The Commentariat -- March 12, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon Update:

Jon Stewart comments on racism & wingers' denials thereof:

Carol Leonig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident."

Scott Higham of the Washington Post: International Relief and Development Inc. of Arlington, Va.,"the largest nonprofit contractor working for the U.S. Agency for International Development during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, billed the government $1.1 million for staff parties and pricey retreats -- three of them held at one of the poshest destinations on the East Coast, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania."

*****

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Secretary of State John Kerry sharply criticized a letter from Republican lawmakers to the leaders of Iran in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, calling it misleading and irresponsible. 'My reaction to the letter was utter disbelief,' said Mr. Kerry, who warned that the letter, signed by 47 Republican senators this week, could embolden Iranian hard-liners.... Dissecting the letter, Mr. Kerry said the authors were wrong when they said that Congress had the authority to modify the terms of an agreement negotiated by the president. He added that a future president would continue to honor the accord as long as Iran kept its part of the bargain and as long as the other negotiating partners -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China --- continued to support it":

... Kerry Tries to Explain Rudimentary U.S. Middle East Policy to Lazy Schoolboy. Steve Benen: "Honestly, it was like watching a competent teacher trying to explain the basics of current events to a student who failed to do his homework.... Rubio recently said he'd have an important advantage in the race for the White House because he, unlike the GOP governors, has 'a clear view of what's happening in the world.'... That's not a bad argument, though it's predicated on the assumption that senators who deal with foreign policy actually have some idea what they're talking about." Read Benen's whole post for background. Little Marky-Marco is completely confused:

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "Some Republican senators admitted Wednesday they were caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Republicans -- many of whom blessed the missive during a brisk signing session at a Senate lunch a week ago, as senators prepared to flee a Washington snowstorm -- should have given it closer consideration.... Though Cotton has insisted that Democratic senators were approached about the letter, neither Bob Casey of Pennsylvania nor hawks like Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said they had been approached. Politico was unable to locate a Democrat who was aware of the letter before it became public." ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "Tom Cotton is a conservative hero -- and a complete crackpot." Read the whole post, to get a flavor of some of Cotton's other bright ideas. The "sins of the grandfather" is a doozy. ...

... Dwane Powell of the Raleigh News & Observer rebukes North Carolina's Sens. Richard Burr & Thom Tillis for signing the letter: "This is one of the most horrid and tangible examples of pure partisanship run amok in modern times. So much do Republicans resent the fact that President Obama has won two terms they'll now resort to blowing up a negotiation aimed at preventing war in the Middle East. This, despite the fact that since the presidency of George Washington, America has always tried to present a united front to the world." Via Paul Waldman. Let's hope more hometown papers whack the wackos. ...

... ** Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pushing back hard against conservative claims that the Republicans' recent letter to Iranian leaders, which has infuriated the White House amidst delicate nuclear talks, is akin to her 2007 visit to Syria against the wishes of the Bush administration. The office of the House minority leader issued a scathing statement Wednesday night saying her meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was part of a bipartisan effort -- conducted through the Bush administration -- to encourage peace in the region and accusing the Republicans of launching a 'desperate' defense of their Iran letter to mask criticisms coming from both sides of the aisle." Read the whole post for the details.

Charles Pierce: "The modern Republican party has become an authentic mechanism for political subversion.... A rookie meathead submarines the president's foreign policy. Rick Perry is currently running for president on a platform more suited to a campaign conducted under the Articles of Confederation. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader of the United States Senate, has suggested that governors out in the several states ignore the Environmental Protection Agency. At every conservative gathering, from CPAC on down, there at least is one panel touting the benefits of nullification and old-school states rights politics. Yes, a lot of it is about how states rights got whipped over civil rights in the 1960's, but it's not all about race. It's about a deliberate, calculated attempt by one of the only two political parties we allow ourselves to dismantle the federal union. They want the country to come apart so they can sell off the pieces to the people who run their campaigns."

David Hawkings of Roll Call: Loretta "Lynch is on course to be confirmed this month after the longest wait ever for a nominee to be attorney general -- and very likely by the closest vote ever to put a new person in charge of the Justice Department. Lynch has earned just the sort of tough but fair reputation that's customarily made for bipartisan smooth sailing in the Senate. But at least three-quarters of Republicans are going to oppose her anyway, mostly because of a single position she's taken as the nominee: Obama was on solid legal ground in deferring deportations of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants.... The single biggest reason Republicans oppose Lynch is that she disagrees with them on a single matter of public policy." Via Greg Sargent.

Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The war against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria may be expanded to include Boko Haram in Nigeria and militant elements in Libya, secretary of defense Ash Carter said on Wednesday."

Good Grief! Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "The administration is investigating allegations that two senior Secret Service agents, including a top member of President Obama's protective detail, drove a government car into White House security barricades after drinking at a late-night party last week, an agency official said Wednesday. Officers on duty who witnessed the March 4 incident wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests, according to a current and a former government official familiar with the incident. But the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal matter." CW: I wouldn't trust these yahoos to guard my cat while she was napping.

Mark O'Brien of the Washington Post: "There's a currency war going on, and the United States is losing. As of Wednesday, the euro had fallen to a 12-year low of $1.05, down from as much as $1.39 just last year. That's a 30 percent drop in 11 months.... It's not just the euro that's falling against the dollar, but almost every other currency in the world, too...."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "House Republican leaders are considering a vote next week on legislation that would abolish cuts to Medicare payments, a policy change that could cost upwards of $174 billion to enact. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team are quietly coordinating a bill, four sources say, in hopes of ending the decades-long battle over how much doctors and healthcare providers should be paid for treating Medicare patients. But bringing up the legislation would be a huge gamble, because it could spark a revolt among fiscal conservatives who are likely to balk at legislation that adds to the deficit." CW: Hard to believe the House might actually do something. So note the caveat. Democrats will have to do the heavy lifting. Again.

