The Commentariat -- Feb. 16, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Wowza! President Obama has two middle fingers: one for Senate Republicans & one for all the GOP presidential candidates. CW: I understand the tactical reasons for his reticence to criticize Republicans during his first term, but I surely wish he had spoken like this back in 2009 & '10. ...

Here's the President on the Republican presidential candidates:

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama on Tuesday vowed to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is 'indisputably qualified for the seat,' and he scoffed at Republican suggestions that the process should be halted until after the November presidential election and a new administration takes office." ...

... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he had not ruled out holding hearings on President Obama's eventual nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. 'I would wait until the nominee is made before I would make any decisions,' Mr. Grassley said, according to Radio Iowa. 'This is a very serious position to fill and it should be filled and debated during the campaign and filled by either Hillary Clinton, Senator Sanders or whoever's nominated by the Republicans.'" ...

     ... This story has been updated with a shared byline: Steinhauer & Mark Landler. New Lede: "President Obama on Tuesday challenged Republicans to offer any plausible rationale for refusing to consider a Supreme Court candidate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia..., and he pledged to nominate someone with an 'outstanding legal mind' who cares about democracy and the rule of law. 'The Constitution is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen now,' Mr. Obama said during a news conference after a meeting in California with leaders of Southeast Asia. He said the Constitution demands that a president nominate someone for the court and the Senate either confirms or rejects. 'There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years,' Mr. Obama said. 'That's not in the Constitutional text.'" ...

... Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before his funeral is held, offering the public a chance to pay their respects, court officials said Tuesday."

David Sanger & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed and led to a military conflict, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials involved in the effort. The plan, code named Nitro Zeus, was designed to disable Iran's air defenses, communications systems and key parts of its power grid, and was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled." CW: Just remember, people, President Obama is a total wimp.

Adding Insult to Injury. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Flint residents were paying more for their [poisonous] water than just about anyone else in the country.... In January 2015, the Flint water system charged more for its services than any other of the 500 water utilities in [a] survey [conducted by the non-profit Food & Water Watch]."

Have We Mentioned that Republicans Don't Care about Deficits? Kelsey Snell of the Washington Post: ... Ted Cruz's plan to impose a flat 10 percent tax on all personal income and greatly lower the corporate tax rate would cost the federal government at least $8.6 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis. The plan would be the second most expensive tax proposal in the GOP presidential field, with only businessman Donald Trump offering a proposal that would add more in government debt over the next 10 years, according to data released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center." ...

     ... CW: Gosh, however will Tailgunner Ted make up for that honking big deficit? Oh, I know, cut programs for the needy & the deserving. Luckily for me, That Damned Cat has turned up her nose at the catfood pate', so I've got enough to keep me in kitty-canapes for quite some time. Always look on the bright side of life. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Ted Cruz's campaign sent a letter to TV stations across South Carolina and Georgia on Tuesday, demanding that they stop airing what it calls 'a false attack ad' from the conservative super PAC American Future Fund that goes after the Texas senator on national security. 'The ad falsely claims "Cruz proposed mass legalization of illegal immigrants." Ted Cruz has never introduced, outlined, or supported any policy that would give legal status to illegal immigrants,' wrote Eric Brown, general counsel to the campaign, in the letter shared with the media."

Azi Paybarah of Politico: "Hillary Clinton took her campaign to shore up African-American support to Manhattan on Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in the offices of the National Urban League on Wall Street....Speaking briefly after the event, Sharpton said ... the meeting with Clinton ... was 'very candid.'" ...

... Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "State Sen. Vincent Fort, the No. 2 Democrat in the Georgia Senate, flipped his endorsement on Tuesday from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. He instantly becomes one of the Vermont senator's top surrogates in the South, where his campaign has picked up support from only a handful of black elected officials. The Atlanta Democrat made his decision public just hours before Sanders is set to speak at a Morehouse College rally aimed at enticing black voters to give his campaign a second look."

Sarah Larimer of the Washington Post: "An embattled University of Missouri professor has again found herself to be the subject of public scrutiny, after a video surfaced that shows her engaged in a verbal confrontation with police. Melissa Click, an assistant professor in MU's communication department, was suspended last month, in the wake of an encounter she had with a student journalist during protests on the Columbia, Mo., campus in the fall." Includes video. CW: I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me."

*****

Michael Shear & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "On Monday, Senate Republicans -- including some who are up for re-election in swing states -- appeared to be closing ranks with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who has vowed to block any nominee from Mr. Obama and has said that he should not even suggest one, leaving the choice to the next president." ...

... James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "Mitch McConnell has decided to wager the Republican majority in the Senate on blocking Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court. It's a bold and understandable gambit designed to prevent a leftward lurch in jurisprudence after Antonin Scalia's unexpected death this weekend, but it could backfire badly." CW: This seems a pretty solid analysis. ...

... Jeff Stein of Vox runs through the "strongest" confederate arguments for blocking any Obama nominee to the court. CW: By some of this logic, we had better hope the current federal judges & justices live forever, because no Senate will ever have to allow any president to fill a vacancy: "'The Senate can structure its own rules to govern the advice-and-consent process,' says Adam J. White in the Weekly Standard. 'Nowhere does the Constitution say that the Senate is required to act on the president's nominations.'" ...

... Wait, Wait! Here's one Stein missed. Emily Atkin of Think Progress: According to Constitutional scholar Rand Paul, President Obama can't appoint a justice to the Supreme Court because Obama has a "conflict of interest"; to-wit, the Supremes will be ruling on matters of interest to Obama. ...

     ... CW: By that logic, not only can the president never propose a nominee, the Senate can never consent to a nomination because the Supremes regularly make decisions regarding laws the Senate has passed; ergo, the Senate, too, has a conflict of interest. Looks like Li'l Randy just eliminated Article III from the Constitution. Well, good, as every libertarian knows, there's just too damned much government anyway. The upside to being a dimwit is that you never have any idea you're a dimwit. ...

... ** Sen. Harry Reid, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Having gridlocked the Senate for years, Republicans now want to gridlock the Supreme Court with a campaign of partisan sabotage aimed at denying the president's constitutional duty to pick nominees.... By ignoring its constitutional mandate, the Senate would sabotage the highest court in the United States and aim a procedural missile at the foundation of our system of checks and balances.... This Republican Senate would be the first in history to abdicate that vital duty." Read the whole essay. ...

... Steve Benen: "In every possible way, Senate Republicans have handled this about as poorly as they possibly could have. While much of the country was still learning of the news [of Justice Scalia's death], GOP senators, from the leadership to the rank and file, announced in no uncertain terms that President Obama shouldn't even try to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. If he does, Republicans declared that they will not act in good faith: no nominee will be considered or confirmed, regardless of merit or qualifications, because the party says so.... To further their obviously ridiculous case, GOP senators have even begun making up rules that didn't exist before the weekend." Read the whole post, especially the P.S. ...

