The Commentariat -- January 17

Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "Of the many events on Monday honoring the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the gathering held by the Rev. Al Sharpton in Harlem was one with a wide audience and a narrow focus: the toll of gun violence, from a parking lot in Tucson to the streets of New York." ...

... President Obama speaks about the importance of service and volunteering after marking Martin Luther King’s birthday with a service project at Stuart Hobson Middle School in Washington, DC:

     ... New York Times: "President Obama took his family to a local middle school to participate in a painting project to help celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, calling attention to service projects around the nation in honor of the slain civil rights leader. Mr. Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha, went to Stuart Hobson Middle School in Washington where they met mentors and the young people they were helping with different projects. It is Mrs. Obama’s 47th birthday, and she was greeted with a lively rendition of 'Happy Birthday.'”

... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Legacy of Service:

... Organizing for America has an interactive map to help you find service events in your area. Here's a letter from Michelle Obama on Dr. King's service-oriented mission. ...

A man of conscience can never be a consensus leader. He's doesn't take a stand in order to search for consensus. He's ultimately a molder of consensus. I've always said that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort & moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge & moments of controversy. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., appears on the Mike Douglas Show, of all places, & expounds on his opposition to the Vietnam War. (Singer Tony Martin is the other man questioning King.) This is a three-parter; follow it thru. Also, Amy Davidson of the New Yorker has the background on Dr. King's appearance:

The Nation: "18 Disturbing Things We Wouldn't Know without WikiLeaks." Slideshow.

Dick Cheney is back. And he  s President Obama, sort of, for becoming more like Dick Cheney. ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he has not decided whether to seek a heart transplant for what he called his 'end-stage heart failure' but said he will make that decision 'at some point.'”

Worst Song Ever. I blame Ben Smith of Politico for this:

David Sanger & Michael Wines of the New York Times: "With President Hu Jintao at the helm, China has become a $5 trillion industrial colossus, a growing military force, and, it sometimes appears, a model of authoritarian decisiveness.... But as Mr.Hu prepares to visit Washington this week in an attempt to defuse tensions with the United States, Obama administration officials are grappling with what they describe as a more complex reality. China is far wealthier and more influential, but Mr. Hu also may be the weakest leader of the Communist era." ...

... President Hu Jintao answers questions of Washington Post & Wall Street Journal reporters. "The questions were submitted in late December and the answers, in English, were released to the Post and the Journal by the Chinese government on Jan. 16."

Karen DeYoung & Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "The Afghan government is ramping up efforts to tax U.S. contractors operating there -- an effort that could ... provoke fresh confrontation with the United States, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. Taxation of U.S. government assistance is barred by U.S. law, as well as by a number of bilateral accords between Afghanistan and the United States. But the wording in the documents is vague, and the two governments disagree on what 'tax-exempt' means."

New York Times: "Doctors at the University Medical Center said on Monday that the condition of Representative Gabrielle Giffords ... continued to improve, and that she appeared to be focusing her eyes, a sign of progress in her recovery."

CNN: "Arizona shooting victim James Eric Fuller sent his apologies Monday for telling a Tea Party leader, 'you are dead.'"

Eileen Sullivan of the AP: "Jared Lee Loughner, was not on any government watch list that might have warned someone not to sell him a gun or caused police to investigate his unstable behavior. It turns out there is not a list in the United States for people like Loughner. 'These guys kind of fly below the radar until they decide to act, which makes it a challenge for law enforcement,'" said Don Borelli, a former assistant FBI special agent who is now works with the Soufan Group, an international firm that consults on security issues.

Two Times a Victim. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The business of lending to plaintiffs arose over the last decade, part of a trend in which banks, hedge funds and private investors are putting money into other people’s lawsuits. But the industry, which now lends plaintiffs more than $100 million a year, remains unregulated in most states, free to ignore laws that protect people who borrow from most other kinds of lenders."

