The Commentariat -- June 16, 2014

Internal links, obsolete videos removed.

As if June 15 Never Happened.

Paul Krugman: "You should judge leaders by their achievements, not their press, and in terms of policy substance Mr. Obama is having a seriously good year. In fact, there's a very good chance that 2014 will go down in the record books as one of those years when America took a major turn in the right direction."

Mark Landler & Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "As President Obama weighs airstrikes against marauding militants in Iraq, he has concluded that any American military action must be conditioned on a political plan to try to heal Iraq's sectarian rifts, a senior administration official said on Sunday." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York: "The United States is preparing to hold direct talks with Iran this week on how to counter the Sunni militant group, according to The Wall Street Journal. And, to top it all off, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who pushed a resolution authorizing war with Iran over their nuclear program last year, is all for working with our old foe." ...

... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "It is not difficult to imagine a multinational war, fought along a five-hundred-mile front, and along sectarian lines, waged ultimately for regional supremacy.... The 'divine conquest' of Mosul by a group of Islamic extremists is a bitter consequence of the American invasion. For now, there seems to be very little we can do about it."

... David Ferguson of the Raw Story: "We at Raw Story's Oh God Here We Go Again desk ... marvel at the Big Brass Ones on some people who feel the need to offer their opinions about how the U.S. should conduct itself with regards to recent rise of extremist elements in [Iraq] and the loss of two of its major cities to al Qaeda. These people seem to believe that their previous dire wrongness on everything about the topic of Iraq shouldn't preclude them from opining about our nation's current course of action, goodness no." Ferguson names "seven people who need to STFU about Iraq right now." CW: Several readers recommended this column. It's a fine one. ...

... Which Is Why I Don't Watch the Sunday Shows. ... Emily Arrowood of Media Matters: "NBC and ABC's Sunday news shows turned to discredited architects of the Iraq War to opine on the appropriate U.S. response to growing violence in Iraq, without acknowledging their history of deceit and faulty predictions." Paul Wolfowitz on NBC; Bill Kristol on ABC. "Holding Wolfowitz and Kristol up as reputable sources on U.S. intervention in Iraq, the broadcasts explained neither the roles the men played in dishonestly crafting the Iraq War nor their woeful records of predicting its outcome and aftermath." ...

... Bush's British Baby Brother Blair. Patrick Wintour, et al., of the Guardian: "Tony Blair has urged western governments to recognise that they need to take an active role in the Middle East, saying the west should consider military options short of sending ground troops.... Blair was speaking on UK morning TV shows after writing a lengthy essay setting out how to respond to the Iraq crisis, including his belief that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not the cause of the country's implosion." ...

    ... You can read Blair's bizarre claims here. ...

... ** Chelsea Manning has a very interesting piece in the New York Times about her experiences & observations of the chasm between what actually went on in Iraq while she was stationed there & what the U.S. media reported. ...

... CW: As for me -- & (unlike John McCain, Bill Kristol, et al.,) I claim absolute ignorance here -- I have a hard time understanding why Iraq needs to be "saved." It's a fake country anyway, cobbled together over the centuries by its various foreign conquerors (most recently, the British) & settled by people from different areas, different ethnic backgrounds & different religious beliefs. Why not home rule? Breaking up may be hard to do, but it's better than more sectarian violence. Please feel free to set me straight. ...

     ... Here's how Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute would answer my questions: Al Qaeda! I'm including this link only because Kagan's piece is receiving a lot of media attention. He might be an expert on some of the problems, but I'm not buying his "solutions." ...

Starbucks U. Richard Perez-Pena of the New York Times: "Starbucks will provide a free online college education to thousands of its workers, without requiring that they remain with the company, through an unusual arrangement with Arizona State University, the company and the university will announce on Monday."