... CW: If voters want the federal government to function ever again, they had better vote out every Republican candidate for national office. These nuts could make me vote for Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). ...

... Greg Sargent: "Republicans may be courting a pretty serious risk: if Obama doesn't end up getting his pick through, there is a real possibility that President Hillary Clinton could nominate a more liberal replacement than Obama did -- and she might also enjoy a Dem Senate majority, making it easier to get that more liberal replacement confirmed.... McConnell may also be calculating that if Republicans do lose the White House, they could then quickly confirm Obama’s nominee." ...

     ... CW: My thoughts exactly. Republicans could also move to confirm a moderate Obama nominee before the election, in hopes the move would help retain their majority, if the polls indicated a Democratic would likely win the presidency & GOP senators were about to get trounced. Not an October surprise exactly, but an October calculation. Mitch does what's best for Mitch. ...

... Richard Hasen, in the Washington Post: "Think of the Scalia battle not as a hurricane, but as the first in a series of storms that will come through our increasingly polarized Congress.... The series of storms will put great stress on our system of separation of powers when we are so divided." ...

... CW: Il Nino has already "put Congress stress on our system of separation of powers." This is the first time I can recall that the leader of the majority party has stated outright that the portion of the branch of government he leads refuses to fulfill its Constitutional obligations. ...

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "I've been puzzled by how much of the should-Obama-get-to-choose-a-judge debate has been framed as a last-year-of-presidency issue Republicans' strategy of blocking everything this president wants to do, and everyone he wants to appoint, did not exactly begin when we rang in the recent new year.... Republicans were just as dedicated to Confirmationus Interruptus in 2015. Last year, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed just 11 federal judges, the fewest in any year since 1960. Only one appeals court judge was confirmed, the lowest number since 1953."

Sam Hananel & David Warren of the AP: "The Texas county judge who decided no autopsy was needed following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has disclosed new details about Scalia's health.... Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told The Associated Press on Monday she spoke with Scalia's doctor on the day he was found dead.... She said the doctor told her that Scalia had a history of heart trouble, high blood pressure and was considered too weak to undergo surgery for a recent shoulder injury.... Guevara said [Rear Adm. Brian] Monahan[, the attending physician for members of Congress and the Supreme Court,] told her Scalia had gone to the doctor's office on both Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Texas, and had an MRI on his shoulder. She said Monahan told her surgery was needed, but that Scalia wasn't strong enough to endure surgery so rehabilitation was recommended instead." ...

... Toljaso. Lena Sun & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Conspiracy theories swirl around the death of Antonin Scalia.... 'As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia,' William O. Ritchie, former head of criminal investigations for D.C. police, wrote in a post on Facebook on Sunday.... 'You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician,' he wrote. 'You have a non-homicide trained US Marshal tell the justice of peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack....'" ...

... CW: I stand corrected on the source of the "pillow over his head" story, which I wrote in a comment yesterday was an invention of a right-wing fake news site. However, John McCormack of the San Antonio Express-News did cite ranch owner John Poindexter: "We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bed clothes were unwrinkled." ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story fills us in on some of the best conspiracy theories. ...

... Tommy Christopher of Mediaite shows how the theorists connect the dots to President Obama. ...

... Even some wingers, like Leon Wolf of Red State, think the conspiracy nuts are over the top.

What About Bob(s)? Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell could wind up one of the biggest losers as a result of Justice Antonin Scalia's unexpected death.... Last August, McDonnell was perhaps weeks away from being required to report to prison when the Supreme Court stepped in, granting him a stay that remains in effect today. Just one month ago, the high court formally agreed to hear McDonnell's appeal, which argues that his convictions relied -- at least in part -- on 'routine political courtesies'.... Scalia was considered among the most receptive justices to McDonnell's argument.... If the court can't muster five votes ... to overturn McDonnell's conviction, the appeals court ruling upholding his sentence is likely to kick in...." The Court's ruling in the McDonnell case could also have an impact on the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

... Michael Ruane of the Washngton Post: "The National Park Service announced Monday that the Lincoln Memorial will undergo a major renovation over the next four years, thanks largely to an $18.5 million donation by billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein. The project is probably the biggest overhaul of the building since the structure was dedicated in 1922, officials said."

Presidential Race

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "With his expansive plans to increase the size and role of government, Senator Bernie Sanders has provoked a debate not only with his Democratic rival for president, Hillary Clinton, but also with liberal-leaning economists who share his goals but question his numbers and political realism. The reviews of some of these economists, especially on Mr. Sanders's health care plans, suggest that Mrs. Clinton could have been too conservative in their debate last week when she said that his agenda in total would increase the size of the federal government by 40 percent. That level would surpass any government expansion since the buildup in World War II. The increase could exceed 50 percent, some experts suggest...." ...

... CW: It's worth noting that of the economists whose names I recognize, all are likely supporters of Hillary Clinton: Jared Bernstein & Austan Goolsbee, for instance, both served in the Obama administration, & Paul Krugman has devoted numerous columns to running down Sanders' proposals and extolling Clinton's. This doesn't mean they're all wrong, but it's important to take their criticisms of Sanders' plans with a grain of salt. Besides, as Ive said, Sanders' proposals are aspirational. There's no chance Congress -- even a Congress dominated by liberals -- would enact legislation to increase the size of the federal government by more than 50 percent. ...

... Thomas Frank in the Guardian: "... focusing on the money being mustered behind Hillary Clinton by various lobbyists and Wall Street figures misses this point. The problem with establishment Democrats is not that they have been bribed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the rest; it's that many years ago they determined to supplant the GOP as the party of Wall Street -- and also to bid for the favor the tech industry, and big pharma, and the telecoms, and the affluent professionals who toil in such places.... Changing what the Democratic party stands for may ultimately require nothing less than what a certain Vermonter is calling a 'political revolution'." ...

... CW: What we need is a president with Bernie Sanders' ideals & a chief-of-staff with Hillary Clinton's know-how. ...

... Hillary Cares About Black People. Annie Karni of Politico: "In a high-profile speech in Harlem on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton is expected to address the issue of systemic racism, and offer solutions for how to break down the barriers that hold back African American families. The speech is part of Clinton's effort in recent days -- as she closes in on the South Carolina primary and turns her attention toward more diverse March states -- to show that she views racism and discrimination as stand-alone problems in American in need of their own solutions. Her approach appears designed to highlight the contrast with her chief rival Bernie Sanders, who so far in his campaign has mainly addressed racism through the lens of economic inequality." ...

