The Commentariat -- January 2, 2015

Internal links, photo & graph removed.

** New York Times: "Mario M. Cuomo, the three-term governor of New York who commanded the attention of the country with a compelling public presence, a forceful defense of liberalism and his exhaustive ruminations about whether to run for president, died at home in Manhattan on Thursday, according to a family friend. He was 82."

... "A Tale of Two Cities." Here's a portion of Gov. Cuomo's 1984 keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention:

     ... Video of the full speech is here. ...

... Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker, who covered Gov. Cuomo for the New York Times, reflects on his career. ...

... Ken Auletta of the New Yorker: "Mario Cuomo had a combination of skills rarely seen in public life. Unlike most pols, he had an active interior life.... He had the rare ability to listen, and he could see four sides of an issue.... In the four decades I knew him, I tried to keep him at arm's length. Journalists are not supposed to say this, but I loved the guy." ...

... Stephen Schlesinger, Gov. Cuomo's speechwriter, remembers him in a New York Observer essay. ...

... Todd Purdum in Politico: "He was, in his day, the poet laureate of American liberalism, the Democratic Party's most passionate defender of the underdog and its most articulate critic of the trickle-down gospel of Reaganomics." ...

... Josh Lederman of the AP: "President Barack Obama is praising former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo as an unflinching voice for tolerance, fairness and opportunity." ...

... Cassie Carothers of Yahoo! News: Other political figures pay tribute to Cuomo. ...

... Chris Smith of New York rounds up some of the magazine's old stories about Mario Cuomo & his family.

We're missing one family member. My father is not with us today. We had hoped that he was going to be able to come; he is at home and he is not well enough to come. We spent last night with him, changed the tradition a little bit. We weren't in Albany last night; we stayed at my father's house to ring in the New Year with him. I went through the speech with him. He said it was good, especially for a second-termer. See, my father is a third-termer. But he sends his regards to all of you. He couldn't be here physically today, my father. But my father is in this room. He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here. He is here and he is here, and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his 2nd inaugural speech, Jan. 1

... Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was inaugurated for a second term on Thursday and vowed to confront a raft of complex, often intractable problems afflicting New York and the nation alike in the areas of criminal justice, economic mobility and public education. Speaking in front of throngs of well-wishers and from the symbolic heights of 1 World Trade Center, Mr. Cuomo laid out an aspirational vision for New York in broad and occasionally soaring terms."

Dionne Searcey of the New York Times: "For the first time since 2011, local, state and federal governments are providing a small but significant increase to prosperity.... Across the nation, state and local governments, Democratic and Republican alike, are spending on projects that were stalled. Teachers, who were laid off in droves in recent years, are being hired again. Even federal spending in some sectors is on the rise." CW: Lovely to see the New York Times implicitly endorsing Krug-o-nomics. At last. ...

... Paul Krugman: "The problem with these conventional [left-of-center] leaders [including President Obama], I'd argue, is that they're afraid to challenge elite priorities, in particular the obsession with budget deficits, for fear of being considered irresponsible. And that leaves the field open for unconventional leaders -- some of them seriously scary -- who are willing to address the anger and despair of ordinary citizens.... Political and opinion leaders need to face up to the reality that our current global setup isn't working for everyone." ...

... Jordan Weismann: "We're all speaking [Thomas] Piketty's language now." ...

... Aurelia End & Julie Chabanas of AFP: "France's influential economist Thomas Piketty, author of the bestseller 'Capital in the 21st Century', on Thursday refused to accept the country's highest award, the Legion d'honneur, to criticise the Socialist government in power."

Today in Responsible Gun Ownership. NBC Channel 11 Atlanta: "The wife of Peachtree City Police Chief William E. McCollom [of Peachtree City, Georgia,] is in critical condition after being shot by her husband Thursday morning.... The GBI [Georgia Bureau of Investigation] will handle the shooting investigation. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang originally said Chief McCollom called 911 to say he accidentally shot his wife twice with his service weapon. After further investigation, Lang said it was determined that only one bullet had been discharged."

Gene Robinson: "The GOP has a bad habit of appealing to avowed racists.... The addiction goes back to 1968, when Richard Nixon's 'Southern strategy' leveraged white racial resentment over federally mandated integration into an electoral majority." ...

