The Commentariat -- Feb. 3, 2014

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.... In 2012, the top 5 percent of earners were responsible for 38 percent of domestic consumption, up from 28 percent in 1995, the researchers found. Even more striking, the current recovery has been driven almost entirely by the upper crust...." ...

... My Yacht Is Bigger than Your Yacht. Matt Yglesias on why consumer inequality is bad for innovation: "... thinking up creative ways for people to show off isn't really the same thing as dreaming up whole new product categories that you can target at the mass market. When the mass market goes away, the smart play is for everyone to focus on branding and exclusivity and zero-sum status competition games rather than on broadly useful new ideas."

NEW. Dominic Rushe of the Guardian: "Janet Yellen was sworn in as the first woman to head the Federal Reserve on Monday, ascending to the top job at the central bank at a time when the US economy seems on a firmer footing but investors are worrying about China and other emerging markets." ...

... Ben White, et al., of Politico: Janet Yellen takes over as chair of the Federal Reserve today; now she must learn to deal with a Congress & a press corps eager to trip her up.

Paul Krugman: "The Republican response to the State of the Union was delivered by Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican representative from Washington — and it was remarkable for its lack of content.... So was ["Bette from Spokane"] the best story Ms. McMorris Rodgers could come up with? The answer, probably, is yes, since just about every tale of health reform horror the G.O.P. has tried to peddle has similarly fallen apart once the details were revealed. The truth is that the campaign against Obamacare relies on misleading stories at best, and often on outright deceit.... conservative politicians aren't just deceiving their constituents; they're also deceiving themselves. Right now, Republican political strategy seems to be to stall on every issue, and reap the rewards from Obamacare's inevitable collapse. Well, Obamacare isn't collapsing -- it's recovering pretty well from a terrible start."

Benjamin Bell of ABC News: "President Obama's tenure is becoming 'increasingly lawless' with his embrace of executive orders, which are 'creating a dangerous trend which is contrary to the Constitution,' House Budget Committee Chair Rep. Paul Ryan said today on 'This Week.' ... Despite his criticism, Ryan dismissed the idea of impeaching the president...." ...

... CW: Yo, Paulie. Jamelle Bouie of the Daily Beast: "The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara keeps a tally of every executive order from every president. And where does Obama rank compared to other post-World War II presidents? Second from the bottom.... Since taking control of the House in 2011, Republicans have committed themselves to blockading as much of the administration as possible.... Their only concern -- their only goal -- was to damage Obama's credibility and keep the White House from scoring any points." ...

     ... CW: To his credit, Stephanopoulos brought up the other presidents' orders during the segment, & Ryan responded that it wasn't the number but the scope of Obama's orders. ...

...Yo, Paulie. Matt Yglesias: "Lincoln, for example, issued the Emancipation Proclamation as an extension of his war powers as commander in chief. It was kind of a big deal. FDR took the United States off the gold standard with Executive Order 6102, an extremely envelope-pushing reading of a World War I trade measure. FDR also used executive authority to close all banks across the country as part of an effort to stabilize the economy. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus." ...

     ... CW: Stephanopoulos didn't call Ryan on that. Wasn't in the script. Although George should have known enough to follow up since it's been in the news a lot, thanks to fake historian & professional hand-wringer Jon Meacham. ...

     ... Meacham, BTW, has said he was sorry. AP: "Jon Meacham wrote in an email Thursday to The Associated Press that he was at best 'imprecise' and at worst 'just plain wrong.'" ...

... P.S. Here are some of the "increasingly lawless," unconstitooshunal executive actions Obama is taking. Why, just last Friday, Josh Hicks of the Washington Post reports, "Obama issued a memorandum ... saying that federal agencies should not look unfavorably upon job-seekers who are unemployed or facing financial difficulties.... Also that day, the White House announced it had secured promises from more than 300 companies that agreed to not show bias against applicants who have been out of work for more than six months." The "scope" there is pretty horrifying, isn't it, Paulie?

Thomas Ferraro & Sandra Maler of Reuters: "U.S. President Barack Obama still wants to hear from other federal agencies before deciding whether to accept the State Department's finding that the Keystone XL pipeline would have no major impact on climate change..., White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said...."

