The Commentariat -- November 16

President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Army SSgt. Salvatore Giunta. Here's the New York Times story on Giunta's acts of valor:

Michael Moore tells Senate Democrats they've got seven weeks to get off their asses & pass the 420 bills the House already passed. CW: unfortunately, the majority of Senate Democrats are not of a mind to do what's right by the American people.

** Michael Hudson, writing for AlterNet, demonstrates how President Obama's cynical economic policy is indistinguishable from Bush-Cheney pro-Wall Street policies."

Charlie Rangel and Congressional Ethics Farce. Dana Milbank: "The man who until recently had sway over hundreds of billions of dollars as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee was now claiming that he was too indigent to hire a lawyer. Half an hour into the public hearing he had demanded for so long, Rangel announced that he was leaving."

We never did enough in terms of [the unemployment rate] for us to have the kind of success we would have. We had a Roosevelt moment and responded like Hoover.-- Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) ...

... Jordan Fabian of The Hill: "Rep. John Larson (Conn.), the House Democratic Caucus chairman who is expected to keep his position in a vote on Wednesday, said that his party did not do enough in the eyes of voters to help bring down the nation's 9.6 percent unemployment rate."

Tom Scotta, in Slate, has a terrific takedown, not just of partisan pollsters Pat Caddell & Douglas Schoen for their disingenuous "bilge," but also of the lowlife editor of the Washington Post's editorial page Fred Hiatt:

Fred Hiatt, the insufferable editor of the Post's opinion pages, seems to believe that people hate his section because he has clung with fearless integrity to his support for invading Iraq ... and because the section's overall politics are to the right of the beliefs of the average reader of the Washington Post. Actually, the reason some of us despise Hiatt and his section is that he consistently chooses to print dishonest garbage, composed by disingenuous partisan hacks, lobbyists, or lobbyist-hacks. The Post opinion section is ... a place where ... professional propagandists float their newest lies, slogans, and unsubstantiated nonsense, to see if they can get them to bob into the political mainstream.

Speaking of hacks writing op-ed nonsense for the Washington Post, here's pseudo-journalist Keith Olbermann harumphing about former journalist Ted Koppel's harumphing over Olbermann & his part in the "death of real news." Keith gets it right:

CBS News: "Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowki told CBS News' Katie Couric today that she would not support Sarah Palin for president because Palin lacks the "leadership qualities" and "intellectual curiosity" to craft great policy":

... Matt Bai of the New York Times: the airing of the first episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" is just a reminder that Sarah Palin herself is a media production. "Palin expertly allowed herself to be shaped by the demands of the marketplace, and in this way she became the best example yet of a new phenomenon in our politics -- what we might think of as the crowd-sourced candidate."

... Nick Bilton of the New York Times: "... refudiate has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, published by the Oxford University Press, beating out a number of other locutions - many technology-related -- that have spread through the language and the Web over the past year."

Alex Pareene of Salon has an appropriately snarky take on Ginni Thomas' departure or demotion or whatever from her tea party "non-profit": "Not because political activism and fundraising (from anonymous donors) by the wife of a Supreme Court justice raises ethical questions, but because the media keeps bugging Ginni about said ethical questions. Just last month, Ginni had to remove her name from a 'memo' that called Obamacare unconstitutional, so that her husband wouldn't have to recuse himself when it came time for him to decide that Obamacare is unconstitutional." ...

Wonkette, of course, is even snarkier. Highly recommended for a laugh.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans opened the lame-duck session of Congress on Monday by signaling their commitment to the antispending posture that fueled their big gains on Election Day, underscoring the Tea Party movement’s influence on the Republican leadership. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, drove the point home as soon as the Senate convened by announcing that he would support a proposed ban on Congressional earmarks, reversing his longtime practice of avidly pursuing money for his state." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times thinks John McCain, who for years has made the banning of earmarks his cri de coeur, must have a bittersweet reaction to President Obama & former earmark lovers being the ones who may actually end earmarks.

Republican Hypocrisy Watch. Glenn Thrush of Politico: Freshman Maryland Republican Congressman Andy Harris, a physician no less, was upset to learn his government-subsidized health insurance policy would not kick in the day he was sworn in. "Harris then asked if he could purchase insurance from the government to cover the gap," said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The staffer "was struck by the similarity to Harris’s request and the public option he denounced as a gateway to socialized medicine." ...

