The Commentariat -- July 12, 2013

Obama 1.0. Larry Gordon of the Los Angeles Times: "Janet Napolitano, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic.... Her appointment also means the 10-campus system will be headed by a woman for the first time in its 145-year history."

Paul Krugman on "libertarian populism," which "will surely be touted all over the airwaves and the opinion pages by the same kind of people who assured you, a few years ago, that Representative Paul Ryan was the very model of a Serious, Honest Conservative. So let me make a helpful public service announcement: It's bunk." Krugman explains what it is & why it's bunk.

Senator McConnell broke his word. The Republican leader has failed to live up to his commitments. He's failed to do what he said he would do -- move nominations by regular order except in extraordinary circumstances. I refuse to unilaterally surrender my right to respond to this breach of faith. -- Harry Reid, on the Senate floor yesterday ...

I ate shit on some of those nominees. -- Harry Reid, not on the Senate floor

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday afternoon scheduled several votes to end debate on a slew of executive branch nominees, including several staunchly opposed by Republicans. The procedural maneuver sets up a showdown with Republicans next week over the Senate's filibuster rule. Reid and other Democratic leaders urged colleagues in a private meeting earlier in the day to support changing the rule if Republicans blocked the nominees." ...

... Greg Sargent: "By filing cloture on all of them, Reid is giving Republicans one last chance to move on them, on the theory that if they fail to do so, it will help drive home to fellow Dems -- and the media, and the American people -- that they really have no choice but to hit the nuke button." ...

... Scott Lemieux in Lawyers, Guns & Money: "... a large part of me still has trouble believing that it isn't a bluff." ...

Macabre Mitch designs Harry Reid's tombstone. Try to get a little more tasteless, won't you, Mitch? You could, you know, put a date of death on it.... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "A tense and sometimes peevish back-and-forth between the leaders of both parties unfolded on the Senate floor throughout the day, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, accusing Mr. Reid of trying to do irreversible damage to an institution that in many ways still functions as it did when the Constitution was drafted." ...

     ... CW: Peters just lets McConnell's remark stand without challenge. A reporter who knew his subject would point out that "The first filibuster in U.S. Senate history began on March 5, 1841," nearly 54 years after "the Constitution was drafted." (Passive voice!) In fact, the principle difference between the way the Senate of the early Congresses functioned & the way it functions today is the employment of the filibuster for every damned vote. This really is an egregious bit of "reporting." ...

... Steve Benen: "McConnell would have the public believe that if the Senate is forced to vote up or down on executive branch nominees, without an opportunity for obstructionism, it would necessarily 'kill' the institution. And that's hopelessly crazy." ...

... Unusual Times. Ezra Klein: "So far as Reid is concerned, Republicans have already killed pretty much everything else the Democrats might want to do. When he's been confronted with the argument that Republicans might bring everything to a stop if Democrats change the rules, I'm told Reid's reply is sharp: 'And that would be different how?'" ...

... A Democratic Senate staffer sees the upside for Mitch: "But if you're McConnell ... wouldn't you want Reid to nuke you? It helps you raise money with the base, it means you don't have to negotiate these nominations that your base doesn't like, and it leaves the door wide open to nuke us back -- and worse -- if they take over." ...

New York Times Editors: "... the House has retreated from the national mainstream into a cave of indifference and ignorance." ...

... Pete Kasperowicz & Erik Wasson of the Hill: "The House approved a stripped-down farm bill Thursday in a tight 216-208 vote, giving a huge boost to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other Republican leaders after the embarrassing failure of an earlier bill last month. The bill passed despite a veto threat from President Obama, objections from most Democrats and opposition from farm groups and conservative organizations.... Only 12 Republicans voted against the bill, while no Democrats supported it." ...

What we have carefully done is exclude some extraneous pieces. -- Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)

Kids going to bed hungry at night in this nation is extraneous? -- Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)

Extraneous? For almost 50 years, food stamps have been part of the annual farm bill, and the $80 billion spent on the program keeps tens of millions of Americans, about half of them children, from going hungry. -- Dana Milbank

... Louie Can't Handle the Truth. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Thursday objected over and over again in order to keep statements out of the congressional record that accused Republicans of hurting working families by taking food stamps out of the farm bill." ...

... Kevin Drum: "Because, really, what's the point of being a modern Republican if you can't cut back on food aid for the poor during a period of extended high unemployment?" ...

... Jonathan Chait of New York: "The existence of farm subsidies is insane, and the fact that a party that hates government so much it engages in a continuous guerilla war of shutdowns, manufactured currency crises, and outright sabotage can't eliminate it may be the most telling indicator of the GOP's venality. They only hate necessary government spending. Totally unjustifiable spending is fine with them." ...

... CW: Excellent analysis by Patrick in today's Comments. But you don't have to be as smart as Patrick to be repulsed by "representatives of the people" who would let the people starve. The House's antipathy to food stamps ties in with Krugman's debunking of "libertarian populism," linked above. White people need to eat, too.

The Constitution says a majority. It doesn't say the Hastert rule, or sometimes the Hastert rule, or when I feel like it the Hastert rule. It says the majority. And there are ways to achieve the majority that I hope they will pursue. -- Nancy Pelosi, teaching Constitution 101 to House GOPpers ...

... Brian Beutler of TPM: "... if there's a way to get [to immigration reform], the public will actually get clearer instructions from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi than anyone in the GOP. ...

