The Commentariat -- Oct. 15, 2013
CW: Sorry about not posting yesterday. I clocked 1,400 miles on the road in 31 hours (Sunday pm to Monday pm) & couldn't fit in much else. Came home after three months away to a series of minor disasters, which is to be expected. Luckily, I didn't arrive home till -- too late to begin trying to mitigate any of the disaster Monday night. So for now anyway I'm back in business here. One thing that's working, to my surprise -- my Internet connection!
NEW. Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders struggled late Tuesday morning to forge a new proposal to reopen the government and change the president's health care law, after a plan presented behind closed doors to the Republican rank and file failed to immediately attract enough support to pass. About two hours after the plan was presented Tuesday morning, Republican leaders backed off it. Speaker John A. Boehner told reporters that there were 'no decisions about what exactly we will do.'" ...
... CW: BTW, I saw Chuck Todd on the teevee saying he couldn't understand why House Democrats were so upset by the House blowing up the Reid/McConnell plan. Even Luke Russert, who is a pretty dim bulb, gets it. ...
... NEW: Jonathan Weisman & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In a Senate still dominated by men, women on both sides of the partisan divide proved to be the driving forces that shaped a negotiated settlement." ...
... Lori Montgomery & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders plan to put forward their own plan to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling, lawmakers said Tuesday, casting new doubts on efforts by a bipartisan group of senators as they tried to finalize a deal that could be approved by both houses of Congress and the White House." ...
... Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a long-awaited breakthrough, Senate leaders closed in on a deal Monday to raise the federal debt ceiling and end a two-week-old government shutdown as Washington scrambled to avoid the nation's first default on its debt. With leaders of both parties optimistic that they will soon come together to end the political crisis that has paralyzed Washington, details of the possible agreement began to emerge. It would raise the debt limit until Feb. 15 and fund federal agencies until Jan. 15, with the two sides holding budget talks before a new round of sequestration budget cuts take effect in January, according to people in the Senate familiar with the talks. The deal would also make minor tweaks to the new health-care law, though nothing along the lines of what some conservative Republicans have been demanding. It would require additional safeguards to ensure that people who receive federal subsidies to purchase health insurance under the law are eligible to receive them, the people said." ...
... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear & Jeremy Peters, is here. The Politico report, by Manu Raju & others, is here. ...
... Update. In their latest report, Shear & Peters write, "Republican senators prepared to meet on Tuesday morning to hear from their leadership about a potential deal with Democrats that could resolve the standoff with President Obama, reopen the government and lift the threat of an American default by raising the debt ceiling." ...
... Robert Costa of National Review: "... the approximately 50 Republicans who form the House GOP's right flank [are] furious with Senate Republicans for working with Democrats to craft what one leading Tea Party congressman calls a 'mushy piece of s--t.' Another House conservative warns, 'If Boehner backs this, as is, he's in trouble.' But that's unlikely to happen. As of 8:30 a.m. [Tuesday], House conservatives believe the leadership is well aware of their unhappiness, and they expect Boehner to talk up the House's next move: another volley to the Senate, which would extend the debt ceiling, reopen the government, and set up a budget conference, plus request conservative demands that go beyond the Senate's outline." ...
... Jennifer Epstein of Politico: "President Obama's meeting with congressional leaders [scheduled for Monday afternoon] has been postponed to allow Senate leaders more time to work out an agreement, the White House said in updated guidance." ...
ThisAP photo appeared in Politico over the caption: "President Obama puts sandwiches into bags with volunteers as he visits Martha's Table, which assists the poor and where furloughed federal employees are volunteering, in Washington, Oct. 13."... Whaddaha think? Rubbing Republicans' nose in it, OR bad optic of pathetic, helpless Leader of the Free World with nothing to do except hope Ted Cruz doesn't blow up the world? ...
... Joshua Green of Business Week: "... Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who basically forced the shutdown and whose own private polls have convinced him that it has been a glorious success, at this point could probably force a default and global economic calamity on his own -- if he were so inclined.... the Senate can move quickly when necessary, but only by unanimous consent. Let's say Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) strike a deal today [Monday].... Cruz surely won't like it and has said repeatedly, 'I will do everything necessary and anything possible to defund Obamacare. If he's true to his word, he could drag out the proceedings past Thursday and possibly well beyond." Green provides the particulars. CW: Hope Ted & his staff don't read this. ...
