The Commentariat -- April 12, 2016

Afternoon Update:

I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected. -- William T. Sherman, 1884

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "In an attempt to silence those who keep insisting he should be the next Republican nominee for president, Speaker Paul D. Ryan will hold an unusually formal news conference Tuesday afternoon to once again rule out his candidacy...." -- CW

     ... New Lede: "After a month of speculation and pleas ranging from the comic to the mildly desperate, Speaker Paul D. Ryan held an unusually formal news conference Tuesday afternoon to rule out once and for all, he said, his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. 'Let me be clear,' Mr. Ryan said. 'I do not want nor will I accept the nomination of our party.' He added that he had a message for convention delegates: 'If no candidate has the majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only turn to a person who has participated in the primary. Count me out.'"

David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, played host to Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, in the Senate dining room on Tuesday morning. Yogurt parfait was not the point. But what was [the point]?"

Trudy Ring of Out: "The Vatican is replacing its controversial ambassador to the U.S., who arranged the meeting between Pope Francis and antigay Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis last fall. Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò will leave the position of apostolic nuncio, the equivalent of an ambassador, and will be replaced by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, a French-born clergyman who is currently the nuncio to Mexico, Catholic magazine America reports, citing Sandro Magister, a blogger who covers the Vatican." CW: Another of Francis's not-so-subtle, but diplomatically unspoken, messages.

*****

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "Goldman Sachs has completed a $5.1 billion settlement with state and federal officials over the bank's role in the subprime mortgage crisis. Goldman is the last of the big American banks to reach a settlement with the national working group that was set up in 2012 to investigate how Wall Street exacerbated the mortgage bubble and ensuing financial crisis. Goldman said in January that it had put aside money to cover a $5 billion settlement." -- CW ...

Why is this man smiling?Capitalism Is More Awesomer. Tax Breaks for the Rich & Infamous. Nathaniel Popper: "State and federal officials said on Monday that Goldman Sachs would pay $5.1 billion to settle accusations of wrongdoing before the financial crisis. But that is just on paper. Buried in the fine print are provisions that allow Goldman to pay hundreds of millions of dollars less -- perhaps as much as $1 billion less -- than that headline figure. And that is before the tax benefits of the deal are included. The bank will be able to reduce its bill substantially through a combination of government incentives and tax credits." ...

... CW: Tax incentives???? Is that like time off for bad behavior? What's my tax incentive for paying off my traffic ticket? Oh, nothing. But Goldman structures a billion bucks in breaks into its fine. Unbelievable. I'd say Goldman's CEO is really Lloyd BlankFine. Hell, maybe the DOJ really believed Lloyd was doing God's work when he scammed investors, put people out of th streets & upended the world's economy. Drumpf of the Good Brain could learn a thing from Lloyd. And let's not forget Lloyd is Too Big to Jail. ...

... Alan Pyke of Think Progress: Goldman "will be able to write off $1.8 billion worth of consumer relief actions that Goldman must take under the settlement.... The same goes for $875 million in payments to settle related cases brought by [state attorneys general].... Less than half of the total sticker price -- $2.385 billion -- is structured as a civil penalty, which is generally not deductible. The settlement papers do prohibit Goldman from seeking FDIC reimbursement for any of the deal's costs, but that language does not rule out simple deductions." -- CW

Brian Rosenthal of the Houston Chronicle: "Federal regulators on Monday sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for allegedly committing securities fraud, the same charge he is fighting in a state criminal court. The civil lawsuit, filed Monday in an East Texas federal court by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, alleges that Paxton raised nearly $1 million for a Collin County technology startup without disclosing to the investors that he was being compensated to promote the company.... A Paxton lawyer indicated the attorney general would not be settling." -- CW

Mary Troyan of the Tennessean: "The U.S. Senate voted Monday to confirm Nashville attorney Waverly Crenshaw Jr. to a U.S. district court judgeship in Tennessee's Middle District. The 92-0 vote followed a smooth but slow confirmation process for Crenshaw, who becomes the second African-American federal judge on active status in Tennessee. President Obama nominated Crenshaw 14 months ago...." -- CW

Gregory Korte of USA Today: "Public health officials used their strongest language to date in warning about a Zika outbreak in the United States, as the Obama administration lobbied Congress for $1.9 billion to combat the mosquito-borne virus. 'Most of what we've learned is not reassuring,' said Dr. Anne Schuchat ... of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought.'" -- CW

...Natalie Morin of Healthgrove: 50 American Cities Most at Risk of Zika Virus - top three: Miami, Orlando, Tampa -- LT

Peter Overby of NPR: "Police needed most of Monday afternoon to arrest all of the sit-down protesters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington at a demonstration in favor of changing the rules on political money voting rights and redistricting. More than 600 turned out for the protest, and more than 400 were arrested in the sit-in at the Capitol steps, U.S. Capitol Police reported. The nonviolent protest was led by Democracy Spring, a coalition of more than 100 progressive groups. The protest was cheery and peaceful." -- CW

Black & White & Shades of Gray. Jamelle Bouie takes a nuanced look at the anti-crime law that caused Bill Clinton to wrangle with protesters last week. "... in the 1994 crime bill we have a complicated story of fear, racism, good intentions, and cynical political maneuvering." -- CW

Aaron Schock's Capitol Hill office.Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "Four House financial staffers were subpoenaed to testify in front of a grand jury in the central district of Illinois, the same court where former Rep. Aaron Schock is the subject of a closed-door probe.... [The House has not acknowledged that the staffers] were subpoenaed to testify about Schock, but the former Illinois congressman has long been the subject of grand jury hearings in the central district of Illinois in Springfield." -- CW

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce: "Andrew Sullivan has ... resurrected himself because Democracy Demands It. Anyway, he was on with Chris Matthews the other night and, prior to calling Ta-Nehisi Coates a Marxist, he was trembling in his boots over the campaign of He, Trump and he cited Ted Cruz as a marginally acceptable alternative because the Tailgunner is 'a man of the Constitution.' So much so that, had the Tailgunner had his way with the document, Andrew couldn't get married and any hotel owner in America could refuse him service because Jesus, that's why. Please, God, save the old charter from its friends." ...