We've got a broken system and it needs to be fixed. I made a strong case yesterday that it needs to be fixed. And that Republicans ought to be part of the solution. It's always in the party's best interest when we're doing the right thing for the country. -- John Boehner, Thursday

Perhaps Boehner will actually be able to deliver something. If not, he really will deserve the title of being of the weakest House Speakers in American history. -- Jed Lewison, Daily Kos ...

... Sideshow. Russell Berman & Molly Hooper of the Hill: "House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) are drafting legislation to provide a path to citizenship for immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents, their offices said Thursday. The bill, which a Cantor spokeswoman said is in its 'early stages,' would be the first House Republican proposal to address the status of illegal immigrants, but it would not go nearly as far as Democrats want. While the legislation resembles the DREAM Act that is part of the Senate immigration bill, aides said it would not be as broad."

... "Pass the Bill!" David Brooks takes down phony conservative objections to the Senate immigration bill. No, really, he does! ...

... "The Great Wall of Texas." Conservatives Glenn Hubbard & Tim Kane in the Atlantic: "Despite the cautionary tale of Rome, building walls, both literal and figurative, has remained a habit of great powers in decline -- the fateful course taken not only by Ming China, but also Soviet Russia, and even Great Britain.... The last thing we need is a wall."

Another Stupid House Protest Vote. Russell Berman of the Hill: "The House will vote next week to delay the implementation of both the employer and individual mandate in the healthcare law, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Thursday. Republicans are looking to seize on the Obama administration's decision last week to delay the employer mandate, the requirement that businesses provide healthcare to employees or pay fines." CW: of course the reason Obama delayed implementing the employer mandate is that it needs fixing & House Republicans won't vote for the fixes -- even fixes that would suit them.

Tal Kopan of Politico: "Asked why there is gridlock [in Washington], 51 percent of voters surveyed said it was because Republicans are determined to block Obama, while 35 percent said it was because the president lacks the skills to persuade congressional leaders to work together, a Quinnipiac poll out Friday morning found." CW: so 35 percent of Americans are ignorant or wilfully ignorant. That sounds about right.

William Neuman & Randal Archibold of the New York Times: "The United States is conducting a diplomatic full-court press to try to block Edward J. Snowden ... from finding refuge in Latin America, where three left-leaning governments that make defying Washington a hallmark of their foreign policies have publicly vowed to take him in.... But Washington is finding that its leverage in Latin America is limited just when it needs it most...." ...

... Ellen Barry of the New York Times: "Officials at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport said that Edward J. Snowden ... plans to meet with representatives of international human rights organizations at the airport on Friday afternoon, breaking his silence after spending nearly three weeks in the airport's transit zone." ...

... Will Englund of the Washington Post: "Human rights activists and lawyers here have received e-mailed invitations to a Friday afternoon meeting with fugitive Edward Snowden at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. The invitation, with Snowden's name on it, says he wants to discuss his future status. Several of those invited said they believe the 30-year-old former contractor for the National Security Agency, in hiding since leaking classified information about U.S. surveillance programs, may have decided to seek asylum in Russia." ...

... UPDATE. Miriam Elder of the Guardian: "The US whistleblower Edward Snowden has said he is requesting political asylum in Russia in a meeting with human rights activists at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Snowden said he would stay in Russia until he could win safe passage to Latin America, according to Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch, who was at the meeting.... The Kremlin said on Friday that it had not yet received Snowden's new asylum request." ...

... Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "A National Security Agency internal review of damage caused by the former contractor Edward Snowden has focused on a particular area of concern: the possibility that he gained access to sensitive files that outline espionage operations against Chinese leaders and other critical targets.... The possibility that intelligence about foreign targets might be made public has stirred anxiety about the potential to compromise the agency's overseas collection efforts. U.S. officials fear that further revelations could disclose specific intelligence-gathering methods or enable foreign governments to deduce their own vulnerabilities." ...

... Glenn Greenwald, et al., of the Guardian: "Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian. The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.... Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a 'team sport'." ...

... Dominic Rushe of the Guardian: "Yahoo has called on Fisa, the secretive US surveillance court, to let it publish its legal argument against a case that gave the government "powerful leverage" in persuading tech companies to co-operate with a controversial data-gathering program. In a court filing first reported by San Jose Mercury News the company argues the release would demonstrate that Yahoo 'objected strenuously' in a key 2008 case after the National Security Agency (NSA) demanded Yahoo customers' information." ...

... Jim Finkle of Reuters: "The annual Def Con hacking convention has asked the U.S. federal government to stay away this year for the first time in its 21-year history, saying Edward Snowden's revelations have made some in the community uncomfortable about its presence.... The government had previously always been welcome at Def Con, where hard core hackers have held tongue-in-cheek 'spot the Fed' contests to identify government officials who often stick out in the colorful crowd."

I'm not a fan of secession. -- Sen. Rand Paul, clarifying his views ...

... Howard Fineman: "In an interview with The Huffington Post, Sen. Rand Paul stoutly defended an aide who, as a radio shock jock in South Carolina, praised John Wilkes Booth, heaped scorn on Abraham Lincoln and wore a ski mask emblazoned with the stars and bars of the Confederate Battle Flag. Paul (R-Ky.) stressed that he opposed such views, many of which have been recanted by the Senate aide, Jack Hunter, who co-wrote Paul's first book in 2010 and who is now his social media adviser in Washington."

Frank Rich on Obama & Egypt, Eliot Spitzer, immigration reform & Rick Perry.