... Ha Ha. Matt Bai of Yahoo! News offers five tips to help Steve Scalise figure out when he's speaking to white supremacists: "1. The group was founded by David Duke.... 2. Banners that say things like 'White Power' hang from the ceiling.... 3. The name of the group is the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.... 4. The hotel hosting the event is ashamed.... 5. No one actually cares about your tax stand.... One last bit of guidance: If you do end up accidentally speaking to a roomful of white supremacists, try to make a note of it somewhere, because eventually someone who doesn't like you is going to figure it out, and the last thing you want is to be caught unaware and have to say you really have no idea." ...

... Rebecca Catalanello of the Times-Picayune: Steve Scalise defender "Kenny Knight told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on Wednesday that he was not a member of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, but documents filed with the Louisiana secretary of state's office list him as treasurer of its predecessor, the National Organization for European American Rights, in 2000. Further, a May 16, 2002, news release on an an archived version of EURO's former website, www.whitecivilrights.com, lists Knight as 'EURO Louisiana State Representative Kenny Knight.' The release says Knight was expected to address the group's May 17-18, 2002, conference.... When asked by telephone Thursday about the records listing him as EURO's treasurer, Knight twice hung up on a reporter." CW: This certainly calls into question Knight's claims that Scalise addressed a neighborhood civic group & not the David Duke-sponsored conference. Shocking, isn't it, that your friendly neighborhood racist is also a liar. ...

... Jonathan Kaminsky of Reuters: "The campaign manager [and son] of a Democrat who challenged U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana tipped off a blogger that the Republican lawmaker had spoken to a white supremacist group in 2002.However, Democrat Gilda Reed did not expose the meeting during the 2008 special election for the House seat because she believed it would not sway the district's conservative electorate. 'I felt strongly that it would not have walked,' Reed told Reuters on Wednesday. 'I was running in a district with a lot of bigots.' She lost to Scalise by more than 50 points."

Dan Sweeney of the Orlando Sun Sentinel: "On Thursday, federal judge Robert Hinkle, who earlier had overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriages, ordered all county clerks to begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses beginning Tuesday. Prior to his order, there was confusion over which clerks were allowed to issue the licenses. But on Thursday, Hinkle clarified the broad scope of his ruling." ...

... Tia Mitchell of the Florida Times-Union: "Couples who wanted to ... get married at the Duval, Clay or Baker county courthouses will no longer have that option in the new year. These counties' decision to end the long-standing tradition of courthouse wedding ceremonies is due, at least in part, to the continued debate over same-sex marriage in Florida against the backdrop of conservative Christianity." (Mitchell wrote this report before Hinkle ordered all county clerks to issue same-sex marriage licenses.) CW: Ah, finally some hard evidence that same-sex marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage. (Seriously, I won't be surprised if some anti-gay-marriage lawyers make this argument in court. With any luck, they'll make it before judges like Richard Posner who will laugh them out of court.)

Cartography for Bigots. Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Since January [CW: of 2014, I presume], publishing giant HarperCollins has been selling an atlas it says was 'developed specifically for schools in the Middle East.'... Israel is missing.... On Wednesday, HarperCollins was backtracking fast."

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Nearly a year ago, tea party agitators in Arizona managed to get John McCain censured by his own state party. Now, he's getting his revenge. As the longtime Republican senator lays the groundwork for a likely 2016 reelection bid, his political team is engaging in an aggressive and systematic campaign to reshape the state GOP apparatus by ridding it of conservative firebrands and replacing them with steadfast allies." CW: Naturally, one Tea party McCain foe called the party purge "the equivalent of 'ethnic cleansing.'" Because losing your little party job is just like the Holocaust. Or, as a normal person might say, politics as usual.

Pete Donohue, et al., of the New York Daily News: "An NYPD cop has surrendered in an attack on an MTA worker, officials said Thursday. Police Officer Mirjan Lolja, 37, was suspended after the assault in which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker -- who was on-duty and in her uniform -- was allegedly put into a bear hug, thrown to the floor and choked, cops said." CW: The photos accompanying the report show Lolja in street clothes. The article doesn't indicate whether or not he was on duty at the time of the alleged attack. I guess roughing up New Yorkers is a 24/7 job.

Presidential Election

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Likely 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush has declined an invitation to speak at a conservative summit in Iowa hosted by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa.).... The summit ... will feature a host of other potential GOP presidential contenders, including Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.), Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Gov. Rick Perry (Texas), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Dr. Ben Carson." ...

