The Commentariat -- Feb. 18, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,' [Pope] Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. The pope ... also waded into the question of whether the Roman Catholic Church should grant an exception to its prohibitions on abortion and birth control in regions where the Zika virus is causing a public health emergency, including in much of Catholic-dominated Latin America."

Understanding Marco. He has a history of flipflopping & shirking. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post reports on Marco Rubio's practices in Tallahassee.

*****

Jim Avila & Serena Marshall of ABC News: "President Obama is planning a trip to Cuba some time next month, marking the first time in more than 80 years a sitting U.S. president will visit the country, according to sources with knowledge of the plan. A National Security Council official plans to make the announcement tomorrow at the White House briefing."

Gail Collins assesses the state of Republican leadership. It's morning again in Canada.

NEW. Linda Greenhouse reflects on Justice Scalia's impact on jurisprudence. Well, not the prudence part. Thanks to Victoria D. for the link. ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "President Obama 'regrets filibustering the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2006, his top spokesman said Wednesday, though he maintains that the Republican opposition to his effort to replace Justice Antonin Scalia is unprecedented. 'That is an approach the president regrets,' White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. Obama and the Democratic senators who joined him in filibustering Alito 'should have been in the position where they were making a public case' against the merits of his nomination to the high court instead, Earnest said. 'They shouldn't have looked for a way to just throw sand in the gears of the process,' he added."...

... Eric Bradner of CNN: "Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor says President Barack Obama should name Antonin Scalia's replacement.... 'I don't agree (with Republicans)," O'Connor [-- a Reagan appointee --] said in an interview with Phoenix-based Fox affiliate KSAZ. 'We need somebody in there to do the job and just get on with it.'" ...

     ... CW: If President Obama wanted to defang the Republicans -- and there's little reason to think he does since they are chewing themselves up -- he could appoint O'Connor tomorrow. It would be a gamble, of course; there's no telling how she would decide on the important cases before this session of the Court. ...

... Mike DeBonis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans clashed Wednesday over how to battle President Obama's expected Supreme Court nomination as the White House left open the remote possibility that the president might sidestep a confirmation fight by making a rare recess appointment.... But Obama's opportunity to make a recess appointment will probably disappear after Monday, when the Senate returns from its weeklong recess. Republicans, who control the Senate, are likely to keep the Senate officially in session continuously for the rest of the Obama's term." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... in record time, the liberal and conservative Washington lobbying and advocacy machines are roaring to life, as both sides prepare for a fight on a battlefield that includes the White House, Congress and the campaign trail. Advocacy groups are already vowing to spend millions of dollars." ...

... Frank Rich: President "Obama, a lame duck who will not be on the ballot in November, has nothing to lose by standing on principle and carrying out a president's duty to submit a nominee to the Senate. The GOP, by contrast, has a lot to lose come Election Day -- including control of the Senate." ...

... Mark Kleiman has fairly delightful commentary on the merits of a recess appointment, although, as he notes in an update, the Senate may not in fact be in recess now. Kleiman is a professor of public policy at UCLA. CW: As I read the full adjournment statement, in conjunction with the fact that the House is in adjournment, it looks to me as if the Senate is also. ...

... Dana Milbank: "By attempting to make the election about the Supreme Court, Republicans would turn the discussion to topics on which Democrats have large advantages: climate change, business regulations, abortion, same-sex marriage, voting rights and campaign finance. (Polling on immigration and gun control, two other hot-button issues associated with the High Court, is more mixed.) The refusal to seat a justice would also further the impression, already widely held, that Republicans are more to blame for Washington's dysfunction." P.S. Ron Johnson retains his title as America's Stupidest Senator. But he's great at Twister! ...

... CW: Nobody could use a Supreme set-to better than Hillary Clinton, who was the subject of the Citizens United case. Americans overwhelmingly think Citzens United should be overturned. ...

... Jamiles Lartey of the Guardian: "Republican calls for Barack Obama to refrain from nominating a successor to deceased supreme court justice Antonin Scalia are 'odd' and 'absurd', according to constitutional scholars and experts. 'The arguments that they are making -- that this is a matter of principle – are nonsense,' said Michael Dorf, professor of constitutional law at Cornell Law School. 'It's just that they politically want some different kind of nominee.'" ...

... Greg Sargent does an "on the one hand/on the other hand" for Senate Republicans. ...

... Laura Clawson of Daily Kos: "It took Senate Republicans a couple of days to realize that swearing ahead of time that they'd refuse to even consider any Supreme Court nomination from President Obama didn't look good, so on Tuesday they started walking it back a little -- and the backwards stumble continues. They're not saying they'll be reasonable, mind you -- they're basically saying they'll block any nomination but at a slightly later, more media-friendly point in the process." ...

... AND Clawson notes we need better headline writers. (Another example was one Frank Rich mentioned in the post linked above: "Though a Times front-page headline this morning reads 'Court Path Is Littered With Pitfalls, for Obama and the G.O.P.,' the only potential pitfalls it actually identifies are all for the GOP.") ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: Some newspaper editorial boards are targeting home-state Republican senators who have spoken out against President Obama's nominating a candidate for Supreme Court justice. ...

... Obama's Butler Did It in the Bedroom with a Pillow. Pema Levy of Mother Jones provides another helpful guide to Scalia assassination theories. ...

... Kate Hudson of CBS "News": "The ranch owner, John Poindexter, tried to clarify his comments, telling 'CBS This Morning' that Scalia 'had a pillow over his head, not over his face as some have been saying. The pillow was against the headboard.'" CW: Yeah, the perps also change their stories.

Trey's October No-Surprise? Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "The leader of the House Select Committee on Benghazi promised to release a report 'as soon as possible' as the panel approaches its two-year mark. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) announced the committee has conducted a total of 75 witness interviews since its creation in May 2014 to investigate the Benghazi terrorist attacks, including recent sit-downs with White House national security adviser Susan Rice and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes." Greg Sargent figures that "as soon as possible" means "October."

Timothy Lee of Vox does an explainer on the FBI-Apple battle over unlocking Syed Farook's iPhone. ...

... Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times predicts that, at least in the long run, Apple -- & the tech companies in general -- with emerge victorious: "Apple, Google, Facebook and other companies hold most of the cards in this confrontation. They have our data, and their businesses depend on the global public's collective belief that they will do everything they can to protect that data." ...

