The Commentariat -- March 17, 2013

Faith & Begorrah! I've been working so hard I forgot it was St. Paddy's Day. No corned beef and green beer at our house this year. Also, another day of next to no posting for me. I should be getting back to normal-ish Monday. -- CW

** David Taylor of BBC News: "Declassified tapes of President Lyndon Johnson's telephone calls provide a fresh insight into his world. Among the revelations - he planned a dramatic entry into the 1968 Democratic Convention to re-join the presidential race. And he caught Richard Nixon sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks... but said nothing."

Andrew O'Hehir in Salon on a progressive view of the papacy. Hint. It's a fraud! Thanks to contributor Barbarossa for the link. A very interesting perspective.

Right Wing World

The Perfect Couple. "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced Sarah Palin on Saturday, crediting her for his election." -- New York Times. AP photo.Sarah Wheaton of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin's ... reception at a large gathering of conservatives on Saturday underscored her enduring popularity with the right. In a speech here, she offered zingers for the Republican base but also a strenuous defense of her Tea Party friends who are challenging the Republican establishment." ...

... Rebecca Schoenkopf of Wonkette sorta liveblogged Palin's speech, so if you just happened to miss it, Schoenkopf's re-cap is mighty helpful.

Jillian Rayfield of Salon: "A panel hosted by the Tea Party Patriots, intended to teach CPAC attendees how to fight back against charges that they are racist, devolved quickly into the crowd shouting down a liberal black woman who repeatedly tried to ask questions." CW: we're not racists; we just think black people should be grateful to slaveholders for feeding & clothing them. Yes, both these views were sincerely expressed during the panel discussion. The ungrateful slaves guy is Scott Terry, & apparently one of his fave books is "Slavery Defended," which convinced him that slavery was "a moral good." ...

... So then after a white guy screams at a black guy, they throw the black guy out.

Pretend President Paul Wins Another Election. Emily Schultheis & James Hohmann of Politico: "Rand Paul edged out Marco Rubio in the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, reinforcing their standing as the preeminent favorites of the Republican base heading into 2016. Sen. Paul (R-Ky.) received 25 percent and Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) 23 percent of the 2,930 votes cast by attendees at the conference. Former Sen. Rick Santorum finished third, with 8 percent."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged in an interview Friday that he’s open to a presidential bid and pointedly declined to pledge to serve a full four-year term if he’s reelected next year." CW: I also am open to a presidential bid. If elected, I will serve. I hope most of you are polished your oaths of office, too. (You'd better. You won't get much help from CJ Roberts.)

The Commentariat -- March 16, 2013

I will be away again most of the day today, so I won't be posting. -- Marie

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section.

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: the White House put out a chart yesterday that suggests Medicare is no longer growing faster than G.D.P., which is at odds with most projections. ...

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "And if that's the case, there's really no deficit problem.... What this really means is that we need an immediate moratorium on 'grand bargain' talk." CW: can you hear us now, Mr. Prez?

Michael Tomasky of Newsweek: "When Republicans say Obama needs to show 'leadership,' what they mean is that he ought to just embrace the Ryan budget."

Sahil Kapur of TPM: "House Republicans unanimously voted down a measure Friday that would have raised the federal minimum wage, from its current $7.25 per hour to $10.10 by 2015. Six Democrats joined 227 Republicans in voting it down; 184 Democrats voted yes. The legislation was proposed as a last-minute amendment upon passage of the SKILLS Act, which reauthorizes a jobs training program." CW: Quick, somebody put all the kids of House Republicans to work at minimum wage. (See Sen. Rob Portman [R-Ohio]. sudden gay-rights advocate.) ...

... Jonathan Chait: "By Portman’s own account..., he opposed gay marriage until he realized that opposition to gay marriage stands in the way of his own son's happiness.... The signal failure of conservative thought is an inability to give any weight to the perspective of the disadvantaged.... Why should any of us come away from his conversion trusting that Portman is thinking on any issue about what's good for all of us, rather than what's good for himself and the people he knows?" ...

... Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Mr. Portman said that he and his wife were surprised to learn their son was gay but that they 'were 100 percent supportive.' Supportive enough to tell the Romney campaign that his son was gay, but not supportive enough to back off his public opposition to equal rights for gay people while he was under consideration for the V.P. slot.... He says that the issue of marriage equality should be left up to the states.... Until this week, Mr. Obama also took that position as part of his 'evolution' on the issue, but has now dropped it. And for good reason. It's sort of like, say, letting states decide whether to ban inter-racial marriage."

Ted Cruz Doesn't Understand the Constitution. Greg Sargent: "The truly wrongheaded aspects of his remarks concern his assertions about the First and Fourth Amendments -- which embody a simplistic view of the Bill of Rights." See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's Comments section. I don't know if Patrick is a lawyer, but I know he's smarter than Ted Cruz. One of the most striking problems of conservatism is that it seems to preclude its adherents from seeing the world in terms other than stark black-and-white. ...

... Gail Collins: Cruz "could not have asked [Feinstein his Bill of Rights question] in a more patronizing way if he had illustrated his remarks with pictures of large, brightly colored stick figures.... Cruz sat sullenly while Feinstein gave her response. 'I would note that she chose not to answer the question that I asked,' he said when she finished. Other Democratic senators jumped in and pointed out some of the ways that other parts of the Bill of Rights were, indeed, limited by exceptions. Interestingly, none of the Republicans came to Cruz's support."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure to reinstate a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004. The vote followed the passage of three other measures: one that would expand the use of background checks to private gun sales, one that would make the already illegal practice of buying a gun for someone who is legally barred from having one -- known as a straw purchase -- a felony and increase penalties for the crime, and one that would renew and increase financing for school safety efforts." Now the question is what will Harry Reid -- friend of the NRA -- do?

Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "A top JPMorgan Chase executive struggled to defend his actions on Friday as lawmakers scrutinized the bank's multibillion-dollar trading loss. For nearly an hour, the executive, Douglas L. Braunstein, was berated for playing down JPMorgan's risky bets to investors and regulators on a conference call in April, just weeks before the bank disclosed the costly blowup.... The long, and often tense, Congressional hearing on Friday put JPMorgan in a tough position. While the investment bank has tried to distance itself from the trading debacle, the hearing, which follows a nine-month inquiry, is renewing the pressure on JPMorgan and its influential chief executive, Jamie Dimon."

Daniel Wakin, et al., of the New York Times: "For the first time since the election of Pope Francis two days ago, the Vatican on Friday formally defended him from accusations that, decades ago, in the so-called Dirty War in his home country of Argentina, he knew about serious human rights abuses but failed to do enough to halt them. The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said there had 'never been a credible accusation against him' relating to the period in the 1970s when he was the superior of the Jesuit order in Argentina." CW: well, all right then. That settles that, doesn't it? ...

... Rachel Maddow speaks to Sister Simone Campbell about Pope Francis. Thanks to Waltwis for the heads-up:

... The New Yorker's Joan Acocella and Margaret Talbot join host Amy Davidson to discuss how Pope Francis might change the Church.

Local News

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The House of Delegates voted 82-56 to repeal Maryland's death penalty on Friday, making the state the sixth in as many years to abolish executions and delivering a major legislative victory to Gov. Martin O'Malley. The bill, which passed the Senate last week, now heads to the governor for his signature. O'Malley (D) has lobbied lawmakers for years to end capital punishment, and he put the full weight of his office behind it this session."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "Little more than a week after Arkansas adopted the country's most stringent abortion limits, banning the procedure at 12 weeks of pregnancy, the North Dakota Legislature on Friday passed a more restrictive bill that would ban most abortions as early as 6 weeks into pregnancy. The Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, also passed a second measure that would ban abortions sought because of a genetic abnormality or to select the sex of the child. Both bills must be signed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple, a Republican, to become law. As of Friday afternoon, the governor had not said whether he would do so.No other state has barred abortions because of evidence that a fetus has a genetic defect like Down syndrome, which rises in incidence with maternal age, leading many pregnant women to seek tests for the disorder.

Right Wing World

Dana Milbank: "The cardinals of the conservative movement, assembling for their annual [CPAC] confab, skipped the usual recitations of their common creed in favor of an emotional and inconclusive argument over what had gone wrong with their movement, how it could be fixed, and who, in a puff of white smoke, could lead them to spiritual renewal."

Aaron Blake & William Branigin of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney made a wistful but triumphant return to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, receiving standing ovations from the audience as he expressed optimism about the Republican Party's future and vowed to work with conservatives to achieve 'larger victories' after failing to win last year's presidential election." Article includes briefs on other brilliant CPAC speeches.

Steve Benen: "How does Wayne LaPierre argue against an idea that 91% of Americans endorse? According to his speech at CPAC, by repeating some of the silliest paranoia imaginable.... LaPierre is creating an imaginary threat to an imaginary proposal. His entire fantasy is built on the notion that a background check system necessarily means a national registry -- that there is no effort to create such a registry in reality is an inconvenient detail he prefers to ignore."

The Commentariat -- Ides of March 2013

I will be away most of the day today, so I won't be posting. -- Marie

Please sign the White House petition "Save Social Security." If you think means-testing is a good idea, see my argument as to why it is not -- it's the 12th comment in the Comments section. ...

... Greg Sargent: "Multiple reports out today suggest that Dem leaders in the House and Senate are edging towards supporting Chained CPI for Social Security as part of the 'grand bargain' Obama wants to replace the sequester with -- and that's already sparking sharp pushback from Congressional liberals." CW: there is no excuse for this. None.

John Broder of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday will propose diverting money from oil and gas leases on federal lands to finance research on replacing hydrocarbons in cars and trucks."

Paul Krugman: "Way back in 2010, when everybody in Washington seemed determined to anoint Representative Paul Ryan as the ultimate Serious, Honest Conservative, I pronounced him a flimflam man.... Since then, his budgets have gotten even flimflammier.... This time around, quite a few pundits and reporters have greeted his release with the derision it deserves.... The Senate Democratic plan ... is ... an extremely cautious proposal, one that doesn't follow through on its own analysis.... The proposal from the Congressional Progressive Caucus ... calls for substantial new spending now, temporarily widening the deficit, offset by major deficit reduction later in the next decade, largely though not entirely through higher taxes on the wealthy, corporations and pollution." That's the plan Krugman likes. ...

... Steve Benen likes it, too: "... on Capitol Hill, when it comes to creating millions of jobs in a hurry, this is the only game in town" -- the CPC budget.

Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "A provision to keep Saturday [postal] deliveries, being considered as part of a Senate budget resolution, is similar to legislation that the House passed last week, but it is unclear what Congress can do to compel the Postal Service to continue delivering mail six days a week. The agency does not receive federal appropriations, getting nearly all of its $65 billion in revenue from the sale of stamps and other services."

"I Am Not a Sixth-Grader." Dianne Feinstein really does not Joe McCarthy, Jr., giving her a condescending lecture on the Bill of Rights:

     ... Update. Kevin Liptak of CNN: "Saying she felt 'patronized' by Senate colleague Ted Cruz, Sen. Dianne Feinstein explained Thursday why she felt the need to raise her voice in anger at the Texas Republican during a debate over gun control. 'I felt he was somewhat arrogant about it,' Feinstein said...." CW: funny, everybody else felt that way, too. With video.

Carol Leonnig & Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "A federal grand jury in Miami is investigating Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), examining his role in advocating for the business interests of a wealthy donor and friend.... Menendez has intervened in matters affecting the financial interests of Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, seeking to apply pressure on the Dominican government to honor a contract with Melgen's port-security company, documents and interviews show. Also, Menendez's office has acknowledged he interceded with federal health-care officials after they said that Melgen had overbilled the U.S. government for care at his clinic."

Political scientist John Sides, writing in Salon, argues that the "47-percent" video had little to no impact on the presidential election. CW: one thing Sides doesn't mention in his post -- so maybe he & his colleague didn't test for it -- was potential voters' degree of certainty. It seems to me that the 47-percent remark would have the effect of cementing people's impressions of Romney. Up till then, anyone watching the election closely would know Romney didn't give a flying fuck for ordinary Americans, but casual voters probably did not have enough info to form an opinion. The 47 percent tape -- which got extensive media attention -- left little doubt about Romney's view of us unwashed masses.

Kevin Cirilli of Politico: "Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), once a staunch opponent of gay marriage, says that he now supports same-sex nuptials after his son told him he was gay." CW: typical of so many Republicans, Portman can dredge up some empathy only after a situation directly affects him. So sorry, I'm not impressed. This was a no-brainer before he found out his son was gay -- something he learned, BTW, two years ago.

     ... Update. Here's Portman's self-serving op-ed in the Columbus Dispatch. Something about God & soul-searching. ...

     ... CW Update 2. I see Steve Benen has precisely the same take I had: "Why must empathy among conservatives be tied so directly to their own personal interactions?" He adds,

It seems the key to American social progress in the 21st century is simple: more conservatives having more life experiences. Indeed, I'd be glad to introduce Republican lawmakers to more Americans who are poor, in the hopes they'll stop trying to cut health care programs; students, in the hopes they'll stop opposing education investments; women, in the hopes they'll stop opposing women's health care; and African Americans, in the hopes that they'll stop supporting voter-suppression tactics.... If [Portman's] son came out as unemployed, would the senator give another look to economic stimulus and extended jobless benefits?

Aruna Viswanatha & Emily Flitter of Reuters: JPMorgan Chase & Co ignored risks, misled investors, fought with regulators and tried to work around rules as it dealt with mushrooming losses in a derivatives portfolio, a Senate report alleged in a damning review of the largest U.S. bank's management. Senior managers at the bank were told for months about the bad derivatives bets that ended up costing the bank more than $6.2 billion but did little to rein them in, according to the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on Thursday."

Tim Egan has hopes for the pope. ...

... Jon Anderson in the New Yorker: "Whatever the truth, Francis the Humble, it would seem, has much to clear up about what he thought, how he behaved, and what he did during his country's Dirty War."

Right Wing World

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones lists "Nine CPAC Events We Initially Thought Were Parodies."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The United States will deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors along the Pacific Coast to increase the Pentagon's ability to blunt a potential attack from North Korea, in a clear response to recent tests of nuclear weapons technology and long-range missiles by the North."

New York Times: "Two affiliates of SAC Capital, the giant hedge fund, settled insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $614 million on Friday, in what the agency said was the biggest ever settlement for such cases. The settlements spare SAC's founder, the billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who hasn't been charged with wrongdoing. Mr. Cohen, one of the most successful hedge fund managers in the world, has long been considered a target of federal investigators."

AP: "... alleged victims of clergy abuse in the U.S. are demanding swift and bold actions from the new Jesuit pontiff: Defrock all molester priests and the cardinals who covered up for them, formally apologize, and release all confidential church files."

ABC News: "A critical eyewitness testified in the Steubenville, Ohio, rape trial this morning, saying he watched and recorded a high school football player accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl penetrate the alleged victim with his finger in the back seat of a car. Mark Cole, 16, was in the car with the defendants Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, as they drove from one alcohol-fueled party to his home on the night of Aug. 11. All three boys played football together at Steubenville High School."

Reuters: "Italy's new parliament sat on Friday for the first time since an inconclusive general election produced a political stalemate that meant deputies and senators were unable even to elect speakers for either chamber."