Local News

Kevin Roose of New York on Washington, D.C., city council's decision to establish a minimum "living wage" despite WalMart's strongarm attempt to intimidate them: "It would have been easy for D.C.'s city council to bow to Walmart's threat, repeal or soften the minimum-wage hike, and brag to constituents about their job-creating success. Instead, they made a brave, values-driven decision about what kinds of jobs they wanted in D.C. and set policy accordingly. That's the right of every municipality, and it's an impulse that should be exercised much more often."

Michael Grynbaum & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "After a four-day petitioning blitz, Eliot Spitzer turned in 27,000 signatures Thursday night to claim a spot on the Democratic primary ballot for New York City comptroller. Mr. Spitzer collected nearly as many signatures as Anthony D. Weiner has for his mayoral candidacy, 30,000, but Mr. Weiner had weeks, not days, to conduct his petitioning operation.... The sizable number of signatures collected by Mr. Spitzer is a raw demonstration of what an independently wealthy candidate can achieve in a short time -- Mr. Spitzer was said to have paid hundreds of dollars a day to his petitioners...."

Chris Tomlinson of the AP: "This time when the Texas Senate takes up tough new abortion restrictions, the chamber's top Republican is determined not to let anything -- or anyone -- derail a vote. The Senate's leader, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, has scheduled a vote for Friday on the same restrictions on when, where and how women may obtain abortions in Texas that failed to become law after a Democratic filibuster and raucous protesters were able to run out the clock on an earlier special session."

Alexander Burns of Politico: "Suddenly under legal and political siege, [Virginia Gov. Bob] McDonnell is the subject of one of the swiftest downfalls in recent memory: once known as a spotlessly clean, law-and-order politician, the governor stands accused of questionable financial dealings that range from the tacky to the jaw-dropping." ...

... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) ... has no business continuing in office." Marcus runs down some of Bob & Maureen's excellent gifts.

News Ledes

Washington Post: John Franklin Riggs, 46, an Eastern Shore fisherman, swam 5 hours against the tide & currents to reach the shore & get help to rescue his family after their boat capsized in the Chesapeake Bay. Quite a story.

New York Times: "Amar G. Bose, the visionary engineer, inventor and billionaire entrepreneur whose namesake company, the Bose Corporation, became synonymous with high-quality audio systems and speakers for home users, auditoriums and automobiles, died on Friday at his home in Wayland, Mass. He was 83."

AP: "A new 977-count indictment filed Friday provides a numbing look at what prosecutors say was 10 years of captivity for the three women in suspect Ariel Castro's home in a rough Cleveland neighborhood. Among the most serious charges: that he caused the death of one of his victims' fetuses by punching and starving her."

Orlando Sentinel: "The jury in the George Zimmerman murder trial began deliberations this afternoon to determine whether he is guilty of murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin."

New York Times: " Hundreds of thousands of Egyptian Islamists and other supporters of Mohamed Morsi ... filled public squares in Cairo and other cities on Friday in an intensified campaign aimed at returning him to power. The United States also dialed up its criticism, calling on Egypt's interim authorities to release Mr. Morsi."

AP: "A former manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison Thursday for orchestrating a $30 million bribery and kickback scheme that authorities called historic in scope. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan called Kerry F. Khan's conduct, which included wiretapped conversations about a planned sexual encounter with a teenage girl and the assault of his mistress by an associate in the Philippines, 'shocking, vicious and cruel.' The judge imposed a sentence four years longer than what prosecutors had recommended. Khan ... acknowledged pocketing bribes from corrupt contractors in exchange for certifying bogus or inflated invoices for services that were never provided."

The Commentariat -- July 11, 2013

Linda Greenhouse writes a marvelous post on Justice Ginsberg's lonely dissent the Fisher v. the University of Texas. If you tie Greenhouse's argument to Scott Lemieux's excellent little dissertation on the resurfacing of Dred Scott in the Shelby County v. Holder decision (which Greenhouse does not do), what you'll find is that, in the interest of compromise, in 2009 even the liberal justices on the Court tacitly endorsed Dred Scott. Dissent matters. ...

** ... Tom Edsall, in the New York Times, "To understand the depth of the damage that the Supreme Court's June 25 decision, Shelby County v. Holder, has inflicted on the voting rights of African-Americans, you have to measure it against the backdrop of the takeover of state legislatures, primarily in the South, by the Republican Party.... What stands out, looking at the data, is how effective, in purely political terms, the Republican's 'white' strategy has turned out to be at the state level."

The disclosures of the last few weeks have made it clear that a secret body of law authorizing secret surveillance overseen by a largely secret court has infringed on Americans' civil liberties and privacy rights without offering the public the ability to judge for themselves whether these broad powers are appropriate or necessary. -- Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) ...

... Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers tasked with overseeing national security policy say a pattern of misleading testimony by senior Obama administration officials has weakened Congress's ability to rein in government surveillance. Members of Congress say officials have either denied the existence of a broad program that collects data on millions of Americans or, more commonly, made statements that left some lawmakers with the impression that the government was conducting only narrow, targeted surveillance operations." CW: worth reading the fine print. ...

... CW: The Accidental Whistleblower. The Wallsten article crystallizes the utility of Snowden's revelations. While I won't disagree with those who argue that Snowden is more leaker than whistleblower, he is certainly a whistleblower to the extent that he helped expose the Obama administration's misleading & untruthful statements to Congress -- apparently during classified briefings as well as in public testimony. In reading over the various interviews Snowden has given, it isn't clear that he was aware of specific misstatements or perjurious Congressional testimony, so the whistleblowing aspect of his leaks appears to be somewhat inadvertent. The closest Snowden comes to acknowledging whistleblowing is at the point he tells Glenn Greenwald, "we were actually involved in misleading the public and misleading all publics, not just the American public, in order to create a certain mindset in the global consciousness, and I was actually a victim of that." In toto, his rationale for leaking the documents seems to be personal pique: "I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talked to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded." Nonetheless, one doesn't have to hold a whistleblower (or his obnoxious cheerleaders) in high esteem to appreciate the beneficial effects of -- in this case, at least some of -- his revelations.

