The Commentariat -- June 7, 2014

Internal links removed.

Gail Collins: Rep. Dave Camp, chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, was for tax reform -- until he voted, along with his fellow Republicans, to scrap it. "'Republicans care deeply about deficits, unless they're caused by tax cuts. Then they don't give a damn,' said [Norm] Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.

Now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man. I would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details. -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), interview on CNN, Feb. 18, 2014

We were never told that there would be an exchange of Sergeant Bergdahl for five Taliban. -- McCain, interview on CNN, June 3, 2014 ...

... CW: Glenn Kessler's fact-check of John McCain's obvious flip-flop on the prisoner exchange of Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban raises a matter of which I was unaware: that the Washington Post had reported on this exact prisoner exchange in February 2014. As Kessler writes, "... the key elements of the deal that was announced last week were apparent in the article four months ago -- the exchange of five Taliban members held at Guantanamo for Bergdahl and the protective custody of Qatar. Throughout the discussions, it has always been the same five men, so their identities would have been no surprise to any lawmaker keeping track of the discussions." ...

     ... While it's true that not every rank-and-file MOC would be able to keep up on "the details" of the prisoner swap, key members certainly knew what was in the works. Those Republicans & Democrats who claimed they "no idea" such an "outrageous" exchange was pending might want to blame their staffs for not keeping up. And leaders like Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) & McCain should be ashamed of themselves for complaining they didn't get notification. Kessler demonstrates they've known about this pending exchange for years. ...

(Kessler's column is another instance of the liberal media picking on John McCain. Dylan Byers of Politico: "In the last week alone, Sen. John McCain has publicly accused three different media organizations of misrepresenting his remarks on subjects ranging from U.S. foreign policy to President Obama's prisoner swap for Bowe Bergdahl.") ...

... Kathleen Hunter of Bloomberg News: Dianne Feinstein, "the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, said she's not convinced there was a 'credible threat' against the life of freed Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl that motivated the White House to keep its plans secret." CW: Because five years in captivity is great: you don't have to work & you still get pay & promotions. Inexplicably, Bergdahl tried to escape at least twice from this excellent sinecure. ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: John "Podesta, the senior counselor to President Barack Obama, said that the president made the decision for the swap knowing it would be controversial, but argued that methods were in place for homeland security protections that extend beyond the one-year that the five will be in Qatari custody as part of the deal.... 'There are ways that we have to monitor them beyond what Qatar is doing,' Podesta said."

Steven Levy of Wired: Silicon Valley saved Healthcare.gov. Now a new team "of programmers drawn from startups as well as large companies like Google ... is creating core features of the next generation of Healthcare.gov that will debut when the next enrollment period begins." Via Kevin Roose of New York.

David Savage & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "As fast as it can, Google is sealing up cracks in its systems that Edward J. Snowden revealed the N.S.A. had brilliantly exploited. It is encrypting more data as it moves among its servers and helping customers encode their own emails. Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo are taking similar steps. After years of cooperating with the government, the immediate goal now is to thwart Washington -- as well as Beijing and Moscow. The strategy is also intended to preserve business overseas in places like Brazil and Germany that have threatened to entrust data only to local providers." ...

... CW: MEANWHILE, of course, these spy-averse tech giants are merrily recording your every keystroke for their own purposes.

All Clinton All the Time -- A Sampler ...

... Not That She Doesn't Ask for It. Greg Gilman of the Wrap: "Hillary Clinton's town hall later this month will air on CNN, with the network's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour moderating the event.... The town hall, taking place at the Newseum in Washington DC on June 17, will focus on the former Secretary of State's new& memoir, 'Hard Choices.' CNN notes, however, that there will be 'no subjects off limits' as she answers questions from Amanpour and the live audience."

Ruth Marcus: "The last few days have offered vivid illustrations of why Hillary Clinton could decide not to run for president -- and why, in the end, I believe she will. Example No. 1 is the ludicrous debate over whether Clinton, in the latest People magazine cover, was leaning on a walker. To buy this scenario would require you to believe that People is implicated in a grand conspiracy to keep Clinton's enervated physical state from American voters. And that People's editors and Team Clinton are dumb enough, having hatched this scheme, to have her photographed with the walker cropped out, except not entirely."

