The Commentariat -- February 9, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday sent his final annual budget proposal to a hostile Republican-led Congress, seeking $19 billion for a broad new cybersecurity initiative and rejecting the lame-duck label as he declared that his plan 'is about looking forward.' The budget for fiscal year 2017, which starts Oct. 1, would top $4 trillion, although only about one-quarter of that is the so-called discretionary spending for domestic and military programs that the president and Congress dicker over each year. The rest is for mandatory spending, chiefly interest on the federal debt and the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits that are expanding as the population ages."

Charles Pierce: "One thing about the Clinton team: because they've been the object of sophisticated (and well-financed) ratfcking for over 25 years, they've developed a real talent for opposition research their own selves." ...

... "Half a Dream." Charles Blow (Feb. 8): "... possibly the most damaging of Clinton's attributes is, ironically, her practicality. As one person commented to me on social media: Clinton is running an I-Have-Half-A-Dream campaign. That simply doesn't inspire young people brimming with the biggest of dreams. Clinton's message says: Aim lower, think smaller, move slower. It says, I have more modest ambitions, but they are more realistic. As Clinton put it Thursday in a swipe at Sanders, 'I'm not making promises that I cannot keep.' But the pragmatic progressive line is not going to help her chip away at Sanders's support among the young. That support is hardening into hipness."

*****

Presidential Race

CW: Might be the first time I've seen a guy wearing jeans & a bowtie. I'm kinda liking the look. That's Tom Tillotson, the "moderator" of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. Photo via the Washington Post.It's a lovely, sunny morning in South Central New Hampshire, the temps are in the high teens & some schools are closed for election day. Get out & vote, people. ...

... Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: "The first votes were cast Tuesday in New Hampshire following a final campaign blitz as candidates crisscrossed the state and leveled blistering attacks on rivals in a primary that appeared likely to set the tone for the wild nominating races ahead." ...

... Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks have a conversation about the New Hampshire primaries. Collins: "I was particularly offended by Marco Rubio's performance in Iowa. (That's a surprise, since I would have sworn nobody could top Ted Cruz.) He kept falling back on 'Jesus Christ who came down to earth and died for our sins.'... Marco Rubio instantly attacked the president [after Obama visited a Baltimore mosque] for 'pitting people against each other.' Now Marco Rubio is an all-purpose twit, but this was one of his worst moments. The guy who loves to wave his specific faith in the public's face. And he's shocked, shocked when the president demonstrates tolerance and compassion for an embattled religion."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "With a snowstorm bearing down on [New Hampshire] and threatening to derail the final crush of campaign events on Monday, Republicans jockeyed for position in the hope of outperforming recent polls that suggest that Donald J. Trump is the favorite to win the state, with Senator Marco Rubio and a glut of establishment candidates locked in a battle for second place.... Hillary Clinton, speaking [Monday] morning to WBZ radio, a Boston station that reaches the voter-rich cities and counties of southern New Hampshire, said she was confident that her aides and volunteers were ready to help voters reach the polls on Tuesday no matter how bad the weather."

Contra Krugman & others, Citizens for Tax Justice, a progressive think tank, suggests Bernie Sanders' healthcare plan would be good for all but the wealthy: "A new analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' recently released 'Medicare for All' tax plan finds that Sanders' health-related taxes would raise an estimated $13 trillion over 10 years. The analysis also finds that the plan would raise average after-tax incomes for all but the top income groups." CW: As Krugman has argued, the cost savings for average Americans wouldn't necessarily make Sanders' Medicare for All a Panacea for All: unless it is incredibly well-structured & -managed (think V.A. here), there would be tradeoffs. ...

... Dana Milbank: "Bernie Sanders is no revolutionary." CW: Yeah, & I noticed Bernie combed his hair for the last debate (or maybe had the assistance of a hairdresser!). What a sell-out. ...

... Paul Waldman, in the American Prospect, has a much better take on Sanders' & Clinton's relationships with "the establishment." Yes, Clinton is a member in high standing, but a President Sanders would certainly work closely with the Democratic "establishment," most of whom share his goals, if not his optimism that those goals might be achievable. Neither President Bernie nor President Hillary would be able to "change Washington" in any meaningful way.

It's Always the Staff's Fault. Glenn Thrush & Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary and Bill Clinton are so dissatisfied with their campaign's messaging and digital operations they are considering staffing and strategy changes after what's expected to be a loss in Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, according to a half-dozen people with direct knowledge of the situation. The Clintons -- stung by her narrow victory in Iowa -- had been planning to reassess staffing at the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters after the first four primaries, but the Clintons have become increasingly caustic in their criticism of aides and demanded the reassessment sooner, a source told Politico."

... On Rachel Maddow's show, Hillary responds to the Politico story:

I have no idea what they're talking about or who they are talking to. We're going to take stock but it's going to be the campaign that I've got. I'm very confident in the people that I have. I'm very committed to them; they're committed to doing the best we can.... We're moving into a different phase of the campaign. We're moving into a more diverse electorate.... So, of course it would be malpractice not to say, 'OK, what worked? What can we do better? What do we have to do new and different that we have to pull out?' ...

     ... Paul Waldman: "You can take that one of two ways: 1) of course, they're going to continually assess how they're doing and make adjustments if necessary; or 2) holy cow they're freaking out and everyone will get fired!" ...

     ... Jennifer Shutt of Politico: "David Axelrod took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Hillary Clinton's political strategy in New Hampshire, following news that her campaign is considering shaking up its staffing after an expected loss there. 'When the exact same problems crop up in separate campaigns, with different staff, at what point do the principals say, "Hey, maybe it's US?",' the former top aide to President Barack Obama tweeted." ...