     ... CW Note: Sullivan is coming to (or is already there; I don't know) New York magazine, so there will be one part of the magazine's online edition which I can skip.

Juan Cole in his blog, Informed Comment: "Congress passed the Hate Crime Statistics Act in 1990 (...) I thought it might be useful to compare the year 2000, Bill Clinton's last in office, with 2013 and with 2014, the last two for which statistics are available, to see how the nation has changed. Unsurprisingly, there has been an eight-fold increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes during these 14 years." --safari

Presidential Race

Nick Gass & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Monday hit Bernie Sanders on immigration, she hit him on guns, and she claimed that there's a 'growing level of anxiety' in the Vermont senator's not-quite-so-longshot campaign for the White House. Sanders' ... chief aide doubled down on attacks on Clinton's fitness to be president, saying she's experienced 'on paper' but suggesting that might not be enough. And Sanders himself went after Clinton's environmental record, an especially sore point for her. The Democratic race has taken a turn for the nasty as Clinton and Sanders explore their newfound aggressiveness, each suddenly willing to get personal...." -- CW ...

... Glenn Blain, et al., of the New York Daily News: "Goldman Sachs just handed Bernie Sanders $5 billion reasons to keep pushing rival Hillary Clinton for transcripts of her paid Wall Street speeches. The Vermont senator -- accusing Goldman Sachs of 'fraud' -- jumped on Monday's announcement that the banking giant will pay out $5 billion in a massive settlement of its deceptive mortgage practices. Sanders, speaking at an Albany rally..., noted that Clinton gave three speeches to Goldman Sachs in recent years. But she won't share with the public what she said at the private gatherings, Sanders stressed." -- CW

New York Daily News: "While speaking with the New York Daily News editorial board, Hillary Clinton checked off several areas in which she agreed with and applauded President Obama. However at the end of the interview she made a point of raising a topic that had not been asked about. She stated her view that the Obama administration should grant the $90 million in anti-terror funding for New York that various politicians in the state have been asking for." A transcript of the full interview, which took place April 9, is here. -- CW ...

     ... CW: Yes, Hillary, because what New Yorkers need is NYPD officers parading around in riot gear & policing "Muslim neighborhoods" to check for terroristy-looking people. 

What Were They Thinking? Ashley Feinberg of Gawker: "Coming off her husband's hard to watch exchange with Black Lives Matters protestors last week, you'd think Hillary Clinton would be extra sensitive to anything that could even potentially paint her as racist right now. Which makes her and Bill de Blasio's ill-advised joke about 'C.P. time' or 'colored people time' at a dinner this week all the more bizarre." -- CW ...

... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "... a comedy routine between Hillary Clinton and Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York managed to cause a storm of controversy over a racially charged joke":

Greg Sargent: "Hillary Clinton’s secret weapon against Bernie Sanders: Democratic voters." New York state & a number of other states will hold "closed primaries"; that is, where party crossovers or independents are not permitted to vote. Since many of Sanders' voters have been independents, while more of Clinton's core supporters are registered Democrats, Clinton has an advantage in these states which Sanders may not be able to overcome. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dana Milbank: "This could be the first time in 160 years when a major American political party splits, and [Reince] Priebus, the young technocrat from Wisconsin brought in to improve the Republicans' infrastructure, is in over his head.... There is no good option for Priebus now, except perhaps to resign if [Donald] Trump secures the party nomination.... History is unlikely to remember kindly a Republican chairman who turned the party of Lincoln over to a populist demagogue or to an ideologue loathed even by Republican colleagues." -- CW

Matea Gold & Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "The already freewheeling Republican presidential contest is fast turning into a personal persuasion game as the candidates pursue no-holds-barred ­efforts to lock up delegates -- and there are relatively few limits on how far they can go.... State and federal anti-bribery laws would probably forbid delegates to sell their votes outright, although it is unclear how those statutes apply to those who are private citizens rather than elected officials." -- CW

Ari Melber of NBC News: "Donald Trump blasted the GOP's delegate rules Sunday, saying a 'corrupt' system is denying him delegates in states he won. According to a new NBC analysis, however, Trump has benefited far more than Ted Cruz under the party's arcane rules for allocating delegates. Trump now leads the Republican field with 756 delegates -- or 45 percent of all delegates awarded to date. Yet he has won about 37 percent of all votes in the primaries, according to the NBC analysis, meaning Trump's delegate support is greater than his actual support from voters." -- CW

More Trumpertantrumps. John Santucci & Candace Smith of ABC News: “Speaking to a crowd of thousands, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump slammed the presidential primary process.... He invoked the Louisiana GOP primary, in which Trump won the popular vote but tied with rival Sen. Ted Cruz for delegates. 'I end up winning Louisiana and then when everything is done I find out I get less delegates than this guy that got his a[ss] kicked, OK? Give me a break. Really disgust[s] me. So it's a very sick system,' he said. Trump got 41.4 percent of the popular vote, while Cruz garnered 37.8 percent.... Trump continued his tirade by invoking another state in which he lost a delegate battle; Colorado. Cruz got all 34 delegates in that state without a popular vote, although delegates themselves were voted on.... 'If I go to the voters of Colorado, we win Colorado so it's a crooked, crooked system,' he said." -- CW

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Angry Donald Trump supporters have been giving an earful to Colorado Republican party chair Steve House after Ted Cruz shut out Trump in last week's delegate selection convention. -- CW

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Republican Sen. Cory Gardner [Colo.] says Donald Trump has a 'diminishing future' after his loss to Ted Cruz in Wisconsin's primary last week.... Gardner said Trump's recent losses were not the result of some conspiracy, but rather voters were turning against him." -- CW

Trump's Kids Won't Be Voting for Him. Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "... Ivanka Trump missed the deadline to register to vote for her dad in New York. Ivanka's failure to follow New York's non-complicated voter registration rules to change her affiliation from independent to Republican (to vote in the closed primary) is remarkable, given that she's been the public face of her father's get-out-the-vote efforts. She made nearly half a dozen campaign videos on the importance of registering to vote... Her brother Eric also forgot to register." CW: So I guess Donald didn't force the heirs to take that Hitler-y pledge. Oops, I see Akhilleus covered this yesterday.