... Counting Chickens Before They Hatch. Steve M.: "Jeb is apparently counting on big donors and the folks running the GOP nominating process to undermine all of his competitors so he can win the nomination without kissing up to the wingnuts -- either that or he thinks that all the candidates trying to out-wingnut one another with divide up the purist vote, leaving him to scoop the rest, and thus the nomination.... To me he looks as if he's writing his convention acceptance speech way too early. And he looks as if he thinks he can erase the public record of his life if he wins the nomination. I think he's going to be disappointed."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors said they will not charge John W. Hinckley Jr. with murder in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan's press secretary in a 1981 assassination attempt, even though a medical examiner concluded his August death was caused by the old wounds. The decision, announced Friday by the U.S. Attorney for the District, comes four months after the coroner decided that James S. Brady’s death at the age of 73 was caused by bullets fired 34 years ago outside the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue Northwest."

Los Angeles Times: "Federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man charged in the 2013 attack that killed a TSA officer at Los Angeles International Airport, according to a document filed in federal court Friday. Paul Anthony Ciancia, 24, was charged with 11 federal counts in connection with the Nov. 1, 2013, attack, in which authorities allege he opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle in the airport's busy Terminal 3. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges."

New York Daily News: "Funeral services for former Gov. Mario Cuomo are being planned for Tuesday at the Saint Ignatius Loyola Church on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a church official told the Daily News."

New York Times: "Senator Harry Reid had a painful New Year's Day, breaking ribs and bones in his face after falling while exercising at his home in Nevada. The injury was sustained when Mr. Reid, 75, was using a rubber exercise band that snapped, hitting him hard and causing him to fall, a spokesman said. Mr. Reid was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, according to a statement from his office." ...

     ... Politico UPDATE: "Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid was released from a Nevada hospital on Friday afternoon after he broke a number of ribs as well as bones in his face during a Thursday workout accident, his office said. The Nevada Democrat is expected to be back at the office on Tuesday, when the 114th Congress begins."

AP: "After nearly a week of searching for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501, rescue teams battling monsoon rains had their most successful day yet on Friday, more than tripling the number of bodies pulled from the Java Sea, some still strapped to their seats. Of the 30 corpses recovered so far, 21 were found on Friday, many of them by a U.S. Navy ship, according to officials."

The Commentariat -- January 1, 2015

Internal links removed.

Dave Barry's Year in Review 2014, in the Washington Post. ...

... Here's Gail Collins' year-end quiz. Thanks to Unwashed for the link. CW: I decided not to take the quiz when I figured the answer to the first question must be "all of the above," & all of the above" was not among the possible answers. ...

     ... CW Update: Okay, I relented & took the quiz & got 'em all right (I usually miss at least one.) I still bet the best answer to No. 1 is "all of the above."

Rachel Abrams of the New York Times: "By Thursday, minimum wage increases will go into effect in 20 states ... as well as in the District of Columbia. A few other states will enact a pay bump later in the year.... The federal minimum wage has not been increased since 2007. President Obama has proposed raising it to $10.10 an hour, but that effort has stalled in Congress. Despite the popularity of minimum wage increases in many states, including those dominated by Republicans, and favorable attitudes toward higher minimum pay expressed in many public opinion polls, the federal proposals are unlikely to gain much traction in 2015, especially now that Republicans control the House and the Senate." ...

     ... CW: Thanks to Abrams for placing the blame where it belongs -- on Congressional Republicans.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced Wednesday that he would commute the sentences of Maryland's four remaining death-row inmates to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The decision comes nearly two years after the legislature repealed capital punishment in Maryland at O'Malley's urging, and three weeks before O'Malley will complete his second and final term in office. He is considering running for president in 2016." Gov. O'Malley's statement is here.

Stephanie Grace, a Louisiana political reporter and columnist for the past 20 years, first with The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and now The Advocate of Baton Rouge, recalled her first meeting with Mr. Scalise.

He [Steve Scalise] was explaining his politics and we were in this getting-to-know-each-other stage. He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage. -- Stephanie Grace, a Louisiana political reporter and columnist for the past 20 years..., recalling her first meeting with Scalise ...