Michael Scherer of Time: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to meet Thursday with his fellow Democrats to discuss taking extraordinary measures--commonly called the 'Nuclear Option'--that would do away with filibusters of some of the President's nominees facing Senate confirmation." Scherer provides a pretty good history on how Reid got to where he is (wherever that is).

Jonathan Chait: "... a hatred for lawmaking has emerged in the Obama years, first as a Republican tactic, and then as an apparently genuine belief system.... [Conservatives] Rich Lowry and William Kristol ... urge House Republicans to kill immigration reform, because passing it would involve legislating, and legislating is bad.... The hatred for legislating has gained a strong enough hold over the conservative mind as to render them unable to consider the merits of any bill at all." See also yesterday's Commentariat. ...

... Paul Waldman of the American Prospect: "... the lawmaking process -- you know, bills being written, introduced, voted on, that sort of thing -- has, in the House at least, been given over almost entirely to this legislative kabuki, where the point of the exercise isn't passing laws but making statements and taking positions. The current Congress is on pace to be the least productive in history when you measure by actual laws passed.... This reached its apogee when they took their 37th vote to repeal Obamacare a couple months back, in part because freshman Tea Party members hadn't had the chance to perform the ritual." ...

... Steve Benen catches a new pitch from Republicans desperate to think of an excuse (CW: other than "we hate Mexicans") to tank immigration reform: "Republicans have to kill immigration reform because of the delay in the employer mandate in health care reform. Does this make sense? I'm afraid not.... So why bother with this nonsense at all? Because Republicans aren't just looking for an excuse; they're also looking for a way to avoid blame.... Republicans are, in effect, hoping to say it's the White House's fault that they killed immigration reform...." ...

... Alec MacGillis of The New Republic: "... by attempting to sabotage a law of the land they reject [-- the Affordable Care Act --], Republicans have made it increasingly easy for their more outspoken members to argue against legislation many of their leaders support [-- like immigration reform]. No one said nullification isn't volatile stuff to play with." ...

... Dana Milbank on hearings the House GOP is conducting to get to the bottom of why Obama is delaying the employer mandate portion of the law they've voted 37 times to repeal: "In the case of the 'employer mandate,' even a number of liberals agree that it's a bad policy. Republicans could probably find support for repealing that provision, if they weren't hellbent on repealing the whole law. But it's so much more cathartic to call a hearing, assume a posture of umbrage, and use words such as 'calamity' and 'fiscal time bomb,' and 'socialism' and 'dictatorship.'" ...

... Russell Berman, et al., of the Hill: "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) urged their House Republican colleagues to pass immigration reform legislation in a closed-door meeting Wednesday, with the Speaker arguing his conference would be 'in a much weaker position' if it failed to act. A divided House Republican conference met for more than two hours in the basement of the Capitol to begin hashing out a response to the sweeping immigration bill the Senate passed last month." ...

... CW: I love this Politico headline: "GOP Reaching out to Dems on Immigration." Remember, Politico is not supposed to be the Onion. There actually is some substance to the article: Boehner is trying to get Pelosi to fall for the piecemeal plan. I guess that would be BORDER SECURITY but no path to citizenship. There are ways Pelosi could finesse this approach, but only if Boehner were as stupid as he sometimes seems. And he isn't.

... Michael O'Brien of NBC News: "Former President George W. Bush waded ever so gently into the fierce debate in Washington over immigration reform, urging lawmakers to reach a 'positive resolution' on the issue, and warning against disparaging immigrants."

Peter Kasperowicz of the Hill: "The House on Wednesday voted to block the enforcement of light bulb standards that many say would effectively force people to buy more expensive compact fluorescent bulbs.... The government was authorized to impose standards for bulbs under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, although Congress has delayed implementation of the standards for several years." ...

... Joan McCarter of Daily Kos: "Obamacare repeal? Check. Abortion? Check. Gee, what other pointless distraction could House Republicans return to for the pointless umpteenth time? Of course. Back from 2011, and 2012, ladies and gentlemen: The Light Bulb War of 2013.... Because gawd knows the American people don't need to be saving money on energy bills if it means that we have to live in the 21st century and acknowledge that saving energy and money is a good thing." ...

... Steve Benen: "Not long after President Obama took office -- it's interesting how the radicalization of the GOP just happened to coincide with the Democrat's inauguration -- Republican policymakers began looking at the Bush/Cheney-backed energy bill as an authoritarian scourge that sought to take away Americans' light bulbs. By 2012, Rush Limbaugh, Mitt Romney, and others insisted that the 2007 law 'bans' traditional incandescent bulbs, which in turn takes away consumers' choices. In case reality makes any difference at all, there is no 'ban' on the old bulbs, only a policy that makes bulbs more energy efficient -- a policy that's working." ...

