The Commentariat -- Feb. 25, 2013
At today's White House press briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is giving a great rundown of how House Republicans are making the U.S. less safe. "No amount of planning can mitigate the effects of sequestration." ...
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned Monday that her agency would be forced to furlough 5,000 border control agents under mandatory spending cuts, likely allowing more illegal immigrants into the country and potentially compromising national security. Napolitano said ... the sequester, would disrupt the Department of Homeland Security's ability to conduct customs inspections at ports, leading to increased waiting times for travelers and cargo shipments. Disaster relief funding would be reduced by $1 billion, she added...."
Jonathan Weisman & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "With Congress unlikely to stop deep automatic spending cuts that will strike hard at the military, the fiscal stalemate is highlighting a significant shift in the Republican Party: lawmakers most keenly dedicated to shrinking the size of government are now more dominant than the bloc committed foremost to a robust national defense, particularly in the House. That reality also underscores what Republicans, and some Democrats, say was a major miscalculation on the part of President Obama. He agreed to set up the automatic cuts 18 months ago because he believed the threat of sharp reductions in military spending would be enough to force Republicans to agree to a deficit reduction plan that included the tax increases he favored." ...
... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog: "As I see it, the [GOP's] intraparty dispute is between a crop of old-school posturers who think it's effective to demand lots of military spending all the time, in order to draw a contrast with evil peacenik Democrats ... and a new crop, who are focusing on cutting government spending (including military spending) right now, but who are also likely to attack Democrats as anti-military later, if and when these cuts take effect."
... Zachary Goldfarb & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "The White House on Sunday detailed how the deep spending cuts set to begin this week would affect programs in every state and the District, as President Obama launched a last-ditch effort to pressure congressional Republicans to compromise on a way to stop the across-the-board cuts. But while Republicans and Democrats were set to introduce dueling legislative proposals this week to avert the Friday start of the spending cuts, known as the sequester, neither side expected the measures to get enough support to pass Congress. Lawmakers instead were planning for a lengthy round of political jostling ahead of another budget showdown in late March that could determine whether the $85 billion in cuts to domestic and defense spending this fiscal year stick."
How Do You Say "I Told You So" in Italian? Paul Krugman: "... even if the nightmare of a Berlusconi return to power fails to materialize, a strong showing by [the comical Silvio] Berlusconi, [actual comedian Beppe] Grillo, or both would destabilize not just Italy but Europe as a whole. But remember, Italy isn't unique: disreputable politicians are on the rise all across Southern Europe. And the reason this is happening is that respectable Europeans won't admit that the policies they have imposed on debtors are a disastrous failure. If that doesn't change, the Italian election will be just a foretaste of the dangerous radicalization to come."
George Stephanopoulos of ABC News: "House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said it was 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' that the Chinese government and military is behind growing cyber attacks against the United States, saying 'we are losing' the war to prevent the attacks."
Jindal Thinks Discrimination Against Gays Is Still a Winner for the Party. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) -- a possible Republican candidate for president in 2016 -- rejected former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's argument that conservatives must embrace marriage equality for gays and lesbians if they want to survive as a party and reiterated his support for 'traditional marriage.'" CW: Apparently discrimination against women, minorities & non-Christians are winners, too. I wonder if Jindal is aware that some people would think he belonged to a racial minority. ...
... Igor Volsky: Jindal also "is suggesting that President Obama delay health care services to millions of middle and lower-income Americans to offset the automatic across-the-board budget cuts that will go into effect on March 1 if Congress does not reach a spending deal." ...
Annie-Rose Strasser of Think Progress: "Jindal (R) ... on Sunday became the latest Republican to come out in favor of universal background checks on all gun sales." ...
... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: Jindal "might as well have ended his spiel with 'nudge nudge, wink wink,' because he's not fooling anyone."
... "Here's what [Alex Pareene] learned this morning on 'the Sunday shows,' the three network news panel programs that define the parameters of the national debate for elite Washington: No one wants the sequester to happen, if the sequester happens it will be because Barack Obama failed to show leadership, what we need is a 'balanced approach' to deficit reduction, the sequester should happen but in a smarter way, video games may not cause violence but they are gross, and 'Zero Dark Thirty' is the best film of the year in part because John McCain disliked it."