... Jeremy Alford of the New York Times: "Two decades [after white supremacist* David Duke almost won Louisiana's gubernatorial election], much of his campaign has merged with the political mainstream here, and rather than a bad memory from the past, Mr. Duke remains a window into some of the murkier currents in the state's politics where Republicans have sought and eventually won Mr Duke's voters, while turning their back on him." CW: In reading the article, one is left with the impression -- I don't think it a misimpression -- that Louisiana Republicans have dropped racist rhetoric as a political strategy but not as an ideology.

     *Now the former KKK leader claims he's not a racist, just an anti-Semite, or rather a fierce opponent of "the ultimate racists, the Jewish, Zionist tribalists." Okay, then.

Jana Winter of the Intercept: "The hackers who infiltrated Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer servers have threatened to attack an American news media organization, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by The Intercept. The threat against the unnamed news organization by the Guardians of Peace, the hacker group that has claimed credit for the Sony attack, 'may extend to other such organizations in the near future,' according to a Joint Intelligence Bulletin of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security obtained by The Intercept." CW: No nude pictures of Chuck Todd, please. ...

     ... Matthew Keys of the Desk surmises the targeted news organization is CNN, "based on copies of messages posted to Pastebin on December 20. The messages have since been removed from Pastebin." Okay, nude pix of Wolf Blitzer. But don't publish any of his dippy random thoughts shared in e-mails. That would be too much.

Andy Greenberg of Wired: "The mysterious corner of the Internet known as the Dark Web is designed to defy all attempts to identify its inhabitants. But one group of researchers has attempted to shed new light on what those users are doing under the cover of anonymity. Their findings indicate that an overwhelming majority of their traffic is driven by the Dark Web's darkest activity: the sexual abuse of children.... The researchers' disturbing statistics could raise doubts among even the staunchest defenders of the Dark Web as a haven for privacy. 'Before we did this study, it was certainly my view that the dark net is a good thing,' says [Gareth] Owen[, who conducted the study]. 'But it's hampering the rights of children and creating a place where pedophiles can act with impunity.'"

Thomas Fuller & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Although in recent years there were glimmers of hope that aviation safety might be improving, the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 into the Java Sea on Sunday has renewed concerns that Indonesia cannot keep up with the ever-growing popularity of air travel as incomes rise and low-cost carriers multiply."

Idaho, State of Denial. Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: Veronica Rutledge, the woman whose two-year-old son shot her dead in an Idaho WalMart, had the gun zipped in a purse designed to carry a concealed weapon, a Christmas gift from her husband. The boy's paternal grandfather Terry Rudledge is "angry at the observers already using the accident as an excuse to grandstand on gun rights." ...

... Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: Rutledge was a nuclear research scientist.

New Realities/Old Biases. Benjamin Wallace-Wells of New York: "In the debates over policing that followed the tragedies of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and officers Ramos and Liu, race has assumed the central role, displacing crime. This has brought about a more direct confrontation with our remaining national sickness around race, but it has also surfaced an atavistic, tribal strain in our politics, reminiscent of the racialized fights of an earlier era.... Instead of a reasonable, technocratic decision to adjust policies of policing and punishment to a place where there is much less crime, [the usual suspects] saw the debate as a declaration of allegiances -- of whose side you were on." ...

... Al Baker & David Goodman of the New York Times: "A top [New York City police] union official flatly denied that there was a job action and pointed to the orders to double up and the need to police demonstrations as the main reasons [for a drastic reduction in arrests & ticketing since the murders of officers Rafael Ramos & Wenjian Liu].... Still, one senior police official who reviewed precinct-level data across the city said the decline had the signs of an organized effort and was continuing this week.... 'Ironically, this is the kind of thing we're calling for,' said Robert Gangi, the director of the Police Reform Organizing Project. 'It's officers deciding on their own to, in effect, scale back on the application of broken-windows policing.'"

Evan Ratliff of the New Yorker writes a devastating post mortem of Michael Grimm's "pugnacious career in government service." ...

... CW: Something I completely missed: Tim Mak of the National Post (September 2010): "Grimm told the interviewer on NY1's Inside City Hall that [his Democratic Congressional opponent Michael] Allegretti 'sleep[s] under a blanket of freedom that I helped provide.... You should just say thank you.' The original line, said by Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessep to Tom Cruise's Lieutenant Kaffee in the film, was that Kaffee 'sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I'd prefer you just said "thank you" and went on your way.' As if for comical effect, Grimm later told the interviewer that 'what you see in my life, you've seen in the movies.'"