... AND to Hell with Hungry People. Erik Wasson of the Hill: "The House will vote Thursday on a new farm bill in a major test for Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and the rest of the House GOP leadership team. The new bill includes updated subsidies for farmers but strips a reauthorization of the food stamp program that was included in the last farm bill."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "To the growing frustration of those who won a long and contentious internal administration debate over the issue of supplying arms [to the Syrian opposition], members of the Senate and House intelligence committees remain divided on the proposal to send light weapons and ammunition to the rebel forces. Although administration officials initially estimated that supplies would be distributed 'within weeks,' delivery has not begun. Briefings and personal calls to Capitol Hill this week from top-level officials, including Vice President Biden, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and CIA Director John O. Brennan, have failed to shake strongly held views, according to administration officials and committee members."

Did Mubarak Bureaucrats Take a Page from the GOP Playbook? Ben Hubbard & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "... since the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi, life has somehow gotten better for many people across Egypt: Gas lines have disappeared, power cuts have stopped and the police have returned to the street. The apparently miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role -- intentionally or not -- in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Mr. Morsi."

Winfield House, the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James.Business as Usual. Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "Barack Obama has rewarded some of his most active campaign donors with plum jobs in foreign embassies, with the average amount raised by recent or imminent appointees soaring to $1.8m per post, according to a Guardian analysis.... Career diplomats in Washington are increasingly alarmed at how [the practice] has grown. One former ambassador described it as the selling of public office. On Tuesday, Obama's chief money-raiser Matthew Barzun became the latest major donor to be nominated as an ambassador, when the White House put him forward as the next representative to the Court of St James's, a sought-after posting whose plush residence comes with a garden second only in size to that of Buckingham Palace....In total, nine sought-after postings in Europe, the Caribbean or Asia have been given to major donors in recent weeks, with a further three in France, Switzerland and Hungary earmarked to come soon." ...

... Alex Spillius of the London Telegraph writes a rather glowing -- and brief -- profile of Barzun.

A Friend of Ron Paul's. Molly Redden of The New Republic: "Recording a video of yourself loading a shotgun in a public park on the 4^th of July, in D.C., (as [Adam] Kokesh did), where carrying a loaded weapon is illegal, and posting it on YouTube for your 75,000 some-odd subscribers, then insisting to news outlets that the gun was real as police are investigating the video -- that's a pretty sure way to draw the U.S. Park Police to your house and wind up arrested, particularly if you're holding onto a controlled substance (hallucinogenic mushrooms) while in possession of a firearm.... Kokesh, a former Marine and activist of six years, is like a one-man libertarian Code Pink.... His closest flirtations with the establishment were his Ron Paul-sponsored run for Congress in 2010, a tape of interviews with Occupy D.C. that he edited for maximum idiocy, and a brief-lived show with the Russian-American network RT." See also Wednesday's News Ledes. ...

... CW: In fairness to Ron Paul, I should have written "Former Friend": Kokesh "had fallen out of favor with Paulites -- in part, by shoving his way onstage as Ron Paul was preparing to give a speech, alarming Paul's security detail," Redden writes. For those of you so enamored of the "right to be left alone" aspect of libertarianism, maybe Kokesh is a better exemplar than Ed Snowden, although Snowden himself claimed to be gun-crazed: "... that’s why I'm goddamned glad for the second amendment. Me and all my lunatic, gun-toting NRA compatriots would be on the steps of Congress before the C-Span feed finished." It is curious, isn't it, that quite a few people who say they want to be left alone also make extraordinary efforts to gain media attention?

Chuck Todd is not happy with All Zimmerman All the Time:

... Dumb Down the News! Matthew Cooper of the National Journal on MSNBC's declining ratings. One theory to explain the slide: the evening hosts are "too erudite, too sophisticated and too earnest to hook a wide swath of viewers."

Local News

Craig Jarvis, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Hours after Gov. Pat McCrory threatened to veto a controversial abortion bill unless his concerns about it were addressed, a House committee approved on Wednesday a new version of the bill that apparently answers the governor's questions.... The main changes were relaxing the proposed standards that abortion clinics would have to meet ... and allowing pregnant women to take abortion-inducing medicine at home after taking an initial dose at a clinic under a doctor's supervision. Most other provisions in the bill were left intact.... The new bill was worked into an unrelated bill and brought up in a House judiciary committee meeting without any advance notice."

... Under Turner's bill, "men taking the drugs would continue to be tested for heart problems, receive counseling about possible side effects and receive information about 'pursuing celibacy as a viable lifestyle choice.'"

Workers Trump WalMart. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "D.C. lawmakers gave final approval Wednesday to a bill requiring some large retailers to pay their employees a 50 percent premium over the city's minimum wage, a day after Wal-Mart warned that the law would jeopardize its plans in the city. The retail giant had linked the future of at least three planned stores in the District to the proposal. But its ultimatum did not change any legislators' minds. The 8 to 5 roll call matched the outcome of an earlier vote on the matter, taken before Wal-Mart's warning." ...

... MEANWHILE ... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "According to [multibillionaire] Charles Koch, the U.S. needs to get rid of the minimum wage, which he counts as a major obstacle to economic growth. On Wednesday, the Charles Koch Foundation launched a $200,000 media campaign in Wichita, Kansas, with a hint of expanding it elsewhere.... The Kansas ad does not specifically mention the minimum wage, but it does claim that Americans earning $34,000 a year should count themselves as lucky, because that puts them in the top 1 percent of the world. 'That is the power of economic freedom,' the ad concluded.... Although he deems low-wage workers part of a 'culture of dependency' on the government, Koch Industries is on the receiving end of oil subsidies, government contracts, and bailouts.... Koch maintained his and his brother's political efforts are not for their own benefit, but for the country's greater good." ...

... OR, as Digby rephrases "The Koch philosophy: You're richer than the average Somali so STFU."