     ... CW: Manjoo has good arguments, but they rely on the assumption that iPhone customers -- or potential customers -- don't care about lawlessness or terrorism. Seems flawed. Manjoo has been writing about technology for a long time. His friends are probably techies. I think if he got out in the real world he'd find that people are more terrified a Mooslim will murder them in their beds than they are worried that Barack Obama is listening in on their amorous phone calls. ...

... Shane Harris of the Daily Beast: "... in a similar case in New York last year, Apple acknowledged that it could extract such data if it wanted to. And according to prosecutors in that case, Apple has unlocked phones for authorities at least 70 times since 2008. (Apple doesn't dispute this figure.) In other words, Apple's stance in the San Bernardino case may not be quite the principled defense that [CEO Tim] Cook claims it is. In fact, it may have as much to do with public relations as it does with warding off what Cook called 'an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers.'" CW: No kidding. ...

... Max Rosenthal of Mother Jones: Some experts say that the difference is that in the older cases, the government was asking Apple to apply means they already had to open the files, while in this case, the government is telling Apple to write new decryption software. CW: A distinction, yes, but not one with much of a difference. If a bank, say, develops a "fail-safe" system to prevent unauthorized access to your safety deposit box, then gets a court order to open the box, they'll have to develop a new protocol to comply with the order.

Joshua Partlow & Gabriela Martinez of the Washington Post: "Overlooking the flood lights and barbed wire that line the U.S. border, Pope Francis on Wednesday quietly prayed for the migrants who have died during their journeys to America, as thousands of people watched on both sides of the Rio Grande's fortified shores. In what amounted to a symbolic rebuke of America's presidential campaign rhetoric -- which has included calls for mass deportations of illegal immigrants and a huge border wall -- the pope prayed atop a platform that overlooked the frontier. The pontiff waved and made the sign of the cross to a crowd cheering across the river in El Paso, Tex., suggesting his concern for those transiting through danger, in Mexico and beyond." ...

Presidential Race

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "A group of leading liberal economists who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations have assessed the proposals of Bernie Sanders and concluded that the Vermont senator's rosy economic projections do not add up. In a letter to Mr. Sanders and Gerald Friedman, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor who has said that Mr. Sanders's economic policies are would yield surging growth and job gains, they warn that 'no credible economic research' supports those conclusions." ...

... CW: Here's why the economists right: Kevin Drum has it in chart form. With exclamations! "WTF? Per-capita GDP will grow 4.5 percent? And not just in a single year: Friedman is projecting that it will grow by an average of 4.5 percent every year for the next decade. Productivity growth will double compared to CBO projections -- and in case you're curious, there has never been a 10-year period since World War II in which productivity grew 3.18 percent. Not one. And miraculously, the employment-population ratio, which has been declining since 2000 and has never reached 65 percent ever in history, will rise to 65 percent in a mere ten years.... This is insane. If anything, it's worse than the endless magic asterisks that Republicans use to pretend that their tax plans will supercharge the economy and pay for themselves. It's not even remotely in the realm of reality." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Sanders needs to disassociate himself from this kind of fantasy economics right now. If his campaign responds instead by lashing out -- well, a campaign that treats Alan Krueger, Christy Romer, and Laura Tyson as right-wing enemies is well on its way to making Donald Trump president." ...

... CW: It looks as if Krugman doesn't need to worry. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "New Public Policy Polling surveys of the 12 states that will hold Democratic primaries for President between March 1^st and 8th ... find Hillary Clinton leading the way in 10 of 12, with double digit leads in 9 of them.... Clinton is benefiting in these states from overwhelming African American support. She leads by anywhere from 40-62 points among black voters in the nine of these states that have more black voters than the national average." ...

... Krugman again: "As Matt O'Brien rightly said recently, even the incremental changes Hillary Clinton is proposing are very unlikely to get through Congress; the radical changes Bernie Sanders is proposing wouldn't happen even if Democrats retook the House. O'Brien says that the Democratic primary is 'like arguing what's more real: a magical unicorn or a regular unicorn. In either case, you're still running on a unicorn platform.' This is, alas, probably true: the platforms of the candidates are better seen as aspirational than as programs at all likely to happen." Here's O'Brien's post, dated Feb. 8. ...

... Facts aside, economist Thomas Piketty -- in a Guardian essay published originally in Le Monde -- sees Sanders as a welcome harbinger of "the end of the politico-ideological cycle opened by the victory of Ronald Reagan at the 1980 elections.... Sanders' success today shows that much of America is tired of rising inequality and these so-called political changes, and intends to revive both a progressive agenda and the American tradition of egalitarianism. Hillary Clinton ... appears today as if she is defending the status quo, just another heiress of the Reagan-Clinton-Obama political regime." CW: Maybe Piketty can help the Sanders campaign come up with some believable numbers. ...

... BUT. I think Hillary has a real winner in this new ad running in Nevada. I'd guess this is something Bernie can't match. Ad via Greg Sargent:

A Pogo Stick in Every Household. Margaret Hartmann of New York gleans some little-known facts from the GOP teevee-town-halls that aired last night.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio received the endorsement Wednesday of South Carolina's governor, Nikki R. Haley, a stamp of approval that could prove significant as his campaign tries to break out ahead in the state's primary on Saturday. Mrs. Haley endorsed Mr. Rubio at an early evening rally in Chapin, S.C...." ...

... Marco's One-Way Conversations. Mike Zapler of Politico: "On Tuesday and Wednesday, [Marco Rubio] held four events -- all dubbed ahead of time as 'town halls' -- but the candidate didn't take questions from voters at any of them. He did stick around each time to mingle and take selfies with audience members after delivering his roughly 40-minute stump speech. He also took questions from reporters after an event Wednesday. A campaign spokesman said the events were changed from town halls to rallies. That more controlled setting allows Rubio to limit the possibility of a bad moment...." CW: Even when he tries to stifle the audience, Marco screws up. Tuesday, he laughed along with the crowd when someone shouted,"Waterboard Hillary!" (If you think torturing women is funny, I guess that's not a screw-up. Nikki Haley didn't seem to mind, anyway.) ...

... Update. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "An audience member at a rally for Senator Marco Rubio called Hillary Clinton 'a traitor,' prompting an objection from the candidate. 'I wouldn't go that far, sir,' Mr. Rubio said from the stage where he was campaigning with Gov. Nikki Haley...." According to Barbaro's reporting, this was the same guy who then said, "Let's waterboard Hillary," which Marco treated as a joke.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "After receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Donald Trump for running an ad that characterized Trump as pro-choice, Ted Cruz effective said, "So sue me." "Mr. Cruz held forth in a hotel conference room [in Seneca, S.C.], laying papers across a table and gesturing toward his visual aids: a video screen, on which he played the ad, and a poster detailing Mr. Trump's past contributions to Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid. 'You have been threatening frivolous lawsuits for your entire adult life,' Mr. Cruz said of Mr. Trump.... 'I may well not use outside counsel,' Mr. Cruz said. 'I may take the deposition myself." ...

     ... CW: Yes, we know you're a crackerjack lawyer, Ted might remember the adage "A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client." ...

... Alan Rappeport: "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has erased Donald J. Trump's lead in a new national poll that could signal a significant shift in the race for the Republican nomination with primary election season in full swing." ...

... Mark Murray of NBC News: "Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has fallen behind Ted Cruz in the national GOP horserace, according to a brand-new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In the poll, Cruz is the first choice of 28 percent of Republican primary voters, while Trump gets 26 percent. They're followed by Marco Rubio at 17 percent, John Kasich at 11 percent, Ben Carson at 10 percent and Jeb Bush at 4 percent." ...

... Oh Yeah? Anthony Salvanto, et al., of CBS "News": "Donald Trump (35 percent) continues to hold a commanding lead over the rest of the field, with a 17 point lead over his closest rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz (18 percent). John Kasich (11 percent) has now risen to a virtual third-place tie with Marco Rubio (12 percent). Trump leads among nearly every demographic group. More than half of Republican voters say they may still change their minds about who to support, but two thirds of Trump voters say their minds are made up." CW: I assume this is also a national poll. ...

... Isaac Chotiner of Slate: Joe "Scarborough and [Mika] Brzezinski [of MSNBC] hosted what appeared to be a rehearsed and 'safe' town hall [with Donald Trump Wednesday night], in which American voters asked the candidate such hard-hitting questions as 'Why did you decide to run for president?' and 'how will you set yourself apart' from other Republicans? It was completely worthless television, except in one sense: The program highlighted the many ways in which the media's coverage of Trump has been soft, insufficient, and without substance.... The media's relationship with Trump should worry Hillary Clinton, assuming each of them vanquishes their primary opponents."

... Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "Nearly three decades before ... [Donald Trump] began his run for president ... he ... called for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York following a horrific rape case in which five [black] teenagers were wrongly convicted."

Beyond the Beltway

Phil Helsel of NBC News: "A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, his two sons and two other men in connection with a 2014 armed standoff, nearly two years after the confrontation that thrust them into the national spotlight. The indictment of Bundy, 69, his sons Ammon and Ryan and two other men, Ryan Payne and Peter Santilli, in the Nevada standoff comes three weeks after the collapse of another armed protest over federal land management in Oregon led by the Bundy sons." ...

... They Left Their Shit Behind. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Nearly a week after the Oregon wildlife refuge occupation ended, federal authorities poring over the site say they have found firearms and explosives as well as 'significant amounts of human feces' around an area that's home to cultural artifacts."

Michael Shepherd of the Bangor Daily News: At a town-hall meeting in Freeport, Maine, Gov. Paul "LePage called asylum seekers 'the biggest problem in our state.' That drew harsh reactions from some in the crowd who yelled, 'Shame on you,' some of whom walked out of the overflowing room at the town's library. He elaborated, saying that Maine often doesn't receive federal aid to help secondary migrants. Then he doubled down on a past, baseless argument that asylum seekers pose a public health threat, saying they're bringing hepatitis C, tuberculosis, AIDS, HIV and 'the ziki fly,' an apparent malaprop reference to the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus." CW: Or maybe he meant "tsetse fly" which is almost a homonym. Or maybe he meant frat boys; Zeta Beta Tau men used to be called "Zekes." I myself would worry about an influx of frat boys.

The Commentariat -- Feb. 17, 2016

Wowza! President Obama has two middle fingers: one for Senate Republicans & one for all the GOP presidential candidates. CW: I understand the tactical reasons for his reticence to criticize Republicans during his first term, but I surely wish he had spoken like this back in 2009 & '10. ...

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday offered an extended critique of the Republicans running to replace him, describing them as 'troubling' to people around the world and singling out Donald J. Trump as someone who would not be a serious president":

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is 'indisputably qualified for the seat,' and he scoffed at Republican suggestions that the process should be halted until after the November presidential election and a new administration takes office." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell's message to the White House after Antonin Scalia's death on Saturday seemed unequivocal: Don't even bother sending a Supreme Court nominee to Congress, we won't act on it. But on Tuesday, some Republicans were signaling they're open to at least holding hearings, if not allowing a confirmation vote.... Essentially, the GOP message is this: We respect Obama's decision to make a nomination, even though that appointee stands no chance of being confirmed. It's a more nuanced view than an outright blockade, and suggests that the optics of barring a Supreme Court nominee from even a courtesy hearing are making some Republicans queasy." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had not ruled out holding hearings on President Obama's eventual nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 'I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,' Mr. Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. 'This is a very serious position to fill and it should be filled and debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator Sanders or whoever's nominated by the Republicans.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... This story has been updated with a shared byline: Steinhauer & Mark Landler. New Lede: "President Obama on Tuesday challenged Republicans to offer any plausible rationale for refusing to consider a Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia..., and he pledged to nominate someone with an 'outstanding legal mind' who cares about democracy and the rule of law. 'The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the Constitution demands that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either confirms or rejects. 'There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,' Mr. Obama said. 'That's not in the Constitutional text.'" ...

... Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg thinks the GOP's knee-jerk obstructionim is a sign the party is running skeert: "For a party with faith in itself and in the American project, a Supreme Court vacancy is worthy of a pitched, strategic battle. But Republicans don't believe they have a popular judicial or political philosophy, and they are so dependent on the court's activist conservative bloc that a potential shift of a single judge is deemed catastrophic." ...

... The Ladies & Gentlemen of the Right Have Left the Government. Steve Benen: "Republicans' willingness to cause a breakdown in modern governing isn't the result of broken laws, but rather, abandoned norms. Federal policymakers have long been able to do what GOP lawmakers are now doing, but traditionally, officials saw such tactics as simply unacceptable. There were certain steps responsible adults in positions of authority just would not take -- they could go to unprecedented extremes, but a sense of propriety led to a recognition that such radicalism should be avoided.... Before the Obama era and the radicalization of Republican politics, the idea of federal legislators trying to sabotage American policies seemed genuinely ridiculous, but that's no longer the case." ...

     ... CW: I think Benen is wrong on this. For all of my adult life, the House & Senate have been filled with obstructionists. In the bad old days they were Southern Democrats & a few Joe McCarthy & Barry Goldwater types. In the wake of the civil rights movement, they became Republicans from everywhere but the Northeast. Newt Gingrich shut down the government as surely as Ted Cruz would. Republicans delegitimized Bill Clinton even though many of his policies were pretty damned conservative. The big difference is that there are many more wingers in the Congress now, so many more that they have the power to shut down government functions -- as in this refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee -- and they do. I don't blame Republicans; I blame the ignorant bastards who vote for them. ...

... Charles Pierce: [CW: On January 20, 1801, months after Thomas Jefferson defeated him in the presidential race], "John Adams [who was a true 'lame duck' president,] went out and nominated John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States.... On January 27, 1801, Marshall was unanimously confirmed; the man who virtually invented the current role of the Supreme Court as an equal branch of the government was himself the nominee of a lame duck president. If you're going to argue what the Founders 'would have done' in a certain situation, it's helpful to look at what they actually did." (Emphasis added.) ...

... Emily Bazelon, in the New York Times Magazine: "If every justice must have credentials like those currently serving on the Supreme Court, then the definition of who is qualified has become exceedingly narrow.... Former federal judges were in the minority on the Supreme Court until the 1970s.... The politician who left the greatest mark on the court is probably Earl Warren, a former governor of California.... Maybe it's time for a magic ingredient -- one that would bring a kind of wisdom to the court it currently lacks and would shake up the inevitable political battle to come, by introducing an element of surprise." ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before his funeral is held, offering the public a chance to pay their respects, court officials said Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Capitalism Is Way Too Awesome. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "During the 2008 financial crisis, Neel Kashkari worked tirelessly to save the nation's largest banks. As a senior Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he helped those banks grow larger than ever. On Tuesday, he said it was time to think about breaking them up. 'I believe the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy,' Mr. Kashkari said at the Brookings Institution, delivering his first public speech as the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.... 'We need to move before we as a society have forgotten the lessons of '08,' he said.... Mr. Kashkari's remarks caused a stir in Washington.... Mr. Kashkari is a moderate Republican and a former employee of Goldman Sachs.... [Sen. Bernie] Sanders ... released a statement on Tuesday saying he was 'delighted' by the speech."

James Queally & Joel Rubin of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year, according to a three-page decision handed down Tuesday." ...

... Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has released a statement in which he says that a court order that directs the company to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone could threaten the privacy of its customers. Mr. Cook's statement, a letter to Apple customers, was posted on the company's website on Tuesday night, several hours after a judge in California ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the gunmen in the December attack in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14 people. In his statement, Mr. Cook called the court order an 'unprecedented step' on the part of the United States government and he said that Apple would not comply." ...

     ... CW: Yes, Tim, because mass murderers have the expectation (even though they're dead) of privacy, too. And the order is an "unprecedented step" only because the lengths to which Apple has gone to encrypt its phones is unprecedented. That's nutso, buddy.

David Sanger & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to disable Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled." CW: Just remember, people, President Obama is a total wimp. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered a veiled rebuke of Bernie Sanders, arguing in a sweeping speech on the state of race in America that his fight to end economic inequality does little to address the systemic racism gripping the country." Clinton's full speech is here. ...

... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: In her speech, Clinton tied Republicans' refusal to consider any Obama nominee to racism:

The Republicans say they'll reject anyone President Obama nominates no matter how qualified. Some are even saying he doesn't have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he's not the real president.... You know that's in keeping what we heard all along, isn't it? Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about takers and losers. They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country. -- Hillary Clinton

Yeah, she's pandering. And yeah, she's right. Except the "paranoid fringe" is yuuuge. -- Constant Weader

Azi Paybarah of Politico: "Hillary Clinton took her campaign to shore up African-American support to Manhattan on Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in the offices of the National Urban League on Wall Street...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders sought Tuesday evening to rally black college students as he the continues efforts to make inroads with African-American voters. Speaking at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Sanders focused on his plan to reform the nation's criminal justice system and push for free college tuition....Sanders spoke of 'institutional racism' in his stop on a tour of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which was attended by more than 4,800 people, according to the school. Before the event, rival Hillary Clinton's campaign issued a statement slamming Sanders for leaving students at historically black colleges 'out in the cold.' Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Morehouse alum, argued in the statement that Sanders' plan for tuition-free school at public colleges and university doesn't invest in private colleges like Morehouse." ...

... Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "State Sen. Vincent Fort, the No. 2 Democrat in the Georgia Senate, flipped his endorsement on Tuesday from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. The Atlanta Democrat made his decision public just hours before Sanders is set to speak at a Morehouse College rally aimed at enticing black voters to give his campaign a second look." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Bill Scher in Politico Magazine on what & how Bernie Sanders could win even if he loses to Hillary Clinton.

Jacob Heilbrunn in Politico Magazine: "The most basic problem for the Republican Party isn't that Donald Trump is so strong, but that his competitors are so weak.... It was [George W.] Bush's rapid abandonment of a bromidic 'compassionate conservatism' and foreign-policy restraint that exposed the GOP as a fatally divided party devoid of ideas. Thus, in debunking the GOP's hollow men and bringing the Bush-Cheney era to a close, Trump is essentially kicking in a rotten door.... The irony of the new darling of the party's disenchanted base is that his open divergence from the putative ideology of that base is near-complete. Trump preaches Trumpism; he doesn't seem to care at all what the official party doctrine is supposed to be." ...

... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... the stubborn popularity of Mr. Trump, who defies Republican orthodoxy on issue after issue, shows how deeply the party's elites misjudged the faithfulness of rank-and-file Republicans to conservatism as defined in Washington think tanks and by the party's elected leaders." ...

