free recreational sex possible. Watching Republicans, mostly men, gang up on Cecile Richards indicates the deep contempt for women that drives the anti-choice movement." ...

... Gail Collins: "Richards was fine, whenever she could get a word in edgewise. She explained several times that Planned Parenthood's federal funding was mainly just Medicaid payments for treating low-income patients. However this is a concept that her opponents made it clear they plan to never get their heads around." ...

... Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Daniel Handler, the author of children's books under the pen name Lemony Snicket, announced with his wife, Lisa Brown, an author and illustrator, that they are donating $1 million to Planned Parenthood.... Mr. Handler and Ms. Brown posted the announcement the day before the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, testified on Capitol Hill over what she called 'outrageous accusations' by Republicans who said that her organization profits from the sale of fetal tissue." Thanks to contributor mae f. for the link.

Dana Milbank: "Fresh from her triumph Tuesday over the Brookings Institution in which she forced the ouster of a corporate-backed scholar..., [Elizabeth Warren] was at Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill, firing up a crowd of housing activists Wednesday afternoon.... Warren blasted the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, both run by Obama appointees, for selling troubled mortgages to hedge fund investors at a discount...."

Donald McNeil of the New York Times: "Everyone who has H.I.V. should immediately be put on antiretroviral triple therapy and everyone at risk of becoming infected should be offered protective doses of similar drugs, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday as it issued new H.I.V. treatment and prevention guidelines."

Annie Lowrey of New York on how systemic tax evasion by large corporations fuels inequality. And makes a mockery of the "free market."

Linda Greenhouse: Nobody likes Chief Justice John Roberts.

The Quiet Bigotry of the Pope. Laurie Goodstein & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "For nearly eight hours, Vatican officials refused to confirm or deny that the meeting [with Kim Davis] had occurred, before finally confirming it on Wednesday afternoon.... The episode added a new dimension to an American tour in which the pope drew rapturous throngs and surprised admiration from liberal Americans thrilled to hear a pope stake out left-leaning positions on poverty, the environment and immigration. Suddenly, on Wednesday, religious conservatives were cheering....,putting the Davis visit together with the pope's subtle speech on religious freedom on Saturday and his unscheduled stop in Washington to see the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns that is suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Given this pope's deft gift for strategic ambiguity and shrewd public relations, it's hard for me to understand how he could commit such a hamhanded blunder as picking a side in this fight.... This is, obviously, the dumbest thing this Pope ever has done. It undermines everything he accomplished on his visit here. It undermines his pastoral message, and it diminishes his stature by involving him in a petty American political dispute. A secret meeting with this nutball? That undermines any credibility he had accrued on the issue of openness and transparency. Moreover, it means that he barbered the truth during the press conference he held on his flight back to Rome, in which he spoke vaguely about religious liberty, and freedom of conscience...." ...

... Patrick Scott in the Hill: "... whose liberties were truly under attack in this scenario? The county official who refused service to a portion of her community, or those members whose right to marriage, legally upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, was being denied? Conscientious objection, it's true, is a right of an individual citizen. But when employed by the government, the role of 'citizen' is subjugated by the obligations that come with representing the local, city, state or federal government. In this capacity, the individual is no longer a single voice, but the voice of an entire institution." ...

... Pete Williams of NBC News: "Kentucky Gov. Steven Beshear, urging a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, says her legal claims 'demonstrate the absurdity' of her position. In court documents filed late Tuesday, Beshear argued that because he never ordered county clerks to do anything in issuing marriage licenses, her lawsuit against him has no merit."

Presidential Race

Matea Gold & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton's front-runner status in the Democratic presidential primary fight was jolted Wednesday by a new and unexpected vulnerability: a financial one. The more than $28 million that Clinton's campaign announced Wednesday it had raised in the third quarter was nearly matched by the $26 million that Sen. Bernie Sanders brought in, thanks to small contributions that came in for him at a faster clip than even in President Obama's campaigns." ...

... Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal (not firewalled): "With hours to go before the third quarter campaign finance filing deadline, the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said it reached its goal of one million individual online contributions. He is the first candidate of the 2016 campaign to announce it had reached this number -- and he reached it faster than President Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012."

Tom McCarthy of the Guardian: "A day after a top Republican touted the impact on Hillary Clinton's poll numbers of a congressional probe into the 2012 Benghazi attacks, the former secretary of state condemned the comments as 'deeply distressing'. House majority leader Kevin McCarthy said in an interview Tuesday night that the House select committee on Benghazi was part of a Republican 'strategy to fight and win'....'When I hear a statement like that, which demonstrates unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise, I feel like it does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four that we lost, but of everybody who has served our country,' Clinton said, according to a transcript of [an] interview [with Al Sharpton to air Sunday on MSNBC]." ...

... Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg: "Hillary Clinton and her fiercest defenders couldn't have said it better themselves. Instead, the Republican leading the race to replace John Boehner as House speaker said it for them, boasting Tuesday that his party has spent nearly three years dragging her through investigations of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi in hopes of doing serious damage to her presidential campaign.... Earlier, Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon called McCarthy's words 'a damning display of honesty by the possible next speaker of the House,' who has 'just confessed that the committee set up to look into the deaths of four brave Americans at Benghazi is a taxpayer-funded sham. This confirms Americans' worst suspicions about what goes on in Washington.'" ...

... Michael Shear & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Three emails sent to Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2011 when she was secretary of state contained information that should have been considered 'secret,' the government's second-highest classification, according to a State Department review of about 6,300 pages of her emails made public on Wednesday." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "The latest trove of Hillary Clinton's emails show how the former secretary of state dealt with with major geopolitical events.... But the messages made public by the State Department also show the more personal side of Clinton.... Here are a few of the must-read emails...." ...