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "Staff members at dozens of Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country have objected for years to falsified patient appointment schedules and other improper practices, only to be rebuffed, disciplined or even fired after speaking up, according to interviews with current and former staff members and internal documents. The growing V.A. scandal over long patient wait times and fake scheduling books is emboldening hundreds of employees to go to federal watchdogs, unions, lawmakers and outside whistle-blower groups to report continuing problems, officials for those various groups said."

Emmarie Huettemann of the New York Times: "Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said Sunday that he saw a troublesome division within the Republican Party, as he discussed his stunning primary defeat, which many are assessing for possible evidence that the Tea Party is regaining steam among Republicans. Though Mr. Cantor said in a separate interview, on CNN's 'State of the Union,' that the party's internal struggles 'pale in comparison' to its differences with Democrats, he said Republicans need to resolve their party's own clash." ...

... David Carr of the New York Times: "It's now clear why the primary defeat of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, came so completely out of the blue last week: Beltway blindness that put a focus on fund-raising, power-brokering and partisan back-and-forth created a reality distortion field that obscured the will of the people. But that affliction was not Mr. Cantor's alone; it is shared by the political press.... The big miss by much of the political news media demonstrates that news organizations are no less a prisoner of Washington's tunnel vision than the people who run for office." ...

... Laura Ingraham Has an Excellent Sense of Humor. If You Like Sick Jewish "Jokes." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Sunday argued that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- the only Jewish Republican in Congress -- had lost his seat because he couldn't 'take a joke' after she suggested trading him to the Taliban over his support for immigration reform. At a campaign rally for Tea Party-favorite Dave Brat in early June, Ingraham said that President Barack Obama 'could have just traded one Eric Cantor' to the Taliban for prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl." CW: AND thanks, ABC News & Jonathan Karl, for giving that loud-mouthed bigot Ingraham more exposure. Luckily, Bill Kristol was there at the table for "balance" or something. (Another of the people who should STFU re: Iraq. See Media Matters story above.) ...

Patricia Sullivan of the Washington Post: "One of the most historic journalism sites of the past half-century will soon vanish, following a decision by the Arlington County Board on Saturday to demolish the building and parking garage where FBI official Mark Felt secretly met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward during the Watergate investigation. The County Board unanimously agreed to allow Monday Properties to replace its two 12-story, 1960s-era buildings at 1401 Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn with a 28-story residential tower and a 24-story commercial building." Via Margaret Hartmann. CW: In the South, history only matters if there's a Confederate hero in the mix.

Presidential Race 2016

James Hohmann of Politico: "Establishment forces officially wrested control of the Iowa Republican Party from supporters of Rand Paul on Saturday, a development the victors said would help save the state's first-in-the-nation presidential caucus from being marginalized.... The transfer of power to those loyal to Gov. Terry Branstad -- which has been in the works for months but was completed on Saturday -- increases the likelihood that center-right GOP candidates, such as Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, will choose to compete in the caucus. It also jeopardizes next year's [Ames] straw poll: Branstad said the annual ritual has 'outlived its usefulness,' and other critics say it's become a spectacle that raises a lot of money for the party but has little significance politically. Pro-Paul forces, however, enthusiastically support the event and want to keep it going."

A Shocking Surprise. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Previewing a possible 2016 presidential matchup, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), a leading Republican White House contender, blasted Hillary Clinton as unfit to serve as the nation's commander in chief. Speaking at the Iowa Republican convention on Saturday, Paul declared the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi the most concerning scandal of the Obama administration and laid the blame at Clinton's feet."

Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times: At a "retreat" for Republican political donors which Mitt Romney organized, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie "framed the bridge scandal as a media conspiracy against him after he won 61% of the vote in his gubernatorial race in a Democratic state. His opponents, he said, were trying to prevent him from getting any 'more altitude.'"

News Ledes

Politico: "President Barack Obama has notified Congress that up to about 275 U.S. military personnel are headed to Iraq to help the State Department relocate some staff from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to the U.S. Consulates General in Basra and Erbil and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman."