... All Black Men Look Alike. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, [Donald] Trump repeatedly referred to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as 'Obama.' 'What Ted Cruz did to Obama, where he said that Obama had quit the race and take our votes," Trump began to say before being corrected by his audience. In fact, he was referring to an incident in which members of Cruz's campaign spread reports suggesting that Carson was dropping out of the race on the day of the Iowa caucuses." ...

     ... CW: Schreckinger's lede is tongue-in-cheek: "Donald Trump can't keep his Midwesterners straight." I'd say Politico does not allow its writers to indicate outright that Trump is so fundamentally racist that he "can't keep his black men straight." There are, of course, a few corollaries to Trump's Freudian slip, such as, "All Mexicans look alike." and "All A-Rabs look alike." It seems quite possible that President Trump would accidentally bomb Jordan when he meant to bomb Syria. ...

... In case you think Trump supporters will be all upset to find out their candidate is a hard-wired racist, Charles Pierce, with the help of Public Policy Polling, will disabuse you of that notion. ...

... Oh, & here's Trump, allowing himself to be dragged into the Scalia-was-murdered conspiracy theory. Listen to the audio. I love the part about how a "U.S. marshall appointed by Obama himself" was part of the cover-up. The charge is a little vague, but then conspiracy theorists do have to sort of gloss over facts or invent them outright. ...

... MEANWHILE, Torturing Women Is Hilarious. Mike Zapler of Politico: "When Marco Rubio vowed to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open if he becomes president, a man in the crowd piped up with a suggestion: 'Waterboard Hillary!' The standing-room-only crowd at a campaign rally laughed in approval, and Rubio played along. 'I don't want to know what he said .. the press is here,' Rubio joked. 'I didn't hear what they said," he added with a shrug. "I know it wasn't a bad word, that's all that matters.'" CW: Think about that for a second. Rubio thinks a "joke" about torturing a former first lady & secretary of state is laugh-worthy; he just doesn't want to get caught on tape saying so. He also thinks he's qualified to be POTUS.

Have We Mentioned that Republicans Don't Care about Deficits? Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: ... Ted Cruz's plan to impose a flat 10 percent tax on all personal income and greatly lower the corporate tax rate would cost the federal government at least $8.6 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis. The plan would be the second most expensive tax proposal in the GOP presidential field, with only businessman Donald Trump offering a proposal that would add more in government debt over the next 10 years, according to data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... CW: Gosh, however will Tailgunner Ted make up for that honking big deficit? Oh, I know, cut programs for the needy & the deserving. Luckily for me, That Damned Cat has turned up her nose at the catfood pate', so I've got enough to keep me in kitty-canapes for quite some time. Always look on the bright side of life. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls 'a false attack ad' from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. 'The ad falsely claims "Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants." Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants,' wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... CW: So in the last 24 hours the top three GOP candidates have showed, among their other many stellar qualities, that one is a racist, one is a sadist & one is a whiney baby who dishes it out but can't take it. Millions of real Americans will vote for these assholes. ...

... In other whiney-boy news, Jeb! wants CBS "News" to apologize to him for mentioning reaction to a tweet of his titled "America" that featured a picture of a gun with Jeb!'s name on it. People urged him not to commit suicide. ...

     That engraved gun Jeb! seems to think represents America!? Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "While the company [that manufactures & gave Jeb! the gun] is known as FN America, it is actually a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a foreign corporation based in Belgium.... During World War II, the company was requisitioned by the Nazi military and its factories produced thousands of weapons for Axis troops, including pistols carried by Nazi officers and pilots.... Today, FN Herstal supplies countless arms to the U.S. military...."

... AND in communal whiney news, Jonathan Chait has an excellent post on winger reaction to Donald Trump's heretical remark that George W. Bush was the POTUS on September 11, 2001. "Republicans have walled inconvenient facts about the Bush administration's security record out of their minds by associating them with crazed conspiracy theorists. It is epistemic closure at work: Criticism of Bush on 9/11 and Iraq intelligence is dismissed because the only people who say it are sources outside the conservative movement, who by definition cannot be trusted. The possibility that the Republican Party itself would nominate a man who endorses these criticisms is horrifying to them." ...

All right, you've covered your ass now. -- President George W. Bush, responding to the CIA's presentation of the briefing memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," August 6, 2001 ...

... Martin Longman, in the Washington Monthly, writes a succinct history lesson on the George W. Bush administration's serial denials of an impending Al Qaeda attack.

Beyond the Beltway

Adding Insult to Injury. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Flint residents were paying more for their [poisonous] water than just about anyone else in the country.... In January 2015, the Flint water system charged more for its services than any other of the 500 water utilities in [a] survey [conducted by the non-profit Food & Water Watch]." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal judge Tuesday ordered Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to remain in custody pending trial on a complaint stemming from his 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up his cattle grazing on public land. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart found Bundy, 69, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee, citing his 'ongoing defiance of federal court orders.'... A six-count federal complaint out of Nevada charges Cliven Bundy with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, interference with commerce by extortion and two counts of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence." ...

... The government's complaint is here. It's a doozy. The memo seeking Bundy's detention is here. It's an even creepier read.

Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "An embattled University of Missouri professor has again found herself to be the subject of public scrutiny, after a video surfaced that shows her engaged in a verbal confrontation with police. Melissa Click, an assistant professor in MU's communication department, was suspended last month, in the wake of an encounter she had with a student journalist during protests on the Columbia, Mo., campus in the fall." Includes video. CW: The Post is too fastidious to say so, but elsewhere I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Commentariat -- Feb. 16, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Wowza! President Obama has two middle fingers: one for Senate Republicans & one for all the GOP presidential candidates. CW: I understand the tactical reasons for his reticence to criticize Republicans during his first term, but I surely wish he had spoken like this back in 2009 & '10. ...

Here's the President on the Republican presidential candidates:

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is 'indisputably qualified for the seat,' and he scoffed at Republican suggestions that the process should be halted until after the November presidential election and a new administration takes office." ...

... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had not ruled out holding hearings on President Obama's eventual nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 'I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,' Mr. Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. 'This is a very serious position to fill and it should be filled and debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator Sanders or whoever's nominated by the Republicans.'" ...