... Rachel Bade, et al., of Politico: "Hackers tried to target Hillary Clinton's homemade personal system at least five times in one day while she served as Secretary of State, according to new emails released Wednesday under a court order. Clinton received on Aug. 3, 2011, at least five messages that appear to contain virus-laden attachments.... Another email released Wednesday suggests that even before the August 2011 phishing scam bombarded her inbox, Clinton was aware of hacking problems with personal email accounts.... 'NO ONE uses a State-issued laptop and even high officials routinely end up using their home email accounts to be able to get their work done quickly,' she wrote, suggesting they use that argument to make the case for more State technology funding in the budget. State budget cuts, she said, would 'make matters much much worse.'... Clinton agreed with her former aide's suggestion that they tell the public about how State officials routinely use their own accounts.... The RNC pounced on the chain released Wednesday, arguing that the messages suggests Clinton and her staff were well aware of the threats posed to their use of personal email systems."

Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Vice President Joe Biden has extended his window for deciding whether to jump into the 2016 presidential campaign, several Democrats say, allowing the contest to play out even longer before he answers one of the biggest questions hanging over the race for the White House. He is not preparing for the first Democratic debate on October 13 in Las Vegas and is not expected to participate, people close to him say...."

More than everything you ever wanted to learn about Melania Trump in the New York Times (here) & the Washington Post (here.) CW: Also, People magazine has Melania on the cover, but I forget where I saw the link, & I'm not looking for it. ...

Last week, in an effort to invent some proof that Carly Fiorina had seen something that doesn't exist, her superPAC made its own YouTube video. Dahlia Lithwick (Sept. 25): "The [Fiorina superPAC] video uses spliced footage from the Grantham Collection, an unsourced image of a stillborn, and a CMP image of a Pennsylvania woman's stillborn baby, used without her permission.... The very meta nature of the enterprise stunned me -- trying to doctor doctored videotapes and still failing to produce an image that corresponds to Fiorina's narrative. It's truthiness elevated to almost cosmic levels."

... CW: Yesterday, we linked to posts suggesting that the fetus in the Center for Medical Progress was probably stillborn. Heather of Crooks & Liars: The mother -- who opposes abortion -- has confirmed that the fetus was hers & that it was stillborn at 19 weeks, & she strongly objects to use of his image in the video, which she did not authorize. ...

... David Edwards of the Raw Story, that "David Daleiden, the project lead Center for Medical Progress' anti-Planned Parenthood campaign, admitted on Wednesday that an alleged fetus on a table that GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina described during a graphic anti-abortion rant was actually from a miscarriage." But so what? "'It's the same kind of fetus,' Daleiden continued to insist." Chris Cuomo is the questioner here:

... digby, in Salon: "Just like Dick Cheney, [Carly Fiorina] makes outrageously dishonest claims, refuses to admit it when she's caught and stubbornly barrels ahead confidently insisting that her claims are true even when presented with proof that they are not.... The right actually appreciates this unwillingness to ever say you're sorry. It shows commitment to the cause." ...

... Ana Marie Cox in the Daily Beast: "Call it Car-lying. Describing things into reality is a trademark of Fiorina's, a style of mendacity that sets her apart from career politicians. Indeed, the reason she doesn't come off as a politician is she's still in marketing. At Hewlett-Packard, employees said she 'embellished' the company's 'future products, strategy and even history,' adding a fictitious personal visit from Walt Disney to the true story about Disney Studios being an early client." She even advised then-CIA Director Michael Hayden on how to lie. "... by sheer force of articulated will she has fabricated her own reality, to the point that her Super PAC spliced together a different video to illustrate just what it is she said she saw."

Lawrence Krauss of the New Yorker on "Ben Carson's scientific ignorance.... While many may debate whether his lack of public-service experience disqualifies him from serious consideration in this race, Carson's ideas about religion, science, and public office, as revealed in the past week, suggest that there are far deeper reasons to be concerned about his candidacy for the highest office in the land." Thanks to Diane for the link.

Turns out Mitt Romney cares about poor people (the 47 percent), minorities (Obama giftees) & immigrants (self-deportation). Also says Donald Trump won't win the nomination.

Beyond the Beltway

Carol Cole-Frowe & Manny Hernandez of the New York Times: "Richard E. Glossip, the death row inmate who challenged the constitutionality of Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol before the Supreme Court, was granted a stay of execution shortly before he was scheduled to be put to death here Wednesday.... 'Last minute questions were raised today about Oklahoma's execution protocol and the chemicals used for lethal injection,' [Gov. Mary] Fallin said. 'After consulting with the attorney general and the Department of Corrections, I have issued a 37-day stay of execution while the state addresses those questions and ensures it is complying fully with the protocols approved by federal courts.' A new execution date was set for Nov. 6."

AP: "An Oklahoma sheriff quickly decided to resign on Wednesday after he was indicted by a grand jury called to investigate his office following the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a volunteer deputy. Tulsa sheriff Stanley Glanz was indicted on two misdemeanor counts. The grand jury accused the longtime law enforcement officer of refusing to perform his official duties for not promptly releasing documents in an internal investigation related to the volunteer deputy, Robert Bates, one of Glanz's longtime friends."

He Should Go Eat Worms. Nick Gass: "Scott Walker remains unpopular among Wisconsin voters in the first poll conducted since the Republican governor ended his presidential campaign. More than six in 10 Wisconsin voters, 62 percent, do not want Walker to run for a third term as governor in 2018, according to the results of a new Marquette University Law Poll out Wednesday. Just 35 percent said he should seek a third term. Walker's approval rating slid to a new low: 37 percent, with 59 percent of voters disapproving."

