The Commentariat -- October 21

Eric Lipton, Mike McIntire & Don Van Natta Jr. of the New York Times on how & where the national Chamber of Commerce gets its millions to run ads against the Obama Administration & other Democrats.

Matt Cooper of the National Journal: "Barack Obama and Mitch McConnell rarely agree, but this week, in separate interviews, both the president and the Senate minority leader called for humility as the two parties prepare for the election and its aftermath."

** John Judis of The National Review New Republic (oh crap!) how the Obama Administration blew management of the housing crisis from the beginning & how they remain clueless both actually & politically. CW: it's a short piece, packed with sensible analysis. As I've said before, fire Shaun Donovan. Fire Tim Geithner. ...

... Gretchen Morgenson & Andrew Martin of the New York Times: "... missing and possibly fraudulent documents are at the center of a potentially seismic legal clash that pits big lenders against homeowners and their advocates concerned that the lenders’ rush to foreclose flouts private property rights. That clash — expected to be played out in courtrooms across the country and scrutinized by law enforcement officials investigating possible wrongdoing by big lenders — leaped to the forefront of the mortgage crisis this week as big lenders began lifting their freezes on foreclosures and insisted the worst was behind them." ...

... Economist Simon Johnson: "The foreclosure morass clearly poses systemic risk, both through its general effects on uncertainty about losses and because any manifest weakness at one big bank could spread – in some obvious ways and in some unanticipated ways – through the rest of the system." Johnson recommends that the Financial Stability Oversight Council created under the Dodd-Frank Act perform bank stress tests now.

James Risen of the New York Times: "Nearly four years after the federal government began a string of investigations and criminal prosecutions against Blackwater Worldwide personnel accused of murder and other violent crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cases are beginning to fall apart.... Federal prosecutors have failed to overcome a series of legal hurdles, including the difficulties of obtaining evidence in war zones, of gaining proper jurisdiction for prosecutions in American civilian courts, and of overcoming immunity deals given to defendants by American officials on the scene."

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Brian Stelter of the New York Times: "NPR’s decision Wednesday to fire Juan Williams and Fox News Channel’s decision to give him a new contract on Thursday put into sharp relief the two versions of journalism that compete every day for Americans’ attention."...

... Glenn Greenwald welcomes NPR's firing of Juan Williams for expressing his anti-Muslim bigotry on Bill O'Reilly's Fox "News" show. (See Infotainment, in the lower right column, for the backstory.) ...

... Adam Serwer, writing in the Washington Post, takes a slightly more nuanced view.

The Backstory

Sheiks on a Plane! When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous. -- Juan Williams

New York Times: "NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel." ...

... Here's the segment where Williams did himself in:

... Politico Update: "Fox News moved swiftly to turn the controversy over Juan Williams’ firing by NPR to its advantage, offering Williams an expanded role on the network and a new three-year contract Thursday in a deal that amounts to nearly $2 million.... NPR’s decision to fire Williams over comments he made about Muslims on Fox has prompted calls on the right for Congress to remove its funding. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) plans to introduce a bill to strip any federal money – which NPR says amounts to about 2 percent of its annual budget."

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"Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas's Wife Calls You." Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker: "Like many Americans, over the past several years I have been the recipient of multiple unwelcome voicemails from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas...."

... Lawrence O'Donnell, Jackie Calmes & Dahlia Lithwick discuss Ginni Thomas's strange call to Anita Hill:

     ... Here's Calmes' October 8/9 New York Times story about Ginni Thomas's secretly-funded tea party group. ...

... Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post, the exemplar of inside-the-beltway elitism, always annoys me, but her column today -- after she gets through talking about herself & her elite husband -- on the Thomas-Hill Affair provides a succinct history lesson for those who have forgot the details or were five years old during the Thomas confirmation hearings. The preponderance of the evidence, says Marcus who covered the hearings, is that Hill, not Thomas, was telling the truth.

You might call New York's Jimmy McMillan a single-issue candidate:

CW: I don't do polls, but.... Alexander Burns of Politico: "A new wave of polling shows virtually every close Senate race growing even more competitive, raising the pressure on both parties in the final days of the midterm campaign." Democrats are moving up.

Washington Post: Bob J. Perry of Houston, "a wealthy Texas homebuilder who helped finance the anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, contributed $7 million to American Crossroads, [the Karl Rove-Ed Gillespie outfit,] making him the top contributor to one of the main groups dedicated to helping Republicans win control of Congress." ...