     ... This story has been updated with a shared byline: Steinhauer & Mark Landler. New Lede: "President Obama on Tuesday challenged Republicans to offer any plausible rationale for refusing to consider a Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia..., and he pledged to nominate someone with an 'outstanding legal mind' who cares about democracy and the rule of law. 'The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the Constitution demands that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either confirms or rejects. 'There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,' Mr. Obama said. 'That's not in the Constitutional text.'" ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before his funeral is held, offering the public a chance to pay their respects, court officials said Tuesday."

David Sanger & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to disable Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled." CW: Just remember, people, President Obama is a total wimp.

Adding Insult to Injury. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Flint residents were paying more for their [poisonous] water than just about anyone else in the country.... In January 2015, the Flint water system charged more for its services than any other of the 500 water utilities in [a] survey [conducted by the non-profit Food & Water Watch]."

Have We Mentioned that Republicans Don't Care about Deficits? Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: ... Ted Cruz's plan to impose a flat 10 percent tax on all personal income and greatly lower the corporate tax rate would cost the federal government at least $8.6 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis. The plan would be the second most expensive tax proposal in the GOP presidential field, with only businessman Donald Trump offering a proposal that would add more in government debt over the next 10 years, according to data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center." ...

     ... CW: Gosh, however will Tailgunner Ted make up for that honking big deficit? Oh, I know, cut programs for the needy & the deserving. Luckily for me, That Damned Cat has turned up her nose at the catfood pate', so I've got enough to keep me in kitty-canapes for quite some time. Always look on the bright side of life. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls 'a false attack ad' from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. 'The ad falsely claims "Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants." Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants,' wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign, in the letter shared with the media."

Azi Paybarah of Politico: "Hillary Clinton took her campaign to shore up African-American support to Manhattan on Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in the offices of the National Urban League on Wall Street....Speaking briefly after the event, Sharpton said ... the meeting with Clinton ... was 'very candid.'" ...

... Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "State Sen. Vincent Fort, the No. 2 Democrat in the Georgia Senate, flipped his endorsement on Tuesday from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. The Atlanta Democrat made his decision public just hours before Sanders is set to speak at a Morehouse College rally aimed at enticing black voters to give his campaign a second look."

Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "An embattled University of Missouri professor has again found herself to be the subject of public scrutiny, after a video surfaced that shows her engaged in a verbal confrontation with police. Melissa Click, an assistant professor in MU's communication department, was suspended last month, in the wake of an encounter she had with a student journalist during protests on the Columbia, Mo., campus in the fall." Includes video. CW: I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me."

*****

Michael Shear & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Monday, Senate Republicans -- including some who are up for re-election in swing states -- appeared to be closing ranks with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who has vowed to block any nominee from Mr. Obama and has said that he should not even suggest one, leaving the choice to the next president." ...

... James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Mitch McConnell has decided to wager the Republican majority in the Senate on blocking Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court. It's a bold and understandable gambit designed to prevent a leftward lurch in jurisprudence after Antonin Scalia's unexpected death this weekend, but it could backfire badly." CW: This seems a pretty solid analysis. ...

... Jeff Stein of Vox runs through the "strongest" confederate arguments for blocking any Obama nominee to the court. CW: By some of this logic, we had better hope the current federal judges & justices live forever, because no Senate will ever have to allow any president to fill a vacancy: "'The Senate can structure its own rules to govern the advice-and-consent process,' says Adam J. White in the Weekly Standard. 'Nowhere does the Constitution say that the Senate is required to act on the president's nominations.'" ...

... Wait, Wait! Here's one Stein missed. Emily Atkin of Think Progress: According to Constitutional scholar Rand Paul, President Obama can't appoint a justice to the Supreme Court because Obama has a "conflict of interest"; to-wit, the Supremes will be ruling on matters of interest to Obama. ...

     ... CW: By that logic, not only can the president never propose a nominee, the Senate can never consent to a nomination because the Supremes regularly make decisions regarding laws the Senate has passed; ergo, the Senate, too, has a conflict of interest. Looks like Li'l Randy just eliminated Article III from the Constitution. Well, good, as every libertarian knows, there's just too damned much government anyway. The upside to being a dimwit is that you never have any idea you're a dimwit. ...

... ** Sen. Harry Reid, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Having gridlocked the Senate for years, Republicans now want to gridlock the Supreme Court with a campaign of partisan sabotage aimed at denying the president's constitutional duty to pick nominees.... By ignoring its constitutional mandate, the Senate would sabotage the highest court in the United States and aim a procedural missile at the foundation of our system of checks and balances.... This Republican Senate would be the first in history to abdicate that vital duty." Read the whole essay. ...

... Steve Benen: "In every possible way, Senate Republicans have handled this about as poorly as they possibly could have. While much of the country was still learning of the news [of Justice Scalia's death], GOP senators, from the leadership to the rank and file, announced in no uncertain terms that President Obama shouldn't even try to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. If he does, Republicans declared that they will not act in good faith: no nominee will be considered or confirmed, regardless of merit or qualifications, because the party says so.... To further their obviously ridiculous case, GOP senators have even begun making up rules that didn't exist before the weekend." Read the whole post, especially the P.S. ...

... CW: If voters want the federal government to function ever again, they had better vote out every Republican candidate for national office. These nuts could make me vote for Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). ...

... Greg Sargent: "Republicans may be courting a pretty serious risk: if Obama doesn't end up getting his pick through, there is a real possibility that President Hillary Clinton could nominate a more liberal replacement than Obama did -- and she might also enjoy a Dem Senate majority, making it easier to get that more liberal replacement confirmed.... McConnell may also be calculating that if Republicans do lose the White House, they could then quickly confirm Obama’s nominee." ...

     ... CW: My thoughts exactly. Republicans could also move to confirm a moderate Obama nominee before the election, in hopes the move would help retain their majority, if the polls indicated a Democratic would likely win the presidency & GOP senators were about to get trounced. Not an October surprise exactly, but an October calculation. Mitch does what's best for Mitch. ...

... Richard Hasen, in the Washington Post: "Think of the Scalia battle not as a hurricane, but as the first in a series of storms that will come through our increasingly polarized Congress.... The series of storms will put great stress on our system of separation of powers when we are so divided." ...

... CW: Il Nino has already "put Congress stress on our system of separation of powers." This is the first time I can recall that the leader of the majority party has stated outright that the portion of the branch of government he leads refuses to fulfill its Constitutional obligations. ...

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "I've been puzzled by how much of the should-Obama-get-to-choose-a-judge debate has been framed as a last-year-of-presidency issue Republicans' strategy of blocking everything this president wants to do, and everyone he wants to appoint, did not exactly begin when we rang in the recent new year.... Republicans were just as dedicated to Confirmationus Interruptus in 2015. Last year, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed just 11 federal judges, the fewest in any year since 1960. Only one appeals court judge was confirmed, the lowest number since 1953."

Sam Hananel & David Warren of the AP: "The Texas county judge who decided no autopsy was needed following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has disclosed new details about Scalia's health.... Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told The Associated Press on Monday she spoke with Scalia's doctor on the day he was found dead.... She said the doctor told her that Scalia had a history of heart trouble, high blood pressure and was considered too weak to undergo surgery for a recent shoulder injury.... Guevara said [Rear Adm. Brian] Monahan[, the attending physician for members of Congress and the Supreme Court,] told her Scalia had gone to the doctor's office on both Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Texas, and had an MRI on his shoulder. She said Monahan told her surgery was needed, but that Scalia wasn't strong enough to endure surgery so rehabilitation was recommended instead." ...

... Toljaso. Lena Sun & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia.... 'As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia,' William O. Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for D.C. police, wrote in a post on Facebook on Sunday.... 'You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician,' he wrote. 'You have a non-homicide trained US Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack....'" ...

... CW: I stand corrected on the source of the "pillow over his head" story, which I wrote in a comment yesterday was an invention of a right-wing fake news site. However, John McCormack of the San Antonio Express-News did cite ranch owner John Poindexter: "We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled." ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story fills us in on some of the best conspiracy theories. ...

... Tommy Christopher of Mediaite shows how the theorists connect the dots to President Obama. ...

... Even some wingers, like Leon Wolf of Red State, think the conspiracy nuts are over the top.

What About Bob(s)? Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell could wind up one of the biggest losers as a result of Justice Antonin Scalia's unexpected death.... Last August, McDonnell was perhaps weeks away from being required to report to prison when the Supreme Court stepped in, granting him a stay that remains in effect today. Just one month ago, the high court formally agreed to hear McDonnell's appeal, which argues that his convictions relied -- at least in part -- on 'routine political courtesies'.... Scalia was considered among the most receptive justices to McDonnell's argument.... If the court can't muster five votes ... to overturn McDonnell's conviction, the appeals court ruling upholding his sentence is likely to kick in...." The Court's ruling in the McDonnell case could also have an impact on the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

... Michael Ruane of the Washngton Post: "The National Park Service announced Monday that the Lincoln Memorial will undergo a major renovation over the next four years, thanks largely to an $18.5 million donation by billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein. The project is probably the biggest overhaul of the building since the structure was dedicated in 1922, officials said."

Presidential Race

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "With his expansive plans to increase the size and role of government, Senator Bernie Sanders has provoked a debate not only with his Democratic rival for president, Hillary Clinton, but also with liberal-leaning economists who share his goals but question his numbers and political realism. The reviews of some of these economists, especially on Mr. Sanders's health care plans, suggest that Mrs. Clinton could have been too conservative in their debate last week when she said that his agenda in total would increase the size of the federal government by 40 percent. That level would surpass any government expansion since the buildup in World War II. The increase could exceed 50 percent, some experts suggest...." ...

... CW: It's worth noting that of the economists whose names I recognize, all are likely supporters of Hillary Clinton: Jared Bernstein & Austan Goolsbee, for instance, both served in the Obama administration, & Paul Krugman has devoted numerous columns to running down Sanders' proposals and extolling Clinton's. This doesn't mean they're all wrong, but it's important to take their criticisms of Sanders' plans with a grain of salt. Besides, as Ive said, Sanders' proposals are aspirational. There's no chance Congress -- even a Congress dominated by liberals -- would enact legislation to increase the size of the federal government by more than 50 percent. ...

... Thomas Frank in the Guardian: "... focusing on the money being mustered behind Hillary Clinton by various lobbyists and Wall Street figures misses this point. The problem with establishment Democrats is not that they have been bribed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest; it's that many years ago they determined to supplant the GOP as the party of Wall Street -- and also to bid for the favor the tech industry, and big pharma, and the telecoms, and the affluent professionals who toil in such places.... Changing what the Democratic party stands for may ultimately require nothing less than what a certain Vermonter is calling a 'political revolution'." ...

... CW: What we need is a president with Bernie Sanders' ideals & a chief-of-staff with Hillary Clinton's know-how. ...

... Hillary Cares About Black People. Annie Karni of Politico: "In a high-profile speech in Harlem on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton is expected to address the issue of systemic racism, and offer solutions for how to break down the barriers that hold back African American families. The speech is part of Clinton's effort in recent days -- as she closes in on the South Carolina primary and turns her attention toward more diverse March states -- to show that she views racism and discrimination as stand-alone problems in American in need of their own solutions. Her approach appears designed to highlight the contrast with her chief rival Bernie Sanders, who so far in his campaign has mainly addressed racism through the lens of economic inequality." ...

... Jon Ralston of the Ralston Report in the Washington Post: "Nevada is no longer a 'lock' for Hillary Clinton. CW: Frankly, I'll be shocked if Sanders prevails in Nevada. The caucuses are this coming Saturday. ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Women serving in the Senate say Hillary Clinton is being subjected to an unfair, sexist double standard on the campaign trail. Criticisms of Clinton's tone of voice have become prominent in recent weeks, stirring strong feelings among Senate Democratic women who say they too have had to battle the stereotype of the shrill female.... Female lawmakers were particularly galled by recent statements by Washington Post columnist Bob Woodward, one of the nation's most respected journalists, characterizing Clinton's tone as 'screaming.' 'She shouts. There's something unrelaxed about the way she is communicating,' he said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' The comment prompted the show's host, Joe Scarborough, to interject, 'I was watching her and I said to myself, "Has nobody told her how the microphone works?"'... The New York Times reported that Clinton received additional media training after Woodward aired his critique." ...

