The Commentariat -- Feb. 29, 2016

Afternoon Update, Seventh-Grade Edition:

Eric Levitz of New York: "'He's always calling me "little Marco,"' Rubio said, while reading Trump's Twitter feed at a rally in Virgina on Sunday. 'I'll admit he's taller than me. He's like 6'2", which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's 5'2''. Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands?' Rubio's supporters, realizing that their presidential candidate had just suggested that the other presidential candidate has an unusually small penis, roared with approval."

Kevin Drum on Joe Scarborough's sudden about-face: "Scarborough has probably done more than any other single human being to help Trump get where he is. And he's only now noticing that Trump's bigoted rhetoric has turned out to be pretty popular among the Republican base?... Aside from a brief spat with Trump over his proposed ban on Muslims,* Scarborough has been practically a one-man super-PAC pushing Trump's candidacy." ...

     ... * Steve M.: And, no, Scarborough did not hang up on Trump for his anti-Muslim comments, as Scarborough claims in his WashPo op-ed, linked below. Rather, he went to commercial break because Joe felt Trump was being rude to Mika, who was asking the questions about Muslim bigotry. "... this is more about rescuing Scarborough's own reputation than it is about condemning Trump." Read the whole post.

*****

Following an Irish tradition going back to the sainted Patrick & the lovely St. Brigid, I feel obliged this Leap Year Day to propose marriage to my gentlemen readers. This tradition was supposed to "balance the traditional roles of men and women in a similar way to how leap day balances the calendar." As a feminist, I abhor a tradition that limits women to equal opportunity only one out of every 1,461 days. Am I 1/1,461st of a person? Maybe I'll propose tomorrow, too. And the next day & the next. ...

... AND speaking of equal opportunity ...

... Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... more than 100 ... women have filed several supporting briefs in a major Supreme Court abortion case to be argued on Wednesday. The briefs tell the stories of women who say their abortions allowed them to control their bodies, plan for the future and welcome children into their lives when their careers were established and their personal lives were on solid ground. The briefs are aimed largely at Justice Kennedy, who holds the crucial vote in abortion cases. They use language and concepts from his four major gay rights decisions, notably his invocation of 'equal dignity' in June's ruling establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.... The briefs also seek to counteract what many women saw as a streak of uninformed paternalism in a 2007 majority opinion in which Justice Kennedy said many women regretted their decisions to have abortions and suffered from depression and plunging self-esteem as a consequence." ...

... Linda Greenhouse (pub. 2/27) on "abortion exceptionalism" & the Texas case to be argued this Wednesday in the Supreme Court. A 4-4 tie would leave Texas's restrictive law in place. Greenhouse urges the justices to consider the facts. CW: At least four of them likely will. That ain't enough. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Inequality, from Cradle to Grave. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: The Army still is not allowing members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots to be buried in Arlington Cemetery, reasoning that they were not technically part of the armed services. "... the WASPs wore uniforms, carried weapons, had access to classified information and saluted their superiors. Along with training men to fly bombers, the WASPs flew fighter planes from military bases to ports, where they were shipped to battle overseas. At least three dozen of them died or were killed while serving." Rep. Martha McSally (R-Az.), a fighter pilot herself, has introduced legislation to change that. The bill has more than 100 co-sponsors. "On Thursday, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs sent the bill to the House floor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "The AFL-CIO, the federation of unions representing nearly 10 million workers, is preparing plans for a 'super PAC' that would raise tens of millions of dollars and focus on grassroots efforts to mobilize voters."

Presidential Race

** Off with Their Heads. David Bernstein in Politico Magazine: "No matter what happens on Super Tuesday, it's clear who the real losers will be on election night: The Democratic and Republican parties. An election season that began as a presumptive showdown between two inevitable dynastic front-runners -- Jeb Bush vs. Hillary Clinton -- has now devolved into an electoral dumpster fire. And it's time to name the culprit: The dynasties themselves.... If this cycle teaches us anything, it's that political dynasties are bad for parties the way monopolies are bad for business: They impede competition, and reward power rather than merit."

Paul Krugman: "We now have a pretty good idea who will be on the ballot in November: Hillary Clinton, almost surely (after the South Carolina blowout, prediction markets give her a 96 percent probability of securing her party's nomination), and Donald Trump, with high likelihood (currently 80 percent probability on the markets). But even if there's a stunning upset in what's left of the primaries, we already know very well what will be at stake -- namely, the fate of the planet."