The Chinese Are Killing Us! Joseph Berger of the New York Times: "The New York Military Academy, a 126-year-old boarding school whose graduates include the Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump, was bought on Wednesday for close to $16 million at a bankruptcy auction by a nonprofit group controlled by Chinese investors, who told academy officials that they would keep it open as a high school." CW: Ha ha. Evidently the Donald couldn't afford to keep his beloved alma mater alive, but the Chinese could.

News Ledes

NBC News: "Twelve people, including five American service members, were killed early Friday when a U.S. C-130 transport plane crashed while taking off from an airport in Afghanistan, a U.S. military official said."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Joaquin strengthened to major hurricane status as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night, and is now hammering the central Bahamas. Prospects remain worrisome for the U.S. mainland as the official forecast continues with a chance of the East Coast seeing its first landfalling hurricane in 15 months." ...

     ... Update: "Hurricane Joaquin intensified to an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm Thursday afternoon, and continues to hammer the central Bahamas with hurricane-force winds, storm surge flooding and torrential rain. The odds of the U.S. mainland seeing its first landfalling hurricane in 15 months are dwindling as the forecast track continues to trend farther to the east. The best chance for an East Coast landfall is now shifting toward New England, but if Joaquin's center should reach land there, it would likely do so as a tropical storm rather than a hurricane."

New York Times: "In a second day of raids in Syria, Russian warplanes carried out a new round of airstrikes on Thursday that -- contrary to Moscow's assertions -- appeared to be targeting not the Islamic State but a rival insurgent coalition." ...

... New York Times: "Russian aircraft carried out a bombing attack against Syrian opposition fighters on Wednesday, including at least one group trained by the C.I.A., eliciting angry protests from American officials and plunging the complex sectarian war there into dangerous new territory. Russia's entry into the Syrian conflict, foreshadowed by a rapid military buildup in the past three weeks at an air base in Latakia, Syria, makes the possibility of a political settlement in Syria more difficult and creates a new risk of inadvertent incidents between American and Russian warplanes flying in the same area."

Washington Post: "Afghan troops punctured the Taliban's grip on the northern city of Kunduz Thursday, pushing into the center of the city as part of a U.S.-backed counter-offensive aimed at restoring public confidence in the country's beleaguered military."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 30, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times:"... to Secretary of State John Kerry, the mushrooming crisis [in Syria] cries out for American attention. No less aware of the challenge, he seems willing to go anywhere, anytime, and meet with anyone in pursuit of a resolution. The idea that it may be elusive, or even impossible, is no deterrent." ...

... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suddenly escalated the stakes in his contest with the West over influence in the Middle East on Wednesday, as Russian pilots carried out their first airstrikes in Syria. Russian warplanes dropped bombs near the central city of Homs, according to American officials in Washington.... Russian officials and analysts portrayed the move as an attempt both to fight Islamic State militants and to try to ensure the survival of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Russia's main ally in the Middle East. But Homs is not under the control of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL."

Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren, stepping up her crusade against the power of wealthy interests, accused a Brookings Institution scholar of writing a research paper to benefit his corporate patrons. Warren's charge prompted a swift response, with Brookings seeking and receiving the resignation of the economist, Robert Litan, whose report criticized a Warren-backed consumer protection rule targeting the financial services industry."

Your Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Grandstanding & Lies. Dana Milbank: The House Oversight Committee holds an oversight hearing on videos it hasn't seen. But of course the real purpose was to hector Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, using other false "evidence" they produced. "A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that Americans have a more favorable view of Planned Parenthood than of any other entity tested, including the Republican Party and presidential candidates. The group's favorable/unfavorable impression, 47 percent to 31 percent, is actually up slightly from July. What's more, 61 percent oppose eliminating federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Even among the 35 percent who support defunding, only 9 percent favor shutting down the government to do it."...

... CW: I listened to a good part of the hearing, & I am happy to say I did not throw my laptop out the window when I heard heard for the 100th time that Planned Parenthood was "selling baby parts," no matter how many times Richards patiently reiterated that PP does not "sell baby parts"; it transfers donated fetal tissue to research facilities. ...

... Kevin Drum corrects the fake chart House Oversight Committee chair Jason Chaffitz (RTP-Utah) produced at the hearing, claiming it was based on Planned Parenthood's own figures. It wasn't. As Dana Milbank writes in the column linked above: "In fact, the chart said the source was the antiabortion group Americans United for Life -- which [Cecille] Richards pointed out to Chaffetz." Drum: "I'm sure it was an honest mistake, probably due to poor math skills from a lifetime spent in the liberal public education system. So as a public service, I've replotted the data using conventional 'numbers' and 'slopes.' You're welcome":

     ... Planned Parenthood has performed fewer cancer screenings because "some of the services, like pap smears, dropped in frequency because of changing medical standards about who should be screened and how often," Richards said in the hearing. ...

... Timothy Lee of Vox also is appalled by the chart, & provides an honest one that shows the correct "slope" of the increase in abortions provided (2 percent) & the actual "slopes" for other services PP provides.

