The Commentariat -- November 13

Dick Cavett, who's on a book tour, appears on Parker-Spitzer:

Thanks to reader Jeanne B., I linked to this Louisville Courier-Journal editorial excoriating Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his incredible duplicity. Rachel Maddow covers the story here:

... AND the Courier-Journal has more on Mitch's unmatched hypocrisy, this time related to his plan to file a brief in support of a lawsuit (go to page 2) challenging the Affordable Care Law. But what about McConnell's long-standing horror of "activist judges," the editors wonder. 

QE2 Is Not an Oceanliner. Timothy Aeppel of the Wall Street Journal describes "the Federal Reserve’s decision to restart a government bond buying program — known as QE2, shorthand for the second round of quantitative easing.... The idea is that buying up bonds should push the U.S.’s currently low inflation rate slightly upwards, so that real, or inflation-adjusted, interest rates are lowered. That should stimulate growth and hiring." He asks economists if it will work, & they pretty much say, "no."

Okay, two Republican pollsters Douglas Schoen & Pat Caddell, who get a lot of space in the Washington Post, have terrific advice for President Obama on how he can be remembered as "a great president." Get ready: "we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012." Thanks for nothing, boys.

It Would Be So Wrong to "Punish" Millionaires. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "With tax breaks for millions of Americans set to expire Dec. 31, President Obama has opened the door to a compromise with Republicans, signaling a new willingness to accept tax breaks for the wealthy to avoid immediate tax hikes across the board."

Ben Armbruster of Think Progress: Eric Cantor: "I pledge allegiance to Israel." Cantor promises Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in a private meeting that he, Cantor, will undermine Obama administration peace efforts...

...  ** Glenn Greenwald expands on the subject.

Karl Rove Claims He's for Social Welfare. Sort of. Jeanne Cummings of Politico: "In the 2010 midterms, Crossroads GPS and the American Action Network talked proudly of their political clout, spending millions across the country to buy TV ads to defeat Democrats.... Both groups now are under pressure to spend more noncampaign dollars than campaign dollars or risk running afoul of Internal Revenue Service rules.... In order to keep their donors secret, Crossroads GPS — which was founded with help from Bush advisers Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie — and American Action Network classified themselves as 501(c)(4) 'social welfare' groups rather than political organizations. But critics say ... in any plain-English reading of the law, Crossroads GPS and American Action Network are political groups, not 'social welfare' organizations...."

Kate Pickert of Time: "... the Affordable Care Act contains clear language allowing the federal government to take over major reform components that states refuse to implement. This means state leaders opposed to 'government takeovers' could be inviting just that."

Ethics-Free Supremes. Lee Fang of Think Progress caught up with Justice Samuel Alito as he entered a fundraising dinner for a far-right-wing organization which Alito has supported in the past. When Fang asked him if attending a fundraiser with RNC Chairman Michael Steele & big Republican donors, Alito told him, "It’s not important that I’m here.” Fang noted that conservatives Justices Antonin Scalia & Clarence Thomas had participated in similar events. But, as reader Jeanne B. pointed out, the conservatives Justices' political activities violate basic Federal Judiary guidelines, which state that "a judge should refrain from political activity."

Derek Kravitz of the Washington Post: "Following the uncovering of a terrorist plot last month to blow up cargo planes en route to the United States, the TSA has instituted a new type of pat-down of passengers.... If a full-body scanning machine shows something strange or a passenger declines to go through the machine..., an officer will perform a more personal search.... But the new pat-downs have prompted a growing backlash among pilots and flight attendants, civil liberties groups and security-weary passengers who say the touching goes too far."

In their usual hyperbolic way, the Huffington Post headline writers describe "shocking admissions" & "confessions" of foreclosure document robo-signers. This time, they're right.  William Alden & Ryan McCarthy for the Huffington Post: "In more than two hours of video footage recently uploaded to YouTube, three alleged 'robo signers' describe how they approved thousands of mortgage documents a day without reading them." With video clips & partial transcripts.

What's Wrong with this Policy? David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "The government, which by its own admission has data that could be helpful in tracking down the thousands of missing children in the United States, says that taxpayer privacy laws severely restrict the release of information from tax returns. The privacy laws, enacted a generation ago to prevent Watergate-era abuses of confidential taxpayer information, have specific exceptions allowing the I.R.S. to turn over information in child support cases....But because of guidelines in the handling of criminal cases, there are several obstacles for parents and investigators pursuing a child abductor — even when the taxpayer in question is a fugitive and the subject of a felony warrant."

Harumph. Ted Koppel, in a Washington Post op-ed, remembers that "broadcast news was a more virtuous operation 40 years ago" & laments "the death of real news."

Witch Hunter-in-Chief. Joe Conason of Salon: Republican Rep. Darrell Issa plans to bring down the Obama administration for its scandalous use of road signs!

CW: I hate to give Glenn Beck any attention at all, but his anti-Semitic attack on George Soros are too disgusting to ignore. Cenk Uygur, a First Amendment advocate, calls for Beck's firing over his "horrific" misstatements on how a young Soros survived the Holocaust. The backstory by Michelle Goldberg in the Daily Beast. More detail from Matt Gertz at Media Matters. AND, from Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "Fox stood by Mr. Beck. Joel Cheatwood, a senior vice president at Fox News, said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the 'information regarding Mr. Soros’s experiences growing up were taken directly from his writings and from interviews given by him to the media, and no negative opinion was offered as to his actions as a child.'” Thanks to reader Helen S. for calling Beck's smears of Soros to my attention.

AP: "Antonin Scalia, 74, the longest-serving current justice, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, and Stephen Breyer, 72, appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton, shared the stage in front of a crowd of thousands during a West Texas event organized by Texas Tech University Law School. They particularly clashed on the question of capital punishment."

"Too Lazy to Write His Own Memoir." Ryan Grim: George W. Bush's Decision Points is "a mash-up of worn-out anecdotes from previously published memoirs written by his subordinates, from which Bush lifts quotes word for word, passing them off as his own recollections. He took equal license in lifting from nonfiction books about his presidency or newspaper or magazine articles from the time. Far from shedding light on how the president approached the crucial 'decision points' of his presidency, the clip jobs illuminate something shallower and less surprising about Bush's character: He's too lazy to write his own memoir."

The Devil Made Me Do It. AP: "Citing a shortage of priests who can perform ]the rite, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are holding a conference on how to conduct exorcisms." The New York Times has a story, too.