Donald Trump goes on Fox "News" teevee show. Finds host more racist than he is. Well, It's Bill O'Reilly. What did you expect? -- CW ...

But how are you going to get jobs for them? Many of them are ill-educated and have tattoos on their foreheads. -- Bill O'Reilly, on black job-seekers

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Meet the Trump bros: White, affluent frat guys who think they're a persecuted minority." -- CW

Nick Gass of Politico: "Larry Flynt, whose Hustler studio in 2008 brought the world the political pornographic satire 'Who's Nailin' Paylin,' announced Monday that Donald Trump will be the subject of his latest porn parody video, titled simply 'The Donald.'... All Republican members of Congress will receive a free copy, Flynt said in the press release, and it goes on sale to the public on Tuesday." -- CW

Alvin Chang of Vox: "We expect conservative presidential candidates to propose tax cuts, which in turn means less spending.... Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have plans that give massive tax cuts, but if you do the math, you realize their plans are quite irresponsible." A creative illustration of their unrealistic ideas. -- LT

Jonathan Chait: "Paul Ryan's shadow campaign for the presidency is well under way, and the visible portion peeking above the surface... Ryan has gone to enormous lengths to demonstrate to the national media that he truly and deeply loves poor people.... But however Ryan feels about poor people in his heart, the boundaries of his policy commitments lead inescapably to the result that he is going to massively reduce the amount of money the government spends on helping poor people. If Ryan didn't share these priorities, he wouldn't be the leader of the Republican Party, and insiders would be casting their eyes somewhere else for an alternative to Trump and Cruz." ...

... BUT: Steve M. is beginning to think Ryan isn't running for president: "The Ryan pseudo-campaign really might be the GOP establishment's way of running a third-party campaign without actually putting another presidential candidate on the ballot.... The marketing of Ryan is an upward stretch for the Republican brand, an attempt to regain sophisticated customers. Ryan is the ideal embodiment of this campaign, because the non-right-wing press loves him and will happily sell him to middle-of-the-road voters." -- CW ...

... Paul Waldman agrees with Steve. Ryan is running for the 2020 nomination: "... the best outcome for Ryan is as follows. He turns away all the entreaties, remaining noble and above the fray. Then the party, led by Trump or Cruz (or maybe even someone else) goes down to a crushing defeat in the fall. Even if that happens, Republicans will probably hold on to the House, making Ryan the most important Republican in the country for the next four years, leading the charge against yet another President Clinton." -- CW ...

... "Why Ryan Won't Run." Jake Sherman of Politico: "The backdrop of all his denials is the political reality that Ryan would likely lose. Most public polling has him faring relatively poorly in a potential matchup with Clinton. Of course, polls shift, but Ryan would be forced to launch and run a presidential campaign in three months. His experience from 2012 would help, but even the most talented campaigner would be at a disadvantage on such a compressed timetable." -- CW

AND Ben Carson Is Still Ben Carson. Andrew Kaczynski: "Ben Carson said in a radio interview last week that his support for Donald Trump is purely pragmatic, adding that he wouldn't support Trump if the stakes in the election were not so high." ...

... CW: Carson, who endorsed Trump, is supposedly a Trump campaign surrogate. I'm thinking Carson found out Trump isn't going to name him veep.

Beyond the Beltway

I'm not an extreme liberal.... But on this issue, I can't wrap my brain around it.... I hate guns.... It was a large caliber gun. A .45, [that killed Smith]. It was designed back during World War I.... It will kill someone within four or five seconds after they are struck. You bleed out.... We could go online and get 10 of them, and have them shipped to our house tomorrow. I don't believe that was the intention when they allowed for the right for citizens to bear arms. -- Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints coach, reacting to the killing of former Saints player Will Smith ...

... Jarrett Bell of USA Today: "In the aftermath of the senseless shooting on Saturday night that left former defensive end Will Smith dead -- and Smith's wife Racquel wounded -- amid a beef linked to a traffic accident, [Sean Payton] the New Orleans Saints coach is pleading for more gun control." -- CW

David Moye of the Huffington Post: Because of North Carolina's anti-LGBT law, "a popular porn website is banning all computers from 'The Tar Heel State.' XHamster.com has been refusing to serve anyone from North Carolina since 12:30 p.m. EDT, Monday.... The extreme measures will stay in place until North Carolina repeals House Bill 2, a law passed on March 23 that effectively prevents cities and counties in the state from passing rules that protect LGBT rights." -- CW

Marcel Harmon, in Salon, explains Gov. Brownback's latest attempts at privatizing education in Kansas with a big assist from ALEC. --safari

Casey Williams of The Huffington Post: "Major fossil fuel companies and trade groups shell out nearly $115 million a year to oppose efforts to reduce carbon emissions, according to a new report from the British research organization Influence Map...These figures dwarf the amount spent by supporters of climate change legislation, which is estimated at about $5 million annually...They're also bigger than sums spent by other major advocacy groups, like the pro-gun lobby, which reportedly spent nearly $10 million to 'influence' Congress in 2014." -- unwashed. Do I smell a waft of RICO in the air?

Sarah Nir of the New York Times: Over the weekend, thieves carved a hole in the roof of a Brooklyn branch of HSBC, tunneled into the vault & stole $280,000 or more. CW: This is so low-class. It would have been wiser & more lucrative for the perps to just get jobs with the bank & do their thievery the usual way.

