The Commentariat -- Sept. 4, 2015
Internal links & defunct video removed.
Afternoon Update:
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), in a Washington Post op-ed, says he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal.
Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC: "In an exclusive interview with NBC News/MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Friday, Hillary Clinton said she's 'sorry' there's been so much controversy over her private email server, but declined to apologize for the decision to use it. She also suggested that GOP front-runner Donald Trump is unqualified to be president and weighed in on the surprisingly robust challenge to her candidacy from Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders":
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Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Justice Department on Thursday unveiled a new policy that will require its law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to deploy cellphone-tracking devices in criminal investigations and inform judges when they plan to use them. The department's new policy, announced by Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates, should increase transparency around the use of the controversial technology by the FBI and other Justice Department agencies. It imposes the highest legal standard for the device's use, and a single standard across the department."
Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Cory A. Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, endorsed President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran on Thursday, padding support for the accord, which already has enough votes in the Senate to thwart a Republican-backed resolution of disapproval." ...
... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) will support the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, he announced Thursday." ...
... ConservaDem Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) also announced her support today. Via Paul Waldman. That's 37.
... Kevin Drum on why Republicans couldn't kill the Iran nuclear deal: "Ever since 2009, their political strategy has been relentless and one-dimensional: oppose everything President Obama supports, instantly and unanimously. They certainly followed this playbook on Iran. Republicans were slamming the deal before the text was even released.... This did two things. First, it made them look unserious.... Second, by forming so quickly, the Republican wall of opposition turned the Iran agreement into an obviously partisan matter. Once they did that, they made it much harder for Democrats to oppose a president of their own party. A more deliberate approach almost certainly would have helped them pick up more Democratic votes.... [But] it's quite possible that Republicans actually did nothing wrong. They simply never had a chance in the first place." ...
... AND there's this. Times of Israel: "An official from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the US, on Thursday blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for harming the opposition to the Iran nuclear deal by insisting on addressing Congress on the issue in March. 'Netanyahu's speech in Congress made the Iranian issue a partisan one,' the AIPAC official told Israel's Walla news. 'As soon as he insisted on going ahead with this move, which was perceived as a Republican maneuver against the president, we lost a significant part of the Democratic party, without which it was impossible to block the agreement,' said the official, who asked not to be named." ...
... Update: Adam Entous of the Wall Street Journal on Netanyahu's lobbying efforts to scuttle the deal: "Both supporters and opponents say they can't recall any other foreign government inserting itself so directly into an American political debate, especially against a deal the White House considers a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's legacy." Firewalled, so cut & paste a snippet into Google search if you don't have a WSJ subscription.
Amanda Holpuch, et al., of the Guardian: "Aid groups and at least 14 senators have called on the US government to take in thousands more Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, amid international outcry prompted by shocking images of a three-year-old boy's body lying face down in the surf in Turkey.... Asked on Thursday about US plans to take in more refugees, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there are no 'impending policy changes' and that the US will continue to offer aid to Europe." CW: It isn't clear to me who the 14 senators are, but the article obliquely suggests they're Democrats & that Republicans are resisting bringing Syrian "jihadists" into the U.S. See also Way Beyond the Beltway below.
Paul Krugman: "Take it from those who share our language, but not our currency: There are many ways to make money work.... What's important for both capital and trade, it turns out, is whether your economy offers good investment opportunities under an umbrella of legal and political stability." ...
... CW: Which is why Republicans' ceaseless efforts to destabilize the government & tear down the social fabric & that bolsters the economy are, IMO, the largest drags on the U.S. economy. Our biggest economic problem is Republicans.