I had a bit of fun today and made a donation to Planned Parenthood in honor of Jason Chaffitz and asked that they notify him of my donation at the House of Representatives. I thought some of you might also think that was a fun thing to do. -- Haley S., in yesterday's Comments

... Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "As Planned Parenthood called on their supporters to rally on Tuesday, a state report found no evidence that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri illegally handled fetal tissue. The report by the Missouri attorney general [Chris Koster (D)] was the latest to announce results of an investigation arising from secretly recorded videos claiming that Planned Parenthood was 'profiteering in baby parts.'... In addition to Missouri, officials in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, South Dakota and Massachusetts have found, after investigations, that Planned Parenthood was in compliance with state laws.Investigations have also been opened in about nine states, including Arizona, where fetal tissue donation is not an option." ...

... Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on Tuesday for the first time directly addressed members of Congress about undercover videos purporting to show that the women's health organization illegally sells fetal tissue for profit, telling members of the House Oversight committee that the allegations are 'offensive and categorically untrue.' At a hearing centering on whether federal funding should continue for the group, Richards forcefully defended her organization, calling it a critical source for cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception care and other services for millions of women, particularly those who are low-income." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

.... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "House Republicans during a combative hearing on Tuesday said that Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve federal funding, citing the group's political activities, travel expenses and salaries. [Planned Parenthood President Cecile] Richards defended the organization's federal support, pointing out that federal funds are not spent on abortion. She also strongly rejected accusations that her organization illegally profits from fetal tissue and organ donation, as alleged by the undercover videos." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... An "Investigation" Where Answers Are Not Allowed. Sara Jerde of TPM: "Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) repeatedly interrupted Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards as she tried to answer his questions Tuesday in front of the House Oversight Committee." ...

... Brian Beutler: "The anti-abortion movement's weapons: shock, lies and Carly Fiorina." ...

... See also Michael Scherer's report under Presidential Race linked below.

House Majority Leader Says Purpose of Benghaaazi! Investigations Was to Hurt Hillary Clinton's Presidential Aspirations. Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened, had we not. [Sean Hannity interrupts] -- Kevin McCarthy, yesterday ...

... Greg Sargent: "Congress is supposed to exercise oversight" of public officials. BUT "The problem comes in the linking of this directly to Clinton's 'dropping numbers.' It suggests that the probes are less about genuine accountability than about driving up her negatives...." ...

... Steve Benen: "Note, McCarthy sees the committee as a legitimate accomplishment of the Republican Congress, not because it's uncovered relevant details about an act of terrorism, but because Hillary Clinton's 'numbers are dropping.' This, in his mind, is evidence of the GOP majority using its power effectively -- by using a supposedly non-partisan investigatory vehicle to embarrass a Democrat with dubious allegations. There was no real reason to create this committee, and the panel itself no longer serves any legitimate purpose. McCarthy's unexpected candor ... served as a timely reminder that the Benghazi investigation that no longer focuses on Benghazi is now little more than a taxpayer-financed farce."

Your Taxpayer Dollars Wasted, Ctd. Stephen Ohlmacher of the AP: "House Republicans advanced legislation Tuesday to dismantle President Barack Obama's health law that could actually reach the president's desk. The House GOP has voted more than 50 times to repeal all or parts of the health law. Almost all the bills died in the Senate. But this time, Republicans are using a special process that prevents Senate Democrats from blocking the legislation. Obama can still veto it, but the vote could provide a blueprint for dismantling the law if Republicans retake the White House in 2016."

Mike DeBonis & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "A generation of House Republicans who have spent the past five years trying to shake up Washington spent Tuesday trying to shake up their party's leadership contests that have moved coolly toward reinforcing the status quo. They had little success. A campaign to draft one prominent, relatively young conservative, Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), into the race for majority leader was extinguished before day's end, leaving restless conservatives to continue their search for a standard-bearer. Meanwhile, the sitting majority leader, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), moved to tighten his grip on the speaker's chair being vacated next month by John A. Boehner (Ohio), pledging in a series of public appearances to 'change the culture' of the Republican conference in a bid to address the right flank's long-running frustrations with Boehner." ...

... Apparently Boehner & Mitch McConnell have no illusions about the future of the House. Reuters: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that he and departing House Speaker John Boehner will soon launch negotiations with the White House to try to reach a two-year budget deal that covers the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years." ...

>... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "As President Barack Obama and top congressional leaders prepare to launch negotiations on a two-year budget deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is maneuvering to cut key Democrats out of the talks...."

New York Times Editors: "In the days he has left, [John Boehner] can revive immigration reform. He can pass the large-scale, comprehensive overhaul that lawmakers had worked on for years, a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with strong bipartisan support and could have been sent to President Obama's desk but for the obduracy of the nativist right in the House and Mr. Boehner's unwillingness to call a vote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Calla Wahlquist of the Guardian: "Kim Davis, the Kentucky county court clerk who spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is reported to have had a private meeting with the pope during his historic US tour. According to a statement posted on the website of Christian lobby group the Liberty Council, Pope Francis met Davis and her husband, Joe, at the Vatican's Washington DC embassy on Thursday. The statement carries the stamp of the Liberty Council's founder and chairman, Matt Staver, who is acting as Davis's lawyer in her dispute with the court. The statement, which is based on a report from Inside The Vatican, says that the pope thanked Davis for her 'courage' and told her to 'stay strong'.... The Vatican has not responded to the reports." CW: Disgusting, if remotely true. ...

... David Gilbson of Religion News Service, in a straight news report: "Throughout his six-day visit to the U.S., Pope Francis was careful to avoid or downplay many of the hot-button social issues that have roiled American society, and he repeatedly exhorted his own bishops to take a more positive approach and not pick fights that would turn more people off than they would attract. Yet it turns out that even as he was preaching that message the pope met secretly with an icon of the culture wars: Kim Davis...." CW: I guess Francis was following Jesus's admonition to "Do as I say, not as I do." Well, okay, not Jesus. ...