New York Times: "The Sunni extremist militants threatening Iraq seized another northern city on Monday in a battle with the Iraqi Army after having ambushed a convoy of untrained Shiite militia volunteers, killing at least 29 in the first lethal encounter between Sunni and Shiite combatants since the government started mobilizing thousands of Shiites to supplement the country's faltering armed forces." ...

... Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda renegades captured another major town in northern Iraq on Sunday, forcing hundreds of families to flee into the surrounding desert as their country descended into a new round of bloodletting. The fall of the religiously mixed town of Tal Afar to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) raised the specter of deepening sectarian violence. It came as the U.S. government announced that it was drawing down staff at its embassy in Baghdad."

Reuters: "Russia cut off gas to Ukraine on Monday in a dispute over unpaid bills that could disrupt supplies to the rest of Europe and set back hopes for peace in the former Soviet republic."

AFP: "At least 48 people were killed when suspected Shebab militants from Somalia stormed into a Kenyan coastal town and launched a major assault on a police station, hotels and government offices, officials said on Monday.'

The Commentariat -- June 14, 2014

Obsolete video, graphic removed.

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration has decided to hold any military intervention in Iraq in abeyance until it sees clear evidence that the country’s politics and governance are reforming, according to U.S. officials. After near-nonstop crisis meetings since early this week, President Obama has ordered options prepared for possible airstrikes in Iraq as well as a wide range of direct military assistance short of American boots on the ground."

This is not solely or even primarily a military challenge. The United States will do our part, but understand that ultimately it’s up to the Iraqis as a sovereign nation to solve their problems. -- Barack Obama, Friday

... Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "The stage was set Friday for a major sectarian confrontation in Iraq after the government and the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric implored civilians to take up arms against Sunni militants — a move that would partially plug the ranks of the decimated security forces with religiously motivated volunteers. Those developments appeared directly at odds with the approach urged by President Obama in Washington, who appealed to the Iraqi government to find ways to bridge the country’s sectarian divisions." ...

There is not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shias, so I think they can probably get along. -- John McCain, ca. April 2003

... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "On Iraq, let’s ignore those who got it all wrong.... There are few people who understand Iraq less than the Republican politicians and pundits who are being sought out for their comments on the current situation.... The fact that [John McCain] has never demonstrated the slightest bit of understanding of Iraq is no bar at all to being the most quoted person on the topic.... Yet today, the media once again seek out John McCain’s wisdom and insight on Iraq, which is kind of like saying, 'Jeez, it looks like we might be lost — we really need to ask Mr. Magoo for directions.'”

Rule: where available, all 2014 Iraq punditry must be accompanied by link(s) to the author's 2002/3 Iraq punditry. -- James Poniewozik of Time

 CW: If you missed yesterday's Comments on Our Excellent Iraq Adventure (& the Tour Organizers), do yourself a favor & click on them. Some excellent reminders of how incredible arrogance, stupidity AND ignorance got us into that war. Also, new word: "feculent."

The president says his doctrine is don’t do stupid stuff. Sometimes withdrawal is the stupidest thing of all. -- David Brooks

The stupidest thing of all is invading a country that hadn't attacked us, posed no real threat to us, had no weapons capable of reaching us, or any capability to produce such weapons for the foreseeable future. -- Ian Reifowitz of Daily Kos

Manny Fernandez & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Sergeant [Bowe] Bergdahl ...28 landed around 1:40 a.m. aboard a military transport plane at an airfield adjacent to Lackland Air Force Base and was escorted to nearby Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Even as Sergeant Bergdahl arrived, the Army set in motion an investigation into the circumstances of his disappearance from his outpost in June 2009. The Army has selected a two-star general with combat experience in Afghanistan to determine whether Sergeant Bergdahl violated rules by apparently walking off his post...."