Charles Pierce: "Anyone who thinks the Trump phenomenon is a sui generis explosion of eccentricity has forgotten the incredible collection of rodeo clowns over which Mitt Romney triumphed in 2012. Anyone who thinks He, Trump is unique in his rhetoric and his appeal never has read through Gingrich's old Thesaurus For Ratfckers that helped fuel his rise to the Speakership. And anyone who thinks Trump's brand of noisy, arrant bullshit is in anyway unique never has listened to a Cruz's stump speech...."

     ... Thanks to safari for the link.

Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "The implosion over Donald Trump's candidacy that Republicans had hoped to avoid arrived so virulently this weekend that many party leaders vowed never to back the billionaire and openly questioned whether the GOP could come together this election year. A campaign full of racial overtones and petty, R-rated put-downs grew even uglier Sunday after Trump declined repeatedly in a CNN interview to repudiate the endorsement of him by David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.... Marco Rubio, who has been savaging Trump as a 'con man' for three days, responded by saying that Trump's defiance made him 'unelectable.' The senator from Florida said at a rally in Northern Virginia, 'We cannot be the party that nominates someone who refuses to condemn white supremacists.'" ...

... The Grey Lady Is Shocked by Your Guttersniping. Jeremy Peters & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio, seeing his path to the Republican nomination grow narrower with each contest, has determined that the only way to beat Donald J. Trump is to fight like him: rough, dirty and mean. The acidity coming from Mr. Rubio these days, and the gleefully savage way Mr. Trump has responded, have sent an already surreal presidential campaign lurching into the gutter with taunts over perspiration, urination and self-tanner." ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "If Rubio wants to learn the proper way to insult Trump, he should study Obama. In the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, where Trump was in the audience, Obama made the businessman squirm by mocking his birtherism and the absurd notion that being on Celebrity Apprentice was fit preparation for the presidency. Obama's belittling was carried off with a cold hauteur. He attacked from above.... Rubio, by contrast, has been meeting Trump at his own level, like the proverbial man getting into the sty to wrestle with the pig." With video. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "It is possible that Rubio's mockery will finally bring down Trump. But even if so, Rubio's popularity might come down along with him. In that case, the conflict will redound to the benefit of the candidate who is currently running the now-discarded Rubio game plan: John Kasich. The Ohio governor is using versions of the old, well-received Rubio message about refusing to attack fellow Republicans and bringing people together." ...

... Leslie Savan of the Nation: "... as far as stopping Trump's coronation is concerned, as pundits have been declaring all morning, [Rubio's attack on Trump] 'was too little, too late. 'But it's not too late for Hillary. Rubio's jabs were just the sort of GOP-on-GOP violence she'll need to make her negative ads and social media credible. It could operate much in the same way that Newt Gingrich's attacks on Mitt Romney's business practices let Obama bleed him out in 2012." ...

... "Desperate Measures." Alan Yuhas of the Guardian: "The specter of Donald Trump as an elected nominee for president pushed his Republican opponents to desperate measures on Sunday, two days before a dozen states could vote to give the billionaire a huge lead in the 2016 contest. Marco Rubio predicted he could win the nomination without winning a state, while Ted Cruz raised allegations that Trump once contracted a mafia-owned company.... He ... speculated that Trump has refused to release his tax returns because he wants to hide 'business dealings with the mob, with the mafia'."

... Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump repeatedly tells Jake Tapper of CNN that he "knows nothing" about David Duke & white supremacist groups who have endorsed or supported his candidacy. "Possibly Trump is making a clever historical reference that he will later explain when he reveals that his entire political profile from 2011 through 2016 was a form of guerrilla theater designed to smoke out the widespread appeal of Republican racism. Or else, more likely, he is even stupider than anybody previously believed." Thanks to MAG for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... This in turn upsets Donald's BFF Joe Scarborough, causing him to write in the Washington Post that Trump has "feigned ignorance" of the KKK & Duke, which was "even more disturbing" (than something else Joe doesn't specify). "... why would Trump pretend to be so ignorant of American history that he refused to pass judgment on the Ku Klux Klan before receiving additional information?... Why would the same man who claims to have 'the world's greatest memory' say 'I don't know anything about David Duke' just two days after he condemned the former Klansman in a nationally televised press conference?... Sunday's distressing performance is just the latest in a string of incidents that suggest to critics that Donald Trump is using bigotry to fuel his controversial campaign." CW: There goes the vice presidency, Joe. ...