Way Beyond

Steven Erlanger & Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain clashed with the opposition Labour Party in Parliament on Monday over tax havens and his inherited wealth, and, in a spirited debate over economic fairness set off by the disclosures in the Panama Papers, defended the right of Britons to 'make money lawfully' as long as they paid their taxes." -- CW

Griff Witte of the Washington Post: "... when faced with an unparalleled influx of migrants and refugees, [Denmark] has taken a nasty turn. In that respect, Denmark has company: Across Europe, a once-tender embrace of those fleeing conflicts on the continent's doorstep has evolved into an uncompromising rejection.... But as Europe walls itself off, the continent is left to reckon with what's become of its long-cherished humanitarian beliefs. And to many in Denmark, the chasm between reputation and reality looks particularly gaping." -- CW

Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Even after Russian President Vladimir Putin's sudden March 14 announcement that cut short Russia's Syrian deployment, officials said they would maintain a muscular presence on twin air and naval bases in coastal Syria. But the current level of activity would suggest that the pullout has been minor at best, despite last month's fanfare and Russian officials' insistence that they have withdrawn from Syria. Returning aviators were greeted with bouquets and brass bands, while military officials declared victory." -- CW

Jasmine Lee of the New York Times provides some explanation of Why the Russian Economy Is Tumbling: "[Putin's]...pulling troops from Syria, reducing a military intervention that has cost Russia $482 million so far...Increased defense spending -- at the expense of education, health care and infrastructure -- has been a part of Russia's return to the world stage...Now, the expansion has ceased. Russia recently announced plans to decrease its defense budget by 5 percent this year." -- unwashed

The Commentariat -- April 11, 2016

Reality Chex was far better than usual this weekend because of contributions by Weaders other than I. Thank you all. -- Constant Weader

Afternoon Update:

Greg Sargent: "Hillary Clinton's secret weapon against Bernie Sanders: Democratic voters." New York state & a number of other states will hold "closed primaries"; that is, where party crossovers or independents are not permitted to vote. Since many of Sanders' voters have been independents, while more of Clinton's core supporters are registered Democrats, Clinton has an advantage in these states which Sanders may not be able to overcome. -- CW

The Guardian has been liveblogging developments in the British Parliament re: published revelations based on Panama Papers documents.

*****

Whose Big Mistake Was It? Claire Landsbaum of New York: "'Failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya' was 'probably' his biggest regret as president, [President] Obama told Fox's Chris Wallace." CW: Hmmm. That would have been the Secretary of State's job, wouldn't it? See video of the full interview in yesterday's Commentariat.

... Juan Cole of Informed Comment: "You could make a case that some Clinton policies as secretary of state did contribute to the spread of Daesh to Libya, but in my view that is a stretch. Libyan radical fundamentalists were well established in the country, and had supplied fighters against the US in Iraq in the thousands." -- LT, HT: PD Pepe.

Neil Irwin & Quoctrung Bui of the New York Times: "For poor Americans, the place they call home can be a matter of life or death. The poor in some cities -- big ones like New York and Los Angeles, and also quite a few smaller ones like Birmingham, Ala. -- live nearly as long as their middle-class neighbors or have seen rising life expectancy in the 21st century. But in some other parts of the country, adults with the lowest incomes die on average as young as people in much poorer nations like Rwanda, and their life spans are getting shorter.In those differences, documented in sweeping new research, lies an optimistic message: The right mix of steps to improve habits and public health could help people live longer, regardless of how much money they make." Includes interactive map. -- CW

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry will focus on the vision of a nuclear-free future while he is here and will not apologize for the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, killing 140,000 people, a U.S. official said Sunday. Kerry arrived in Hiroshima on Sunday morning to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries, who discussed the war in Syria and the refugee crisis sweeping Europe." -- CW

     ... Update. Carol Morello: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Monday said he thought everybody, including President Obama, should visit Hiroshima, after completing what he called a 'gut-wrenching' visit to a museum at ground zero in the city where the United States dropped the first atomic bomb, in World War II.... No decision has been made about whether President Obama will visit Hiroshima next month when he comes to Japan for a meeting with leaders of the G-7 countries."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin, "a Taiwan-born Navy officer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen, faces charges of espionage, attempted espionage and prostitution in a highly secretive case in which he is accused of providing classified information to China, U.S. officials said." -- CW

Paul Krugman writes about a court case that sided with MetLife on its objections to being designated a "systemically important" financial corporation. CW: I suspect he's written an extended criticism of Bernie Sanders, even tho he doesn't mention Sanders by name. ...

... CW: Here's why it's sometimes important to read comments sections:

According to Open Secrets, Met Life has contributed the third highest amount to the Clinton campaign -- $156,000, trailing only Citicorp and Goldman Sachs in Open Secrets' listing of her top 20 contributors ... but you snidely imply -- once again -- that Bernie Sanders, who does not do Super PACS or accept donations is unfit for president but Hillary Clinton with her Snoopy-endorsed MetLife money is? Good grief, PaulKrugman! -- Gluscabi

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: The Panama Papers"... leak signaled something ... that was a big deal but went unheralded: The official WikiLeaks-ization of mainstream journalism; the next step in the tentative merger between the Fourth Estate, with its relatively restrained conventional journalists, and the Fifth Estate, with the push-the-limits ethos of its blogger, hacker and journo-activist cohort, in the era of gargantuan data breaches." -- CW ...

     ... CW: Just because the Panama Papers are a huge cache, I don't see how their use by the Fourth Estate has been materially different from countless other journalistic scoops. That is, investigative journalists traditionally rely on information which whistleblowers have obtained illegally from the government or in violation of their confidentiality contracts with private entities. What is different from the old days, where hardcopy documents were physically stolen or copied, is hacking, a virtual theft. Hacking usually, but not always (Ed Snowden hacked the accounts of NSA coworkers), is the work of outsiders.