... Jon Ralston of the Ralston Report in the Washington Post: "Nevada is no longer a 'lock' for Hillary Clinton. CW: Frankly, I'll be shocked if Sanders prevails in Nevada. The caucuses are this coming Saturday. ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Women serving in the Senate say Hillary Clinton is being subjected to an unfair, sexist double standard on the campaign trail. Criticisms of Clinton's tone of voice have become prominent in recent weeks, stirring strong feelings among Senate Democratic women who say they too have had to battle the stereotype of the shrill female.... Female lawmakers were particularly galled by recent statements by Washington Post columnist Bob Woodward, one of the nation's most respected journalists, characterizing Clinton's tone as 'screaming.' 'She shouts. There's something unrelaxed about the way she is communicating,' he said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.' The comment prompted the show's host, Joe Scarborough, to interject, 'I was watching her and I said to myself, "Has nobody told her how the microphone works?"'... The New York Times reported that Clinton received additional media training after Woodward aired his critique." ...

     ... CW: So that's why Clinton spoke like a normal person in the last debate. Now somebody please get Sanders a voice coach.

Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "As Donald Trump and Ted Cruz divide up the first primaries and center-right Republicans tear one another apart in a race to be the mainstream alternative, Republicans are waging a shadow primary for control of delegates in anticipation of ... a contested national convention."

The Art of Breaking the Deal. Andrew Shain of the (South Carolina) State: "... Donald Trump did not close the door Monday on a possible third-party run after accusing the Republican party of breaking its pledge to stay neutral in the race. 'The (Republican National Committee) is in default,' Trump said during a news conference at the Hanahan Town Hall on Monday. 'When somebody is in default, that means the other side can what they have to do.'... In his fight against the RNC, Trump said he is upset that tickets to GOP presidential debates, including one held Saturday in Greenville, have gone to what he calls special interests and big donors." While he was at it, Trump accused S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley (R) of not doing enough to protect South Carolinians from Syrian refuges & Guantanamo prisoners.

In a statement, Donald Trump says Ted Cruz is crazy: "Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual. He is the single biggest liar I've ever come across, in politics or otherwise, and I have seen some of the best of them. His statements are totally untrue and completely outrageous. It is hard to believe a person who proclaims to be a Christian could be so dishonest and lie so much." He also suggests a couple of wingnuts as his possible Supreme Court nominees. ...

... Yo' Sistah. Katie Glueck of Politico: "Ted Cruz on Monday pledged to make the presidential election a 'referendum' on the U.S. Supreme Court, ramping up efforts to make that issue one more increasingly personal point of contention with Donald Trump, his biggest rival here ahead of the South Carolina primary. 'The one person Donald has pointed to as a potential Supreme Court nominee is his sister,' Cruz told reporters here Monday, though Trump opened Saturday night's debate by name-checking federal judges Bill Pryor and Diane Sykes. 'Now, it's good to stand with your sister. But Donald's sister was a Bill Clinton-appointed federal appellate judge who's a radical pro-abortion extremist.'"

Ed O'Keefe & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "George W. and Laura Bush returned to the campaign trail Monday to campaign for Jeb Bush.... The former president and first lady took the stage at a convention center [in North Charleston, S.C.,] alongside the former Florida governor."...

... Look at Me. Now I'm an Anarchist, Too. Tim Devaney of the Hill: "... Jeb Bush in an interview Monday morning urged Senate Republicans to block President Obama from nominating a Supreme Court justice, taking a harder stance than during the latest GOP debate."

Megan Apper of BuzzFeed: "'It's morning again in America,' a calm narrator says as an idyllic scene of a boat crossing a harbor plays in Marco Rubio's latest ad -- a darker riff on the classic Ronald Reagan ad. Based on a quick internet search, though, the boat scene in the 'Morning Again' ad appears to be Vancouver, Canada.... And the flag on the boat appears to be Canadian." CW: What's terribly sad about the ad is that Ted Cruz's team didn't produce it. But, hey, the stock footage is still out there. Try it, Ted. ...

... Anyhow, Ted & Marco both might as well be a couple of Canadians. Or Cubanos. Whatever. Caitlin Cruz of TPM: "A Republican National committeewoman from Nevada said Monday that she believes both Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are ineligible to run for President." Her theory on Marco is that he was born before his parents became American citizens, so to hell with the Constitution; the guy's a foreigner. The Nevada woman, Dianna Orrock, is supporting the guy in the orange rug whom she believes will make America great again. ...

... "Latino Outreach." digby: "Wouldn't you know it? The only two Hispanic candidates in the race are not American enough to run for president. Talk about bad luck, huh? (Because you know that Republicans don't have an racist bone in their bodies. They all love Taco Bell, amirite?)" ...

... Leading from His Behind. Steve Benen: How hard is it for Marco's backers to come up with examples of his "accomplishments"? Impossible. Rick Santorum couldn't think of one. Jim Inhofe [R-Denial] made up one that (a) was just a vote rather than an "accomplishment," & (b) Marco didn't actually, um, vote on it. Rubio can't think of one either: Sunday his best answer to Chris Wallace of Fox "News" was, "'Foreign policy experience is doing as I did, leading the effort to impose additional sanctions on Hezbollah.' That at least sounds like an accomplishment, except (1) the Hezbollah sanctions bill passed without opposition, so this was hardly a heavy lift; and (2) when it came time for the Senate to vote on the Hezbollah sanctions bill, Rubio again didn't show up for work." ...

... Kiss of Death. Dave Helling of the Kansas City Star: "Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has become the first sitting governor to endorse Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for president. The Rubio campaign announced the endorsement Monday. 'Just like Governor Brownback, Marco has consistently defended life, small government and free enterprise throughout his career in public service,' Rubio midwest spokesman Jeremy Adler said in a statement. Kansas Republicans will caucus Mar. 5." CW: Yep. And their economic policies are identical, too. As Kansas went, so goes the nation.

AND Jonathan Chait makes the case for a Michael Bloomberg run. Thanks, Jon!

Senate Race

America's Stupidest Senator Retains Title. Following is what Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson's tweeted upon learning of Justice Scalia's death. Sophia Tesfaye of Salon: "The picture Johnson tweeted was of Edward Gero, an actor who portrayed Scalia in 'The Originalist'...." But no disrespect intended: Johnson later blamed his staff for the error & took down the tweet. Anyway, thanks, Wisconsin! Vote Feingold.