... Nick Gass of Politico: "Donald Trump's failure to explicitly disavow the Ku Klux Klan and former Grand Wizard David Duke is 'disqualifying,' Joe Scarborough declared on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Monday.... Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski, who have been accused of cozying up to Trump, were adamant in their disgust for the candidate throughout the first hour of the show." ...

... Josh Israel of Think Progress: Against all evidence to the contrary, this morning on NBC's "Today" show, Trump blamed his failure to renounce David Duke & the Klan on a "lousy earpiece." CW: Just to be clear, that was earpiece, not hairpiece. ...

     ... UPDATE: Eric Levitz of New York: "Sure, the Donald did repeat the proper nouns in Tapper's question -- 'David Duke,' 'white supremacists' -- verbatim, several times in the course of the interview. But that doesn't mean he heard those words as words. The static in Trump's earpiece must have reduced those phrases to a collection of vowel and consonant sounds that the mogul was capable of regurgitating phonetically, even as he was incapable of recognizing them as spoken English." ...

     ... CW: This is in line with Trump's excuse for re-tweeting a Benito Mussolini saying.

... Rachel Maddow, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Now that the KKK and the white nationalists feel that the Republican Party has finally given them a candidate they can believe in, who will disabuse them of that notion?" ...

.. NOT Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Who Has Taken a Front Seat on the Racist Express. Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "Sen. Jeff Sessions on Sunday became the first sitting senator to endorse Donald Trump, declaring his support for the Republican front-runner during a rally at a football stadium here." With video. ...

     ... In case you've forgotten Sessions' history of overt racism, Scott Lemieux provides a few reminders.

... Pity Poor Ted. Jose DelReal & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: Sessions' "endorsement represents a major blow to Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.).... Cruz has touted his strict positions on border security and deportation, leaning on his strident commitment to conservative ideology as a key rationale for his candidacy. In the run-up to the March 1 Super Tuesday primary elections, Cruz has tried to undermine Trump's conservative bona fides on immigration reform, characterizing his plan as 'amnesty.'" ...

... Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Republican senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska has announced that he would not support Donald Trump if the current frontrunner became the GOP nominee.... Sasse wrote on Facebook: 'I cannot support Donald Trump . . . My current answer for who I would support in a hypothetical matchup between Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton is: neither of them. I sincerely hope we select one of the other GOP candidates, but if Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option.'" Sasse is a Tea party guy.

... There Will Be Chaos. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges. Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his party's nomination, but Hayden said the candidate's rhetoric already raises troubling questions.... During his appearance on 'Real Time,' Hayden cited Trump's pledge to kill family members as being among his most troubling campaign statements." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Chuck Todd & Shawna Thomas of NBC News: "Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard who had an official role with Gov. Chris Christie's now-suspended presidential campaign, called his endorsement of Trump, 'an astonishing display of political opportunism.... Trump would take America on a dangerous journey. Christie knows all that and indicated as much many times publicly,' Whitman wrote in a statement." ...

... ** Brian Beutler: "If this represents an enduring schism -- if the ranks of resolute anti-Trump conservatives grows to include influential Republicans who had previously pledged to support the winner of the primary unconditionally -- the significance will be hard to overstate. By closing in on the nomination, Trump is pitting conservatives' commitments to party and movement against one another.... If ... the party's leaders abandon Trump after promising otherwise, they would turn millions of people against the GOP enduringly. The damage to the Republican Party as an institution would be profound, perhaps fatal."

"Don't Interrupt Me." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News host Chris Wallace smacked down Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday after the GOP hopeful suggested that tough questions about dirty election tricks meant that the anchor was working for Donald Trump's campaign." ...

News Lede

Washington Post: "George Kennedy, the burly character actor who won an Academy Award as a chain-gang leader in 'Cool Hand Luke,' threatened Audrey Hepburn as a hook-armed villain in 'Charade' and was a crusty mainstay of 1970s disaster films before veering into satire as a clueless policeman in the 'Naked Gun' film series, died Feb. 28 at a nursing home in Middleton, Idaho. He was 91."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 28, 2016

Afternoon Update:

