The Commentariat -- May 14, 2013
"There's No There There." Michael Shear & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "President Obama, facing re-energized Republican adversaries and new questions about the administration's conduct, on Monday dismissed a furor over the handling of last year's attacks in Benghazi, Libya, as a political 'sideshow' but joined a bipartisan chorus of outrage over disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny.... Mr. Obama called the I.R.S. reports 'outrageous' and 'contrary to our traditions,' adding his voice to those of Republicans and isolating the agency as the House scheduled a hearing on Friday in what is likely to be an extensive Congressional review of the agency's actions." ...
... Here's the President's joint press conference -- in which he made the remarks about the controversies -- with U.K. PM David Cameron:
... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Obama, his troubles piling up in Washington, traveled to Manhattan for a busy evening of fundraising for the Democratic Party, telling audiences that progress was being stymied by a persistent wave of 'hyper-partisanship' in the Capitol." ...
... MEANWHILE, chief sideshow barker Darrell Issa keeps plugging along, Kathleen Hennessey of the Los Angeles Times reports. ...
... Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon profiles Victoria Nuland, the former Cheney aide at the center of the fake talking points scandal. ...
... Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post: "... by the ABC account, every draft of the talking points says that the attacks 'were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault....' That's what Rice said. It might have been wrong, but it was the intelligence assessment at the time. So what, exactly, is the scandal?" ...
... Joan Walsh of Salon: "Just like in the '90s, the American people may see through the GOP's effort to undermine Clinton and Obama. But just like in the '90s, they're not getting enough help sorting fact from fiction from Beltway reporters who can't resist a good scandal, even if it's fake." ...
... FreakOut Nation: "There are 16 issues which Republicans have brought up during various times suggesting they are worthy of impeaching President Obama -- including the fact he exists (seriously), and since we've observed their wrath over super important things such as the 'real birth certificate' ... While they're investigating the attack in Benghazi, in which 6 hearings have already been held with no conclusion to their favor, [maybe Issa should investigate this:] ... President Bush and his top aides publicly made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001, according to a study released by two nonprofit journalism groups...." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...
... Juliet Eilperin & Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post: "Internal Revenue Service officials in Washington and at least two other offices were involved with investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, making clear that the effort reached well beyond the branch in Cincinnati that was initially blamed, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.... The White House is legally prohibited from contacting the IRS about a tax matter, under a prohibition adopted after the Watergate scandal. And although it can contact the Treasury Department about tax issues, neither Treasury nor the IRS can disclose specific taxpayer information. The IRS can release information only about a petition for tax-exempt status once it has been approved." ...
... Kim Barker & Justin Elliott of ProPublica: "The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year." ...
... New York Times Editors: "... this is a far cry from President Richard Nixon’s interest in intimidating his political enemies through selective audits of personal tax records. There is no evidence President Obama knew about the audits by the I.R.S. The groups involved were seeking not to pay taxes on large amounts of income by claiming that they promote social welfare. No one has an automatic right to this tax exemption; those seeking one should expect close scrutiny from the government to ensure it is not evading taxes. For many years, however, the I.R.S. hasn't provided it. Democratic groups were the first ones to start abusing their social-welfare tax status in the 2004 election; the Republicans followed suit and became the biggest players in this field beginning in 2008. Far bigger than any Tea Party group, Crossroads GPS nakedly violated the tax code by spending tens of millions on behalf of Republican candidates, claiming it wasn't political because it ran only 'issue ads.' It never lost its tax exemption." ...
... Alec MacGillis of The New Republic has a good take on the IRS scandalette. ...
... This straight news report by Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times backs of MacGillis's critique: "The I.R.S. has done little to regulate a flood of political spending by larger groups -- like Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies co-founded by [Karl] Rove, and Priorities USA, with close ties to President Obama -- as well as Republican leaders in Congress and other elected officials. And an agency that is supposed to stay as far away from partisan politics as possible has been left in charge -- almost by accident -- of regulating a huge amount of election spending." ...
... Jonathan Bernstein, in the Washington Post: "Want a real Washington scandal -- one worse than the (phony) Benghazi scandal and the (apparently real, but apparently limited) IRS scandals combined? Try the continuing, and possibly accelerating, obstruction of executive branch nominees by Senate Republicans...: Republicans, by abusing their Constitutional powers, are -- deliberately, in several cases -- preventing the government from carrying out duly passed laws."
Mark Sherman of the AP: "The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a 'massive and unprecedented intrusion' into how news organizations gather the news.... In a letter of protest sent to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday, AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt said the government sought and obtained information far beyond anything that could be justified by any specific investigation. He demanded the return of the phone records and destruction of all copies." ...
... Justin Sink of The Hill: "The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice's seizure of Associated Press telephone records. 'Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement." ...
... Kevin Drum: "The government has been obtaining phone records like this for over a decade now, and it's been keeping their requests secret that entire time. Until now, the press has showed only sporadic interest in this. But not anymore. I expect media interest in terror-related pen register warrants to show a healthy spike this week. That could be a good thing. It's just too bad that it took monitoring of journalists to get journalists fired up about this."
Obama 2.Bro. Al Kamen of the Washington Post: "Commerce Department general counsel Cameron Kerry -- brother of Secretary of State John Kerry -- has been named acting secretary of Commerce when the outgoing acting secretary, Rebecca Blank, leaves at the end of this month. This may be the first time ever -- we're checking -- that two brothers served in the Cabinet at the same time.... Given the much-anticipated and likely lengthy Senate tussle over the nomination of Penny Pritzker to be Commerce secretary, Cam Kerry may be 'acting' for quite some time."
