The Commentariat -- March 18, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Alissa Rubin & Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "Europe's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, believed to be the 10th participant in the Paris terrorist attacks of Nov. 13, was captured on Friday afternoon during a police raid in Brussels, a Belgian official said. 'We've got him,' Théo Francken, a Belgian minister, wrote on Twitter. The country's two public broadcasters, VRT and RTBF, reported that Mr. Abdeslam had been captured and had a leg injury, and that the raid was one of four carried out in the Belgian capital."

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "The European Union and the Turkish government struck an accord Friday to contain Europe's largest migrant crisis since World War II, agreeing to a deal that turns Turkey into the region's refugee camp and leaves untold thousands stranded in a country with a deteriorating record on human rights.... Under the deal coming into effect Sunday, virtually all migrants -- including Syrians fleeing war -- who attempt to enter Europe via the Aegean Sea will be sent back to Turkey."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times interviews women & providers who have suffered because of Texas's impossibly restrictive new anti-abortion laws. The Supreme Court is deciding the constitutionality of the law.

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... it is ... evident that, in the past ten months, [Bernie] Sanders has defied the pundits, alarmed the comfortable, and inspired the young. He has turned what looked to be a political coronation into a lively and hard-fought contest, forcing his opponent to modify her positions and raise her game. He has demonstrated that Presidential campaigns don't have to be beholden to big donors. And he has shown that, surprisingly enough, there is still a place in American politics for an independent-minded speaker of uncomfortable truths. What's more, he isn't done yet."

The law? The law? I don't think anybody here cares about the law. -- Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), in response to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy's testimony that Congress gave the states responsibility for enforcing drinking-water standards ...

... Dana Milbank: "Now [Republican] members of Congress are blaming the EPA for failing to stop the problem -- oblivious to the irony that they and their predecessors were the ones who denied the federal government the ability to enforce drinking-water standards in the first place. It's a vicious cycle: Washington devolves power to the states. When states screw up, conservatives blame the federal government, worsening the public's already shaky faith. Having tied the hands of the feds -- in this case, the EPA -- they use the failure as justification to restrict federal power further -- thus giving more control to the states, which caused the problem in the first place."

*****

** Paul Krugman on confederate elites' disdain for the unwashed masses: "... the argument that the social safety net causes social decay by coddling slackers runs up against the hard truth that every other advanced country has a more generous social safety net than we do, yet the rise in mortality among middle-aged whites in America is unique: Everywhere else, it is continuing its historic decline. But the Republican elite can't handle the truth. It's too committed to an Ayn Rand story line about heroic job creators versus moochers to admit either that trickle-down economics can fail to deliver good jobs, or that sometimes government aid is a crucial lifeline."

Mike DeBonis & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Democrats began laying out an aggressive strategy Thursday to get Judge Merrick Garland considered by the Senate and seated on the Supreme Court, over what appears to be implacable Republican opposition. The approach, which is being implemented in part by a well-organized group led by former aides to President Obama, involves targeting vulnerable GOP Senate incumbents for defeat by portraying them as unwilling to fulfill the basic duties of their office. The idea is to so threaten the Republicans' Senate majority that party leaders will reconsider blocking hearings on Garland's nomination." ...

... The Gang's All Back -- Mostly. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama has said for years that he has finished his last campaign. But you would not know it by looking at the team he has assembled to push for his Supreme Court nominee. The Constitutional Responsibility Project, which was formed to lead the fight to get the nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland, confirmed, is a virtual who's who of Mr. Obama's two presidential campaigns.... Founded within the last several weeks as a nonprofit organization, the project will accept donations, develop advertising, coordinate messaging, help manage operatives in the field, respond to attacks on Judge Garland and collect opposition research on Republican opponents." ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "When Judge John G. Roberts Jr. ran into hostile questioning at his 2005 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, he invoked a fellow judge on the federal appeals court in Washington: Merrick B. Garland.... The questions came from Senator Charles E. Grassley [(R-Iowa), now chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee].... Judge Roberts said there was reason to think Mr. Grassley was right, given that Judge Garland had dissented [& agreed with Grassley]."

If I can meet with a dictator in Uganda, I can surely meet with a decent person in America. -- Chuck Grassley, saying he might meet with Judge Garland & demonstrating his remarkable magnanimity

Todd Spangler, et al., of the Detroit Free Press: "With Democratic members of Congress calling for his resignation, Gov. Rick Snyder lashed out Thursday at federal regulators for their response to the Flint water crisis, saying that despite the Environmental Protection Agency's insistence that the agency bore no direct responsibility there was evidence it could have moved far more quickly to protect the public." ...

... Matthew Dolan of the Detroit Free Press: "Gov. Rick Snyder reiterated on Thursday in congressional testimony that he did not know about his staff's longtime concerns over a Legionnaires' outbreak in the Flint until January when he disclosed the problem publicly. 'I don't recall any mention of that to me,' Snyder said. He added that he does not recall seeing any of the e-mails shared among his senior staff for months or being a part of discussions over a potential link between the deadly outbreak and Flint's switch of its drinking water supply."

... Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The head of the Environmental Protection Agency [Gina McCarthy] conceded Thursday that her agency was too slow to intervene in the Flint, Mich., water-contamination crisis and less forceful than it should have been when federal officials told a recalcitrant state bureaucracy to act.... But ... she refused several times to accept blame for the catastrophe, laying the responsibility on the witness seated next to her, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.... Snyder adopted a more conciliatory tone as several Democrats called on him to quit, admitting culpability and noting that he had dismissed several state officials. But he bluntly suggested that the EPA had failed in its oversight role and its obligation to warn the public. Snyder had little success fending off questions about why his staff knew how dire the situation had become but he did not."

... ** Charles Pierce: "... the howling hypocrisy of conservative Republicans feigning concern about environmental safety, and the howling hypocrisy of conservative Republicans pretending that they expected the EPA to take care of this crisis, was extraordinarily hard to take. Nine days out of ten, they'd be baying at the moon about regulations strangling business and about devolving federal functions to the states, which are run by people like Rick Snyder." Read on.

I do not like the idea of buying into these distributional tables. -- Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, demonstrating anew that he is the wonkiest wonk-wonk of them all, which is important when one is trying to pull the proverbial wool over the sheeples' eyes

'These distributional tables' are the ones that show Republican tax plans giving enormous cuts to the wealthy and nothing much at all to the middle class. Ryan calls them ridiculous because once you account for the economic boom of Republican tax cuts for the rich, everyone is going to be rolling in dough. Bottom line: distributional tables are for losers. -- Kevin Drum, translator

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Air Force has fired one of its most senior generals after an investigation into whether he had an affair with a married female officer found that they had exchanged emails that were 'sexually suggestive.' Lt. Gen. John Hesterman was removed from his position as Air Force assistant vice chief of staff.... Hesterman previously served as the commander of Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT), leading the early days of the U.S. air war against the Islamic State militant group while deployed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar from July 2013 to last June."

Presidential Race

Maggie Haberman & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In unusually candid remarks, President Obama privately told a group of Democratic donors last Friday that Senator Bernie Sanders is nearing the point where his campaign against Hillary Clinton will come to an end, and that the party must soon come together to back her. Mr. Obama acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton is perceived to have weaknesses as a candidate, and that some Democrats did not view her as authentic. Mr. Obama made the remarks after reporters had left a fund-raising event in Austin, Tex., for the Democratic National Committee." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Juliet Eilperin: "As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton begin to tighten their grips on their respective party nominations, President Obama is plunging into the campaign fray, not only to help Democrats retain the White House but in defense of his own legacy in a political climate dominated by Trump.... Obama is poised to be the most active sitting president on the campaign trail in decades."

Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: Hillary Clinton "is doing a terrible job turning out voters, particularly in the states that will matter most in a November matchup against Donald Trump.More people voted for Trump than for Clinton in two states Tuesday night -- Missouri and Ohio. In Florida, Clinton edged Trump by a nose -- less than 2 percent. Clinton had only one other candidate splitting the Democratic vote in a contested election, while Trump was embroiled in a four-way contest that factionalized Republican voters. In Ohio, Trump bested Clinton by about 50,000 votes despite coming in second in the GOP contest to John Kasich, the state's current governor. In Missouri, both Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) bested Clinton's vote total by nearly 20 percent."

Missouri. AP: "Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he will not seek a recount of results in Missouri's Democratic primary, conceding defeat to Hillary Clinton. Sanders says in an interview with The Associated Press that it's unlikely the results will affect the awarding of delegates in the state and he would 'prefer to save the taxpayers of Missouri some money.' Clinton has a narrow lead of 1,531 votes, but under state law Sanders could have sought a recount because the margin was less than one-half of one percent."

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Bernie "Sanders should fare better over the second half of the primary season, after black voters gave Hillary Clinton such a big advantage in the first half. But the path to a majority of delegates is nonetheless a daunting one. He would need to win the remaining delegates by around a 58-42 percent margin after falling behind again in the delegate count Tuesday night." ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders acknowledged Thursday that he has 'a hard fight' ahead to catch Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential race but said he is still angling to win and that it would be 'outrageously undemocratic' not to continue. 'Our progressive agenda has enormous support,' the senator from Vermont said in an interview ahead of a rally planned here. 'For anyone to rule us out is making a mistake.'"

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took on one of Arizona's most contentious political figures at a rally on Thursday, calling Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County a bully and accusing him of 'un-American' behavior. Mr. Sanders, speaking to a crowd of about 2,800 people at Twin Arrows Navajo Casino Resort here, also pledged to devote more federal resources to Native Americans, who he said 'face appalling levels of inequality.' The rally came days after Mr. Sanders's wife, Jane Sanders, had an impromptu discussion with Sheriff Arpaio at his so-called Tent City in Maricopa County, where jail inmates are housed under the hot sun." ...

... For an insider's look at Tent City, read Alexander Reynolds' August 2014 account. It is beyond horrifying.

Like a really long time ago in the good old days in the history of America which was great then or not-so-great, whatever, the smartest guys in the world -- maybe smarter than I am but I don't think so, nah, okay, not smarter than I am -- they didn't go to an Ivy League school, which I did, the best, I have a very good brain -- anyway, they wrote the Declaration of Independence, okay? And they said all men are equal, but not the women and also not Mooslums and Mexicans and the illegals. And also not the thugs and the very bad dudes. Who were slaves, okay? And definitely not women, unless they're a 10. Not the women. The women are not equal. Especially if they're a fat pig. -- Donald J. Drumpf, assistant speechwriter to President Abraham Lincoln, opening graf of a recently-discovered first draft of the Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. -- Final draft, revisions by A. Lincoln

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Republican National Committee communications director Sean Spicer on Thursday suggested someone will win the Republican nomination outright, and should it be Donald Trump, the RNC will support him '100 percent.'" ...

... Shane Goldmacher, et al., of Politico: "A group of conservative leaders and activists, including RedState.com founder Erick Erickson and former George W. Bush adviser Bill Wichterman, called for the formation of a GOP 'unity ticket' on Thursday to stop Donald Trump from becoming the 2016 Republican nominee. Huddled on the second floor of the Army and Navy Club in downtown Washington D.C., the group's agenda on Thursday was twofold: first, trying to block Trump's nomination and second, if that should fail, mounting a third-party bid." ...

... Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of Politico: "House Speaker Paul Ryan met Thursday night at a pricey French restaurant [in Palm Beach, Fla.,] with some of the party's biggest donors to assess a political landscape dominated by one vexing question: what to do about Donald Trump. The dinner was a highlight of a secretive two-day conclave, convened under heavy security by a donor group headed by New York hedge-fund manager Paul Singer, that is being viewed as a pivotal moment for the big-money effort to block Trump from the Republican presidential nomination." ...

... Ari Melber of NBC News: "While politicos have speculated about a new candidate swooping in to win a contested convention, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, insiders on the RNC Rules Committee say that idea would be dead on arrival in Cleveland this July."

Tim Egan on the party of Trump: "Remember that Republican autopsy after Barack Obama swept to a second term with five million more votes than Mitt Romney? They called for an inclusive party, open to minorities, the young, with an optimistic vision of the country. What they've got now is a dour, vengeful grievance party, epitomized by Trump's two biggest endorsers -- Sarah Palin and Chris Christie."

Gov. Chrisco's Bridge to Nowhere. Kate Zernicke of the New York Times: "One obvious theory behind Gov. Chris Christie's surprise endorsement of Donald J. Trump in the Republican presidential race is that he wants to be Mr. Trump's pick for vice president.... But whatever his wishes or their discussions, there is a complicating and possibly prohibitive factor: the trial in the closing of George Washington Bridge access lanes, the scandal that hobbled Mr. Christie's own presidential hopes. Already postponed twice, the trial has now been pushed to September, putting it in prime time during the final months of the presidential campaign."

"Name Your Poison." -- "Okay, 'Ted.'" Matt Flegenheimer & Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "Less than two months ago, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that deciding between Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas amounted to selecting whether to be 'shot or poisoned.' He has made his choice. Mr. Graham, who recently joked about murdering Mr. Cruz on the Senate floor, plans to attend a fund-raiser on Monday in Washington as a special guest of the Cruz campaign.... In a statement, Mr. Graham called his colleague 'the best alternative to Donald Trump.'"

Steven Shepard of Politico: "In the event of a contested Republican convention this summer, John Kasich is the candidate most acceptable to GOP delegates. That's according to members of The Politico Caucus -- a panel of political insiders in seven battleground states -- who said Kasich would be the most palatable of the three remaining Republican presidential candidates in a contested convention, despite the fact the Ohio governor is last in delegates and the only one mathematically eliminated from clinching a majority before the July convention." ...

... Steve M.: "... I understand the disgust of people who've been duped all these years into believing that there's something pure and noble and idealistic about voting GOP, or at least about voting 'Tea Party' GOP or 'constitutional conservative' GOP or whatever the hell they're calling it this week. They were told there'd be no defeat and no compromise. Naturally, that's what they still want. If Trump somehow wins the presidency and doesn't rule the way he campaigned, I don't know what we'll get from his voters. Revolution? Random shootings? Hard to tell, but it won't be pleasant."

Beyond the Beltway

Allegra Kirkland of TPM: "Cell phone footage taken from the backseat of Oregon standoff leader LaVoy Finicum's truck shows the final moments before he was fatally shot by state police and the immediate aftermath of the confrontation. The video, shot by fellow wildlife refuge occupier Shawna Cox and published online by the Oregonian earlier this week, was instrumental to local authorities' investigation.... Finicum can be heard yelling at the officers from his car window, telling them, 'Go ahead, put your bullet through me.' As sirens flash through the back window, Finicum repeatedly tells officers he plans to continue on to John Day." Includes video.

Way Beyond

Samuel Lieberman of New York: "Mohamad Jamal Khweis -- the 26-year-old American who had been serving with ISIS until earlier this week, when he was detained while trying to quit -- explained on Kurdish TV today that living with the architects of the caliphate was no fun at all. 'Our daily life was prayer, eating, and learning about the religion for eight hours,' he said. 'It was pretty hard to live in Mosul. It's not like the Western countries ... There's no smoking.' Khweis said that he didn't take to his sharia studies, didn't like his imam, and eventually came to the same conclusion that most of the planet figured out a long time ago: ISIS does not represent Islam."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "... according to one French lawmaker, the violence being committed by the Islamic State against women is so systematic and so ferocious that it needs a new term in international law to define it: femicide. Speaking Wednesday at the 60th annual Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York, Laurence Rossignol, France's minister for family, children and women's rights, pointed to the harsh conditions for Yazidi women in Islamic State-held territory. 'It is because they are women and they are Yazidis that they are sold and murdered,' Rossignol said.... "What they are experiencing is femicide."