Deflategate Punctured. Ken Belson of the New York Times: "In a major setback for the N.F.L., New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned on Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January championship game. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan did not rule on whether Brady tampered with the footballs in a bid for competitive advantage. Instead, he focused on the narrower question of whether the collective bargaining agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union gave Goodell the authority to carry out the suspension, and whether Brady was treated fairly during his attempt to have his suspension overturned." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "Vice President Joe Biden opened up for the first time publicly about his painful deliberations over whether to run for president so soon after his son Beau's death to brain cancer, saying the key question is 'whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run. Can I do it? Can my family undertake what is an arduous commitment that we'd be proud to undertake in ordinary circumstances?' Biden told an audience of 2,000 people at an Atlanta synagogue Thursday night, during a question-and-answer session following a speech he gave on U.S. foreign policy. 'The honest-to-God answer is I just don't know.'" CW: So looks like all the tea-leaf reading wasn't complete balderdash. For the first time, Joe himself admits to be considering a run.
Jamelle Bouie cites a number of reasons that Bernie Sanders is likely to lose the nomination. CW: Bouie's list is okay as far as it goes, but he ignores Bernie's biggest hurdle: the superdelegates. These are the 800 or so party poobahs who can shift the nomination despite the states' popular votes. They were such an impotant factor in 2008 that I started Reality Chex because there was no one place where a person could keep track of the superdelegate totals, & those totals would determine whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would get the nomination. No matter how well Bernie does in the primaries, the vast majority of superdelegates are unlikely to give him a nod unless Clinton is under indictment, Biden (or some other savior-candidate) doesn't step in & O'Malley drops out.
Rebecca Traister in New York: "What if the big secret contained in Hillary Clinton's emails is that she's not the monster her critics have portrayed her as for decades? ... Barring the possibility that more serious breaches are turned up, these emails may do the work a thousand soft magazine profiles never could have: letting us in on the fact that after all these years, we do know Hillary Clinton. And she's not half bad." CW: An enjoyable read. ...
... Ellen Brait of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden has branded as 'completely ridiculous' the idea that Hillary Clinton's personal email server was secure while she was secretary of state.... In 2014, Clinton accused Snowden of inadvertently helping terrorists. Since then she has toned down such criticism and said the NSA needs to be more transparent.... Snowden was also asked if he was concerned about what the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump might do to him if he is elected president in 2016. Trump has called Snowden 'a total traitor' and 'a bad guy' and said 'there is still a thing called execution'.... 'It's very difficult to respond in a serious way to any statement that's made by Donald Trump,' he said." ...
... Philip Victor of Al Jazeera America has more here.
Tim Egan: "In just under two weeks, the Republicans who want to be president will gather in Simi Valley, Calif., at the presidential library of Ronald Reagan for their second debate.... The real Ronald Reagan -- serial tax-raiser, illegal immigrant amnesty granter, deficit creator, abortion enabler, gun control supporter and peacenik -- would never be allowed on the stage. The party has moved so far to the right from Reagan's many centrist positions that the guy would be told to go find a home among the Democrats." ...
... CW: Egan brushes aside Reagan's supply-side economics & neglects to mention his views that elements of the social safety net -- Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. -- formed a network of communistic programs, that unions were there to be busted, the wilderness was there to be raped, & regulations were there to be cut. Nostalgia for Reagan cuts both ways. Today's Republican elites are merely carrying Reaganism to its logical extremes. ...
Patrick Murray of Monmouth University: "When Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Donald Trump leads the pack at 30%, which is up 4 points from early August before the first debate. Ben Carson (18%) has increased his vote share by 13 points and now holds second place. Jeb Bush (8%) has dropped by 4 points and now stands in a tie for third with Ted Cruz (8%). Following behind are Marco Rubio (5%), Carly Fiorina (4%), and Mike Huckabee (4%). Scott Walker (3%), who held third place in Monmouth's August poll, has dropped 8 points since then. Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul each get 2%. The remaining six candidates included in the poll score no higher than 1% each." Via Paul Waldman. ...
... Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare. Michael Lind in Politico Magazine: "The success of Trump's campaign has, if nothing else, exposed the Tea Party for what it really is; Trump's popularity is, in effect, final proof of what some of us have been arguing for years: that the Tea Party is less a libertarian movement than a right-wing version of populism.... Tea Partiers are less upset about the size of government overall than they are that so much of it is going to other people, especially immigrants and nonwhites. They are for government for them and against government for Not-Them."
Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will sign a pledge Thursday to support the GOP nominee in next year's general election, effectively ruling out a third-party or independent run, according to two Republicans familiar with the move." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Paul Waldman: "Since the pledge would be happily violated by the only candidate who it was designed to constrain in the first place, it has little practical significance. But it does make the Republican Party look pathetic. They're so scared of the guy leading their primary race (as well they should be) that they have to beg him to pinkie-swear that he won't turn around and screw them over in the general election...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Prince Rebus's Pyrrhic Victory. Robert Costa: "... bringing Trump more fully within the party's tent, Republicans gain reassurance about his intentions -- and court possible fallout for working closely with the unpredictable and sharp-tongued billionaire, who has angered Hispanic leaders with his controversial comments on illegal immigration. Trump made his announcement at an afternoon news conference after meeting with the loyalty statement's author, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus...." ...
... "Trump Outsmarted the GOP." Jim Newell of Slate: "The Republican Party ... has now committed itself to supporting [Trump's] agenda, which goes against decades of its own dogma, if Trump is able to pull off the nomination. Most of [Thursday's] news has been framed as Trump signs pledge to support eventual nominee. Another way to look at it is Establishment Republican candidates pledge to support Donald Trump." ...
... "Donald Trump Has the Republican Party in the Palm of His Hand." Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Trump wasn't communicating to the party that its knock against him for threatening an independent run has been effective. To the contrary, it's that he doesn't think the threat is necessary anymore -- that he's now genuinely well-positioned to win the primary, rather than an insurgent threat who can be neutralized by party heavyweights.... It is now easy to imagine Trump eclipsing 40 percent of the vote before the primaries begin, and ripping up that pledge if a panicky Republican Party responds by erecting obstacles to his victory." ...
... Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "In a tussle outside Trump Tower on Thursday, a member of Donald J. Trump's security team responded to a protester, who had grabbed him from behind, by hitting him in the face. The member of Mr. Trump's security team had ripped a large blue sign reading 'Trump: Make America Racist Again' away from protesters gathered outside Trump Plaza, where the candidate signed a pledge to the Republican Party that he wouldn't stage a third-party candidacy...." CW: So, yeah, Trump's rhetoric incites violence against Hispanics -- even in his own staff. ...
... Hugh Stumps Trump. The Internets is abuzz with the news that confederate talk-show host Hugh Hewitt challenged Donald Trump's knowledge on Middle East politics & Trump flunked (oh, & Carly Fiorina pretty-much aced it). But as Steve M. correctly (IMO) notes, "The fans don't care." ...
... Update: Trump may not know the names of leaders of Middle-East revolutionary groups, but Greg Sargent notes that his thinking on the Iran nuclear deal is a lot smarter -- and more realistic -- than his rivals'.
What Did the Dingbats Say Today?
Elections Matter -- to the Earth. Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: Marco "Rubio vowed to reverse key components of the climate agenda [President] Obama has been touting in Alaska, while also making the case for turning back some of the nation's energy authority to the states and away from the federal government. While outlining his proposals during a swing through Oklahoma -- currently the fourth-largest producer of natural gas in the United States -- the Florida senator decried in particular the Environmental Protection Agency's new rules to reduce greenhouse emissions under its Clean Power Plan."
Radley Balko of the Washington Post: Scott Walker wrote an opinion piece on the right-wing site Hot Air blaming President Obama -- & others who urge or have implemented scrutiny of policing practices -- for the recent killing of law enforcement officers in Texas & Illinois. Scottie said things were way better in the good old days. "Walker is simply wrong when he tries to use [Texas officer Darren] Goforth's death to say that more oversight and scrutiny of cops have made the job more dangerous. There's just no evidence of that. All the available evidence suggests precisely the opposite.... For some reason, Republicans and conservatives from Donald Trump to Ted Cruz to Walker to Mike Huckabee think the government entity that has the power to detain, arrest and kill should get the least scrutiny of all."
Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny. Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America.... I stand with Kim Davis. Unequivocally. I stand with every American that the Obama Administration is trying to force to chose between honoring his or her faith or complying with a lawless court decision.... Where is the call for President Obama to resign for ignoring and defying our immigration laws, our welfare reform laws, and even his own Obamacare? Blah blah. -- Ted Cruz, on the incarceration of County Clerk Kim Davis
Lawless, tyrannical Judge David Bunning, who jailed Davis for contempt of court, is a George W. Bush appointee. Not quite sure how a judge who tells a defendant she must obey the law is lawless. Maybe Harvard Law should ask Ted to return his sheepskin. It has to be embarrassing for a prominent law school to have a prominent graduate who doesn't know what the meaning of "law" is. Much less "tyranny." -- Constant Weader
AND Jeb! is still confused about the whole thing. Which he described as "a sign of leadership." The Bush family's idea of leadership might not be just the same as yours.
Quote of the Day. A broken clock is right once a day. -- Rick Perry, responding to Donald Trump's remark that Perry was dropping out of the presidential race
Beyond the Beltway
Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Deputy clerks at the [Rowan C]ounty[, Kentucky,] clerk’s office [in Morehead] issued a marriage license to [a] same-sex couple on Friday, a day after their boss was jailed for refusing to do so. Trailed by supporters and the news media, a couple, James Yates and William Smith Jr., entered the Rowan County clerk's office and received a marriage license, ending a standoff that has captured the attention of a country still coming to grips with a Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage." ...
She has done her job. Just because five Supreme Court judges make a ruling, it’s not a law. -- Legal scholar Joe Davis, husband of Kim, today
... Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A defiant county clerk rejected a proposal that would have allowed her deputies to grant same-sex marriage licenses, hours after she was sent to jail by a federal judge for disobeying a court order. Through her lawyer, the clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, said she would not agree to allow the licenses to be issued under her authority as county clerk. Had she consented, the judge would have considered releasing her from custody. Five of the six deputies told Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court that they would issue the licenses, though some of them said they would do so reluctantly. The lone holdout was Ms. Davis's son, Nathan." CW: Holy cow! Nepotism, too? This story was linked yesterday when the lede was,
A federal judge [in Ashland, Ky.,] on Thursday ordered a Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt of court because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, was ordered incarcerated after a hearing here before Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court. ...
... Ryan Felton of the Guardian, relying partially on new agencies: After Davis refused to allow her clerks to issue the licenses in her stead, "the judge then ordered ... the deputies to begin issuing the licenses on Friday. Upon the hearing's conclusion, [Judge David] Bunning said he expects compliance, even with the clerk's continued dissent.... Davis, a Democrat, earns $80,000 annually; she took office in January after winning a close election last fall." ...
... MEANWHILE, Davis's lawyer sees the whole thing as the U.S. goosestepping toward the Holocaust. ...
... Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "It's just fine ... for a public official to say that he or she won't enforce any law that's fundamentally immoral and in contradiction to God's laws. But the only way to keep that promise consistent with the oath of office is for the official to resign when she thinks enforcing the law would be wrong.... Indeed, she must [resign] -- or she'd be living in a position of hypocritical sin.... Under the Constitution, the government can't force you to engage in a religious action or stop you from exercising your freedom of religion. Normally, it shouldn't coerce you to act against your faith. But no one was or is coercing Kim Davis. She's free to serve the public and obey her oath to God to follow the law. And she's free to quit and absolve herself of that oath. The choice is hers." ...
... CW: One of Davis's arguments is that she is following her oath because she is obeying the law as it was at the time she swore the oath. That is ridiculous. It would suggest that public officials are required to enforce only the laws in effect at the time of their swearings-in. In addition, if Davis had no idea the law in regard to same-sex marriage could change while she was in office, it's her own damned fault. She has said, "I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage." As I noted in a comment yesterday, Davis suffers mightily from a lack of imagination. It was common knowledge while Davis was running for office -- thanks in part to Nino Scalia -- that the Court would likely make marriage equality the law of the land. By the time Davis swore her oath, Obergefell was already before the Supreme Court, & there was a better-than 50-50 chance that the Court would uphold Obergefell's petition. Davis knew the risk she was taking that her beliefs would force her to violate her oath. I'd say it was "immoral" for her to run for office, then swear an oath that she knew from the get-go she could not keep. So in addition to breaking the law, encouraging her employees to break the law & being a first-rate bigot, she ran for & accepted a public position under false pretenses. Immoral cow. ...
