The Commentariat -- August 12, 2014

Internal links removed.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama said Monday that Iraq had taken a 'promising step forward' in forming a more inclusive government even as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appeared to resist efforts to replace him as the country's leader. Speaking briefly to reporters from his vacation home on Martha's Vineyard, Mr. Obama did not mention Mr. Maliki but pledged his support for Haider al-Abadi, the man chosen to succeed him. And Mr. Obama vowed to step up his support for a new government in its intensifying fight against Sunni militants":

... Loveday Morris & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Iraq’s president chose a veteran Shiite politician to lead the government on Monday, setting the stage for a vicious political showdown in a country already struggling to contain an extremist Islamist insurgency. Even with the odds stacked irreconcilably against him, the incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, dug in for a fight. He used legal channels to argue that the appointment of 62-year-old Haider al-Abadi, who has been called on to form a government, is invalid." ...

... AFP: "Iran, a key ally of Iraq's sidelined Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said Tuesday it backed the legal process which led to him being replaced, following the nomination of Haidar al-Abadi as premier. The statement was the first official signal that Maliki no longer enjoys the support of his fellow Shiite leaders and politicians in Tehran to stay on as head of government in Baghdad." ...

... Katharine Murphy of the Guardian: "US combat forces will not re-enter Iraq, John Kerry insists, but the US says it will explore more 'political, economic and security options' as the country transitions out of political deadlock with a new prime minister. During a visit to Australia for the annual Ausmin talks, the secretary of state told reporters the US government congratulated Haider al-Abadi on his nomination, and he urged the incoming prime minister to form a new, inclusive and functional cabinet 'as swiftly as possible'." ...

... Anne Gearan: "The United States is ready to offer significant additional economic and military aid to Iraq under a new, less sectarian, government, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday. The Obama administration is offering the prospect of more money and military backing short of combat forces as an inducement toward the rapid formation of a new government to replace Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki." ...

... Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast: "President Obama got angry at lawmakers who suggested in a private meeting that he should have armed the Syrian rebels, calling the criticism 'horseshit.' CW: While it's impossible to know what would have happened had the U.S. armed the Syrian moderates, Obama's reasoning seems sound. ...

... NEW. ** John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "... what really stands from the [Clinton & Obama] interviews is the strident tone that Clinton adopted in her comments on Gaza and radical Islam. In defending the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's deadly response to Hamas's rocket attacks, she sounded almost like a spokesperson for [AIPAC]. In talking about the threat of militant Islam more generally, her words echoed those of Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, who has called for a generation-long campaign against Islamic extremism -- a proposal that one of his former cabinet ministers dubbed 'back to the Crusades.'" Read the whole post. Thanks to Diane for the lead. ...

... Mark Landler of the New York Times: "For the 19 months since Hillary Rodham Clinton departed as President Obama's secretary of state, she and Mr. Obama, and their staffs, have labored to preserve a veneer of unity over how they worked together and how they view the world. On Sunday, the veneer shattered -- the victim of Mrs. Clinton's remarkably blunt interview with Jeffrey Goldberg..., in which she criticized not just Mr. Obama's refusal to aid the rebels in Syria, but his shorthand description of his entire foreign policy.... Mrs. Clinton is suggesting that she and the president hold different views on how best to project American power: His view is cautious, inward-looking, suffused with a sense of limits, while hers is muscular, optimistic, unabashedly old-fashioned." ...

... CW: Precisely why I don't think Clinton is in any way a shoo-in for the presidency. The majority of Americans now, as usual, are forward-looking. Going back to the good ole days when use of force was the U.S.'s way of solidifying its world leadership is not just immoral, it's "unabashedly old-fashioned." Clinton is the Been-There-Done-That candidate. Nostalgia could have worked in 2008 when the country was traumatized by the economic collapse, but it is far less likely to work now. ...

... CNN gossip reporter Jim Acosta: "Only days after offering a stinging rebuke of President Barack Obama's foreign policy, Hillary Clinton plans to attend a party in Martha's Vineyard alongside the President on Wednesday." ...