The Commentariat -- March 17, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Maggie Haberman & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "In unusually candid remarks, President Obama privately told a group of Democratic donors last Friday that Senator Bernie Sanders is nearing the point where his campaign against Hillary Clinton will come to an end, and that the party must soon come together to back her. Mr. Obama acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton is perceived to have weaknesses as a candidate, and that some Democrats did not view her as authentic. Mr. Obama made the remarks after reporters had left a fund-raising event in Austin, Tex., for the Democratic National Committee." ...

... Zach Carter of the Huffington Post: Hillary Clinton "is doing a terrible job turning out voters, particularly in the states that will matter most in a November matchup against Donald Trump.More  people voted for Trump than for Clinton in two states Tuesday night — Missouri and Ohio. In Florida, Clinton edged Trump by a nose — less than 2 percent. Clinton had only one other candidate splitting the Democratic vote in a contested election, while Trump was embroiled in a four-way contest that factionalized Republican voters. In Ohio, Trump bested Clinton by about 50,000 votes despite coming in second in the GOP contest to John Kasich, the state’s current governor. In Missouri, both Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) bested Clinton’s vote total by nearly 20 percent."

... Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton begin to tighten their grips on their respective party nominations, President Obama is plunging into the campaign fray, not only to help Democrats retain the White House but in defense of his own legacy in a political climate dominated by Trump.... Obama is poised to be the most active sitting president on the campaign trail in decades."

The Gang's All Back -- Mostly. Michael Shear: "President Obama has said for years that he has finished his last campaign. But you would not know it by looking at the team he has assembled to push for his Supreme Court nominee. The Constitutional Responsibility Project, which was formed to lead the fight to get the nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland, confirmed, is a virtual who’s who of Mr. Obama’s two presidential campaigns.... Founded within the last several weeks as a nonprofit organization, the project will accept donations, develop advertising, coordinate messaging, help manage operatives in the field, respond to attacks on Judge Garland and collect opposition research on Republican opponents."m

"Name Your Poison." -- "Okay, 'Ted.'" Matt Flegenheimer & Emmarie Huetteman of the New York Times: "Less than two months ago, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that deciding between Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas amounted to selecting whether to be 'shot or poisoned.' He has made his choice. Mr. Graham, who recently joked about murdering Mr. Cruz on the Senate floor, plans to attend a fund-raiser on Monday in Washington as a special guest of the Cruz campaign.... In a statement, Mr. Graham called his colleague 'the best alternative to Donald Trump.'”

*****

CW Note: I plan to reopen the Comments section as soon as I can stand to do so. I acknowledge that I am responsible for allowing commentary to go off the deep end. My hesitancy to shut it down earlier was a mistake with consequences. I have been priviledged to provide a platform for contributors' insights about our treacherous political landscape, & I look forward to doing so again.

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Wednesday nominated Merrick Garland to serve on the Supreme Court, setting up a protracted political fight with Republicans who have vowed to block any candidate picked by Obama in his final year in office." ...

... Here's the transcript of remarks by President Obama & Merrick Garland made yesterday when the President anounced Judge Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court. See yesterday's Commentariat for video. ...

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "A small group of Senate Republicans is breaking with its party's Supreme Court strategy, with lawmakers saying they're willing to meet with President Obama's pick to succeed Justice Antonin Scalia. Seven Republicans so far have said they are open to considering or meeting with Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia who was nominated for the Supreme Court earlier Wednesday by Obama." They are Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Az.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Roy Blunt (Mo.) & Jim Inhofe (Okla.) & Thad Cochran (Miss.) CW: Yeah, I know that eight, but some, like Ayotte, said they'd just meet Garland to tell him why he hasn't got a prayer. ...

... CW: In fact, what most of these senators said is not so different from what top obstructionists Mitch McConnell & Chuck Grassley said: the same ole implicit "Barack Obama is not the President of us." ...

... Karoud Demirjian of the Washington Post: "President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee will make his first official visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with top Senate Democrats. But Republican leaders plan to make him wait for an audience, if they grant him one at all.... They have refused to schedule any confirmation hearings, and many Republicans — including McConnell — are also rejecting face-to-face meetings." ...

... Of course, they have no objection to Judge Garland, per se, as some of their past remarks indicate. No point in shouting "Hypocrite!" The problem isn't with Garland, it's that "Barack Obama is not the President of us" so he has no right to appoint justices. ...

... Russell Berman of the Atlantic has more on Senate Republicans' machinations. They are horrible human beings. ...

... AND Nina Totenberg of NPR reports Senate Republicans “sent some sort of a back channel message to the White House” that they would confirm Garland “in the lame duck session” if A Democrat wins the presidency in November. CW: Yeah, thanks Republicans! ...

... BUT Greg Sargent points out that President Obama might not play into the GOP's game plan. ...

** ... Linda Greenhouse disproves Republicans' (and confederate "journalists"') claims that they're treating Merrick Garland's nomination just as Democrats treated Judge Robert Bork's: "The president might even say: Remember Robert Bork? Treat my nominee in the same way. Have a conversation and let the public in on it. Of course the president and his allies know that’s exactly the public conversation that the Republicans fear, because it was clear from the first moment that any Obama nominee would inhabit the constitutional mainstream much more securely than either Judge Bork or Justice Scalia — whose 'originalist' philosophy never gained more than a toehold at the court — ever did. Now with the nomination of Merrick Garland, there is not the shadow of a doubt."

... Bloomberg Editors: "There are at least two criteria on which to judge President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court. First are his qualifications. Second is the ideological space that he would occupy on a polarized court in a polarized political environment. Garland is a superb choice on both counts.... The Senate voted 76 to 23 to confirm him 19 years ago, and his reputation has only grown since; just last week, Senator Orrin Hatch [R-Utah] called Garland a 'fine man' but doubted Obama would ever nominate him. Hatch was taken by surprise. Now it's time for Senate Republicans to give Merrick Garland the serious consideration he deserves." ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "The Garland nomination ... appears to be an attempt to box in Senate Republicans who've refused to confirm anyone Obama nominates. There are strong reasons to doubt whether this strategy will work, however." ...

... Paul Waldman: "I’ll bet that a big part of his selection was that Garland was willing to go through the process knowing he probably won’t get to actually serve on the court, while a younger judge who could have another chance later might not want to." ...

... Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: "Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, has already drawn a line in the sand against the Garland nomination, tweeting moments after the nomination that the president is trying 'to politicize it for the purposes of the election.' The reality, however, is that this is perhaps the least political nomination Barack Obama could have made. In a sane world, that would make Garland’s confirmation more likely. In the world we live in, it probably makes it less likely. That’s because Garland brings nothing novel to the demographic table." ...

... Steve M.: "I'm sensing disappointment with President Obama's Supreme Court pick -- Merrick Garland, who's white, male, moderate, and too old at age 63 to be on the Court for forty years. But the president didn't choose someone to put on the Court. He chose someone to be blockaded. I think it was a canny choice.... So [Republicans are] going to block someone who's been acceptable to them for years." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "It just ain't happening, folks. Now there is a convoluted scenario whereby Garland might be confirmed in a post-election lame-duck session if Hillary Clinton has won the presidential election and Democrats have retaken control of the Senate.... [BUT] Precisely because he's a white-bread 60-something jurist who already has a lifetime appointment to the best non-SCOTUS judicial gig in the land, nobody's going to get that upset if she turns elsewhere. He's the perfect sacrificial nominee." ...

... CW: Here's the way Repubicans do it. They find some obscure ruling(s) by Garland that they can twist into a subject of outrage, & they all go into high dudgeon over this horrible ruling or rulings (which must have something to do with social issues like marriage or abortion). To confirm Garland would be a travesty that would end American freedom as we know it. They'll provide little buzz-phrases for the angry peoples to paint on their signs: "Baby Kiler" or "Jesus Yes! Garlin No!" or whatever. Merrick Garland seems like a nice man. It's a shame on our nation that Republicans will put him through this. But I suppose they will. ...

... Oh, It's Already Started. Mark Stern of Slate writes that, based on "no evidence whatsoever..., conservatives are trying to paint [Garland] as a warrior against the Second Amendment."

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve has again pared its plans for raising interest rates, citing the weakness of the global economy as a reason for greater caution about the prospects for domestic growth. The Fed’s policy-making committee voted not to raise its benchmark rate at a meeting that ended Wednesday, though an increase this month was widely expected at the beginning of the year. And it pulled back sharply from a December prediction that the rate would rise by one percentage point this year. Fed officials now expect to raise rates by just half a percentage point this year."

Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Denmark has reclaimed its place as the world’s happiest country, while Burundi ranks as the least happy nation, according to the fourth World Happiness Report, released on Wednesday. The report found that inequality was strongly associated with unhappiness — a stark finding for rich countries like the United States, where rising disparities in income, wealth, health and well-being have fueled political discontent.... Of the world’s most populous nations, China came in at No. 83, India at No. 118, the United States at No. 13, Indonesia at No. 79, Brazil at No. 17, Pakistan at No. 92, Nigeria at No. 103, Bangladesh at No. 110, Russia at No. 56, Japan at No. 53 and Mexico at No. 21. The United States rose two spots, from No. 15 in 2015."

Joe Stiglitz: "Something interesting has emerged in voting patterns on both sides of the Atlantic: Young people are voting in ways that are markedly different from their elders. A great divide appears to have opened up, based not so much on income, education, or gender as on the voters’ generation." Read the whole essay. Thanks to carlyle for the link.

Presidential Race

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "With more than half the states having now held their nominating contests, Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz are quietly directing their attention to a second, shadow election campaign.... This parallel campaign is to select the individual delegates who will go to Cleveland in July for what could be the first contested convention in American politics in more than 60 years. Chosen through a byzantine process in each state, most of the delegates will become free agents if no one wins a majority on the first ballot." ...

... Curly Says Republican Primary Voters Don't Matter. Matthew Belvedere of CNBC: "Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories. 'The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That's the conflict here,' Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota, told CNBC's 'Squawk Box' on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held." CW: Time for Larry & Moe to weigh in.

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Advisers to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz say there's no way they'll allow John Kasich to even compete at a contested national convention — let alone prevail. Trump and Cruz are betting that their dual dominance in the delegate hunt will permanently box out the Ohio governor, who has no mathematical path to the nomination and is openly pursuing a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. And their aides say Kasich won't even make it to the floor." ...

     ... Just to highlight how bad GOP politics have become, here's Charles Pierce: "I would remind them that John Kasich is the governor of Ohio and, as such, he's the commander-in-chief of the Ohio National Guard of long historical memory. If he wants to get to the floor, he'll get to the floor." CW: Pierce is writing tongue-in-cheek, at least to some extent, but when you reasonably can invoke the Kent State massacre as a potential campaign tactic, you have to worry that w're on a path that could lead to that. ...

I think you’d have riots. -- Donald Trump, Wednesday, if Republicans don't nominate him even though he has the most elected delegates ...

... Threats of Violence as Political Strategy. Greg Sargent: "It’s hard to say whether this is intended as a threat or a prediction.... There is no particular reason to rule out the former — that it was indeed intended as a tacit threat, as least of a certain kind. Trump has been playing a clever little game where he hints at the possibility of violence while stopping short of explicitly threatening it — yet he also doesn’t denounce such an outcome as unacceptable, so his hints effectively function as a threat. And as Philip Klein detailed the other day, this could well emerge as an aspect of his convention strategy." ...

... Adele Stan of the American Prospect: "In a nation conceived in a violent revolution, and whose popular culture revels in entertainment violence, it should perhaps come as no surprise that the presidential frontrunner of one of our two major political parties is carving a path to victory fueled in part by aggression.... With the Trump candidacy, violence is not merely the outcome of a toxic campaign; it’s the show, it’s the game. A feature, not a bug. And a savvy, cynical calculation of the kind of show that turns America on."

I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things. -- Donald Trump, Quote of the Day

Daniel Lippman of Politico: The Economist Intelligence unit, a "well-respected global economic and geopolitical analysis firm put a possible Trump presidency in its top 10 global risks this month, released Wednesday. Other risks include a sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy, a fracture of the Eurozone, and Britain's possible departure from the European Union.... Electing Trump could also start a trade war, hurt trade with Mexico and be a godsend to terrorist recruiters in the Middle East, according to the latest EIU forecasts.... Until Trump, the firm had never rated a pending election of a candidate to be a geopolitical risk to the U.S. and the world."

Neil Irwin of the New York Times on what Donald Trump gets right & wrong about U.S.-China trade relations: "To people who spend time studying the United States’ economic relationship with China, Mr. Trump’s accounting of its dysfunctions contains both legitimate, accurate complaints and elements that completely misstate how things work between the world’s largest and second-largest economies."

Dylan Byers & David Goldman of CNN: "Fox News has canceled its March 21 Republican presidential debate following Donald Trump's decision not to attend.... The cancellation comes after Trump said on Fox News a few hours earlier that he would not attend the debate, leading John Kasich to pull out as well. Ted Cruz said he was willing to debate either Trump or Kasich, or both." ...

... OR, as Paul Waldman writes, "Let there be no doubt that Reince Priebus is firmly in control of the Republican party nominating process."

Hadas Gold of Politico: "Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger was denied entry to Donald Trump's press conference on Tuesday night, despite having previously been granted credentials by the campaign. The move followed a threat last week from Trump officials to exclude Politico reporters from campaign events. On Tuesday morning, Schreckinger, who has covered the campaign regularly for more than six months, received an email granting him credentials for Trump's speech and press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that evening. But less than 10 minutes later, another email arrived saying those same credentials were denied. Upon arriving at Trump's private club, he was denied entry and escorted off of the property. Schreckinger, whose latest story on Trump's campaign was a report on concerns about campaign manager Corey Lewandowski's temperament and behavior, never received an explanation as to why his credentials have been denied." ...

... Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed: "Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, denied on Wednesday that the Trump campaign blacklists reporters who write critical stories about the candidate.... 'I’m not trying to limit anyone’s access to anything, that’s not what we do,' [Lewandowski said]. The Trump campaign has at times, as noted by Mother Jones, denied press credentials to National Review, the Des Moines Register, Univision, BuzzFeed News, The Daily Beast, Fusion, Huffington Post, and Mother Jones, usually following critical stories." ...

... Read Patrick Caldwell's full piece in Mother Jones. The list of horribles is impressive. Stuff like this: "Earlier this month, Trump's campaign credentialed the Political Cesspool, a radio show that labels itself 'pro-white.' Meanwhile, for the same event, the Trump campaign didn't respond to a request from the New Tri-State Defender, an African American newspaper in Memphis.... In January, Trip Gabriel of the New York Times was 'ejected' from a campaign stop in Iowa, just a few days after Gabriel wrote an unflattering piece on Trump's campaign in the state."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Family that Hates Together Stays Together. Jordan Sargent of Gawker: A heartwarming PBS News Hour story about a North Carolina family that has been inspired by Donald Trump's candidacy to get into politics for the first time fails to mention that the sweet 33-year-old daughter in the story -- who is pictured in the piece phone-banking for Drumpf -- has large, heartwearming white-power symbols tattooed on each of her hands. ...

     ... CW: Thanks, Judy Woodruff, et al., for mainstreaming white supremacy. I'm sending in my tax-deducitble donation right away. Send one of those PBS mugs with a white-power symbol on it, please. And to think Republicans want to defund PBS because you're an arm of the liberal media. Thank you for proving, once again, that the liberal-bias charge is totally unfair.

A Skin Head in Search of a Rug. Eliza Collins & Nick Gass of Politico: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott is calling on the Republican Party to come together and support Donald Trump. Scott — in a Facebook post the day after his home state voted and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out — said that Trump’s victories Tuesday show it is time to rally around the businessman." ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Wednesday said she hoped Ted Cruz would pull through with the Republican nomination. The statement comes a day after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the candidate she had previously supported, suspended his campaign." CW: As for the veep slot, "Pick me! Pick me!"

David Wasserman of 538: "If Donald Trump somehow falls three delegates short of reaching the magic 1,237 delegates needed for the Republican nomination, he may be haunted by an obscure outcome from the primary voting in Illinois on Tuesday. There’s clear evidence that Trump supporters in Illinois gave fewer votes to Trump-pledged delegate candidates who have minority or foreign-sounding names like 'Sadiq,' 'Fakroddin' and 'Uribe,' potentially costing him three of the state’s 69 delegates.... Of the seven Trump delegate candidates with minority or foreign-sounding names, all seven were among the dozen worst-trailing Trump candidates in the state: Sadiq, Fakroddin, Tolbert, Alonso, Uribe, Sandra Yeh and Rolando Arellano." ...

... Ben Mathis-Lilley of Slate: "Wasserman notes that a Trump delegate named Jim Uribe got 2,500 fewer votes than one named Rich Nordstrom, which is, technically speaking, the whitest name in history. Rich Nordstrom!"

Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Five sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina have been disciplined for failure to act after a black protester was punched by a white supporter of Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday. Three of the deputies have been demoted and will be suspended without pay for five days for 'unsatisfactory performance and failing to discharge the duties and policies of the office of sheriff,' according to a statement released by Sheriff Earl Butler of Cumberland County on his Facebook page. The other two deputies were suspended for three days without pay. All five were to be placed on probation for the next year, Sheriff Butler said."

Ben Carson is okay with Donald Trump's comparing him to a child molester, but when he said Trump had offered him a job in the Trump White House, implicity in exchange for his endorsement of the Drumpf, he was only kidding. Probably that's because someone pointed out that such quid pro quos are illegal: Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Federal law expressly prohibits candidates from directly or indirectly promising 'the appointment of any person to any public or private position or employment, for the purpose of procuring support in his candidacy.' The penalty for violations could include fines or a year in jail -- two years if the violation was willful."

Matt Flegenheimer & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: Ted Cruz & John Kasich "had scarcely said a cross word about each other before Tuesday night’s contests.... Now, it seems, Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich will get to know each other a bit better. And their opening gambits were to argue that the other has no chance of becoming president.... 'There are only two people who actually have a viable path to the nomination,' Jason Johnson, Mr. Cruz’s chief strategist, told reporters. 'There’s one spoiler in the race: John Kasich.'... Mr. Kasich countered on Wednesday by suggesting that Mr. Cruz, along with Mr. Trump, was too extreme to attract wide support in the fall."

“There are only two people who actually have a viable path to the nomination,” Jason Johnson, Mr. Cruz’s chief strategist, told reporters. “There’s one spoiler in the race: John Kasich.”

Other Elections

Carimah Townes of Think Progress: "The prosecutor who stalled the investigation of Tamir Rice’s shooting, fought against charging Rice’s killer, and launched a smear campaign against Rice’s mother was just ousted. Following years of controversy and calls for his resignation, Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty lost to challenger Mike O’Malley on Tuesday night...."

Beyond the Beltway

Charles Pierce: "I know you'll be shocked to learn that, yes, voter-suppression laws actually, you know, suppress votes. Especially in the newly insane state of North Carolina.... It's a good thing that John Roberts declared the Day of Jubilee because, otherwise, people might wildly speculate that there are certain kinds of people who other people would rather not have voting in their elections."

News Lede

CBS.AP: "Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father's legendary life, died Wednesday. He was 72."

The Commentariat -- March 16, 2016

Afternoon Update:

A Skin Head in Search of a Rug. Eliza Collins & Nick Gass of Politico: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott is calling on the Republican Party to come together and support Donald Trump. Scott -- in a Facebook post the day after his home state voted and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio dropped out -- said that Trump's victories Tuesday show it is time to rally around the businessman."

Charles Pierce: "I know you'll be shocked to learn that, yes, voter-suppression laws actually, you know, suppress votes. Especially in the newly insane state of North Carolina.... It's a good thing that John Roberts declared the Day of Jubilee because, otherwise, people might wildly speculate that there are certain kinds of people who other people would rather not have voting in their elections."

*****

Supreme Court

Michael Shear & Gardiner Harris of the New York Times: "President Obama on Wednesday will nominate Merrick B. Garland as the nation's 113th justice, according to White House officials, choosing a centrist appeals court judge widely respected even by Republicans in hopes his choice will be considered by the Senate." CW: Guess Obama wasn't listening when I begged him not to nominate the old white guy.'

Sarah Almukhtar of the New York Times on President Obama's considerations in nominating Merrick Garland.

Lincoln Caplan of the New Yorker: "Garland has been a judge for almost nineteen years and a chief judge for three. He has developed an indisputably illustrious record; he has proved himself to be the moderate, first-rate judge whom, in the mid-nineties, Republicans as well as Democrats one-upped each other in predicting he would become."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama will announce his nominee to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the White House Rose Garden at 11 a.m., he said in an email to supporters Wednesday." Here's the full text of the e-mail.

Michael Shear: "The White House has created a new Twitter handle, he said -- @SCOTUSnom -- and he urged people to follow it for 'all the facts and up-to-date information.'... .... At a news conference on Thursday, Mr. Obama said that Republicans must 'decide whether they want to follow the Constitution and abide by the rules of fair play that ultimately undergird our democracy and that ensure that the Supreme Court does not just become one more extension of our polarized politics.'"

The New York Times is liveblogging developments, which so far run to speculation & a lament the trains aren't running.

Bill Chappell of NPR: "Obama added that he had consulted with legal experts across the political spectrum before making his decision. And he listed three qualities he sought in a potential Supreme Court justice:

• An 'independent mind, unimpeachable credentials, and an unquestionable mastery of law.'
• A recognition of 'the limits of the judiciary's role.'
• Awareness 'that justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook.'

     "... Obama said he wanted a candidate who had experienced life outside academic or justice settings, so they would understand the way the law 'affects the daily reality of people's lives in a big, complicated democracy, and in rapidly-changing times.'"

Reuters: "President Barack Obama is likely to announce either Judge Sri Srinivasan or Judge Merrick Garland as his pick for U.S. Supreme Court nominee and the announcement could come as early as Wednesday, a source familiar with the selection process said."

Paul Waldman: "A group of lawyers from the Supreme Court Bar, who argue in front of the Court, pen a letter to Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid arguing that the Court needs a full complement of justices in order to function properly, so the Senate should get its act together and confirm a nominee." The letter is here. The lawyers write, "We have different ideologies and no doubt would have many different views on any given case. But we are united in the belief that a fully functioning Supreme Court is of vital importance to the country."

Presidential Race

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Missouri Secretary of State's office, which oversees elections in the state, is reporting that all votes are in and counted. Results are that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have won the state. Races on both sides are so close that recounts are likely because the law requires a recount if the loser requests it. That margin is 0.5 percent."

John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "At about eight-thirty last night, after the news came in that Donald Trump had trounced Marco Rubio in Florida, and that Hillary Clinton had won big victories over Bernie Sanders in Florida and North Carolina, Tony Fratto, who was a White House spokesman for George W. Bush's Administration, tweeted, 'What essentially happened today is @HillaryClinton was elected president. We have 8 months of hyperventilating before its official.'" ...

... Ezra Klein: "... the Clinton campaign couldn't ask for weaker opponents than Trump or Cruz."

Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hillary Clinton won big victories Tuesday in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio, pushing her closer to the Democratic presidential nomination even as rival Bernie Sanders pressed on with his insurgent campaign.... Sanders ended the day further behind in the delegate count -- and needing to win a slew of upcoming states by improbably large margins." ...

... Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "Hillary Clinton gave every indication that she is going to start to pivot to a general election message against Republican front-runner Donald Trump in her victory speech on Tuesday, as wins for the former Secretary of State in Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina clarified the Democratic primary contest further. Here's Clinton's full speech:

... Josh Voorhees of Slate: "Hillary came into the night as the dinged-up cautious favorite; she'll leave it as the presumptive nominee." ...

... Tim Egan, who has mocked & dismissed Bernie Sanders in previous columns: "But that doesn't mean the 74-year-old socialist-lite should get out. He's done a real service, for the party he only recently joined, and for the country. Clinton is a far better candidate because of him. More than that, the Democratic Party is paying attention to the angry millions in the margins, those who may be tempted by the demagogue who wants to make America white again. Thank Sanders for that."

He probably wouldn't [accept the presidential nomination] but everyone thinks he's Republican Jesus. -- GOP Senate staffer, on Paul Ryan ...

... Patrick Temple-West & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Former Speaker John Boehner said Paul Ryan should be the Republican nominee for president if the party fails to choose a candidate on the first ballot. 'If we don't have a nominee who can win on the first ballot, I'm for none of the above,' Boehner said at the Futures Industry Association conference [in Boca Raton, Florida]. 'They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I'm for none of the above. I'm for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.'... In the same question-and-answer session here, Boehner referred to Ted Cruz as 'lucifer.' He previously called the Texas senator ... a 'jackass.'... Boehner ... said he voted for his governor, John Kasich." ...

     ... CW: Last week, the New York Times reported that Boehner had endorsed Kasich, but in fact he said -- as the Times reported -- only that he had voted (early) for Kasich in the Ohio primary.

Nick Gass & Eliza Collins: "Donald Trump on Wednesday sounded like a man ready to take the stage as the Republican Party's nominee by acclamation.... Denying him the GOP nomination as part of a contested convention, he declared, would 'disenfranchise' the millions of people he is bringing into the party and could spark riots. The only problem: Delegate math. Trump, who flooded the morning television shows with a deluge of off-camera telephone calls..., said that even if he doesn't amass a majority of delegates by July, the party should unite behind him anyway. But Trump has a ways to go when it comes to getting to the magic number of 1,237.... [Trump] also declared that he would not participate in Monday's Fox News debate in Salt Lake City, telling the network's morning show that he would instead speak at the convention for pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, in Washington. 'I think it's enough,' Trump said of the 12 GOP debates to date."

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump rolled to victory in the Republican presidential primaries in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina on Tuesday, driving Senator Marco Rubio from the race and amassing a formidable delegate advantage that will be exceedingly difficult for any rival to overcome. But with a victory in Ohio, his home state, Gov. John Kasich denied Mr. Trump one of the night’s biggest prizes and made it considerably harder for him to clinch the nomination outright before primary voting ends in June."

Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Years of carefully laid plans to repackage the Republican Party's traditional ideas for a fast-changing country came crashing down [in Florida] on Tuesday when Sen. Marco Rubio suspended his campaign for the presidency after a crippling defeat in his home-state primary."

Margaret Hartmann: "Donald Trump ... used his victory speech to underscore his disdain for the press, and his lack of concern about allegations of sexism. Compared to other Trump speeches, the front-runner's remarks at Mar-a-Lago were repetitive and disappointingly meat-free, but the real action was taking place just off his right shoulder. Rather than showcasing Chris Christie's look of horror, Trump signaled his support for campaign manager Corey Lewandowski by having him stand by his side."

Jelani Cobb of the New Yorker: "... in America, populism is driven not solely by distress at economic malaise but also by fears inspired by racial progress -- and the belief that these two things are synonymous. This is the reason the Tea Party took hold not amid the economic collapse that occurred during George W. Bush's tenure but in the midst of Barack Obama's Presidency, its anger siphoned into conspiracy theories about the President's Kenyan origins rather than Wall Street cronyism.... Trump's brand of populism is cemented in the ideal that he will not be out-Muslimed, out-Latinoed, or out-baited regarding any other signpost of American change. And it's selling. They are all Dixiecrats now."

Marco Rubio announced his withdrawal from the presidential race, which, apparently was for once God's fault instead of Obama's. "'It is not God's plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever,' and thus, 'today my campaign is suspended.'" On to Fox "News"! Oh, wait, as even probably forgot, he still has a job. ...

... Here's Marco's full speech announcing the suspension of his campaign:

... Jonathan Chait: "Rubio declared that he had decided not to take Trump's easy path for moral reasons. 'I chose a different route and I'm proud of that...' he said. 'That would have been the easiest way to win.' This is all revisionist nonsense. Until the very end, Rubio's response to the rise of Donald Trump was to co-opt him, not to confront him.... Rubio ran a different strategy not for moral reasons but because he thought it would work. His plan was to fashion himself as the front man for the Republican donor class.... He attached himself to wealthy patrons, and moved between politics and lobbying throughout his career, seamlessly blending public service with moneymaking.... It was entirely plausible to believe that Rubio could have smuggled his right-wing policies past the electorate by running on cheerful slogans and a winning smile.... His failure is a bullet dodged."

... Requiem for a Lightweight. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Rubio "claimed to be the only candidate who could unite the Republican Party, but he could never unite enough voters behind him to persuasively make that case. And one crucial shortcoming was out of his control: his youth. Many Republicans were simply unwilling to entrust the presidency to a young first-term senator." ...

... Russell Berman of the Atlantic recalls the ups and downs and downs of the Rubio campaign. ...

... Eli Stokols & Shane Goldmacher of Politico Magazine: "Rubio's strategy was always an inside straight -- overly reliant on a candidate's ability to dominate free national media in order to outperform, outwit and eventually outlast a wide field of rivals. It was sketched out by an inner circle of advisers who believed they could eschew the very fundamentals of presidential campaigning because they had a candidate who transcended. That's exactly what happened in 2016; it just turned out Rubio wasn't the one transcending."

"Plan C." Ed Kilgore: "So as the pollsters predicted, Marco Rubio joined fellow Floridian Jeb! Bush on the scrapheap of the 2016 Republican presidential nominating field, going from everybody's smart-money candidate with the golden favorability ratings to toast in his home state with amazing speed. For the Trump-fearing, Cruz-hating Republican Establishment, the only survivor is John Kasich of Ohio, either as a potential nominee or as a stalking horse for some player-to-be-named-later, presumably at a 'contested convention.'" ...

... Gail Collins: "There was a time, people, when you would really not have been throwing confetti in the air just because a Republican governor ... won the presidential primary in his own state. But we are where we are.... Right now he certainly seems like the only non-appalling option the Republicans have, even though there are a lot of people in Ohio right now who are shaking their heads in stupefaction at the sight of their governor as the nation's poster boy for moderation. He's signed an absolute mountain of anti-abortion bills -- nearly half of the clinics in the state have shut down during his tenure. His enthusiasm for giving public funding to private, for-profit schools has been scandalous. And on the economic front he has the usual conservative contempt for taxing residents according to their ability to pay." ...

... Wait, Wait. Here's Plan D. John Harwood of CNBC: "House Speaker Paul Ryan decided not to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but he declined to rule out accepting it if a deadlocked party convention turns to him this summer."

Primary Results

Democrats

Florida. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Clinton. The AP has called the race for Clinton. With 98 percent counted, Clinton received 65 percent; Sanders 33 percent. The Florida Democratic party awards delegates proportionally.

Illinois. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning Clinton. With 48 percent counted, Clinton is leading Sanders 52-47, a percentage lead that has held pretty steady so far. With 94 percent of the vote counted, the AP has called Illinois for Clinton. With 97 percent counted, the current tally is Clinton 50, Sanders 49.

Missouri. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Clinton. With 28 percent counted, Missouri is leaning Sanders. With 98 percent counted, the tally is Sanders 50, Clinton 49. Too close to call. Whoops. With 100 percent of the vote counted, the tables have turned & Clinton leads 50-49 percent. Actual vote totals are about 1,500 apart. As CNN notes, Sanders has a right to contest the count. However, as the vote stands today, each candidate receives 34 delegates.

North Carolina. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Clinton. The AP has called the state for Clinton. With 99 percent counted, Clinton had 55 percent, Sanders 41.

Ohio. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Clinton. The AP has called the race for Clinton. With 85 percent counted, Clinton leads Sanders 58-43. The Ohio Democratic party awards delegates proportionally.

Republicans

Florida. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Trump. The AP has called the race for Trump. With 98 percent counted, Trump received 46 percent, Rubio 27, Cruz 17 & Kasich 7. Florida is a winner-take-all state for Republicans.

Illinois. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Trump. the AP has called the race for Trump. With 46 percent counted, Trump has 40 percent of the vote, Cruz 28 & Kasich 20.

Missouri. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Trump. With 28 percent counted, Trump has 43 percent & Cruz 41. With 62 percent counted, Trump & Cruz are tied at 42 percent. With 100 percent counted, Trump & Cruz are still tied, at 41 percent. Vote totals between Trump has about a 1,600-vote lead over Cruz. The AP has not called the race.

North Carolina. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning wa-a-ay Trump. The AP has called the race for Trump. With 99 percent of the vote counted, Trump has 40 percent, followed by Cruz with 37 percent, Kasich with 13 & Rubio with 8.

Ohio. With less than one percent of the vote counted, the state is leaning Trump. A few more precincts counted, & it's leaning Kasich. The AP has called the race for Kasich. Ohio is a winner-take-all state for Republican candidates.

The New York Times' primary results are here.

The New York Times reports first poll closing times for today's primaries.

Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks have a conversation about the state of the race.

Eliza Collins of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Monday defended the intervention in Libya that she championed as secretary of state, telling MSNBC's Chris Matthews that the United States 'didn't lose a single person.'... [Now I'll write something stupid:] Clinton may have been referring strictly to the U.S.-backed overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, which indeed saw no loss of American lives and cost just around $1 billion. But her comments ignore the 2012 attacks at the U.S. mission and CIA outpost in Benghazi, which killed four people including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens."

Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Three influential leaders in the conservative movement have summoned other top conservatives for a closed-door meeting this Thursday in Washington D.C. to talk about how to stop Donald Trump and, should he become the Republican nominee, how to run a third-party 'true conservative' challenger in the fall. The organizers of the meeting include Bill Wichterman, who was President George W. Bush's liaison to the conservative movement, Bob Fischer, a South Dakota businessman and longtime conservative convener, and Erick Erickson, the outspoken Trump opponent and conservative activist who founded RedState.com." CW: So, adult men acting silly. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump has exploited the wedge between the party's voters and the ideologists of its master class, placing the latter in an awkward spot.... The ... National Review's Kevin Williamson['s' ... antipathy for Trump has expanded to include Trump's white working-class supporters.... To the libertarian true believer, capitalism is a value system.... Capitalism means economic freedom. People are entitled to their economic rights (meaning their market income) in exactly the same way as they are entitled to their political rights.... The marketplace hasn't failed the white working class; the white working class has failed capitalism[, according to Williamson & his ilk]. Measured in political terms, this is a suicidal mentality for the Republican Party. But who says ideas must be measured in political terms?" ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "One of the great conceits of conservative punditry over the past 15 years has been the notion that American politics is dominated by affluent liberal snobs who disdain white working-class America and its communities. Typically, arguments in this vein -- like recent pieces from Charles Murray and Clive Crook -- do not adduce specific evidence of such snobbish disdain.... But now that white working-class voters are beginning to unsettle the conservative political establishment by flocking to Donald Trump, some conservative pundits are unleashing sentiments about white working-class communities that are a good deal more vicious than snobbish disdain.... These are politically explosive thoughts because the basic political reality is that Republicans rely on heavy majorities among white working-class voters to win elections.... It was taken for granted that the governing class had an obligation -- a practical one, if not a moral one -- to actually make the system work for average people. Over the past 20 years, that idea has been increasingly abandoned on the American right." ...

... ** Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Thanks to Donald Trump, the specter of class war is haunting the Republican Party. But this isn't a traditional class war wherein the masses overthrow capitalism. Instead, it features the poor and the working class destroying the country-club establishment. In response to Trump's successful use of populist rhetoric (although rarely populist policies) to woo less well-to-do Republicans, some conservative intellectuals have taken the curious tack of wholesale condemnation of the working class.... The [National Review] was founded as the organ of a distinctively aristocratic conservatism, one that in the early days never concealed its scorn for ordinary people. In recent decades, that aristocratic conservatism has sometimes been obscured by a populist mask, but under the pressure of Trumpism, National Review is showing its true face."

Nicholas Confessore & Karen Yourish of the New York Times: "Of all the ways Donald Trump has shocked the political system, one of the most significant is how he wins primary after primary with one of the smallest campaign budgets.... The big difference between Mr. Trump and other candidates is that he is far better than any other candidate -- maybe than any candidate ever -- at earning media [as opposed to paid advertising].... Over the course of the campaign, he has earned close to $2 billion worth of media attention, about twice the all-in price of the most expensive presidential campaigns in history. It is also twice the estimated $746 million that Hillary Clinton, the next best at earning media, took in. Senator Bernie Sanders has earned more media than any of the Republicans except Mr. Trump." ...

... Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, in the Washington Post: "... as the Trump [media] spectacle overshadows the other candidates, it also drowns out a much-needed conversation about issues of vital importance, including those that help explain why Trump and Sanders have generated so much passionate support.... For the corporate media, clicks and ratings amount to profits, and Trump undoubtedly attracts more eyeballs than deep reporting on, say, trade policy. Last month, CBS President and Chief Executive Les Moonves bluntly acknowledged the motives behind the media's election coverage. 'It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS,' he said of Trump's rise, adding, 'The money's rolling in and this is fun.'"

Kevin Freking of the AP: "President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was dismayed by 'vulgar and divisive rhetoric' directed at women and minorities as well as the violence that has occurred in the 2016 presidential campaign, a swipe at Republican front-runner Donald Trump that also served as a challenge to other political leaders to speak out and set a better example. 'The longer that we allow the political rhetoric of late to continue and the longer that we tacitly accept it, we create a permission structure that allows the animosity in one corner of our politics to infect our broader society,' Obama said. 'And animosity breeds animosity.'"

Eun Kim of NBC: "Donald Trump tells Today's Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie "the biggest people in the party" are already calling to sit down with him as the presumptive GOP nominee."

Jessica Roy of New York: "You know that video that's going around highlighting some of the most upsetting things Donald 'What's going on?' Trump has said about women? Though its star may look and sound exactly like Trump, it actually wasn't at all. According to his spokesperson Katrina Pierson, it was his TV character saying stuff like, 'A person who is very flat-chested is very hard to be a ten.' Our mistake!" ...

     ... P.S. That was not Marie Burns who shut down the Comments section on accounta its being hijacked by opera buffos. That was the Constant Weader. Totally different. (Opera fans [& others] can still read yesterday's Comments by clicking on the heading "The Commentariat -- March 15.")

The Great Schism of 2016. Jon Ward of Yahoo! News: "Donald Trump's candidacy has sparked a civil war inside American Christianity. Trump's popularity among self-identified evangelical Christians has led national figures in American Christianity to question whether large swaths of the church even know what their faith teaches, and how it applies to public and political life.

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Jerry Springer, the former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati who is most famous for hosting a raucous talk show that often leads to guests brawling onstage, says that the 2016 race has become too lowbrow even for him.... 'This is not a joke,' said Mr. Springer, whose show Tuesday featured women wrestling in an inflatable pool. 'The symbol of America is the Statue of Liberty, not a wall.'"

Nick Gass: "Even if he loses in his home state of Florida on Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio said he will continue on the campaign trail. 'Tomorrow, our plan is to be in Utah campaigning irrespective of tonight,' Rubio told Orlando sports talk station WDBO on Tuesday." CW: Turns out that was a bit of a feint. ...

... Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "The Republican party will be consigned to the wilderness at November's US presidential election 'and beyond' if it chooses Donald Trump as its candidate, rival Marco Rubio has said. In an interview with the Guardian on Monday evening, the Florida senator -- whose fate is likely to be sealed if he fails to win his home state on Tuesday night -- said the New York billionaire was an embarrassment who would not be respected around the world."

Manu Raju of CNN: "Senior Senate Republicans are calling on Sen. Ted Cruz to rebuild his trained relationships with his colleagues and apologize to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell before the party establishment considers consolidating behind his presidential bid.... Republican senators said that Cruz must return to Capitol Hill and make the case directly to his colleagues to help ease long-festering tensions. And a large number of Republicans said the fence-mending starts with this: Apologizing to McConnell for calling him a liar last year on the floor of the Senate. That message was personally delivered by fellow Texan and McConnell's chief deputy, Sen. John Cornyn, who spoke with Cruz by phone after the candidate won their home state's primary earlier this month."

Katherine Krueger of TPM has more on Ben Carson's remarks regarding his endorsement of Donald Trump: "... while he wished there was a 'path' for him to endorse another candidate, he's anticipating a role in Republican Donald Trump's possible administration." (CW: I linked another report on the same interview yesterday.)

Other Election News

CBS Chicago: Rep. "Tammy Duckworth cruised to a decisive victory on Tuesday's Democratic primary for U.S Senate. Her victory creates a dramatic showdown with incumbent Mark Kirk, which is expected to be one of the most expensive and closely watched contests in the country."

AP: "Voters have ousted the Chicago area's top prosecutor in a Democratic primary race focused on the office's handling of the shooting death of a black teenager at the hands of a white police officer. Kim Foxx's victory Tuesday over Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez sends her to a November matchup in which she will be heavily favored." ...

... Meaghan Murphy of the New Republic: "The Black Lives Matter movement scored a big electoral win in Chicago.... The well-funded incumbent [Anita Alvarez] lost her primary with just 29 percent of the vote.... This is mostly thanks to the #ByeAnita campaign, led by young black activists who creatively combined direct action with electoral strategy. They ousted Alvarez without even endorsing an opponent, spending just $1,000."

Winger Takes All. Theodoric Meyer of Politico: "Businessman Warren Davidson ... beat out more than a dozen other Republicans today in the primary to fill former House Speaker John Boehner's vacant seat in Ohio. Davidson, who was endorsed by House Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan and the conservative Club for Growth, handed the conservative Republicans who ousted Boehner another victory."

Other News & Views

Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "Under rough questioning from lawmakers, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Midwest region repeatedly refused Tuesday to acknowledge that she or her agency did anything wrong in the tainted-water disaster in Flint, Mich., though she acknowledged that officials 'could have done more' for residents. Susan Hedman, speaking publicly for the first time since she resigned in January, told a congressional committee that she 'did not sit on the sidelines,' 'did not downplay any concerns raised by EPA scientists' and did not retaliate against an official who was raising concerns about the lead contamination in the city's water supply."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Obama administration officials said Tuesday that the decision [to rescind its proposal allowing Atlantic oil drilling] was driven by many factors, but two stood out: an organized outpouring of opposition from the mayors and municipal councils in more than 100 of the coastal communities in the four states that would be affected by the drilling, and concern from the Pentagon that oil and gas exploration could threaten activities around Virginia's Naval Station Norfolk, the world's largest naval base.... While Obama administration officials knew they would face an angry response to the move, they also benefited politically from another factor: The price of oil has plunged to near record lows, easing the public demand for fresh drilling."

Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve is expected to leave its influential interest rate unchanged after the central bank's top officials wrap up their meeting in Washington today, following a rocky start to the year in the financial markets that is forcing them to reevaluate their plans."

Jennifer Hansler of ABC News: "A bill to recognize magic as a 'rare and valuable art form and national treasure' was introduced into the House of Representatives Tuesday.... Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced HR 642. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA), Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY), Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) are co-sponsors. It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform." CW: So please refrain from suggesting that the Republican Congress is a do-nothing Congress. OR, as Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) tweeted: "@HouseGOP believes in magic but not climate change."

John Eligon of the New York Times: "The City Council [of Ferguson, Missouri,] voted on Tuesday to approve a settlement with the Justice Department to overhaul the city's police and courts, capping a tense few weeks of indecision over how to push forward a community at the center of more than a year and a half of racial upheaval in America. With the 6-to-0 vote, the Council reversed itself and avoided an expensive legal fight with the federal government. Ferguson must now begin the long, deliberate and costly process of carrying out reforms to a criminal justice system that has been under fire since a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in 2014."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "An Iranian naval commander said Tuesday that Iran retrieved thousands of pages of information from devices used by U.S. sailors who were briefly detained in January. The claim, published by Iranian state media, marks the latest example of how the authorities in Tehran has kept an incident considered embarrassing to the United States in the media in the two months since it occurred."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Hadas Gold of Politico: "Breitbart ... sent out cease and desist letters to some of the employees who left the company in the past week.... Six staffers resigned in the past few days, citing the aftermath of how the site handled one of its reporters, Michelle Fields, accusing Donald Trump's campaign manager of strong-arming her as she tried to ask the candidate's attention. Several of the now former employees issued scathing statements about the company as part of their resignations, and some have given interviews on television and in major newspapers. Breitbart has gotten into legal battles with former employees in the past."

Beyond the Beltway

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "After years of emotional legal wrangling, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a member of a violent drug gang who killed two undercover detectives on Staten Island more than a decade ago will not face the death penalty. Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of Federal District Court in Brooklyn wrote in a decision marked by notes of hesitation that the gang member, Ronell Wilson, was ineligible for execution because he was considered to be intellectually disabled under a relatively recent Supreme Court ruling." ...

... Jen Kirby of New York: "Wilson, a reputed gang member who committed the gruesome crime in 2003, was the last New Yorker on federal death row. (New York State abolished capital punishment in 2007, and all death sentences were converted to life imprisonment; Wilson, though, was prosecuted in federal court, which still has the death penalty, though no one's been executed since 2003.)"

Way Beyond

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "An all-female crew lands a plane in Saudi Arabia. But they can't drive from the airport."

News Lede

Washington Post: "The University of Virginia student being held in North Korea was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal a propaganda sign from a hotel in Pyongyang. Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, was convicted after a one-hour trial at North Korea's Supreme Court, China's Xinhua news agency ... reported Wednesday."