Sam Stein: "The White House announced on Friday that Bruce Reed would be joining the administration as Vice President Joe Biden's chief of staff. A veteran of President Barack Obama's deficit commission, Reed has served since 2001 as CEO of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Prior to that, he served in the Clinton White House, where he helped steer that administration's philosophy of triangulation. None of those details particularly endear Reed to progressives. And in the wake of his appointment, some expressed concern that Reed would serve as a powerful conduit for the deficit commission's more draconian entitlement reforms."

Everyone has a past. -- Rep. Darrell Issa ...

Darrell Issa. New Yorker art.... Yes, and Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker unravels Darrell Issa's past, mystery-novel fashion. A good, easy read. Here's a pdf of document in the only arrest of Darrell Issa that resulted in a conviction.

David Herszenhorn & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "As the House prepares to resume regular legislative business on Tuesday, the shooting in Arizona ... has shifted the political dynamic in Washington and across the nation, with lawmakers embracing a new civility.... Lawmakers said they expected a leveling of the discourse on even the most divisive issues, like cutting spending, whether to raise the federal debt limit and the Republican measure to repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul, which the House is set to vote on this week." ...

... Chris Wallace of Fox "News" suggested on "Fox & Friends" that "You don't have to call the other side socialists or fascists or whatever." But as George Zornick of Think Progress points out, "there's a lot of work to do" on Fox. He put together a little demo tape:

... AND if you want to see how really horrible the right can be, just read this rant from Don Surber of the Charleston Daily Mail titled "I Do Not Want Civil Discourse." The column ends, "If you can’t put up with a little excrement, get the hell out of the barn." I've only quoted the nice parts.

Reid Wilson of the National Journal's Hotline: "Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele dropped his bid for a second term on Friday after being offered a lucrative deal in exchange for his endorsement... of ... Maria Cino, a former Bush administration official who finished third in the race.... Cino allies offered Steele a deal that would have been more lucrative than the chairman's salary, the sources said. The RNC chairman makes $224,500 a year." ...

... NEW. Taegan Goddard reprises Steele's Top Ten Quotes.

One reason to hope Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty doesn't win the Republican nomination for President: he's pretty dumb. Tanya Somanader of Think Progress catches him on Fox "News" yesterday explaining why he wouldn't raise the federal debt ceiling. With video. (And then there's Rep. Mick Mulvaney [R-SC] "When asked what would happen if the debt ceiling weren’t raised, Mulvaney voiced what appears to be the GOP lawmakers understanding of the issue: 'Well I don’t know…No one seems to have the answer to that.'") ...

... CW: yes, Mr. Mulvaney, you stupid prick, someone does have the answer. Please read Treasury Secretary Geithner's letter to Harry Reid, which was widely reported in the press. ...

... NEW. This post by James McDonald for Reuters warns of another danger of the Republicans' little game of chicken: "At that point, even if the government does avoid default, the battle may be such a 'damn close run thing' that the markets may decide that American politics is in so parlous a state that the risk premium on government bonds needs to rise sharply." CW: those SOBs are doing everything they can to raise the deficit -- which higher bond rates would of course do.

Jerry Markon & Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post: "A constitutional clash over whether House members are immune from many forms of Justice Department scrutiny has helped derail or slow several recent corruption investigations of lawmakers.... At issue is a provision in the Constitution known as the 'speech or debate' clause, which shields legislative work from executive branch interference. House members have increasingly asserted the privilege in corruption probes, often citing a 2007 court ruling that said FBI agents violated the Constitution when they searched the office of then-Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.)."

Really, Supreme Court Justices Are Hilarious. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "... notations of '[Laughter]' [in Court transcripts] have now formed the basis of two studies of the court. In 2005, Boston University law professor Jay Wexler counted the number of times '[Laughter]' was noted in the court's transcripts, attributed the funny to whichever justice's comments preceded it, and declared Scalia the court's funniest justice." The other study, by lawyer Ryan Malphurs, is titled, "People Did Sometimes Stick Things in my Underwear': The Function of Laughter at the U.S. Supreme Court." The first part of the title quotes Justice Breyer.