Presidential Race

Abby Phillip of the Washington Post: Hillary & Bill Clinton "spent an entire day [Sunday] courting black voters in half a dozen New York churches and at a campaign event in Baltimore" after Bill Clinton escalated an encounter with Black Lives Matter activists last week. -- CW

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) endorsed Hillary Clinton on Sunday, after months of staying neutral in the presidential contest because of his post as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." -- CW

Kristen East of Politico: "Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed the Boston Globe as a 'stupid' and 'worthless' newspaper on the same day that the organization published a fake front page with stories depicting would-be news events during a Trump administration. '... The whole front page, they made up the story that Trump is the president and they made up the whole front page,' he said during an event in Rochester, New York. "It's a make-believe story, which is really no different than the whole paper.'... At the same event Sunday, Trump also criticized the New York Times and the Washington Post as 'dishonest' publications." -- CW

David Masciotra of Salon: "We let the idiots take the wheel... The framers of the United States Constitution were ... terrified of what damage the public might inflict upon their invention. Benjamin Franklin even went so far as to predict that 'the people shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.' Thomas Jefferson... called information the 'currency of democracy.' It would appear that large parts of America are all but bankrupt, suffering the consequences of a long liquidation at the hands of a sensationalistic media, but most of all, a broken education system." -- LT

...speaking of idiots: Jenny Rowland of the Center for American Progress: "By launching an ideological attack on the government's authority to protect and preserve lands, waters, and wildlife, the anti-parks caucus is proving to conservative primary voters that it is opposed to the federal government in every way." -- LT, an unhappy national and state park-loving Coloradan

Ed Kilgore of New York: "The [Trump] campaign seems to figure all policy specifics are premature until [he] takes office and sits down with Republicans -- and Democrats -- on the Hill (...) The [Republican] party has been hoping and planning to avoid deal-making or bipartisanship at all costs if it takes the White House. In the first days of a new Republican administration, the plan has been to cram absolutely everything the right wants on major domestic-policy topics -- with health care high on the list -- into a budget-reconciliation bill (which, because it deals money, cannot be filibustered) and whip it through Congress to be signed immediately by the president." -- safari

Kristen East: "CIA Director John Brennan shut down one of Donald Trump's biggest campaign talking points on Sunday, saying his agency would not engage in waterboarding, even if a future president were to order it. 'I will not agree to carry out some of these tactics and techniques I've heard banded about because this institution needs to endure,' Brennan said in an interview with NBC News." -- CW ...

... National security expert Donald Trump derided Brennan. Nick Gass of Politico: "'Well I think his comments are ridiculous,' Trump said in a telephone interview Monday with 'Fox & Friends.'... Trump went on to suggest that the reason the U.S. cannot defeat the Islamic State is because it cannot operate in a 'strong' enough manner." -- CW

Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Donald Trump's convention manager, Paul Manafort, said on Sunday that the Republican presidential front-runner's campaign didn't do all it could to win delegates in Colorado. 'I acknowledge that we weren't playing in Colorado,' he said." -- CW

Steve M. has a good summary (with links) of Trump's Bad Weekend. Trumpelstiltskin has been raging about the "crooked deal" he got as five states, to some extent or another, chose Cruz's delegates over Trump's, even where Trump won the popular vote. But the Trumpbots are "not rioting. Unless that changes, I think they could be paper tigers in reaction to a Trump-thwarting convention." -- CW

Worse than Trump? The terrible, no-good horrible prospect of a Drumpf presidency must not cloud the very real possibility that a Cruz victory could actually be worse. Kyle Mantyla of Right Wing Watch reminds us that there "...seems to be no activist who is too extreme" for Ted Cruz who engaged "...infamous demon-hunting, anti-gay exorcist/state legislator Gordon Klingenschmitt" to help him win whatever that was that happened in Colorado. -- Akhilleus

To whom much is given, all will be retained, except insofar as there be a payoff. -- The Gospel according to Drumpf ...

Ebenezer McDrumpf.... ** American Cheapskate -- A Narcissist's Definition of Charity. David Fahrenthold & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has said that he gave more than $102 million to charity in the past five years. But ... not a single one of those donations was actually a personal gift of Trump's own money. Instead..., many of the gifts that Trump cited to prove his generosity were free rounds of golf.... The largest items on the list were ... land-conservation agreements to forgo development rights on property Trump owns.... Many of the gifts on the list came from the charity that bears his name..., which didn't receive a personal check from Trump from 2009 through 2014.... Its work is largely funded by others, although Trump decides where the gifts go. Some beneficiaries on the list are not charities at all: They included clients, other businesses and tennis superstar Serena Willimas. His giving appears narrowly tied to his business and, now, his political interests." -- CW

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "While [House Speaker Paul] Ryan has repeatedly said that he has no intention of becoming his party's nominee this year, he is already deep into his own parallel national operation to counter Donald J. Trump and help House and Senate candidates navigate the political headwinds that Mr. Trump would generate as the party's standard-bearer -- or, for that matter, Senator Ted Cruz, who is only slightly more popular. Mr. Ryan is creating a personality and policy alternative to run alongside the presidential effort -- one that provides a foundation to rebuild if Republicans splinter and lose in the fall." -- CW

Stupid Apples Don't Fall Far From Ridiculous Loser Tree. it appears, according to Carrie Dann at NBC news, that those crazy Trump kids "Eric and Ivanka Trump -- failed to register as Republicans in the state in time to be eligible to vote for him in New York's April 19 primary...according to New York's public Voter Registration Database, both Eric and Ivanka Trump are registered to vote but not enrolled in a political party." Oopsy. -- Akhilleus

Beyond the Beltway

Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe gutted a bill to let Virginia use the electric chair when it cannot find scarce lethal-injection drugs, making an 11th-hour amendment Sunday that would instead allow the state to hire a pharmacy to make a special batch in secret. [McAuliffe was u]p against a midnight deadline to veto or amend legislation from this year’s General Assembly session...." -- CW