Jennifer Schuessler of the New York Times: "The criticism of the film ['Selma''s] depiction of the president [Lyndon Johnson] has come not just from Johnson loyalists, but from some historians who said they admired other aspects of the film.... Diane McWhorter, the author of 'Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution,' said in an interview. '... with the portrayal of L.B.J., I kept thinking, "Not only is this not true, it's the opposite of the truth.'... 'They [the filmmakers] obviously wanted to create a villain, and really miss who Lyndon Johnson was," [Prof. Julian Zelizer] said." ...

... NEW. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: In the film, Martin Luther King, Jr. says to President Johnson, "'Mr. President, in the South, there have been thousands of racially motivated murders. We need your help!' To which he gets a pat on the shoulder. 'Dr. King, this thing's just going to have to wait,' Johnson says. In real life, that December 1964 meeting happened -- but not that way, according to one who was there. 'It was not very tense at all. We were very much welcomed by President Johnson,' recalled former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, who attended the session as a young lieutenant to King. 'He and Martin never had that kind of confrontation.'... Young recalled the real-life meeting in an interview with The Post in a three-way phone conversation in which [film director Ava] DuVernay was also on the line. She declined to be interviewed on the record for this article.... Johnson's daughters, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and Luci Baines Johnson, are furious about how their father is portrayed in the film, according to several sources." ...

... CW: The year Martin Luther King, Jr., was born -- 1929 -- LBJ was teaching Mexican-American children in a segregated school in Texas. He later said of that experience, "I shall never forget the faces of the boys and the girls in that little Welhausen Mexican School, and I remember even yet the pain of realizing and knowing then that college was closed to practically every one of those children because they were too poor. And I think it was then that I made up my mind that this nation could never rest while the door to knowledge remained closed to any American." Johnson had an affinity for the civil rights movement even before MLK was in short pants. When he was veep, Johnson pushed a reluctant President Kennedy on civil rights issues, & he used Kennedy's assassination as a vehicle to get Congress to pass "Kennedy"'s Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson's own remarkable "Gettysburg Address" -- May 1963 -- went considerably further than Kennedy ever did on the issue of civil rights:

Presidential Election

The New Jeb! Tom Hamburger & Lindsey Layton of the Washington Post: "Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, moving closer to a possible presidential run, has resigned all of his corporate and nonprofit board memberships, including with his own education foundation, his office said late Wednesday night. He also resigned as a paid adviser to a for-profit education company that sells online courses to public university students in exchange for a share of their tuition payments.... The effort underscores the lengths to which Bush ... appears willing to go to avoid pitfalls that hurt the party in 2012." CW: Because everybody will be convinced that Divested 2015 Jeb is totally different from Money-Grubbing 2014 Jeb.

News Ledes

New York Post: "Two top executives at the New York State Thruway Authority submitted their resignations Wednesday -- ahead of a scathing investigative report on the agency's operations, sources said. Executive Director Tom Madison and his chief of staff, John Bryan, have been forced out, sources told The Post."

New York Times: "Egypt's highest appeals court on Thursday ordered a retrial for three imprisoned journalists from Al Jazeera's English-language network, in what appeared to be a belated acknowledgment of deep flaws in a case that focused international criticism on the country's government. But the decision, after a brief hearing Thursday morning, offered no guarantees that the journalists would be freed. Lawyers for the journalists said that the judge had declined requests to suspend their clients' sentences as they awaited a new trial, as a result extending their imprisonment, which has lasted for more than a year."

New York Times: "Edward Herrmann, a stalwart American actor of patrician bearing and earnest elocutionary style who became familiar across a spectrum of popular entertainment, from movies and television shows to plays, audiobooks and advertisements, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 71."

The Commentariat -- Dec. 31, 2014

Internal links, graphic removed.

Jackie Calmes & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Speaker John A. Boehner on Tuesday expressed 'full confidence' in Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 Republican leader in the House, as he sought to quell a racially charged controversy shaking the party after Mr. Scalise confirmed that he had addressed a white supremacist group a dozen years ago.... At nearly the same time, Mr. Scalise released a statement disavowing the group of white supremacists he spoke to in 2002, when he was a state representative.... The spokesman for Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, [earlier in the day] wrote on Twitter that Mr. Boehner's 'silence on Scalise' was 'another example of his consistent failure to stand up to extreme GOP elements.'" ...