... This report by Jack Jenkins of Think Progress, dated Sept. 28, suggests Francis does support Kim Davis's right to "conscientious objection."

Presidential Race

Eric Bradner of CNN: "Bill Clinton hit ... Donald Trump for running a 'fact-free' campaign, defending his wife Hillary Clinton in an interview Tuesday. The former president touted his wife's accomplishments as President Barack Obama's first secretary of state -- starting with sanctions against Iran -- as he lashed out at Trump for calling his wife's four-year tenure a failure in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett."

Eliza Collins of Politico: "If Bernie Sanders were president, he wouldn't be as naive about compromise as President Barack Obama. At least that's what the Vermont senator told David Axelrod on the former Obama adviser's first episode of his podcast 'The Axe Files with David Axelrod.' Sanders said that after a 'brilliant campaign,' Obama made a mistake by expecting that he could easily negotiate with the other party."

Politics is a fact-free zone. People just say things. -- Carly Fiorina, distancing herself from dirty politicians

GOP Voters Thrill to Candidate's Lies. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "On the facts, Carly Fiorina has been proved wrong. But on the politics, her impassioned condemnation of a Planned Parenthood video has turned her into a champion of the antiabortion movement and given her outsider candidacy new momentum." ...

... Michael Scherer of Time: "The video that Carly Fiorina graphically described at the last Republican presidential debate, depicting a moving fetus on a table following an apparent abortion, was released online in its entirety Tuesday morning, according to Gregg Cunningham, the founder of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, who collected the footage. Cunningham, an anti-abortion activist, declined to identify the date, location or authors of the video.... He also made no claim that the images shown in the video had anything to do with Planned Parenthood.... At times the fetus appears to move, and at other times it appears to have a pulse. There are no images on the full video of any attempt to harvest the brain of the fetus, and there is no sound." ...

... CW: The video -- & even Cunningham -- dispute Fiorina's assertions. According to Fiorina, the tapes show "As regards [to] Planned Parenthood..., a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain." (I'm not sure what a "fully-formed fetus" is.) Since there's no sound, Fiorina didn't hear "someone say[ing] we have to keep it alive." Further, Cunningham can't confirm that the fetus in the clip was aborted but not miscarried, but he told Time "he is confident the procedure was an abortion, and not a miscarriage, owing to the lack of medical treatment offered to the fetus." So, the opposite of Fiorina's claim that there was an effort to "save" the fetus to harvest its brain. ...

... Update: Sarah Kliff of Vox has more. Kliff also links to an opinion by obstetrician Jen Gunner, who says the clip most likely shows a premature spontaneous delivery, not an abortion. ...

... Jen Gunter: Cunningham's "statement [that the clip must be of an abortion because no one tends to the fetus] underscores the fact that Cunningham has no idea what he is talking about as the fetus is 17-18 weeks and hence pre viable so no one would render care. It is highly atypical to offer neonatal care before 23 weeks. A neonatologist who attempt to resuscitate a 17 week delivery would be considered unethical." Gunner outlines several reasons for her conclusion that the clip does not show an abortion.

Ted [Cruz] has chosen to make this really personal and chosen to call people dishonest in leadership and call them names which really goes against the decorum and also against the rules of the Senate, and as a consequence he can't get anything done legislatively.... He is pretty much done for [in the Senate] and stifled, and it's really because of personal relationships, or lack of personal relationships, and it is a problem. -- Rand Paul, on Fox "News," Tuesday

... Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "One of the three super PACs supporting Rand Paul's presidential campaign has stopped raising money, dealing a damaging blow to an already cash-starved campaign. In a Tuesday telephone interview, Ed Crane, who oversees the group, PurplePAC, accused Paul of abandoning his libertarian views -- and suggested it was a primary reason the Kentucky senator had plummeted in the polls."

Beyond the Beltway

Guardian: "The Georgia board of pardons and paroles has denied clemency for the lone woman on the state's death row after hearing requests to spare her life from her children and from the Vatican. Kelly Renee Gissendaner was scheduled to die by lethal injection sometime after 7pm at the state prison in Jackson. Gissendaner, 47, was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. She conspired with her lover, who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death." ...

... Atlanta Journal-Constitution Update: "The Associated Press reported at 11:31 p.m. that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied a third appeal to halt the execution of Kelly Gissendaner, the lone woman on Georgia's death row." ...

    ... Updated Lede: "Kelly Gissendaner was executed early Wednesday morning for her role in the murder of her husband in 1997. The Georgia Department of corrections said her death by lethal injection came at 12:21 a.m."

Tony Cook & Chelsea Schneider of the Indianapolis Star: "Rep. Jud McMillin, a rising star in the state's Republican Party, abruptly resigned Tuesday. The Indianapolis Star has learned that the surprise resignation came after a sexually explicit video was sent via text message from McMillin's cell phone. It's unclear who sent the text or how broadly it was distributed.... In 2005, his career as an assistant county prosecutor in Ohio came to an end amid questions about his sexual conduct." McMillin claimed that his cellphone was stolen for 24 hours.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Hurricane Joaquin rapidly intensified overnight and is now a Category 1 tracking west toward the Bahamas. Though there continues to be a high amount of uncertainty in the forecast, Hurricane Joaquin could track toward the East Coast this weekend, which is now in the cone of the National Hurricane Center forecast."

Washington Post: "Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said his government no longer considers itself bound by the Oslo agreements in effect for two decades, charging that Israel has failed to live up to its obligations. In an address to the U.N. General Assembly, where the Palestinians have observer status, Abbas said Israel has not followed through on its commitments in the Oslo accords to accept a Palestinian state and to curtail settlement growth on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem."