Mike Dumke of the Chicago Sun-Times: As Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced growing criticism last fall over the city's handling of police shootings, Chicago Police Department officials laid plans to have undercover officers spy on protest groups, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show." -- CW

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "Police used punches, knee strikes, elbow strikes, slaps, wrist twists, baton blows and Tasers at Homan Square, according to documents released to the Guardian in the course of its transparency lawsuit about the warehouse. The new information contradicts an official denial about treatment of prisoners at the facility. The injured men are among at least 7,351 people -- over 6,000 of them black -- who, police documents show, have been detained and interrogated at Homan Square without a public notice of their whereabouts or access to an attorney."--safari

Jonathan Cole in the Atlantic: "America's great public research universities, which produce path-breaking discoveries and train some of the country's most talented young students, are under siege. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences' recently completed Lincoln Project report, between 2008 and 2013 states reduced financial support to top public research universities by close to 30 percent. At the same time, these states increased support of prisons by more than 130 percent." --safari

Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Eleven employees at the University of California at Berkeley have been fired or resigned after facing accusations of sexual harassment, according to new records that provide disturbing details on numerous misconduct allegations and dramatically expand a scandal plaguing the prestigious institution. The hundreds of pages of records -- which include extensive documentation of harassment cases involving 19 employees and were released on the heels of multiple high-profile controversies -- show that men in powerful positions avoided discipline after the school substantiated harassment complaints from students and employees." -- CW

Christopher Goffard of the Los Angeles Times: On his last day in office, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.) reduced the sentence of convicted murderer Esteban Nuñez, the son of former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, a friend & political ally of Schwarznegger's. Esteban will be released this week. Schwarznegger did not reduce the sentence of Esteban's s co-defendant, who will presumably serve out his term. "'Of course you help a friend,' Schwarzenegger later said, a remark that deepened widespread outrage over the commutation, which was reflected in editorials and denunciations by Republicans and Democrats alike." -- CW

Samantha Page of ThinkProgress: "A group of youngsters just won a major decision in their efforts to sue the federal government over climate change. An Oregon judge ruled Friday that their lawsuit, which alleges the government violated the constitutional rights of the next generation by allowing the pollution that has caused climate change, can go forward." --safari

BOYCOTT! The Associated Press in the Hollywood Reporter:" Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is canceling a performance this week in Mississippi, citing the state's new law that allows religious groups and some private businesses to refuse service to gay couples." --safari

Way Beyond

Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Sunday announced his resignation, calling for the formation of a new government as Kiev endures its worst political crisis since the Euromaidan revolution of 2014. The public's patience has grown thin with Yatsenyuk, as well as with President Petro Poroshenko, because of a struggling economy, stalled reforms and entrenched corruption. The ruling coalition has fractured as public support hits new lows." -- CW

Thomas Seibert of The Daily Beast: "Forget The Donald, Hillary and Bernie in New York. If you want to see some serious mud-slinging, look to Turkey's capital Ankara, where the president of the republic and the leader of the opposition have been calling each other political and sexual perverts." --safari

Gangster Islam. Andrew Higgins & Kimiko De Freytas-Tamura of The New York Times Khalid Zerkani, who lived in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, Belgium, & whom Belgian judges had previously sentenced to 12 years in prison for terrorist-related activity, “has emerged as a central element in attacks in both Paris and Brussels — as well as one in France that the authorities said last month they had foiled.” -- CaptRuss

Ben Taub of The New Yorker: "The Commission for International Justice and Accountability's ... four-hundred-page legal brief ... links the systematic torture and murder of tens of thousands of Syrians to a written policy approved by President Bashar al-Assad, coördinated among his security-intelligence agencies, and implemented by regime operatives. ...The case is the first international war-crimes investigation completed by an independent agency ... funded by governments but without a court mandate. The organization's founder, Bill Wiley....had grown frustrated with the geopolitical red tape that often shapes the pursuit of justice." -- LT

News Lede

Washington Post: "Duane R. 'Dewey' Clarridge, a CIA operative and official of dash, daring and swagger who helped establish and headed the agency's counterterrorism center and also was known for his connection to the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, died April 9 at his home in Leesburg, Va. He was 83." CW: An entertaining obituary.

The Commentariat -- April 10, 2016

Presidential Race

Bernie Ratchets It up Again. Jeremy Herb of Politico: "Bernie Sanders's attacks on his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton are shifting from qualifications for president to her judgment. 'She may have the experience to be president of the United States. No one can argue that,' Sanders said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.' 'But in terms of her judgment, something is clearly lacking.' And on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Sanders said: 'I have my doubts about what kind of president she would make.'" -- CW

Rebecca Shebad of The Hill: "Former President Carter says ... when Secretary Clinton was Secretary of State, she took very little action to bring about peace. It was only John Kerry's coming into office that reinitiated all these very important and crucial issues." -- LT

This Is Sickening. Evelyn Rupert of the Hill: "A Bernie Sanders event in New York reached a tense ending Saturday as a man shouted questions about Sanders's religion over boos from the audience. 'As you know, the Zionist Jews -- and I don't mean to offend anybody -- they run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign,' the man said. Sanders responded by shaking his head and saying 'Brother, brother, brother.' The man then said: 'What is your affiliation to your Jewish community? That's all I'm asking.' Sanders responded: 'That's not what your asking.'" -- CW

Jeremy Herb: "President Barack Obama insisted in an interview with Fox News aired Sunday that the FBI and Justice Department will not protect ... Hillary Clinton while investigating her private emails and server. 'I can guarantee that,' Obama said repeatedly in an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace, who interviewed the president in his first appearance on 'Fox News Sunday' during his seven-year tenure." Full interview under Other News & Views below. -- CW

Yamiche Alcindor & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Continuing a string of victories across the West, Senator Bernie Sanders won the Wyoming Democratic caucuses Saturday, chipping away at Hillary Clinton's delegate lead before a major primary in New York next week. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press declared Mr. Sanders the winner with 56 percent of the vote.... Coming after Mr. Sanders's recent big victories in Washington State, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Wisconsin, it was more evidence of Mrs. Clinton's weaknesses among white and liberal voters...." -- CW

Nobody can take someone's arm anymore in America? That's assault? -- Bill Maher, Friday ...