Regina Medina of the Philadelphia Daily News: "Attorney General Kathleen Kane [D] is expected to announce Thursday that her office won't defend the state in a federal lawsuit that challenges Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage."

Do as I Say, Not as I Do. Amber Sutherland & Carl Campanile of the New York Post: "Eliot Spitzer failed to vote in last year's presidential election -- just four days after penning a column proclaiming 'Why I Am Voting for Barack Obama.' ... A spokeswoman said Spitzer couldn't make it to the polls because he had to high-tail it to San Francisco to serve as a paid co-anchor of Current TV's round-table election coverage.... Any voter can show up in person at the local board office to fill out an absentee ballot up to a day before the election, according to a Board of Elections spokeswoman." CW: evidently the redemptive exercise does not require a stint performing extraordinary public service, such as bothering to pick up & complete an absentee ballot. ...

... Nevertheless, Spitzer is ahead in the first poll taken since his announcement. ...

... Sex & the City. Gail Collins: "Nobody knows what drove Spitzer to jump in. Did Weiner's entry trigger a case of disgraced-politician competitiveness? Is he bored? Did the fact that he's run through every possible cable news show option send him into a panic? He said that people were always coming up to him on the street and urging him to get back in the game.... Anthony Weiner said people were always coming up to him saying he should run. (Although some, Weiner added, also said: 'Spitzer! You're Governor Spitzer!') New York is a liberal place, but can there be that much hunger for sex-scandal-scarred candidates?"

News Ledes

New York Times: "The judge in the George Zimmerman trial agreed on Thursday to instruct jurors to consider a lesser charge of manslaughter against Mr. Zimmerman in addition to the second-degree murder charge he is facing. The prosecution presented closing arguments, and the defense is expected to do the same on Friday morning. The jury could begin deliberations as early as Friday."

New York Times: "Investigators said Thursday that they had linked the man believed by many to have been the Boston Strangler to DNA found in the home of a woman thought to be the Strangler's last victim in a string of unsolved murders that petrified this city in the early 1960s and has perplexed it ever since.... They identified a near-certain match with Albert DeSalvo, the man who confessed to the murders (and two more), but was never prosecuted for the crimes." ...

... Boston Globe: "Albert H. DeSalvo's body will be exhumed to allow for new forensic testing that may conclusively prove DeSalvo murdered Mary Sullivan in her Boston apartment in 1964, the last killing attributed to the Boston Strangler who terrorized Greater Boston for two years in the early 1960s."

The Commentariat -- July 10, 2013

A Real Scandal. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "... at least three planned Wal-Marts will not open in [Washington, D.C.,] if a super-minimum-wage proposal becomes law. A team of Wal-Mart officials and lobbyists, including a high-level executive from the mega-retailer's Arkansas headquarters, walked the halls of the John A. Wilson Building on Tuesday afternoon, delivering the news to D.C. Council members. The company's hardball tactics come out of a well-worn playbook that involves successfully using Wal-Mart's leverage in the form of jobs and low-priced goods to fend off legislation and regulation that could cut into its profits and set precedent in other potential markets. In the Wilson Building, elected officials have found their reliable liberal, pro-union political sentiments in conflict with their desire to bring amenities to underserved neighborhoods."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "James B. Comey, President Obama's nominee for F.B.I. director, said on Tuesday that he no longer believed it was legal to waterboard detainees under United States law. His statements contrasted with the position he took in 2005 when, as President George W. Bush's deputy attorney general, he oversaw the government's legal opinions." ...

... Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "James B. Comey ... defended the National Security Agency's surveillance programs Tuesday as a critical tool for counterterrorism but said he would be open to more transparency with the secret court that oversees the government's collection operations." ...

A judge has to hear both sides of a case before deciding. What Fisa does is not adjudication, but approval. This works just fine when it deals with individual applications for warrants, but the 2008 amendment has turned the Fisa court into administrative agency making rules for others to follow. It is not the bailiwick of judges to make policy. -- Former FISC Judge James Robertson ...

... Dan Roberts of the Guardian: "A former federal judge who ... has broken ranks to criticise the system of secret courts as unfit for purpose in the wake of recent revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. James Robertson, who retired from the District of Columbia circuit in 2010, was one of a select group of judges who presided over the so-called Fisa courts.... But he says he was shocked to hear of recent changes to allow more sweeping authorisations of programmes such as the gathering of US phone records, and called for a reform of the system to allow counter-arguments to be heard."

NEW. Greg Sargent: "The Employment Non-Discrimination Act just easily passed out of the Senate Health and Education Committee -- with three Republican Senators voting for it. The measure, which would end discrimination in hiring decisions based on sexual orientation for all but the smallest businesses, got Yes votes from co-sponsor Mark Kirk (a gay marriage supporter), as well as Lisa Murkowski and ... Orrin Hatch.... This is going to put Republicans in a difficult spot, both in the Senate and (if it passes the Upper Chamber) perhaps even more so in the House." ...

... Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The federal government is moving quickly to extend benefits like health care and life insurance to gay and lesbian married couples in response to the Supreme Court decision that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. And in a sign that the political momentum from that ruling is being felt elsewhere, a Senate committee is expected to approve a bill on Wednesday that would grant protection from discrimination to people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It would be the first measure of its kind to advance to the floor in either house of Congress."