... Pete Williams of NBC News: "In a letter disclosed Monday in a federal court filing, the FBI confirms one of the world's worst-kept secrets: It is looking into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server." ...

... Hillary, Not Necessarily "Cozy" with Wall Street. Kevin Drum: "I think it's safe to say that Clinton has hardly been a scourge of the banking industry. Until recently, her main interests were elsewhere. But if there's a strong case to be made for 'coziness,' I've failed to find it." ...

... BUT. Ben White of Politico: "When Hillary Clinton spoke to Goldman Sachs executives and technology titans at a summit in Arizona in October of 2013, she spoke glowingly of the work the bank was doing raising capital and helping create jobs, according to people who saw her remarks. Clinton, who received $225,000 for her appearance, praised the diversity of Goldman's workforce and the prominent roles played by women at the blue-chip investment bank and the tech firms present at the event. She spent no time criticizing Goldman or Wall Street more broadly for its role in the 2008 financial crisis. 'It was pretty glowing about us,' one person who watched the event said. 'It's so far from what she sounds like as a candidate now. It was like a rah-rah speech. She sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director.'... Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon dismissed the recollections a[s] 'pure trolling,' while the Clinton campaign declined to comment further on calls that she release the transcripts of the three paid speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs, for which she earned a total of $675,000." ...

... Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: Hillary "Clinton and her allies are making increasingly overt -- and clumsy -- appeals to feminist solidarity, as she struggles in her Democratic presidential primary battle against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The reactions ... suggest that it could be backfiring, at least in New Hampshire, a state proud of its tradition of electing women.... The gender question was inflamed over the weekend, after [Gloria] Steinem and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, both supporters of Hillary Clinton, made statements upbraiding women who are not.... Unlike in Iowa, where Clinton won women by 11 percentage points, she is struggling for their votes [in New Hampshire]." ...

... Roger Simon of Politico: "In Iowa, though Hillary won the women's vote overall, she lost women ages 30-44 to Sanders by a hefty 21 percentage points and women ages 17-29 by a stunning 70 percentage points.... Clearly, the Clinton campaign must now do something. So in order to win over women ages 17-29, it has brought out [Madeleine] Albright, age 78, and Gloria Steinem, age 81, as surrogates. And you can see why campaign consultants get the big bucks. The strategy? Shame women into voting for Clinton." ...

... Amanda Marcotte in Salon: "While it's always tempting to reach for cheap explanations when other women disagree, feminists need to resist the hags-vs-bimbos narrative with all our might.... Perhaps seeing a woman out there, every day, doing the hard work of being the President of the United States could go a long way towards showing that women really are more than these reductive stereotypes, that they are full human beings with the same complex, nuanced concerns that men are assumed to have without question." ...

     ... CW: Yup. Looked how well this worked out for black people. Finally racism is over. Probably Donald Trump will take today off from the campaign trail so he call attend a black history seminar & work on his proposed legislation for slavery reparations. Kum. Bye. Yaaaaaah!

CW: Here's one thing you can count on: every vote in the GOP primaries will be a vote against climate change abatement. Jeremy Schulman of Mother Jones on the Republican presidential candidates' opposition to climate science. Includes data about New Hampshire voters' views.

Elevating a Conversation about Torture. Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Donald Trump echoed a supporter during a rally on the eve of the New Hampshire primary Monday night who called his Republican presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) a 'pussy.' Trump was touting his hardline stance against terrorists from the Middle East when he mentioned Cruz's response during the debate Saturday on the use of waterboarding. 'Honestly I thought he'd say, "absolutely" -- and he didn't,' Trump said.... 'She just said a terrible thing,' Trump said, stopping his own remarks at the arena in Manchester and pointing out a woman in the audience, beckoning her to raise her voice. 'You know what she said? Shout it out, 'cause I don't want to,' Trump continued. 'OK, you're not allowed to say -- and I never expect to hear that from you again -- she said ... he's a pussy.'" ...

     ... CW: See, if you even hint at exercising caution before torturing prisoners, you're a pussy. Cruz, BTW, is not opposed to waterboarding; he says it does not meet the legal definition of torture, but that h'd use it sparingly. During the last GOP debate, Trump said, 'I'd bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.'"

Could you let go of my breast, please? -- WCBS reporter Marcia Kramer, to a Secret Service agent protecting Donald Trump, at a Manchester, New Hampshire, hotel

... Bad News, Good News. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "'I can look at their faces and say, "Look, you can't come here,'" [Donald] Trump said after 30 year-old Darren Ornitz of Greenwich, Connecticut, asked the billionaire businessman -- who owns a home there -- whether he would be willing to personally bar Syrian children from resettling there." But he said it nicely. Because "I have a bigger heart than anybody in this room."

Shakezula (how I wish professional pundits would use their real names!) of LG&M: "A gay voter took Rubio to task for being a homophobic weasel.... 'A middle-age gay man confronted Senator Marco Rubio here on Monday over his opposition to same-sex marriage, pointedly asking, "Why do you want to put me back in the closet?" "I don't," Mr. Rubio replied. "You can live any way you want."' Provided that way you want to live doesn't involve the state recognizing your marriage, giving you the same benefits as opposite sex couples or you know ... being treated like a human being, whaddya complaining about?" BTW, Marco approached the voter in a diner; the guy didn't accost him. ... Also, too, at the same diner, Marco told a 92-year-old woman that Sen. Lindsey Graham (a "bachelor"!) isn't gay. Because that would be too horrible to contemplate. ...

... Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Oooh! Marco Rubio & MSNBC host Joe Scarborough are having a feud! "In an election season marked by animosity, egos and insults, this feud ... follows two men from the swamps of Florida politics to a presidential cycle in which Mr. Rubio, 44, has emerged as a leading candidate, and Mr. Scarborough, 52, as one of his fiercest critics.... In an interview Saturday, Mr. Scarborough could not hide his disapproval of Mr. Rubio, describing him as 'programmed' and 'risk averse.' And after Mr. Rubio's debate performance on Saturday appeared to validate his critique, Mr. Scarborough took something of a victory lap. 'I've been criticized for saying Marco looks too robotic, too prepackaged, and too young,' he wrote in a text message. 'But everything I've said alone for months is now being repeated this morning by everyone else in the political world. My critiques weren't personal: they were right.'"

Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "What's missing from much of the discussion [about Marco Rubio] is that Rubio is embracing some of the most lunatic ideas on the right -- and he's managing to do so without most in the media hearing the dog whistle.... [Rubio's] real message goes ... into the dark heart of the conspiracy theories and twisted loathing of Obama that has persisted on the right for the last seven years.... And there's no escaping the racial undertones of this argument, because that's where so many on the right find the explanation for Obama's supposed hunger to bring woe and misery down upon us.... In some of the debates it has become almost comical, as every question Rubio gets on any subject is answered with a diatribe about Obama's malevolent schemes.... Rubio was going to be the candidate of the future, yet he's presenting himself as the candidate who is as disturbed, as unsettled, and as angry as you are that the past is slipping away." ...

Tom LoBianco & Ashley Killough of CNN: "Despite being backed by the monumental Right to Rise super PAC, Jeb Bush said Monday he would 'eliminate' the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for super PACs." CW: Oh, wow. Jeb! is practically a librul. Oh, wait, read on: "'If I could do it all again I'd eliminate the Supreme Court ruling' Citizens United, Bush told CNN's Dana Bash. 'This is a ridiculous system we have now where you have campaigns that struggle to raise money directly and they can't be held accountable for the spending of the super PAC that's their affiliate.'" So, um, the problem with Citizens United is that it doesn't give the politicians enough control over their big-bucks supporters.

Contributors today persuaded me to read David Brooks' column: President "Obama radiates an ethos of integrity, humanity, good manners and elegance that I'm beginning to miss, and that I suspect we will all miss a bit, regardless of who replaces him."

Senate Race

Phil Willon of the Los Angeles Times: "Republican Senate candidate Rocky Chavez, an Oceanside assemblyman and former Marine colonel, abruptly dropped out of the race Monday evening just as the first GOP debate was about to begin.... He said it was crucial for a GOP candidate to survive the June 7 primary, and he insinuated that the top three Republicans in the race could splinter their party's vote and allow Democratic hopefuls Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana to have the ballot to themselves in November. '... I think the best role I can fill for the Republican Party and moving the agenda forward ... is to run for my Assembly seat, since I'm not going to be running for the United States Senate,' Chavez said. With that, Chavez walked off the debate stage and out of the studio. Under California's top-two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June primary, regardless of party, will face off in the general election."

Other News

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "President Obama sends Congress his eighth and last annual budget proposal on Tuesday, a lame-duck executive's accounting of national priorities that Republican leaders have branded sight unseen: dead before arrival.... Breaking with a 41-year-old tradition, the Republican chairmen of the House [Tom Price (Ga.)] and Senate [Mike Enzi (Wy.)] budget committees announced that they would not even give the president's budget director, Shaun Donovan, the usual hearings in their panels this week.... But some new ideas that the administration previewed in recent weeks, including on cancer research, opioid abuse and military projects, could have more life than Republicans care to admit." CW: This is Joe Wilson's "You lie" on steroids. It's premeditated & institutional. This isn't John Boehner refusing to go to state dinners; it's top members of Congress refusing to perform the fundamentals of the people's business because the president comes from the other party is black.

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "In the latest cyberattack targeting the federal government, an intruder gained access to information for thousands of employees at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, but officials said Monday that there was no indication that sensitive information had been stolen."

Ekow Yankah in a New York Times op-ed: "White heroin addicts get overdose treatment, rehabilitation and reincorporation, a system that will be there for them again and again and again. Black drug users got jail cells and 'Just Say No.'" CW: The contrast is stark, but Yankah has unwittingly written into his essay one reason for the different responses that transcends racism: because of the economic disparity between black & white, crack use led to violent crime in way that, as far as I know, today's heroin epidemic has not. People of every race had more reason to fear black users than white.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Nigel Duara of the Los Angeles Times: Reporters at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada's highest-circulation newspaper, are beginning to feel the heavy hand of its new owner, casino magnate & serious winger Sheldon Adelson.

Beyond the Beltway

Rob Kuznia of the Washington Post: "In California, once a national innovator in draconian policies to get tough on crime, voters and lawmakers are now innovating in the opposite direction, adopting laws that have released tens of thousands of inmates and are preventing even more from going to prison in the first place. The most famous is a landmark ballot measure called Proposition 47, which in 2014 made California the first state in the nation to make possession of any drug -- including cocaine and heroin -- a misdemeanor. More astonishing is the state's decision to show leniency toward violent offenders...." ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Officials say that Washington [state] accidentally released as many as 3,200 prisoners earlier than scheduled over a period of more than a decade.... The early releases[, first caused by a coding error,] date as far back as 2002, but even though the Department of Corrections learned about the issue years ago, a fix wasn't made and the public wasn't notified until recent weeks.... according to corrections officials, dozens of the inmates released early in recent years committed crimes while they were out.... Questions remain about the sheer number of inmates involved, the length of time this error continued and why it kept happening long after authorities were alerted."

Oregonian: Militants are still holed up in the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Here's a roundup of the latest developments.

News Lede

New York Times: "Artur Fischer, a German inventor who registered more than 1,100 patents, including the first synchronized camera flash and an anchor that millions of do-it-yourselfers use to secure screws into walls, died on Jan. 27 at his home in Waldachtal, in southwestern Germany. He was 96."

The Commentariat -- February 8, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Could you let go of my breast, please? -- WCBS reporter Marcia Kramer, to a Secret Service agent protecting Donald Trump, at a Manchester, New Hampshire, hotel

Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: Oooh! Marco Rubio & MSNBC host Joe Scarborough are having a feud! "In an election season marked by animosity, egos and insults, this feud ... follows two men from the swamps of Florida politics to a presidential cycle in which Mr. Rubio, 44, has emerged as a leading candidate, and Mr. Scarborough, 52, as one of his fiercest critics.... In an interview Saturday, Mr. Scarborough could not hide his disapproval of Mr. Rubio, describing him as 'programmed' and 'risk averse.' And after Mr. Rubio's debate performance on Saturday appeared to validate his critique, Mr. Scarborough took something of a victory lap. 'I've been criticized for saying Marco looks too robotic, too prepackaged, and too young,' he wrote in a text message. 'But everything I've said alone for months is now being repeated this morning by everyone else in the political world. My critiques weren't personal: they were right.'"

*****

Presidential Race

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Bill Clinton =uncorked an extended attack on Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, harshly criticizing Mr. Sanders and his supporters for what he described as inaccurate and 'sexist' attacks on Hillary Clinton.... What began as a testimonial to Mrs. Clinton's leadership and a statesmanlike lecture on her approach to issues evolved into an angrier recitation of grievances against Mr. Sanders and his fervent supporters." ...

     ... Annie Karni of Politico has more on Bill Clinton's attack on Sanders. ...

     ... Greg Sargent: "... one has to hope this latest episode is not a harbinger of more to come along the lines of what we saw in 2008. Hillary and her campaign have worked hard to avoid being tagged as the establishment candidate who believes she's entitled to a coronation.... But if the goal is to dispel that narrative, it won't be helpful to have an ex-president who also happens to be your husband angrily ridiculing and belittling the appeal of a spirited challenger who has engaged millions of young voters into the political process in a way you haven't." ...

... Steve Friess of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton made a quick detour Sunday afternoon from the campaign trail in New Hampshire to express her outrage directly to the residents of ... [Flint, Michigan,] over the scandal that poisoned their municipal water supply.... She takes credit for goading the Republican governor to accept federal help...." ...

... Chas Danner of New York: "The Democratic National Committee and host CNN announced on Sunday that the March 6 Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be held in Flint, Michigan. The choice is meant to draw attention to the plight of the city...."

... Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The feminist writer Gloria Steinem apologized on Sunday for remarks about young women who support Bernie Sanders, not long after Hillary Clinton defended Madeleine Albright over her comment that there is 'a special place in hell' for women who do not support Clinton. Steinem posted her apology to Facebook, writing that she 'misspoke' on Friday when ... [she] said women 'get more activist as they grow older. And when you're younger, you think: "Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie."'... 'Madeline has been saying this for many, many years,' Clinton said [on "Meet the Press" Sunday]. 'She believes it firmly, in part because she knows what a struggle it has been, and she understands the struggle is not over.'" ...

... Greg Grandin of the Nation on Hillary Clinton's long, friendly relationship with Henry Kissinger, the architect of policies that led to "3, maybe 4 million deaths." One thing to bear in mind is that diplomats, including secretaries of state, are obliged to say nice thing about people they hold in contempt. Look at Grandin's piece for evidence of a continuation of Kissinger's policies & philosophy, not for the nice things Clinton & Kissinger have said to & about one another.

Andy Borowitz: "Scandal rocked Bernie Sanders's Presidential campaign on Friday as the candidate was forced to admit that he received free checking from several big banks."

Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The Iowa Democratic Party on Sunday updated the results of the Iowa caucuses after discovering discrepancies in the tallies at five precincts, but the final outcome remains unchanged.... Hillary Clinton still places first in the caucuses with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, the party said in a statement. Primary rival Bernie Sanders comes in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent. The total net change gives Sanders an additional 0.1053 state delegate equivalents and strips Clinton of 0.122 state delegate equivalents. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who dropped out of the race after the caucuses, also received an additional 0.0167 state equivalent delegates."

CW: Somewhere in this great land, possibly in New Hampshire corner of it, the Marco puppetmaster, whoever he may be, is kicking himself for telling Marco, "Whatever happens in the debate, stay on message." ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Marco Rubio's "GOP rivals argued Sunday that the debate undercut the central case for Rubio's candidacy -- that his political agility and youthful, charismatic persona make him best positioned to challenge the Democratic nominee. And they claimed a renewed -- and seemingly justifiable -- rationale to soldier on past New Hampshire, which would mean that the mainstream Republican vote would probably continue to splinter among several candidates."

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Marco Rubio on Sunday defended his performance in Saturday night's Republican presidential debate, in which he was widely panned for coming off as scripted in a tense exchange with Chris Christie.... 'Actually, I would pay them to keep running that clip, because that's what I believe passionately,' Rubio said, reiterating once more his point about Obama deliberately harming the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... There's No There There There. CW: Here's what Marco Marco Marco doesn't get or is pretending he doesn't get): if your schtick is to accuse the POTUS of subversive activity or whatever, then you have to find more than one way to say it; you have do say he did this & he wants to do that. You have to have some facts or at least some made-up crap to back up your assertion. All MMM has is a couple of canned applause lines asserting that President Obama is a malevolent force. A not-too-bright child can handle that (and be just as cute spouting his lines). There's no evidence that Marco even knows, beyond his prepared material, what awful things Obama is supposed to have done. ...

... "Software Glitch." Paul Krugman: "While Mr. Rubio did indeed make a fool of himself on Saturday, he wasn't the only person on that stage spouting canned talking points that are divorced from reality. They all were, even if the other candidates managed to avoid repeating themselves word for word.... The truth is that the whole G.O.P. seems stuck in a time loop, saying and doing the same things over and over. And unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie 'Groundhog Day,' Republicans show no sign of learning anything from experience.... The whole G.O.P. seems stuck in a time loop, saying and doing the same things over and over. And unlike Bill Murray's character in the movie 'Groundhog Day,' Republicans show no sign of learning anything from experience." ...

     ... CW: While he's at it, Krugman manages to praise Hillary & get in a dig at Bernie. ...

... Kevin Drum thinks Marco Marco Marco's debate performance may have ended his career. CW: He sure got a long way on platitudes & attacking absent opponents. ...

... "... Maybe His Ventriloquist Was Stuttering." Charles Pierce: "The general hilarity has tended to obscure what Rubio actually was saying. (And saying, and saying, and saying...) He was accusing the president of monumental and deliberate acts of subversion in office. This is a stunning charge, especially from a one-term pipsqueak whose memory banks jam whenever he steps an inch beyond his actual depth." CW: Haven't read that point elsewhere, & it is well-taken. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: One thing Marco Marco Marco reminds us of is, if not the low intelligence quotient of our billionaire class, then the low IQ that class of greedy bastards is willing to put into the White House to endanger all Americans & everybody else who gets in our way. This isn't the first time we've been provided a stark reminder that many a billionaire is a numbskull or worse -- for some reason the 2000 election comes to mind -- but when the billionaire who has been leading the GOP presidential race has been exposed as a featherweight fascist, the favored candidate of the uber-rich has proved to be a Doofus! & big money geniuses' second runner-up is poor Johnny Johnny Johnny One-Note, it's impossible not to notice that many of those billionaires & multi-millionaires need assistants to help them put their pants on one leg at a time. ...

... AND, Once Again, the GOP Establishment Bets on a Lame Horse. Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "At Saturday night's debate, Republicans wanted Marco Rubio to soar and Donald Trump to stumble. The opposite happened."

The Apogee of the Bully. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: Chris "Christie was gleeful on Sunday. In the morning, he appeared on CNN's 'State of the Union' from Manchester, New Hampshire. He bumped into Hillary Clinton in the green room. They shook hands and she congratulated him on his debate performance. 'I'll see you in the fall,' Christie told her as she departed.... During a swing around [New Hampshire], Christie was throwing punches in every direction. During his ninety-minute event in Hampton, he ridiculed Donald Trump, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio." ...

I think that the anointment [of Rubio] is now over, so that changes the entire race.... I am ready to roll right into South Carolina. -- Chris Christie, yesterday ...

... Chrisco Made the Snowplows Run on Time. Steve M.: "But what was Christie saying here? He was saying that being required to deal with strictly domestic problems makes him more qualified to be president that a U.S. senator, even though senators deal with foreign as well as domestic policy. He was saying that getting the streets plowed is all the job experience a potential president needs." CW: Read the whole post. I haven't seen this point made elsewhere, either. But I do think Steve is right to compare Christie's "qualification" for POTUS with Scott Walker's (remember him?) well-covered gaffe in which he claimed he could handle ISIS terrorists because he had "taken on 100,000 protesters" (mostly schoolteachers!). (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... E. J. Dionne has quite a different take: "It's not clear what Christie did for his own candidacy, but he performed a service by reminding his party that running a government is serious work and ought to be respected. That this was revelatory shows how far contemporary conservatism has strayed from the essential tasks of politics."

Bradford Richardson: "Following attacks from primary rival Jeb Bush about his past use of eminent domain..., Donald Trump on Sunday accused the Bush family of using the practice to build a baseball stadium in Texas. 'Eminent domain is a very important thing,' Trump said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'Jeb Bush doesn't understand what it means, and if you look into the Bush family -- I found this five minutes ago -- they used eminent domain for the stadium in Texas, where they own, I guess, a piece of the Texas Rangers.'" ...

... CW: Here's a little history on that, from Dan McGraw of Reason (May 2005): "

One of the most famous eminent domain cases involved ... baseball's Texas Rangers, at the time owned by George W. Bush. [The Rangers] convinced local voters to approve a 1991 tax increase that helped build a new $191 million stadium. The city of Arlington used eminent domain to acquire the property from hundreds of private owners, claiming that the stadium was a 'public use.'.... Several property owners were lowballed, and court decisions increased their take. (The city, not the team, was responsible for the larger payments. The compensation for one 13-acre plot was increased from $877,000 to $5 million, for example.)

The stadium clearly benefited the Rangers' owners more than anyone else: Bush turned his initial $600,000 investment into $15 million when the team was sold in 1999. But it has produced little of the promised economic benefit to Arlington, and there has never been a real 'public use' factor aside from baseball fans' paying their money to see games.

Katie Glueck of Politico: "Ted Cruz on Sunday said he opposes requiring women to register for a potential draft, breaking with Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, all of whom indicated support for opening up the Selective Service to women during Saturday night's debate." ...

... the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn't make any sense at all. -- Ted Cruz, on forcing women, specifically his daughters, to register for a draft

CW Translation: U.S. soldiers are fat psychopaths who routinely kill American women.

CW: If you suspect a racist subtext here, I'm with you.

Other News & Opinion

AP: "President Barack Obama is asking Congress for more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding to help fight the Zika virus. In an announcement Monday, the White House said the money would be used to expand mosquito control programs, speed development of a vaccine, develop diagnostic tests and improve support for low-income pregnant women."

Michael Wines & John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The crisis in Flint, Mich., where as many as 8,000 children under age 6 were exposed to unsafe levels of lead after a budget-cutting decision to switch drinking-water sources, may be the most serious contamination threat facing the country's water supplies. But it is hardly the only one. Unsafe levels of lead have turned up in tap water in city after city -- in Durham and Greenville, N.C., in 2006; in Columbia, S.C., in 2005; and last July in Jackson, Miss., where officials waited six months to disclose the contamination -- as well as in scores of other places in recent years."

Beyond the Beltway

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "Five top officials in Crystal City, Tex., were arrested Thursday under a federal indictment accusing them of taking tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and helping the operator of an illegal gambling operation.... The indictment swept up the city's mayor, mayor pro tempore (who both have city council votes) and a council member, as well as the city manager, a former city council member and the alleged gambling operator, Ngoc Tri Nguyen.... A fourth person on the city council, Marco Rodriguez, was arrested last month on human smuggling charges."

Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black 19-year-old and an unarmed bystander in December has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $10 million in damages from the teenager's estate, an unusual legal approach based on a claim that the young man's actions leading up to the gunfire were 'atrocious' and have caused the officer 'extreme emotional trauma.'"

The Commentariat -- February 7, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Marco Rubio on Sunday defended his performance in Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, in which he was widely panned for coming off as scripted in a tense exchange with Chris Christie.... 'Actually, I would pay them to keep running that clip, because that’s what I believe passionately,' Rubio said, reiterating once more his point about Obama deliberately harming the country." ...

... "... Maybe His Ventriloquist Was Stuttering." Charles Pierce: "The general hilarity has tended to obscure what Rubio actually was saying. (And saying, and saying, and saying…) He was accusing the president of monumental and deliberate acts of subversion in office. This is a stunning charge, especially from a one-term pipsqueak whose memory banks jam whenever he steps an inch beyond his actual depth." CW: Haven't read that point elsewhere, & it is well-taken. ...

... Chrisco Made the Snowplows Run on Time. Steve M.: "But what was Christie saying here? He was saying that being required to deal with strictly domestic problems makes him more qualified to be president that a U.S. senator, even though senators deal with foreign as well as domestic policy. He was saying that getting the streets plowed is all the job experience a potential president needs." CW: Read the whole post. I haven't seen this point made elsewhere, either. But I do think Steve is right to compare Christie's "qualification" for POTUS with Scott Walker's (remember him?) well-covered gaffe in which he claimed he could handle ISIS terrorists because he had "taken on 100,000 protesters" (mostly schoolteachers!). ...

*****

Presidential Race, Infotainment Tonight Edition

Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was hammered as callow, ambitious and lacking in accomplishment during the Republican presidential debate here on Saturday night, as Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey led an all-out assault to try to halt Mr. Rubio’s growing momentum ahead of the critical New Hampshire primary on Tuesday. Mr. Rubio ... looked rattled at times and faltered as he pushed back with scripted lines about President Obama that Mr. Christie mocked mercilessly." ...

... The New York Times' transcript of the debate is here. And here's the Washington Post's annotated transcript. ...

... Cute Talking Wind-up Doll Gets Stuck on Anti-Obama Soundbite. Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Mr. Christie ... derisively called Mr. Rubio nothing more than a programmed deliverer of polished-sounding lines. Seconds later, Mr. Rubio seemed to prove Mr. Christie right.... Pressed to prove that ... he had the experience and skills to be president, Mr. Rubio instead pivoted quickly to a well-rehearsed argument about President Obama’s liberal agenda.... But Mr. Christie had instructed the audience to listen for what he dismissively called the 'memorized 25-second speech,'...' When it was his turn to reply, Mr. Rubio — inexplicably — seemed to fulfill Mr. Christie’s prediction, repeating the main idea of that same memorized-sounding speech about Mr. Obama. Almost word for word.... Mr. Christie pounced. 'There it is,' he said icily, turning to Mr. Rubio and jabbing his finger at him. 'There it is, everybody.' Egged on by Mr. Christie’s mocking interruptions, the crowd began to boo Mr. Rubio." ...

... Boy in the Bubble. Philip Rucker & Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Rubio repeated similar phrasing two more times more during the night.... It was a difficult night for the freshman senator, who has shown himself in the previous seven debates to be an agile and prepared performer but had never faced such an onslaught from Christie and Bush":

     ... Amazing to behold. ...

... "Marco Malfunctions." McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed: "In a high-profile stumble three days out from the New Hampshire primary, a rattled-looking Marco Rubio retreated from an aggressive grilling during Saturday’s debate in a strange way: by reciting the same line at least four times.... In the post-debate spin room, rival campaigns rushed to pronounce brutal judgements of Rubio’s shaky performance.... Surrogates for both Christie and Jeb Bush, speaking on condition of anonymity, suggested Saturday night they had already heard from Rubio donors now signaling an openness to shift their allegiances just days before the primary." ...

... "Rubio Chokes." Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Marco Rubio knew exactly what he was doing on Saturday night. Marco Rubio knew exactly what he was doing on Saturday night. Marco Rubio knew exactly what he was doing on Saturday night." ...

... Chas Danner of New York posts some Twitter reactions to Rubio's "jammed CD-Rom." ...

... "Stuck on Repeat." Steven Shepard of Politico: "Marco Rubio was stuck on repeat Saturday night, and it threatens his momentum in the New Hampshire primary. The Politico Caucus – a panel of operatives, strategists and activists in the early-nominating states – overwhelmingly judged Rubio the loser of the final debate before the first-in-the-nation primary." ...

... Elias Isquith of Salon: "... perhaps more than any other single traditional element of a presidential campaign, the response to debates — especially primary debates, and especially primary debates on a Saturday night — is influenced by the media. Sometimes it’s a negative influence, granted.... And the media, I promise you, is going to be obsessed with this first, most dramatic Christie-Rubio confrontation. Because not only does it make for good television and good copy..., but it’ll make for great late night jokes and 'Saturday Night Live' skits, too. That’s thanks, in part, to its already fitting a pre-established narrative. Christie, the bully you like despite yourself; Rubio, the young, handsome and über-ambitious empty suit.... If nothing else, it showed that professional bullies like Chris Christie can provide a valuable public service every now and then."...

... Steve M., writing before the debate, opined that the media would pull Rubio through, "in large part because the mainstream media hates both Democratic candidates and will embrace Rubio as a likable fratboy-turned-dad, just the way the press embraced George W. Bush in 2000." Steve relied on a hagiographic piece by Barbaro & Jeremy Peters of the Times. CW: Maybe Marco's debate performance shattered the media's man-crush. Barbaro, at any rate, seemed to take a bit of reportorial glee in Marco's big fail. For the moment, at least. On the other hand, political reporters, more than poets (sorry, T. S. Eliot )have an urgent mandate to "make it new," so after this round of Marco-guffawing, we may encounter a period of "he's alive!" stories, particularly if Marco does all right in the New Hampshire primary, followed by the fawning coverage Steve predicted. ...

... Rucker & Kranish, Ctd. "Asked by co-moderator David Muir whether he supported the use of eminent domain, [Donald] Trump said that he did. 'The Keystone Pipeline, without eminent domain, it wouldn’t go 10 feet, okay? You need eminent domain,' Trump said, adding that 'without eminent domain, you don’t have roads, highways, schools, bridges or anything.' But [Jeb!] Bush interjected to call out Trump for blurring the differences between eminent domain for public and private use. 'What Donald Trump did was use eminent domain to try to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in Atlantic City,' Bush charged. 'That is not public purpose. That is downright wrong.' From there, Trump and Bush shouted over each other.... Belittling Bush, Trump held his index finger over his lips and said, 'Let me talk. Quiet.' The audience booed Trump":

CNN's Tom Foreman has had enough of Ted Cruz's lie:

... Not Ready for Prime Time. The intro was hilarious:

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "It’s the final Republican presidential debate before voters in New Hampshire head to the polls on Tuesday. Donald J. Trump has decided to take part. Carly Fiorina has been excluded. Since the most recent debate last week, the Republican race has been reordered by the results in the Iowa caucuses, with Senator Marco Rubio on the rise, Gov. Chris Christie on the ropes and Mr. Trump fighting to stay atop the polls. Here’s how to tune in to the Saturday night action.... ABC will air the debate on its network with coverage beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern time and the candidates taking the stage about 15 minutes later." ...

... CW: As part of my personal anger management program, I'll wait & read all about it in the late-night editions. I admire those of you who have the fortitude to watch & listen without wrecking stuff around the house. Realty Chex Courage Awards to those of you whose teevees are still intact at the end of the debate. ...

Kyle Cheney of Politico on the "11 most explosive moments of the GOP debate."

Fiorina's Revenge:

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Many donors and influential supporters [of Jeb!], bound by a deep and longstanding connection to the patrician clan, say they will remain with Bush no matter what. Yet others, deeply distressed by the rise of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and eager for the Republican Party to rally around a mainstream candidate with viability, say they have come to terms with Bush’s long odds and the possibility they will eventually get behind someone else."

"Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright Scold Young Women Backing Bernie Sanders." Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "While introducing Mrs. Clinton at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday, Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, talked about the importance of electing the first female president. In a dig at the 'revolution' that Mr. Sanders often speaks of, she said that the first female commander in chief would be a true revolution. And she scolded any woman who felt otherwise.... Explaining how women tend to become more active in politics as they become older, [Gloria Steinem] suggested younger women were just backing Mr. Sanders so that they could meet young men. 'When you’re young, you’re thinking, "Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie,"’ Ms. Steinem said.... [Bill] Maher recoiled. 'Oh. Now if I said that, "They’re for Bernie because that’s where the boys are," you’d swat me.'”

