The Commentariat -- Dec. 5, 2012
Cliff Notes
Meghashyam Mali of The Hill: "President Obama will appeal to business leaders on Wednesday, calling on them to press lawmakers to raise the U.S. debt limit during 'fiscal cliff' negotiations. Obama, who will meet with executives from the Business Roundtable on Wednesday, hopes to avoid another protracted fight over the debt ceiling and has sought to include it in ongoing deficit talks."
David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama said Tuesday that there is still a chance that the White House and Congress can reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, but he warned that the latest offer from House Republicans' remains 'out of balance.' In his first one-on-one interview since his reelection, Obama told Bloomberg TV that he remains firmly committed to his demand that the GOP agree to raise tax rates on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans." ...
... Here's the Bloomberg story, by Julianna Goldman & Mike Dorning:
Manu Raju & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner's pitch of $800 billion in new tax revenues already has tea party-backed conservatives accusing GOP leaders of peddling a plan that would destroy job growth. Conservative outside groups are urging their party's rank-and-file to rebel and reject any new taxes. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team pointedly declined to endorse the proposal." ...
... "You're Fired." Jonathan Strong of Roll Call: "With a small purge of rebellious Republicans -- mostly conservatives -- from prominent committees Monday, Speaker John A. Boehner is sending a tough message ahead of the looming vote on a fiscal cliff deal. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina were booted from the Financial Services Committee. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas were removed from the Budget Committee; Huelskamp lost his place on the Agriculture Committee as well."
Ezra Klein has a short & sour summary of what-all is in the Simpson-Bowles plan. He adds, "Republicans may want to associate themselves with Erskine Bowles, and they may want to attack Obama for not doing enough to support Simpson-Bowles, but they want nothing to do with Simpson-Bowles itself." And if Wall Street & corporate CEOs had any idea what was in it, they wouldn't like it either, their oft-repeated claims to love it notwithstanding.
Jonathan Chait of New York sees an early January deal as the most likely scenario. And he sez why -- which is mostly that's how Republicans can best save face. They really are pathetic.
Here's the "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" (WBUR) segment which contributor Janice recommends -- libruls, including Paul Krugman, talk about the so-called fiscal cliff:
... AND here's Stephanie Kelton's follow-up.
Matt Spetalnick of Reuters: "President Barack Obama is expected to announce his nominees for secretaries of state and defense in the next two weeks, with former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the short list of potential choices to head the Pentagon, senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Hagel ... met the Democratic president at the White House this week to discuss a post on his national security team."
Carrie Johnson of NPR: "In a tug of war between President Obama and Congress, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments Wednesday on the legality of Obama's controversial recess appointments. The White House says it was forced to install three new members of the National Labor Relations Board in January because of inaction by Senate Republicans. But those lawmakers argue the Senate wasn't really in a recess at the time." With audio.
M. J. Lee & Patrick Reis of Politico: "Senate Democratic leaders have picked [Senator-Elect Elizabeth Warren] to fill one of the [Banking Committee]'s open spots, a Democratic source with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday."
John Bresnehan & Manu Raju of Politico: "Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet will serve as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 2014 election cycle."
Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) writes an excellent op-ed in USA Today on the need for filibuster reform, & he explains why a simple majority of the Senate can change the rules for the filibustering. Spoiler: it's in the Constitution.
NEW. Kate Masur in the Atlantic on Spielberg's Lincoln film: "The compromises that Lincoln did not make are more significant than the ones he did." CW: in other words, quit listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin; she has a VSP agenda, not an accurate historical perspective. BTW, I saw a photo of her (I think) sitting in the President's box at the Kennedy Center Honors gala. I guess that's one way to make her think you're paying her some attention. It won't shut her up, though.
New York Times Editors: Megabank "UBS has reached a conditional immunity deal [for manipulating interest rates] with the antitrust arm of the Justice Department, though the department's criminal unit could still take action against the bank. Unless civil penalties are paired with high profile criminal prosecutions, they will not add up to meaningful punishment or effective deterrence."
Costas Apologizes for Being Right. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "Bob Costas said he made a 'mistake,' violating his own rule of not trying to compress a nuanced topic into small bit of air time, with his controversial halftime commentary Sunday night on the murder-suicide committed by Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs the day before." ...
... Update: Lawrence O'Donnell interviews Bob Costas. Also read the related post:
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Former President George W. Bush weighed back into the nation's volatile immigration debate on Tuesday by calling on policymakers in Washington to revamp the law 'with a benevolent spirit' that recognizes the contribution of those who move here from other countries."
Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic on Thomas Jefferson, slaveholder. BTW, I hope many of you had a chance to read Jefferson's writings on slavery which I linked earlier this week in the Comments section but not in the Commentariat itself.
E. J. Graff of American Prospect has an excellent response to Douthat's column "More Babies, Please." "We can't all be royals."
Bad News. Maureen Dowd is already obsessing over Hillary 2016.
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: Bradley Manning's civilian attorney David "Coombs addressed an audience of Bradley Manning supporters in a Unitarian church in Washington on Monday night and lashed out at the military hierarchy for allowing the intelligence analyst to be subjected to nine months of harsh suicide prevention regime against the advice of doctors. 'Brad's treatment at Quantico will forever be etched into our nation's history as a disgraceful moment in time,' he said."
