The Commentariat -- January 7, 2013
My column for the New York Times eXaminer, posted late yesterday, is on Ross Douthat's fantasy column, "Boehner, American Hero." Anyone who thinks I might be agreeing with Douthat -- Welcome to Reality Chex!
Obama 2.0
Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "President Obama has selected a former Nebraska senator, Chuck Hagel, as his next defense secretary, a White House official said Sunday, turning to a prominent Republican to lead the Pentagon as it faces of the challenge of winding down the war in Afghanistan and possible reductions in military spending. But the nomination, which the White House official said would occur on Monday, has already encountered stiff opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike because of Mr. Hagel's views on Israel and Iran, and his comments about an ambassador who is gay." CW: if you didn't see Glenn Greenwald & Michael Moore on Hagel's nomination, they're linked in yesterday's Commentariat & are definitely worth your reading. ...
... ** Rosie Gray & Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed: "President Barack Obama's decision to nominate former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense Monday will shatter a fake consensus on American policy toward Iran and challenge what have increasingly become limits of Washington conversation about Israel." ...
... Peter Beinert of Newsweek has a long piece on Hagel & Middle East policy which Gray & Miller mention but don't link. "Obama's foreign policy -- while often operationally skillful -- has left unchallenged many of the assumptions made 'mainstream' by George W. Bush.... Unlike John Kerry, whose political caution has smoothed the way for a virtually uncontested secretary-of-state nomination, Hagel says in public what others only say in private." ...
... Ben Ambruster of Think Progress: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday attacked former Republican senator Chuck Hagel, reportedly President Obama's choice as the next Defense Secretary, calling him a 'controversial pick' and suggesting that Hagel is out of the mainstream.... [Graham] claimed Hagel is 'very antagonistic toward the state of Israel' (again, not saying how) and complained that Hagel said 'you should directly negotiate with Iran' (we're not sure why this is a bad thing." CW: Senators don't usually treat their former colleagues -- especially ones of the same party -- with such disdain. ...
... John Cole of Balloon Juice: "Maybe Graham isn't clear that we aren't nominating Chuck Hagel to be Israel's Secretary of Defense, but our own. That's how messed up this situation has become with us as Israel's client state. Senators can make completely asinine statements like the one above, and no one even flinches. Then, if you point out the overwhelming influence of the Israel lobby in the United States congress, you get tarred and feathered as an anti-Semite. And then they'll deny there is an Israel lobby." ...
... At the end of the day, Republicans will support a decorated war hero who was their colleague for 12 years and has critical experience on veterans' issues. It would be hard to explain a no vote just because he bucked his party on Iraq, a war most Americans think was a disaster. -- Anonymous White House Official
While we have expressed concerns in the past, we trust that when confirmed, former Senator Chuck Hagel will follow the President's lead of providing unrivaled support for Israel -- on strategic cooperation, missile defense programs, and leading the world against Iran's nuclear program. -- National Jewish Democratic Council (via Greg Sargent)
Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "The administration said early Monday that the president also would nominate counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency."
He Said. Sam Baker of The Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday said Republicans will demand steep spending cuts during the next round of budget negotiations. McConnell, in an interview with ABC's 'This Week,' said President Obama had won all he's going to get on taxes in last week's agreement to extend the Bush-era tax rates for most taxpayers."...
... She Said. Mike Lillis of The Hill: "Pushing back against the Republicans' deficit-reduction strategy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this weekend that more tax revenues -- not just spending cuts -- must be a part of Congress's effort to rein in deficits." With video. ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "... neither party's approach to deficit reduction is truly balanced: Each side is actually leaning more heavily on spending cuts. But Obama would rely on those cuts a lot less than the Republicans would.... Most sensible budget observers, even more conservative ones determined to enact substantial budget cuts, believe taxes must rise even more -- because the population is getting older and the government has, quite rightly, assumed so much responsibility for health and retirement benefits." ...
... Will Saletan of Slate: "Mitch McConnell ... wants Democrats to cut a lot of federal spending without raising any more taxes. Unfortunately, his party just lost the presidential election, failed to capture the Senate, and doesn't have enough support in polls or the business community to shut down the government or refuse to raise the national debt ceiling, which would trigger a default and another credit downgrade. So what does McConnell offer in lieu of clout? A lot of bluffing." CW: read the whole post -- except the last graf. Saletan has been captured by deficit hawks. Pardon by conspiracy theory, but I am beginning to think Pete Peterson, et al., are buying off pundits one-by-one, till there will be no one left to say "Whoa"! Yo, Pete, ya forgot me.