Jonathan Chait: "The proof that [Paul] Ryan's [2013] poverty tour was not a form of spin is that he is releasing a propaganda film about it.... Ultimately Ryan’s motives are beside the point.... The primary evidence for analyzing Ryan should not be his own testimony about his motives, nor his visits to bookstores..., but his actual policy agenda.... Ryan's budget proposes to reduce taxes for the rich, increase defense spending, leave retirement benefits for everybody over the age of 55 untouched, and eliminate the budget deficit. This combination requires massive cuts to programs targeted to the poor."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Waldman: "Here&;s a tip for my fellow scribes and opinionators: If you find yourself justifying blanket coverage of an issue because it 'plays into a narrative,' stop right there. That's a way of saying that you can't come up with an actual, substantive reason this is important or newsworthy, just that it that bears some superficial but probably meaningless similarity to something that happened at some point in the past."

Presidential Race

Steve Peoples of the AP: "The Associated Press on Wednesday sued the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state. The legal action follows repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that have gone unfulfilled. They include one request the AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013." ...

... Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "No fewer than three House committees have launched or are considering probes into Clinton’s email practices, a feeding frenzy that could allow the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to cast the investigations as yet another partisan witch-hunt. It could also become a problem for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team, which has made a point of trying to prevent multiple committees from tripping over themselves investigating the same topic. They’re now working to keep the Clinton investigations on distinct tracks." ... 

     ... CW: Yeah, right. Like there's no duplication in Trey Gowdy's fishing expedition, which initiated the Clinton e-mail probe. It is the fifth House committee "investigation" of events surrounding the attack in Benghaaazi. Boehner himself set up the committee & Gowdy slow-walked it to make sure it would be ongoing during the run-up to the presidential campaigns. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "A top freedom-of-information expert isn't buying Hillary Clinton's explanation of why she set up her own email system to conduct official State Department business, calling it 'laughable.' Daniel Metcalfe, who advised White House administrations on interpreting the Freedom of Information Act from 1981 to 2007, told The Canadian Press that the former secretary of state acted 'contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the law.'" ...

... Frank Rich: "That it took Clinton as long as it did to respond to the rising chorus of these questions, and that she did so as defensively and unconvincingly as she did, is yet more evidence that she's not ready for the brutality of a presidential campaign.... Some of what Clinton said didn't pass the smell test. It reminded me of an episode in the first season of Veep where the vice-president announces she will release all her internal office correspondence to quell a controversy and then instructs her staff to make sure it's 'Modified Full Disclosure Lite.'" ...

... Gail Collins: "There won't be a new Hillary. What voters can hope for is the best possible version of her flawed self. That while there will be messes, she will force herself to be open during the cleanup. That while she might not be a transformative speaker, she will be able to explain how she can take the issues she's been pursuing for decades and turn them into a plan for serious change." ...

... Jack Shafer of Politico: It depends upon what the mean of "not saved" is. Hillary "Clinton intended to run for president as a cool, decisive, above-it-all diplomat. Instead, she finds herself back on the ground, muddied and bruised, and tangled up in an email kerfuffle that magnifies all of the weaknesses of the House of Clinton." ...

... ACCORDING TO Philip Rucker & Paul Kane of the Washington Post, "Senior Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Rodham Clinton is not ready to run for president, fearing that the clumsy and insular handling of the nine-day fracas over her private e-mails was a warning sign about the campaign expected to launch next month." ...

... ACCORDING TO Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times, "Congressional Democrats are counting on a strong Clinton campaign to help lift them back into the majority. Party leaders at all levels want her fund-raising help and demographic appeal. And from the top of the party to its grass roots, Mrs. Clinton's pseudo-incumbency is papering over significant disadvantages: a weak bench, a long-term House minority and a white middle class defecting to the Republican Party faster than the Democrats' hoped-for demographic future is expected to arrive." ...

... CW NEWS FOR DEMOCRATS: You abdicated in 2014, & you're abdicating now. Hoping Hillary Clinton -- or any single candidate -- will pull your ass out is going to happen right about the time all elected Republicans self-deport. There's no Plan B?? Hell, there's no viable Plan A. Clinton is 67 years old. She would be 69 by the time she took office. What if she got hit by a bus? (Think a Secret Service agent will run interference? Ha! Probably too drunk.) What if she got sick? What if she already has "brain damage," as Karl Rove imagines? The other day I named ten Democrats I thought should run for president in 2016. Here are two Virginians: former Virginia governor & current Senator Tim Kaine & former Senator Jim Webb. Duval Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts is another possibility. Joe Biden, too. I'm not suggesting which of these candidates I'd like to see win (Sheldon Whitehouse), but they should all be making themselves presences in Iowa, New Hampshire & South Carolina. People should know their names. ...

... Update. Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View on the Democratic "bench": "Dan Balz of the Washington Post says Democrats have a problem for 2016: 'The absence of a strong Democratic bench.' National Journal's Josh Kraushaar replies, 'Spot-on.' The New York Times repeats the 'weak bench' line and quotes Democrats who agree that their party would be in trouble without Hillary Clinton. It's bunk." Bernstein comes up with his own "bench": Martin O'Malley, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Cuomo, Al Franken, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, Michael Bennet, Mike Beebe, Christine Gregoire, Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper and Deval Patrick." ...

... Ken Vogel of Politico: "By Election Day 2016, taxpayers will have paid out more than $16 million to fund Bill Clinton's pension, travel, office expenses and even the salaries and benefits of staff at his family's foundation, federal records show. Multiple sources familiar with Clinton's funding say the special federal money has supplemented the salaries of some employees of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a global non-profit that has served as Hillary Clinton's primary platform as she prepares for a presidential campaign expected to launch in coming weeks." ...

... CW: A teeny fraction of what we paid to fund big bank executives & their staffs in 2008, 2009 & even unto today.

... every Republican presidential candidate in the Senate did sign -- Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, and Ted Cruz. They don't seem to realize that the farcical blundering of this incident gives them all the gravitas of Sheriff Andy and Barney Fife.... -- Frank Rich

Dana Milbank has been following Martin O'Malley around -- O'Malley is not exactly fired up & ready to go.

Steve Eder of the New York Times: "Jeb Bush has sold his stakes in his two remaining business commitments, his spokeswoman said Wednesday, another strong signal that the former Florida governor will embark on a campaign for president."