Alexander Burns & Madeline Marshall of Politico: "Fair or not, [former Senate Leader Bob] Dole said the subject [of age] is as in-bounds for the 2016 Democratic field as it was for him in 1996, when he ran at the age of 73. 'We had signs, "Dole in '96," and the Democrats in some areas changed it to "Dole is '96,'" he recalled. 'Hillary will be, what, 69? Age can be a factor. I think it was in my race, and it'll be in hers.'"

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "In her new book, even as she lays out her foreign policy vision, Mrs. Clinton shows a side of herself [the 2008] campaign did not: human, motherly, jokey, self-deprecating.

Liz Kruetz & Dana Hughes of ABC News: "In an exclusive interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, Hillary Clinton defended President Obama's decision to swap five Taliban prisoners for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, saying she won't second guess him."

The Other Clinton. Josh Gerstein & Darrell Samuelsohn of Politico: "Under early fire over his alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky, President Bill Clinton's aides were urging him to avoid commenting on legal strategy and also to look more presidential, according to newly-disclosed White House documents the Clinton Presidential Library released Friday.... The roughly 2,000 pages released Friday by the National Archives-run library are the fifth such batch released this year as archivists process previously withheld Clinton White House records. They provide behind-the-scenes insights into the Clinton presidency."

David Leonhardt of the New York Times: Liberals "have surrendered seats on the [Supreme C]ourt by being less strategic than conservatives with the timing of their retirements. The six most conservative justices, based on their voting patterns, to have retired in the last 50 years all left the bench under a Republican president. By contrast, only one of the six most liberal justices has departed when a Democrat was president. In all, Republican presidents have named 12 of the 20 Supreme Court justices since 1960 -- even though the two parties have fought to a draw in presidential elections over that period...."

Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post writes in support of Maureen Dowd's Rocky Mountain high column. Rosenberg makes the same point I did: not everyone "... knows how to consume [marijuana] in ways that are pleasurable and safe for them, or that avoid unpleasant side effects." (Rosenberg is apparently unaware of the claims -- linked yesterday -- that Dowd got 45 minutes of instruction on how to ingest her stash.) It's reasonable, Rosenberg writes, to assume a candy bar is a "single serving."

Whither the Obamas? Corrine Lestch of the New York Daily News: "President Obama may have roots in Chicago, but Mayor de Blasio wants his legacy in New York City. Brushing aside reports in the Chicago Sun-Times Thursday that de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo offered 'tepid and unspecific' support for the Obama artifacts and letters to land in the Big Apple, Hizzoner said Columbia - Obama's alma mater - would be 'a perfect place' for a library and museum dedicated to the nation's 44th leader after he leaves office."

AND the CIA gets a Twitter account.

Beyond the Beltway

Jason Stein, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "A federal judge in Madison on Friday overturned Wisconsin's gay marriage ban, striking down an amendment to the state constitution approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2006 and prompting an emergency action by the state to halt the scores of weddings that began in the state's two largest cities. In the 88-page decision, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the prohibition on same-sex vows in the state violated the rights of gay and lesbian couples to equal protection under the federal constitution and fair treatment under the law. She did not stay her ruling but also did not immediately issue an order blocking the enforcement of the ban, sparking a heated and hasty debate on whether the ruling meant that couples could immediately marry in the courthouses of Wisconsin.... Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, a Republican, said that 'current law remains in force' in Wisconsin and took immediate action to try to halt the surge of gay couples seeking to wed, filing an emergency request for a stay from Crabb."

The President's Weekly Address

White House: "... President Obama underscored the importance of helping to lift the burden of crushing student loan debt faced by too many Americans and highlighted the efforts he's taken to ensure we uphold America's commitment to provide a quality education for all who are willing to work for it":

News Ledes

Al Jazeera: "Eleven sailors held hostage by Somali pirates for more than three years have been released, Somali and United Nations officials say. Abdi Yusuf Hassan, the interior minister of Somalia's Galmudug region, said on Saturday that the mostly South Asian sailors were released with no ransom paid."