... "The Obama Paradox." Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect: Barack Obama "is one of the best-informed and most thoughtful foreign policy presidents we have had in a long time, but his very appreciation of complexity often comes across as indecision. No president ever wins points for being Hamlet. In today's foreign policy crises, there are few good choices. Somehow, this president needs to hold on to his prudence while finding more decisiveness." CW: I disagree with Kuttner on his analysis of the Middle East/U.S. analogy. I think Obama's analogy is apt. I probably disagree with Kuttner's larger point, too, but I'm not well-enough informed to be certain.

Zeke Miller of Time: "President Barack Obama hinted at the possibility of an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court Monday during a fundraiser for Senate Democrats. Speaking to a group of donors to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on a break from his vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Obama said he needs Democrats to hold a majority this year to fill vacancies to the high court.... A White House spokesperson said Obama did not have a specific vacancy in mind Monday."

Dana Milbank says President Obama should not have gone on vacation: "The highly visible wartime vacation (Obama allowed himself to be photographed on a putting green Saturday with NBA star Ray Allen and retired pro-football player Ahmad Rashad) was not looking any better Monday as Iraq's political crisis worsened, NATO's chief declared a 'high probability' of Russian military intervention in Ukraine and Gaza remained on a knife edge."

Tim Mak of the Daily Beast: "On both sides of the aisle, there is a racial pay gap in campaign politics. Asian, Black and Latino staffers are paid less than their white counterparts, according to an analysis by the New Organizing Institute. For example, African-American staffers on Democratic campaigns were paid 70 cents for each dollar their white counterparts made. For Hispanic staffers in Democratic campaigns, the figure was 68 cents on the dollar.... Jamal Simmons, a Democratic political operative[, said,] 'The problem is: they don't hire African Americans, Latinos in the parts of the campaigns where they spend the most money. The most money in campaigns is spent in communications, polling and data. In those parts of the campaign, it's very much mostly white.... There's a presumption that minorities can't manage "white" issues. There's a presumption that white voters won't like to see a black press secretary, or that white voters won't want to see an African-American or Latino political director."

Alexandra Alter of the New York Times (August 4): Rick "Perlstein's new 856-page book, 'The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan,' which comes out Tuesday[, August 5], is proving to be almost as divisive as Reagan himself. It has drawn both strong reviews from prominent book critics, and sharp criticism from some scholars and commentators who accuse Mr. Perlstein of sloppy scholarship, improper attribution and plagiarism." ...

... Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times public editor: "My take: There's a problem here. An article about polarized reaction to a high-profile book is, of course, fair game. But the attention given to the plagiarism accusation is not.... This one comes from the author of a book on the same subject with an opposing political orientation. By taking it seriously, The Times conferred a legitimacy on the accusation it would not otherwise have had. And while it is true that Mr. Perlstein and his publisher were given plenty of opportunity to respond, that doesn't help much. It's as if The Times is saying: Here's an accusation; here's a denial; and, heck, we don't really know. We're staying out of it.... So I'm with the critics. The Times article amplified a damaging accusation of plagiarism without establishing its validity and doing so in a way that is transparent to the reader."

Senate Races

Meredith Shiner of Yahoo! News: "... the path to victory in a state where both [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell and President Obama have approval ratings below 40 percent appears to involve taking a startlingly negative, partisan tone. Tough-talking television and radio ads have begun to flood the airwaves, an assault that will only grow more intense as summer turns to fall in a race whose costs are expected to top $100 million. McConnell and his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, speak as if Kentucky is in the middle of a cultural Civil War."

Mark Leibovich of the New York Times Magazine assesses the Michelle Nunn campaign strategy book that the National Review got hold of last month. Leibovich shows, point by point, how "this document confirms every worst suspicion that people tend to have about campaigns." CW: I don't think most of us needed written confirmation of most of these points. But kind of funny, especially where Leibovich goes into lit-crit mode.

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "With his Virginia Beach rental properties hemorrhaging tens of thousands of dollars each year, former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell turned repeatedly to family and wealthy benefactors for large loans, a man who helped manage the properties' finances testified Monday."

Wesley Lowery & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The FBI on Monday launched a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer, an incident that has set off days of unrest in this St. Louis suburb and pushed the question of racial fairness again to the forefront of national discussion. Michael Brown, a college-bound 18-year-old, was shot and killed Saturday in this small, predominantly African American city after an apparent confrontation with police. His death immediately inspired both solemn vigils and angry protests, which in recent days have left some stores looted, buildings burned and shattered glass in the streets. At least 32 people have been arrested on suspicion of looting." ...

... Alan Zagier of the AP: "Police in riot gear fired tear gas to try to disperse a crowd in a St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teenager had been fatally shot by a police officer over the weekend. Between two nights of unrest, a community forum hosted by the local NAACP chapter Monday drew hundreds to a sweltering church in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot multiple times. Witnesses have said that Brown had his hands raised when the unnamed officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly."

Mark Stern of Slate: "For the first time since the Supreme Court overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act in June of 2013, a court has ruled that the constitution does not protect gay couples’ right to get married. The decision, issued by Roane County Circuit Judge Russell E. Simmons Jr., of Kingston, Tennessee, holds that Tennessee's gay marriage ban is rationally related to state interests and thus does not violate the Constitution's equal protection clause.... His ruling, however, may signal the beginning of some rough sledding for gay marriage advocates. Last week, a panel on the 6^th Circuit, which covers Tennessee, seemed poised to rule against gay marriage. If they do so, their decision would all but force the Supreme Court to confront the issue head-on."

News Ledes

New York Times: "After two days of defiant speeches and special security units deployed in the Iraqi capital, raising the specter of a coup, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki appeared to back away on Tuesday from his implied threat to use force to stay in power, issuing a statement saying that the army should stay out of politics."

Sky News: "The UN says up to 35,000 refugees have escaped Iraq's Mount Sinjar and are 'exhausted' and 'dehydrated'. The refugees, mostly from the minority Yazidi sect, managed to reach northern Iraq's Kurdistan region through Syria over the past three days."

Hollywood Reporter: "Lauren Bacall, the willowy actress whose husky voice, sultry beauty and all-too-short May-December romance with Humphrey Bogart made her an everlasting icon of Hollywood, has died, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. She was 89." ...

     ... Update: The New York Times obituary is here.

Los Angeles Times: "Actor and comedian Robin Williams committed suicide by hanging himself after first apparently trying to to slash one of his wrists, authorities said Tuesday. Marin County sheriff's Lt. Keith Boyd said Williams hanged himself with a belt in his bedroom, where he was found by his personal assistant shortly before noon on Monday."

Hill: "The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said it has endorsed the use of experimental drugs to help treat victims of the Ebola virus, which more than 1,800 people have contracted in several countries in Africa."

Los Angeles Times: "The NBA announced that Steve Ballmer’s $2-billion purchase of the Clippers had closed on Tuesday, making the former Microsoft CEO the undisputed owner of the team."

New York Times: "An enormous Russian convoy of about 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid has left Moscow for southeastern Ukraine, Russian television and news agencies reported Tuesday.... President Vladimir V. Putin and other senior Russian officials all insisted on Monday that it was a peaceful convoy coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross."

AP: "A temporary Israel-Hamas truce was holding for a second day Tuesday as marathon, indirect negotiations on a lasting cease-fire and a long-term solution for the battered Gaza Strip were set to resume in Cairo." ...

... Guardian: "Local officials and humanitarian workers began to inspect the latest damage the war had caused in the overcrowded enclave, with assessments indicating earlier estimates may have been optimistic. In Gaza City, which has a population of half a million, 20%-25% of the housing stock had been damaged, said Nihad al-Mughni of the engineering department. Mohammed al-Kafarna, the mayor of Beit Hanoun, a northern town which saw fierce fighting and heavy bombardment, said 70% of homes were uninhabitable. 'Basically the town is unliveable. There is no power, water or communications. There are not the basics for life,' he said."

AP: "Police in riot gear fired tear gas to try to disperse a crowd in a St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teenager had been fatally shot by a police officer over the weekend. Between two nights of unrest, a community forum hosted by the local NAACP chapter Monday drew hundreds to a sweltering church in Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb where 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot multiple times. Witnesses have said that Brown had his hands raised when the unnamed officer approached with his weapon drawn and fired repeatedly."

The New York Times' obituary of Robin Williams is here. David Edelstein's appreciation, in New York, is here. ...

... Hollywood Reporter: "Robin Williams's unexpected death Monday brings to an end the comedian's long battle with cocaine and alcohol addiction."

Comments

[Kate Madison]

So...Obama's low numbers (under 40%) in latest McClatchy poll show that Democratic candidates are being hurt. At this point, numbers show voters are more likely 42-32% to vote Republican just because they do not like Obama.

What the fuck? Vote for a crazoid Republican because you don't like Obama and his cerebral ways. Are people deaf, dumb and blind--plus not paying attention? How could any adult with an IQ over 70 possibly vote for one of the creepy wing nuts? I just don't get it.

My worst fears coming true--American voters really ARE that
stupid. They believe what they see on the Koch brothers Tee Vee ads, and some still think Obama is not a "real" American. I don't think racism has ever been worse in this sad country as at this moment. Many, if not most, people honestly think that Iraq is all Obama's fault--as if the invasion were on his watch. Yikes!

Fox News will have to take a bow on this one if the stats prove true. Corruption, lies and pandering to power are right wing America. Get me outta here!

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/08/11/235995/obamas-standing-among-voters-is.html

[PD Pepe]

The term, sui generis, fits when describing Robin Williams. He was, absolutely, one of a kind. There was no one who could replicate his riffs––ever. In some ways the character, Mork, coming from outer space was emblematic of the mindset of Williams––he was not one of us but someone gifted with special skills not of this world. But with that brilliance comes struggle as happens with so many of our celebrities and with Williams I think it was that vulnerability, that deeply human thing in him that we, his audience, sensed and fell in love with and that he, in a completely different way, had to grapple with.

[Ken Winkes]

My take on Hillary's (muted) tough talk, sent to the Times last night, responding to Brooks' column.

"Is it possible that Ms. Clinton, a very smart and savvy politician, is early on deliberately portraying herself as "strong," ok "muscular" if you prefer, Mr. Brooks, in anticipation of attacks from the Right, who though thoroughly discredited by recent history, will nonetheless mount predictable attacks on her candidacy, saying she is "weak" because she is both a Democrat and a woman?

I would expect she will attempt to sound "tougher" as the months pass, suggesting along the way she might have dealt more effectively with the unraveling of the Middle East than her former boss has managed.

Maybe, maybe not, but Monday morning quarterbacking makes sense for someone trying to carve out a winning position..."

....which in this case would include distancing herself from a former boss with a (fair or not) forty percent approval rating.

And to her credit and benefit, her toughness will never come across as angry, ignorant and downright loony as do McCain and Graham when they blather about foreign policy and how terribly the White House has managed it.

All this is not to say, I'm enthusiastic about her possible candidacy. There's a lot not to like in the Clinton's, but unlike the R's, they don't scare me to death.

[PD Pepe]

And as I was thinking of William's death I thought of how Michael Brown's parents are grieving for the death of their son, not famous, not even known except within his circle, but the grief just as deep.

The sociologist, Alice Goffman, who embedded herself with "the hood" in a low income neighborhood in Pennsylvania, lived among part-time crack dealers, young black men whose livelihood had been reduced to dealing due to a myriad number of reasons (one kid, because of his mother's addiction, started dealing so that she didn't have to prostitute herself). Here's Goffman's eye witness description of what the police went about:

"I watched the police break down doors, search houses and question, arrest, or chase people through houses fifty-two times. Nine times, police helicopters circled overhead and beamed searchlights onto local streets. I noted blocks taped off and traffic redirected as police searched for evidence . . . seventeen times. Fourteen times during my first eighteen months of near daily observation, I watched the police punch, choke, kick, stomp on, or beat young men with their nightsticks."

We recently had another beloved, famous actor die––this time of a drug overdose–-I doubt whether Hoffman or Williams, for that matter, ever had the cops hunt them down, invade their home, or arrest them. And poor Michael Brown was just walking to his grandmother's house when the wolf in the squad car needed to get his fix for the day.

Something to think about when we bury these dead.

[Akhilleus]

Al Arabiya, a rival to Al Jazeera for pan-Arabic viewers, reported that "We have not known Iraqi, regional and international enthusiasm like what we’ve seen in the past few days to remove Nouri al-Maliki from the Iraqi premiership. Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Arabs, Americans and the United Nations have all agreed on removing Maliki".

Whatever the editorial stance of Al Arabiya, it seems clear that this is the prevailing mood in Iraq. The ouster, which has been met by intransigence and arrogance by Maliki typifies the response of a slimeball puppet handpicked by Bush and Cheney; a corrupt, crony-plagued scumbag, just like them.

How long now before Cheney takes to the airwaves, with his typical bellicose bluster, to remind everyone, once again, that he was right, that Maliki was the right man for the job and snarling that it was all Obama's fault that it all went to shit.

Maybe he can be Chuckie Todd's first guest.

[Akhilleus]

Regarding the kerfuffle over the new Rick Pearlstein book on Saint Ronnie, the chance that wingers would attack anything written by someone not thoroughly transfused by the wonderfulness of Reagan conservatism is a lock, but for the Times to go after him because of spurious--and eminently disprovable--claims of plagiarism, is one more win for rightwing propaganda and fear mongering, the fear being that which lives in the shriveled hearts of writers and editors who cringe at the idea of finding themselves in conservative crosshairs.

If anyone should know what is and what isn't plagiarism, one would think it would be the Times. After one of the most infamous episodes of plagiarism in modern journalism history, they, of all institutions should be able to say with clarity what constitutes plagiarism and what does not meet those standards.

I haven't seen the Reagan book yet, but claims of sloppy scholarship don't match the level of Pearlstein's previous work. I've only read "Nixonland", but it was a masterpiece of historical narration, rife with attributions and source material. And from what I've read, he goes out of his way in this book to do the same.

The criticisms being leveled at him clearly come not just from the usual raft of partisan fucksticks, but from people who have never read much history (although in fairness, nothing published by Regnery Publishing could be truly be called works of history. Fantasy? Wish fulfillment? Outright lies? Sure. But not history). Historians since Thucydides and Herodotus have relied on earlier sources. Everyone from Tacitus to Holinshed to Carlyle to Toynbee has worked and reworked earlier accounts, memoirs, letters, and books in the creation of their own work.

To pretend that Pearlstein's doing so is below the belt and amounts to some kind of plagiarism is pure ignorance.

[Diane]

John Cassidy in the New Yorker, 8/11 good insight on Clinton's interviews with Goldberg and (what dickhead) Freidman.

[Haley Simon]

Ken, after reading your comment on Hillary I am heartened enough to remove all the duct tape from my windows and repair the gas leak. Every day I thank the gods for this atoll of sanity.

[Akhilleus]

Haley,

If I was Marie, I'd be tempted to say "No trouble atoll".

But I'm not, so I won't.

(Sorry, I must indulge my love of weak humor now and again...)

[Akhilleus]

Dana Millbank is scolding the president for taking a vacation. Really, Dana? So tell us, when IS it okay for him to take a few days? When?

And does anyone really think that Obama, even when he's on vacation, is not connected. The only president who really shut it all down was the Decider.

As of this point in his tenure, Obama has taken, according to an article on cbsnews.com, 125 full or partial days. Bush at this point in his presidency, had taken well over a full year's worth. No partial days either. By the time he slithered out of the White House, the Decider had racked up over 400 days off.

Many of Obama's vacations have been cut short when he felt obliged to return to the White House for various situations. Bush? Not so much. After Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, Bush didn't think it was any big deal and stayed at his "ranch" to nap. He did a little flyover the next week then went back on vacation. Oh, he did interrupt his nap time once. He came back to DC to sign a bill telling a man in Florida that he and the other Republicans didn't give a shit about what he felt was the right thing to do with handling his wife's medical situation (Terry Schiavo), he was, by god, going to order her feeding tube reinserted.

I guess making sure that whacko fundamentalist demands that they all insert themselves into the private lives and decisions of one married couple far outweighed death, deprivation, displacement, and homelessness of thousands in a major American city, because black, no doubt.

Anyway, if this president needs a few days of R&R, he's earned it. What about members of congress who hightail it out of the city after doing not doing shit for months on end? Members of congress work about 1/3 as much as the rest of us. Correction. They're in a place of work for those few days. They don't actually do anything. No complaints about congressional leaders lazing around, Dana?

Find something serious to write about, okay?