The Commentariat -- April 9, 2016

Wyoming Democrats caucus, & Colorado Republicans hold their state convention today. ...

     ... CW Update: Oops! Guess Colorado Republican delegates met yesterday have been voting all week. Partial results linked under Presidential Race below.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Official Voter Suppression Commission. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The federal Election Assistance Commission was formed after the disputed 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore and given an innocuous name and a seemingly inoffensive mission: to help state election officials make it easier to vote.... The election commission is in federal court this month, effectively accused of trying to suppress voter turnout in November's elections. The Justice Department, its nominal legal counsel, has declined to defend it. Its case instead is being pleaded by one of the nation's leading advocates of voting restrictions." -- CW

Ron Nixon of the New York Times: "Dozens of Transportation Security Administration employees in recent years have been reassigned, demoted, investigated or fired for reporting lapses or misconduct by senior managers, charges that were later upheld by whistle-blower protection agencies, records show.... The agency is troubled by internal problems.... Former and current T.S.A. employees said in interviews that they experienced a culture of fear and intimidation, where senior managers seemed more interested in targeting those who disclosed the agency's shortcomings rather than fixing problems." -- CW

Peter Hotez, in a New York Times op-ed: "If mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus reach the United States later this spring or summer, [Florida & Gulf Coast cities] are the major urban areas where the sickness will spread. If we don't intervene now, we could begin seeing newborns with microcephaly and stunted brain development on the obstetrics wards in one or more of these places." -- CW ...

... CW: Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans -- many of whom supposedly represent these Gulf Coast states -- refuse to fund R&D & other responses to the spread of the virus. These states' Republican leaders all have refused the Medicaid expansion under the ACA (The newly-elected Democratic governor of Louisiana has accepted it, but coverage is not yet in effect). While having health insurance obviously won't prevent mosquito bites, it would greatly increase the likelihood that pregnant women would get proper prenatal care & counseling on how to lower the risk of infection. ...

     ... CW: In what has to be the Comment of the Week, Victoria writes today that the Gulf states are "the exact areas where birth control and abortions are increasingly difficult to obtain. How will the evangelicals handle this disaster? Do chastity belts prevent mosquito bites?"

... more on the war on women - Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "The Missouri GOP wants a list of women who've had abortions in the state and is using the threat of jail to get it. While major anti-choice activists and politicians are rushing to microphones to disingenuously declare, contra Donald Trump, that they would never try to punish women for abortions, their true punitive and frankly creepy side is coming out in Missouri." -- LT

Seung Min Kim of Politico: "The GOP-led House of Representatives will be allotted 15 minutes of oral argument time to make its case against the Obama administration['s executive actions on immigration], according to a Friday order from the court. Overall, oral arguments will run 90 minutes, the order says." -- CW

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "In the next battleground in the Justice Department's fight to unlock some of Apple's well-encrypted iPhones, the department on Friday pressed ahead with its efforts to get access to a locked phone linked to a methamphetamine ring in Brooklyn. Although the F.B.I. unlocked a phone last month, ending its prominent legal battle with Apple in the case involving the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the Justice Department on Friday told a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York that it still needs the technology giant's help to unlock the phone in the Brooklyn case." -- CW

The Party of Fear. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Vulnerable Republican incumbents are increasingly raising fears about Guantánamo Bay detainees, following a campaign strategy used by Scott Brown before his surprise victory in a Massachusetts special election for a Senate seat six years ago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... CW: Never mind that we learned only yesterday that "Far more convicted terrorists are being held in federal prisons in the United States than in Guantanamo Bay." Reason seldom factors in to any Republican talking point.

Guns and Ammo. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Four years after asserting executive privilege to block Congress from obtaining documents relating to a controversial federal gun trafficking investigation, President Barack Obama relented Friday, turning over to lawmakers thousands of pages of records that led to unusual House votes holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in 2012." -- unwashed

** Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker: "The Supreme Court Extremism of Clarence Thomas and Chuck Grassley.... The crudeness of Grassley's attack on [Chief Justice] Roberts, from a senator who claims to want to avoid a politicization of the court, is astonishing.... Thomas's blindness to the realities of American life -- and concomitant obsession with his understanding of the Framers' intent -- reflects his bizarre jurisprudential views." -- safari

Jennifer Bendery of The Huffington Post: "It sucks to be Merrick Garland right now...It's worth noting there are 46 other Merrick Garlands. That is, 46 other judicial nominees are in the same boat...who aren't getting votes ... because GOP leaders don't want to confirm judges until 2017." -- unwashed

Monica Davey & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Friday for the first time provided details of sexual abuse allegations against J. Dennis Hastert, the former speaker of the House, asserting that he molested at least four boys, as young as 14, when he worked as a high school wrestling coach decades ago.... In a court filing late Friday, making suggestions for a judge who will decide Mr. Hastert's sentence, the prosecutors described specific, graphic incidents that they say occurred when Mr. Hastert was a popular, championship-winning coach in a small Illinois town in the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The 'known acts,' the prosecutors said, consisted of 'intentional touching of minors' groin area and genitals or oral sex with a minor.'" Story includes the prosecutor's filing document. -- CW

Presidential Race

Rob Krilly of The Telegraph: "Laura Bush, the former first lady, has hinted she would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, saying she wants the next American president to be someone who cares about women in Afghanistan... she signalled she was among the growing band of establishment Republicans whose anyone-but-Trump stance extended to voting for Mrs Clinton in the general election." -- LT

Megan Carpentier & Laura Gambino of the Guardian: "Bernie Sanders returned to [Brooklyn] ... in a last-minute campaign rally..., in the middle of the street outside his childhood home off Kings Highway in Brooklyn to address supporters. Across the state, there was another homecoming of sorts for his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who returned to western New York to once again ask the voters who helped launch her Senate career for their support." -- CW

BTW, Much Ado about Nothing. Both Bernie Sanders (here) & Hillary Clinton (here) have conceded that the other is qualified to be president. No kidding. CW: Still waiting for a Krugman apology.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone: "Bernie or no Bernie, 'Times' columnist Paul Krugman is wrong about the banks...The lessons of the crash era are that these megabanks have grown beyond the organic controls of capitalism. They were so big and so systemically important in '08 that the government could not let them go out of business.... This alone was an argument for breaking them up." -- LT

Gail Collins: "Have you noticed how Senator Sanders, former mayor of Burlington, Vt., is the glamour candidate while Clinton, former first lady, senator from New York and secretary of state, seems to follow an itinerary fit for a county commissioner? Welcome to the New York primary."

Philip Pullella & Alana Wise of Reuters: "... Bernie Sanders was invited to speak at an April 15 Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said on Friday, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself.... 'I deny that. It was not that way,' Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters in a telephone interview while he was traveling in New York. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event.He said it was his idea to invite Sanders." Via Kevin Drum. -- CW

Ali Gharib of the Guardian: "New Yorkers got a chuckle on Thursday morning when Hillary Clinton rode the subway.... Clinton had a little bit of trouble swiping her MetroCard: it took five goes...." However, the bigger problem was that she broke the MTA's rules against campaigning on subways. "The incident is all the more galling because there are actual, regular New Yorkers ... who are arrested for violating the same rules that Clinton disregards with impunity." -- CW

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton said Friday he regretted drowning out the chants of black protesters at a rally in Philadelphia the day before, when he issued an aggressive defense of his administration's impact on black families. His reaction thrust a debate about the 1990s into the center of his wife's presidential campaign, one that has focused heavily on issues of race and criminal justice."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Ted Cruz captured a majority of Colorado's delegates to the Republican National Convention on Friday, outmaneuvering Donald J. Trump, whose lack of an organized national campaign once again allowed Mr. Cruz to gain at his expense.... By Friday night, Mr. Cruz had taken 21 of the state's 37 national delegates. Mr. Trump and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio had none. Thirteen others will be decided on Saturday at the state convention." -- CW

Michael Cohen of the Boston Globe went to a Trump rally in Long Island: "There was an electricity and energy in the room that felt venomous, violent, terrifying -- like the political equivalent of parched kindling before a conflagration.... The more aggressive that Trump was in his comments, the more the crowd responded.... There's no poetry at Trump's events, no higher calling, no challenge other than to vote for Trump, no invocation of the 'better angels of our nature' -- it's just raw aggression, an animal, nationalistic spirit, us vs. them, zero sum game resentment politics." -- CW

...kind of like a frat party or hazing? Max Kutner of Newsweek: The Chalkening, a pro-Trump movement on campuses, ... "is likely a response to [college student populations being more liberal, diverse, and tolerant] especially for members of Greek life who are facing 'a crackdown on college campuses on fraternity culture' because some have said it promotes binge drinking and sexual assault." -- LT

Meet Trump's Mentor Roy Cohn. Michael Kruse in Politico Magazine: "That Roy Cohn..., the lurking legal hit man for red-baiting Sen. Joe McCarthy, whose reign of televised intimidation in the 1950s has become synonymous with demagoguery, fear-mongering and character assassination. In the formative years of Donald Trump's career..., Cohn was one of the most powerful influences and helpful contacts in Trump's life. Over a 13-year-period, ending shortly before Cohn's death in 1986, Cohn brought his say-anything, win-at-all-costs style to all of Trump's most notable legal and business deals."

David Graham of The Atlantic: "The breadth of Trump's controversies is truly yuge, ranging from allegations of mafia ties to unscrupulous business dealings, and from racial discrimination to alleged marital rape...This is a snapshot of some of the most interesting and largest of those scandals." --safari

...will he add bribery to the list? Philip Rucker of The Washington Post: "The swing voters of the GOP nominating contest, nearly 200 activists and elected leaders [are] beholden to nothing except their personal judgment... Campaign finance lawyers are divided over whether federal or state anti-bribery statutes would apply to delegates who are not elected officials -- and if so, what kinds of perks or inducements [like a weekend at Donald's] could be illegal." -- LT

Aaron Barlow of Salon: "Donald Trump has been a disaster for political journalists, but he has also been an incredible boon for those of us who teach journalism. Questions of ethics and practice, for instance, particularly in interview situations, are no longer simply academic."--safari

"New York Values." Katie Zezima of the Washington Post: "... with the delegate-rich New York primary looming, [Ted] Cruz must campaign in the Empire State -- a place known for its bare-knuckles approach to all things political, a propensity to hit back when slighted and residents who speak up when they disagree. "Take the F U train, Ted,' blared the cover of the New York Daily News Thursday, the day after Cruz was greeted by hecklers at a campaign stop in the Bronx. Cruz was swarmed by media as he walked into a Dominican-Chinese restaurant where he met with local and faith leaders. Two men were dragged out by police after they disrupted the gathering.... Despite the reception, Cruz refused to apologize for his 'New York values' criticism.... When asked by CNN if he regretted using the phrase, Cruz said, 'not remotely.'" -- CW

But Cruz Could Win the Big Prize. Steve M. "Hillary Clinton doesn't inspire much love; in that way she's like Gore and Kerry. She's not running on peace and prosperity. Her biggest advantage is the likely weakness of her opponent -- but Nixon, Reagan, and Poppy Bush have proved that you don't have to be loved to beat a Democrat." -- CW

Following up on Steve M.'s takedown (linked yesterday) of Time's fawning interview of Ted Cruz, Ed Kilgore patiently explains the obvious: "Ted Cruz is not an 'economic populist.'... It's hard to find a politician more inclined to get government off the backs of the very rich and the very powerful." -- CW ...

... Digby follows on, noting that the Time coverage is so Onion-esque that the Onion did indeed predict it. "... once you read the stories within, you'll have to conclude that the man whom virtually everyone with the misfortune of knowing him finds repulsive is terribly misunderstood. Where you might have thought the man was a doctrinaire rightwinger, steeped in religious fanaticism and radical free market extremism, you will find out that he's actually a good old boy, a salt of the earth populist." -- CW ...

... CW BTW: Digby describes Ted's portrait as "fetching." I find it standard-issue Cruz-creepy. If I were a crazed fundamentalist Christian who wanted to instill in my innocent children an abiding fear of the devil, I would show them photos of Ted.

Bill Maher discusses Republican electoral strategy: "Long lines are the new poll tax"--safari

Beyond the Beltway

Scott Bauer & Todd Richmond of the AP: "Wisconsin's right-to-work law, championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker as he was mounting his run for president, was struck down Friday as violating the state constitution. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, also a Republican, promised to appeal the decision and said he was confident it would not stand." -- CW

     ... The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story, by Patrick Marley & Jason Stein, is here. -- CW

Soumya Karlamangla of the Los Angeles Times: "Officials announced Friday that women in California can now drop by their neighborhood pharmacy and pick up birth control pills without a prescription from a doctor. It's not technically over-the-counter, but you can get them by talking to a pharmacist and filling out a questionnaire.... State legislators originally passed the law in 2013 but it was held up in regulatory discussions until Friday." -- CW

Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The backlash against North Carolina's law banning anti-discrimination ordinances kept going unabated Friday, as Bruce Springsteen announced that he was canceling a weekend show in the state in solidarity with those protesting the bill." -- CW

...Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Rep. Louie Gohmert, R[nutcase]-Texas, defended North Carolina's new anti-LGBT law...Citing his own childhood, the congressman said that boys would be unable to resist the temptation to see girls while they are in the bathroom." -- unwashed

Arturo Garcia of Raw Story: "A new online campaign is targeting North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) for mockery concerning his state's new anti-trans legislation. The #PeeingForPat tag has already started circulating around Twitter, with various users posting pictures of urinals or toilets."--safari

Steve Reilly of USA Today: "A USA Today analysis ... found that both Nevada and Wyoming have become secretive havens much like Bermuda and Switzerland have long been. And at least 150 companies set up by Mossack Fonseca in those states have ties to major corruption scandals in Brazil and Argentina. The corporate records of 1,000-plus Nevada business entities linked to the Panamanian law firm reveal layers of secretive ownership, with few having humans' names behind them, and most tracing back to a tiny number of overseas addresses from Bangkok high rises to post offices on tiny island nations. Only 100 of the Nevada-born corporations have officers with addresses in this country...." -- CW

...Eric Ortiz of Truthdig: "No high-profile Americans have been implicated in the Panama Papers, but various sources are reporting a Clinton connection to the leaked documents....Sberbank (Savings Bank in Russian) engaged the Podesta Group to help its public image....Tony Podesta is a super fundraiser, or bundler, for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, and John Podesta is the chairman of her 2016 campaign." -- LT

Samantha Masunaga & Geoffrey Mohan of the Los Angeles Times: "SpaceX successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket's reusable first-stage booster on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean on Friday. It was the Hawthorne[, California,] company's fifth attempt at a sea landing and first successful one." -- CW

Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the Washington Post: "Robert James O'Neill, the former member of SEAL Team 6 who claimed to have shot and killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden..., was charged with DUI on Friday in his home town of Butte, Mont." -- CW

Amanda Terkel of The Huffington Post: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott's [Rwhackjob-FL] political action committee has put out a new ad that goes after Cara Jennings, the woman who confronted him at a Starbucks and called him an 'asshole.'" What a guy. -- unwashed

Way Beyond

strong>Souad Mekhennet, et al., of the Washington Post: "Belgian officials have arrested a key suspect from last year's terrorist attacks in Paris, a senior official said Friday, and investigators also explored possible links to the deadly bombings in Brussels last month. The suspect, Mohamed Abrini, was the subject of a massive manhunt since November's rampage in Paris...." -- CW

Kristen Hall-Geisler of Tech Crunch: "The interest in Tesla vehicles has done the electric car market a lot of good, according to [Nick] Sampson... head of the startup electric vehicle company Faraday Future...'It opens people's minds to the possibilities.'" -- unwashed

...Paresh Dave and Charles Fleming of the LA Times: "Electric car start-up Faraday Future Inc...[is] poised to receive millions of dollars in state tax breaks over the next five years if they can hit hiring and investment goals...[FF] would get a total of $12.7 million in credit toward corporate income taxes for meeting requirements set with the state, including adding almost 2,000 workers in Gardena and elsewhere in California by 2020." -- unwashed {Disclaimer: I have a minor role in the development of this new product. From my experience it's truly a multi-cultural, muli-national endeavor. However, if I write anything more I'll need to chop off my own fingers.}

CaptRuss Says

Not Good at All. All candidates, by definition, say that they're more qualified than their opponent. Various things Clinton said can be reasonably interpreted as questioning whether Sanders is up to the job of the presidency.... But it is incumbent on both candidates to fight hard and yet not say things that can't be unsaid.... -- Josh Marshall of TPM

OH, please!! Josh Marshall’s nostalgic “simple realities of political campaigns” – that Clinton and Sanders should refrain from questioning each other’s qualifications to be president - is so 20th Century. This presidential campaign, with the Republican mudslingers leading the way, is such a free-for-all that civility gets no traction, while bombast gets all the headlines. While there are differences in policy issues, Clinton’s leanings toward Wall Street and big money vs. Sander’s focus on inequality and the little guy, neither can break through the Republican noise machine to get coverage without sharp elbows. As Les Moonves has said - appropriately in the Hollywood Reporter - "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS." Moonves and Roger Ailes at Faux News have been at the forefront of flushing our democracy down the toilet.

The Commentariat -- April 8, 2016

Afternoon Update:

The Party of Fear. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Vulnerable Republican incumbents are increasingly raising fears about Guantánamo Bay detainees, following a campaign strategy used by Scott Brown before his surprise victory in a Massachusetts special election for a Senate seat six years ago." ...

... CW: Never mind that we learned only yesterday that "Far more convicted terrorists are being held in federal prisons in the United States than in Guantanamo Bay." Reason seldom factors in to any Republican talking point.

*****

Juliet Eilperin & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "President Obama returned Thursday to the institution where he forged his academic expertise in constitutional law -- the University of Chicago Law School -- to make the case that confirming his current nominee for the Supreme Court is the best way for the nation to uphold its founding principles." -- CW:

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "On Tuesday, [Sen. Chuck] Grassley [RCrotchety-Iowa] gave a speech that went after the Supreme Court as a purely political institution, pantsing the entire high court, and Chief Justice John Roberts by name, on the floor of the United States Senate. In so doing, he not only damaged the Senate's relationship with the court in a way he may not be able to repair, but also exposed his own hypocrisy as chairman of a judiciary committee tasked with ensuring that the court can function.... What is really being said here is that there is only one way to interpret the Constitution and that is in the way that 'advances conservative policy.'" -- CW ...

... Pat Rynard of the Daily Beast wonders if Chuck Grassley (R-Indolence) can be shamed into doing his job. "Some of the pressure at the events [in Iowa] came from activists from NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) and Progress Iowa, the state's main progressive advocacy group. NARAL even had one of their Iowa members dress up as Ben Franklin at each event to remind Grassley about constitutional duties." -- Akhilleus ...

     ... Akhilleus: The mistake these people make is thinking that Confederates like Grassley give a hoot about the Founders or the Constitution. Just because they say they do don't make it so. When asked by a constituent about why he's not doing his job, Grassley replied "We know that over half of the Senate is going to not go along with that this year, so I'd rather spend our time on things we can do in a bipartisan way". Forget that silliness about bipartisanship. This is the answer of a follower, not a leader. And besides, if Ben Franklin can't get him to do his job, what good is he?

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Panama Papers' detailed revelations of a massive international tax-haven scheme have snowballed this week into a fierce debate among Democrats over President Obama's trade policies with the tiny Central American nation and again laid bare sharp divisions within the party over such agreements. Trade critics lambasted the administration as failing to heed their prior warnings and win sufficient financial reforms from Panama before signing a landmark free-trade deal in 2011, missing a chance to disrupt the elaborate financial arrangements disclosed in a massive leak of private data last weekend." -- CW

...The "Panama Butterfly Effect" - Juan Cole of Informed Comment: "The revelation in the leaked Panama Papers that Mossack Fonseca and Swiss bank HSBC serviced the companies of corrupt Syrian billionaire Rami Makhlouf (first cousin of dictator Bashar al-Assad) long after the US imposed sanctions on him is a reminder of why Syrians revolted against the regime in 2011 in the first place." -- LT note: The Butterfly Effect - the scientific theory that a single occurence, no matter how small, can change the course of the universe forever.

Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry touched down in Baghdad Friday to show support for a government in political and economic turmoil even as it readies a long-awaited military campaign to wrest territory back from Islamic militants." -- CW

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "The Senate passed several provisions to bolster security throughout the nation's transportation system Thursday, the first legislative response to the attacks on the airport and train station in Belgium last month. The measures, which are expected to pass as early as next week, are attached to a large-scale bill to reauthorize funding for the Federal Aviation Administration." -- CW ...

... Mike DeBonis: "If you're seeking relief from sardine-can conditions on airline flights, don't expect any help from Congress. The Senate voted down an amendment Thursday that would have ended any further reductions of airplane seat sizes. The amendment failed on a 54-to-42 vote, with most Democrats supporting the amendment by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and most Republicans opposed." CW: Because it would be wrong to regulate business when the only beneficiaries are the little people/sardines. ...

... CW: Here's a November 2015 CBS News report on the incredible shrinking airline seat:

"Bench-Slap." Mark Stern of Slate: "In an utterly inevitable turn of events, the First Circuit Court of Appeals restored marriage equality to Puerto Rico on Thursday, reversing a bizarre district court ruling, which held that the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges did not apply to the territory. 'The district court's ruling errs in so many respects that it is hard to know where to begin,' the First Circuit wrote, in reference to U.S. District Judge Juan Pérez-Giménez's 10-page anti-gay rant." CW: Pérez-Giménez is a Carter appointee.

Eric Kleefeld of the Raw Story: The Chicago Tribune "finds that at least four different people have made credible allegations [of sexual abuse] against ... [former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert]. And what's more, Hastert did something truly unbelievable: He asked one of his victim's family members to write him a character reference for the judge." -- CW

Laurie Goodstein & Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "In what could be an important moment for his leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis is scheduled to issue a major document on Friday regarding family issues.... In the document, known as an apostolic exhortation, the pope could change church practice on thorny subjects like whether divorced Catholics who remarry without having obtained annulments can receive holy communion. He might address debates over same-sex relationships, cohabitation and polygamy, an issue in Africa. Or, he could sidestep such divisive topics and stick to broader philosophical statements." -- CW

     ... Update. Jim Yardley & Laurie Goodstein: "In a broad proclamation on family life, Pope Francis on Friday called for the Roman Catholic Church to be more welcoming and less judgmental, and he seemingly signaled a pastoral path for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion." -- CW ...

... Here's Francis's proclamation.

Presidential Race

Harper Neidig of the Hill: "... Bernie Sanders on Friday morning announced a visit to the Vatican next week to attend a conference hosted by Pope Francis on social, economic and environmental issues." -- CW

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders on Friday walked back his criticism that Hillary Clinton was not qualified to be president, saying 'of course' the former secretary of State is qualified. 'The Clinton campaign has changed its tone and I think they were pretty public about it,' Sanders told NBC's 'Today,' suggesting Clinton's campaign was being more negative as the campaign shifts to New York ahead of the April 19 primary." -- CW ...

... Alan Rappeport & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times with the latest on the Bickersons: "Tension flared in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, with the candidates questioning each other's fitness to lead and Senator Bernie Sanders pressing his attack that Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president." -- CW ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post interviews Bernie Sanders on the state of the Democratic presidential race. -- CW ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The first thing to say about these remarks is that the escalation is almost entirely semantic, rather than material. All of the attacks that Sanders leveled here ... are things he's talked about for months now.... [Clinton's attacks on Sanders have been] classic Clinton: She's cautious, careful, and stays on message. And the 'qualified' broadside is classic Sanders too. He's angry, and he's not afraid to show that. This directness -- and its contrast with the impression that Clinton is calculating -- is one of the forces that has powered Sanders's campaign. He may have overdone it in this case." -- CW ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "'Disqualify him, defeat him, unite the party later.' On Wednesday, that was how CNN characterized the Clinton campaign's plan to contain an ascendant Bernie Sanders. Shortly after the insurgent senator's 14-point win in Wisconsin, the Clinton camp sent out a fund-raising email that suggested Sanders's widely criticized interview with the New York Daily News showed that he isn't qualified for the presidency.... [Hillary] Clinton went on the offensive Wednesday, questioning the democratic socialist's party loyalty and the depth of his policy knowledge, accusing him of putting gun manufacturers' interests before those of the victims at Sandy Hook, and then refusing to say whether she believes he's qualified for the presidency when asked by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.... But by actually uttering the words 'I don't think you're qualified,' Sanders stumbled across a political redline: In a partisan primary, you're supposed to leave yourself cover for an eventual endorsement.... On Thursday..., [Clinton] appeared to have adopted a new strategy: Mollify him, unify the party, and defeat him later." -- CW ...

... Charles Pierce: "This is just dumb politics on both sides. First of all, there's no question that HRC was questioning in that interview whether Sanders was unqualified to be president. She just didn't want to use the word, because that would have been the day's headline. (As, indeed, was the case when the Post used it for her.)... And, while we're on the subject, it was pretty damn creepy for HRC to wave the bloody shirt of the Newtown massacre at Sanders.... (She's been draping herself in other people's grief for a while now, and it's distasteful as all hell.)... I'm starting to wonder seriously about both of these people. Neither campaign seems able to avoid the easiest mistakes in optics." -- CW ...

... "Not Good at All." Josh Marshall of TPM: "All candidates, by definition, say that they're more qualified than their opponent. Various things Clinton said can be reasonably interpreted as questioning whether Sanders is up to the job of the presidency. But it is an entirely different matter when an opponent, in his own voice, says flatly his challenger is 'unqualified' to serve as President of the country.... Primaries that drag on get intense. Especially in the venomous and kinetic New York media environment. The Clinton operation has plenty of sharp elbows themselves. But it is incumbent on both candidates to fight hard and yet not say things that can't be unsaid...." ... CW ...

... Krugman Goes "Over the Edge." Paul Krugman: "... the way Mr. Sanders is now campaigning raises serious character and values issues." CW: Which is exactly what I would say of Krugman. This is a shocking column in that it presents a serious mischaracterization of the tick-tock. Marshall's post, linked above, is a well-considered criticism of Sanders. Krugman has used his valuable NYT space to rant. Period.

Eric Levitz: In Philadelphia, Bill Clinton clashes with Black Lives Matter protesters opposed to his policies he signed into law & to Hillary Clinton's remark about "superpredators," ca. 1996. -- CW ...

... Michelle Goldberg of Slate: "I wonder if there's a part of Bill Clinton that doesn't really want Hillary Clinton to become president, particularly if she has to distance herself from his legacy to do so.... At a time when Hillary Clinton is dependent on black voters and campaigning with mothers who've lost sons to police violence, Bill Clinton yoked her to his own discredited policies.... It is somehow only when he is working on his wife's behalf that he veers into sabotage.... Hillary should shut him down. She can't divorce him, but she can fire him." -- CW

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog seems to agree with the possibility that Bill is a problem for Hillary. In more ways than one. The crime bill is a big one: "The flaws in the bill are a huge moral issue -- but then, beyond that, failing to reckon with them fully on the verge of 2016 is political malpractice." He goes on to reference the ineptness (described in the Goldberg piece linked above) Bill has displayed, in this and in the 2008 campaign, on Hillary's behalf. -- Akhilleus

Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump would probably be the worst candidate any major party has ever nominated -- grossly uninformed, disorganized, personally and ideologically repellent to a majority of the public, and so unreliably attached to its core agenda he could potentially blow the party apart. Ted Cruz would be a much better choice. But ... he'd be very, very bad." Chait explains why. "Were it not for the rise of Donald Trump, the Republican Establishment and even most conservatives would be frantically working to prevent [Cruz's] nomination." -- CW

A look into the life of Trump's right hand man. I think the title itself gives you a good primer: Patricia Murphy of The Daily Beast: "Corey Lewandowski Called Coworker 'F*cking B*tch,' Yelled at Subordinate for Visiting Dying Grandma" --safari

Steve M.: Time goes all in for Cruz on its cover story. Zeke Miller's interview of Cruz "is barely an interview at all -- Miller mostly expresses his amazement at Cruz's success in the race, while the candidate regurgitates his Wisconsin victory speech, which was clearly geared to the general election.... 'Learning to Love Ted Cruz,' Michael Scherer's cover story, is a bit more skeptical -- but it's all about how Cruz is recalibrating his focus now that he's gone from purist Senate pariah to possible presidential nominee. Scherer, for instance, doesn't say a word about carpet-bombing or torture.... If Cruz really does slip into all-platitude mode for the general election, while nodding and winking to his feral base, can he beat Hillary Clinton? He's already within 3 points of Clinton. Sure he can. Watch out for this guy." -- CW

Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "An apology from Ted Cruz for calling Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar 'ain't gonna happen,' the presidential hopeful said during a Thursday interview with CNN's Dana Bash. 'If the Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time,' Cruz said." -- CW

Guardian: Fox "News" host Megyn Kelly "spoke openly about her evolving relationship with [Donald] Trump during a discussion with Katie Couric at the Women in the World Summit in New York City on Wednesday night, revealing that he used to call repeatedly after shows and send her signed press clippings in an attempt to 'curry favor' ahead of his presidential run." Video. -- CW (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Wrong on Lots of Things but apparently especially so on his assertions about China driving down its currency to "beat" the US. Randall Forsyth on Barron's points out that "...where [Trump's] concerned, far more pernicious than any of his much publicized foibles and faux pas is his insistence that China is systematically manipulating its currency, cheapening it to gain an unfair advantage in trade." -- Akhilleus

Beyond the Beltway

Haley Takes the High Road. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "A South Carolina lawmaker introduced a bill on Wednesday that would mandate that public restrooms and school bathrooms in the Palmetto State only be used based on the gender on a person's birth certificate. However, Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said Thursday that there had been no complaints that would suggest such a bill is needed." -- CW

Tim Egan has a fine column on "a Mason-Dixon line of progress."

Charles Pierce: A lawsuit alleges that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration engaged in "racketeering activity" in its Flint water shenanigans. -- CW

Camilo José Vergara, 71, "...a photographer who has spent more than half his life obsessively documenting American cities is creating an expansive and eye-opening record of how poor, segregated neighborhoods have transformed over time. [Vergara] has systematically photographed the same set of intersections in New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities over and over again since 1977." The time lapse photos demonstrate the dramatic changes in inner cities.... Once largely minority communities, these neighborhoods are now more and more gentrified. -- Akhilleus

How Big Data Harms Poor Communities: Kaveh Waddell in The Atlantic, points out the highly discriminatory outcomes that can befall Americans who don't have the wherewithal to live in upscale communities, or in one of Trump's towers. "For many poor people in the U.S., the data that's gathered about them at every turn can obstruct attempts to escape poverty. Low-income communities are among the most surveilled communities in America." -- Akhilleus

Way Beyond

Neil MacFarquhar & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "The reverberations from a leaked trove of Panamanian documents rippled through several nations on Thursday, with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia calling the exposure of a proliferation of shell companies and tax havens an American plot, while Iceland picked a new prime minister and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain admitted that he had profited from an offshore trust." -- CW

Robert Booth, et al., of the Guardian: British Prime Minister "David Cameron has finally admitted he benefited from a Panama-based offshore trust set up by his late father. After three days of stalling and four partial statements issued by Downing Street he confessed that he owned shares in the tax haven fund, which he sold for £31,500 just before becoming prime minister in 2010. In a specially arranged interview with ITV News' Robert Peston he confirmed a direct link to his father's UK-tax avoiding fund, details of which were exposed in the Panama Papers revelations in the Guardian this week." -- CW

James Kanter of the New York Times: "The European Union is stepping up pressure on the United States to add more European [-- Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania--] countries to the list of those whose citizens can travel across the Atlantic without a visa, holding out the threat of requiring Americans to get visas for trips to Europe if Washington does not agree." -- CW

Tim Hume, et al., of CNN: "A new Prime Minister took the reins in Iceland Thursday as fallout over the Panama Papers document leak continued. Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, who had been the country's agriculture minister, was sworn in as Prime Minister Thursday afternoon. That came two days after former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson announced he was stepping down amid mounting protests and calls for his resignation after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm revealed his links to an offshore company. Gunnlaugsson's resignation doesn't mean the dust has settled. He will remain head of the Progressive Party...." -- CW

Modigliani, "Man with a Cane," 1918.Holly Watt, et al., of the Guardian: "Mossack Fonseca helped a New York art gallery defend itself over a claim about a Nazi-looted artwork after the apparent original owner's descendant launched a legal battle for its return, the Panama Papers reveal. The case involves a $25m (£18m) Modigliani painting taken from Paris when the Germans marched into the city in 1940 and the role played by Mossack Fonseca, as the family who say it is theirs fought for its return.... The descendant claims the painting was owned by Oscar Stettiner, a Jewish gallery owner in Paris who fled weeks before the Nazis entered the city." -- CW

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors in Belgium have released a new video that shows a third suspect in last month's Brussels airport attack allegedly leaving the scene after the bombing. The suspect is believed to have been the only surviving participant in the attack on March 22. The two other suspects, identified as Najim Laachraoui and Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, are believed to have died in the airport bombing...." With video. -- CW

Max Bearak in the Washington Post: "But what's so scandalous about the Panama Papers isn't just that there's a nexus of rich people, some elected, who make profits by evading taxes. It's that so much of the money moved through tax havens would otherwise be taxed by some of the world's poorest, most revenue-hungry governments." -- CW