Women are more for [Clinton] than men are.... First of all, women get more radical as we get older, because we experience.... Not to over-generalize, but ... men tend to get more conservative because they gain power as they age, women get more radical because they lose power as they age. And, when you’re young, you’re thinking, where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie.... -- Gloria Steinem, Friday

... chalking young women’s politics up to their desire to meet boys actually is a profoundly sexist thing to do. (It’s also the case that people don’t appear to radicalize, or change much at all politically, strictly due to age.) It’s just too bad that insight had to come from Bill Maher instead of Gloria Steinem.... If Steinem has radicalized with age, her remarks about young women’s politics certainly don’t show it. -- Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic

... Tone-Deaf. Janell Ross of the Washington Post: "... despite the predictability of ... [some major criticisms of Hillary Clinton], she often responds to questions and critiques of them in precisely the wrong way. Many times, it seems that Clinton makes them worse -- even far worse. Clinton has, since almost the start of her 2016 presidential campaign, demonstrated a remarkable capacity to escalate rather than effectively address or resolve any question, critique or challenge if the matter at issue is about her." ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Emails released last week by the State Department that were found on Mrs. Clinton’s private server show that she was keenly interested in the administration’s push to win passage of the health care law.... The email messages show that throughout the fall of 2009, as the health care push entered a decisive phase, Mrs. Clinton lobbied some members of Congress for votes and even debated sometimes-esoteric policy proposals with aides, some of whom had worked with her in the White House when she was first lady.... Congressional officials who worked on the Affordable Care Act said that Mrs. Clinton was an important and effective advocate." ...

... Maureen Dowd, Well-Paid Professional Clinton-Basher, does a relatively even-handed (for MoDo) job of bashing Hillary Clinton in Sunday's column: "Bernie Sanders may be a dead ringer for Larry David, but Hillary is running the 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' campaign. She can’t fire up young voters by dwelling on what can’t be done in Washington and by explaining that she’s more prose than poetry." ...

... Conservo-columnist Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "As speaking fees go, Hillary Clinton’s allegedly scandalous $200,000 per engagement is chump change compared with Donald Trump’s $1.5 million." One problem with Parker's argument: besides Trump & Chelsea Clinton, the other well-paid speakers she cites are former government bigwigs. This is not to suggest that they have no influence over government affairs, but at least they have to lobby in one way or another to get their preferences enacted into laws or woven into regulations. Moreover, I don't think Clinton would get far with the argument, "I'm at least as ethical as Donald Trump."

Bernie initially came out like this was a Republican attack and was extremely defensive about it.... [Sanders’] impulse is to stick up for the little guy — and the V.A. serves a lot of little guys. But he is no dummy. He quickly realized the V.A. was lying, and he turned right around and was all over them. -- Dr. Sam Foote, one of the primary whistleblowers of V.A. hospital delays ...

... Steve Eder & Dave Philipps of the New York Times: "Despite mounting evidence of trouble at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Senator Bernie Sanders, then the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, initially regarded the complaints as overblown, and as a play by conservatives to weaken one of the country’s largest social welfare institutions.... Mr. Sanders eventually changed course, becoming critical of the agency and ultimately joining with Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican, and other colleagues to draft a bipartisan bill to try to fix the veterans health care waiting list.... But a review of his record in the job also shows that in a moment of crisis, his deep-seated faith in the fundamental goodness of government blinded him, at least at first, to a dangerous breakdown in the one corner of it he was supposed to police.... Mr. Sanders, who had served on the committee for six years before he became its head, was quick to defend the agency and slow to aggressively question V.A. officials and demand accountability. His major objective as chairman was to expand the menu of veterans benefits." ...

... Finally, a convincing explanation of why Bernie lost Iowa by .2 percent:

<'>

Jordan Sargent of Gawker: "On the night that the Republican debate in New Hampshire opened with the candidates unable to follow basic instructions, the liberal end of the political spectrum offered up something that at least aimed to be intentionally funny: Bernie Sanders’ expected cameo next to his new impersonator, tonight’s SNL host Larry David":

... CW: I've marveled at President Obama's ability to do comedy (it ain't as easy as it looks), but Sanders has got talent, too. ...

... Sam Frizell of Time: "At the end of their screen time together, David turns to Sanders and asks him how the campaigning in New Hampshire is going. Sanders repeats David’s signature Curb Your Enthusiasm line. 'It’s pretty, pretty, pretty good'....”

Beyond the Beltway

Anne Blythe, et al., of the (Raleigh) News & Observer: "A federal court panel ruled late Friday that two of North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts were racially gerrymandered and must be redrawn within two weeks, sparking uncertainty about whether the March primary elections can proceed as planned. An order from a three-judge panel bars elections in North Carolina’s 1st and 12th congressional districts until new maps are approved. Challengers of North Carolina’s 2011 redistricting plan quickly praised the ruling, while legislators who helped design the maps said they were disappointed and promised a quick appeal."

If President Trump finds himself seeking some like-minded Supreme Court nominees, he need look no further than the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Laboratories of democracy, my ass (foot, eye).

What you are looking at in the picture below is not a flashy display in a Rodeo Drive boutique. It is not even boxes & bags from some of the world's top luxury retailers. Nope, it is a remarkable display of l'art de fondant. It is an elaborate birthday cake:

CW: While I am only speculating, I would guess that the cake was accompanied by gifts of the real things. Who might give such gifts? Who might order such a cake? Just last week? Take it away, Scott Lemieux: "Today in the New Gilded Age, I present you with the cake Michigan’s governor, who you may remember from such hits as 'lying about my support for right-to-work laws' and 'utter indifference about the citizens of Flint being poisoned by the town’s water supply' — presented to his wife." I know there are a lot of contenders for Most Hated Person in America (Martin Shkreli, Ted Cruz), but Rick Snyder just secured his spot near the top of the pack. These people really can't see themselves as others see them.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Robin Chandler Duke, a rags-to-riches grande dame who married an ambassador and became one of America's best known advocates for women by championing reproductive rights and international family planning, died in Charleston, S.C., on Saturday. She was 92."

New York Times: "Defying warnings of tougher sanctions from Washington, North Korea launched a rocket on Sunday that Western experts believe is part of a program."