Addendum -- Presidential Race 2020. Ozark Stupid. Andrew DeMillo of the AP: "U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton is barely into his third month in office, but a lawmaker in his home state of Arkansas wants to let the freshman Republican run for re-election and the White House in 2020. A bill advanced by a state Senate committee Tuesday would allow congressional and U.S. Senate candidates in Arkansas also appear on the ballot as presidential or vice presidential candidates. The majority-GOP Senate could consider the bill Wednesday."

Senate Race -- Maybe

Marc Caputo of Politico: "The high-level maneuvering to replace Florida Sen. Marco Rubio accelerated Wednesday as Congressman Patrick Murphy emerged as the top pick of Senate Democratic leadership, and word leaked that Republican Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera is interested in the seat as well.... Much of the posturing is speculative -- Rubio still has not definitively said he won't seek reelection in 2016 if he explores a bid for president. But he's expected to announce his presidential run in April."

Beyond the Beltway

John Eligon of the New York Times:"Two police officers were shot in Ferguson, Mo., early Thursday morning as gunfire rang out in front of the police station, throwing into panic what had been a spirited -- and at times tense -- but largely peaceful night of protests." The shots apparently came from a distance & not from among the gathered protesters. ...

... John Eligon: Thomas Jackson, "... the embattled police chief of Ferguson, the focus of bitter complaints of racial discrimination within his department that turned into national protests after one of his white officers fatally shot an unarmed black teenager last August, has stepped down, the city said Wednesday in a statement."

Joanna Walters of the Guardian: "A protest is planned for Wednesday evening in the Georgia county where a military veteran was shot dead by a police officer who found him running naked around a suburban apartment complex."

Jennifer Dobner of the Salt Lake Tribune: "After seven years of debate and a historic compromise, the House on Wednesday voted final passage of a bill to enact Utah's first statewide nondiscrimination protections for the gay and transgender community, while providing safeguards for religious liberty. The 65-10 vote was the last legislative hurdle for SB296, just one week after it debuted with the blessing of the LDS Church and the LGBT community. Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert is expected to sign the bill at a ceremony scheuduled for 6 p.m. Thursday."

Way Beyond

Jean-Luc Renauldie of AFP: "Less than a week before Israel's second general election in two years, Isaac Herzog's centre-left Zionist Union opened up a lead on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud, polls showed Wednesday." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "The drift in all the recent polls does indeed support Haaretz's conclusion that Netanyahu's big speech in Washington didn't help him much back home. So the price that he and Israel paid in damaged relations with Washington and a loss of bipartisan solidarity may well have been for naught." ...

... Jeffrey Jones of Gallup: "After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's much-publicized and controversial address to Congress, Americans' opinions of him have worsened. His favorable rating is down seven percentage points, to 38%, while his unfavorable rating has increased five points, to 29%. These changes are largely confined to Democrats; Republicans' views are essentially stable."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Michael Graves, one of the most prominent and prolific American architects of the latter 20th century, died on Thursday. He was 80."

Washington Post: "An American health-care worker has come down with Ebola and will be transported to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda for treatment, NIH announced in a news release on Thursday. The statement said NIH will not share information about the patient, other than the fact that he or she was volunteering in an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone and contracted the virus."

New York Times: "Two weeks after voting to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday released a 313-page document detailing what would be allowed."

CNN: "A newly released ISIS video shows a child shooting a man the group claims is an Israeli spy. The video identifies the man as 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent."

The Commentariat -- March 11, 2015

Internal links removed.

The Senate's Forty-Seven Percent
Are Way More Irresponsible than Mitt's 47 Percent

Dana Milbank: "... 47 Republican senators did their level best to bring us closer to war by writing a letter to Iran's mullahs, attempting to scuttle nuclear talks with the United States.... It's ... as if they're operating their own independent republic on Capitol Hill. Call it the State of Republicania.... On Tuesday, the day after his letter to Hezbollah's masters became public, Cotton provided a clue about his motives: He'd had a breakfast date with the National Defense Industrial Association -- a trade group for Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and the like.... The event was 'off the record and strictly non-attribution.' But you can bet it was what Dwight Eisenhower meant when he warned of the military-industrial complex." Read the whole column. ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Democrats say that as concerned as they are about an emerging deal with Iran, Republicans' extraordinary moves to undermine Mr. Obama's efforts to reach an agreement are weakening their resolve to cross party lines and challenge their own president.... On Tuesday, Democrats took to the Senate floor to denounce the letter to Iran. Noting that she had opposed the war in Iraq under President George W. Bush, Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, her voice shaking with rage, said, 'I never would have sent a letter to Saddam Hussein.'" ...

... Greg Jaffe & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Many in the GOP foreign policy establishment, meanwhile, expressed disappointment over the increasingly partisan nature of U.S. foreign policy. Former senator Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who previously served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, described Cotton's letter as 'an unfortunate venture' and said he would have advised the freshman senator and Army veteran not to send it." ...

.. Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "A day after releasing a letter that potentially threatened the administration's negotiations with Iran, some Republicans who signed on are realizing it was a bad call." ...

... It Was Supposed to Be a Hilarious Joke! Republican aides were taken aback by what they thought was a lighthearted attempt to signal to Iran and the public that Congress should have a role in the ongoing nuclear discussions. Two GOP aides separately described their letter as a 'cheeky' reminder of the congressional branch's prerogatives. 'The administration has no sense of humor when it comes to how weakly they have been handling these negotiations,' said a top GOP Senate aide. ...

... Andy Borowitz: "Stating that 'their continuing hostilities are a threat to world peace,' Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama." ...

... Steve M.: "... Republicans don't care about advancing an agenda. They just care about keeping their fans pumped up and enraged." ...

... Mehdi Khalaji in Politico Magazine: "Thanks, Tom Cotton. You Just Got Us a Hard-line Supreme Leader. The next Iranian ruler could reject a deal just as easily as the next U.S. president. He probably will." ...

... MEANWHILE, in Politico, Burgess Everett writes a piece describing Cotton as a "GOP phenom." ...