E. J. Dionne: "Will the establishment, including business leaders and middle-of-the-road journalistic opinion, stand by silently as one side in the coming argument risks cratering the economy in an effort to reverse the verdict of the 2012 election? Yes, I am talking about using the debt ceiling as a political tool, something that was never done until the disaster of 2011.... When it comes to health-care cost projections, there is so much we don't know that it is truly foolish to make decisions now for, say, 2040."
Paul Krugman on the continuing economic doldrums: "It's tempting to argue that the economic failures of recent years prove that economists don't have the answers. But the truth is actually worse: in reality, standard economics offered good answers, but political leaders -- and all too many economists -- chose to forget or ignore what they should have known.... We've just experienced a colossal failure of economic policy -- and far too many of those responsible for that failure both retain power and refuse to learn from experience."
Speaking of Krugman, my close personal friend Danny Glover sent along this petition urging President Obama to appoint Krugman as Treasury Secretary. It ain't gonna happen, of course, but wouldn't it be fun to see Krugman face off against Sen. Orrin Hatch & other yahoos on the Senate Finance Committee? ...
... Krugman: "By my reckoning..., an administration job, no matter how senior, would actually reduce my influence, leaving me unable to say publicly what I really think and all too probably finding myself unable to make headway in internal debates.... I'm flattered -- but I think I should stay in my current position as Mr. Outside, an annoying if sympathetic voice they can't ignore."
... "Mint that Coin." Krugman says John Boehner's face should go on that trillion-dollar platinum deficit coin, "Because without him and his colleagues, this wouldn't be necessary."
Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "A [measly, weasely] $10 billion settlement to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses by 14 major lenders is expected to be announced as early as Monday, several people with knowledge of the discussions said on Sunday."
David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "The expansion of [a] tax break once intended to help farmers [to corporate giants] illustrates the challenges ahead and how special interests have learned to use the tax code to maximum effect."
Eileen Sullivan of the AP: "In Connecticut and Colorado, scenes of the most deadly U.S. mass shootings in 2012, people were less enthusiastic about buying new guns at the end of the year than in most other states, according to an Associated Press analysis of new FBI data. The biggest surges in background checks for people who want to carry or buy guns occurred in states in the South and West. The latest government figures reflect huge increases across the U.S. in the number of background checks for gun sales and permits to carry guns at the end of the year." ...
... Meanwhile NRA Senators Are on the Job. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Lawmakers kept up the renewed debate over the nation's gun laws Sunday, with the Senate's leading Republican, [Mitch McConnell] arguing that the matter must wait until pressing fiscal issues are addressed in Congress and one Senate Democrat [-- Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota --] warning against 'extreme' restrictions on guns."
** Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker: "... next month, [against the backdrop of Republicans’ systematic attempts to disenfranchise Democrats,] the Supreme Court will take up a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the most effective law of its kind in the history of the United States. A century after the Civil War, the act, in abolishing many forms of discrimination employed by the Southern states, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, finally turned the legal right for African-Americans in those states to vote into an actual right to vote. Bipartisan congressional majorities have reauthorized the law four times, most recently in 2006. (It passed the House overwhelmingly and the Senate unanimously, and was signed into law by George W. Bush.) ... The Roberts Court, and especially the Chief Justice, has shown a marked animosity toward the Voting Rights Act.... It would be a sad irony if the Supreme Court struck down the Voting Rights Act because it regulates too much in too many places, when the truth is that it regulates too little in too few."
Jonathan Strong of Roll Call: "A concerted effort to unseat Speaker John A. Boehner was under way the day of his re-election to the position, but participants called it off 30 minutes before the House floor vote.... A group of disaffected conservatives had agreed to vote against the Ohio lawmaker if they could get at least 25 members to join the effort. But one member, whose identity could not be verified, rescinded his or her participation the morning of the vote, leaving the group one person short of its self-imposed 25-member threshold." ...
... Boehner speaks to Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal. Short version: everything is Obama's fault. Via Margaret Hartmann of New York magazine.
NEW. Charles Pierce pens (or rather, keys) a lovely takedown of nearly every Sunday pundit -- from Maureen Dowd to Carly Fiorina (not much diff, BTW). He sees Heidi Heitkamp as the new Joe Lieberman. We really needed another Joe Lieberman. Thanks to MAG for the link.