... Ed O'Keefe & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Some Republicans praised Boehner for his actions, expressing their eagerness to start the new Congress in a position of strength to fully exploit their gains in the midterm elections. But others worried about the potential political fallout...." ...

... Jeff Singer of Daily Kos: "There's a good reason why Boehner would want Scalise to stick around, warts and all. As Politico's Jake Sherman notes, Boehner has his own leadership election a week from now. While he is favored to stay on as speaker, conservative activists are making noise about unseating him. RedState's Erick Erickson is claiming that anti-Boehner forces in the House have close to the number of votes they need to deny him another term, or at least embarrass the speaker by sending him to a second ballot. Even if Erickson is bluffing, Boehner won't want to take any chances, especially after his surprisingly close call in the 2013 speakership race." ...

     ... Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller: "Though ousting Boehner is seen as a long shot endeavor, the hope of the [ultra-conservative] anti-Boehner bloc is for enough Republicans to deny Boehner a majority of the vote, which would cause him to drop out of the race." ...

... Brian Beutler: "There's a problem with southern Republican politics if an up-and-coming star stumbles heedless into a white supremacist convention in the course of his constituent outreach, and then doesn't notice the mistake for more than a decade." Beutler also reminds us why Scalise is in a top leadership position: "... by beating [then-Majority Leader Eric] Cantor [(R.Va.), Tea Partier David] Brat shook up the leadership hierarchy in the House, and spooked the remaining leaders into welcoming one of those hardliners into their ranks as a token. That token was Steve Scalise." ...

... Charles Pierce: "... the Republican party — and the Movement conservatism that is its only life force -- once again faces the same choice it has faced since that day in 1964, when Strom Thurmond blew the trumpet and led his supporters out of the bondage of the party of equal rights. It can look at Steve Scalise and see that its success is that of the Political Party Of Dorian Grey. Steve Scalise is the public face. But, up in the corner of the attic, there's a portrait of the rotting, decomposing corpse of Strom Thurmond, the decay deepening with every election won by the tactics he so completely pioneered." ...

... Tail Wags Dog. CW: John Boehner, dear friends, has made his choice. He's going with Strom. Never has a "leader" been so afeard of his followers. ...

... Yay! Hannity Has My Back. Cliven Bundy's former BFF Sean Hannity, told Breitbart News that John Boehner should "step aside for the good of the country and the conservative movement." Hannity prefers to see the House speakership go to the fellow to the right -- way to the right -- here. Via Mediaite. ...

... Up Jumped the Devil in a White Nightgown. Brett Logiurato of Fusion: "Duke was rather flabbergasted by the new focus on Scalise. He said he has hosted both Democratic and Republican legislators at everything from conferences to his children's birthday parties. He said he has met with Democratic legislators at least 50 times in his political life. And he delivered a warning to both Republicans and Democrats: Treat Scalise fairly, and don't try to make political hay out of the situation. Or he said he would be inclined to release a list of names of all the politicians -- both Republicans and Democrats -- with whom he has ties." Via Mediaite. ...

... Here's a new & different narrative. Betsy Woodruff of Slate: "Kenny Knight is a longtime associate of David Duke..., said on Tuesday that it's 'totally incorrect' to say Scalise spoke at that convention.... According to Knight, the EURO conference was slated to start in the early afternoon," but he rented the room beginning earlier in the day & arranged for Scalise, a parish firefighter & a Red Cross rep to address the Jefferson Heights Civic Association, which "was largely comprised of elderly people who lived in his and Scalise's neighborhood.... Though that event was in the conference's hospitality room, it wasn't at all related to the EURO event, he said." ...

... Nonetheless, Knight told the Washington Post, "Now, at the time, I was a prominent person in state politics. I was on the radio, I was doing campaigns. Steve knew who I was, but I don't think he held it against me. He knew I lived by his street and that I was active in our community." And according to David Duke, "I think Scalise would talk to Kenny because he recognized how popular I was in his own district. He knew that knowing what I was doing and saying wouldn't be the worst thing politically. Kenny would keep Scalise up to date on my issues." CW: If these guys are telling the truth, Scalise is either a flat-our liar himself, or -- to put him the best light -- he was using his association with these reprehensible men to advance his own political career. This is the person in whom John Boehner has "full confidence."

