The Commentariat -- Feb. 17, 2016

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. ...

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama on Tuesday offered an extended critique of the Republicans running to replace him, describing them as 'troubling' to people around the world and singling out Donald J. Trump as someone who would not be a serious president":

... 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Coming Soon -- An American Show Trial. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Mitch McConnell's message to the White House after Antonin Scalia's death on Saturday seemed unequivocal: Don't even bother sending a Supreme Court nominee to Congress, we won't act on it. But on Tuesday, some Republicans were signaling they're open to at least holding hearings, if not allowing a confirmation vote.... Essentially, the GOP message is this: We respect Obama's decision to make a nomination, even though that appointee stands no chance of being confirmed. It's a more nuanced view than an outright blockade, and suggests that the optics of barring a Supreme Court nominee from even a courtesy hearing are making some Republicans queasy." ...

... 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.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... 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.'" ...

... Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg thinks the GOP's knee-jerk obstructionim is a sign the party is running skeert: "For a party with faith in itself and in the American project, a Supreme Court vacancy is worthy of a pitched, strategic battle. But Republicans don't believe they have a popular judicial or political philosophy, and they are so dependent on the court's activist conservative bloc that a potential shift of a single judge is deemed catastrophic." ...

... The Ladies & Gentlemen of the Right Have Left the Government. Steve Benen: "Republicans' willingness to cause a breakdown in modern governing isn't the result of broken laws, but rather, abandoned norms. Federal policymakers have long been able to do what GOP lawmakers are now doing, but traditionally, officials saw such tactics as simply unacceptable. There were certain steps responsible adults in positions of authority just would not take -- they could go to unprecedented extremes, but a sense of propriety led to a recognition that such radicalism should be avoided.... Before the Obama era and the radicalization of Republican politics, the idea of federal legislators trying to sabotage American policies seemed genuinely ridiculous, but that's no longer the case." ...

     ... CW: I think Benen is wrong on this. For all of my adult life, the House & Senate have been filled with obstructionists. In the bad old days they were Southern Democrats & a few Joe McCarthy & Barry Goldwater types. In the wake of the civil rights movement, they became Republicans from everywhere but the Northeast. Newt Gingrich shut down the government as surely as Ted Cruz would. Republicans delegitimized Bill Clinton even though many of his policies were pretty damned conservative. The big difference is that there are many more wingers in the Congress now, so many more that they have the power to shut down government functions -- as in this refusal to consider a Supreme Court nominee -- and they do. I don't blame Republicans; I blame the ignorant bastards who vote for them. ...

... Charles Pierce: [CW: On January 20, 1801, months after Thomas Jefferson defeated him in the presidential race], "John Adams [who was a true 'lame duck' president,] went out and nominated John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States.... On January 27, 1801, Marshall was unanimously confirmed; the man who virtually invented the current role of the Supreme Court as an equal branch of the government was himself the nominee of a lame duck president. If you're going to argue what the Founders 'would have done' in a certain situation, it's helpful to look at what they actually did." (Emphasis added.) ...

... Emily Bazelon, in the New York Times Magazine: "If every justice must have credentials like those currently serving on the Supreme Court, then the definition of who is qualified has become exceedingly narrow.... Former federal judges were in the minority on the Supreme Court until the 1970s.... The politician who left the greatest mark on the court is probably Earl Warren, a former governor of California.... Maybe it's time for a magic ingredient -- one that would bring a kind of wisdom to the court it currently lacks and would shake up the inevitable political battle to come, by introducing an element of surprise." ...

... 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Capitalism Is Way Too Awesome. Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "During the 2008 financial crisis, Neel Kashkari worked tirelessly to save the nation's largest banks. As a senior Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, he helped those banks grow larger than ever. On Tuesday, he said it was time to think about breaking them up. 'I believe the biggest banks are still too big to fail and continue to pose a significant, ongoing risk to our economy,' Mr. Kashkari said at the Brookings Institution, delivering his first public speech as the new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.... 'We need to move before we as a society have forgotten the lessons of '08,' he said.... Mr. Kashkari's remarks caused a stir in Washington.... Mr. Kashkari is a moderate Republican and a former employee of Goldman Sachs.... [Sen. Bernie] Sanders ... released a statement on Tuesday saying he was 'delighted' by the speech."

James Queally & Joel Rubin of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI access encrypted data hidden on a cellphone that belonged to the terrorist couple who killed 14 people in San Bernardino last year, according to a three-page decision handed down Tuesday." ...

... Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has released a statement in which he says that a court order that directs the company to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone could threaten the privacy of its customers. Mr. Cook's statement, a letter to Apple customers, was posted on the company's website on Tuesday night, several hours after a judge in California ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the gunmen in the December attack in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14 people. In his statement, Mr. Cook called the court order an 'unprecedented step' on the part of the United States government and he said that Apple would not comply." ...

     ... CW: Yes, Tim, because mass murderers have the expectation (even though they're dead) of privacy, too. And the order is an "unprecedented step" only because the lengths to which Apple has gone to encrypt its phones is unprecedented. That's nutso, buddy.

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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Annie Karni of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Tuesday offered a veiled rebuke of Bernie Sanders, arguing in a sweeping speech on the state of race in America that his fight to end economic inequality does little to address the systemic racism gripping the country." Clinton's full speech is here. ...

... Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: In her speech, Clinton tied Republicans' refusal to consider any Obama nominee to racism:

The Republicans say they'll reject anyone President Obama nominates no matter how qualified. Some are even saying he doesn't have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he's not the real president.... You know that's in keeping what we heard all along, isn't it? Many Republicans talk in coded racial language about takers and losers. They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugliest impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country. -- Hillary Clinton

Yeah, she's pandering. And yeah, she's right. Except the "paranoid fringe" is yuuuge. -- Constant Weader

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...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "Bernie Sanders sought Tuesday evening to rally black college students as he the continues efforts to make inroads with African-American voters. Speaking at historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, Sanders focused on his plan to reform the nation's criminal justice system and push for free college tuition....Sanders spoke of 'institutional racism' in his stop on a tour of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which was attended by more than 4,800 people, according to the school. Before the event, rival Hillary Clinton's campaign issued a statement slamming Sanders for leaving students at historically black colleges 'out in the cold.' Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a Morehouse alum, argued in the statement that Sanders' plan for tuition-free school at public colleges and university doesn't invest in private colleges like Morehouse." ...

... 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Bill Scher in Politico Magazine on what & how Bernie Sanders could win even if he loses to Hillary Clinton.

Jacob Heilbrunn in Politico Magazine: "The most basic problem for the Republican Party isn't that Donald Trump is so strong, but that his competitors are so weak.... It was [George W.] Bush's rapid abandonment of a bromidic 'compassionate conservatism' and foreign-policy restraint that exposed the GOP as a fatally divided party devoid of ideas. Thus, in debunking the GOP's hollow men and bringing the Bush-Cheney era to a close, Trump is essentially kicking in a rotten door.... The irony of the new darling of the party's disenchanted base is that his open divergence from the putative ideology of that base is near-complete. Trump preaches Trumpism; he doesn't seem to care at all what the official party doctrine is supposed to be." ...

... Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "... the stubborn popularity of Mr. Trump, who defies Republican orthodoxy on issue after issue, shows how deeply the party's elites misjudged the faithfulness of rank-and-file Republicans to conservatism as defined in Washington think tanks and by the party's elected leaders." ...

... All Black Men Look Alike. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Tuesday, [Donald] Trump repeatedly referred to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as 'Obama.' 'What Ted Cruz did to Obama, where he said that Obama had quit the race and take our votes," Trump began to say before being corrected by his audience. In fact, he was referring to an incident in which members of Cruz's campaign spread reports suggesting that Carson was dropping out of the race on the day of the Iowa caucuses." ...

     ... CW: Schreckinger's lede is tongue-in-cheek: "Donald Trump can't keep his Midwesterners straight." I'd say Politico does not allow its writers to indicate outright that Trump is so fundamentally racist that he "can't keep his black men straight." There are, of course, a few corollaries to Trump's Freudian slip, such as, "All Mexicans look alike." and "All A-Rabs look alike." It seems quite possible that President Trump would accidentally bomb Jordan when he meant to bomb Syria. ...

... In case you think Trump supporters will be all upset to find out their candidate is a hard-wired racist, Charles Pierce, with the help of Public Policy Polling, will disabuse you of that notion. ...

... Oh, & here's Trump, allowing himself to be dragged into the Scalia-was-murdered conspiracy theory. Listen to the audio. I love the part about how a "U.S. marshall appointed by Obama himself" was part of the cover-up. The charge is a little vague, but then conspiracy theorists do have to sort of gloss over facts or invent them outright. ...

... MEANWHILE, Torturing Women Is Hilarious. Mike Zapler of Politico: "When Marco Rubio vowed to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open if he becomes president, a man in the crowd piped up with a suggestion: 'Waterboard Hillary!' The standing-room-only crowd at a campaign rally laughed in approval, and Rubio played along. 'I don't want to know what he said .. the press is here,' Rubio joked. 'I didn't hear what they said," he added with a shrug. "I know it wasn't a bad word, that's all that matters.'" CW: Think about that for a second. Rubio thinks a "joke" about torturing a former first lady & secretary of state is laugh-worthy; he just doesn't want to get caught on tape saying so. He also thinks he's qualified to be POTUS.

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... 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...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... CW: So in the last 24 hours the top three GOP candidates have showed, among their other many stellar qualities, that one is a racist, one is a sadist & one is a whiney baby who dishes it out but can't take it. Millions of real Americans will vote for these assholes. ...

... In other whiney-boy news, Jeb! wants CBS "News" to apologize to him for mentioning reaction to a tweet of his titled "America" that featured a picture of a gun with Jeb!'s name on it. People urged him not to commit suicide. ...

     That engraved gun Jeb! seems to think represents America!? Rees Shapiro of the Washington Post: "While the company [that manufactures & gave Jeb! the gun] is known as FN America, it is actually a subsidiary of FN Herstal, a foreign corporation based in Belgium.... During World War II, the company was requisitioned by the Nazi military and its factories produced thousands of weapons for Axis troops, including pistols carried by Nazi officers and pilots.... Today, FN Herstal supplies countless arms to the U.S. military...."

... AND in communal whiney news, Jonathan Chait has an excellent post on winger reaction to Donald Trump's heretical remark that George W. Bush was the POTUS on September 11, 2001. "Republicans have walled inconvenient facts about the Bush administration's security record out of their minds by associating them with crazed conspiracy theorists. It is epistemic closure at work: Criticism of Bush on 9/11 and Iraq intelligence is dismissed because the only people who say it are sources outside the conservative movement, who by definition cannot be trusted. The possibility that the Republican Party itself would nominate a man who endorses these criticisms is horrifying to them." ...

All right, you've covered your ass now. -- President George W. Bush, responding to the CIA's presentation of the briefing memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," August 6, 2001 ...

... Martin Longman, in the Washington Monthly, writes a succinct history lesson on the George W. Bush administration's serial denials of an impending Al Qaeda attack.

Beyond the Beltway

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]." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian: "A federal judge Tuesday ordered Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to remain in custody pending trial on a complaint stemming from his 2014 standoff with federal agents trying to round up his cattle grazing on public land. U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart found Bundy, 69, remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee, citing his 'ongoing defiance of federal court orders.'... A six-count federal complaint out of Nevada charges Cliven Bundy with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, assault on a federal law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice, interference with commerce by extortion and two counts of carrying a firearm in relation to a crime of violence." ...

... The government's complaint is here. It's a doozy. The memo seeking Bundy's detention is here. It's an even creepier read.

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: The Post is too fastidious to say so, but elsewhere I read that she told an officer "to get your fucking hands off me." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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."