Jeremy Peters: "In a move that could bring to a head six months of smoldering tensions over a Republican blockade of certain presidential nominees, Senate Democrats are preparing to force confirmation votes on a series of President Obama's most contentious appointments as early as this week. If Republicans object, Democrats plan to threaten to use the impasse to change the Senate rules that allow the minority party wide latitude to stymie action." CW: get that? Democrats "plan to threaten." They do not plan to actually change the rules.

The Saboteurs. Greg Sargent: "It's now become accepted as normal that Republicans will threaten explicitly to allow harm to the country to get what they want, and will allow untold numbers of Americans to be hurt rather than even enter into negotiations over the sort of compromises that lie at the heart of basic governing.... On Meet the Press this weekend, [Chuck] Todd ... accus[ed] Republicans of 'trying to sabotage [ObamaCare].' The current GOP campaign ... is about making it harder for uninsured Americans to gain access to coverage under a law passed and signed by a democratically elected Congress and President, and upheld by the Supreme Court...." ...

     ... To wit: Jonathan Weisman & Robert Pear of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders on Tuesday seized on the Obama administration's one-year delay of a mandate for larger employers to offer health insurance or face penalties, demanding the same postponement for the mandate on individual insurance purchases and promising a series of showdowns aimed at dividing Democrats from the White House." ...

... Emma Dumain & Meredith Shiner of Roll Call: "House GOP leaders head into a crucial immigration meeting with their rank and file Wednesday without a clear strategy for passing a bill and a host of competing factions to corral. Though the afternoon conference is being heralded as a step toward building consensus within the rank and file, members acknowledge it's unlikely to produce a unified path forward." Via Greg Sargent. ...

... Brian Beutler of TPM: "The already narrow path to enacting comprehensive immigration reform pretty much disappeared in the past 24 hours." ...

... Rebecca Leber of Think Progress: "In a joint article on Tuesday, the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol and National Review's Rich Lowry urged House Republicans to kill comprehensive immigration reform 'without reservation,' claiming there is 'certainly no urgency to pass it.' ... The pundits do not think Hispanic voters would help the GOP in 2014 and 2016 elections. Rather than bring 11 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, Kristol and Lowry argue that Republicans would be better served appealing to 'working-class and younger voters concerned about economic opportunity and upward mobility.'" CW Translation: "Stick with white people." ...

... Like Li'l Randy's Favorite White Person. Alana Goodman of the "hyper-conseervative" Washington Free Beacon: "A close aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) who co-wrote the senator's 2011 book spent years working as a pro-secessionist radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist.... Jack Hunter ... joined Paul's office as his social media director in August 2012. From 1999 to 2012, Hunter was a South Carolina radio shock jock known as the 'Southern Avenger.' He has weighed in on issues such as racial pride and Hispanic immigration, and stated his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. During public appearances, Hunter often wore a mask on which was printed a Confederate flag. Prior to his radio career, while in his 20s, Hunter was a chairman in the League of the South, which 'advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.'" Hunter says he's changed some of his views (CW: apparently sometime between August 2012 & now -- must have been quite an epiphany). ...

... Jonathan Chait on why racists love Li'l Randy & Big Ron: "One strange thing about Ron and Rand Paul is that racists keep popping up in their inner circles for no apparent reason. Ron Paul was surrounded by neo-Confederates and published a virulently racist newsletter.... The deep connection between the Pauls and the neo-Confederate movement ... is a reflection of the fact that white supremacy is a much more important historical constituency for anti-government ideas than libertarians like to admit." ...

... Jamelle Bouie in the American Prospect: "In 2009, [Rand Paul's] campaign spokesperson resigned after racist images were discovered on his MySpace wall, and in 2010, Paul landed in a little hot water during an interview with Rachel Maddow, when he told her that he would have opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act for its impositions on businesses, i.e., they were no longer allowed to discriminate against blacks and other minorities.... Hiring a John Wilkes Booth sympathizer fits the picture of the Pauls as a political family that -- regardless of what's in their hearts -- is comfortable working with right-wing racists." ...

... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "The question I have is whether being branded as a conservative who tolerates neo-Confederate racism will be an asset or liability. In today's Republican Party, the answer isn't entirely clear." ...

... ** CW: Don't delude yourself with the notion that the Pauls are rare birds. As Scott Lemieux lays out in a Lawyers, Guns & Money post, there are five Tenthers sitting on the Supreme Court. Lemieux points out that the logic of the Roberts decision on the Voting Rights Act is exactly the same rationale that the Taney court applied in the notorious Dred Scott case, which was, um, overturned by a Civil War & two Constitutional Amendments: "Roberts's opinion rests on an utterly anachronistic vision of federal power that was highly dubious before the Civil War Amendments and was rendered completely nonsensical after they were passed. And while the moral implications of compact theory were worse in the antebellum era, as a matter of constitutional law the argument is even worse in the 21st century than it was in the middle of the 19th. The fact that this anachronistic states' rights interpretation of federal power has consistently been used to oppose federal protections of civil rights and is still being used to do so isn't a coincidence, but it's wrong on every level. We fought a civil war against the premises that Shelby County uncritically invokes. But striking down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is the latest example of the party of Lincoln transforming into the party of Calhoun."

Your Government Actually at Work. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Edward Wyatt of the New York Times: "Federal regulators are cracking down on questionable debt collection practices by some of the nation's biggest lenders. The push comes after revelations that some of the same practices that have haunted the foreclosures of homes -- like robo-signing and faulty documentation -- have cropped up in efforts to recoup delinquent credit card debt.... On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to assert at a hearing that it has the authority to regulate banks' debt collection practices under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law. The act bars the firms from employing 'unfair, deceptive or abusive acts.'"