Jonathan Ansfield of the New York Times: a fatal car crash cover-up led to the downfall of Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Ah, Democracy!
Our Fantastic Electorate. Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "A new poll from Public Policy Polling found that an impressive 39 percent of Americans have an opinion about the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.... Before you start celebrating the new, sweeping reach of the 2010 commission's work, consider this: Twenty-five percent of Americans also took a stance on the Panetta-Burns plan." CW: Unfortunately, Leon & I have not actually developed a deficit-reduction plan. Maybe I should call him.
Our Well-Informed Electorate. Paul Krugman: "... by a margin of almost four to one, people think that going over the fiscal cliff will cause the deficit to increase. In a way, I understand this: the VSPs have been pounding the drum over and over again about how deficits are bad, evil; now they are warning about a fiscal something-or-other, so how are people supposed to know that they're suddenly worried that we'll reduce the deficit too much?"
Our Wacko Right Wing Electorate. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.... 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union.... Since the election we've seen a 5 point increase in Democratic identification to 44%, and a 5 point decrease in Republican identification to 32%." Read the whole post as there are other interesting/odd results.
Right Wing World
Lawrence Downes of the New York Times: "Former Senator Bob Dole, 89 years old and in a wheelchair, went onto the floor of the Senate today to urge his former colleagues to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.... One by one ... the senators approached Mr. Dole to pat his shoulder or clasp his hand.... Then he was wheeled away, and all but a handful of the Republicans bailed out on him. The treaty failed.... The vote was a triumph for Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum and others on the hard-right loon fringe, who have been feverishly denouncing the treaty as a United Nations world-government conspiracy to kill disabled children (you can look it up)." ...
... This treaty was supported by every veterans group in America and Bob Dole made an inspiring and courageous personal journey back to the Senate to fight for it. It had bipartisan support, and it had the facts on its side, and yet for one ugly vote, none of that seemed to matter. We won't give up on this..., but today I understand better than ever before why Americans have such disdain for Congress and just how much must happen to fix the Senate so we can act on the real interests of our country. -- Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Ken Vogel of Politico: "Dick Armey left [the Tea Party group FreedomWorks] ... over a clash with a top lieutenant who Armey and others in the organization believed was using the group's resources to pad his pockets.... Armey was concerned that [FreedomWorks president Matt] Kibbe structured the deal to personally profit from the book, despite relying on FreedomWorks staff and resources to research, help write and promote it -- an arrangement he and others at the group believed could jeopardize its tax exempt status." CW: it's always such a surprise when you find out these guys are avaricious hacks.
News Ledes
One of the reasons I believe in jazz is that the oneness of man can come through the rhythm of your heart. It's the same anyplace in the world, that heartbeat. It's the first thing you hear when you're born -- or before you're born -- and it&'s the last thing you hear. -- Dave Brubeck
New York Times: "Dave Brubeck, the pianist and composer who helped make jazz popular again in the 1950s and '60s with recordings like 'Time Out,' the first jazz album to sell a million copies, and 'Take Five,' the still instantly recognizable hit single that was that album's centerpiece, died on Wednesday in Norwalk, Conn. He would have turned 92 on Thursday."
New York Times: "Oscar Niemeyer, the celebrated Brazilian architect whose flowing designs infused Modernism with a new sensuality and captured the imaginations of generations of architects around the world, died on Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. He was 104."
New York Times: "Angry mobs of Islamists battled secular protesters with fists, rocks and firebombs in the streets around the presidential palace for hours Wednesday night in the first major outbreak of violence between political factions here since the revolt against then-President Hosni Mubarak began nearly two years ago."
New York Times: "President Obama plans to ask Congress for about $50 billion in emergency spending to help rebuild the states ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, according to administration and Congressional officials briefed on the discussions."
New York Times: "Citigroup announced on Wednesday that it would cut 11,000 jobs, reducing its work force by roughly 4 percent in an effort to cut costs."
New York Times: "Rescue teams were trying to reach isolated villages in the southern a powerful out-of-season typhoon tore through the region, leaving more than 270 people dead...."
on Wednesday afterAP: "Serbia's ambassador to NATO was chatting and joking with colleagues in a parking garage at Brussels Airport when he suddenly strolled to a barrier, climbed over and flung himself to the ground below, a diplomat said. By the time his shocked colleagues reached him, Branislav Milinkovic was dead."
AP: "Negotiators reached an agreement late Tuesday to end an 8-day strike that crippled the nation's largest port complex and prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo to warehouses and distribution centers across the country."
Guardian: "The former Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, is on his way to the United States after apparently defecting, the Guardian has learned. Makdissi, the most senior Christian official yet to abandon Bashar al-Assad's regime, was reported on Monday to have variously been sacked or defected and to have arrived back in London, where he used to serve in the Syrian embassy."
Al Jazeera: "NASA plans to send a new rover to Mars in 2020 as it prepares for a manned mission to the Red Planet, the US space agency said on Tuesday. The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life."
AP: "Jack Brooks, who spent 42 years in Congress representing his Southeast Texas district and was in the Dallas motorcade in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, has died. He was 89.... Brooks was among the last links to an era when Democrats dominated Texas politics and was the last of 'Mr. Sam's Boys,' protégés of fellow Texan and legendary 21-year Democratic House Speaker Sam Rayburn in the state's congressional delegation." CW: the last of the breed: liberal-ish Southern white Congressmen.