... For anyone who has wiped the real Antonin Scalia from her memory bank, here he is, explaining textualism, or in this case, I guess you might call it "hypertextualism":

CW BTW: Textualism, I would add, doesn't make much sense. As any lit critic will tell you, all reading is interpretive. Of course there are innumerable symbols, words, phrases & sentences which 99.9 percent of us would "interpret" in precisely the same way, to the point that we're not even aware we're interpreting them. But in more complex writings, where words may have shades of meanings & parts of the whole may be in conflict -- as they are in, say, the U.S. Constitution -- we become aware that we have to work to affix some meaning to them; their ambiguity may cause reasonable people to differ on what their meaning is or what the writer(s) intended us to infer.

News Lede

New York Times: "Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who led the United Nations in a chaotic 1990s tenure that began with hopes for peace after the Cold War, but failed to cope with genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and ended in angry recriminations with Washington, died on Tuesday in an Egyptian hospital. He was 93."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 15, 2016

January 20, 2009, a few moments before Barack Obama took the oath of office, Photo by Pete Souza.... CW: Let us take a moment out of our busy Presidents' Day buying sheets or shoes (or in my case, going to the dump) to be thankful that on this particular Presidents' Day, we have a president who is pretty, pretty good. Let us also hope that today is not the last Presidents Day we can say that.

Julie Makinen of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama on Monday will kick off a two-day summit with 10 Southeast Asian leaders at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, the first-ever such meeting on U.S. soil. The White House is framing the confab with the leaders of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, as another key step in Obama's effort to 'rebalance' foreign policy toward the Asia-Pacific, shoring up U.S. economic and security ties in the region -- and asserting American leadership -- as China exerts its military and financial might there too."

His hands were sort of almost folded on top of the sheets. The sheets weren't rumpled up at all. It was just like he was taking a nap. He just went to sleep and didn't wake up. -- Resort owner John Poindexter, who found Antonin Scalia's body

... Jason Whitely of WFAA, in USA Today: "The death certificate for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will list myocardial infarction -- a heart attack -- as the official cause of death, Presidio County Judge Cinderela Guevara told WFAA on Sunday." ...

... Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times describes "Scalia's last moments on a Texas ranch." ...

... Eva Moravec, et al., of the Washington Post: "... as details of Scalia's sudden death trickled in Sunday, it appeared that the hours afterward were anything but orderly." The judge who declared him dead, by phone, "rebutted a report by a Dallas TV station that quoted her as saying that Scalia had died of 'myocardial infarction.' In an interview with The Washington Post, she said she meant only that his heart had stopped."

... CW: I thought we'd hear soon enough that President Obama killed Justice Scalia, & sure enough, we have. But as digby points out, there's a bit of a discussion over there in Right Wing World as to which "liberal" killed Scalia -- Obama or some Clinton. I wonder why Obama didn't do so sooner or some Clinton didn't do it later. Whoever the assassin may be, his/her timing seems off. I think I'll pick Bill Clinton, whose is now trying to cover his tracks by claiming, "I always kind of liked" Justice Scalia. I've read here & there that John Poindexter, who owned the Cibolo Creek ranch, and found Scalia's body, has contributed to Democrats. ...

... Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "Whether you choose to think of [Antonin Scalia] as a hero or a hater, a fully-realized ideological visionary, or a caricature of an arch-conservative..., for years, the law and the other justices will shadow box with him, reckon with his vast intellectual legacy, and perhaps -- if the arc of the universe indeed bends toward tolerance and fairness and generosity -- eventually put him to rest."

Carl Hulse & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "An epic Washington political battle took shape on Sunday after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia as Senate Republicans dug in and refused to act on any Supreme Court nomination by President Obama. But the White House vowed to name a nominee within weeks." ...

... Paul Krugman: "Once upon a time, the death of a Supreme Court justice wouldn't have brought America to the edge of constitutional crisis. But that was a different country, with a very different Republican Party. In today's America, with today's G.O.P., the passing of Antonin Scalia has opened the doors to chaos.... If divided government persists, it's really hard to see how we avoid growing chaos. Maybe we should all start wearing baseball caps that say, 'Make America governable again.'" ...

     ... CW: As usual, Krugman uses his column, which is mostly about the nutso GOP, to take a swipe at Bernie Sanders. Maybe he should start wearing a baseball cap that says, "Make America Clinton's again." ...

... ** Paul Waldman: "Republicans are all in agreement that they should refuse to allow Barack Obama to fill Scalia's seat, on the grounds that he's Barack Obama. But they could well refuse to fill the seat even for the next president.... If that sounds unlikely, then you might want to familiarize yourself with today's Republican Party. They haven't just grown more ideologically conservative in recent years, they've also grown more procedurally radical. Again and again, they've decided that the system of formal and informal norms that make the government work can be discarded if it becomes inconvenient. Shut down the government? You bet! Filibuster every bill more consequential than the naming of National Earwax Awareness Week? Sure! Bring America to the brink of defaulting on its debt? Why not!... the next president could get to fill two, three, or even four seats. Or maybe she won't get to fill any at all." ...

... Never Let the Facts or the Constitution Get in the Way. New York Times Editors: "The latest Republican talking point is that for 80 years it has been 'standard practice' not to confirm any Supreme Court nominee in an election year. Besides being untrue -- Justice Anthony Kennedy was confirmed by a Democratic Senate in 1988 -- the claim actually insults Justice Scalia, whose originalist, text-based approach to the Constitution would surely have found room for one of a president's explicit constitutional obligations." ...

... David Savage & David Lauter of the Los Angeles Times: "As President Obama moves to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the vow by Senate Republicans to block any nominee is providing him with a powerful incentive to focus on more liberal candidates." ...

... Robert Barnes & Terri Rupar of the Washington Post: "Justice Antonin Scalia's sudden death Saturday flips the dynamics of the Supreme Court and undermines conservative hopes for far-reaching victories on important social controversies such as abortion, immigration and unions." ...

... Emily Bazelon of the New York Times: "The election is the Constitution's answer for preventing any long-term crisis. The voters will get to punish or reward whichever party they choose. But a year or more of a Supreme Court vacancy would expose the creaks in the joints of the Constitution.... If Supreme Court justices served 18-year terms instead of life tenure, their appointments could be staggered so that each president would get two. The process would be more predictable and more orderly. But the chances for that kind of constitutional amendment are probably lower than the odds of the next justice sailing to his or her confirmation. Hardball, here we come." ...

... E. J. Dionne: This fall, Americans will not just be picking a new chief executive. They will be setting the course of the court of last resort for a generation." ...

... Linda Hirshman in the Washington Post: "President Obama has stacked the lower circuit courts with Democrats.... Fate has handed him the opportunity of any presidency -- to swing the balance of the Supreme Court from conservative to liberal.... Leaders [of the Senate], and also most GOP presidential candidates, are already making clear that they intend to block Obama. But they may not realize that leaving Scalia's seat vacant plays right into his hands.... A divided court leaves lower court rulings in place. And the lower courts are blue.... That's why the effect of an equally divided court has enormous potential to strengthen Obama's hand in dealing with the Republican Senate.... If Obama signals that he's willing to take advantage of the situation by taking actions like passing new environmental rules or moving for rehearing in the pending cases, he'll put pressure on the Senate by getting what he wants without his court pick." ...

... OR How about This: Recess! Lyle Dennniston of ScotusBlog: "President Obama may ponder the possibility of putting on the Court a new Justice of his choosing, to serve temporarily. The problem, though, is that less than two years ago, the Supreme Court severely narrowed the flexibility of such temporary appointment power, and strengthened the Senate's capacity to frustrate such a presidential maneuver. It is true that one of the Justices regarded as a giant on the Court's history, William J. Brennan, Jr., actually began his lengthy career with just such a short-term appointment. The chances of that happening again today seem to have diminished markedly." In an update, Denniston notes, "The Senate is currently in recess until February 22. The recess began on Friday. Whether this opens an opportunity for a recess appointment depends upon how Senate leaders interpret an adjournment resolution approved last Friday.  That will determine whether it will meet for brief activity during the recess, which could close that opportunity."

The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President. -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, arguing that the Constitution does not require the Senate to do its job if the POTUS is black or something

... CW Update: Contributor David highlights a Facebook post by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, that, as David writes, "pretty much sums up the situation." As I don't think I can isolate Facebook posts & as public officials' remarks are not copyrighted, I'm republishing her post in full:

The sudden death of Justice Scalia creates an immediate vacancy on the most important court in the United States.

Senator McConnell is right that the American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. In fact, they did -- when President Obama won the 2012 election by five million votes.

Article II Section 2 of the Constitution says the President of the United States nominates justices to the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. I can't find a clause that says '...except when there's a year left in the term of a Democratic President.'

Senate Republicans took an oath just like Senate Democrats did. Abandoning the duties they swore to uphold would threaten both the Constitution and our democracy itself. It would also prove that all the Republican talk about loving the Constitution is just that -- empty talk. ...

... Charles Pierce: Of course, this is all my bollocks. In 2012, the 'American people' decided that Barack Obama should appoint justices to the Supreme Court to fill any vacancies that occurred between January of 2013 and January of 2017. Period. Just because Mitch McConnell is a complete chickenshit in the face of his caucus doesn't obviate that fact.... This is now a presidential election to decide the course and purpose of government for the next 30 years. That makes it the most consequential election of recent times." ...

... Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker: "Scalia brought with him the concept of 'originalism' -- that the Constitution should be interpreted as its eighteenth-century framers understood it. In practical terms, originalism gives constitutional sanction to conservative politics. It amounts to no protection for abortion rights, no recognition of gay rights, and no sanction for affirmative action or protective legislation to benefit racial minorities and women.... In interpreting laws, he was the leading spokesperson for 'textualism,' the idea that, when interpreting laws, courts should look not to legislative history, or congressional 'intent,' but rather only to the words of the law itself. While originalism remains controversial..., textualism won support from nearly all his colleagues (all except Stephen Breyer). This means that the Justices will limit the reach of laws to their precise terms, expanding the court's power over Congress."

I have no illusions that your man will nominate someone who shares my orientation, but I hope he sends us someone smart.... Let me put a finer point on it: I hope he sends us Elena Kagan. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, to then-presidential advisor David Axelrod, at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, 2009. President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Wesley Lowery & Kevin Stankiewicz of the Washington Post: Black Lives Matter activists fight racist policies & depression, a condition that can be exacerbated by the realities their activism highlights. Last Monday, Ohio Black Lives Matter activist MarShawn McCarrel killed himself on the steps of the state's capitol building.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Driftglass reports on the Sunday morning showz. Featuring "Ron 'Severe Dementia' Fournier" & "the still-inexplicably-employed neocon hobgoblin, Bill Kristol."

Presidential Race

Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "In the battle for Nevada, which will hold its Democratic caucuses on Saturday, the fight is largely being waged by young Latinos, many of them immigrants, who by the hundreds are seizing on the chance to focus attention on the hardships they have faced and to play a potentially pivotal role in electing the next president.... With Republicans pledging to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally, and Donald J. Trump promising to build a wall to keep rapists and criminals from sneaking across the border from Mexico, volunteers and campaign workers describe the Nevada Democratic contest, in starkly personal terms, as a chance to make a powerful statement about the place they occupy in American society.... Mrs. Clinton's Nevada operation is building on a foundation laid eight years ago, when she defeated Barack Obama in the popular vote (though he won the delegate count).... Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton will both appear Thursday in a televised forum on Telemundo and MSNBC.... Mrs. Clinton's huge advantage in name recognition among Latinos continues to challenge Mr. Sanders's campaign here."

Revolt of the Sandernistas: Daniel Strauss of Politico: "Pro-Sanders threads on Reddit have been burning up with calls for action [against the Democratic party's superdelegate system], with some supporters even reaching out to superdelegates (who are typically Democratic governors, members of Congress, and top state and national party leaders) to lobby them on the Vermont senator's behalf. Progressive groups are also taking a stand: There are currently two petition campaigns designed to urge superdelegates to reflect the popular vote, rather than the sentiment of party elites. In one of them, MoveOn.org activists are targeting undecided and committed Hillary Clinton superdelegates with a clear message: wait until all the votes are counted before throwing support behind a candidate."

Brian Stelter of CNN: "Saturday night's GOP demolition derby on CBS was the highest rated primary debate since December, according to Nielsen." ...

Wrong is considered right and right is considered wrong. -- Marco Rubio in closing remarks, GOP debate Feb. 13, inadvertently describing Right Wing World

... Charles Pierce: "During the ninth debate of the Republican candidates for president, we saw actual facts booed (by my count) three times before the first commercial break. We saw two sons of Cuban emigres duke it out over who can make the lives of Hispanic immigrants more miserable. We saw a vulgar talking yam dare to tell the truth about C-Plus Augustus while standing next to his brother, and we later saw the vulgar talking yam call Ted Cruz the biggest liar he's ever seen. And still, after it was over, serious people got on the electric teevee machine to talk about who had the best night, and who won and who lost, and not one of them mentioned the obvious fact that one of our two major political parties suffered a complete mental meltdown on national television." ...

... Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic pegs "the moment CBS News lost control" of the debate. "'We're in danger of driving this into the dirt,' moderator John Dickerson warned, but of course the bus was already deep in the mud":

... Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post zero in on Pierce's "obvious fact": "A day after a debate marked by a series of personal, petty exchanges -- and a day before former president George W. Bush was set to make a high-profile return to the national scene -- Republicans were grappling with their core beliefs on a host of issues, as well as the image they were broadcasting to the country. The infighting was ignited at the debate Saturday night by front-runner Donald Trump, who was unrelenting in his criticism of both how well the 43rd president kept America safe before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and of the hawkish Republican worldview in general.... The increasingly harsh discussions ... amount to an existential crisis within the Republican Party and reflect the growing influence of non-ideological, populist voters who have flocked in particular to Trump's nationalist 'Make America Great Again' message." ...

... Here, belatedly, is Driftglass's liveblog of the debate (I looked for it earlier). CW: Increasingly, it is nearly impossible to tell Driftglass's snark from the actual transcript. The following, ferinstance, is what those bozos really said.

Look, I won the lottery when I was born 63 years ago, looked up, and I saw my mom. My mom is the strongest woman I know. -- Jeb!

She should be running. -- Donald

... CW: As far as I can determine, the debate can be summed up: "Yo' mama!" "Liar, liar." "Am not!" "Are too." ...

... Rasputin-o'er-Hudson. Jonathan Chait: During the Saturday night Republican debate in South Carolina, Donald Trump committed GOP heresy: "Not only did he call the Iraq War a failure, but when Jeb Bush insisted his brother kept the country safe, Trump pointed out that the 9/11 attack happened on [George W.] Bush's watch, and that Bush lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction, and then returned to the point again.... By the normal standards of politics, Trump swallowed enough poison to kill himself ten times over. If he survives, it will be the strongest evidence that he has forged a connection with Republican voters that resides beyond any plane visible to the rest of us." ...

... Jimmy LaSalvia, a self-described Republican, in Salon: The RNC-picked establishment audience at the presidential debate booed Trump repeatedly, but according to Matt Drudge's unscientific poll, Trump won the debate. The Drudge wing of the party now outnumbers the dwindling establishment/RNC wing. "If Trump can blame 9-11 on establishment icon George W. Bush and then win the South Carolina primary, then we'll know that the old Republican Party just doesn't exist anymore. If that doesn't sink his campaign, then nothing will, and he will be the GOP nominee. We'll know for sure on Saturday, but the Drudge Poll today has given us a hint."

Janell Ross of the Washington Post explains why Marco Rubio (& Jeb!) often speak Spanish to constituents & why Ted Cruz does not. CW: Ross is a bit long-winded, but my own observations comport with her thesis: it's a cultural thing. There's no shame in speaking Spanish in Florida; in the Southwest, it still can be taboo. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Carson Believes Everything He Reads. And everything he reads is the Right Wing News. Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Ben Carson referenced a line he said came from Joseph Stalin, a quote that's believed to have gained prominence as a conservative social media meme, during his closing statement at Saturday night's Republican debate. 'Joseph Stalin said if you want to bring America down you have to undermine three things -- our spiritual life, our patriotism, and our morality,' Carson said.... The mythbusters at Snopes.com, in a recently updated review, state that the line, which Carson is reported to have used before, have little evidence to back up that it came from Stalin. The CNN Reality Check team rated its attribution to Stalin as 'false.'" CW: Bear in mind that Carson's fake quote came during his prepared remarks; it was not an ad lib or heat-of-date moment in which one understandably might make a mistake. His research material is right-wing fantasies.

Senate Races

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The impending battle over replacing Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court will undoubtedly loom over this year's presidential contest. But it may have an even larger role in an often overlooked 2016 election contest: the fight for control of the Senate.... The Democrats aren't favored to retake the Senate. They would need to gain five seats (or four if they retain the presidency). But they have a real opportunity to win because a large number of Republicans from competitive or Democratic-leaning states are up for re-election. These Republican senators could have strong electoral incentives to support Mr. Obama's Supreme Court nominee -- otherwise, their opposition will be used against them." ...

... Burgess Everett of Politico: "New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from a state that supported President Obama, announced on Sunday evening that she opposes confirmation of a new Supreme Court nominee before the election."

Beyond the Beltway

Allegedly, Eliot Spitzer Is Still Eliot Spitzer. Jonathan Dienst & Tim Stelloh of NBC News: "Authorities are investigating allegations that disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer assaulted a woman at a Manhattan hotel, sources told NBC News. A spokeswoman for Spitzer denied the report. Spitzer, who resigned from office in 2008 following revelations of his involvement in a prostitution ring, is accused of choking a woman in her mid-20s at the Plaza Hotel, the sources said. They said there may be video of Spitzer going up to the hotel with the woman."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 14, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Janell Ross of the Washington Post explains why Marco Rubio (& Jeb!) often speak Spanish to constituents & why Ted Cruz does not. CW: Ross is a bit long-winded, but my own observations comport with her thesis: it's a cultural thing. There's no shame in speaking Spanish in Florida; in the Southwest, it still can be taboo.

*****

His hands were sort of almost folded on top of the sheets. The sheets weren't rumpled up at all. It was just like he was taking a nap. He just went to sleep and didn't wake up. -- Resort owner John Poindexter, who found Antonin Scalia's body

Gary Martin & Guillermo Contreras of the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News: "Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead of apparent natural causes Saturday on a luxury resort in West Texas, federal officials said. Scalia, 79, was a guest at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, a resort in the Big Bend region south of Marfa.... A federal official who asked not to be named said there was no evidence of foul play and it appeared that Scalia died of natural causes." ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Antonin Scalia, whose transformative legal theories, vivid writing and outsize personality made him a leader of a conservative intellectual renaissance in his three decades on the Supreme Court, was found dead on Saturday at a resort in West Texas, according to a statement from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. He was 79.... The cause of death was not immediately released." ...

... CW: My general policy, here & in life, is not to speak ill of the recently dead, out of respect for their families. I do not hold contributors to that standard. This courtesy does not extend to the deceased's philosophical allies, who even now must be conjuring conspiracy theories that place the cause of death upon a certain Kenyan-born emperor who should under no circumstances be allowed to appoint a successor. The San Antonio Express-News reports that Justice Scalia was with a party of about 40 people. It will be interesting to find out who-all was in that party, so we can develop risible conspiracy theories of our own. ...

... Mark Landler & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Within hours of Justice Scalia's death, both sides began laying the groundwork for what could be a titanic confirmation struggle fueled by ideological interest groups. The surprise opening also jolted the presidential campaign hours before a Republican debate in South Carolina, shifting the conversation toward the priorities each candidate would have in making such a selection." ...

... The New York Times is running "live updates" of developments related to Justice Scalia's death. They should have thunk up another headline for the page. @8:48 pm ET: "President Obama, in his first public comments after Justice Antonin Scalia's death, announced that he would nominate a replacement, overriding Republicans' contentions that any nomination should wait until after the next president takes office":

... Dylan Matthews of Vox names some likely candidates for nomination. ...

     @7:22 pm: "Ben Carson, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, joined other members of his party in arguing that President Obama should not nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia."

     @ 7:11 pm: "The Thurmond Rule -- an unwritten rule, not legally binding -- holds that a judicial nominee should not be confirmed in the months leading up to an election. It has its origins in June 1968, when Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, blocked President Lyndon B. Johnson's appointment of Justice Abe Fortas as chief justice." ...

     ...@ 7:03 pm: "Jeb Bush ... said on Saturday that Justice Antonin Scalia ... 'was my favorite justice'.... Mr. Bush declined to repeat calls made by other Republican candidates, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, for Justice Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court to remain vacant until a new president was sworn into office in 2017." ...

     ...@ 6:54 pm: "Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader and Democrat of Nevada, urged President Obama to nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia as soon as possible. Mr. Reid released a statement that forcefully pushed back at Republican arguments that the Supreme Court seat should remain vacant until after a new president was elected." ...

     ... @ 6:40 pm: "Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate majority leader, backing the sentiments of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, said in a statement that the next president, not President Obama, should appoint a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia." CW: I'd say we have a Constitutional crisis a'coming in our near future. ...

... Robert Barnes writes Justice Scalia's obituary for the Washington Post. ...

... The Washington Post also is running "live updates & reactions" to Justice Scalia's death. @ 8:15 pm ET: "... Hillary Clinton praised Scalia's service to his country in a statement posted on Twitter, criticizing Republicans who in the hours since Scalia's death have called for his replacement to be chosen by the next president." ...

     ... @ 8:12 pm: "'The president has said he will send a nominee to the Senate,' Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, told The Post a telephone interview Saturday night." ...

... Robert Barnes: "The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday plunged the Supreme Court and the nation's politics into turmoil, and an immediate partisan battle began over whether President Obama should be allowed to nominate his successor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that the Senate controlled by his party should not confirm a replacement for Scalia until after the election.... Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, joined [Minority Leader Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] in saying that the court should not go a year without a full array of justices.... Scalia's shocking death also creates doubt about the outcome of a Supreme Court term that was filled with some of the most controversial issues facing the nation: abortion, affirmative action, the rights of religious objectors to the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, and the president's powers on immigration and deportation.

[Justice Scalia] died while on a hunting trip in Texas. The Supreme Court did not reveal the cause of death. The Associated Press reported that Scalia died at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas. The service's spokeswoman, Donna Sellers, says Scalia had retired for the evening and was found dead Saturday morning after he did not appear for breakfast. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. officially announced Scalia's death after it was reported by news outlets in Texas. ...

... Tom Goldstein of ScotusBlog has more on "what happens to this [Supreme Court] term's cases.... Votes that the Justice cast in cases that have not been publicly decided are void. Of course, if Justice Scalia's vote was not necessary to the outcome -- for example, if he was in the dissent or if the majority included more than five Justices -- then the case will still be decided, only by an eight-member Court." ...

... Ian Millhiser has more on the specific cases before the Court & how decisions could play out. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The immediate and easily foreseeable impact [of Scalia's death] is staggering. Last week, the Supreme Court issued a stay delaying the implementation of Obama's Clean Power Plan. The stay indicated that a majority of the justices foresee a reasonably high likelihood that they would ultimately strike down Obama's plan, which could jeopardize the Paris climate agreement and leave greenhouse gasses unchecked. Without Scalia on the Court, the odds of this drop to virtually zero. The challenge is set to be decided by a D.C. Circuit panel composed of a majority of Democratic appointees, which will almost certainly uphold the regulations. If the plan is upheld, it would require a majority of the Court to strike it down. With the Court now tied 4-4, such a ruling now seems nearly impossible. Even if the Senate does not confirm any successor, then, Scalia's absence alone reshapes the Court." ...

... Richard Mayhew, in Balloon Juice, also has a useful piece on the politics of upcoming (or already decided but not published Supreme) cases, an eight-person count & the nomination dynamic. ...

     ... CW: I'd like to remind readers that three of the best tactical politicians in Washington, D.C., are Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid & Barack Obama. If there is a way to effectively force a vote on a Supreme Court nominee, I think Reid & Obama can figure it out. Should it require the threat of publication of photos of McConnell & Chuck Grassley in flagrante with a distinct whiff of S&M, so be it. ...

... Rick Hasen: "... this is the moment. It is the beginning of the most important civil rights debate of our time." ...

... New York Times Editors: "The question now is whether the Senate will honor Justice Scalia's originalist view of the Constitution by allowing President Obama to appoint a successor, and providing its advice and consent in good faith. Or will the Republicans be willing to create a constitutional crisis and usurp the authority of the president to ensure that the Supreme Court functions as one branch of this government?" CW: I believe we know the answer. ...

... Libertarian Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic lays out why Constitutional scholar Ted Cruz's call to block any nominee is contrary to the Senate's Constitutional duties: "There is no agreed upon standard of what legitimate advice and consent entails. But any standard that rejects a nomination before it is even made fails the laugh test. Few truly believe that the Framers would regard 'I want to wait until the next president is chosen' as a legitimate reason to block a Supreme Court appointment." ...

... CW: Seems to me that Ted & Marco have already declared themselves ineligible to vote on any Senate business. Like Obama, Marco is an incontrivertible lame duck: both are leaving their jobs next January. Ted is a declared lame duck: he intends to take another job come late January. If the president is proscribed from doing his Constitutional duty under some theory of lame-duckiness, then so are senators who wish themselves out of the Senate. Pennsylvania Avenue is a two-way street.

... Steve M.: "... Republicans are largely going to have message discipline. Many of them are going to argue, in all seriousness, that Obama is a lame duck, and therefore not really president, so he should let the next president replace Scalia. They'll say that we're in the midst of a campaign to choose his successor, so even offering up a nominee would be the height of arrogance. The Constitution says nothing of the sort, but these self-styled worshipers of our founding documents will talk as if Obama is betraying American values just by doing his job."

... Benjamin Mullin of Poynter: "How the San Antonio Express-News broke news of Scalia's death." ...

... Alan Blinder & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times describe the luxury Cibolo Creek Ranch where Justice Scalia died.

Presidential Race

Kevin Drum: The death of Justice Scalia has created what now will be "the most important issue in the presidential campaign. Appointing Supreme Court justices has always been one of the biggest reasons to care about who wins in November, but it's stayed mostly under the radar until now. No longer. Both sides will go ballistic over this, and the Supreme Court will suddenly seem like the most vital presidential power ever. If you thought things were getting nasty before this, just wait. You ain't seen nothing yet."

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates faced off Saturday night in a contentious final debate before next week's South Carolina primary, sparring about immigration and foreign policy and attacking one another personally in an affair that verged on mean-spirited." CW: Cruz, Trump & Rubio called each other (& George W. Bush) liars -- nice soundbytes for the general election. And of course, they're all right; they are liars. ...

... Dylan Matthews has quite a helpful summary/analysis of the debate. With clips (which don't seem to load). ...

... Ted Cruz is such a good debater, he can rebut Marco Rubio in a language Marco says Ted doesn't speak:

     ... Cruz has said his mastery of Spanish "is lousy."

... Philip Rucker & Jenna Johnson the Washington Post: "The six remaining Republican presidential candidates sparred with ferocity over U.S. foreign policy in a debate here Saturday night, with front-runner Donald Trump savaging former president George W. Bush's intervention in Iraq, which helped spawn more than a decade of instability in the Middle East." ...

... Matt Yglesias of Vox: "... after months of watching Trump say things that are racist, absurd, patently false, or all three at once the Republican Party establishment decided to stomp on him for saying things that are basically true.... It was a bizarre and telling moment, in which the battered forces of the Republican establishment finally picked themselves up off the floor specifically in order to defend some of its least-defensible conduct of the 21st Century."

Alan Rappeport: "The two-hour [Republican] debate airs live on CBS beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern time." Rappeport reports on other ways to see or hear the debate. CW: I'll be damned if I join the virtual audience. ...

     ... CW: Apparently there is so little interest in the debate that none of the major U.S. newspapers is liveblogging it. Here's the Guardian's liveblog.

New York Times: "The Republican presidential candidates face off Saturday in Greenville, S.C., at 9 p.m. Eastern time, one week before the state's primary. There will be one candidate fewer on stage because Gov. Chris Christie, whose debate performance one week ago blunted the momentum of Senator Marco Rubio, dropped out after the New Hampshire primary. We asked political reporters for The New York Times what they would be looking for in the debate...."

** Today's History Lesson. Ben Fountain of the Guardian on political hucksters Pappy O'Daniel & Joe McCarthy. For some strange reason, the Guardian also posts photos of Donald Trump & Ted Cruz within the text. (The Coen brothers moved O'Daniel to Mississippi & made O'Daniel's opponent the "broom-sweeping reformer"):

Oh, what the hell. Tim Blake Nelson & the Soggy Bottom Boys:

Nicholas Confessore & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton set out on Saturday to blunt one of Bernie Sanders's most potent arguments against her, attacking the Vermont senator as a one-note rival whose relentless focus on Wall Street excess and exorbitant political spending would do little to improve the lives of Americans. The line of attack, laid out at a rally [in Henderson, Nevada,] with labor union members and amplified more pointedly by a video Mrs. Clinton's campaign released on Saturday morning, comes as she is seeking to sow doubts about Mr. Sanders's readiness for office and defend herself as a more reliable and proven fighter for Democratic interests." ...

... Steven Myers of the New York Times: "The State Department released 551 more emails from the personal server of Hillary Clinton on Saturday, including 84 with some or all of the messages blocked out because they contained information that has now been deemed classified. Three of those are classified 'secret.'" ...

... ** Maureen Dowd: "The interesting thing about the spectacle of older women trying to shame younger ones on behalf of Hillary is that Hillary and Bill killed the integrity of institutional feminism back in the '90s -- with the help of Albright and Steinem.... Seeing Albright, the first female secretary of state, give cover to President Clinton was a low point in women's rights. As was the New York Times op-ed by Steinem, arguing that Lewinsky's will was not violated, so no feminist principles were violated. What about Clinton humiliating his wife and daughter and female cabinet members? What about a president taking advantage of a gargantuan power imbalance with a 22-year-old intern? What about imperiling his party with reckless behavior that put their feminist agenda at risk?... [Feminists have made an] ugly Faustian bargain with the Clintons, not only on the sex cover-ups but the money grabs: You can have our bright public service side as long as you accept our dark sketchy side. Young women today, though, are playing by a different set of rules. And they don't like the Clintons setting themselves above the rules." ...

... CW: As any math-challenged cynic might say, I agree with Dowd A THOUSAND PERCENT!!!! It was not only Bill Clinton who betrayed feminists in the Lewinsky affair; it was also the powerful women, including his wife, who defended him.

Politics Makes Asses of the Finest People. The Very Finest Apologize. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "John Lewis, the influential congressman who this week appeared to dismiss Bernie Sanders' credentials on civil rights issues, has sought to soften the ensuing controversy over his remarks.... On Saturday, he said he had not meant to express doubt 'that Senator Sanders participated in the civil rights movement, neither was I attempting to disparage his activism'.... As a student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was involved in the Congress on Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), of which Lewis was chairman. Sanders was also arrested while protesting.... Lewis also clarified a comment made on Thursday in which he said he had known Bill and Hillary Clinton in the civil rights era. Lewis said he 'did not say that I met Hillary and Bill Clinton when I was chairman of SNCC in the 1960s'."

... John Frank & Joey Bunch of the Denver Post: "Bernie Sanders galvanized a crowd of more than 18,000 with a populist message against inequality.... Hillary Clinton's campaign hosted a small event that featured party leaders and teary families affected by gun violence." Read on. Sanders will go to a party & criticize the hosts, to wit: at "the Colorado Democratic Party's annual fundraising dinner..., Sanders took the stage in front of a room of well-heeled Democrats and called for a more inclusive party not controlled by wealthy donors." Clinton, not so much: "Clinton struck an optimistic tone as she focused on raising incomes for the middle class, addressing student debt and continuing the fight toward universal health care." ...

... Yamiche Alcindor : "Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pointedly criticized Republican officials for recommending that President Obama hold off on nominating a successor for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court, who died Saturday. Speaking on Saturday at an annual fund-raising dinner hosted by the Colorado Democratic Party, Mr. Sanders said Republicans are overlooking the powers given to the president in the Constitution.... Hillary Clinton made similar remarks at the same dinner." ...

... Talia Lepson, chair of the College Democrats of Massachusetts Women's Caucus, in a Globalist essay: "I am voting for Bernie Sanders because I am a feminist." Thanks to D.C. Clark for the link.

News Ledes

AP: "Turkey shelled positions held by a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in northern Syria for a second day on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the Syrian government, whose forces are advancing against insurgents in the same area under the cover of Russian airstrikes."

AP: "Pope Francis urged Mexicans to shun the devil and resist the temptations of wealth and corruption Sunday as he celebrated an open-air Mass for hundreds of thousands of people in this drug- and violence-riddled city [-- Ecatepec --] on the outskirts of Mexico's capital."

Weather Channel: "A blast of bitter cold arctic air has brought the coldest temperatures in decades to some Northeast cities Valentine's Day morning."