"A Coup Is a Coup Is a Coup." Dana Milbank: "How long can the euphemisms endure? Egypt's interim government said Tuesday that it hopes to hold elections in six months -- at which time Egypt would again be a democracy eligible for foreign aid. It's theoretically possible the Obama administration could hold out for that long without naming the Situation in Egypt -- but that would be quite a coup."

Maureen Dowd has a date with a sexy French Socialist politician, Arnaud Montebourg. Nice working vacation.

Congressional Races

Tal Kopan of Politico: "Newark Mayor Cory Booker is blowing away the rest of the field in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s Senate seat, according to a new poll on Tuesday. Booker had the support of 52 percent of those Democrats surveyed in the Quinnipiac poll, compared with 10 percent for Rep. Frank Pallone, who on Monday got the endorsement of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg's family. The other candidates in the race were in single digits: Rep. Rush Holt was supported by 8 percent and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver got 3 percent. Booker also topped potential Republican challengers."

I've considered it because people have requested me considering it. I'm still waiting to see, you know, what the lineup will be and hoping that, there again, there will be some new blood, new energy -- not just kind of picking from the same old politicians in the state. -- Former Alaska Half-Governor & 2008 U.S. Vice Presidential Runner-Up Sarah Palin, on whether or not she will run for the U.S. Senate next year

There again, no estimate on what fraction of a grueling six-year term she could, you know, be persuaded to serve. -- Constant Weader (Thanks to Julie L. for the link.)

Local News

New York Times Editors: North Carolina "state government has become a demolition derby, tearing down years of progress in public education, tax policy, racial equality in th courtroom and access to the ballot.... North Carolina was once considered a beacon of farsightedness in the South, an exception in a region of poor education, intolerance and tightfistedness. In a few short months, Republicans have begun to dismantle a reputation that took years to build."

Bad News Bob Gets More Bad News. Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Sean McDonnell, the 21-year-old son of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, was arrested Saturday in Charlottesville and charged with public swearing and intoxication.... The arrest is the latest trouble for Virginia's first family, beset by inquiries into its acceptance of personal gifts from the governor's political donors and its use of mansion resources over the last three-and-a-half years." ...

... Hot Pockets. Alix Bryan of WTVR Richmond: "On Friday, July 5, Gov. Bob McDonnell reimbursed the Commonwealth almost $2,400 for food and supplies taken by his children from the kitchen of the Virginia Executive Mansion.... Most of the items were given to three McDonnell children when they returned to college after weekend or holiday visits.... Virginia Executive Mansion chef Todd Schneider faces four felony counts of embezzlement for allegedly removing food from the kitchen. In the court documents for his own case, Schneider alleged that the governor's family took items from the executive kitchen." But the kids' pilfering is decidedly small potatoes compared to ...

... Update. Bigger Bad News for Bad News Bob. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan.... The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor's wife, Maureen, in 2011.... The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 -- funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations....All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor's company and its products." ...

... CW: maybe McDonnell should follow the advice of those apparently false rumors that he would resign shortly.

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Eliot Spitzer is back, and for late-night comedy writers, he might as well be manna from heaven."

News Ledes

CNN: "Iraq veteran turned pro-gun activist Adam Kokesh was arrested on two charges, including having a gun while in possession of an illicit drug, police said Wednesday. His arrest comes after authorities late Tuesday searched the suburban Washington home of Kokesh, who recently made headlines with his July Fourth video posted to YouTube in which he loaded a shotgun in the middle of the national capital's Freedom Plaza." The Washington Post story is here.

Guardian: "The defence has rested its case in the trial of the WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, rounding off its portrayal of the US soldier as a young man who accepted that he was wrong to have leaked a vast trove of state secrets but who had no 'general evil intent' to 'aid the enemy'."

New York Times: "The new military-led government [of Egypt] accused Mohamed Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday of a campaign to incite violence against their foes before and after his ouster as president, offering a new explanation for the week-old takeover and hinting that the group might be banned once again."

New York Times: Joseph "Massino, the former boss of the Bonanno crime family [who was serving two life sentences], will be released from federal custody in 60 days, a period the government requested to put in place security arrangements to keep Mr. Massino safe from what are presumed to be a considerable number of enemies. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had sought a reduction of Mr. Massino's sentence, citing his extensive cooperation: while incarcerated, Mr. Massino had recorded conversations with a Mafia captain, and he has provided investigators with information about hundreds of people associated with not only the Bonanno family, which Mr. Massino took control of in 1991, but also the other crime families across New York."

Orlando Sentinel: "By early Friday afternoon, jurors should be deliberating whether Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman is a murderer. After nearly a year and a half of public debate about racial profiling and gun rights, six jurors ... will decide whether Zimmerman killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in self-defense or committed a crime."

Boston Globe: "Escorted by a Humvee filled with heavily armed law enforcement officers, a white prisoner van carrying Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev roared into US District Court in Boston today, rushing past about a dozen people who shouted encouragement to the alleged Islamic terrorist." ...

     ... Update: "Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, made his first public appearance since the April 15 attack Wednesday in a federal court room and pleaded not guilty to a sweeping terrorism indictment that carries the possibility of the death penalty. With 30 bombing victims in the courtroom, some wearing the Boston Marathon gear, Tsarnaev entered 'not guilty' pleas in a thick accent seven times to groups of charges including using a weapon of mass destruction."

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday found that Apple violated antitrust law in helping raise the retail price of e-books, saying the company 'played a central role in facilitating and executing' a conspiracy with five big publishers."