... AND Michael Crowley of Politico shows that Congressional Democrats, too, have communicated with foreign leaders over the years in attempts to mitigate presidential policies. CW: What's remarkable about Crowley's piece -- though Crowley doesn't in any way acknowledge it, is that in every case he cites, Democrats were attempting to advance prospects for peace. The Senate's 47 percent, obviously, are intent upon leading us closer to use of force. Even a person who believes that regulations on business should be eliminated, that climate change is a hoax, that Mitt's 47 percent are moochers, that entitlements should be cut, that abortion should be punishable by death & that there should be an arsenal in every home, should vote Democratic because Democrats want to keep Americans out of wars whenever possible. ...

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. -- U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3

... Mark Klaiman of the Washington Monthly explains what "treason" is as defined by the U.S. Constitution: "... even if you think -- contrary to any evidence I'm aware of -- that Cotton & Co. were trying to damage the United States as well as actually damaging the United States -- that still wouldn't amount to 'treason' in the Constitutional sense of that term.... Please don't call them 'traitors.' For that crime, they lacked the opportunity, the intention, and the guts." ...

... Philip Weiss of MondoWeiss speculates on who actually wrote that letter attributed to Tom-Tim Cotton: "I don't know who wrote the letter, but I can tell you whose fingerprints are on it: the only folks who are supporting it publicly, the hard-right Israel lobby. Even as Cotton himself splutters on national television, rightwing lobby groups are the main voices out there defending the letter." Thanks to Keith H. for the link.

Unfortunately, Obama Will Not Be Taking Your (Armor-Piercing) Bullets Away. At This Time. Tim Devaney of the Hill: "The Obama administration is backing off its plan to ban a type of armor-piercing ammunition following a deluge of criticism from gun rights groups and congressional Republicans. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said Tuesday it will not ban bullets commonly used in AR-15 hunting rifles 'at this time,' after receiving more than 80,000 comments on the proposal.... Democrats and gun control groups blasted the move, accusing the administration of caving. 'It's shameful that the gun lobby has, yet again, successfully worked to block an effort that would keep our communities safer from the threat of gun violence,' said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).... Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) threatened to practically defund the ATF in an agency meeting last week. 'I explained to the ATF that if they continued to interfere with law-abiding Americans' Second Amendment rights, they were going to have a very bad budget year,' he told The Hill."

John Eligon of the New York Times: "The city manager of Ferguson, whom a Department of Justice report blamed as one of the officials responsible for much of the questionable conduct by the police and the courts here, has agreed to resign. The announcement came during a City Council meeting here on Tuesday, about a week after the scathing Justice Department report. The manager, John Shaw, 39, had held the post since 2007. As Ferguson's chief executive, he is the city's most powerful official." ...

... Two Americas. Just watch this. Hold onto your jaw, as you're likely to drop it:

Lifestyles of Congressional Crooks. Da Bears! Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico (March 9): "Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock reported on federal campaign finance documents that he spent more than $3,000 on software on Nov. 14. But in fact, the expenditure was part of the cost of flying in a software executive's private plane to a Chicago Bears game and his district, the pilot and company executive said." ...

... Jake Sherman: Schock "argued that if the media spent time digging into the spending of other lawmakers -- like they have his -- reporters would 'find a story to write about any member of Congress.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce has another go at Politico "reporting."

Presidential Race

Anne Gearan & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged Tuesday that she had erred in using only a private e-mail server for work correspondence at the State Department, saying that she sent about 60,000 e-mails from her private account during her four-year tenure as secretary of state":

     ... In her presser, she also whacks the 47 senators. Alan Yuhas of the Guardian reports on her comments re: the senators. ...

... The Washington Post has the transcript of Clinton's remarks. ...

... Paul Richter & David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton directed aides to delete some 30,000 emails from her personal server after determining that they were not related to work, the former secretary of State disclosed at a news conference Tuesday." That's the lede.

... Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton failed to quell mounting criticism over her controversial private email account on Tuesday evening after her office suggested she had erased more than half of her emails before turning them over for release to the American public. In a statement released after a press conference intended to end a week-long controversy, Clinton's office said that she did not preserve 31,830 of the 62,320 emails she sent and received while serving as Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013." ...

... To Avoid Bad Press, Clinton Pisses off Media. Peter Nichols & Natalie Andrews of the Wall Street Journal: "Mrs. Clinton chose to address the media at the United Nations, a venue with a strict media vetting and credentialing policy that has presented tough challenges for the reporters scrambling to cover her news conference. Reporters were given little advance notice that Mrs. Clinton would speak publicly today at the United Nations, where she is headlining the United Nations women's conference. In the small UN press credentialing office, staff charged with issuing credentials were overwhelmed by dozens of reporters.... The line moved slowly; tempers were short." ...

... So here's one pissed-off reporter, Maggie Haberman, who wrote what is now (10:20 pm ET Tuesday) an online front-page story for the New York Times: "Mrs. Clinton's attempt to put a whirlwind of questions and critical news reports behind her -- and to get back to mustering enthusiasm ahead of her expected announcement that she will make another run at the White House -- devolved, over the course of 21 minutes, into an exchange of sharp-toned questions and increasingly defensive responses, both in what she said and in her demeanor in saying it.... She asked the public to trust her: to take her word that the 30,000-odd emails that she said she had deleted were truly personal, not professional or political; truly private, not merely embarrassing." ...

... As Steve M. points out, John Harris of Politico is appalled that a presidential candidate would, as Harris puts it, tell the media to "go to hell." Because, ya know, Republicans would never be critical of the media. ...

... CW: AND here's the funny, funny thing: Republicans don't pay for their diatribes against the media the way Hillary did with her "tight-lipped" presser. Maybe here would be a good place to point out that Haberman worked for Politico until January of this year. ...

... CW: Here's a question: what kind of incriminating content do critics think Clinton is hiding? That she said Barack Obama had cooties? That she confessed she didn't care Americans died in Benghazi? The woman is a control freak; I doubt she writes down her dark thoughts. ...

     ... Another question for anyone who has owned a Blackberry. Clinton said in her presser that "she had used a single account on one mobile phone for 'convenience', adding: 'I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously, it hasn't worked out that way.'" Um, can't you put more than one e-mail account on a Blackberry? ...

... Ashe Schow of the Washington Examiner: "At a press conference on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton said the server that housed her emails while she was secretary of state (that was reportedly housed at her home in New York) was set up for President Bill Clinton. She also said that some of the 'personal' emails she deleted were between her and her husband. But just before Hillary began the press conference at the United Nations building, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bill Clinton does not use email." ...

... Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal: "Bill Clinton doesn't use email." ...

... Scott Shane of the New York Times: "'I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,' Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference on Tuesday at the United Nations. 'I'm certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.' But some secrecy experts and former government officials on Tuesday were skeptical, noting the interesting turnabout that had a former top official insisting, for once, that none of her exchanges were secret." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "... I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and personal emails," [Hillary] Clinton said. 'Looking back, it would've been better if I’d simply used a second email account and carried a second phone.' Yet as recently as two weeks ago, she told journalist Kara Swisher that she carried two phones during at least part of her tenure as secretary of state. Clinton also argued that because most of her work-related emails were sent to other people using official government accounts, they were being recorded, anyway. But some of the communication that has aroused the most interest is her communiqués with close staffers including Huma Abedin, who appears to have used her own account on Clinton's personal server." ...

... Timothy Lee of Vox: In her press conference, Clinton said there were no security breaches to her homebrew e-mail server. "The reality is that if there were a security breach, there's no reason to think she would know about it. If a foreign intelligence agency had managed to hack into her server, they wouldn't have told anyone. Instead, they would have silently collected copies of her communications and send them back home for analysis."

** Greg Sargent: "Lurking underneath the searing controversy around the GOP letter to Iranian leaders is a dynamic that will far outlast the current headlines...: If President Obama reaches an international deal curbing Iran's nuclear program, all of the 2016 GOP presidential candidates will likely campaign on a pledge to cancel it.... All signs are that the 2016 GOP candidates will shape their agendas largely around rolling back Obama accomplishments on a number of fronts."

Ed O'Keefe & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Jebbie & Scottie are out on the new playground calling each other names.

Dave Weigel: Michigan Republicans are preparing once again to rig the Electoral College. Their vote-splitting "bill represents a new flush of Republican chutzpah." And there's a good chance they'll get away with it this time.

Beyond the Beltway

S. P. Sullivan of NJ Advance Media: "New Jersey may end up spending as much money on legal fees from a controversial settlement with Exxon Mobil as it will dedicate toward environmental programs, documents show. Roughly $50 million -- one fifth of a $225 million settlement between the state and the oil giant over pollution at their facilities in New Jersey -- could go toward payment to an outside counsel if the agreement is approved by a judge." ...

... Matt Arco of NJ Advance Media: "Gov. Chris Christie says the controversial settlement agreement with Exxon Mobil is 'actually a really nice settlement,' and blasted The New York Times for not getting its facts straight when the newspaper first reported the agreement. The governor, speaking today at a town hall event in Somerville, stressed the $225 million the oil giant agreed to pay is on top of the billions Exxon will dole out to pay for cleanup at contaminated sites in New Jersey." ...

... Flim-flam Man. Kate Zernicke & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Mr. Christie, on Tuesday, in citing Exxon's obligation to 'fix what they created' without a limit on cost, was referring to the provisions of a 1991 consent order that Exxon reached with the state to clean up the contaminated refinery sites.... But New Jersey's 2004 lawsuits covered different issues, seeking recovery for damages to the state's natural resources and for their loss of use to the public."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A witness to the fatal police shooting of a naked, unarmed man here said Tuesday that the man had approached the officer with his hands in the air, prompting the frightened officer to shoot at close range with a handgun."

Today in Post-Racial America. Amanda Holpuch of the Guardian: "University of Oklahoma's president has expelled two students who led others in racist chants in a video that drove the school to close a fraternity. School president David Boren said Tuesday that the students had created a 'hostile learning environment' while leading a chant at an event hosted by the the school's branch of Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) -- one of the largest fraternities in the US.... Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and US senator, ordered the fraternity house shut down on Monday. The two students have until Friday to contest their expulsion." ...

... Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: One of the expelled frat brothers apologizes; the other lets his parents do it for him. Turns out he's "a good boy" and "not a racist." The post reprints the statements.

... Eugene Volokh, who's kind of an oddball winger, argues that expelling the students violates their First Amendment rights. CW: However, the content of the chant, which Volokh reproduces, suggests to me that the students are doing more than using a racial epithet & incendiary racist imagery; the chanters declare they will never allow black men to becomes members of SAE. That is discriminatory, & racial discrimination is not lawful. If the members are allowed to vote on whom to admit to the fraternity, as is customary, then it seems to me the chanters don't get a First Amendment pass, though Volokh argues otherwise: "I don't think that a discussion saying that discrimination ought to take place, or even that at some unspecified time it will take place, would suffice to constitute a violation of the antidiscrimination rules, though it might be used as evidence in a future case where discrimination against a particular applicant might be alleged." He might be right. ...

... Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post has more on the students' legal case. CW: AND he addresses a question I had as soon as I read Volokh's analysis: does OU have a student code of ethics that the SAE boys violated? Does the code itself violate the First Amendment? ...

... The Paula Dean of Housemothers. Oklahoma Daily (the OU campus paper): "A video surfaced Monday evening appearing to depict OU's Sigma Alpha Epsilon house mom. The Feb. 24, 2013 Vine, shows a woman who appears to be Beauton Gilbow saying the n-word repeatedly. The Daily identified Gilbow by comparing the Vine to her GoFundMe page, which was created to raise funds for her after Sigma Alpha Epsilon's closure resulted in her sudden joblessness. The campaign page has since been taken down." Includes video. ...

... This is precious. Pete Volk of Oklahoma City News 9, in an earlier interview: “'Did you ever get any indication there was anything like this going on?' News 9's Kelly Ogle asked [Gilbow]. 'No, no, no. Never heard the song,' Gilbow responded." She is, according to the report, "a longtime friend" of legendary OU football coach Barry Switzer.

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Obama administration said Wednesday that it would provide another $75 million in nonlethal aid to Ukraine's military. It also imposed sanctions against a handful of pro-Russian separatists and others blamed for fomenting the civil war that has torn apart Ukraine's eastern regions."

Washington Post: "The Italian weather Website MeteoWeb reports that Capracotta, Italy saw 100.8 inches of snow in just 18 hours on Thursday, March 5 -- a total that, if verified, would set a new world record for snowfall in a 24-hour period."

The Commentariat -- March 10, 2015

Internal links removed.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The fractious debate over a possible nuclear deal with Iran escalated on Monday as 47 Republican senators warned Iran against making an agreement with President Obama and the White House accused them of undercutting foreign policy. In an exceedingly rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the Republicans sent an open letter addressed to 'leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran' declaring that any agreement could be reversed by the next president 'with the stroke of a pen.' The letter appeared aimed at unraveling an agreement even as negotiators grow close to reaching it.... The letter generated anger inside the White House...." ...

     ... Correction: "A previous version of this article misstated the given name of the senator who drafted the letter from American lawmakers to Iranian leaders. He is Tom Cotton, not Tim Cotton." Note to Tim-Tom: The New York Times is not a place were everybody knows your name.

... Here's the letter (pdf). It is an "Open Letter to the Leaders of the Islamic Republican of Iran." As Jim Newell of Salon notes, "'open letter' is politics-speak for 'stunt.'" CW: I do think this is a more serious stunt than their near-monthly threats to shut down parts of the federal government. ...

... Greg Jaffe & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The White House responded by accusing the Republicans of conspiring with Iranian hardliners, who oppose the delicate negotiations, and suggesting that their goal was to push the United States into a military conflict. 'I think it's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran,' President Obama said a few hours after the letter was made public. 'It's an unusual coalition.'... The letter [was] written by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)...." ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "... Joseph Biden said the letter ... was 'expressly designed to undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations'. It was 'beneath the dignity of the institution I revere', Biden said in a statement." ...

     ... Julie Davis of the New York Times: "In a lengthy and harshly worded statement released late Monday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Senate veteran of more than three decades and a former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he could recall no other instance in which senators had written to the leaders of another country, 'much less a foreign adversary,' to say the president had no authority to strike a deal with them. 'This letter, in the guise of a constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American president, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States,' Mr. Biden said. 'Honorable people can disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safer or stronger.'" ...

     ... NEW. Kendall Breitman of Politico: "Sen. Tom Cotton is firing back at Vice President Joe Biden's criticism of his letter to Iran, saying: What does he know about foreign policy? 'Joe Biden, as [President] Barack Obama's own secretary of defense has said, has been wrong about nearly every foreign policy and national security decision in the last 40 years,' Cotton said Tuesday on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' in a reference to former Pentagon chief Robert Gates, who ripped Biden in a tell-all memoir after leaving office." CW: The audacity of this ignorant twerp rivals even Ted Cruz's off-the-wall rantings. In a normal world, this would be a crash-and-burn moment, & Tom-Tim would not be heard from again till a brief mention appeared on the local obituary page. But this country at this moment is not normal. BTW, if Cotton could get his head out of the deep recess of his ass (the font of all of his knowledge) for a brief moment, he might learn that Biden (and a number of journalists) had pretty-well demolished Gates' criticisms of Biden. ...

     ... ** Update. From a press release by Iran's U.N. mission: "... the Iranian Foreign Minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, responded that 'in our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress and while no agreement has been reached, some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu, who considers peace as an existential threat, some are opposed to any agreement, regardless of its content.' Zarif expressed astonishment that some members of US Congress find it appropriate to write to leaders of another country against their own President and administration. He pointed out that from reading the open letter, it seems that the authors not only do not. understand international law, but are not fully cognizant of the nuances of their own Constitution...." Read the whole release. Thanks to Deborah S. for the link.

Let's be very clear: Republicans are undermining our commander in chief while empowering the ayatollahs. This letter is a hard slap in the face of not only the United States, but our allies. This is not a time to undermine our commander in chief purely out of spite.... Today's unprecedented letter originated by a United States senator who took his oath of office 62 days ago. As a kind of pettiness that diminishes us as a country in the eyes of the world. Republicans need to find a way to get over their animosity of President Obama. I can only hope that they do it sooner, rather than leader. -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), on the floor of the Senate, Cotton presiding

... Martin Matishak & Jordan Fabian of the Hill report other Democrats' responses. ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic lists the GOP Senators who didn't sign the letter, including Bob Corker (Tenn.), who heads the Foreign Relations Committee. ...

... The Distinguished Gentleman from Arkansas. Burgess Everett & Michael Crowley of Politico: "Some of the seven dissenters told Politico they have doubts about Cotton's move, saying there are more effective means to force President Barack Obama to address Congress' concerns about the deal.... 'It's more appropriate for members of the Senate to give advice to the president, to Secretary Kerry and to the negotiators,' Collins said. 'I don't think that the ayatollah is going to be particularly convinced by a letter from members of the Senate, even one signed by a number of my distinguished and high ranking colleagues.'" ...

... CW: I hate to say it, but 47 U.S. Senators are traitors who are following orders of a somewhat mad foreign leader: Benjamin Netanyahu. We are on dangerous ground here. This is the way tribalism works. It is rather more genteel than ISIS, but nonetheless, these Senators would have us be the 13th tribe of Israel. ...

... I see Charles Pierce has the same idea: "Condescension aside -- and an argument can be made that [Sen. Tom] Cotton doesn't understand the Constitution any better than Ali Khamenei does..., is this really any more than an attempt by the Republican caucus to monkeywrench any deal that does not meet the approval of their new majority leader, Benjamin Netanyahu?... In case you missed it, there has not been much of a consensus on anything within the American government since the Kenyan Usurper moved into the White House. The commitment of the opposition to preventing his acting as president remains unyielding. It's just a little clumsier and more obvious now, as Cotton's letter to his new pen pal attests." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Cotton stands revealed as a true fanatic. He's stalwart in his convictions as regards things about which he knows exactly dick. What he and practically every Republican in the Senate did was nothing short of a slow-motion, partial coup d'etat. It was not quite treason, and it was not quite a violation of the Logan Act...." ...