Beyond the Beltway

Recklessness in Service of Political Spite. Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian: "The coal-heavy state of Ohio rebelled against Barack Obama's climate change agenda on Friday, becoming the first state to roll back measures promoting wind and solar power and energy efficiency. The bill signed into law by Ohio's governor, John Kasich [R], puts a two-year freeze on measures requiring power companies to obtain some of their electricity from wind and solar power, and reduce demand for electricity. The move will make it harder for Ohio to meet new standards unrolled by the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month...."

Recklessness in Service of Political Spite, Episode 2. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "The Virginia General Assembly adopted a long-delayed state budget late Thursday, acting after an hours-long debate among newly ascendant Senate Republicans who fought among themselves over whether the plan threw up sufficient barriers to Medicaid expansion." CW: Yep. Working overtime to make sure poor people don't get health insurance. Commendable.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said this week that it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, adding to the series of inquiries that have been ordered since the lane-closing scandal at the George Washington Bridge last year."

Jason Stein, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Ending a week of uncertainty, a federal judge Friday ordered Wisconsin officials to stop enforcing the state's gay marriage ban but then immediately put that order on hold while the historic case winds through months of appeals."

The Commentariat -- June 13, 2014

Mark Landler & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "The White House, confronted by an unexpected crisis on a battlefield it thought it had left behind, scrambled Thursday to reassure Iraq that it would help its beleaguered army fend off militants who have overrun much of the country and now threaten Baghdad.... President Obama and his aides moved on multiple fronts. A senior official said the president was actively considering American airstrikes against the militant groups. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telephoned Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to express American support. And Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers about what one senator later described as a 'grave situation.'" ...

... Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "Iraq is splintering, and with it both the original neo-conservative belief that a sectarian dictatorship could be made quickly into a stable democracy and Obama's hands-off approach to the wider region." ...

Fareed Zakaria, in a Washington Post op-ed, blames al-Malaki & the Bush administration -- who placed al-Malaki in power -- for the current situation in Iraq. He explains why. ...

... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The collapse of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has little to do with the withdrawal of American troops and everything to do with the political failure of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. As the U.S. pullout began under the terms of a treaty signed in 2008 by then-President George W. Bush, Maliki, the leader of a Shiite political party, promised to run a more inclusive government -- to bring more Sunnis into the ministries, to bring more Sunnis from the Sons of Iraq militia into the national army, to settle property disputes in Kirkuk, to negotiate a formula on sharing oil revenue with Sunni districts, and much more. Maliki has since backpedaled on all of these commitments and has pursued policies designed to strengthen Shiites and marginalize Sunnis." ...

... David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Maliki's failure has been increasingly obvious since the elections of 2010, when the Iraqi people in their wisdom elected a broader, less-sectarian coalition. But the Obama administration, bizarrely working in tandem with Iran, brokered a deal that allowed Maliki to continue and has worked with him as an ally against al-Qaeda. Maliki's coalition triumphed in April's elections, but the balloting was boycotted by Sunnis. Given Maliki's sectarian and authoritarian style, a growing number of Iraq experts are questioning why the Obama administration continues to provide him billions in military aid -- and is said to be weighing his plea for lethal Predator drones." ...

... Dexter Filkins of the New Yorker: "Time and again, American commanders have told me, they stepped in front of Maliki to stop him from acting brutally and arbitrarily toward Iraq's Sunni minority. Then the Americans left, removing the last restraints on Maliki's sectarian and authoritarian tendencies.... Maliki's march to authoritarian rule has fueled the reëmergence of the Sunni insurgency directly. With nowhere else to go, Iraq's Sunnis are turning, once again, to the extremists to protect them.... What the Americans left behind was an Iraqi state that was not able to stand on its own. What we built is now coming apart. This is the real legacy of America's war in Iraq." ...