Seven-Minute "Justice." Eli Saslow of the Washington Post: "While Congress and the White House make promises about the future of undocumented immigrants..., one of the 57 overwhelmed immigration courts across the country ... is the place where decisions must be made -- day after day, case after case." In the Arlington, Virginia, courtroom, the judge "had an average of seven minutes per case."

New Jersey News

Victoria Cavaliere of Reuters: Assemblyman John Wisniewski, "a New Jersey Democrat leading a probe of the bridge traffic scandal that has engulfed Governor Chris Christie said on Sunday he has seen no evidence to support claims that the governor had been aware of the apparently politically motivated traffic jams as they happened." ...

... Margaret Hartmann of New York with more "good news" for Christie. ...

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "On Monday, the first of what are most likely thousands of pages of documents subpoenaed by the [New Jersey] State Legislature from prominent members of the Christie administration were to be turned over to investigators.... One of the people subpoenaed, Christina Genovese Renna, who worked in the Christie administration, has resigned, she said in a statement issued by her lawyer on Sunday. Ms. Renna, whose last day was Friday, had reported to [Bridget] Kelly...."

Paul Krugman: "... what some of us suspected all along was that Christie didn't yell at people because he was a get-results kind of guy; he yelled at people because he had anger management issues. And his office's bizarre screed against David Wildstein, his former ally now turned enemy, confirms that diagnosis.... If the official Christie position 'This guy is scum. Everyone has always known that he was scum, since he was a teenager. And that's why I appointed him to a major policy position'? What's remarkable here, actually, is how many pundits were taken in by the Christie persona."

Scott Raab of Esquire: "[Sunday] was meant to be Chris Christie's Super Bowl party, literally. Instead, the Hindenburg, engulfed by flames, is crashing right before our eyes.... By attacking Wildstein via e-mail with a popgun -- 'He was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior,' one of the e-mail's bullet points, is, hands-down, the most hilarious and hapless political attack ever launched -- Christie calls further attention to his own thug life in office."

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post writes a positive story about Christie's high school days & how fondly his friends remember that young Chris -- after seeking their advice -- stopped his father from suing to keep a better catcher off the school's baseball team, even tho that meant Chris spent most of his senior year on the bench (or in the dugout -- whatever). Also, after high school, Christie kept up with his school friends, which they also think is very, very nice. ...

     ... Jonathan Chait is not impressed: "Well, he had been the starting catcher on the baseball team, and a better player transferred to the school and took his starting spot, and Christie decided not to sue to keep the kid out of school.... The story notes that Christie did not reject this idea out of hand.... Nor did he reject it on moral grounds. Rather, he simply decided it was too risky.... This, concludes the Post, is evidence of Christie's generosity of spirit.... We await future reports of other episodes displaying Christie's lack of vindictiveness. Like the time some dude cut in front of him in line at the deli, and Christie was going to have him beaten within an inch of his life but decided not to because there were security cameras." ...

     ... CW: That is, Christie is only a bully & a conniving backstabber when he thinks he can get away with it. What neither Fahrenthold nor Chait mentions is this: since the new catcher was a better player than Christie, presumably he improved the team's performance. I thought the whole idea of team sports was that everybody does what's best for the team.

Josh Marshall of TPM on why Christie "is toast even if he's innocent." Marshall runs down Christie's defenses, & reminds us that the defenses sound as bad as accusations.

Superbowl News

President Obama endures another attack by interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox "News," the network that carried the game:

... Margaret Hartmann: "You'll never guess what the Fox News anchor wanted to talk about: Obamacare, Benghazi, and the IRS scandal. As O'Reilly interrupted and scoffed at any answers he didn't like (almost all of them), the president made some jabs at his employer. After saying O'Reilly's assertions were proven inaccurate in 'multiple hearings,' Obama added, 'these kinds of things keep on surfacing in part because you and your TV station will promote them.'" Plus a tweet from Hillary Clinton. ...

... Marc Ambinder in the Week: "O'Reilly's questions were grossly, wholly ridiculous. They don't exist as legitimate questions except in the way that they justify the masturbatory self-indulgence of Fox News' elite worldview, which increasingly, if not entirely, is self-pitying. These questions exist because if they didn't, our world view would fall apart. Worst presidential interview ever." ...