... Oops, Too Late. Ted is already thinking about forcing a default. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Ted Cruz is waiting to decide whether to hold up a potential deal in the Senate that would reopen the government and avert a breach of the debt ceiling. With the debt limit deadline looming Thursday and quick Senate action needed to beat it, Cruz would not divulge whether he'd allow a quick vote on an emerging deal to reopen government and raise the debt ceiling." Neither Cruz nor his ally Mike Lee (RTP-Utah) would reveal to reporters whether or not they will cause the Treasury to go into default. Rand Paul (RTP-Ky.) said he would not obstruct a vote. CW: If Cruz & Lee pulls this stunt, McConnell should strip them of every committee assignment & -- if he can -- strip them of their seniority. Enough is enough. ...
At a Saturday session, Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, protested a Republican-imposed rules change to a standing rule that allows any member to bring matters to the floor for a vote. Under the "new rule," no member can exercise the standing rule unless the Majority Leader or his designate approved it:
Chris Wilson of Time posts "Uncle Sam's Bank Statement," an interactive chart that exposes how low the account is. "As one can see, there is only $25 million left on the federal government's credit card before it hits its current borrowing limit of $16,699,421,000,000 -- a drop in the bucket. The U.S. had $36.5 billion in its account as of Thursday evening, but it is difficult to say exactly when this reserve will run out since new cash flows in every day. That amount may last a few days beyond the widely cited Oct. 17 deadline for a deal to raise the borrowing limit. But it won't last long." ...
... Gene Robinson: "A crazy thing is happening in shuttered, dysfunctional Washington: Democrats are pushing back. This phenomenon is so novel and disorienting that many Republicans in Congress, especially the tea party bullies, seem unable to grasp what's going on." ...
... That's because, according to conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post, the Tea Party has abandoned "the contours of reality." The latest Republican maneuvers represent an "effort [that] had little to do with governing and everything to do with positioning -- the ideological maneuvering of tea party leaders." ...
... CBS DC: "Frustrated veterans and their friends and families gathered at the World War II and Lincoln Memorials on the National Mall [Sunday], pushing past barriers to protest the memorial's closing under the government shutdown before turning their attentions to the White House." ...
... Evan McMurry of Mediaite: Apparently the organizers of the march are upset that Ted Cruz (who caused the shutdown) & Sarah Palin (she called for President Obama's impeachment) were among the uninvited speakers & "hijacked" the march for "political gain." I guess the organizers also weren't crazy about Confederate Flag guy & "Freedom Works' Larry Klayman [who] told Obama to 'put the Quran down' and leave town [as] the crowd invoked 'brown shirts' and Kenya...." Just your average Wingers Sunday in the Park. ...
I will not be timid in calling out any who would use our military, our vets, as pawns in a political game. --Half-Gov. Sarah Palin (RTP-Alaska) using our military, our vets as pawns in the political game during the veterans' protest
A good example of what I mean by sociopathic behavior: When I do it, it's noble and just; when you do it, its reprehensible & calls for extraordinary measures (say, impeachment!). -- Constant Weader
... Andrew Kirell of Mediate: "On his radio show Monday morning, Bill Press took on this weekend's Million Vet March by denouncing the participants as 'idiots' who've been used by 'right-wing organizations' to protest against their own best interests. Ultimately, he said, they shouldn't be following people like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), they should be expressing public odium towards him":
I mean, how dumb can they be? Don't they realize that the guys that they were cheering yesterday, Ted Cruz, is the guy behind the shutdown? He's the guy, doesn't everybody know that? Not those idiots.... They should have been hanging him in effigy at the Memorial. They should have been booing him. -- Bill Press ...
... David Atkins, in Hullabaloo, explains to the White House press corps what a "metaphor" is. P.S. "No one would need to resort to the metaphors if the press would simply accurately relate the situation. Is it really so necessary to lie in the interest of 'balance'?" Quite a good read, with actual metaphors from Paul Krugman & Jon Stewart who try to explain the debt ceiling crisis to dummies -- include the WH press corps. CW: I don't know if any of you ever listens to those live White House press briefings I embed. I often listen, & I am repeatedly stunned by how many of the press, including those representing major media outlets, are out-and-out dimwitted. ...
... John Sides, who is out with a new book on the subject, writes an interesting post on media coverage of the 2012 presidential race. Sides & his co-author Lynn Vavreck treat the media as players, not observers, and include, um, facts & statistical analysis. ...
... CW: On partisan hostility to the media. There's a difference, that I've never seen remarked on: the right falsely accuses the press of liberal bias (see Sides' data), while the left, usually accurately, accuses the press of being dumb and/or dedicated to false equivalency.
Be Careful Who Your Friends Are. Barton Gellman of the Washington Post & Ashkan Soltani: "The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and 'buddy lists' from instant messaging services as they move across global data links."
News Lede
Washington Post: "... former Army Capt. William Swenson ... will accept the Medal of Honor from President Obama before 250 guests at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, the first Army officer to receive the U.S. military's highest valor award since the Vietnam war."
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