... Right about now, we need the expert advice of Sen. John McCain. Jeremy Herb & Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. John McCain said Thursday that President Barack Obama's entire national security team should resign over the resurgence of Islamic militants in Iraq. 'Everybody in his national security team, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ought to be replaced,' the Arizona Republican told reporters ahead of a classified Senate Armed Services Committee briefing on the deteriorating situation in Iraq. 'It's a colossal failure of American security policy.'" ...

... digby: "Listening to McCain babble on about Obama firing his entire staff and replacing them with his True North, the Man Called Petraeus while Huckleberry Graham shrieks 'we've got another Benghazi! in the making' is enough to make me start drinking. And it's not even noon yet here on the west coast. And that's nothing to the legions of morons who are condemning the Obama administration for puling out of Iraq." ...

... Sarah Smith of Politico: Not-President "Mitt Romney slammed President Barack Obama's foreign policy, as well as his former secretary of state, saying the recent turmoil in Iraq was emblematic of the president's 'missteps' across the region." ...

... In a comment made late Thursday, James S. wrote, "[Obama] ought to send Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld over there just to remind those ungrateful wretches about the candy and flowers we are due."

Julie Davis & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl ... left Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday afternoon and will arrive in the United States early Friday to begin treatment at a Texas military medical facility, the Pentagon said." ...

... Kimberly Dozier of the Daily Beast: "Writing from a Taliban 'prison,' Bowe Bergdahl urged his family and his government to wait until they had all the facts before judging him for leaving his base. Then Bergdahl explained, at least in part, why he left his fellow troops in 2009. 'Leadership was lacking, if not non-existent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that where actuly (sic) the ones risking thier (sic) lives from attack, he writes in a letter dated March 23, 2013 and obtained by The Daily Beast."

Paul Krugman: "... what I and others mean by 'movement conservatism' ... is ... an interlocking set of institutions and alliances that won elections by stoking cultural and racial anxiety but used these victories mainly to push an elitist economic agenda, meanwhile providing a support network for political and ideological loyalists. By rejecting Mr. Cantor, the Republican base showed that it has gotten wise to the electoral bait and switch, and, by his fall, Mr. Cantor showed that the support network can no longer guarantee job security. For around three decades, the conservative fix was in; but no more."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) has dropped out of the race for House majority leader, leaving current Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as the only candidate in the race.... Earlier Thursday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.) also dropped out of the running for majority leader." CW: In other words, business as usual. What a disappointment for the Tea Party caucus. ...

... Jake Sherman, et al., of Politico: "The race for the third most powerful position in the House -- majority whip -- is wide open. With less than a week until Republicans vote on the most significant changes to their leadership in nearly a decade, Peter Roskam of Illinois, Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana are circling the 233-member House Republican Conference in a furious search for support."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "It’s not nice to fool Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The justice said during oral arguments in April that he found the labeling of a Coca-Cola product called Pomegranate Blueberry Flavored Blend of Five Juices misleading, and Thursday he wrote for a unanimous Supreme Court that the company can be sued for it."

Joe Coscarelli of New York: "Lots of tense, awkward laughter on NPR today! Hillary Clinton's book tour took her to 'Fresh Air' with Terry Gross this afternoon, where the two got into it a bit over if and when Clinton 'evolved,' as they say, on the issue of gay marriage, or whether she held her personal opinions in favor of equality until they were politically viable. The answer is: Clinton is not telling. But it wasn't for Gross's lack of trying. "

Michael Paulson of the New York Times: "Fifteen months into the pontificate of Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States find themselves unsettled in ways large and small, revisiting both how they live and what they talk about in light of the new pope's emphasis on personal humility and economic justice."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The State Department said Friday that Russia had sent tanks and other heavy weapons to separatists in Ukraine, supporting accusations Thursday by the Ukrainian government."

Guardian: "An independent autopsy conducted on the Oklahoma prisoner [Clayton Locket] whose execution lasted 43 minutes while he writhed and groaned appears to show the intravenous needles that were supposed to deliver lethal fluids were never correctly inserted."