Ross Barkan of the New York Observer: (Link here.) "The balcony threat. The time spent in the bar bathroom. The guilty plea. House Speaker John Boehner, who reportedly pressured Congressman Michael Grimm to announce his resignation early this morning, said he still appreciated what Mr. Grimm, a fellow Republican, brought to the table in his brief, chaotic tenure as Staten Island's representative in Washington. 'Rep. Grimm made the honorable decision to step down from his seat in Congress,' Mr. Boehner said in a statement today. 'I know it was made with the best interests of his constituents and the institution in mind, and I appreciate his years of service in the House.'" CW: If only David Duke had showed more support for Grimm, Mikey might not have had to resign. ...

... The Continued Excellence of the Grand Old Party. Ross Barkan: "Congressman Michael Grimm's resignation is set to clear the way for a controversial Staten Island District Attorney to run for office with the Republican establishment's support, GOP sources say. Daniel Donovan, the Staten Island district attorney who most recently failed to secure an indictment in the Eric Garner case, is lining up support behind-the-scenes for a bid to replace Mr. Grimm. And Mr. Donovan, well-liked by the borough's Republican machine, is a front-runner to win the backing of the Staten Island Republican Party in a special election that will likely be held sometime next year, sources say." ...

... Patrick McGeehan & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times name some others who may run for Grimm's seat.

Luckily Republicans Still Have the Same Great Ideas They've Had for Decades. John Harwood of the New York Times runs down a number of ways various liberals & conservatives propose to reduce income inequality. "... the most popular conservative idea for boosting incomes is overhauling corporate taxation." You got that right: cutting corporate taxes is the GOP's plan for reducing income & wealth inequality. Thirty years after trickle-down economics theory proved as disastrous as its critics predicted, Republicans are still trying to sell the policy as a great equalizer. (That's partly what Paul Ryan's "dynamic scoring" is about -- pretending that cutting taxes on the rich will boost the economy so much that tax revenues will actually increase.)

New York Times Editors: "Many members of the New York Police Department are furious at Mayor Bill de Blasio and, by extension, the city that elected him. They have expressed this anger with a solidarity tantrum, repeatedly turning their backs to show their collective contempt. But now they seem to have taken their bitterness to a new and dangerous level -- by walking off the job.... This action is repugnant and inexcusable. It amounts to a public act of extortion by the police.... The Police Department ... needs to police itself. Rank-and-file officers deserve a department they can be proud of, not the insular, defiant, toxically politicized constituency that [Police Benevolent Association president Patrick] Lynch seems to want to lead." ...

... Joan Walsh of Salon: For the NYPD, & for a lot of white New Yorkers, 2014 is the 1970s all over again. "O'Reilly, Hannity and a defiant NYPD are fighting battles of 50 years ago. The chaos [of the 70s] ended but the backlash endures." ...

... If you want to see what's wrong with the NYPD, watch this video Haley S. linked in today's comments. You can watch the first 30 seconds or so to get a flavor of the gag, which is cute, then cursor to 2:25 min. in if you don't have time to watch the whole thing:

... P.S. Cops white, performer black. Pure coincidence. ...

... TMZ: "TMZ has learned NYPD has opened an investigation into the incident. What's unclear is why Alexander chose to pull this stunt four days after two NYPD officers were assassinated. Not a bright move." ...

... CW: Really? Two officers were murdered days before, & that's a justification for police brutality? I'll admit I probably wouldn't pull this around law enforcement officers on the chance I might interfere with their duties. But the video suggests these cops were doing what my husband always said NYPD cops did best: "Standing around talking about their girlfriends."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "President Barack Obama will not renominate controversial Georgia judicial nominee Michael Boggs to the federal bench in 2015, according to the state's two Republican senators. Boggs drew widespread opposition from Senate Democrats, including Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, for his record as a Georgia state legislator on gay marriage, abortion and the Confederate flag." The GOP senators still support Boggs. Of course.

Kate Zernicke & Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "It may amount to little more than ceremony, but efforts are underway in New York and New Jersey to try to override vetoes by the governors of legislation that sought to curb patronage and political interference at the Port Authority.... While Republicans supported the legislation, they have never supported an override of Mr. Christie, who is known for enforcing strict party discipline."