New York Times: "A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld on Wednesday a federal judge's finding last year that the N.C.A.A. 'is not above antitrust laws' and that its rules have been too restrictive in maintaining amateurism. But the panel threw out the judge's proposal that N.C.A.A. members should pay athletes $5,000 per year in deferred compensation, stating that compensation for the cost of attendance was sufficient."

New York Times: "American warplanes bombarded Taliban-held territory around the Kunduz airport overnight, and Afghan officials said American Special Forces were rushed toward the fighting. But by Wednesday morning, the crisis in northern Afghanistan had deepened, as the Taliban continued to surge outward from Kunduz, the major city that the militants captured on Monday."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sandhya Somashekhar of the Washington Post: "Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on Tuesday for the first time directly addressed members of Congress about undercover videos purporting to show that the women's health organization illegally sells fetal tissue for profit, telling members of the House Oversight committee that the allegations are 'offensive and categorically untrue.' At a hearing centering on whether federal funding should continue for the group, Richards forcefully defended her organization, calling it a critical source for cancer screenings, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, contraception care and other services for millions of women, particularly those who are low-income." ...

.... Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "House Republicans during a combative hearing on Tuesday said that Planned Parenthood doesn't deserve federal funding, citing the group's political activities, travel expenses and salaries. [Planned Parenthood President Cecile] Richards defended the organization's federal support, pointing out that federal funds are not spent on abortion. She also strongly rejected accusations that her organization illegally profits from fetal tissue and organ donation, as alleged by the undercover videos."

New York Times Editors: "In the days he has left, [John Boehner] can revive immigration reform. He can pass the large-scale, comprehensive overhaul that lawmakers had worked on for years, a bill that passed the Senate in 2013 with strong bipartisan support and could have been sent to President Obama's desk but for the obduracy of the nativist right in the House and Mr. Boehner's unwillingness to call a vote."

*****

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin emerged from a rare face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night, saying Russia and the US could find a way to work together on Syria, despite deep differences over the country's leadership. The US-Russian summit lasted 94 minutes, more than half an hour longer than planned, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly where the two leaders had traded barbs only hours before, particularly over the future of the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad." ...

... Michael Gordon & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "After circling each other for the past year, President Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia squared off on Monday at the United Nations in dueling speeches that presented starkly different views on the Syrian crisis and how to bring stability to the Middle East." ...

... Julie Pace & Vladimir Isachenkov of the AP: "U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin clashed Monday over their competing visions for Syria, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Everett Rosenfeld of CNBC: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday admonished those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East, telling the United Nations they led to the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "In one of the more surprising announcements during his visit to the United States, President Xi Jinping of China announced on Monday during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly that his country would offer more money and more troops to aid United Nations peacekeeping efforts. China, he said, planned to set up a United Nations permanent peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops and would provide $100 million to the African Union to create an immediate response unit capable of responding to emergencies."

Clifford Krauss & Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "On Monday, Royal Dutch Shell ended its expensive and fruitless nine-year effort to explore for oil in the Alaskan Arctic -- a $7 billion investment -- in another sign that the entire industry is trimming its ambitions in the wake of collapsing oil prices. The announcement was hailed as a major victory by environmentalists, who had fought the project for years, only to be stymied by pressure inside and outside the industry to increase domestic oil production."

U.S. Senate Will Not Shut Down Government over Fake Videos Targeting an Organization that Receives 20 Cents/$1,000 of Federal Funding. Infidels! Kelsey Snell & Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "A stop-gap spending bill that would fund the government at current levels through Dec. 11 cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate Monday on a 77 to 19 vote -- and the upper chamber is expected to pass the measure as soon as Tuesday. If all goes according to the plan hatched by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House could clear the stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday, averting a shutdown with hours to spare before the Oct. 1 deadline. The only potential speed bump standing in the way of quick consideration of the bill in the Senate was Sen. Ted Cruz, but Senate leaders took procedural steps to limit the Texas Republican's options." ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "On Monday night, [Sen. Ted] Cruz's colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a 'sufficient second' that would have allowed him a roll call vote. Then, his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed 'no' when Cruz sought a voice vote, a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has: Just one other GOP senator -- Utah's Mike Lee -- joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies. It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that's routinely granted to senators in both parties. The first came after he called McConnell a liar this summer." ...

... Day of the Jackass. Margaret Hartmann: After John Boehner surreptitiously called Ted Cruz a jackass Sunday on "Face the Nation," Ted Cruz, on the Senate floor, accused Boehner of conspiring with Nancy Pelosi to keep the government running. Fellow senators from both parties were remarkably unimpressed. "Despite his losses in the Senate on Monday, Cruz still sees a shutdown over Planned Parenthood as a winning issue. The continuing resolution will only push off the shutdown issue to December, and Boehner's replacement may not be as willing or able to reach a resolution."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee did not [CW: refused to] invite the creator of the secretly recorded Planned Parenthood videos to testify at Tuesday's hearing, ignoring repeated calls from Democrats. The House Oversight Committee will hold its first hearing on Planned Parenthood Tuesday, marking the first time that an official from Planned Parenthood will testify since it was hurled into the national spotlight in July."

Benghaazi! Forever. Julian Hattem of the Hill: "The House's committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been running longer than any other special congressional inquiry in the nation's history. As of Monday, the committee has been in existence for a total of 72 weeks, surpassing the 1970s effort to investigate the Watergate scandal -- the previous longest special investigatory committee, which ran for just less than one year and five months." CW: Expect it to run right up to November 8, 2016, if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presidential nominee. One teeny difference between the two longest-running committee trips: in Watergate, there was plenty to investigate; in Benghaazi!, the usefulness of the investigation is long-past; in fact, it was an independent committee appointed by the State Department -- that effected changes in the department's security operations.