... I think we finally have a working definition of a health insurance crisis -- when a member of Congress has to go a whole month without coverage. Of course nothing's stopping him [Rep. Harris] from using his own money and purchasing private health insurance in the individual market. Those onerous Obamacare regulations haven't taken effect yet so he can explore the wonders of a still-functioning private insurance market as God and Adam Smith intended. -- Jonathan Chait of The New Republic

The Commentariat -- November 15

Candorville by Darrin Bell at Candorville.com. Via my old friend John L. Click on cartoon to see larger image.** "The Establishment President." David Bromwich in the London Review of Books assesses Barack Obama's presidency: "Obama acted on the assumption that the establishment is one and irreplaceable, and must be served in roughly its present form."

Paul Krugman: the odds are not good that the President will find it within himself to take a stand against the GOP, China & other bad actors in the international community.

Jackie Calmes & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: President Obama returns from Japan to the kabuki theater of the lame duck session. Oh, how will it all end? Not with a bang but a quack.

Ha! Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is stepping down from the conservative organization she founded last year. Ms. Thomas plans to resign as CEO of Liberty Central, a group designed to be a clearinghouse for conservative activists and the Tea Party movement...." CW: judicial ethics are so annoying.

Kilroy Was Here. Sam Stein: "A coalition of progressive lawmakers, labor unions, and soon-to-be-former members of Congress [like Mary Jo Kilroy {D-Ohio}] are demanding that the Democratic Party hold an up or down vote on a tax cut package that extends rates for the middle class while letting those for the wealthy expire.... Even as the White House is signaling its willingness to cut a deal extending the top brackets for an additional few years, progressive lawmakers and the AFL-CIO have begun imploring the party to partake in a veritable game of chicken. Make Republicans vote against a package that included just tax cuts for the middle class as the deadline for all rates to be reverted closes in."

New York Times: "The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a longtime defender of the Congressional authority over federal spending, said on Monday that he would support a proposed ban on earmarks, the lawmaker-directed spending items, in the next Congress." ...

... Jay Newton-Small of Time comments on Mitch McConnell's reversal & capitulation on earmarks. CW I've commented on Newton-Small's post.

Dana Milbank: Eric Cantor walks back his treasonous remarks without walking back his treasonous remarks. You people just got it wrong! (See Milbank's update down the page.)

He Was against It before He Was (Secretly) for It: Lee Fang of Think Progress: though Sen. John Ensign vehemently opposed the Affordable Healthcare Act & has refashioned himself as a teabagger, he wasn't above soliciting (& receiving) a near-$1 million grant under the act for the University of Nevada School of Medicine. CW: wonder if he sent a thank-you note. Plus, how come Fang had to go to the trouble to obtain documentation though an FOIA request? Letters from Senators concerning the expenditure of federal funds should all be on-the-record.

Noam Levey in the Los Angeles Times: "With their eyes on the 2012 election, Republicans are preparing to maximize conflict with Democrats over healthcare in the new Congress and minimize potential compromises, according to GOP strategists, lawmakers and lobbyists.... Republican leaders and strategists think a renewed battle over healthcare will help the party expand its electoral gains and drive President Obama from the White House."

Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker: "House Republicans and their Tea Party allies reject even the idea of concern. Not content merely to ignore the science, they have decided to go after the scientists."

Roxana Tiron of The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) may not be able to secure enough votes to pass the [defense authorization] bill because of language repealing the ban on gays in the military.... But abandoning the effort to repeal the 'Don’t ask, don’t tell' policy would be a political disaster for President Obama...." ...

... Here's an update from Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog. ...

... The Human Rights Campaign urges you to call your Senators & ask them to repeal DADT NOW.

... NEW. Three Amigos Disagree on DADT. Joe Lieberman "strongly" favors repeal.

Secretaries Hillary Clinton & Robert Gates in a Washington Post op-ed: "Before this session of Congress ends, we urge senators to approve an arms control treaty that would again allow U.S. inspectors access to Russian strategic sites and reduce the number of nuclear weapons held by both nations to a level not seen since the 1950s."

The Wall Street Journal identifies the year's ten highest-paid CEOs. The top-paid CEO, Gregory Maffei of Liberty Media Corp. pulled down $87.1 million. CW: Liberty Media owns QVC, Expedia, Starz,  the Discovery Channel & a bunch of other stuff, including large chunks of enterprises like Time Warner Cable & Sirius XM Radio. Remember, Republicans think these CEOs should get a tax break.

James Surowiecki of The New Yorker on "greedy geezers": in the midterm elections, seniors, especially older seniors, voted heavily Republican. mostly apparently because of their opposition to health reform. "There’s a colossal irony here: the very people who currently enjoy the benefits of a subsidized, government-run insurance system are intent on keeping others from getting the same treatment.... In hard times voters get more selfish."

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones debunks the "uncertainty meme" -- the notion popular among pundits that the reason businesses aren't growing is that they don't know what the future holds. BTW, the "PPACA" that Drum refers to is the Affordable Care Act a/k/a the healthcare reform act. ...