... CW: I respectfully disagree with Ambinder. In O'Reilly's 2011 Superbowl interview, he interrupted the President 48 times. (In fairness, O'Reilly interrupted Obama numerous times yesterday, but not 48):

#boycottcoke. Elias Isquith of Salon: "Coca-Cola's multilingual Super Bowl ad is driving Twitter xenophobes crazy. Apparently singing 'America the Beautiful' in multiple languages is worthy of a boycott." Here's the "offending" ad:

     ... Tom Kludt of TPM with more outrage from monolingual conservatives. ...

     ... Ian Crouch of the New Yorker failed to notice how "unAmerican" the Coke ad was: "After hours of jingoistic and military-heavy pre-game festivities on Fox, in which the network implored viewers at home and around the world to recognize the might and greatness of America, Coke managed to evoke patriotism in just a minute, with a multilingual version of 'America, the Beautiful.'" Well, the New Yorker. 'Nuff said.

You can watch the full Seinfeld episode of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" here; an ad ran during the Superbowl halftime.

Dylan Then. "Advertising signs that con you....":

Dylan Now. "Because we believe in the zoom and the roar and the thrust..., we will build your car":

News Ledes

New York Times: "Even as the international effort to destroy Syria's vast chemical weapons stockpile lags behind schedule, a similar American-backed campaign carried out under a cloak of secrecy ended successfully last week in another strife-torn country, Libya. The United States and Libya in the past three months have discreetly destroyed what both sides say were the last remnants of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi's lethal arsenal of chemical arms."

AFP: " US Secretary of State John Kerry came under further attack Monday by Israeli hawks who accuse him of manipulating the threat of an economic boycott to pressure Israel into peace concessions. The latest war of words between the two allies erupted Saturday after Kerry warned that Israel was facing a growing campaign of delegitimization which would likely worsen if peace talks with the Palestinians collapsed."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 2, 2014

AP: "With yet another obstacle removed for the Keystone XL pipeline, opponents of the project are pressing forward with a lawsuit, public protests and an effort to inject the issue into the November midterm elections."

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), in a Washington Post op-ed, on why he is retiring from Congress.

Steve Mufson & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Labor leaders who have spent months lobbying unsuccessfully for special protections under the Affordable Care Act warned this week that the White House's continued refusal to help is dampening union support for Democratic candidates in this year's midterm elections. Leaders of two major unions, including the first to endorse Obama in 2008, said they have been betrayed by an administration that wooed their support for the 2009 legislation with promises to later address the peculiar needs of union-negotiated insurance plans that cover millions of workers." ...

... The New York Times Editors note that the Republican health insurance "reform" plan sucks. They explain the many reasons why.

Dear John Roberts, et al.: Be careful what you wish for. Matea Gold & Dan Keating of the Washington Post: "An unexpected legacy of Citizens United: more money to finance the GOP's intraparty war.... Republicans are now far more likely than Democrats to field attacks by independent groups in their primaries. In 2012, super PACs and nonprofit groups reported spending nearly $36 million in GOP congressional primaries, compared with less than $10 million in congressional Democratic primaries, according to a Washington Post analysis.... The attacks by the GOP's tea party flank are spurring a financial arms race, as major center-right groups and business organizations step forward to bolster incumbents.... Many of the conservative groups active in elections this cycle predated Citizens United, but they relied largely on traditional political action committees, which can only accept donations of up to $5,000. In the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court said that corporations could spend unlimited sums on political activity." ...

... Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Insurgent conservatives seeking to pull the Republican Party to the right raised more money last year than the groups controlled by the party establishment, whose bulging bank accounts and ties to major donors have been their most potent advantage in the running struggle over the party's future, according to new campaign disclosures and interviews with officials."

Returning to the Scene of the Crime. Again. Maureen Dowd uses Rand Paul's comments about the Clintons to write about -- the Clintons.

Eric Lipton & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Federal ethics rules are intended to limit lobbying by former senior officials within one year after they leave the government. Yet even after the ethics rules were revised in 2007 following a lobbying scandal, more than 1,650 congressional aides have registered to lobby within a year of leaving Capitol Hill, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from LegiStorm, an online database that tracks congressional staff members and lobbying. At least half of those departing aides, the analysis shows, faced no restrictions at all."