There Will Be Chaos. Peter Holley of the Washington Post: "Former CIA director Michael Hayden believes there is a legitimate possibility that the U.S. military would refuse to follow orders given by Donald Trump if the Republican front-runner becomes president and decides to make good on certain campaign pledges. Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005, made the provocative statement on Friday during an appearance on HBO's 'Real Time with Bill Maher.' Trump, fresh off a string of primary victories, has yet to secure his party's nomination, but Hayden said the candidate's rhetoric already raises troubling questions.... During his appearance on 'Real Time,' Hayden cited Trump's pledge to kill family members as being among his most troubling campaign statements."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: The Army still is not allowing members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots to be buried in Arlington Cemetery, reasoning that they were not technically part of the armed services. "... the WASPs wore uniforms, carried weapons, had access to classified information and saluted their superiors. Along with training men to fly bombers, the WASPs flew fighter planes from military bases to ports, where they were shipped to battle overseas. At least three dozen of them died or were killed while serving." Rep. Martha McSally (R-Az.), a fighter pilot herself, has introduced legislation to change that. The bill has more than 100 co-sponsors. "On Thursday, the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs sent the bill to the House floor."

Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump repeatedly tells Jake Tapper of CNN that he "knows nothing" about David Duke & white supremacist groups who have endorsed or supported his candidacy. "Possibly Trump is making a clever historical reference that he will later explain when he reveals that his entire political profile from 2011 through 2016 was a form of guerrilla theater designed to smoke out the widespread appeal of Republican racism. Or else, more likely, he is even stupider than anybody previously believed." Thanks to MAG for the link.

Linda Greenhouse (pub. 2/27) on "abortion exceptionalism" & the Texas case to be argued this Wednesday in the Supreme Court. A 4-4 tie would leave Texas's restrictive law in place. Greenhouse urges the justices to consider the facts. CW: At least four of them likely will. That ain't enough.

*****

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick & Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "Drawing overwhelming support from the African-American voters who deserted her here eight years ago, Hillary Clinton won her first resounding victory of the 2016 campaign in South Carolina on Saturday, delivering a blow to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont as their fight turns to the 11 states where Democrats vote on Tuesday." ...

... Abby Phillip, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Hillary Clinton is projected to win the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, according to exit polls and early returns -- a victory that showcased Clinton's durable support among black Democrats, and raised questions about Sen. Bernie Sanders's ability to compete with her in the South." ...

... Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "The result positions Mrs. Clinton for a sweep of the South in a few days on Super Tuesday and puts the burden on Mr. Sanders to post decisive victories elsewhere. If he does not -- and the polls, at least so far, are not encouraging -- Mrs. Clinton seems likely to amass a significant and possibly irreversible lead." ...

... David Graham of the Atlantic: "The networks called the election as the polls closed at 7 p.m., and Clinton was set to win by a huge margin -- more than 47 percent, with almost all the votes counted. The victory all but clears the way for Clinton to coast to the Democratic nomination.... In her remarks in Columbia, Clinton seemed to declare the primary battle over, and she began looking ahead to the general-election battle.... 'Despite what you hear, we don't need to make America great again. America never stopped being great,' Clinton said. 'But, we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers'": ...

... Jim Newell of Slate: "South Carolina -- not Iowa -- was where Sen. Barack Obama began the run of wins that built up his insurmountable delegate lead over Clinton in 2008. It appears as if it will serve the same purpose this time around in Clinton's favor." ...

... ** Ari Berman of the Nation tells the horrifying story of South Carolina's voter-ID law. It makes you want to cry. And if you think Gov. Nikki Haley maybe isn't so bad because she supported removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds, you'll think again. ...

... John Wagner of the Washington Post: "As voters made their way to the polls Saturday in South Carolina -- where Bernie Sanders was expected to get trounced in the Democratic presidential primary -- the candidate was 1,000 miles away [in Austin, Texas], in what seemed an alternate universe. More than 10,000 adoring supporters showed up and cheered the Vermont senator's every sentence at an outdoor rally on a gorgeous day here. Sanders boasted about how he was going to beat Donald Trump 'soundly' in the general election. And before leaving stage, he was beaming as he sang 'This Land is Your Land' with the daughter of Willie Nelson and granddaughter of Woody Guthrie":

... Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "Bernie Sanders is right: Bill Clinton's welfare law doubled extreme poverty.... Hundreds of thousands of Southern families are living on less than $2 in cash a day as a result of legislation President Bill Clinton signed in 1996, according to new research by Johns Hopkins University's Kathryn Edin and University of Michigan's Luke Shaefer.... The profound and enduring consequences of that law, and of the rest of Clinton's policies on poverty, are only just becoming clear.... Sanders said that the number of people living in extreme poverty has doubled under President Clinton's reforms. If anything, that was an understatement.... While the poorest of the poor have suffered, other low-income Americans have benefited. Many experts think Clinton's policies reduced poverty overall." Sanders voted against the law, a law which Hillary Clinton actively supported.