... Keith Olbermann discusses the Chamber of Commerce's efforts to help American corporations move jobs overseas & elsewhere. And other stuff. Rep. Barney Frank joins him:

... Probably when tea partiers sent their hard-earned nickels & dimes to the Tea Party Express, they didn't realize their contributions would go to sending TPE staffers on cruises, but as Ken Vogel of Politico reported, that what happened. In fairness, it was a "working" cruise. And it only cost $103,000. So far. And one staffer didn't have fun.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: philanthropist George Soros gives Media Matters $1 million....

... Glenn Beck Goes Bonkers. Jeremy Holden of Media Matters: "Tonight [October 20], Glenn Beck responded to news that philanthropist George Soros had made his first donation to Media Matters by once again vilifying Soros, the Tides Foundation, and a host of progressive organizations, while portraying Beck as the target of a Soros-ordered hit."

Alan Schwarz of the New York Times: football "helmets both new and used are not — and have never been — formally tested against the forces believed to cause concussions. The industry, which receives no governmental or other independent oversight, requires helmets for players of all ages to withstand only the extremely high-level force that would otherwise fracture skulls. The standard has not changed meaningfully since it was written in 1973, despite rising concussion rates in youth football and the growing awareness of how the injury can cause significant short- and long-term problems with memory, depression and other cognitive functions, especially in children."

Mark Sherman of the AP explains why the DOJ defends laws the President says he opposes. "The tradition flows directly from the president's constitutional duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed...." ...

... Devin Dwyer of ABC News: Ted Olson, a former U.S. Solicitor General who has challenged California's ban on same-sex marriage, disagrees. With video.

The Commentariat -- October 20

Curious & Curiouser. New York Times: Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, left a voicemail over the weekend for Prof. Anita Hill, now of Brandeis University, which Ms. Thomas characterized as an effort to "extend an olive branch" to Prof. Hill, who -- at his Senate confirmation hearings -- had accused then-Judge Thomas of acts of sexual harrassment. The weird bit:

Andrew Gully, senior vice president of the Brandeis University communications office, confirmed that Ms. Hill had received the message and that she had turned it over to the campus department of public safety. That office, in turn, passed it on to the F.B.I.

      ... Note: the Times story has been updated to describe the voicemail & to give more detail of Prof. Hill's decision to turn over the tape to authorities. Hill said,

I though[t] it was certainly inappropriate. It came in at 7:30 a.m. on my office phone from somebody I didn’t know, and she is asking for an apology. It was not invited. There was no background for it.

      ... Jane Mayer of The New Yorker listened to the voicemail, which Mayer described as "more adversarial than most peace offerings." Mayer writes,

The message begins with a singsong female voice saying, 'Anita Hill, this is Ginni Thomas, and I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.'

Thomas went on to suggest that Hill 'pray about this.' Although in essence the caller was accusing Hill of lying—as Clarence Thomas did during the confirmation hearings—and demanding that she apologize, the call ended with an incongruously perky sign-off: 'O.K., have a good day!'

     ... ABC News has the full transcript of the voicemail which was delivered Saturday, October 9, at 7:30 am ET (odd time to be drunk):

Good morning, Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day.

     ... Update. Here's CNN's report:

Sam Stein of the Huffington Post: "Reports that two Supreme Court Justices [Thomas & Scalia] have attended seminars sponsored by the energy giant and conservative bankroller Koch Industries has sparked a mild debate over judicial ethics." AND here's the underlying New York Times story.

David Neiwert of Crooks & Liars comments on the NAACP report on the tea party's connection to racists & militias. Here's the link to the NAACP report.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running this spot featuring Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate & state Attorney General Jack Conway. If you wonder what you can do to help progressive candidates this year, go to the PCCC site:

Rep. Tom Perriello is a first-term Democrat running in a conservative Virginia district. He is likely to lose this election. But if you want to see a real Democrat espouse real Democratic ideals, watch the video. I love this guy:

He has the authentic populist voice and anger that Obama lacks.
-- George Packer

... George Packer of The New Yorker on "Tom Perriello's lonely battle."

Your Civics Lesson for the Day, Part 1. Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post summarizes why elections turn out as they do: "Rarely ... do the election results add up to a mandate.... Most Americans don't really know what they think about the issues that so animate the political conversation in Washington, and what they think they know about them is often wrong." ...

     ... Exhibit A: TARP! Conservative Utah Sen. Bob Bennett lost his primary race largely because of his vote for TARP. Now Bloomberg reports, "The U.S. government’s bailout of financial firms through the Troubled Asset Relief Program provided taxpayers with higher returns than they could have made buying 30-year Treasury bonds -- enough money to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission for the next two decades. The government has earned $25.2 billion on its investment of $309 billion in banks and insurance companies, an 8.2 percent return over two years...." ...