... Steve Benen remarks that "uncertainty" is a Republican cover invented because "they can't blame the economy on tax increases, since taxes have gone down not up, and they can't blame the recession on Bush since they still support his economic policies..., so 'uncertainty' becomes a convenient catch-all. But it's still ridiculous. Businesses have been reluctant to hire because they need more customers. It's really not a mystery."

American "Justice" -- Just Another Wall Street Scam. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "Large banks, hedge funds and private investors hungry for new and lucrative opportunities are bankrolling other people’s lawsuits, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into medical malpractice claims, divorce battles and class actions against corporations — all in the hope of sharing in the potential winnings." ...

... The New York Times provides a timeline that describes "the legal path to lawsuit lending," which indeed used to be illegal.

Steven Mufson of the Washington Post profiles my hero, Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "After two years of investigations and political recriminations, [Rep. Charlie] Rangel [D-NY] is scheduled to appear before a hearing of the House Ethics Committee on Monday to formally rebut charges that his fund-raising and personal finances violated Congressional rules." ...

... Ashley Parker of the New York Times profiles R. Blake Chisam, the staff lawyer who will present the cases against Rangel & Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cal.).

After learning that George W. Bush plagiarized chunks of Decision Points, Andy Borowitz asked his readers to "come up with the best plagiarized first line[s] for the book." Here are a couple:

They were betterer times, they were worserer times.

My momma always said life was like a jar of fetus.

[Bill] Clinton and I are buddies. -- George W. Bush. Clip & extended transcript are here. If you really want to, you can watch more of Candy Crowley's interview of George W. & Jeb Bush here.

Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: despicable hit man James O'Keefe smears an exemplary teacher this time; Republican Gov. Chris Christie, untroubled by a complete distortion, piles on.

It's Always Something. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Reports have trickled in about reusable [grocery] bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafe levels of lead.

Constant Weader -- I get a lot of supportive letters from readers, and some hilarious pans, too, but this post in the Democratic Underground is really something:

Marie Burns has built a cult following and a blog based on her trenchant comments on New York Times op-ed pieces. Today she adds another dimension to Paul Krugman's piece, "The World As He Finds It."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/opinion/15krugman.htm...

Marie's take:

-edit-

"... we were in trouble not because we had been governed by people with the wrong ideas, but because partisan divisions and politics as usual had prevented men and women of good will from coming together to solve our problems."

This of course the pose that made Obama famous in his 2004 convention speech: "... there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America...." I'm not much of an historian, so I'm not sure any other single speech has ever created a President, but it could be argued that this one did. Even though I live in Republicanland, the day after the 2004 election, when I was totally down in the dumps, a car passed me by sporting a bumper sticker that read "Obama 2008." Cheered me right up.

We all want to believe the sentiments of the 2004 speech. But adults with clear views of the political landscape know better. I expect Obama, who has borne the brunt of the untruthiness of his inspiring fantasy, knows better, too. But. But. It is the pose that made him, and he seems incapable of escaping it. In fact, even a casual observer can now see Obama has no interest in trying to escape the illusion of kumbaya America.

However, we err in believing Obama "just doesn't get it"; that his waffling and repeated capitulations to Republicans, to China, to whatever counterforce he meets -- are the result of his naivete or inexperience or lack of a skill set. I think Obama knows just what he is doing. He believes in the correctness of the elite establishment. He is a David Brooks dream President. "The world as he finds it" is messy, and this is a guy who picks up his socks. He prefers the neat platitudes of the ruling class he has been invited to join. He admires those "smart businessmen" on Wall Street who financed his campaign. He likes to chat with "respectable" establishment newsmen like John Harwood & Steve Kroft (how many interviews has Obama given "60 Minutes"?). He enjoys the company of long-time lobbyists like Tom Daschle. The President of the United States likes smooth operators. It is his intention to be one of them.

The smooth operators are not inclined to cede any of their power to the riffraff that is the rest of us. They have, once again, a friend in the White House, and they're happy with that. If Mitch McConnell & John Boehner are not exactly la creme de la creme, they too do the bidding for the elite. They do it for the cash, if not for the cachet.

The President returned to Washington from Japan yesterday, and today his ostensible friends & foes in the Congress will be back to bicker. Obama may have missed the kabuki theater in Japan, but he'll be right at home in Washington where he will star once again in a very familiar kabuki dance. We in the hinterlands are the captive audience of this stylized drama, a form of theater that holds few surprises and inevitably ends tragically for us. (All emphases D/U.)

For a better comment on Krugman's column, check out Karen Garcia's (#10) masterpiece. And recommend it!