Local News
"Today, Love Wins." Rachel Stassen-Berger of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: "With deafening cheers and overwhelming emotion, the Minnesota Senate voted 37-30 to legalize same-sex marriage.... The vote, on the heels of a vote last week in the House, brings to a close a decade of debate over marriage.... The measure next moves to Gov. Mark Dayton, who will welcome it with his signature in a celebratory ceremony at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the south steps of the Capitol."
More Evidence the Death Penalty Is a Travesty. Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "Seven years after he was sentenced to death in the fatal stabbings of two Florida women, Clemente Javier Aguirre appeared in a Seminole County courtroom on Monday to present DNA evidence that could win him a new trial."
News Ledes
ABC News: "Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell agreed today to serve two life sentences and waive his right to an appeal in order to avoid the possibility of being condemned to death. Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder on Monday in the deaths of three babies who were born live and then killed by severing their spinal chords with scissors."
New York Times: "Billie Sol Estes, a fast-talking Texas swindler who made millions, went to prison and captivated America for years with mind-boggling agricultural scams, payoffs to politicians and bizarre tales of covered-up killings and White House conspiracies, was found dead on Tuesday at his home in Granbury, Tex. He was 88."
New York Times: "... American ... Ryan C. Fogle, who had been officially posted in Russia as the third secretary of the political department of the United States Embassy, was ordered to leave the country by the Russian government, which officially declared him 'persona non grata.'" Russia accused him of being a CIA spy whose mission was to recruit a Russian security official.
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Reader Comments (6)
Don't know if any of you entered Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone contest:
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/17416-surprise-winner-in-thomas-friedman-porn-title-contest
Adolescent though this is, I luvvvvved it, since (as most of you know), I have a long-standing grudge against Tommy Freedom. I never, however, would have guessed the winner of the Tommy Freedom "porn title" contest.
Though, as Taibbi wisely says: "You mess with the bull, you get the antlers."
Re: two brothers serving an administration at the same time: How about Allen and Foster Dulles; Mac and Bill Bundy.
I agree totally with Marie's assessment of the IRS business. The problem, as I understand it, may be in their substituting the word"exclusively" with "primarily"––lots of leg room to wiggle around in by these groups that we know were trying to get away with a tax exempt status. And can someone explain why the outrage over this and not the off shore hide aways? what's happening with all that? And yes, a real scandal that should be front and center is
" Try the continuing, and possibly accelerating, obstruction of executive branch nominees by Senate Republicans...: Republicans, by abusing their Constitutional powers, are — deliberately, in several cases — preventing the government from carrying out duly passed laws."
P.S. And the most obvious: John and Bobby Kennedy.
Just finished the Salon take down of "Barwa" Walters by Alex Pareene–(see side bar here). Now that's refreshing, although wonder how fair, but for someone to take down our lady of the slam bang weepy interviews through the years plus someone––a female––who managed to fight her way through the male hierarchy of TV anchors, takes a few balls of brass. Walters is truly an icon and I, for one, whose knowledge of the inner workings of celebrity lives is close to zero found this article fascinating. I must confess I do love gossip or as someone once called it, character analysis. And given that Babs knows the monsters/mobsters among us Alex better watch his back.
@PD read the Pareene article and also Mary Elizabeth Williams' counter. Both versions get a bit the Walter's personna right. Walters certainly has achieved a lot in her long career...though the weepy, "if-you-were-a-tree-what-kind?" interview technique was hard to take. (It was one cringe-inducing flaw that unfortunately Ann Curry adopted!)
Walters always managed "the get" with her interviews of prominent politicians or the hottest, new celebrity.
Funnily enough, in Pareene's article he mentions two other characters that tend to come to mind when I think of Walters. Yes, she was quite supportive of Roy Cohn as he began to emerge back on the New York scene in the 80's. It reminded me of a cocktail party where I turned to be introduced to two men—and found myself face to face with Cohn. I managed a slight nod, reluctant and unable to utter a 'nice-to-meet-you,'— and quite relieved to avoid a handshake — by having a glass of wine in one hand and an hors d'oeuvre in the other.
@Kate Love the contest results!
@Marie Bravo, you stated the IRS story with the best perspective about it.
Don't know if it is just me that feels this way. It seems like an enormous amount of shit is being flung at Obama from a multitude of directions, splattering on Hilary Clinton too, as if there is a concerted full court poop press. Perhaps I am seeing gremlins in the bushes? When a group can't win on the issue, shiny objects will always distract the raccoons.
I understand the outrage over the AP stuff, 1st Amendment, freedom of the press. However, it is a struggle for me to see the news media as a clear eyed champions of truth and not just a bunch of hacks rooting around in the mud looking for the next irrelevant tidbit that can be spun up into endless breaking news. It seems awfully lopsided to me. Rights? hell yes - but where is the responsibility and integrity in return. In my mind, it is appropriate to be equally outraged about outing an operative who successfully thwarted a airplane bomb.
I'm on the cynical train today. Even Rachel Maddow got on my nerves last night. I turned to my husband and asked is it just me or is she overly loud and breathless with excitement a lot of the time? I feel like one of her biggest mistakes has been not to pursue the why-was-Stevens-there-on-9/11 question. Too bad I hate Wheaties - need something today.....