Besides ... It wasn’t that hard for me, just so you know. I made the decision to use your money to prevent the collapse from happening. -- President George W. Bush, on TARP ...

... Your Civics Lesson, Part 2. Dana Milbank: "There is genuine populist anger out there. But the angry have been deceived and exploited by posers who belong to the same class of 'elites' and 'insiders' that the Tea Party movement supposedly deplores. Americans who want to stick it to the man are instead sending money to the man." ...

     ... Steve Benen concurs.

Hypocrisy 101, Course Summary. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "If there is a single message unifying Republican candidates this year, it is a call to grab hold of the federal checkbook, slam it closed and begin to slash spending.... But while polls show that the Republicans’ message is succeeding politically, Republican candidates and party leaders are offering few specifics about how they would tackle the nation’s $13.7 trillion debt, and budget analysts said the party was glossing over the difficulty of carrying out its ideas, especially when sharp spending cuts could impede an already weak economic recovery."

Dexter Filkins of the New York Times: "Talks to end the war in Afghanistan involve extensive, face-to-face discussions with Taliban commanders from the highest levels of the group’s leadership, who are secretly leaving their sanctuaries in Pakistan with the help of NATO troops...."

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "Two years after the Fed bought billions of dollars in mortgage securities as part of the financial bailout, its New York arm is questioning the paperwork — and pressing banks to buy some of the investments back. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and several giant investment companies, including Pimco and BlackRock, have singled out Bank of America, which assembled more than $2 trillion of mortgage securities from 2004 to 2008." ...

... Eliot Spitzer in Slate: "It wasn't just that the banks were wrong about their forecast of the housing market; it is that they intentionally ignored critical information given to them by the very people who were supposed to perform due diligence. And then they apparently withheld from investors that critical information about the quality of the bonds they were selling."

Here's Why I'm with the Trial Lawyers. Anahad O'Connor of the New York Times. Alan Newton, "a Bronx man who was imprisoned for more than two decades on a rape conviction before being cleared by DNA evidence, was awarded $18.5 million by a jury on Tuesday.... Mr. Newton was convicted of rape, robbery and assault in 1985 — based largely on eyewitness testimony — and spent years fighting to have DNA evidence from the case located and tested.... On Tuesday, a jury ruled that the city had violated his constitutional rights, and found two police officers liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress for failing to produce Mr. Newton’s evidence when requested." CW: the city plans to appeal. Assholes.

In Politics Daily, Andrew Cohen wonders if the Supreme Court "will rescue John Ashcroft again." CW: yes, it will. That's why they Court is hearing the case -- the Appellate Court took the plaintiff's side & the Big Boys want to overturn that ruling. Here's the underlying story from the Washington Post.

New York Times Editorial Board: "More than five million Americans could be barred from voting in November because of unjust and archaic state laws that disenfranchise former offenders, even when they have gone on to live crime-free lives.... It is past time for all states to restore individual voting rights automatically to ex-offenders who have served their time."

Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones exposes tea party star Mark Meckler, who in his last job "was a top distributor for Herbalife, a controversial company that peddles dubious nutritional supplements and weight loss programs," and one which industry experts classify as a pyramid scheme. Mencimer proposes that the tea party is organized in much the same way as businesses like Herbalife & Amway. ...

... And while we're on exposés, Robert Scheer of TruthDig zeroes in on new National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, then extends his criticism to President Obama & the Democratic party:

On Donilon: Fannie Mae paid Donilon, a longtime Democratic Party operative, $15 million to lobby Congress to gut the power of government regulators.... He was also a top executive at Fannie Mae during the period when cooking the books to increase executive compensation would later lead to a $400 million fine. In pursuit of those profits, Fannie Mae entered into a partnership with Angelo Mozilo’s shady Countrywide Financial....

On Obama: Behind the wonderfully engaging smile of this president there is the increasingly disturbing suggestion of a cynical power-grabbing politician whose swift rise in power reflects ... the skills of a traditional political hack.

On Democrats: The more one learns about the political roots of our economic meltdown, the more the Democratic Party stands revealed as an equal partner with the Republicans at the center of corruption.

Jeremy Holden of Media Matters on Glenn Beck's continued vilification of the tiny charitable, nonpartisan Tides Foundation, whose CEO & employees were targets of an assassination plan inspired by Beck's tirades. You can sign up here to join Media Matters' effort to stop corporations from advertising on Fox.

There is some actual news today in the "Infotainment" & "Soaps" sections near the bottom of the right column.