... Maher Embraces His "Politically Incorrect" Brand. Pundit Bill Maher defended Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's alleged "simple battery" on former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields -- Maher called it alleged "assault," but he's not a lawyer -- & went on to diss Fields for complaining about it. Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast reports. CW: This is a reminder that Maher thinks violence against women is funny. Maher has a long history of sexism (Google it), which is something to keep in mind, especially if Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee.

Jill Lepore of the New Yorker: "Trump will want this to be an election about popular sovereignty: the people rule. Clinton will not be able to avoid making an argument about female rule, because much in Trump's campaign, and in Cruz's, too, suggests that a woman should not have authority over a man, or over her own body, either. The candidates may not want this election to become a battle of the sexes, but the lines have been drawn, long since." -- CW

Mussolini v. Hitler. Rebecca Savransky of the Hill: "Donald Trump's convention manager, Paul Manafort, said on Sunday that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is using 'Gestapo tactics' to try to lure delegates. 'He's threatening, you go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics, Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics,' Manafort said on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'" -- CW ..

... BUT. Tom LoBianco of CNN: "Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation. The Texas senator's campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was 'double-crossed' by Kasich supporters." -- CW

John Frank & Joey Bunch of the Denver Post: Ted Cruz "won all 34 delegates awarded in Colorado in what amounts to a stunning rebuke of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Cruz completed the sweep by winning all 13 delegates at the state convention in Colorado Springs -- the largest in history with nearly 8,000 in the crowd -- where he gave what amounted to an victory speech earlier in the day." -- CW

Denis Slattery of the New York Daily News: On Saturday, Donald Trump made his first visit to the 9/11 Ground Zero memorial & museum. "Trump also made a $100,000 donation to the institution, another first, the Daily News has learned." Trump's charitable foundation [never made] a single substantial donation to any 9/11-related nonprofit groups that have aided survivors, rescue workers and the families of first-responders ..." tho his campaign said he made a "significant" donation to the Red Cross right after the 2001 attack. Trump "The deal-maker did accept a $150,000 federal grant that was part of a program meant to assist small businesses affected by the attacks." ...

... CW: According to this February Smoking Gun report, Trump, who funnels his charitable contributions through the Donald Trump Foundation, made no donation to the Red Cross in 2001 or 2002. But he did get that small business grant.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Indiana hasn't cast its ballots for president yet, but Donald Trump is already losing. Republican Party insiders in the state will select 27 delegates to the national convention on Saturday, and Trump is assured to be nearly shut out of support, according to interviews with a dozen party leaders and officials involved in the delegate selection process.... Indiana's delegates will be bound to the results of the state's May 3 primary on the first vote in Cleveland, and Trump is expected to be competitive in that contest.... But if Trump fails to clinch the nomination, they'll be free to vote their conscience -- and that means a rapid rejection of Trump." -- CW

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump still leads the Republican presidential race, but Ted Cruz continues to beat him at a trickier game -- securing convention delegates in states that don't hold caucuses or primaries. If Trump fails to secure the 1,237 delegates needed to win the GOP presidential nomination before the party convention in Cleveland this July, his missteps in more obscure delegate contests could be the ones that cost him a victory." -- CW ...

... Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "... as we approach the growing prospect of a contested convention..., it's becoming clearer that Trump may seek to shape the outcome by using his most unwieldy weapon of all: the latent power of usually peaceful people. It's easy to mock Trump for his thin-skinned fixation on the size of his audiences, but that misses a deeper point: you can't have a riot without a mob." -- CW

... Jeff Greenfield of Politico on Republicans trying to turn back the clock: "...Republican elders who are desperately trying to derail Trump are openly contemplating going back to the old ways, handing the nomination to someone who never spent a day on the campaign trail, never tried to persuade single voter, and was simply delivered the nomination by an arena full of anonymous delegates. Somehow, the establishment thinks, it can instruct all those millions of Republican voters who came out for Trump and Cruz and Kasich to fall in line behind, say, Speaker Paul Ryan." --unwashed

Hadas Gold of Politico: "The Boston Globe on Sunday will publish a satirical front page predicting headlines about a Donald Trump presidency alongside a 'Stop Trump' editorial. The fake front page will be the lead of the Globe's Sunday Ideas section and 'is a work of political satire and commentary produced by the Globe's Editorial Board, not the newsroom,' Globe Editorial Page Editor Ellen Clegg wrote in an email." Here's the Globe's fake front page for April 9, 2017. CW: It's a slow-loader but worth the wait. Unfortunately, the "stories" are not too farfetched, & some teases are pretty funny: "Heavy spring snow closed Trump National Park for the first time since it dropped its loser name, Yellowstone, in January." The accompanying editorial is here. ...

... Speaking of Fake News.... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "So on Friday night, Donald Trump tweeted this: '@Cam: Reports are RNC has received +1 million postcards so far....'" Trump's tweet included a photo of the postcards, which are addressed to RNC chair Reince Priebus, & say "I will only vote for Donald Trump. Do not steal this election." Even given the unlikelihood that Trump supporters could have organized such a massive mail campaign -- and without news of it leaking -- "... the postcards are printed with the wrong address. The address printed on those alleged one million postcards would have ended up dumped in a pile at the intersection next to the Capitol South Metro stop.... We asked the Republican National Committee how many postcards they may have received. 'We have received a grand total of zero,' said spokesman Michael Short." -- CW

Driftglass provides a humorous take on David Brooks and the death of the Republican Party: "[Friday], Mr. Brooks imagineers out of thin air an entire army of public-spirited Reasonable Republicans who will infiltrate the Republican convention in July cleverly disguised as party hacks but then -- surprise! -- cast off their fake George Wallace noses and Pat Buchanan wigs just in time to rise as one!... But when I read it, in my head it sounded a lot like this..." a la Monty Python. --unwashed