... Charles Pierce: "Let me explain to you what happens now. The entire political communications apparatus of the wingnut welfare system goes to DefCon 1.... Kim Davis now becomes the latest ornament on the Hang Yourself Cross of Bible-banging victimhood. There will be marches and vigils. There will be a six-figure book deal; my money's on John Fund as Davis's ghost. There may even be one of those movies produced by gullibility trawlers like the one helmed by Rick Santorum. Anybody want to bet me that she doesn't speak at next year's Republican National Convention? You have made a star, Judge Bunning, and the rest of us have to live with her."
Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "Last week, a Tenn. judge refused to grant a straight couple a divorce because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed gay marriage." Thanks to D. C. Clark for the link. The judge -- who is elected -- is using the travails of this couple -- who reportedly presented valid & customary reasons to divorce -- for his own ideological purposes. The state judicial bar should sanction him for dereliction of duty in failure to follow established state law.
AP: "The white man accused of killing nine black churchgoers during a Bible study will face the death penalty, according to court documents filed Thursday. The documents said prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against Dylann Roof, 21, because more than two people were killed, and that others' lives were put at risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mookie's Misfire. Henry Curtis of the Orlando Sentinel: "Spike's Tactical [in Apopka, Florida] is marketing an assault rifle it claims was 'designed to never be used by Muslim terrorists.' The AR-15 assault rifle is laser-etched on one side with a Knights Templar Long Cross -- a symbol of the Christian Crusades to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims -- and Psalm 144:1 on the other side: 'Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.' The company's spokesman, former Navy SEAL Ben 'Mookie' Thomas said he came up with the idea and believes no devout Muslim would touch such a weapon.... 'Is it designed for Christian terrorists?' asked Hasan Shibly, executive director of CAIR-FL, who said out of 205 mass killings so far this year in the U.S. only one involved a Muslim." CW: Sorry, Mookie. I think Hasan just pointed out a teensy flaw in your anti-terrorism plan. But nice try.
Way Beyond
Nicholas Watt of the Guardian: British Prime Minister David Cameron has bowed to overwhelming domestic and international pressure and announced that Britain will accept thousands more Syrian refugees." ...
... Rick Lyman & Alison Smale of the New York Times: "With thousands of migrants pouring out of Afghanistan and the Middle East, the business of smuggling them across the Balkans into the European Union has grown even larger than the illicit trade in drugs and weapons, law enforcement officials said. In Greece alone, there are 200 such smuggling rings, said Col. Gerald Tatzgern, head of the Austrian police service fighting human trafficking." ...
... Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "As Amnesty International recently pointed out, the 'six Gulf countries -- Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain -- have offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.' This claim was echoed by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.... That's ... shocking..., given these countries' relative proximity to Syria, as well as the incredible resources at their disposal. As Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, a Dubai-based political commentator, observes, these countries include some of the Arab world's largest military budgets, its highest standards of living.... Moreover, these countries aren't totally innocent bystanders. To varying degrees, elements within Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E. and Kuwait have invested in the Syrian conflict, playing a conspicuous role in funding and arming a constellation of rebel and Islamist factions fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." ...
... Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "It was never any secret that a rising tide of Syrian refugees would sooner or later burst the seams of the Middle East and head for Europe. Yet little was done in Western capitals to stop or mitigate the slow-motion disaster that was befalling Syrian civilians and sending them on the run."
News Lede
New York Times: "The American economy added 173,000 jobs in August, a bit less than expected, making it less likely that the Federal Reserve will feel comfortable enough to make its long-awaited move to raise interest rates when policy makers meet this month."