The Commentariat -- Nov. 29, 2012
I had a request to tackle Friedman or MoDo yesterday, but their columns were so stupid that I decided to hit one that was more important -- a front-page piece by Jackie Calmes who treats Erskine Bowles & Alan Simpson as a couple of good-hearted, fun-loving old pranksters. ...
... Charles Pierce goes at Simpson & Bowles directly & mentions the Calmes piece only in passing. As ever, Pierce gets it right: "Everything that's wrong with how we are currently discussing the country's economic situation can be summed up in two words — Simpson-Bowles."
It was deeply irresponsible in the summer of 2011, and it would be deeply irresponsible if we were to see that kind of approach taken again.... The president absolutely expects congress to do its job. One of the jobs that Congress has it to make sure that the United States government pays its bill. As the greatest economy and greatest country on earth, we pay our bills.... The harm done was done mostly to the American middle class – we had our economy downgraded, we had consumer confidence plunge, all because of this brinksmanship that is entirely inappropriate. We hope we won't see that again. – Jay Carney, at today's press briefing, in response to Speaker John Boehner's remark that any agreement from Republicans to raise the debt limit would come with “a price tag attached”
** Romney, Middle-Class President! CW: I keep forgetting to run this. Stuart Stevens, Romney's chief campaign strategist, wrote an op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post boasting about the great job he did: "On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income. That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters. While John McCain lost white voters younger than 30 by 10 points, Romney won those voters by seven points, a 17-point shift. Obama received 4½million fewer voters in 2012 than 2008, and Romney got more votes than McCain." That's right, folks. If it weren't for you 47 percenter-moochers, the world would be right (in both senses of the word) & Mitt Romney would not just be visiting the White House today; he & Lady Ann would be measuring the drapes. ...
... Oh for effs sake. I just read the Stu Stevens piece and my BRAIN IS BURNING WITH FIRE. -- Rick Wilson, GOP strategist ...
... Kevin Robillard & Katie Glueck of Politico: "Stuart Stevens re-emergence this week after Mitt Romney’s trouncing on Nov. 6 has served to rekindle the longstanding gripes about the Republican strategist from many in the GOP who feared from the get-go that he was the wrong person for the job of electing a new president."
In anticipation of President Obama's Lunch Date with a Loser today, Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico writes about past presidents' interactions with their rivals for the job. ...
... Update. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney met with President Obama at the White House on Thursday for what aides had previously described as a private, one-on-one lunch in the president’s private dining room." CW: President Obama had his usual lunch of salad and yoghurt. The White House chef prepared a main course of crow for the Loser, with a huge slice of humble pie for dessert. The President personally wrapped the leftovers to be enjoyed by the Loser's large family of Little Losers.
... Loser Dad Forced to Move in with Son. Steve Peoples of the AP: "Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is moving into office space at his son’s Boston-area venture capital firm."
President Obama made remarks Wednesday before a full Cabinet meeting:
Finally, somebody speaks actual truth to power. Matt Yglesias of Salon: "The grand bargain is impossible because it’s not possible for today’s Congress to bind the hands of future congresses." Now everybody STFU.
CW: BTW, pundits will be spending the next month predicting who will do what in the tax talks. I predict I will mostly ignore all but the most significant or most ridiculous stuff.
2011 Is So Over. Steve Kornacki: "Barack Obama made a giant mistake with the debt ceiling two years ago -- but he's clearly learned from it." This time he won't allow the GOP to decouple the debt ceiling deal from the rest of the tax package. CW: what's weird is that it was obvious way before the summer of 2011 that Republicans would block everything Obama wanted to do because -- Republicans had blocked everything Obama wanted to do. Why did it take the debt ceiling crisis to convince him? ...
... A $19 Billion Tea Party Extravaganza -- on Your Tab. Bonnie Kavoussi of the Huff Post: "Last summer's seemingly interminable debt-ceiling battle is going to cost taxpayers billions, according to a new report. All told, the political fiasco will cost taxpayers $18.9 billion over 10 years, the Bipartisan Policy Center has found. That's largely the result of the government having to borrow at higher interest rates during the standoff, a time when investors feared the possibility of a default." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.
The President has said many times that the American people are demanding action. They want to see progress, not partisan delay games. That hasn't changed, and the President supports Majority Leader Reid's efforts to reform the filibuster process. Over the past few years important pieces of legislation like the DREAM Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and the American Jobs Act weren't even allowed to be debated, and judicial nominations and key members of the administration are routinely forced to wait months for an up-or-down vote. The American people deserve a United States Senate that puts them first, instead of partisan delay. -- Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director ...
... Gail Collins muses on Republican outrage at Harry Reid's planned tweaks to the filibuster.
Jared Bernstein on Medicare cuts: "... now’s the time to watch and evaluate, not to reduce access to what is a highly efficient, effective form of health coverage for the nation’s seniors." He explains why. ...
... Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic concurs: "The advocates for deep entitlement reductions don’t seem to realize that the people on Medicare and Medicaid need the protection those programs provide — and that, without those programs, they’d suffer. Given the very significant chance we can reduce health care spending without reducing benefits, we have an obligation to try. It’s the compassionate thing to do. And the smart thing, too."
Charles Pierce finds something about Susan Rice actually worth some inquiry -- she owns between $300K & $600K of TransCanada & other Canadian oil company stock invested in the Keystone XL pipeline project. As Secretary of State, Rice would determine whether or not to approve the pipeline permit. As Pierce writes, "as something to consider in advance of her nomination, this certainly seems more worthy of inquiry than whatever bats are flying out of McCain's ears these days." ...
... NEW. Scott Shane writes a very good piece in the New York Times on the nonsense over the talking points intelligence agencies gave Susan Rice, a political brouhaha that may also take in CIA Acting Director Michael Morrell, who approved an erroneous phrase in the talking points.
Too Big to Remember. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone reads a deposition of former Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan: "... the just-released Moynihan deposition in MBIA v. Bank of America, Countrywide, and a Buttload of Other Shameless Mortgage Fraudsters will go down as one of the great Nixonian-stonewalling efforts ever, and one of the more entertaining reads of the year.... The entire time, the Bank of America CEO presents himself as a Being There-esque cipher who was placed in charge of a Too-Big-To-Fail global banking giant by some kind of historical accident beyond his control, and appears to know little to nothing at all about the business he is running."
Right Wing World
The really nice thing about Right Wing World is that you don't have to wonder what the guy on the other end of the phone looks like. You pretty much know. Because, yes indeed, in Right Wing World, everybody looks alike. Here's Rachel Maddow's Clip 'n Save:
James Hohmann of Politico: speaking of diversity & reaching out to Latinos, blacks & women, Virginia Republicans are settling on State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli as their nominee for governor, the winger who "spearheaded a lawsuit against Obamacare," has been nutso on immigration, is rabid on environmental regulation and is, as Charles Pierce writes, "a lifelong transvaginalist." ...
... Oh, Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. CW: Cuccinelli should be popular with black voters, too. When he realized the Virginia state seal depicted the goddess Virtus with a bare breast (oh, no!), Cuccinelli drew up his very own personal seal based on the center of the Confederate flag. Okay. Virginian Julian Walker asked in The Richmonder, "Does the current Republican Party of Virginia do anything without first asking 'What would Jefferson Davis do?'"