Proud To Be Stoopid

Maureen Dowd contrasts Marilyn Monroe, who "aspired to read good books and be friends with intellectuals," with Sarah Palin, et al., & their "refudiation" of intellectual aspirations.

The Times moderators again squelched my comment on Dowd's column, so since it's substantive, I've posted it here:

Of course there has always been an anti-intellectual thread in American culture. It's a minority frame-of-mind that is probably found in every great culture, but it's particularly prominent in the U.S., where "rugged individualism" has long been viewed as a distinct & "exceptional" American quality.

Politicians have played pivotal roles in turning anti-intellectualism into a "positive" quality. They do it, of course, for crass political advantage. I should think the modern strain of anti-elitism began with Richard Nixon's public embrace of the fundamentalist "Moral Majority." Remember his Vice President, Spiro Agnew (who admitted to criminal activity & was forced to resign in disgrace) & his William Safire-writ speech decrying "the nattering nabobs of negativism," "pusillanimous pussyfooters," & "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals"?

Nixon's heir, Ronald Reagan, despite his wife Nancy's designer tastes, cozied up to Southern racists & the Jerry Falwell crowd (often one and the same). Reagan began his government career as an anti-intellectual by declaring war on the University of California. His second act, George Bush Pere, was no dope, but to counter his East Coast bona fides, he pretended to be a pork-rind-eating Texas cowpoke. Hilariously, Karl Rove asserted that George Bush Fils, who was a true-life non-intellectual, was in fact a book-reading phenom who breezed through Camus novels for light reading. Uh-huh.  

Let us remember that Sarah Palin is a John McCain production. She would still be back in Alaska at what she recently called her boring desk job, had McCain not thought -- correctly -- that glamor devoid of intellectual curiosity would sell with the class of voters he courted. Indeed, Republicans depend upon anti- & non-intellectualism to garner votes. Any "regular person" who was smart enough to understand how cruelly the Republican platform treats the little guy would never vote for anyone in today's Republican Tea Party. Republicans are bound by the cynicism of their policies to play to the lowest common denominator. Now, with the rise of the Tea Party element, they are even fielding candidates whose only defense is that they are not elites.

The other day Chris Coons tried to explain to Christine O'Donnell how the Supreme Court interpreted the First Amendment. She truly was not smart enough to get it, repeatedly interrupting Coons to question his explanation. When Coons repeated that the First Amendment requires that "the government shall make no establishment of religion" O'Donnell asked, with exasperation: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?" The audience laughed because they realized she really didn't know that. This is a woman who believes God wants her to be a United States Senator, but she has repeatedly assured Delaware audiences that she will base her legislative decisions on the Constitution, not on the Bible. How can she? She has no idea what's in the Constitution or how Constitutional law evolves.

Fortunately, Carl Paladino, who wants to take a baseball bat to Albany (which could just possibly be an unlawful means of governance), won't become governor, but he is the Republican nominee, & it isn't clear he's much smarter than the candidate of "The Rent Is Too Damn High Party."

 On the Republican side, the lowest common denominator has become the cream of the crop.*

The Constant Weader

* No, I haven't forgot about Democratic nominee Alvin Greene of South Carolina. But I'm trying.

Vote California Prop 19! Spiro T. Agnew named Mike Brewer & Tom Shipley "subversives" for this classic. The audio isn't the best, but it'll do:

... Here you go, boys -- "a modern spiritual by Gail & Dale":

Bonus Comment

Some other frequent New York Times commenters & I discussed MoDo's column after we wrote our comments last night. The Times rejected two out of four of our comments. Here's one of the letters I wrote as part of our discussion. I've removed a few lines of personal stuff:

... I learned a long time ago -- from my beautiful friends, definitely not from personal experience -- that being a beautiful woman is nearly a curse. A beautiful woman is almost always an object first (whether the subject is a man or a woman), & a person second -- often a far-distant second. For decades, it's hard "to be" beyond being beautiful.

Arthur Miller was an asshole.

Here's a story I heard at the party after my grandmother's funeral.... The setting is someplace in Connecticut, probably in or near Danbury, on a hot summer's day. My grandfather, who was a sweet man, was waiting in line at a frozen custard stand. The day being so hot, the line was long, & he got into a conversation with the woman standing in front of him. They chatted for 10 or 20 minutes until the woman got her frozen custard, said goodbye, & left.

The other people standing in line mobbed my grandfather. "How do you know her?" they asked.

"Who?" he responded.

"Marilyn Monroe!" they said.

"You mean that woman I was just talking to?" he asked.

"Yes, didn't you know that was Marilyn Monroe?" someone said.

My grandfather asked, "Who's Marilyn Monroe?"