     ... CW: So that's why Clinton spoke like a normal person in the last debate. Now somebody please get Sanders a voice coach.

Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "As Donald Trump and Ted Cruz divide up the first primaries and center-right Republicans tear one another apart in a race to be the mainstream alternative, Republicans are waging a shadow primary for control of delegates in anticipation of ... a contested national convention."

The Art of Breaking the Deal. Andrew Shain of the (South Carolina) State: "... Donald Trump did not close the door Monday on a possible third-party run after accusing the Republican party of breaking its pledge to stay neutral in the race. 'The (Republican National Committee) is in default,' Trump said during a news conference at the Hanahan Town Hall on Monday. 'When somebody is in default, that means the other side can what they have to do.'... In his fight against the RNC, Trump said he is upset that tickets to GOP presidential debates, including one held Saturday in Greenville, have gone to what he calls special interests and big donors." While he was at it, Trump accused S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley (R) of not doing enough to protect South Carolinians from Syrian refuges & Guantanamo prisoners.

In a statement, Donald Trump says Ted Cruz is crazy: "Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual. He is the single biggest liar I've ever come across, in politics or otherwise, and I have seen some of the best of them. His statements are totally untrue and completely outrageous. It is hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a Christian could be so dishonest and lie so much." He also suggests a couple of wingnuts as his possible Supreme Court nominees. ...

... Yo' Sistah. Katie Glueck of Politico: "Ted Cruz on Monday pledged to make the presidential election a 'referendum' on the U.S. Supreme Court, ramping up efforts to make that issue one more increasingly personal point of contention with Donald Trump, his biggest rival here ahead of the South Carolina primary. 'The one person Donald has pointed to as a potential Supreme Court nominee is his sister,' Cruz told reporters here Monday, though Trump opened Saturday night's debate by name-checking federal judges Bill Pryor and Diane Sykes. 'Now, it's good to stand with your sister. But Donald's sister was a Bill Clinton-appointed federal appellate judge who's a radical pro-abortion extremist.'"

Ed O'Keefe & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "George W. and Laura Bush returned to the campaign trail Monday to campaign for Jeb Bush.... The former president and first lady took the stage at a convention center [in North Charleston, S.C.,] alongside the former Florida governor."...

... Look at Me. Now I'm an Anarchist, Too. Tim Devaney of the Hill: "... Jeb Bush in an interview Monday morning urged Senate Republicans to block President Obama from nominating a Supreme Court justice, taking a harder stance than during the latest GOP debate."

Megan Apper of BuzzFeed: "'It's morning again in America,' a calm narrator says as an idyllic scene of a boat crossing a harbor plays in Marco Rubio's latest ad -- a darker riff on the classic Ronald Reagan ad. Based on a quick internet search, though, the boat scene in the 'Morning Again' ad appears to be Vancouver, Canada.... And the flag on the boat appears to be Canadian." CW: What's terribly sad about the ad is that Ted Cruz's team didn't produce it. But, hey, the stock footage is still out there. Try it, Ted. ...

... Anyhow, Ted & Marco both might as well be a couple of Canadians. Or Cubanos. Whatever. Caitlin Cruz of TPM: "A Republican National committeewoman from Nevada said Monday that she believes both Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are ineligible to run for President." Her theory on Marco is that he was born before his parents became American citizens, so to hell with the Constitution; the guy's a foreigner. The Nevada woman, Dianna Orrock, is supporting the guy in the orange rug whom she believes will make America great again. ...

... "Latino Outreach." digby: "Wouldn't you know it? The only two Hispanic candidates in the race are not American enough to run for president. Talk about bad luck, huh? (Because you know that Republicans don't have an racist bone in their bodies. They all love Taco Bell, amirite?)" ...

... Leading from His Behind. Steve Benen: How hard is it for Marco's backers to come up with examples of his "accomplishments"? Impossible. Rick Santorum couldn't think of one. Jim Inhofe [R-Denial] made up one that (a) was just a vote rather than an "accomplishment," & (b) Marco didn't actually, um, vote on it. Rubio can't think of one either: Sunday his best answer to Chris Wallace of Fox "News" was, "'Foreign policy experience is doing as I did, leading the effort to impose additional sanctions on Hezbollah.' That at least sounds like an accomplishment, except (1) the Hezbollah sanctions bill passed without opposition, so this was hardly a heavy lift; and (2) when it came time for the Senate to vote on the Hezbollah sanctions bill, Rubio again didn't show up for work." ...

... Kiss of Death. Dave Helling of the Kansas City Star: "Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has become the first sitting governor to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for president. The Rubio campaign announced the endorsement Monday. 'Just like Governor Brownback, Marco has consistently defended life, small government and free enterprise throughout his career in public service,' Rubio midwest spokesman Jeremy Adler said in a statement. Kansas Republicans will caucus Mar. 5." CW: Yep. And their economic policies are identical, too. As Kansas went, so goes the nation.

AND Jonathan Chait makes the case for a Michael Bloomberg run. Thanks, Jon!

Senate Race

America's Stupidest Senator Retains Title. Following is what Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson's tweeted upon learning of Justice Scalia's death. Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "The picture Johnson tweeted was of Edward Gero, an actor who portrayed Scalia in 'The Originalist'...." But no disrespect intended: Johnson later blamed his staff for the error & took down the tweet. Anyway, thanks, Wisconsin! Vote Feingold.

... For anyone who has wiped the real Antonin Scalia from her memory bank, here he is, explaining textualism, or in this case, I guess you might call it "hypertextualism":

CW BTW: Textualism, I would add, doesn't make much sense. As any lit critic will tell you, all reading is interpretive. Of course there are innumerable symbols, words, phrases & sentences which 99.9 percent of us would "interpret" in precisely the same way, to the point that we're not even aware we're interpreting them. But in more complex writings, where words may have shades of meanings & parts of the whole may be in conflict -- as they are in, say, the U.S. Constitution -- we become aware that we have to work to affix some meaning to them; their ambiguity may cause reasonable people to differ on what their meaning is or what the writer(s) intended us to infer.

News Lede

New York Times: "Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who led the United Nations in a chaotic 1990s tenure that began with hopes for peace after the Cold War, but failed to cope with genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and ended in angry recriminations with Washington, died on Tuesday in an Egyptian hospital. He was 93."