Many thanks to contributor Janice for this!

... Tom Paxton remembers (link fixed) Pete Seeger, in a Washington Post op-ed. CW: I think this is the "Rainbow Quest" session to which Paxton refers:

Jaweed Kaleem in the Huffington Post: "'As Americans tune in to the Super Bowl this year, fully half of fans -- as many as 70 million Americans -- believe there may be a twelfth man on the field influencing the outcome,' Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert Jones said in a statement. 'Significant numbers of American sports fans believe in invoking assistance from God on behalf of their favorite team, or believe the divine may be playing out its own purpose in the game.'" Via Steve Benen. CW: Yup. If you believe in a god who is paying attention to you -- he's gonna find out if you're naughty or nice (oh, that's Santa Claus) -- it's perfectly reasonable to suspect that nosy parker cares about football results, too.

Local News

Mike Allen & Maggie Haberman of the Politico: "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after a low-key initial response to Friday's explosive allegations about his involvement in a bridge-closing scandal, mounted an aggressive defense late Saturday afternoon, attacking The New York Times and a former political ally in an email to friends and allies...." The e-mail is here. CW: It's sort of hilarious; it reads like the "and you're one, too" stuff of junior high kids. Oh, wait, that's what it is. One bit of "evidence" Christie cites: one of Wildstein's high school teachers said Wildstein was "deceptive." ...

... The New York Times story, by Kate Zernicke, is here. Here's a fun bit: "The governor was booed at a Super Bowl event in Times Square on Saturday, where he sat on stage with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York. While the other three beamed and waved, Mr. Christie looked down.... At ceremony's end, reporters pushed toward the stage and Mr. Christie stepped to the back. When coaxed to the front by Ms. Brewer to pose for a photo, reporters asked Mr. Christie a barrage of questions." ...

... CW: As we now know, thanks to Christie, he was a big athletic star & class president in high school, while Wildstein (even his social studies teacher despised him!) was one of those kids you can't remember at the reunion. Now that schmuck Wildstein has ruined the former champ's big Superbowl moment.

It is true that I met David in 1977 in high school. He's a year older than me. David and I were not friends in high school. We were not even acquaintances in high school. I knew who David Wildstein was.... We didn't travel in the same circles in high school. You know, I was the class president and athlete. I don't know what David was doing during that period of time. -- Chris Christie, during his January marathon press conference

If you can't translate that, you didn't go to high school. Or grade school. -- Constant Weader

     ... Some interesting context from Prof. Brian Murphy, writing in TPM.

If evolution was real, it would still be happening: Apes would be turning into humans today. -- Rita Rourke, Sabine Parish, Louisiana, teacher ...

"Education" in Bobby Jindal Country. Nicole Flatow of Think Progress: "A Louisiana teacher who taught her sixth grade class that evolution is 'impossible' and that the bible is '100 percent true' ridiculed a Buddhist student during class and announced that those who don't believe in god are 'stupid,' according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana. When the child's parents reported the incidents, the Sabine Parish superintendent allegedly told them 'this is the Bible Belt,' and asked whether the child ... could either change his faith or transfer to a school where 'there are more Asians.'" Read the whole story; it isn't only one teacher who's teaching Bible study classes in this public school district. Via Steve Benen.

News Ledes

New York Post: New York City "Mayor [Bill] de Blasio received an ominous letter last week that threatened a 'nuclear attack against New York City,' the same day five hotels near the Super Bowl site received similar mail, police sources said Sunday."

New York Times: "Philip Seymour Hoffman, perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired American actor of his generation, who gave three-dimensional nuance to a wide range of sidekicks, villains and leading men on screen and embraced some of the theater's most burdensome roles on Broadway, died Sunday at an apartment in Greenwich Village. He was 46. The death, apparently from a drug overdose, was confirmed by the police."

AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's warning against a growing boycott movement against the Jewish state should peace talks with the Palestinians fail, saying the stance undermined Israel's legitimacy and the chances of reaching a peace agreement. The latest brush-up with the United States comes as Israel is negotiating with the Palestinians against a backdrop of increasing international pressure to reach a deal, coupled with a growing call for boycotting Israel over its settlements in areas it captured in the 1967 Middle East war." ...