AP: "An 89-year old World War II veteran who was reported missing from a nursing home in England has been found in Normandy after traveling to attend D-Day commemorations, police said Friday."

AP: In his inaugural address, Petro Poroshenko, "Ukraine's new president, on Saturday called for dialogue with the country's east, gripped by a violent separatist insurgency, and for armed groups to lay down their weapons but said he won't talk with rebels he called 'gangsters and killers.'" ...

... AFP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered the border service to reinforce the state border with Ukraine, the Kremlin press service told Russian news agencies."

New York Times: "Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan was in intensive care Saturday after the limousine bus he was riding in was involved in a multi-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, state police said."

Woman as Object

If you go to this doctor & get the shot, the spouse -- he or her -- gets the shot free. -- Overheard at McDonald's this morning.

The Commentariat -- June 6, 2014

Internal links, photo removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama came together with a parade of kings and queens and prime ministers to mark the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landing that sent young men storming onto the forbidding beaches of northern France amid a hail of fire in perhaps the greatest invasion in human history":

"... what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa." -- Charles Wilson, GM President & U.S. Secretary of Defense, Eisenhower administration ...

... Hillary Stout, et al., of the New York Times: "General Motors executives let slip for a decade "opportunities ... to rectify a safety problem that was detected even before the first of the cars came on the market, according to an internal investigation of G.M.'s handling of the ignition switch issue. The report, which the company on Thursday turned over to federal regulators and lawmakers, is a tale of nonchalance, ignorance and incompetence with tragic consequences. The 325-page document provides new details to help fill in a chronology of inaction that has been taking shape in investigations by federal regulators, lawmakers and law-enforcement officials." The report is here. ...

... Dominick Rushe of the Guardian: "General Motors' fatal delay in recalling cars with faulty ignition switches was caused by a 'pattern of incompetence and neglect', chief executive Mary Barra said Thursday. Announcing the findings of an internal report, Barra said she had fired 15 people and disciplined another five for the decade-long delay that has been linked to at least 13 fatal crashes and eventually led to the recall of 2.6m Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other models equipped with faulty ignition switches."

Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times: "Sylvia Mathews Burwell sailed to confirmation Thursday as President Obama's next Secretary of Health and Human Services, picking up bipartisan support in the Senate despite Republicans' ongoing opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Twenty-four Republicans joined 52 Democrats and two Independents in backing Burwell...."

Charlie Savage & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "A classified military report detailing the Army's investigation into the disappearance of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in June 2009 says that he had wandered away from assigned areas before -- both at a training range in California and at his remote outpost in Afghanistan -- and then returned, according to people briefed on it. The roughly 35-page report, completed two months after Sergeant Bergdahl left his unit, concludes that he most likely walked away of his own free will from his outpost in the dark of night, and it criticized lax security practices and poor discipline in his unit. But it stops short of concluding that there is solid evidence that Sergeant Bergdahl, then a private, intended to permanently desert." ...

... Kimberly Dozier of the Daily Beast: "The Pentagon rejected the idea of a rescue mission for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl because he was being moved so often by his Taliban captors that U.S. special operators would have had to hit up to a dozen possible hideouts inside Pakistan at once in order to have a chance at rescuing him. That's according to U.S. officials, who also say the Obama administration did not want to risk the political fallout in Pakistan...." ...

... Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The five senior Taliban leaders released to Qatar after years of detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are subject to strict bans on militant incitement or fundraising that might pose a danger to the United States, according to people familiar with the negotiations that freed American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl. The Afghans are also under a one-year travel ban insisted upon by Washington despite a Taliban request that the men be allowed to make the hajj, Muslims' annual pilgrimage to nearby Saudi Arabia." ...

... BUT Massimo Calabresi of Time: "The Last Time Qatar Promised To Watch A Gitmo Prisoner, He Walked." ...

... Aryn Baker of Time reports on the Taliban's POV about the exchange. ...