Jake Sherman of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner resigned less than a week ago, but frenzied campaigns have broken out already to replace him and fill the party's other top leadership slots. Four positions could open up, and the House Republican Conference is filled with courtship, intrigue and one-upmanship."

Ryan Cooper of the Week: "The GOP is the true party of 'free stuff.'... Overall, welfare benefits for the top income quintile -- largely a result of conservative policymaking -- cost roughly $355 billion yearly. Meanwhile, what passes for new policy in Republican circles -- a child tax credit -- is a government benefit for middle- and upper-class parents that carefully and deliberately excludes the poor.... the problem with [Jeb] Bush's logrolling -- and Republican policy in general -- is mainly that it directs almost all the benefits to people who don't need it."

Remember the Supremes! -- Kate Madison

... Rick Hasen, in TPM: "The future composition of the Supreme Court is the most important civil rights cause of our time. It is more important than racial justice, marriage equality, voting rights, money in politics, abortion rights, gun rights, or managing climate change. It matters more because the ability to move forward in these other civil rights struggles depends first and foremost upon control of the Court.... Constitutional change can come only from Supreme Court personnel change."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Sen. Robert Menendez scored a modest victory in his battle against federal corruption charges Monday as a federal judge tossed out two bribery counts against the New Jersey Democrat. However, U.S. District Judge William Walls rejected a flurry of defense challenges to the other 12 felony counts against Menendez, leaving enough of the indictment in place that the senator could draw a substantial prison term if he is convicted on some or all of the remaining charges. No trial is expected in the case until next fall."

Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post: "NASA on Monday announced the strongest evidence yet for liquid water on [Mars], increasing the possibility that astronauts journeying to Mars could someday rely on the planet's own water for their drinking needs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Media Matters: "After NASA announces it found water on Mars, Rush Limbaugh says it's part of a climate change conspiracy." CW: Finally, we have some clarity: scientists are tools of left-wing conspirators. ...

... Steve M. OR, it's part of an anti-Putin conspiracy. OR it was all part of a ploy by filmmaker Ridley Scott to generate interest in his movie "The Martian" opened Friday. CW: Because capitalism is awesome. I guess Matt Damon won't have to make water, after all. ...

Presidential Race

Mark Leibovich profiles Donald Trump for the New York Times Magazine. ...

... Flim-Flam Man. Nick Gass of Politico: "Under a President Donald Trump, some Americans will pay no income tax and the corporate income tax will fall to 15 percent, while the Treasury Department will maintain or even increase current revenue. And while Trump emphasized the hit the rich would take under his tax plan unveiled Monday, he pairs the closing of loopholes and deductions with such a large rate reduction that it would likely add up to a substantial tax cut for many of the well-to-do. The tax plan 'is going to cost me a fortune,' the billionaire candidate told a gathering of reporters at Trump Tower on Monday morning.... And it has the endorsement of [anti-tax Nazi] Grover Norquist." CW: Actually, no, it won't, Donald. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Who'd have guessed -- the rich Republican who inherited an enormous real-estate empire from his father wants to cut taxes for rich people in general and wealthy heirs in particular! -- Jonathan Chait, on Donald Trump's "populist" tax plan ...

... Chait: "Donald Trump has spent weeks talking like a populist, promising to make the rich pay their fair share and attacking his opponents as puppets of the party's wealthy donor base.... Trump's proposal is extremely similar to all the other Republican plans. He would cut the top tax rate to 25 percent, even lower than the 28 percent rate proposed by Jeb Bush. While Trump would not eliminate taxes on investment income, as Marco Rubio proposes, he likewise plans to eliminate the estate tax, which currently applies only to inheritances over $10 million. Trump says he will pay for all this by eliminating 'loopholes,' but fails to identify these loopholes. Even if he cleaned out every deduction in the tax code, there is not enough revenue to make up for the enormous tax cuts he would supply to the rich." ...

... Josh Barro of the New York Times: "... his plan calls for major tax cuts not just for the middle class but also for the richest Americans -- even the dreaded hedge fund managers. And despite his campaign's assurances that the plan is 'fiscally responsible,' it would grow budget deficits by trillions of dollars over a decade. You could call Mr. Trump's plan a higher-energy version of the tax plan Jeb Bush announced earlier this month: similar in structure, but with lower rates and wider tax brackets, meaning individual taxpayers would pay even less than under Mr. Bush, and the government would lose even more tax revenue...." ...

... Joe Nocera: "Like almost everything else about the Trump campaign, his tax plan is hard to take seriously. (To be fair, most of the tax plans put forth by his Republican rivals are hard to take seriously.) During the '60 Minutes' interview, Trump told [Scott] Pelley that he would force the Chinese to 'do something' about North Korea's nuclear program -- while also preventing them from devaluing their currency! -- that he would get rid of Obamacare -- while instituting universal coverage! -- and that he was on more magazine covers than 'almost any supermodel.'... I wonder, in fact, whether even now Trump is a serious candidate, or whether this is all a giant publicity ploy. Once a real developer, Trump is largely a licenser today.... He'll be out before Iowa. You read it here first." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "Mr. Trump ... proved once again that he's all talk. His tax plan, far from being a courageous departure from Republican orthodoxy, relies on many familiar Republican tricks to justify massive tax cuts in an age in which the government's burdens are increasing, not shrinking -- and with even less than usual honest arithmetic.... It seemed as though Mr. Trump's real strategy for avoiding a massive hole in the budget is wishful thinking. Mr. Trump touted the economic growth his administration would spur, and he fell back on the hoary promise to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.... What's remarkable about Mr. Trump's plan is not how different it is from what other Republicans favor, but how similar it is in its fudges, excuses and pandering." ...