Other News & Views

Chris Wallace of "Fox 'News' Sunday" interviews President Obama: (The quality isn't too good, but it's all I got. -- CW:

A Democratic Congress is good for America. President Obama, Friday

Darlene Superville of the AP: Speaking at a fundraiser at the California home of Gordon Getty, "President Barack Obama praised Democratic lawmakers for having his back through some politically tough votes and encouraged supporters to help elect more of them in November. Obama also criticized Senate Republicans for refusing to consider his Supreme Court nominee and said GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz aren't 'outliers' but are simply parroting what some congressional Republicans have said for years." -- CW

Mitch Smith & Monica Davey of the New York Times: "A lawyer for J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House who is awaiting sentencing for a federal banking violation, said Saturday that his client acknowledged committing 'transgressions' decades ago as a high school teacher and wrestling coach, but again stopped short of detailing those misdeeds." -- CW

**Josh Marshall of TPM: "...Hastert's improbable rise to the pinnacle of political power in Washington was a direct consequence of Republican party efforts to exploit and eventually criminalize Bill Clinton's extramarital sex life in order to overturn the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. The chain of events is clear and straightforward." --safari

Ed Vulliamy of the Guardian on how Teddy Roosevelt & financier J. P. Morgan made Panama a haven for the rich. -- CW ...

... Ken Silverstein in Vice (December 2014): "In 1903, the administration of Theodore Roosevelt created the country [of Panama] after bullying Colombia to hand over what was then the province of Panama. Roosevelt acted at the behest of various banking groups, among them J. P. Morgan & Co., which was appointed as the country's official 'fiscal agent,' in charge of managing $10 million in aid that the US rushed down to the new nation." CW: Silverstein pretty much had the goods on the law firm Mossack Fonseca a couple of years before the Panama Papers came out.

James Carroll in the New Yorker: "Pope Francis's emphasis on mercy toward the divorced and remarried doesn't only mean that those people will more freely partake of Communion. It also means that the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage, however much it is still held up as an ideal, will not grip the moral imagination of the Church as it once did." -- CW

NewsCorpse on DailyKos: "Sesame Street made a historic addition to its cast of lovable characters ...an Afghan girl [who] will join the Muppets for its broadcast in the Afghanistan version of the show.... The news of Zari's debut has produced the all too predictable rash of bigotry that we've all come to expect from the conservative hate mongers who believe that all Muslims are terrorists."

Beyond the Beltway

David Warren of the AP: "A former FBI agent who later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force was identified Saturday as the man who killed his commander at an air base in San Antonio before turning the gun on himself."

Paul Bond of the Hollywood Reporter: Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) called performer Bruce Springsteen a "bully" for cancelling a concert in Greensboro -- part of Walker's district -- in protest of a North Carolina law that protects bullies.

Way Beyond

Raphael Satter of the AP: "The attackers who struck Brussels on March 22 initially planned to launch a second assault on France, Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday. But the perpetrators were 'surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation' and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead, the office said in a statement." -- CW ...

... Alissa Rubin of the New York Times: "The 'man in the hat' who accompanied the two suicide bombers who detonated their explosives at Brussels Airport on March 22, and who was seen in a surveillance video walking away from the airport, has been identified as Mohamed Abrini, the Belgian prosecutor's office said in a statement on Saturday. Mr. Abrini is also suspected of providing logistical help for the men who carried out the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. He was detained on Friday in Brussels after a nearly five-month manhunt and was charged on Saturday with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murder." -- CW ...

... Erik Kirschbaum of the Los Angeles Times: "A suspected terrorist arrested Friday in Belgium has confessed to being the mysterious 'man in the hat' believed to have participated in the Brussels attacks last month that killed 32 people, prosecutors said Saturday." -- CW

Bradley Klapper of the AP: "Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday committed to pushing reforms after his picks for attorney general and interior minister won long-sought Cabinet confirmation, while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pleaded with the government's power-sharing leaders to bury their "factional divisions" for the good of the country." -- CW

Daniel Boffey of the Guardian's Observer: British Prime Minister David Cameron "took the unprecedented decision to release his personal tax records on Saturday, as growing anger over revelations in the Panama Papers threatened to derail his premiership. But the extraordinary move seems set to plunge David Cameron into further controversy, as it emerged that his mother transferred two separate payments of £100,000 to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential £80,000 worth of inheritance tax." -- CW

Yonette Joseph of the New York Times: "The archbishop of Canterbury, who is the head of the Church of England, said on Friday that a DNA test had revealed that his biological father was not the whiskey salesman who had married his mother, but the man who had been the last private secretary for Sir Winston Churchill. In an unusually frank statement on his website, the Most Rev. Justin Welby said he had discovered the truth 'in the last month,' after taking the test." -- CW

     ... CW: If you're awfully fond of dear old Dad, you might want to think twice about getting one of those DNA tests.

Niraj Chokshi of the Washington Post: After their boat capsized, three men swam two miles to a tiny Pacific Island several hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea, from which they were rescued: "The crew aboard a Navy plane spotted the men waving life jackets, standing next to piles of palm leaves arranged to spell out four capital letters: H-E-L-P." The U.S. Coast Guard had coordinated an effort to find the men." CW: "Cast Away" would not have been a much shorter film if the Tom Hanks character had thought of that.

News Lede

New York Times: "Will Smith, a former defensive end for the New Orleans Saints who played on their Super Bowl championship team in 2009-10, was shot and killed in New Orleans late Saturday, the authorities said. Jeffrey Rouse, the Orleans Parish coroner, confirmed in a statement overnight that Smith had died of 'multiple gunshot wounds' after an exchange of words with another driver. The New Orleans Police Department said early Sunday that a suspect in the shooting, Cardell Hayes, 28, had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder."