The Commentariat -- May 3, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Paul Duggan & Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "Throughout [Washington, D.C.'s subway system] Metro's 40-year history, the National Transportation Safety Board has repeatedly raised questions about the agency's safety culture that have not been adequately addressed, its three-jurisdiction governance model has proven 'uniquely dysfunctional' and the federal agency that sought safety oversight of the transit agency has made recommendations that are 'non-enforceable.' That summary, from NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart, came during his opening statement Tuesday at the meeting where the panel will present its findings about the probable cause of the Jan. 12, 2015, smoke crisis in a Yellow Line tunnel near Metro's L’Enfant Plaza station." -- CW
Presidential? Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ted Cruz hurled every slight in the book at Donald Trump on Tuesday, but it might not be enough to stave off a debilitating defeat in Indiana. The Texas senator is bracing for a loss that could cripple his chances to block Trump's ascent to the Republican presidential nomination. He spent his morning skewering the New York billionaire -- 'utterly amoral,' 'a serial philanderer,' 'a pathological liar' and even ridden with venereal disease. ...
... Akhilleus: Liar? Check. Amoral? Check. Philanderer? Check. Venereal disease? Wow. Ted's hackers must be working overtime. Melania may want to visit the doctor. Is this the sort of temperament we need in a president? Cruz is a whiny, bullying, holier than thou hypocrite. But calling Trump a pathological liar is rich coming from a guy whose greeting "Nice morning, isn't it?" would have to be fact checked.
Benjamin Weiser and Vivian Yee of the New York Times: " Sheldon Silver, who rose from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to become one of the state's most powerful and feared politicians as speaker of the New York Assembly, was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison in a case that came to symbolize Albany's culture of graft. The conviction of Mr. Silver, 72, served as a capstone to a campaign against public corruption by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, which has led to more than a dozen state lawmakers' being convicted or pleading guilty." Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker offers a history of Mr. Bharara's career. -- Akhilleus
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Presidential Race
Democrats & Republicans hold presidential primaries in Indiana today.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "With the Democratic presidential nomination system working the way it does, there are essentially two possible outcomes: A candidate will either win in a blowout, or he or she will need superdelegate votes to gain a majority.... 'It is virtually impossible for Secretary Clinton to reach the majority of convention delegates by June 14 with pledged delegates alone,' [Bernie Sanders] said [Sunday]. 'She will need superdelegates to take her over the top.... In other words, the convention will be a contested contest.' That's true -- mostly because, unlike in 2008, Sanders will contest it.... But that doesn't mean he has any real shot at winning." -- CW
** Ryan Cooper explains Bernie's "revolution" to boomers. CW: If you've been reading too much Krugman, this should help! -- CW
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton came to campaign in coal country -- and she had her feet held to the fire. As Mrs. Clinton stepped onto the sidewalk on Monday to tour a health and wellness center [in West Virginia], a crowd of protesters stood in the rain, many of them holding signs supporting the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump, and chanted, 'Go home!'" ...
... CW: This is pretty sad, as Clinton, to the best of my knowledge, is the only candidate who has a specific plan to help people who lose dirty-energy jobs. It didn't help her, of course, when she boasted in March, that "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." OR, as contributor Gloria puts it, "Dilemma for [laid-off coal miner]: Vote for someone who has a plan to help transition the communities to a productive, modern economy, and offers a safety net on the way. Or vote for someone who wants to take away your food stamps, healthcare and social security." Sad thing is, a lot of the dimwits will go with Plan GOP. ...
Hillary, Taking Credit Where Little Is Due. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "The Iran nuclear deal, signed last year after months of direct negotiations with Iranian officials, is likely to be remembered as Mr. Obama's most consequential diplomatic achievement. In [Hillary] Clinton's campaign to succeed him, she is claiming her share of the credit for it.... But ... interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration officials paint a portrait of a highly cautious, ambivalent diplomat, less willing than Mr. Obama to take risks to open a dialogue with Iran and increasingly wary of Mr. Kerry's freelance diplomacy.... The secret history of the Iran nuclear diplomacy, parts of which have never been reported before, lays bare stark differences between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, going back to the 2008 campaign, over how to approach one of America's most intractable foes." -- CW
Steve Peoples & Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump has so far ignored vital preparations needed for a quick and effective transition to the general election.... [He] has collected little information about tens of millions of voters he needs to turn out in the fall. He's sent few people to battleground states compared with likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, accumulated little if any research on her, and taken no steps to build a network capable of raising the roughly $1 billion needed to run a modern-day general election campaign. [This] leave[s] him with little choice but to rely on his party's establishment allies -- the Republican National Committee, above all.... That's even as he rails against his party's establishment daily as corrupt." -- CW
Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "The New Hampshire Republican Party, under pressure from Donald Trump's supporters, has canceled a controversial planned vote on a slate of delegate committee assignments that would have left Trump's supporters off all the influential committees at the national convention in July." -- CW
Surrogates Say the Darndest Things. If Donald Trump is going to win the general election, he's going to have to prove to the public that he's not Adolf Hitler, which is going to be easy for him to do. If Hillary Clinton is going to win the nomination, she's going to have to prove that she's not Hillary Clinton. That's going to be much harder to do. -- John Phillips, a radio host & Trump surrogate -- CW
Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "A range of experts agree that "Donald Trump's proposed punitive actions against the U.S.'s trading partners "are more likely to deepen [trade] problems, particularly if China or other targeted nations retaliate, rather than accept his demands. Starting a trade war might be cathartic for workers who have lost jobs, but it is unlikely to create a lot of factory work.... The removal of trade barriers has played a significant role in reducing global poverty and encouraging peace between nations, achievements that could be eroded by tit-for-tat backsliding." -- CW
Charles Pierce writes about what Donald Trump means to his supporters & suggests Trump doesn't get that. CW: It sure gave me that old fascist feeling. (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... AND, tho Pierce had something nice to say about Chuck Todd, I guess he missed the segment Driftglass illuminates. It sounds like one of those teevee-smashing moments, especially when you realize that folks out in the Heartland are nodding along with the Muzak. -- CW (Also linked yesterday.)
E.J. Dionne: "... a phony celebrity populism plays well on television at a time when politics and governing are regularly trashed by those who claim both as their calling. Politicians who don't want to play their assigned roles make it easy for a role-player to look like the real thing and for a billionaire who flies around on his own plane to look like a populist." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker: Like Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan was a cartoonish entertainer, but Trump is no Reagan. "As with his threats about the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, Trump's main foreign-policy position seems to be about making other countries pay for things.... Thirty years after Reagan dared his greatest adversary to tear down the Berlin Wall, we have Trump boisterously claiming he wants to build a new one, not to keep out Communists, or even the ISIS terrorists he mysteriously claims to know how to eliminate, but people from Mexico, our closest neighbor to the south, a friendly nation, and one on which we rely for a significant percentage of our labor market, as well as our imported oil. If this is not a downsizing of history, then what is?" -- CW
Greg Sargent on why Trump will not be cake-walking to the White House, as he says he will. -- CW
Dana Milbank: "... if [Carly] Fiorina picked investments the way she picked her candidate, you can see why HP stopped requiring her services. She bought Cruz at the peak, when polls showed him close in Indiana. But an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll Sunday found [Donald] Trump up 15 points. And now Cruz and Fiorina have to explain all those [nasty] things she used to say about him.... Cruz now also has to defend Fiorina's record at HP, where she let go thousands and sent jobs to India and China." -- CW ...
... CW: This was weird. Immediately after introducing Ted Cruz & family at an Indiana rally, Carly Fiorina fell off the stage. Boom! Heidi Cruz saw her fall & started to help her, but then decided it was better to wave to the crowd. Ted ignored Carly altogether. For a guy who claims to be such a big fan of "The Princess Bride," Ted is more the evil Prince Humperdinck that noble Westley. Not, of course, that Carly is any Princess Buttercup. (Come to think of it, Carly is more like actor Robin Wright's current character, the scheming Claire Underwood.):
... Lauren Fox of TPM: "'She fell off the stage the other day, did anybody see that? And Cruz didn't do anything. Even I would have helped her, okay?' Trump said on the stump Monday in Indiana. Trump kept criticizing Cruz, calling it the 'weirdest thing.' 'They just showed it to me coming in.... I said, "wow, that's really cruel,'" Trump said. 'She just went down. She went down a long way, right? And she went down right in front of him and he was talking, he kept talking.'" -- CW
A Vote for anyone other than Cruz is evil. ABC News: "Urging voters to pick him over rival and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, presidential candidate Ted Cruz framed the battle to win the Indiana primary as a choice between good and evil. 'I believe in the people of the Hoosier state. I believe that the men and women gathered here and the goodness of the American people, that we will not give into evil but we will remember who we are and we will stand for our values,' Cruz said at a rally in La Porte, Indiana"-- Akhilleus (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
I implore, I exhort every member of the Body of Christ to vote according to the word of God, and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America. And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America. -- Rafael Cruz (The Body of Christ is apparently the creepy name of a Christian sect or denomination. -- CW) ...
... In response, Trump accused Rafael Cruz of being an associate of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. CW: And, no, I didn't make that up. Here's Snopes on the veracity of Trump's claim. This might be a good time to retire your complaints about how the Democratic candidates are criticizing each other. ...
... Brendan O'Connor of Gawker has more, including video of the supposed "Rafael Cruz," who -- according to Snopes -- wasn't living in the Dallas area at the time. -- CW
Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: At a rally in Indiana Sunday, Ted Cruz suggested a 12-year-old heckler needed a spanking.: "'You know, in my household, when a child behaves that way, they get a spanking,' said Cruz." ...
... CW: Ted seems kinda invested in spanking his daughters -- and others. In January, he "said voters 'have a way of administering a spanking,' [to Hillary Clinton] similar to how he spanks his 5-year-old daughter."
Senate Races
Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "... an advertisement in Arkansas' Senate race is a preview of how Democrats are likely to tie Republican opponents who support Trump's candidacy to incendiary remarks [Donald Trump] has made in the past":
Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Democrats are preparing another round of attacks against Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, releasing new poll numbers that show the veteran Iowa senator's favorability ratings are tumbling as he plays a key role in blocking Merrick Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court.... Grassley is still favored to win reelection, despite running in a purple state that President Barack Obama won in both 2008 and 2012." -- CW
Other News & Views
The Absent Congress. Rachel Bade & Colin Wilhelm of Politico: "When Puerto Rico took its first major step toward a catastrophic default on Monday, lawmakers on Capitol Hill -- where Puerto Rican officials looked for help -- were nowhere to be found, having gone home for a one week recess last Friday. The island began defaulting on most of a $422 million debt payment Sunday at midnight, but much bigger problems are just around the corner. Congress has just a handful of weeks to hammer out a legislative fix to save the island from financial ruin ahead of a second default on a $2 billion debt payment due in early July." -- CW
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Take ... together [Dennis Hastert's dubious actions as Speaker] with the shocking revelations of sexual abuse of youths placed in the trust of Mr. Hastert, a popular and successful coach, and he emerges as a deeply flawed figure who contributed significantly to the dysfunction that defines Congress today. Even his namesake Hastert rule -- the informal standard that no legislation should be brought to a vote without the support of a majority of the majority -- has come to be seen as a structural barrier to compromise.... His portrait has been removed from the speaker's lobby. But the impact of his reign lingers." ...
... CW: This might be a good place to post a reminder of the homoerotic thrill that comes with contact sports. Love that football pile-on! Wrestling has to be at the top of the thrill list. It was not by accident thatHastert made his mark as a wrestling coach, nor is it an accident that Donald Trump is one of pro wrestling's biggest boosters -- he even has a place in the WWE's Hall of Fame.
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "In a scathing rebuke of [South Dakota]'s health care system, the Justice Department said on Monday that thousands of patients were being held unnecessarily in sterile, highly restrictive group homes. That is discrimination, it said, making South Dakota the latest target of a federal effort to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities and mental illnesses, outlined in a Supreme Court decision 17 years ago." -- CW
Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "A doctor who performs abortions at a hospital in Washington, D.C., filed a federal civil rights complaint on Monday, charging that the hospital had violated the law by forbidding her, out of concerns for security, to speak publicly in defense of abortion and its role in health care. The doctor, Diane J. Horvath-Cosper, 37, an obstetrician and gynecologist, has in recent years emerged as a public advocate, urging abortion providers not to shrink before threats." -- CW
Voter Suppression Laws Work the Way They're Intended. Michael Wines & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "As the general election nears -- in which new or strengthened voter ID laws will be in place in Texas and 14 other states for the first time in a presidential election -- recent academic research indicates that the requirements restrict turnout and disproportionately affect voting by minorities. The laws are also ... reshaping how many campaigns are run -- with candidates not only spending time to secure votes, but also time to ensure those votes can be cast." -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brian Beutler: "The successes of the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump campaigns have revealed large cross-ideological constituencies that are hostile to existing free trade regimes and suspicious of American military adventurism. They have additionally served as reminders that universal benefit programs, like Medicare and Social Security, are overwhelmingly popular.... [So] why do experienced political journalists so often peer into the heart of whatever they think of as 'real America' and come away with the sense that real America is clamoring for entitlement reform and new trade deals?" Beutler tries to answer the question. -- CW
Beyond the Beltway
Alanna Richer of the AP: "Republican lawmakers in Virginia will file a lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's decision to allow more than 200,000 convicted felons to vote in November, GOP leaders said Monday. Republicans argue the governor has overstepped his constitutional authority with a clear political ploy designed to help the campaign of his friend and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the important swing state this fall." -- CW
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Paul "Gatling's exoneration [for a murder for which he served nine years but did not commit] will be the 20th time in the last two years that the [Brooklyn district attorney's] Conviction Review Unit has helped to clear defendants found guilty in Brooklyn of crimes they did not commit.... [Mr. Gatling's request for a review of his case] his request began an inquiry that led investigators into a tale of legal malfeasance...." -- CW
When a "hero" with a gun intervened in a violent domestic dispute in Arlington, Texas, he wound up dead. -- CW
News Ledes
AP: "Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday that an American serviceman has been killed near Irbil in Iraq. 'It is a combat death,' Carter said at the outset of a news in Stuttgart, Germany where he has been consulting with European allies this week."
New York Times (May 2): "A historic Serbian Orthodox church in Manhattan that plays an important role in New York's Serbian community was gutted by flames on Sunday, just hours after parishioners had filled its pews for Easter services. The New York Fire Department said it received the first report of the blaze at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, on West 25th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas in the Flatiron district, shortly before 7 p.m.... The church, which has served for decades as the backbone of New York's Serbian Orthodox community, was previously known as Trinity Chapel, an Episcopal church that was sold to its current owners in 1943." ...
... CBS/AP: "Investigators in three cities are looking into large fires at Orthodox churches that occurred around the religion's Easter celebrations and caused widespread damage. The blazes in New York City, as well as Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, caused only minor injuries, according to multiple reports."
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