It's going to cost me a fortune. -- Donald Trump, on his tax plan, Sept. 28, 2015

No matter how we slice it, we do not see how Trump can justify his claim that his tax plan would cost him 'a fortune.' On the contrary, it appears it would significantly reduce his taxes -- and the taxes of his heirs. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

... Margaret Hartmann: "Donald Trump is the boy who cried 'I'm boycotting Fox News.' Just five days after Donald Trump announced, for the third time, that he would stop doing interviews with Fox News because they're 'treating me very unfairly,' the network said the GOP front-runner would appear on Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor."

The Case of the Absent-minded Neurosurgeon. Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Dr. Ben Carson says he would run outside the Republican Party, but doesn't think it's necessary and says he has no intention of doing so this election." ...

... Margaret Hartmann: "Earlier this month the Republican Party made every one of its candidates sign a loyalty oath in an effort to rein in Donald Trump, but so far the pledge has only caused problems for his rivals.... When asked during a 99.3 FM interview on Monday if he'd be willing to run outside the Republican party, Ben Carson said, 'If I had to, I would, but I don't think it's necessary.' Host Keith Larson noted that Carson didn't raise his hand when asked in the first debate if he'd run as an independent, and asked two more times if he was really saying he'd run outside of the GOP.... 'So if you're not the nominee, you'll run outside the party?' Larson asked, for the fourth time. 'No, I didn't say that at all,' Carson replied, suddenly realizing that he'd made a written promise not to do so. 'That's not what I'm saying. I have no intention of running an outside campaign. Zero.'"

Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Positioning herself as a steely advocate of aggressive counterterrorism programs, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina offered a vigorous defense of CIA waterboarding as a tactic that helped 'keep our nation safe' in the aftermath of 9/11." ...

... Steve M.: "You might think that she'd have a lot of company, but on this subject, many of her fellow candidates are hedging or opposed (at least nominally).... So Fiorina wins the ¿Quien es mas macho? contest again, just as she did by forcefully taking on Donald Trump in the CNN debate earlier this month.... She's already the loudest voice on the Planned Parenthood videos, and with this embrace of Bush-era foreign policy lawlessness she need only add a staggeringly regressive tax plan (I mean more staggeringly regressive than her competitors' plans) to have all the legs of the three-legged stool of wingnuttery. Oh, and did I also mention that in that Yahoo story Fiorina also boasted of her cooperation with NSA surveillance excesses?"

Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Jeb Bush plans to present an energy plan Tuesday that will call for lifting restrictions on producing and exporting oil and gas as part of his larger pitch for achieving 4 percent economic growth, a figure he talks about frequently as a candidate for president. The former Florida Republican governor will outline a plan with four general components that are in line with the Republican orthodoxy: lifting restrictions on exporting oil and gas; approving construction of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline; stripping away some environmental regulations; and urging the federal government to yield to the energy desires of state and tribes."

The Most Interesting Man in Politics is taking time out from his presidential race to fundraise for his Senate race. Jonathan Easley of the Hill reports.

The Also-Ran at Home. Charles Pierce: "Last week, Scott Walker ... gave up his job as a meathead presidential candidate and returned to his more comfortable employment as a ruinous governor. The Republic was saved, but there are still parts of Wisconsin that Walker hasn't yet poisoned, so he went right back to work at it."

Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Virginia's governor, Terry McAuliffe, on Monday denied a last-minute attempt to delay the execution of a convicted serial killer who says his life should be spared because he is intellectually disabled. Unless the US supreme court steps in this week, Alfredo Prieto will be the first Virginia inmate to be executed in nearly three years on Thursday."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Doug Kendall, a liberal lawyer and co-author of dozens of United States Supreme Court briefs challenging the prevailing conservative vision that the Constitution defines the federal government's jurisdiction narrowly, died on Saturday at his home in Washington. He was 51."

New York Times: "Afghanistan was plunged deeper into crisis a day after the Taliban seized the northern city of Kunduz, as the insurgents on Tuesday kept assaulting the reeling Afghan security forces and the government struggled to mount a credible response. Not only did a promised government counteroffensive on Kunduz not make headway during heavy fighting on Tuesday, but the day ended with yet another aggressive Taliban advance, with insurgents surrounding the airport to which hundreds of Afghan forces and at least as many civilians had retreated, thinking it would be safe." ...

... Washington Post: "Afghan forces massed near the besieged northern city of Kunduz on Tuesday, preparing for expected street-by-street battles against the Taliban a day after militants overran the city in a humiliating blow to Afghanistan's government. The counteroffensive started shortly before dawn as Afghan army reinforcements poured into the area after the U.S.-led coalition launched an airstrike to help clear the way." ...

... New York Times: "A day after the Taliban took their first major city in 14 years, a counterattack was underway Tuesday, but ground forces sent from other provinces to recapture the northern city, Kunduz, were delayed by ambushes and roadside bombs, officials said."

Guardian: "Journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates is among a diverse group of artists, advocates and scientists that make up this year's recipients of MacArthur fellow 'genius' grants, announced on Tuesday. Coates joins 23 other MacArthur fellows who will receive a no-strings-attached stipend of $625,000, paid out over five years in quarterly installments. Other 2015 recipients include puppeteer Basil Twist, photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier and sociologist Matthew Desmond."