... The New York Daily News is hardly subtle in its disdain. Here's the better part of its front page:

... EVEN THOUGH the editors are opposed to the peace negotiations: "Regardless of President Obama's fecklessness in negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran, 47 Republican U.S. senators engaged in treachery by sending a letter to the mullahs aimed at cutting the legs out from under America's commander-in-chief. We join GOP signatories in opposing the pact as outlined, but we strenuously condemn their betrayal of the U.S. constitutional system. The participants represented the bulk of the Republicans' 54-member senatorial majority, vesting their petulant, condescending stunt with the coloration of an institutional foreign policy statement. They are an embarrassment to the Senate and to the nation." ...

... Jack Goldsmith, Assistant AG in the Bush II administration: The letter's "premise is that Iran's leaders 'may not fully understand our constitutional system,' and in particular may not understand the nature of the 'power to make binding international agreements.' It appears from the letter that the Senators do not understand our constitutional system or the power to make binding agreements." Goldsmith's objection is "a technical point that does not detract from the letter's message that any administration deal with Iran might not last beyond this presidency.... But in a letter purporting to teach a constitutional lesson, the error is embarrassing." ...

... Amy Davidson of the New Yorker provides a summary of the letter: "'Dear Iran, Please don't agree to halt your nuclear-weapons program, because we don't like Barack Obama and, anyway, he'll be gone soon.'... What is the source of the crying need that certain members of Congress, particularly Republicans, feel to make sure that everybody, and every last mullah, knows that they are much more important than some guy named Barack Obama?" ...

... Even ABC News's official right-wing reporter Jonathan Karl seems stunned by the Cotton, et al., brazen endrun around the President. Karl raises his voice at Cotton in what is supposed to be just a sitdown interview. ...

... ** CW: AND Cotton provides more evidence that Cotton he has no fucking concept of the Constitutional structure of the U.S. government. He tells Karl, "Congress has a Constitutional role to approve any deal...," & repeats a version of this remark. This is bull on two levels. (1) As Goldsmith explains, the Senate can give its advice & consent to an agreement negotiated by the administration; (2) but the President can & does negotiate & sign international agreements without the Senate's consent; & (3) it is not the Congress that has the constitutional power to give advice & consent, but the Senate. ...

     ... This may be what is confusing Tim-Tom: "Because it is not a treaty, an agreement with Iran would not require immediate congressional action. Mr. Obama has the power under current law to lift sanctions against Iran that were imposed under his executive authority and to suspend others imposed by Congress. But to permanently lift those imposed by Congress would eventually require a vote," Peter Baker writes in the Times article linked above. ...

... The War Senator. Lee Fang of the Intercept: "In an open letter organized by freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., 47 Senate Republicans today warned the leaders of Iran that any nuclear deal reached with President Barack Obama could expire as soon as he leaves office.... Twenty-four hours later, Cotton will appear at an 'Off the Record and strictly Non-Attribution' event with the National Defense Industrial Association, a lobbying and professional group for defense contractors." ...

... CW: One thing of which we can be absolutely sure: the guy who appears in Tom Cotton's mirror every morning (or many times a day) is called "President Cotton." ...

** Daniel Drezner, a center-righty foreign policy writer, has a helpful explanatory piece on the possible ramifications of the GOP letter. He pretty much takes the Senators for ignorant buffoons who may unwittingly help the President's negotiating team. "It's like Tom Cotton went into the GOP cloakroom and said, 'Hey, guys, I just watched Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and it gave me a super-keen idea about what to do about Iran!!'" ...

... AND Paul Waldman: "Republicans are embarking on an entirely new enterprise: They have decided that as long as [Barack Obama] holds the office of the presidency, it's no longer necessary to respect the office itself.... To directly communicate with a foreign power in order to undermine ongoing negotiations? That is appalling.... The only direct precedent I can think of for this occurred in 1968, when as a presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly communicated with the government of South Vietnam in an attempt to scuttle peace negotiations the Johnson administration was engaged in. It worked: those negotiations failed, and the war dragged on for another seven years."

Oh, Wait, There's More. Ryan Cooper of the Week: The "hilariously over-the-top fear-mongering" ad below is the work product of "the American Security Initiative..., founded by three ex-senators, Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Their ad is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson's 'Daisy' ad in 1964, which famously featured a nuclear holocaust. Except it's the other way around: 'Daisy' implied that Barry Goldwater's snarling bellicosity would lead him to start a nuclear war, not the Soviets. A voiceover from Johnson made clear that ... the USSR and America must find some way to co-exist. 'These are the stakes: to make a world in which all of God's children can live... We must either love each other, or we must die'":

... Cooper, Ctd.: "... Bayh and company's berserk ad ends on a limp note. 'Tell Washington. No Iran nuclear deal without Congressional approval.' Oh really? So unless we get about the most despised and incompetent institution in American politics to sign off, then we're all going to be vaporized?... It is almost as if anti-Iran hawks do not actually believe their own rhetoric, and are seeking to scuttle a deal for a host of reasons -- politics, knee-jerk opposition to President Obama, an allergy to diplomacy, desire for a free military hand in the Middle East -- that have nothing to do with nuclear weapons."

Josh Hicks of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department on Monday will notify more than 1 million federal employees that they can sue the government for not paying them on time during the partial shutdown of 2013. The alerts, required under a court order, will inform personnel who worked during the budget lapse that they can join a lawsuit claiming the government owes them damages under the Fair Labor Standards Act."

Former speechwriter Jim Fallows on President Obama's Selma speech: "... for once, a public figure expressing exactly how I feel.... When the political passions of our time have passed, people of all parties will quote this speech as expressing an essence of our American creed." CW: If you didn't hear the speech, do yourself a favor & listen. Fallows has it embedded in the linked post, & I put it up in the March 8 Commentariat. ...

... Paul Waldman on the stories we tell about ourselves: "... not just Obama's patriotism but his very American-ness has been questioned from the moment he became a serious candidate for the presidency. In the eyes of Giuliani and millions like him, America is not people like Barack Obama. It's people like them, and only like them.... Conservatism is about conserving, so of course the story they tell about America isn't one of constant change in order to improve the country. Their story, particularly in the last few years, is one of a kind of immaculate conception, in which the framers issued forth the nation in a state of perfection."

CW: I put this story in Wednesday's News Ledes, because I came across it in the middle of the day. In case you missed it, here's the good news again. Washington Post: "The estimated cost of President Obama's signature health care law is continuing to fall. The Congressional Budget Office announced on Monday that the Affordable Care Act will cost $142 billion, or 11 percent less, over the next 10 years, compared to what the agency had projected in January."

Taking A Byte of the Apple. Jeremy Scahill & Josh Begley of the Intercept: "Researchers working with the Central Intelligence Agency have conducted a multi-year, sustained effort to break the security of Apple's iPhones and iPads, according to top-secret documents obtained by The Intercept."

Annals of "Justice," Ctd.

** Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "A state judge will take over municipal court cases in Ferguson, Mo., the Missouri Supreme Court announced Monday evening. The change comes days after the federal Department of Justice sharply criticized municipal courts in the St. Louis suburb for acting largely as a fund-raising operation that disproportionately fined and jailed black people.Ronald J. Brockmeyer, the current municipal judge [and winner of Reality Chex's Worst Worm of the Week prize], resigned his post effectively immediately, according to a news release sent by a lawyer in his firm."

Steve Visser of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The GBI was called in to investigate whether a DeKalb[, Georgia,] police officer acted properly when he fatally shot an unarmed man, who appeared to be mentally ill Monday.... The DeKalb officer responded to an apartment complex around 1 p.m. on a 'suspicious person' report in which a man, who lived in The Heights at Chamblee, was knocking on apartment doors, had disrobed and was crawling around naked....

Maurice Possley of the Marshall Project, in the Washington Post: "More than a decade after Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for the arson murder of his three young daughters, new evidence has emerged that indicates that a key prosecution witness testified in return for a secret promise to have his own criminal sentence reduced."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. You have to read this sentence in context (where it is equally stupid) to know what particulars Ron Fournier is writing about, but Mr. Both-Sides-Do-It is so lacking in self-awareness that he actually typed into his little writing box, "Both sides do it." Well, his exact words: "Both parties are roughly equally drawn to their extremes." Ron Fournier is a stereotype of himself. ...

... Both Sides Do It, Ctd. Fournier is not alone. Steve M. writes of Josh Rogin, who broke the 47-Senators-letter story (i.e., a GOP staffer or Senator gave him a heads-up), "Republicans told Bloomberg's Josh Rogin that Both Sides Do it!, and Rogin retransmitted that claim exactly as it was dictated to him." Steve patiently explains to Josh that Colin Powell is not Vladimir Putin, & Jesse Helms writing to a Republican Secretary of State is not Tom Cotton writing to some ayatollahs. Sometimes such subtle nuance is very hard to see.

Presidential Race

CW: Paul Waldman writes a letter to Hillary Clinton that I find right in every respect but one: I really don't want to have to deal with that old familiar Clinton drama one more time. If I were prone to anxiety attacks, Waldman's letter would have given me a doozy. ...

... Gene Robinson & I are right in sync, too: "... the e-mail flap projects the sense that she considers herself both embattled and entitled. In the end, I'm not convinced that voters will necessarily care how Clinton's electronic communications were routed. But they may well ask themselves whether they're ready for the dynasty and the drama." ...

Hillary Clinton, 1994, during her "shoulda, coulda, woulda" press conference on Whitewater.... Oh, Lord, Another Pink Suit Moment. Glenn Thrush & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Hillary Rodham Clinton is likely to hold a press conference in New York in the next several days to answer reporters questions about a controversy surrounding her use of a private email account at the State Department, according to three people close to the potential Democratic frontrunner." ...

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton is closing in on April 1 as the operational start date of her long-awaited presidential campaign, multiple sources with knowledge of Clinton's growing operation in Iowa have told the Guardian. With plans to hire as many as 40 staffers in the battleground state around the beginning of April, the sources said, there is essentially no turning back on Clinton campaign expenditures -- nor on the starting gun for the 2016 election." CW: Yes, April Fools Day is a perfect day to launch a presidential campaign.

... Here's a list of some Democrats I think should run for president this year. You can probably offer some additions (and objections) to my list:

Sheldon Whitehouse, Senator, Rhode Island

Amy Klobuchar, Senator, Minnesota

Sherrod Brown, Senator, Ohio

Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator, New York

Martin O'Malley, former Governor, Maryland

Al Franken, Senator, Minnesota

Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff

Julian Castro, HUD Secretary

Bernie Sanders, Senator, Vermont (I)

Elizabeth Warren, Senator, Massachusetts

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "A majority of voters see 2016 frontrunners Hillary Clinton (D) and former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush (R) as a 'return to the policies of the past,' according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that shows the potential perils for each party's biggest names. Fifty one percent of registered voters view Clinton's policies as retreads of the past, but she's viewed much more favorably with Democrats. Only twenty three percent hold that view, and 73 percent believe she'll provide 'new ideas for the future.' Bush's numbers aren't as strong. Sixty percent of registered voters, and 42 percent of Republicans, see his policies as leaning backwards." ...

... CW: Don't kid yourselves, people. "Bush's numbers aren't as strong" because he has primary competition. The wingnuts will learn to love whoever is the party's standardbearer, including Jebbie. Besides, Republicans love "the policies of the past." Top past eras they prefer: Gilded Age, Northern War of Aggression, American Revolutionary War, Dark Ages & Stone Age, not necessarily in that order.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Obama took a direct swipe at Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican and likely presidential candidate in 2016, for signing a so-called right-to-work bill that will limit the power of private-sector unions."

News Lede

New York Times: Claude Sitton, a son of the South whose unwavering coverage of the civil rights movement for The New York Times through most of that era's tumultuous years was hailed as a benchmark of 20th-century journalism, died on Tuesday in Atlanta. He was 89."