The Commentariat -- May 27

Paul Krugman: "... the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan’s critics are lying about it, but because they’re describing it accurately." ...

... I've posted a comments page for Krugman on Off Times Square. You can comment on Our Mister Brooks, too, who writes what he thinks is a related column about reasonable Republicans working with Democrats to fix Medicare. I've added my own comment on Krugman, which the Times moderators are holding back, so you can read it here. Update: Commenter Denis Neville shreds Brooks.

Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Art by Alex Gross for the New York Times.Rick Perlstein in a New York Times op-ed: "January was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed... His diminution is ... an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish." ...

...  The full text of Humphrey's landmark 1948 convention speech supporting civil rights is here. The page also links to a video clip. Audio of the full speech is here, but the quality is awful.

Which of these two high school kids is likely to become Speaker of the House? (Answer at the bottom of this post.)

A Cautionary Tale. Donald Marron: "... the United States defaulted on some Treasury bills in 1979. And it paid a steep price for stiffing bondholders." ...

... Bill Clinton Cannot Keep His Foot out of His Mouth. When he wasn't giving Paul Ryan cover for his disastrous budget plan (see yesterday's Commentariat), he was giving the whole Republican party cover to default on the debt. Frank James of NPR: At a fiscal summit, Clinton said, "If we defaulted on the debt once for a few days, it might not be calamitous." At the request of an astonished White House, a Clinton spokesperson retracted his remark, saying the former President "misspoke." CW: Yeah, he does that a lot.

CW: I've been trying to ignore this story, but it won't go away. Do not, however, expect breathless, wall-to-wall links here. Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin is fortifying her small staff of advisers, buying a house in Arizona — where associates have said she could base a national campaign — and reviving her schedule of public appearances. The moves are the most concrete signals yet that Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is seriously weighing a Republican presidential bid." ...

... BUT let's hope Chris Cillizza is right: "Talk of a 2012 presidential bid by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has reached fever pitch (again) after news broke this week of an East Coast bus tour to historical sites, a possible home purchase in Arizona and a new film biopic.... But, for all the chatter..., there remains no evidence in any early voting primary or caucus state that she or her political team are doing anything to lay the groundwork for a 2012 bid." CW: for what it's worth, I tend to agree with Cillizza. All this is just Palin saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" She does that a lot. ...

     ... CNN Update: and Fox "News" isn't changing Palin's status. Fox canned Newt Gingrich & Rick Santorum some time ago, but let Mike Huckabee remain on the air. CW: it seems to me if you want to know who is & who isn't running on the Republican ticket, just check Fox's lineup. Roger Ailes is always the first to know. 

Alexander Bolton & Josiah Ryan of The Hill: Senate Republicans are holding pro-forma sessions during next week's recess to prevent President Obama from making recess appointments, a move that may be specifically aimed at keeping the President from appointing Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Joe Klein: Why has Bibi Netanyahu twisted President Obama's words? Because he can, & because his lies allow him to continue building settlements on Palestinian lands. "Given his congressional support, Netanyahu may be able to get away with playing so bold a hand — but it is inappropriate behavior for an American ally, and you can bet that Obama won't forget it." ...

... The Editors of the Jewish Daily Forward were equally dismayed by Netanyahu's belligerent speech to Congress, which they see as making them choose between Netanyahu and Obama; they suggest their choice will be Obama.

Jon Chait of The New Republic: that radical left-wing news outlet NPR joins the ranks of misguided Washington elites who claim public debt is "the biggest problem facing the nation." Evidently all those out-of-work Americans & irreversible climate change are not too important. CW: NPR has done this before.

Right Wing World *

The only people in Washington, DC who have voted to cut Medicare have been the Democrats, when they voted to cut $500 billion in Medicare during Obamacare. -- Speaker John Boehner ...

... But It Ain't So. Greg Sargent: almost all House Republicans and most Senate Republicans "did vote to pass the Ryan budget.... According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Ryan plan cuts the amount of Medicare spending on seniors in relation to overall health care costs. It also reduces the amount of annual Medicare spending as a share of GDP." CW: the Democratic cuts to Medicare were to Medicare Advantage, a costly, unpaid-for Bush prescription drug program that the Affordable Care Act phases out, depending on how effectively the various Advantage plans work. People on Medicare Advantage can switch to plans that are more cost-effective.

Paul Ryan Lobs a Hail Mary that Lands out of Bounds. Amy Sullivan of Time: don't believe (1) everything you read in Politico, (b) anything Paul Ryan tells you, (c) that Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan (the "Pope of America") endorses Ryan's budget. (1) Politico grossly misread Dolan's letter -- a response to a letter from Ryan, who was smarting because the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (who report to Dolan) said they were concerned that Ryan's budget hurt the poor; (2) Politico misread Dolan's letter because Ryan untruthfully spun it as an endorsement, which it wasn't; (3) Archbishop Dolan agrees with the U.S. Catholic bishops -- Ryan's budget appears to add "further burdens to the poor ... and the vulnerable." ...

... AND/BUT I worship the ground that Paul Ryan walks on.
-- Dick Cheney (link to disturbing video)

      Theology Question of the Day: Will Saint Peter let Saint Paul into heaven after Paul lied to and about the Pope of America, AND after Peter finds out Paul's number one disciple is Dick Cheney?

Ben Smith: Tiffany's backs up Gingrich's story, claims it gave "identical" deals to more than 1,000 other customers & never lobbied wife Callista's committee. No mention of Gingrich's claim that he's "frugal."

Grass Roots, Republican Style. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post: American Action Network, "a Washington advocacy group that spent millions of dollars on Republicans in the 2010 election and claimed to have broad grass-roots support, actually drew all of its first-year revenue from fewer than a dozen well-heeled donors, according to a recent tax filing.... 82 percent of the group’s initial revenues came from three donors...." And now, for the laugh-o-licious definition of grass-roots backing: "Jim Landry, the group’s spokesman... not[ed] that more than 215,000 people had indicated they liked the group’s Facebook page."

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

Miami Herald: "Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida's $69-billion budget Thursday, using his line item veto power to chop more than half of a billion dollars in spending. Many of the cuts were for higher education construction projects, and health and human service programs." CW: Click on the audio that accompanies the post for more detail.

___________

If you guessed "Both," you'd be right. That's Gingrich and Pelosi. Maybe I should have asked, "Which of these two ... would you want to be Speaker of the House?" More creepy high school photos of Republican presidential hopefuls here. But, writes Joshua Green, "A quick office straw poll here at The Atlantic, conducted amidst uproarious laughter, confirms that this is, in fact, the single worst year book photo that most of us have ever seen."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Leaders of the Group of 8 wealthiest industrialized nations pledged on Friday to send billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and Tunisia, hoping to reduce the threat that economic stagnation could undermine the transition to democracy."

New York Times: "A Serbian judge gave preliminary approval on Friday to transfer Ratko Mladic to The Hague to be prosecuted for war crimes, including genocide. But his lawyer said he would appeal to block the transfer, saying Mr. Mladic’s health was too frail to face trial."

New York Times: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Pakistan on Friday in what officials described as an effort to measure Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism after the killing of Osama bin Laden badly strained relations with the United States. It did not appear to go well."

AP: President Obama signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act by autopen shortly before the act was set to expire.

Another Reason Not to Vote Republican. New York Times: New Jersey "Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday that New Jersey would become the first state to withdraw from a 10-state trading system, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, declaring it an ineffective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

AP: Italian "Premier Silvio Berlusconi has taken his claim that he is being persecuted by leftist judges to the G-8 summit, telling a clearly perplexed President Barack Obama that in Italy they represent 'almost a dictatorship'. His comments carried on Italian TV news broadcasts from Deauville, France, set off a barrage of criticism Friday from Italian magistrates and his political opponents."

Reuters (item): "Russia believes Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy and Moscow is prepared to mediate to facilitate his departure from power."

The Commentariat -- May 26

Gail Collins: "In case you missed it, New York’s 26th Congressional District went blue this week." ...

... I have a Collins comments page up on Off Times Square. Comment on Collins or anything vaguely related to politics. I've posted my comment; Kate Madison & Karen Garcia both wrote terrific -- and funny -- comments. In her comment -- which the Times moderators buried on page 2 -- Garcia refers to the video below, shot earlier today:

I'm glad we won this race in New York, but I hope the Democrats don't use it as an excuse to do nothing on Medicare. -- Bill Clinton to Paul Ryan, find the most effective way possible to stomp all over the Democrats' message du jour

     ... Jonathan Karl of ABC News has more. ...

     ... AND, as Jim Newell of Gawker writes, "It's interesting to hear this from Bill Clinton, whose well-managed stand against Newt Gingrich's (much less severe) Medicare cuts in 1995 helped him save his presidency and win a second term." CW: Hillary in 2012? ...

... PLUS, Your Medicare Picture of the Day, courtesy of Peter Orszag, who -- among his new, private ventures -- has a new column in Bloomberg. He devotes his first column to explaining why the Ryan plan would be bad for future seniors. He doesn't cover a lot of new ground, but he gets his point across with this:

Another Reason to Disbelieve Everything David Brooks Writes. In his never-ending quest to understand human beings with whom he evidently has little actual contact, Brooks posted the results of a study that showed people really liked to cooperate. That might be true, but you couldn't prove it by Brooks. Reader Diane F. did a little research & discovered that the study Brooks cited was funded by a group called the Mercatus Institute: "Check out the board of directors...," Diane writes. "A Koch brother [Charles] and Ed Meese too! I just wanted to tell someone about at least one place where David get his research." CW: The other major non-academic member of the board is John Allison, former BB&T CEO; Allison's other favorite cause: He is a major contributor to the Ayn Rand Institute and assigned Rand's Atlas Shrugged to all of his senior executives, calling the novel "the best defense of capitalism ever written."

Jerry Zremski of The New Republic on "How Kathy Hochul Won." It helped that her main opponent, Republican Jane Corwin is a flat-footed, lying cold-fish multimillionaire.

... The president's problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin. -- Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who has a habit of telling the truth

Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "... the Senate on Wednesday rejected the House Republican budget blueprint, a mostly symbolic vote that nonetheless underscores the political peril entailed in the GOP proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher program.... As was the case in the House vote, all Democrats present in the Senate voted against the measure.... The Republicans voting against the plan Wednesday were moderate Sens. Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), as well as conservative freshman Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), who argued that the plan did not go far enough in cutting spending." Here's a more extensive article on the same subject by Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times.

If you want to urge President Obama to reappoint Elizabeth Warren as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief (which he'll have to do as a recess appointment because Republicans will block her confirmation), here's a Progressive Change Campaign Committee petition that makes supporting Warren quick & easy.

Karoun Demirjian of the Las Vegas Sun: "Nevada’s most reliably unpredictable candidate, Sharron Angle, has just taken the surprise move of removing herself from a campaign. Angle was first in, and now the first out, to fill the 2nd Congressional District seat left vacant by Dean Heller when he filled the Senate seat John Ensign resigned this month. She’s doing so, it appears, because of last week’s court decision to let party central committees play a selective role, in lieu of a formal primary process.... The shift would seriously weaken Angle’s chances...."

The Fight over Nothing, Con'd. Peter Schroeder of The Hill: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-Ga.) and supporters of Elizabeth Warren, who flooded his Facebook page Wednesday, are still arguing about whether or not his staff agreed to allow Warren to leave a House hearing by 2:15 pm ET Tuesday after the committee had rescheduled the hearing at nearly the last minute. CW: The real issue is McHenry's disrespectful, bullying treatment of Warren throughout the hearing, finally devolving into his shouting at her, "You're making that up." McHenry & other Republicans had better learn that Democrats adore Warren & will protect her from attack dogs.

Right Wing World *

We only had part of this tape the other day. The follow-up is priceless. After Georgia Republican Congressman Rob Woodall chides a constituent for failing to take care of herself & asking the government to do it (i.e., accepting Medicare & Social Security), another constituent asks him why he doesn't set an example and give up his government-funded health insurance plan the way he wants his constituents to do. Listen to Woodall's answer:

     ... If you want to know why you should show up at the townhalls these wingers conduct, here's the answer. The woman is this video demonstrates what Americans must do to hold our so-called representatives' feet to the fire. ...

... On that same subject, Jewish Funds for Justice focuses on younger voters whom the Ryan plan will deprive of Medicare:

The president and his party have decided to shamelessly distort and demagogue Medicare. -- Paul Ryan, appearing on "Morning Joe" yesterday.

... Dana Milbank: "He’s right about that. Democrats and, particularly, liberal activists, are engaged in some shameless demagoguery.... And Ryan is well qualified to call out shameless demagoguery and scare tactics: Over the past two years, he has practiced both. Speaking on the House floor in 2009, he said the Democrats’ health-care legislation would 'take coverage away from seniors,' 'raise premiums for families' and 'cost us nearly 5.5 million jobs.' Later, he said the health plan would bring about government 'rationing” of health care.'" And more.

Barack Obama promised that spending 800 billion dollars on a pork-filled stimulus bill would keep unemployment under 8 percent.  He promised that bailouts for well-connected businesses were a good deal for the country. He promised that a federal takeover of health care would keep costs under control. And hard as it is to believe, he even promised the deficit would be cut in half in his first term! — Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, presidential candidacy announcement

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker: “The paragraph ... struck us as a pretty fair summary of the Republican indictment against President Obama’s reelection.... Pawlenty’s collection of charges against Obama is a pretty weak brew. Many barely hold up to scrutiny. The so-called 'promises' were often not promises made by Obama, while the underlying facts are often exaggerated or in dispute." CW: if the standard "Republican indictment against Obama" is pretty much a series of lies, it would appear that the GOP counts on the American voter to be too uninformed to recognize a lie when s/he hears it. This tack worked against Kerry; will it work again?

... Kessler gives this Web ad by Michelle Bachmann ...

... In other words, it's a bald-faced lie. So what else is new? This is what I mean when I say Obama must confront this crap.

* Where facts never intrude.

News Ledes

Reuters: "Vermont became the first state to lay the groundwork for single-payer health care on Thursday when its governor signed an ambitious bill aimed at establishing universal insurance coverage for all residents."

Los Angeles Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday gave Arizona and other states more authority to take action against illegal immigrants and the companies that hire them, ruling that employers who knowingly hire illegal workers can lose their license to do business. The 5-3 decision upholds the Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 and its so-called business death penalty for employers who are caught repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants."

New York Times: "Ruling that Republicans in the State Senate had violated the state’s open meetings law, a judge in Wisconsin dealt a blow to them and to Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday by granting a permanent injunction striking down a new law curbing collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees."

AP: "A man believed to be Gen. Ratko Mladic, Europe's most wanted war crimes fugitive, has been arrested in Serbia, news media reported Thursday." Update: here's the New York Times story.

The Hill: "A breakthrough in negotiations on renewing the Patriot Act became evident on the Senate floor Wednesday evening when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that a crucial vote on the legislation will occur at 10 a.m. on Thursday, rather than at 1 a.m. as previously thought.  Senate leadership is racing against the clock, believing the expiration of the current version of the Patriot Act at midnight on Friday would create an upheaval in the law enforcement community."

Washington Post: "The Obama administration is seeking to scale back or eliminate 30 federal regulations in an effort to save American companies billions of dollars in unnecessary costs. The measure, the latest attempt by the administration to burnish its pro-business credentials, will affect workplace safety, environmental protection, endangered species and a number of other areas. Many of the changes involve reducing paperwork or eliminating redundancies in the law."

Reuters: "Dozens of Yemenis were killed in overnight gun battles in the capital, government officials said on Thursday, as fighting aimed at ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade-long rule threatened to ignite civil war." ...

... New York Times: The president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has backed out of transfer-of-power agreements three times in recent days, & even his supporters consider his behavior bizarre.

The Commentariat -- May 25

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for a reciprocal dinner at the Winfield House in London. Getty image.President Obama addresses the British Parliament:

     ... Here's the full text of his speech, via the White House.

President Obama & British Prime Minister Cameron hold a joint press conference:

Maureen Dowd: "Obama had to take a foreign trip to seem less foreign to Americans." ...

... I've posted a comments page on Off Times Square for Dowd. Karen Garcia and I have added our comments.

While making baseless claims might be shrewd tactics for those who want to undermine the bureau’s work, they are flatly wrong. -- Elizabeth Warren, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee

Ben Protess of the New York Times writes a plain-vanilla report on yet another committee grilling of Elizabeth Warren, the head of the not-yet-operational Financial Consumer Protection Bureau. ...

... Karen Garcia is less sanguine, comparing the hearing to the Spanish Inquisition, as Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) repeatedly accused Warren of lying under oath & ironically, seldom let her finish a sentence. You can watch the hearing on C-SPAN. Here's the final exchange -- my guess is that twit McHenry doesn't consult his own staff:

     ... Video via Dave Weigel. Ari Berman of The Nation has more on the hearing.

Unretouched photo of David Brooks in London by renowned celebrity photographer Lord Driftglass of High Mockeryshire.Glenn Greenwald does a nice job of whacking Our Oligarchical Mister Brooks in his Adoration of the Elites. ...

... AND so, of course does Driftglass. ...

... Update. Commenter P. D. Pepe recommends this commentary on Brooks' column by British writer Daniel Knowles. So do I. Here's a taste: "... his column is laughably ignorant of British history and bizarrely naive about British political culture.... This self-indulgent ego-boosting nonsense is just what we need to get away from. While our politicos go around slapping themselves on the backs about how utterly indescribably and uniquely brilliant they all are, the British public hates them more than ever."

... An American Disgrace. Glenn Greenwald on reaction to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday before a joint session of Congress: "... the super-patriots of the American Right..., the same faction that spent the last decade demanding fealty to the Commander-in-Chief in a Time of War upon pain of being accused of a lack of patriotism (or worse) now openly sides with a foreign leader over their own President.  The U.S. Congress humiliates itself by expressing greater admiration for and loyalty to this foreign leader than their own country's."

You know, we don't do elaborate things.... We are very frugal. -- Newt Gingrich

Here are a few Gingrich frugalities: "His flagship political operation, a tax-exempt conservative group called American Solutions for Winning the Future, has spent at least $2.2 million over the past two years on private jets and executive chauffeur services"; a million-dollar-plus home; dining at the chic La Sponda in Amalfi; dining at the upscale Cafe Milano in Georgetown; the Newt wearing a $15-20,000 Patek Philippie Calatrava watch; "a $450 bottle of 1983 Chateau Latour." More to come, I'm sure.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "To the long list of rich-guy foibles that turned into defining campaign moments — John Edwards’s $400 haircut, John Kerry’s kite-surfing,* John McCain’s inability to remember how many homes he owns — let us now add Newt Gingrich’s $500,000 revolving line of credit at the luxury jeweler Tiffany & Company.... The way some voters out in the rest of America might see it, he’s a guy who paid more for jewelry than some people pay for their houses." ...

... Time has a slideshow of Callista's Tiffany trove. ...

... Jeff Stein of SpyTalk: " At the same time Tiffany & Co. was extending Callista (Bisek) Gingrich a virtual interest-free loan of tens of thousands of dollars, the diamond and silverware firm was spending big bucks to influence mining policy in Congress and in agencies over which the House Agriculture Committee -- where she worked -- had jurisdiction, official records show."

Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker was "puzzled by his claim that he [Gingrich] had a 'standard, no-interest account' at Tiffany & Co." Uh, there's no such thing. Tiffany's "standard" account charges 21 percent interest. Read Kessler's whole article. It's a hoot. Kessler has an update here, the crux of which is that Tiffany's confirmed that the Gingriches now have a zero balance at Tiffany's. Kessler doesn't change his three Pinocchios rating.

* A friend writes, "Wind-surfing is like a half-million dollar Tiffany's account? Really? A friend writes, "... the Kerry thing is just stupid. You know what? I've gone wind surfing. It was a blast. I'm an ocean guy, and I like doing stuff like parachuting and para-sailing and wind surfing....when I get a chance to do it and I'm on vacation and I have an extra $50 to do it. It is NOT something restricted to rich guys. In no way could you ever mistake me for a rich guy."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Jared L. Loughner was not mentally competent to stand trial on charges of opening fire at a constituent event for an Arizona congresswoman in January, killing 6 and injuring 13."

Slate: "Goodwin Liu, President Obama's nominee for a seat on the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, sent a letter to the president ... officially withdrawing his name from consideration. Liu's nomination was filibustered in the Senate last week, when Republicans (and one Democrat) refused to give Liu an up-or-down vote."

New York Times: "The Justice Department plans to move ahead with criminal charges against John Edwards, the former senator and presidential candidate, contending that he misused campaign funds to cover up an affair, a person close to Mr. Edwards said on Wednesday morning."

NBC News: "As residents in three states picked through rubble, looking for victims and belongings buried by storms that killed 14 people, twisters were reported in the Kansas City area and an even broader round of severe weather was expected throughout Wednesday." With video.

PM & Mrs. Obamas spent their second day in London today.

Reuters: "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was offering 'nothing we can build on' for peace and that without progress he will seek U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood in September." ...

... Washington Post: "Top Democrats have joined a number of Republicans in challenging President Obama’s policy toward Israel, further exposing rifts that the White House and its allies will seek to mend before next year’s election." CW: ... evidently because "top Democrats" and "a number of Republicans" claim not to know Netanyahu agreed to Obama's stated terms last November.

Washington Post: "... when pressed to name their biggest concern, nearly half of [American] respondents say they are alarmed by the prospect that the debt could grow beyond its current limit of $14.3 trillion, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. Only 35 percent say they are more worried about the risk of default and economic destabilization if Congress does not raise the debt limit." CW: the President has utterly failed to explain to the American people why raising the debt ceiling is necessary. He hasn't even addressed it.