... AFP: "The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories criticised Israel's demolition of 36 homes in the Jordan Valley and urged a halt to such actions in the West Bank."

Los Angeles Times: "Austrian actor Maximilian Schell, 83, whose portrayal of a defense attorney in the 1961 drama Judgment at Nuremberg' earned him an Academy Award, died Friday in a hospital in Innsbruck...."

Washington Post: "At 7:25 a.m. Sunday, a raw, cloudy and damp morning, Groundhog Phil saw his shadow in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pa. The appearance of Phil's shadow means winter will extend well into March, according to folklore." CW: Also, the Easter Bunny will leave you chocolate candy icons of himself. And climate change is fake.

The Commentariat -- Feb. 1, 2014

Internal links removed.

White House: "In this week’s address, the President discusses the goals he laid out in the State of the Union address to expand opportunity":

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The State Department released a report on Friday that could pave the way toward President Obama's approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the project concludes that approval or denial of the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, is unlikely to prompt oil companies to change the rate of their extraction of carbon-heavy tar sands oil, a State Department official said." The report is here. ...

... Joshua Green of Bloomberg News: "The State Department concluded that the project would create 42,100 temporary jobs during the two-year construction period. But the report says once the pipeline enters service, it will support only 50 U.S. jobs -- 35 permanent employees and 15 temporary contractors." CW: It probably already has created 42K temporary jobs -- for lobbyists.

Jake Sherman of Politico: "House Republicans are again considering tying a debt limit increase to the cancellation of a piece of Obamacare. During a closed meeting at their retreat here Friday morning, rank and file Republicans seemed to be gravitating toward trying a lift in the borrowing limit to the cancellation of the the so-called risk corridors and reinsurance fund in Obamacare." ...

... Jonathan Weisman & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "The House Republican leadership's call on Thursday to provide legal status for 11 million undocumented workers, and possible citizenship for those brought to this country as children, caused sharp division within the party even as it provided a starting point for negotiations with Democrats on overhauling the nation's immigration system."...

... Best Explanation Anywhere of GOP Strategy. Charles Pierce: "The Republican party's congressional delegations went on 'retreat' this year in order to produce plan-like products that allegedly will address the nation's problems. Now that the crayons all have been put away, and nap time is over, the party has produced a plan-like product with 'Immigration' written in big red letters across the top of the first page, one that has absolutely no chance of passage and also will get many people in the party throwing rocks at each other.... And it's going to work," thanks to the "courtier press." ...

... Steve M. elaborates: "In other words, let's make a show of support for immigration reform, but let's not try to pass an actual law that will achieve it. Oh, and let's say that our unwillingness to pass a law is the fault of President Obama and the rest of the evil Democrats.... Even Republicans who favor the reforms don't really care about immigration except as it relates to vote-getting. They're asking themselves, is it worse to risk tea party primary challenges by floating an immigration proposal, or risk alienating Hispanics by sticking to a hard line? -- and they're trying to thread the needle, by at least seeming to care. But this is the sort of thing Republicans are doing on several fronts.... Republicans care about winning. They don't care about governing or legislating, except if as a way to transfer more money from ordinary people to the rich.... Don't take it seriously, because Republicans don't." ...

... Weisman & Parker (linked above): "On the Affordable Care Act, conservatives [at the GOP retreat] pushed the party to coalesce around a single alternative to the law that would come to a House vote this year. Moderates resisted that position over concern that it would open a line of Democratic attack that would deflect from what they see as the failings of the president's health care law." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Yeah, it's those Republican 'moderates' who understand the GOP must embrace public-sector activism and stand for 'something' rather than 'No' who are the ones afraid to embrace an Obamacare replacement proposal. Perhaps they understand a side-by-side comparison of whatever Republicans can agree upon with Obamacare might not go all that well. In any event, it seems the GOP is moving crabwise towards an agenda based on the default position of 'saying no' on everything." ...

... Brian Beutler of Salon: "A lot of people have made a lot of relevant points about 'Bette' -- whose Obamacare 'horror story' figured prominently in the official GOP response to the State of the Union address delivered by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash: Greg Sargent notes that Bette's story reflects the GOP's reluctance to help constituents navigate the law, even if it means making their lives worse; Steve Benen adds that it's a sad comment on the GOP's Obamacare 'train wreck' narrative that they have such a hard time finding horror stories that stand up to scrutiny.... I think I’d take each of them one step further....

Take Bette: The reason she didn't visit the Washington state health exchange was basically #OBUMMER. 'I wouldn't go on that Obama website at all,' she said.... This started years ago. Republicans told Bette and others ... that they'd face death panels and rationing boards. That their options would be unaffordable, and irredeemable. That the exchange sites would make their personal information vulnerable to hackers and that creepy Uncle Sam would sexually violate them. They said all this in the hope that people like Bette wouldn't give the law a fair shake, then turned around and feigned outrage on their behalf when the plan worked.

** Charles Blow: "If one of the overt Democratic lines of attack against Republicans is that Republicans are conducting a war on women, one of the low-simmering, implicit lines of attack from Republicans is that Democrats are conducting a war on men, or at least traditional views of masculinity.... They are selling the right wing as the last refuge of real men.... Portraying Republican men as manly and Democratic ones as effete has been a consistent line of attack against post-Bill Clinton Democratic presidential candidates. The problem with having your message powered by machismo is that it reveals what undergirds such a stance: misogyny and chauvinism. The masculinity for which they yearn draws its meaning and its value from juxtaposition with a lesser, vulnerable, narrowly drawn femininity." ...

... (CW: Yes, there is a connection.) Dan Friedman of the New York Daily News: "U.S. Capitol Police closed a brief probe into Rep. Michael Grimm's threat Tuesday night against NY1 reporter Michael Scotto after Scotto declined to press charges against Grimm.... Fox News on Thursday quoted an unnamed congressional source who said the U.S. Attorney for the District Columbia had looked into the incident and in theory could pursue a case against Grimm even if Scotto declined to press charges. But there is no indication such action is in the cards."

Jon Stewart's interview with Nancy Pelosi (Thursday) is pretty interesting. It's a three-parter, which you can view here.

Jake Tapper of CNN interviewed President Obama Thursday, with the interview to air Friday. The full transcript is here. There are a buncha clips here. ...

... Ron Brownstein of the National Journal explains "how Obama can go it alone." Most interesting -- to me, the Constant Weader! -- observation: "The problem is that implementation of big initiatives hasn't been exactly a strong suit for Obama, only the third sitting senator ever elected president. 'He has the policymaking instincts of a senator more than the administrative instincts of an executive,' says Donald F. Kettl, dean of the University of Maryland public-policy school.Exhibit A in Kettl's case is the disastrous rollout of the health care website...." ...

... CW: During a primary debate on January 15, 2008, the moderator asked candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards & Obama what their greatest weakness was. Both Clinton & Edwards delivered hilariously self-serving phony answers, but Obama said "that he loses papers and has asked his staff not to give him things until a few minutes before he needs them." Maybe we should have paid more attention to that. At the time, I saw that as a sign Obama could delegate, but maybe what it meant was that he couldn't manage a big operation. ...

... Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "President Barack Obama has said his director of national intelligence, James Clapper, ought to have been 'more careful' in Senate testimony about surveillance that Clapper later acknowledged was untruthful following disclosures by Edward Snowden. But Obama signaled continued confidence in Clapper...."

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "On Friday, supporters of the president launched the Barack H. Obama Foundation, an administration-blessed organization to find the money and address for an eventual Obama library. As expected, the foundation is led by Marty Nesbitt, a Chicago investor and Obama friend, along with J. Kevin Poorman, a businessman, and Julianna Smoot, the president's go-to fund-raiser."

David Morgan of Reuters: "At least two U.S. states [-- Kentucky & Rhode Island --] running their own Obamacare health insurance exchanges expect new insurers to enter their marketplaces and bolster competition in 2015, officials said on Friday."

Stupid Spy Moves. Luke Harding of the Guardian: "New video footage has been released for the first time of the moment Guardian editors destroyed computers used to store top-secret documents leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Under the watchful gaze of two technicians from the British government spy agency GCHQ, the journalists took angle-grinders and drills to the internal components, rendering them useless and the information on them obliterated":

... The Guardian publishes an excerpt of Harding's book on Ed Snowden.

Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: Friday was Ben Bernanke's last day on the job.

Krugman v. Brooks, Ctd. Jonathan Chait on the Bowles-Simpson Catfood Commission: "In his column today, David Brooks urges President Obama to build on [what Brooks reckons is the success of BoSimps] by creating 'a group of Simpson-Bowles-type commissions -- with legislators, mayors, governors and others brought together to offer concrete proposals on mobility issues from the beginning to the end of the life span.' ... It did succeed in creating an aspirational model for centrist pundits to tout. Brooks alone has cited Bowles and Simpson in nearly two dozen columns.... What about a Bowles-Simpson commission for everyday life decisions? The husband says we should spend $5000 to repair our car, the wife says we can't afford it. Then they hire a Bowles-Simpson commission to tell them they should reject that debate and instead ride around on an invisible unicorn."

... Paul Krugman: "But it's actually much worse than that.... BoSimps completely failed to solve the problem they were supposedly addressing, but were quite effective at worsening the policy response to the real problems they chose to ignore." ...

... CW: Notably, Krugman never mentions Brooks. He uses Chait for the one-punch, & he follows on with the two-punch. Brooks himself, I suspect, went to the basement of wherever he lives now & stuck another pin in his Krugman voodoo doll.

Local News

Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "In a letter released by his lawyer, the former [Port Authority] official David Wildstein ... described the order to close the lanes as 'the Christie administration's order' and said 'evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference' three weeks ago." The letter from Wildstein's lawyer is here. ...

     ... Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: In a statement issued late Friday, Christie denied Wildstein's allegations. ...

... Star-Ledger Editors: "Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor.... [David] Wildstein claims there is documentary proof that the governor has been lying. If this proves to be true, then the governor must resign or be impeached. Because it will show that everything he said at his famous two-hour press conference was a lie." ...

... Chris Gentilviso of the Huffington Post: "A few weeks after publicly defending New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani added a fresh thread to his thoughts on the controversy. In an interview with WABC radio's Geraldo Rivera..., Giuliani said it's 'fifty-fifty' that Christie was aware of fired aide Bridget Kelly's discussions that led to the lane closures." CW: Giuliani is still defending Christie. His "50-50" odds are a step in a version of the "your cat is on the roof" joke. ...

     ... OR, Maybe Not. Later Giuliani "clarified" his remarks, claiming "he '100% believes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is telling the truth and knew nothing about 'Bridgegate' until after the fact." CW: Sorry, Rudy. The cat's still dead. ...

     ... Update. Jose DelReal of Politico: AND Rudy weighs in again. CW: On this, he could be right. Guess he's still hoping for a Christie-Giuliani ticket.

... Matt Katz of WNYC: "The release of subpoenaed documents that exposed the Christie Administration's involvement in Bridgegate show how the Governor's Office has been keeping its decisions and expenditures quiet despite laws that require official business to be made public. Here's 18 ways Christie and his officials have blocked access to information." ...

... Tom Moran of the Star-Ledger: Christie "withholds public information he is legally required to reveal. He keeps secrets when the law says he must let the sunshine in. No New Jersey governor has ever been so secretive, and so disdainful of the need for open discussion in a democracy.... The arrogance is breathtaking." ...

... Update: Shawn Boburg of the Bergen Record: "Governor Christie's office has agreed to pay a high-powered attorney $650 per hour to represent it in a series of investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures. That's more than a 40 percent discount off attorney Randy Mastro's normal rate, he wrote in a letter to state officials, and 20 percent less than the average amount charged by attorneys at the New York office of his firm, Gibson Dunn. The terms of Mastro's agreement were laid out in documents released by the governor's office late Thursday in response to a public records request." ...

... Gail Collins on the escalating Christie scandal: "One thing's for sure -- this comes at a really good time for those of us who know nothing about football." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Six reasons Chris Christie is probably guilty."

Presidential Election 2012

Your Loss, America! Lady Ann Romney Still Bitter. Tom Kludt of TPM: But she's decided to be "polite and nice" & not say nasty things about President Obama:

News Lede

AP: "Amid severe drought conditions, California officials announced Friday they won't send any water from the state's vast reservoir system to local agencies beginning this spring, an unprecedented move that affects drinking water supplies for 25 million people and irrigation for 1 million acres of farmland."