Andy Borowitz: "Just hours after being sworn in at the U.S. Capitol, the freshman class of House Republicans said that they were disappointed that they failed to shut down the government on their first day in office." CW: this is satire, but as with all this Washington, it is often difficult to tell what is joke & what is fact. Borowitz probably would not have had to look hard to find a real freshman Congressman who was disappointed at not shutting down the government -- yet.
Our Friend from Kabul. Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "When Afghan President Hamid Karzai visits Washington this week, he’ll bring with him a list of complaints he has enumerated for months in public speeches, including accusations that the United States has fomented corruption in Afghanistan and continues to violate the country's sovereignty."
Happy Birthday, Dick! CW: Since there was such enthusiasm for the news that we are celebrating the centennial of Richard Nixon's birth this year, allow me to regale you with the latest from Brandon Lowrey of Reuters: "At a ceremony commemorating the late U.S. President Richard M. Nixon's 100th birthday, politicians, a military official and Nixon's eldest daughter on Sunday remembered him as an underappreciated president and a foreign policy genius.... During Sunday's ceremony, the Watergate scandal was not mentioned."
Right Wing World
Alex Pareene of Salon: "As Rick Perlstein explained in the Baffler, some of the largest conservative media organs are essentially massive email lists of suckers rented to snake oil salesmen. The con isn't limited to a couple of newsletters and websites: The most prominent conservative organizations in the nation are primarily dedicated to separating conservatives from their money.... In addition to paying Dick Armey $400,000 a year for 20 years to stay away, FreedomWorks also apparently spent more than a million dollars paying Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to say nice things about FreedomWorks, in order to convince listeners to send FreedomWorks money that FreedomWorks would then give to Limbaugh and Beck.... The fact that there is a lot of money to be made in acting like Michele Bachmann is part of why the House seems poised to blow up the U.S. economy."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Ada Louise Huxtable, who pioneered modern architectural criticism in the pages of The New York Times, celebrating buildings that respected human dignity and civic history -- and memorably scalding those that did not -- died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 91."
CNN: in the opening day today of the preliminary hearing for James Holmes, Aurora, Colorado, police Officer Justin Grizzle testified about the scene he encountered at the theater & his taking victims to the hospital in his police cruiser. Detective Matthew Ingui also testified.
Aqua Buddha, Jr. Newsweek: "Sen. Rand Paul’s 19-year-old son has been arrested for underage drinking. William Hilton Paul was arrested Saturday at North Carolina's Charlotte Douglas International Airport following a flight from Kentucky. It is not clear if he was drinking on the plane or on the ground, but he was charged with disorderly conduct at an airport, being intoxicated and disruptive, and consuming alcohol underage." Thanks to a friend for the link.
New York Times: "Bank of America agreed on Monday to pay more than $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims over troubled mortgages that soured during the housing crash, mostly loans issued by the bank's Countrywide Financial subsidiary. Separately, federal regulators reached an $8.5 billion settlement on Monday to resolve claims of foreclosure abuses that included flawed paperwork used in foreclosures and bungled loan modifications by 10 major lenders...."
AP: "Google's executive chairman is starting a visit to North Korea that has prompted controversy and fascination. Eric Schmidt of Google arrived Monday in a country considered to have the world's most restrictive Internet policies. He is part of a delegation that includes former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson." ...
... Reuters Update: "Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt began a controversial private mission to North Korea on Monday that will include an effort to secure the release of an imprisoned American.... Richardson's efforts to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tour guide who was detained last year will mark the latest in a series of high-profile visits over the years to free Americans detained by Pyongyang."
Reuters: "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will resume her official duties on Monday, five days after being released from a hospital for treatment of a blood clot, the State Department said on Sunday."
AP: "Nearly six months after a bloody rampage in a Colorado movie theater left 12 people dead, prosecutors will go to court Monday to outline their case against the suspect, James Holmes." CW: the mugshot of Holmes, which accompanies the story, could not be creepier.
Reuters: "Pope Benedict on Monday urged the international community to end what he called the endless slaughter in Syria before the entire country became 'a field of ruins.' He made the appeal in particularly strong terms during a yearly "state of the world" address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican."
AP: "China's government is working on reforms to its system of imprisoning people in labor camps without trial, a senior judicial official said Tuesday. The comments were the firmest indication that after years of debate the government is preparing to revise but not abolish the system -- known as 're-education through labor' -- that critics say tramples civil rights and is prone to abuse."
AP: "President Barack Obama has returned to Washington after a winter vacation in Hawaii that was interrupted by the 'fiscal cliff' crisis. Obama arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Sunday morning after an overnight flight."