... David Fahrenthold & Jaime Fuller of the Washington Post: Several Congressional conservatives have changed their minds this week about Bowe Bergdahl's retrieval. "First, they demanded that President Obama get Bergdahl back. Then, when the soldier was released, they blasted Obama for giving up too much to get him. Those conservatives have been mocked by Democrats and cable-news talkers, who accuse them of playing politics. 'It is clear they are worried his release could be seen as a victory for President Obama,' Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor Wednesday." ...

     ... CW: Love this: "Just after Bergdahl's release, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) released a statement that said: 'Our prayers have been answered and we offer our thanks for the perseverance of the family and the many Idahoans who have kept this vigil. We appreciate the men and women who made this release possible.' [Huh. Wonder if President Obama is among those "who made this release possible."] Five days later, Crapo expressed doubts about the exchange, telling a local news outlet: 'I believe that is a problem ... that could potentially result in a problem for our national security.'" ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Earlier [Thursday], three different members of Congress -- two Republicans and a Democrat -- deleted their tweets of support for Bergdahl's release." ...

... Tom Kludt of TPM: "Back in 2009, not long after Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was taken prisoner in Afghanistan, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA) signed onto a letter along with 22 other members of Congress to denounce a Fox News analyst who described the soldier as a deserter. But this week, after President Obama negotiated an exchange to get Bergdahl back, Hunter found himself on Fox News making the same accusations he once found so detestable." ...

... ** New York Times Editors: "The last few days have made clearer than ever that there is no action the Obama administration can take -- not even the release of a possibly troubled American soldier from captivity -- that cannot be used for political purposes by his opponents." Includes great examples of Republican hypocrisy on Bergdahl's release. ...

An OB/Gyn Weighs in on Bergdahl's Medical Condition. Dana Bash of CNN (in a CNN Exclusive!): "Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, who is a also a physician, told CNN he is convinced that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was drugged in the so-called 'proof of life' video shown to senators during a closed briefing Wednesday.... 'Now, his mental health is probably not, and his psychological health, but his physical health is fine,' said Coburn." ...

     ... Digby assesses Dr. Coburn's creds. Hilarious. ...

... CW: Even though David Brooks doesn't write his column's headlines, I felt compelled to read a Brooks column with the title "President Obama Was Right." It turns out I agree with much of Brooks's rationale on the Bergdahl release, except, um, for his central premise: that retrieving Bergdahl was essential to maintaining "national solidarity." In my opinion, the main reason for retrieving Bergdahl, assuming he did desert (and I don't know that he did), was a conservative one: continuity of policy. The U.S. military has long had a policy of "leave no soldier behind." To break that policy, based on unsubstantiated claims by a handful of Bergdahl's fellow soldiers, would be an insupportable breach of precedent. It's D-Day. Maybe conservatives could watch "Saving Private Ryan." ...

     ... UPDATE: William Saletan of Slate has more on the Armed Forces Code of Conduct, published 50 years ago, which guarantees that "the government will use every practical means to contact, support and gain release for you and for all other prisoners of war." Saletan adds, "We can't just say it. We have to mean it, even when it carries a price."

     ... Steve M.: "Brooks ... never acknowledges why the recovery of Bowe Bergdahl is the subject of howling rage. It's his allies. On Fox, on talk radio, in the halls of Congress, they divide America every hour of every day." Also, Steve catches Brooks in a ridiculous falsehood -- Brooks's claim that "the Obama administration can be faulted for not at least trying to use the language of communal solidarity to explain this decision." ...

... AND, for comic relief, Morning Joe & Tuck Chodd get in a shouting match over Bob Bergdahl, Bowe's father. Bill Kristol, BTW, thinks Joe is presidential material.

AP: "An additional 18 veterans in the Phoenix area whose names were kept off an official electronic Veterans Affairs appointment list have died, the agency's acting secretary said Thursday.... Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said he does not know whether the 18 new deaths were related to long waiting times for appointments but said they were in addition to the 17 reported last month by the VA's inspector general. The announcement of the deaths came as senior senators reached agreement Thursday on the framework for a bipartisan bill making it easier for veterans to get health care outside VA hospitals and clinics."