Madame NeoCon. Jo Becker & Scott Shane of the New York Times have a long, two-parter on Hillary Clinton's pivotal role in the Libyan crisis. "This is the story of how a woman whose Senate vote for the Iraq war may have doomed her first presidential campaign nonetheless doubled down and pushed for military action in another Middle Eastern country. As she once again seeks the White House, campaigning in part on her experience as the nation's chief diplomat, an examination of the intervention she championed shows ... her expansive approach to the signal foreign-policy conundrum of today: whether, when and how the United States should wield its military power in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East." Part 2 is here. CW: This report is a vivid reminder, too, that Hillary is not just Bernie Lite. She is someone who has been twice persuaded that Middle Eastern revolutionary "leaders"/elites can & will put together a democratically-governed state. ...

Leslie Picker of the New York Times: "Warren E. Buffett took aim on Saturday at the 'negative drumbeat' of this year's presidential campaign, saying that the view that children today would not live as well as their parents was 'dead wrong.' In his annual letter to shareholders, the billionaire investor -- who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president -- wrote that 'the babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history.'"

** Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "In dozens of interviews, elected [Republican] officials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, last-ditch campaign to block Mr. Trump -- and the agonizing reasons that many of them have become convinced it will fail. Behind the scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and stalled at every turn." ...

     ... CW: This bit from the report is especially hilarious: "At a meeting of Republican governors [February 20], Paul R. LePage of Maine called for action. Seated at a long boardroom table at the Willard Hotel, he erupted in frustration over the state of the 2016 race, saying Mr. Trump's nomination would deeply wound the Republican Party. Mr. LePage urged the governors to draft an open letter 'to the people,' disavowing Mr. Trump and his divisive brand of politics." On Friday "LePage endorsed Trump, saying he could be "one of the greatest presidents' and "I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular. So I think I should support him because we're one of the same cloth." Yeah, Monsieur LePew, you've "deeply wounded the Republican party," too, so that's one of the ways you're Donald Trump. ...

     ... Dara Lind of Vox writes that the LePage lipflop shows why the GOP can't stop Trump: "... the most damning thing about the New York Times' LePage anecdote: he suggested that governors get together and write an open letter, but the other governors apparently weren't willing to go that far. If the person who is willing to stick his neck out to stop Trump defects to the pro-Trump side, who, exactly, do Republicans expect is going to stop him?" ...

... Daniel Drezner of the Washington Post: "Trump is winning because no significant Republican coalition seriously tried to oppose him when there was still time for it to work. And the reason no powerful Republican coalition emerged to stop him is that the GOP believed all the analysts who said Trump had no chance.... While the field of candidates was crowded, Trump posed what economists call a collective action problem. It was in everyone's general interest for someone to attack Trump -- but it wasn't in anyone's specific interest to do it or to draw Trump's fury in response (ask Bush, whom Trump mocked mercilessly until he finally quit)." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM: "The problem is Republican voters. Look at the polls and you see that in virtually every state in the country between 30% and 50% of GOP voters currently back Trump. And only unicorn thinking supports the idea that the 70% to 50% who do not constitute some sort 'anti-Trump' faction. That's the problem, not Trump himself.... Republican elected officials have increasingly coddled, exploited and in some cases - yes - spurred their voters penchant for resentment, perceived persecution, apocalyptic thinking and generic nonsense.... Trump is very little different from the average candidate Republicans elected in 2010 and 2014, in terms of radical views and extreme rhetoric." ...

... Kristen East of Politico: "Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Saturday endorsed Donald Trump for president. Trump has made immigration a central issue in his campaign for president, vowing to build a wall along the southern border of the United States and promising to have Mexico pay for it. 'For years I pleaded with the federal government to do their job and secure our border. Today, we can elect a President who will do just that -- Donald J. Trump,' Brewer said in a statement released by Trump's campaign." ...

     ... CW: Brewer is perhaps best known for wagging her finger at President Obama, then calling him "thin-skinned." So hardly a surprise that she would support a racist for president. ...

... CW: AND I thought maybe MAG was kidding about this when she mentioned it in yesterday's Comments. But no, it's true. Rosie Gray of BuzzFeed: "Jean-Marie Le Pen, the larger-than-life founder of France's far-right Front National party, endorsed Donald Trump on his Twitter feed on Saturday. If I was American I would vote for Donald Trump,' Le Pen tweeted. 'May God protect him!'... Le Pen has faced legal sanctions more than once for Holocaust denial and for other controversial statements. Over the decades, he has repeatedly made disparaging remarks about minorities.... A Trump spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment." ...

... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "For more than eight months, amazingly enough, few of Trump's rivals in the G.O.P. race, or the news organizations that were covering his campaign, bothered to seek answers to ... questions [about Trump's business record], which, in fact, cover only a subset of the pertinent issues raised by Trump's long career. Apart from a few jibes in the early debates about some of his casinos seeking bankruptcy protection, the Republican front-runner had been getting off pretty much scot-free." ...

... Stephanie Saul of the New York Times has a short piece on Donald Trump's now-defunct bait-&-switch scheme previously known as "Trump University." Marco was right when he said in Thursday's debate, "There are people that borrowed $36,000 to go to Trump University..., and you know what they got? They got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump." ...

... Kevin Sullivan & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "In the sharpest official Mexican government comments to date on Republican front-runner Donald Trump..., Foreign Affairs Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu, Mexico's top diplomat..., called Trump's policies and comments 'ignorant and racist' and his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border 'absurd.'... As for Mexico paying for Trump’s proposed wall, she said: 'It is not a proposition we would even consider. It is an impossible proposition.'"

Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas -- released summary pages of their tax returns from the last several years Saturday evening, an effort to raise pressure on billionaire Donald Trump to do the same just days before Super Tuesday in the Republican presidential nominating battle. Rubio and his wife, Jeanette, made $2.29 million from 2010 to 2014 and paid $526,092 in taxes.... Cruz's campaign reported several hours later that the senator from Texas and his wife, Heidi, earned $5.05 million over the last four years and paid $1.45 million in taxes. Both candidates released only the first two pages of returns for the years 2010 to 2014, which provide summary information but drew criticism immediately from Democratic partisans who cited the decision of Hillary Clinton and other presidential candidates to release multiple years of full tax returns. Without the full returns, key details about Cruz's and Rubio's family financial dealings -- such as precise sources of income, deductions and amounts donated to charity -- were not revealed." ...

... CW: I'm waiting for Trump to turn over a fake "summary" of his tax returns by his fake accountant, just as he did with his LOL fake doctor's report.

... Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: Marco continues his anti-Trump schtick. "As in Dallas, where his extended riff on Trump's spelling, wealth, age and bladder control turned viral, Rubio used the Oklahoma City speech to humiliate the front-runner.... In his current messaging, which is being fine-tuned from stop to stop Rubio casts Trump as not only an imbecile but a rip-off artist and a wimp.... While Rubio attacked Trump, national cable networks played his speech live -- a favor granted constantly to Trump, rarely to anyone else. When Rubio switched tacks to deliver his positive stump speech, the networks cut away." ...

... Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "Rubio on Saturday continued his mockery of rival Donald Trump, going after the businessman's spelling errors and 'spray tan' at a campaign event in Kennesaw, Ga. 'You guys wanna have a little fun today?' Rubio mischievously asked the crowd, holding up his cell phone. 'Last night he was actually pretty calm after I punched him around a little bit,' he said of Trump. 'He's learning how to spell, I guess. But he's flying around on Hair Force One and tweeting.'" With video.

Other News & Opinion

Eli Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Health officials in the United States have advised pregnant women who are scheduled to attend the Olympic Games in razil to reconsider their plans because of the Zika virus epidemic. In a travel advisory released on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said women who are pregnant in any trimester should “consider not going to the Olympics."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "MSNBC intends to part ways with host Melissa Harris-Perry after she complained about preemptions of her weekend program and implied that there was a racial aspect to the cable-news network's treatment, insiders at MSNBC said. Harris-Perry refused to appear on her program Saturday morning, telling her co-workers in an email that she felt 'worthless' to the NBC-owned network. 'I will not be used as a tool for their purposes,' wrote Harris-Perry, who is African American. 'I am not a token, mammy or little brown bobble head. I am not owned by [NBC executives] or MSNBC. I love our show. I want it back.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Lenny Bernstein & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: Despite two outbreaks of Legionnaire's disease in & around Flint, