The Commentariat -- March 8, 2016
Afternoon Update:
AP: Re: Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Rebecca Bradley (see related stories linked in Beyond the Beltway): Gov. Scott "Walker on Tuesday said it's irrelevant whether he would have appointed Bradley as a judge if he had known of her college writings."
Looks like Bibi Netanyahu is up to his usual tricks.
"I Disavow." Courting the Racist Vote. Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "In the past week, Donald Trump has been asked repeatedly about the Ku Klux Klan and its notorious former grand wizard, David Duke. Trump still hasn't given voters the right answer.... He could easily make his stance on racism clear, but to this point, he has not done so."
*****
Amy Goldstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is considering nearly a half-dozen relatively new federal judges for President Obama's nomination to the Supreme Court, focusing on jurists with scant discernible ideology and limited judicial records as part of a strategy to surmount fierce Republican opposition.... The president is leaning toward a sitting federal judge to fill the vacancy -- and probably one the Senate confirmed with bipartisan support during his tenure." ...
... CW: On the upside, if Senate Republicans prevail, as they most likely will, & refuse to confirm (or even hear) President Obama's nominee, popular disgust with the Senate increases the chances that Hillary Clinton will become president, the Senate will return to a Democratic majority, & the new president can pick the nominee & new majority can confirm her.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a pair of unsigned opinions, the Supreme Court on Monday restored the rights of an adoptive mother who had split with her lesbian partner and reversed a murder conviction tainted by prosecutorial misconduct." Justices Alito & Thomas whined about the Court's handling of the murder case and "filed unusual concurrences in a series of orders concerning juvenile offenders sentenced to life without parole." ...
... CW: Odd Men Out? Maybe we're going to be seeing a number of 6-2 decisions this term.
Matt Krantz of USA Today: "There are 27 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500, including telecom firm Level 3 Communications (LVLT), airline United Continental (UAL) and automaker General Motors (GM), that reported paying no income tax expense in 2015 despite reporting pre-tax profits, according to a USA TODAY analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence."
Presidential Race
Today is primary day in Michigan & Mississippi. Hawaii & Idaho are holding Republican caucuses.
As the race stands now, with Republicans in charge of both Houses, there is a good chance that my candidacy could lead to the election of Donald Trump or Senator Ted Cruz. That is not a risk I can take in good conscience. -- Michael Bloomberg, today ...
... Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Michael R. Bloomberg, who for months quietly laid the groundwork to run for president as an independent, will not enter the 2016 campaign, he said Monday, citing his fear that a three-way race could lead to the election of a candidate he thinks would endanger the country: Donald J. Trump. In a forceful condemnation of his fellow New Yorker, Mr. Bloomberg said Mr. Trump has run 'the most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign I can remember, preying on people's prejudices and fears.' He said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump's threats to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the country and to initiate trade wars against China and Japan, and he was disturbed by Mr. Trump's 'feigning ignorance of David Duke,' the white supremacist leader whose support Mr. Trump initially refused to disavow." ...
... Here is Bloomberg's statement, which appeared as an editorial in his online Bloomberg publication. His remarks about Cruz: "Senator Cruz's pandering on immigration may lack Trump's rhetorical excess, but it is no less extreme. His refusal to oppose banning foreigners based on their religion may be less bombastic than Trump's position, but it is no less divisive." ...
... A rough cut of the ad Bloomberg would have run in support of the candidacy that wasn't. Via the New York Times:
** May the Worst Charlatan Win. Josh Barro, a conservative, explains how the Republican establishment "made Donald Trump's nomination possible. And no, it's not about racism; it's about something even more fundamental: Republicans' disdain of government & other "validating institutions."
Der Fuhrer Emerges from His Mussolini Pod. Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "Donald Trump's rally [in Concord, North Carolina,] began with the candidate asking all attendees to raise their hands and take an oath to vote for him, while extended barriers cordoned off the press and plainclothes private intelligence officers scoured the crowd for protestors. These new tactics, which the Trump campaign has introduced over the past week, represent refinements by Trump and his staff in their quest to control the atmosphere and message of his often unruly rallies. They come ... at a time when the emboldened candidate has escalated confrontations with protesters, leaving his podium to stare them down at his two most recent rallies and repeatedly lamenting that his supporters cannot retaliate against them." CW: No, this is not entertainment. ...
(... Nonetheless, contributor Patrick is right about this:
... Shmucks!) ...
... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating an incident last week in which a Secret Service agent apparently body-slammed a Time magazine photographer during a Donald Trump campaign rally in southwest Virginia, a spokesman for the DHS watchdog said Monday.... The results would likely be summarized in a management advisory, rather than a full-scale investigative report." ...
... CW: In the wake of an different altercation in Valdosta, Georgia, the Secret Service said it only acts to protect the candidate & does not participate in removing peaceful protesters from political rallies. So how does a credentialed photographer threaten the candidate by taking pictures of Trump goons removing protesters from his rallies? The photographer wasn't anywhere near the candidate & was not at all focused, so to speak, on the candidate. ...
... Dana Milbank: After urging fans to pledge allegiance to him at his rally in Orlando, Florida, Saturday, Donald Trump "watched a supporter grab and attempt to tackle protesters, at least one of them black, near the stage. 'You know, we have a divided country, folks,' Trump said. 'We have a terrible president who happens to be African American.' Loaded imagery, violence against dissenters and a racial attack on the president: It's all in a day's work for Trump.... Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt: 'Some people didn't approve of Hitler's anti-Semitism, but they went along with it because he was going to make Germany great again.'"
... It's 1980 All Over Again. Jonathan Soble & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "Mr. Trump chastised Japan last week in a Republican candidates' debate, naming it along with China and Mexico as countries where 'we are getting absolutely crushed on trade.' He has previously accused Japan of manipulating its currency to achieve an unfair economic advantage, and of exploiting its military alliance with the United States to protect itself at little risk and cost. His complaints are reminiscent of another era.... Mr. Trump's ascendance has begun to cause serious unease in Japan. Even if his run ends short of the White House, the worry is that an election dominated by such talk could leave the United States more closed to trade and less willing to defend its allies." P.S. Clinton has echoed Trump's rhetoric. ...
... Paul Krugman: "Romney declares with horror that Trump would start a trade war. His economics is all wrong, which is the main thing; but it's also worth noting that thee and a half years ago Romney himself argued for exactly the same policies Trump advocates now, blithely dismissing the dangers.... Four Pinnochios on each side. Romney talks nonsense economics, and condemns as terrible the very policies he himself called for not long ago. But Trump is stuck in a time warp, making arguments that had some force when China was booming but none in the current situation."
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "The daughter of a reputed New Jersey mob figure says her late father had a longtime relationship with Donald Trump that included gambling millions of dollars at one of his casinos, flying on his helicopter and partying aboard his private yacht.... When asked about [Robert] LiButti by a reporter, the casino mogul suggested he barely knew the foul-mouthed gambler. 'I have heard he is a high roller, but if he was standing here in front of me, I wouldn't know what he looked like,' Trump told the Philadelphia Inquirer in February 1991. But Edith Creamer, LiButti's daughter, told Yahoo News in two recent telephone interviews that ... Trump and her father knew each other quite well.... 'Of course he knew him. I flew in the [Trump] helicopter with [Trump's then wife] Ivana and the kids. My dad flew it up and down [to Atlantic City]. My 35th birthday party was at the Plaza and Donald was there. After the party, we went on his boat, his big yacht.'" ...
... Steve M.: "All this might seem appalling to general election voters. But it won't upset Trump's base at all." ...
... Kevin Drum: "Megan McArdle says Donald Trump will never run as a third-party candidate for president because he's not rich enough. It costs upwards of a billion dollars to run for president these days, and Trump doesn't have that kind of scratch. So what's he going to do? Raise it from billionaires after spending the entire primary claiming that anyone who raises money from billionaires is corrupt and crooked? Well, this is Donald Trump we're talking about, so sure.... The whole self-funding schtick won't work in a general election.... It won't work if he runs as the Republican nominee, either. He's going to have to raise money from rich people. So why haven't any of the other candidates asked about this?" ... ...
... I have the best words. -- Donald Trump. CW: If, like me, you were not "highly-educated" at an "Ivy League university" you may not know what Trump means by "the best words." Poor little dummkopf that I am, I'll guess he means either that he has command of a yuuuge vocabulary (even though for some reason he speaks in public at a third- to fifth-grade level) or that he assembles those excellent words in an eloquent manner:
Ryan Grim, et al., of the Huffington Post: "Billionaires, tech CEOs and top members of the Republican establishment flew to a private island resort off the coast of Georgia this weekend for the American Enterprise Institute's annual World Forum.... The main topic at the closed-to-the-press confab? How to stop Republican front-runner Donald Trump.... Sources familiar with the meeting ... said that much of the conversation around Trump centered on 'how this happened, rather than how are we going to stop him,' as one person put it." ...
... CW: Instead of playing golf & wringing their hands, those tech geniuses could put up some trumpforpresident.com sites featuring renderings of Trump disrobed, a la Dan Savage's santorum.com page. To save the nation. ...
... Julia Preston of the New York Times: Many Latinos who are legal residents of the U.S. are applying for citizenship in the hopes of becoming naturalized in time to vote against Donald Trump. "While naturalizations generally rise during presidential election years, Mr. Trump provided an extra boost this year.... This year immigrants seeking to become citizens can find extra help from nonprofit groups and even from the White House. Last September, President Obama launched a national campaign to galvanize legal residents to take the step.... The majority of Latinos are Democrats, and some Republicans accuse the White House of leading a thinly veiled effort to expand the ranks of the president's party. But administration officials argue the campaign is nonpartisan...." ...
... CW: Excuse me? Republicans have a candidate who asks voters to raise their arms & swear to vote for him specifically, & Republicans are complaining that the White House is helping people become citizens? IOKIYAR really has gone too far too often. ...
... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A Holocaust survivor and longtime watchdog of right-wing extremist groups said Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game by leading followers in a Nazi-style pledge. Abraham Foxman, the former director of the Anti-Defamation League, harshly criticized the Republican presidential candidate for asking supporters to raise their right hands in salute and promise to vote for him in the Florida primary election.... 'We've seen this sort of thing at rallies of neo-Nazis. We've seen it at rallies of white supremacists. But to see it at a rally for a legitimate candidate for the presidency of the United States is outrageous,' Foxman said." ...
... Trump runs a slightly negative ad in Florida against Rubio. He shoulda gone for the demon sheep:
... Charles Pierce (March 6): "Trump is an opportunist who saw a chance and half-ran, half-stumbled toward it. Cruz is someone who's had his eyes on the prize since before Princeton and Harvard Law loosed him upon the world. Trump is a man of grandiose, hopelessly vague promises. Cruz is dead-serious about hauling the country into retrograde theocracy and Gilded Age economics. Trump places his faith in Two Corinthians, which I believe is a pizza and sandwich joint on Staten Island. Cruz considers himself to be both a vehicle for political extremism and the instrument of the living God. You decide which frightens you more."
CW: One big reason Trump is trumping Rubio & Cruz: In the eyes of GOP voters, Trump is a real American, while Rubio & Cruz are "ethnic foreigners" or something. As Brian Beutler points out, Trump voters scoffed at Rubio's win in Puerto Rico, declaring that Rubio won the territory "because he promised them amnesty & citizenship." If he had made such a promise, of course, Rubio would have no trouble keeping it: Puerto Ricans are already U.S. citizens so they don't need "amnesty." White nativism doesn't just run deep in the Republican party; it is the Republican party. Nearly every one of policy prescriptions is a reflection of that "white American exceptionalism," from their "small government" mantra (no aid to no-account blacks & Latinos) to military adventurism: annihilate all the "others."
Mitt Tips His Hand. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Offering Senator Marco Rubio of Florida a much-needed boost, if not an outright endorsement, Mitt Romney has recorded get-out-the-vote calls for Mr. Rubio's presidential campaign that are being sent to voters in the four states voting on Tuesday. Mr. Romney indicates, at the beginning and end of the message, that he is calling on behalf of Mr. Rubio but only urges voters to cast ballots for 'a candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton and who can make us proud.'... 'If we Republicans were to choose Donald Trump as our nominee, I believe that the prospects for a safe and prosperous future would be greatly diminished -- and I'm convinced Donald Trump would lose to Hillary Clinton,' Mr. Romney says in the call."
Understanding Republicans. Contributor Janice linked to this perfect coda to a brief discussion we had in today's Comments thread:
Gail Collins & Arthur Brooks discuss the state of the presidential race. Collins: "The idea that a blast from Mitt Romney is going to mute the Trump boom at this point in the game is pretty hilarious. I am tempted to say that Romney's only chance of having an impact would be to tie Donald to the roof of his car."
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "On Monday, [Fox 'News'] hosted a forum at which the host, Bret Baier, grilled both [Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton] on topics that seldom come up at Democratic events, including abortion rights, the national debt and the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East.... Pressed on his budget-busting plans for universal health care, Mr. Sanders reiterated his belief that health care is a right for all people. 'Excuse me, where does that right come from, in your mind?' Mr. Baier asked. 'Being a human being,' Mr. Sanders replied, 'being a human being.'... Mr. Baier aggressively questioned Mrs. Clinton on her handling of the 2011 intervention in Libya that is widely credited with the current instability in the region." ...
... ** Jamelle Bouie: "... the Flint debate ... illustrates an important difference between Clinton and Sanders that's often overlooked.... Hillary Clinton is running to lead Democrats, and Bernie Sanders is running to lead liberals.... Hillary Clinton, a prominent leader from the ideological center of the Democratic Party, is running to lead the Democratic coalition as it exists.... Bernie Sanders, by contrast, comes from the left wing of American politics with a nominal attachment to the Democratic Party -- until his run for the presidency, he didn't identify as a Democrat. He's not as concerned with the usual party building and coalition maintenance. He wants to change the ... Democratic Party and put ideological liberals at the fulcrum of Democratic politics...." ...
... A Lead-Pipe Clutch. Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Flint resident Lee-Anne Walters didn't like Bernie Sanders' response to her question about lead pipes during Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate in Flint. But she really didn't like Hillary Clinton's response.... 'It actually made me vomit in my mouth.'" ...
... Janell Ross of the Washington Post: "Why, at this late date and this many debates into the 2016 presidential election cycle, has Sanders made demonstrably little to no effort to alter the way he interacts with the woman he at least strongly suspected he would be running against him from the day he declared his campaign?... Does Sanders have the capacity to recognize the way these moments look or think deeply about the degree to which sexism propels his debate-stage performances? Whether that chauvinism is real or imagined or even toyed with by his opponent for political gain, why can't Sanders find a better way to manage these moments?" Here's the moment:
... CW: Except for the difference in accents, Bernie sounds just like my late husband telling me to zip my lips so he could continue lecturing or scolding me. That's where I would get right up & leave the room (which is not an option Hillary had). I'll bet a lot of wives & other female partners have been there.
Beyond the Beltway
One Wisconsin Now: "Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote a series of hateful and venomous attacks on gay people and people living with HIV, according to articles obtained by One Wisconsin Now. The hate speech in the articles disqualifies Bradley from continuing to hold office and should result in her immediate resignation from the state Supreme Court, according to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross...." ...
... Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Newly appointed state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley wrote in a student newspaper 24 years ago that she had no sympathy for AIDS patients because they had effectively chosen to kill themselves, called gays 'queers' and said Americans were 'either totally stupid or entirely evil' for electing President Bill Clinton.... Bradley declined an interview request, but in a written statement said she was embarrassed about the pieces she wrote "as a very young student.'... One Wisconsin Now ... distributed them Monday..., four weeks before voters decide whether to give Bradley a full 10-year term on the court in the April 5 election.... GOP Gov. Scott Walker acknowledged Monday he was not aware of her Marquette University writings before he appointed her three times to judicial positions."
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