David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "As the intelligence community continues its assessment of the damage caused by Edward Snowden's leaks of secret programs, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says it appears the impact may be less than once feared because 'it doesn't look like he [Snowden] took as much' as first thought. 'We're still investigating, but we think that a lot of what he looked at, he couldn't pull down,' Clapper said in a rare interview at his headquarters Tuesday. 'Some things we thought he got he apparently didn't.' Although somewhat less than expected, the damage is still 'profound,' he said." ...

... Juliette Garfield of the Guardian: "Vodafone, one of the world's largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond."

AFP: "Hillary Clinton favoured arming Syria's rebels early in the country's civil war but was overruled by Barack Obama, the former secretary of state said in her new memoir, according to CBS News." ...

     ... UPDATE: Here's the CBS News story, which didn't show up on a site search earlier this morning. ...

Tim Egan assesses the Tea Party's "accomplishments": "So, no legislation. A shutdown that cost billions. A near-default that almost threw the United States back into recession. What else? Oh, science denial. Evolution, climate change, medicine -- all a hoax, in one form or another. But the Tea Party does have something to show for its five years of annoyance: Ted Cruz, senator from Texas." ...

... UNLIKE Ted Cruz, Paul Krugman understands the message of "Green Eggs & Ham": "The new carbon policy ... is supposed to be the beginning, not the end, a domino that, once pushed over, should start a chain reaction that leads, finally, to global steps to limit climate change. Do we know that it will work? Of course not. But it's vital that we try."

Beyond the Beltway

Paul Weber & Will Weissert of the AP: "The Texas Republican Party would endorse psychological treatment that seeks to turn gay people straight under a new platform partly aimed at rebuking laws in California and New Jersey that ban so-called 'reparative therapy' on minors. A push to include the new anti-gay language survived a key vote late Thursday in Fort Worth at the Texas Republican Convention where, across the street, tea party star U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz fired up attendees at a rally to defend marriage as between a man and a woman." ...

     ... CW: So it's okay to treat kids who have absolutely nothing wrong with them, but a teenaged girl who is actually but accidentally pregnant -- a well-known medical condition -- is out of luck.

Judicial Activism, Florida-Style. Ralphie Aversa of Yahoo! News: "A Florida judge is stepping down from the bench after a courtroom incident in which he allegedly punched an attorney. Eighteenth Judicial Circuit Chief Judge John M. Harris said in a statement Tuesday that Judge John Murphy 'has agreed to seek anger management counseling and treatment during a temporary leave of absence.' On Monday, video of an altercation between Judge Murphy and Assistant Public Defender Andrew Weinstock went viral online."

Presidential Race 2016

Bruce Schreiner of the AP: "Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that a state law preventing candidates from having their names appear more than once on the ballot won't deter him from staging dual campaigns for Senate re-election and president -- if he decides to run for the White House in 2016.... Kentucky lawmakers considered legislation this year that would have relieved Paul from the potential quandary. The GOP-led state Senate passed a bill that would have revised the ballot law so as not to apply to candidates running for president or vice president. The measure died in the Democratic-run House. Paul's camp maintains that states don't have authority to restrict ballot access for federal elections. A Republican with considerable tea party support, Paul maintains that federal law governs federal elections." (Emphasis added.) ...

... CW: States' Rights Forever. Except when inconvenient.

News Ledes

Bloomberg News: "Employers added 217,000 jobs in May to push U.S. payrolls past their pre-recession peak and the jobless rate held at an almost six-year low as the economy gained traction. The advance was broad-based and followed a 282,000 gain in April, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington.... Unemployment in May was unchanged at 6.3 percent."

AP: "Police say a Seattle Pacific University student on Thursday disarmed a lone gunman who entered a building and shot four people. A hospital spokeswoman says one man has died and three other people are injured, one critically." ...

     ... An UPDATED AP story, naming the alleged gunman, is here.

AP: "A man suspected in the shooting deaths of three Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the wounding of two others in a rare case of gun violence in eastern Canada was arrested early Friday, police said."

AP: "An American tourist has been detained in North Korea for allegedly committing an unspecified crime, the country's official news agency reported Friday."