Washington Post Editors: "Having convincingly made that principled case against capital punishment, it's time for [Gov. Martin] O'Malley [D-Md.] to follow through by commuting the sentences of the four men who remain on Maryland's death row before he leaves office Jan. 21.... Ever since a state court ruled in 2006 that Maryland's procedures for lethal injections were unconstitutional, the state has lacked a valid regulatory scheme to carry out executions. And, having abolished capital punishment last year, it cannot now implement regulations to carry out a punishment that no longer is authorized by law."

Today in American Greed

Heart of Darkness. Marianne Levine of Politico: Former Enron trader and Texas billionaire John Arnold is the dark money go-to guy on efforts to "reform" public pensions; i.e., turn them into decidedly less generous 401(k) plans. "Arnold's critics ... question his fitness to evangelize for pension austerity, given that he made his fortune at a company that in its 2001 collapse wiped out $2 billion of its own employee pension funds and cost public employees whose pension funds invested in Enron an additional $1.5 billion. 'We're talking about a former Enron executive who profited off a bankruptcy that destroyed the retirement savings of millions of hard-working Americans,' says Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers." CW: Unfortunately, Arnold, like the billionaire Koch brothers, et al., will never have a Scrooge moment where he confronts the errors of his ways. By today's standards, "Dickensian" is a term of great expectations that will go unrealized.

Marc Tracy & Tim Rohan of the New York Times: "After taking a sociology exam, Cardale Jones, a quarterback at Ohio State, posted a message on Twitter that echoed across college sports: 'Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.' Two years after publishing that provocative statement, Jones will be the starting quarterback on Thursday against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, the second semifinal game of college football's new playoff system -- and his words have renewed relevance. Never has the sport been so awash in money, a growth industry on campuses that some observers believe increasingly resembles professional football more than higher education."

Slacktivist Nation. Dana Milbank: "I watched the Christmas Day opening of 'The Interview,' to show North Korea that I wasn't afraid of its threats to blow up theaters that screen the parody of Kim Jong Un.... My patriotic gesture was a form of Slacktivism -- a uniquely American form of engagement in which statements are made without any real sacrifice.... This can be traced back to September 2001, when President George W. Bush launched wars without calling for sacrifice from Americans -- other than to spend money." Milbank suggests expanding youth national service. "... most service programs have been frozen or cut in recent years, as Congress refuses President Obama's requests for them."

Today in Gun Violence. NBC News: "A two-year-old child fatally shot his mother at an Idaho Walmart after the toddler reached into the woman's purse and discharged a concealed weapon, police said." A somewhat more detailed Los Angeles Times story, by Lauren Raab, is here. CW: It is heartbreaking to see someone die just for being stupid, but that is what happened here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd., Gaffe Edition. Chuck Todd explains Sunday Show "journalism" to comedians:

Lewis Black: I have watched you and everybody else where somebody comes on. I don't know how you do it. Because I would be barking at them. Because they sit there and go 'glib glib [blah blah]' and you sit there.

Chuck Todd: We all sit there because we all know the first time we bark is the last time we do the show.... All of a sudden, no one will come on your show.

... CW: That's right. If the host insults guests -- no matter how big a lie the guests tell -- the "journalist"/host lets it pass because s/he wants these lying dirtbags to appear on the show again. By design, then, the Sunday Showz eschew rudimentary journalism. Yes, we knew that. But isn't it nice to hear a Sunday Show star admit that these shows are shams? Via Egberto Willies of Daily Kos.

News Ledes

oston Globe: "The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of orchestrating the Boston Marathon bombings, will begin January 5 after a federal judge rejected the defense's request to postpone the trial. US District Judge George A. O'Toole also denied the defense's request to move the trial to another district."

CCTV: "At least 35 people are dead, and 43 are injured during a New Year's celebration on the Bund, a waterfront area in central Shanghai. Sina News has reported that masses of crowds in Chen Yi Square on the Bund led to the stampede. The Shanghai government reported that the stampede started at 11:35 pm local time. Authorities are working now to rescue and aid wounded."

New York Times: "The United States transferred five detainees from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Kazakhstan, the Defense Department announced late Tuesday. It was the last in a flurry of year-end moves as President Obama sought to fulfill his promise to close the American-run prison. The five former detainees -- three Yemenis and two Tunisians -- are 'free men' for all intents and purposes after the transfer, a senior official in the Obama administration said. Officials declined to disclose the security assurances reached between the United States and Kazakhstan or detail how the men would be prevented from returning to battlefields in Afghanistan or Pakistan."