Ezra Klein: "I don’t agree with my colleague Bob Woodward, who says the Obama administration is 'moving the goalposts' when they insist on a sequester replacement that includes revenues. I remember talking to both members of the Obama administration and the Republican leadership in 2011, and everyone was perfectly clear that Democrats were going to pursue tax increases in any sequester replacement, and Republicans were going to oppose tax increases in any sequester replacement. ... It's worth remembering that the goalposts in American politics aren't set in backroom deals between politicians. They're set in elections. And in the 2012 election, the American people were very clear on where they wanted the goalposts moved to." ...
... Dave Weigel of Slate: Woodward's op-ed disagrees with Woodward's book. ...
... Kevin Drum: "I'm perplexed by Woodward these days. He really seems to have some kind of weird jones against the Obama White House." CW: maybe Woodward has a Boehner boner. I mean, who wouldn't? ...
... CW: Charles Pierce agrees with contributor Kate M., as do I: "Having done its Watergate thing, the Post slipped comfortably back into its place in the respectable D.C. power structure. Woodward went with it, producing periodically weighty doorstops filled with establishment stenography. He's no more a liberal than he is a member of Motley Crue. He's a courtier to all the right people, the scribe to powerful." CW: my recollection is that Woodward self-IDed as a Republican way back in Watergate days, but I might be wrong.
Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has an extra-long piece about Eric Cantor. CW: I haven't read it, probably won't do more than skim it, but Lizza is a very good political writer. Right at the top I learned Cantor's wife Diana is a liberal Democrat. How can she abide him?
Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: Sen. Ted Cruz (RTP-Texas) defends his claim that Harvard Law was overrun by commie professors when he was a student there. ...
... There Will Be No Reboot. Steve Kornacki of Salon: "Cruz has treated all of the negative attention as noise generated by Democrats, the liberal media and impure Republicans who are uncomfortable with a conservative true-believer rocking the boat in Washington.... The thorough beating [Republicans] took at the polls last fall perhaps should have prompted rethinking on the right. But conservatives' appetite for Cruz shows that the GOP base’s animating spirit still hasn't changed: Loud, aggressive and reflexive hostility to President Obama, the Democratic Party and any Republican who would dare contemplate compromise is still how 'conservatism' is defined."
ABC News: "Two lawmakers are waging a little-noticed campaign to abolish the Selective Service System, the independent federal agency that manages draft registration. They say the millions of dollars the agency spends each year preparing for the possibility of a military draft is a waste of money. Reps. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., and Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., say the Pentagon has no interest in returning to conscription due to the success of the all-volunteer force."
Sexcapades of the Red Beanie Boys, Ctd. Severin Carrell & Sam Jones of the Guardian: "Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the UK's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, has resigned with immediate effect after being accused of 'inappropriate acts' towards fellow priests. News that Pope Benedict had accepted the cardinal's resignation as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh came after the Observer disclosed a series of allegations by three priests and one former priest. O'Brien has denied the allegations and had been expected to continue in his post as head of the Scottish Catholic church until mid-March, when he was due to retire at age 75.... His unexpectedly early resignation means the cardinal will not now take part in the election for a successor to Pope Benedict." ...
... Catherine Deveney of the Guardian's "Observer" has the backstory. This part is the kicker: "O'Brien ... has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights, condemning homosexuality as immoral, opposing gay adoption, and most recently arguing that same-sex marriages would be 'harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of those involved'. Last year he was named 'bigot of the year' by the gay rights charity Stonewall."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Italian voters delivered a rousing anti-austerity message and a strong rebuke to the existing political order in national elections on Monday, plunging the country into political paralysis after results failed to produce a clear winner."
ABC News: "The National Rifle Association is using a Justice Department memo it obtained to argue in ads that the Obama administration believes its gun control plans won't work unless the government seizes firearms and requires national gun registration -- ideas the White House has not proposed and does not support. CW : how to write a lead when one party is lying. The writer is not named. S/he should be instructing the rest of the MSM on how to tell the truth.
AP: "Nearly three years after a deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge in New Orleans is set to preside over a high-stakes trial for the raft of litigation spawned by the disaster."
Swedish Horseballs. AP: "Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal Monday as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries."