The Commentariat -- May 20, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on "Willard's Whoppers." The NYTX front page is here.

** David Sanger of the New York Times on the evolution of President Obama's thinking on Afghanistan. This is an adaptation of part of a book by Sanger & really is a must-read. CW: Main takeaway: Obama agreed with reasonable peaceniks all along. I'd love to read your reactions. Secondary takeaway: it looks to me as if the military was able to snooker Obama in a way it ultimately lost to Kennedy's better judgment in the Cuban missile crisis.

New York Times Editors: "Racial discrimination in voting is 'one of the gravest evils that Congress can seek to redress,.' Judge David Tatel wrote in a crucial ruling on Friday upholding the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act."

Maureen Dowd: "... it makes me sad to see the Catholic Church grow so uncatholic, intent on loyalty testing, mind control and heresy hunting. Rather than all-embracing, the church hierarchy has become all-constricting."

In comments to yesterday's Commentariat, P. D. Pepe mentioned a book review by Prof. David Greenberg, writing in The New Republic, of a Dwight Eisenhower biography by Jean Edward Smith. Here's the link. 

Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: the cause of the now-$3 billion JPMorgan Chase loss -- Lyme disease! CW: if you read this story, keep in the back of your mind James Kwak's observation that JPMorgan was simply regressing toward the mean. The two theories -- the Times' and Kwak's -- are not necessarily mutually exclusive. ...

... Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "Aside from the embarrassment and the short-term financial hit, the real damage to JPMorgan is that it exposed how the big Wall Street banks were planning to get around the new Volcker rule....: The way JPMorgan traders constructed their "hedges" "has very little to do with hedging and a lot to do with gambling.... What useful social or economic purpose do [credit default swaps/derivatives] serve?" Actually, the CDSs cause a lot of damage -- for instance, the 2008 financial crisis. "Banking and finance have become too detached from the real economy they were meant to serve."

Dan Eggen & T. W. Farnam of the Washington Post: "Conservative interest groups have dumped well over $20 million into congressional races so far this year, outspending their liberal opponents 4 to 1 and setting off a growing panic among Democrats struggling to regain the House and hold on to their slim majority in the Senate."

Presidential Race

Nancy Cohen, writing in Rolling Stone, on the many, many reasons "President Romney" would be a disaster for women.

Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: Mitt's policies are Mormon policies, but none of his friends can figure out how Romney rationalizes his untruthful attacks on his political opponents. P.S. He used to pray for Bain Capital!

Right Wing World

It Depends upon What the Meaning of "Entitlement" Is. Jed Lugum & Josh Israel of Think Progress: Joe Ricketts was ready to spend $10 million to smear President Obama, but after members of the press & the public criticized that plan, Ricketts has decided instead to put the money into a superPac he controls called "Ending Spending Political Action Fund." Yet he has asked taxpayers to spend hundreds of millions on him and his family. When it comes to spending on his interests, however, Ricketts sings a different tune. CW: read the whole post.

News Ledes

Rolling Stone: "Robin Gibb, one-third of the Bee Gees, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, his spokesperson has confirmed via a statement. Gibb was 62 years old."

Washington Post: "Republican leaders doubled down Sunday on a renewed push to secure spending cuts as part of any deal to increase the national debt limit, drawing a sharper line in an emerging fight over the issue."

Reuters: "The former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people has died, his brother said on Sunday. He was 59. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi died at home after a long battle with cancer. His health had deteriorated quickly overnight, his brother Abdulhakim told Reuters."

AP: "World leaders weary of war will tackle Afghanistan's post-conflict future -- from funding for security forces to upcoming elections -- when the summit opens Sunday." ...

... New York Times: "The United States and Pakistan are not expected to secure a deal to reopen supply lines to Afghanistan before a NATO summit begins on Sunday, casting a pall over talks that are to focus on winding down the alliance’s combat role in the Afghan war, American officials said." ...

... AP: "Protesters gathering in Chicago for the NATO summit were gearing up for their largest demonstration Sunday, when thousands are expected to march from a downtown park to the lakeside convention center where President Barack Obama and dozens of other world leaders will meet."

AP: "Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting campaign spending. The states led by New York are asking the high court to preserve Montana's state-level regulations on corporate political expenditures, according to a copy of a brief written by New York's attorney general's office and obtained by The Associated Press ahead of Monday's filing."

AP: "The western United States and eastern Asia will be treated this weekend to a rare solar spectacle when the moon slides across the sun, creating a 'ring of fire.' The solar spectacle will first be seen in eastern Asia around dawn Monday, local time.... Then, the late day sun (on Sunday in the U.S.) will transform into a glowing ring in southwest Oregon, Northern California, central Nevada, southern Utah, northern Arizona and New Mexico and finally the Texas Panhandle." Use protective eyewear.

AP: "Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to 'married' on Saturday. Zuckerberg and 27-year-old Priscilla Chan tied the knot at a small ceremony at his Palo Alto, Calif., home, capping a busy week for the couple."

Priscilla Chen & new hubby.

The Commentariat -- May 19, 2012

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here. Reuters: "President Barack Obama on Saturday called on the U.S. Congress to back his efforts for tough new financial industry oversight, saying a $2 billion trading loss at JPMorgan underscored the need for such regulation."

Former First Lady Laura Bush in a Washington Post op-ed: "Many of the vital gains that Afghan women have achieved over the past decade were made because of the sacrifice and support of the United States and the broader NATO alliance.... As the U.S. and NATO mission in Afghanistan changes, the world must remember the women of Afghanistan."

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: "At least it's on the record: Most House Republicans support the indefinite detention without trial of American citizens.... If nothing else..., it's illuminating to watch 'small-government' Republicans -- who have spent the last three years lamenting the loss of freedom caused by a higher marginal tax rate or the regulation of derivatives -- defend the most arbitrary big government power imaginable." ...

New York Times Editors: "On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down a law allowing the indefinite detention of anyone suspected of terrorism on American soil as a violation of free speech and due process. Two days later, the House made it clear it considered those to be petty concerns, voting to keep the repellent practice of indefinite detention on the books.... The overall defense bill was approved by the House, and President Obama has threatened to veto it -- not because it fails to prohibit detention, but because it violates an agreement on the military budget and tries to prohibit same-sex marriages on military property, among other flaws. The Senate has an opportunity to fix this bill to restore the due-process rights found in the Constitution."

Paul Krugman: "Since former President Bush is going to favor us with a book on How to Succeed in Economic Policy Without Really Trying -- and since Mitt Romney is essentially planning a return to Bushonomics -- it might be worth looking at Bush's job record compared with that of Obama so far." CW: Ha!

Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "... our national conversation about contraceptives isn’t over -- and that groups on the both sides intend to keep the discussion very much alive." ...

... Irin Carmon of Salon on House Subcommittee to Oppress Women (Especially Women of Color) Chairman Trent Franks' [RTP-Ariz.] refusal to allow Washington, D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton to speak before his committee on his plan to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District. Norton would have said "the so-called Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act 'is the first bill ever introduced in Congress that would deny constitutional rights to the citizens of only one jurisdiction in the United States....'" Carmon notes, "The National Right to Life Committee has called the bill its 'top congressional priority for 2012,' and will score members based on their votes, even though it likely has no chance of getting past the Senate -- or the president." CW Note: Carmon didn't designate the official name of the subcommittee, so I was just guessing there.

Tom Friedman, You're an Idiot. Brendan Nyhan in the Columbia Journalism Review: "What’s so frustrating about pundits' hype of Americans Elect is that its failure was so predictable."

Matt Gutman of ABC News: "A closer look at the witness statements and audio testimony taken in the immediate aftermath Trayvon Martin's death provides the first insight into George Zimmerman's behavior after he shot the unarmed teen." ...

... Serge Kovaleski of the New York Times: "A girl who talked on the phone with Trayvon Martin on the night of Feb. 26 has told a state prosecutor [under oath] that she heard rising fear in Mr. Martin's voice that peaked with words like 'get off, get off,' right before she lost contact with him and he was shot to death." ...

... Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Among the evidence in the Trayvon Martin case released by the Florida state prosecutor yesterday was a 15-minute interview with a former work colleague of George Zimmerman. The man, who is not identified by name, says that Zimmerman relentlessly bullied him at work. Zimmerman, according to the witness, targeted him because he was Middle Eastern." Includes audio of interview.

Benedict Carey of the New York Times: Prominent psychiatrist Robert Spitzer is sorry for his "sexual orientation disturbance." He apologizes to the LGBT community.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, earmarks $17,000 drip pans for Black Hawk helicopters. Comparable pans cost $2,500.

The Excellence in Journalism Prize Goes to Runner-up Is ... the National Review. Alex Pareene of Salon: "The National Review says Elizabeth Warren is guilty of the gravest crime a writer can commit: Plagiarism. Katrina Trinko compares passages from 'All Your Worth: The Ultimate Money Lifetime Plan,' Warren's book with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, with passages from 'Getting on the Money Track,' a book by Rob Black. The passages line up perfectly. The wording and even the punctuation are identical. It’s plagiarism all right. Except it looks very much like Warren is actually the victim." Later, editor Rich Lowry acknowledged the mistake & took down the story. CW: wouldn't it have been clever to fact-check the story before publishing it? Pareene found it awfully easy to debunk the National Review's claim. ...

... The Excellence in Journalism Prize Goes to the Washington Times. Mariah Blake of Salon: "...in a handful of columns over the last year [Washington Times columnist & former editor Arnaud de Borchgrave] has lifted passages verbatim, or nearly verbatim, from the Internet and other sources, without attribution -- a fact the Washington Times' leadership tried to sweep under the rug, according to insiders at the paper." CW: read the story; it's pretty amazing.

Presidential Race

Willard's Whoppers. Steve Benen: the Mittster racked up 19 lies this week. "I'm curious," he writes, "is Romney also allowed a certain number of falsehoods before people begin to doubt his character? And if so, what is that number?"

What Would Willard Do? Greg Sargent notes that Thursday, Romney said, "America's economy runs on freedom. And he has been attacking economic freedom from the first day he came into office." Sargent responds, "What's missing from this narrative is what, if anything, Romney would have done if he had been president in January of 2009, when the economy was on the brink of global meltdown. The implication of Romney's remarks above is that doing nothing at all would have been preferable to what Obama did." C[mon, reporters, if Willard ever lets you ask him a question (and he's trying hard not to), that's a good one to ask.

CW: I think Krugman is onto something: "My take has always been that [Romney is] a smart guy who also happens to be both ambitious and completely amoral.... More and more, however, he has been coming out with statements suggesting that he is, in fact, a dangerous fool.... I'm beginning to suspect that ... outside of whatever he did at Bain, Romney really is ignorant as well as uncaring."

Andrew Leonard of Salon: "When Meg Whitman ran for governor of California in 2010, the former eBay CEO told voters that her business background made her the right choice to boost job creation in a state troubled by high unemployment.... It’s the same spiel we hear from Mitt Romney every single day." As the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard, she "is planning to cut its workforce by around 30,000 jobs." HP is probably more likely to take the money saved via a tax break and spend it on a new R&D center in Shanghai than it is to staff up in Silicon Valley." CW: also, as I noted in yesterday's News Ledes, Whitman promised as governor she would create 500,000 jobs a year in California. Right.

Gail Collins looks forward to the party conventions, for which "you, the taxpayer, are paying." So enjoy!

Right Wing World *

Remington Shepard of Media Matters: Joe Ricketts & Mitt Romney drop the Jeremiah Wright hoohah, but Hannity & Friends can't let go.

In yesterday's comments, contributor James Singer obliquely suggested that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett was beyond description. Ever curious, I wanted to know why. Well, here ya go: Catalina Carnia of USA Today: "... Ken Bennett, a Republican exploring a 2014 race for governor, issued a statement insisting he is not a 'birther....'" [But] "Bennett told a radio interviewer yesterday it was 'possible' he would keep Obama off the ballot if the" State of Hawaii doesn't provide him with verification of little Barry's birth certificate. CW: if you are an Arizona resident (& not a damned foreigner) & are looking for a sinecure, you might think of running for secretary of state. Apparently, it is a job that leaves plenty of time to do whatever the hell you feel like.

* Where undermining the government is the primary function of the government.

News Ledes

New York Times: "For the second straight race, the Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another ran down Bodemeister in deep stretch, winning the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore."

Reuters: "World leaders backed keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by Europe's debt crisis. A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity -- an approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- with a dose of U.S.-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing euro-zone economies."

Chicago Tribune: "Three out-of-state men arrested in a Bridgeport [Illinois?] apartment raid days before the NATO summit considered hitting President Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's house and police stations with 'incendiary devices,' according to court documents. The trio, who are being held on $1.5 million bond apiece, are charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, providing material support for terrorism and possession of an explosive or incendiary device."

Reuters: "Around 500 demonstrators gathered outside the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Saturday to protest the recent closure of mental health clinics as part of a series of rallies and marches timed to coincide with a NATO summit here. But the protest was much smaller than one attended by an estimated 2,500 people at a downtown plaza on Friday. The biggest rally is expected to be on Sunday near the convention center where world leaders will gather."

New York Times: "Walter Wink, an influential liberal theologian whose views on homosexuality, nonviolence and the nature of Jesus challenged orthodox interpretations, died on May 10 at his home in Sandisfield, Mass. He was 76."

AP: "A blind Chinese activist was hurriedly taken from a hospital Saturday and boarded a plane that took off for the United States, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations. Chen Guangcheng, his wife and their two children were on United Airlines Flight 88, which took off late Saturday afternoon from the Beijing airport. The flight was scheduled to arrive in Newark, N.J., Saturday evening. ...

     ... New York Times Update: 'Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal advocate who made an improbable escape from virtual house arrest and sought refuge in the American Embassy here, arrived in Newark on Saturday, ending a fraught diplomatic drama that threatened to disrupt relations between China and the United States."

NEW. Los Angeles Times: "The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31% and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry. The Commerce Department announced the stiff duties Thursday after making a preliminary finding that Chinese solar panel manufacturers 'dumped' their goods -- that is, sold them at below fair-market value."

NBC News: "A key witness to the Trayvon Martin shooting changed the story he had given Sanford, Fla., police, telling state authorities he was not sure who was screaming during the altercation with George Zimmerman. The man known as Witness #6 originally told Sanford police Zimmerman cried for help.... On March 20, according to the Orlando Sentinel, while sitting for a follow-up interview by a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigator the witness said that he was no longer sure who was calling for help."

The Commentariat -- May 18, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXamner is on David Brooks' column today. The NYTX front page is here. ...

... Dean Baker has a good post on Brooks, too.

To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority. -- -- James Madison, letter to Rev. F.C. Schaeffer, January 8, 1820

Sorry, President Madison. You don't get ...

... The Quote of the Day. I stand by what I said, whatever it was. -- Mitt Romney *

* Translation: I make up so much shit, how can I be expected to know what I said, for Pete's sake? What it was, was Romney's invoking Jeremiah Wright to claim that Obama was trying to make this "a less Christian nation" a few months ago, even though now he says bringing up Wright is just wrong. See Charles Pierce on Romney's whining, in the Presidential Race section below.

** Thomas Mann & Norm Ornstein in the Washington Post on what will & won't work to mitigate partisan politics. Point One: banish Tom Friedman.

Paul Krugman: The euro "could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs -- both economic and, arguably even more important, political -- could be huge."

Democracy Now! Always good, better with Krugman (begins about 22 min. in). Thanks to Dave S. for the link:

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones: "On Wednesday, Obama-appointed(!) Judge Katherine B. Forrest blocked the section of last year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that purported to 'reaffirm' the 2001 authorization to use military force against Al Qaeda. A group of activists and journalists had argued that the vague wording of the law could subject them to indefinite military detention because their work brings them into contact with people whom the US considers to be terrorists...." CW: For more on this, see the first part of the Democracy Now! video where Chris Hedges -- one of the plaintiffs -- and his lawyer speak to Amy Goodman about the case.

Let's Go Shopping at Safeway, Ladies. The President flew into the White House lawn. A Secret Service agent greeted him at the helicopter. The President was carrying two pigs under his arms, and the Secret Service agent said, 'Nice pigs, Sir!' The President said, 'These are not ordinary pigs. These are genuine Arkansas razonback hogs. I got one for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and one for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And the Secret Service agent said, "Excellent trade, Sir! -- Bob Gordon, Senior Vice President & General Counsel for Safeway, kicking off a shareholder meeting May 15

Presidential Race

** Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect: "Romney is running for president as a right-wing Republican with right-wing ideas, and it is absurd to think that he would suddenly revert to the Mitt who governed Massachusetts.... Romney's agenda mirrors that of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.... To meet all of Romney's fiscal goals -- and a balanced budget -- policymakers would have to make the most draconian cuts in the nation's history. Over eight years, they would have to slash $10 trillion from the non-defense discretionary budget, or a whopping 81 percent." Bouie captures "The Real Romney" in a nutshell.

Melissa Harris & Hal Dardick of the Chicago Tribune: "The Ricketts family, owners of the Chicago Cubs, today moved to control the fallout from a now-disavowed plan to politically attack President Barack Obama reportedly funded by family patriarch.... Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts, who has been pushing a plan to get government help in rebuilding Wrigley Field, issued a statement distancing himself and the organization from that plan. Ricketts' statement came as Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, blasted the proposed political attack on the president as an insult to the nation." ...

... More of the same from Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Mr. Ricketts became a case study in the risks of political neophytes with big checkbooks seeking to play at the highest and roughest levels of politics." ...

... Charles Pierce: meanwhile, Willard has used the occasion to whine that Obama is attacking his character.

Let's Not Go to the Movies. Paul Waldman of American Prospect tells us about two new crazy anti-Obama movies. Here's the trailer for the less crazy of the two:

     ... Waldman remarks, "... my favorite is the black family playing Monopoly, who suddenly jump up from their chairs and start swinging at each other.... Who are they supposed to be? The Obamas? Some of Obama's co-conspirators? People sent into a frenzy by his socialist policies?"

For news from Right Wing World, see Akhilleus' comment below. It's a doozy.

Local News

John Schmid of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "At a time when Wisconsin's jobs statistics are under scrutiny as never before, preliminary data released Thursday showed that Wisconsin lost an estimated 6,200 private-sector jobs in April." (See yesterday's Commentariat for links to stories about Gov. Scott Walker making up numbers to pretend Wisconsin does not have the worst jobs record in the nation.)

In Florida, It's Time to Purge Hispanic Voters. Luzette Alvarez of the New York Times: "In an attempt to clear the voter rolls of noncitizens, a move that had set off criticism and a threatened lawsuit, Florida election officials decided on Thursday to use information from a federal database to check a list of 182,000 voters who they suspect are not citizens.... The push ... is viewed by some as an effort to single out Democratic voters, many of them black and Hispanic." No kidding.

"Sieg Heil!" Charles Pierce has a lovely report on goings-on in the "laboratories of democracy"; i.e., the states.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The House on Friday turned back an unusual coalition of liberals and conservatives and voted down legislation to reject explicitly the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects apprehended on United States soil.... The measure would thwart the Obama administration's efforts to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and would impede its ability to carry out the nuclear arms reduction treaty ratified by the Senate in 2010."

The Hill: "Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius didn't mention the controversy over the administration's contraception mandate during a Friday commencement speech at Georgetown University. Sebelius, whose visit to the Jesuit school had prompted protests and complaints because of the contraception issue, gave a largely non-political speech.... Her address was interrupted once by a protester who, shortly after she began speaking, began to yell." CW: if you're dying to see the protester, the video is here.

New York Times: "The United Nations nuclear monitoring agency said on Friday that its leader would travel to Iran on Sunday for a meeting with the country's top nuclear negotiator. The unexpected development signaled that both sides had stepped up both the urgency of resolving their dispute and the seniority of the officials doing the negotiating."

Guardian: "The Brooklyn district attorney has set up a taskforce to combat the intimidation of child sexual abuse victims in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community amid growing criticism of his handling of the issue."

President Obama meets with new French President Francois Hollande. A socialist get-together!

New York Times: "François Hollande used his first visit with President Obama as France's president on Friday to restate his pledge to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year, two years earlier than originally planned." ...

     ... Washington Post story here.

AP: "The leaders of eight of the world's biggest economies meet this weekend outside Washington, seeking to keep Europe's debt crisis from spiraling out of control and jeopardizing fledgling recoveries in the U.S. and elsewhere." ...

... Guardian: "Barack Obama is to make a major speech in Washington announcing at least $3bn in private sector funding to tackle hunger in developing countries, mainly in Africa. White House officials disclosed the figure in a briefing ahead of the president's speech on Friday, which marks the start of four days of talks with world leaders."

Reuters: "Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut on Friday after the world's No.1 online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Shares of the social network giant closed at $38.23, just 0.6 percent above the initial public offering price -- a price that represented 100 times historical earnings." ...

     ... New York Times Update 2: Glitches! "The Securities and Exchange Commission said that it would review the day’s trading, which included an unexpected delay, missing trade execution messages and at one point, having to fill orders by hand."

New York Times: "As Wal-Mart reported higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Thursday, it suggested in a regulatory filing that the scope of an internal investigation into bribery accusations had widened beyond the retailer's subsidiary in Mexico.... It was the first public disclosure by the company that the internal inquiry could involve additional subsidiaries, though none was named."

New York Times: "Hewlett-Packard's chief executive, Meg Whitman, plans to cut 30,000 or more jobs next week, according to officials familiar with the plan. Her goal, they said Thursday, is to spend the money she saves on increasing the efficiency of the company's sales force and on creating new products." ...

... CW Flashback. San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 2010: "Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, who has touted her experience as a job-creator as the former CEO of eBay, has announced a plan to create 500,000 jobs a year during her first four-year term."

Washington Post: Rep. Trent Franks [R-Ariz.] "presided Thursday over the latest in a long series of attempts to control social issues in the nation’s capital. At issue this time was his bill, with 193 co-sponsors, to ban all abortions in the District beyond 20 weeks, except to save the life of the mother.... Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District's lone, nonvoting member of Congress -- sitting in the front row of a subcommittee hearing room -- was not allowed to speak" at the hearing.

New York Times: "The Westchester County medical examiner's office said Thursday afternoon that the cause of [Mary Richardson] Kennedy's death was asphyxiation due to hanging. [Her estranged husband Robert F.] Kennedy, [Jr.,] said that contrary to earlier reports, there was no note found at the scene.... There was no indication that it was anything other than a suicide."

AP: "Jurors were set to begin deliberating the fate of John Edwards on Friday, weighing nearly four weeks of testimony and evidence from the former presidential candidate's corruption trial." ...

... The Washington Post reports on yesterday's closing arguments.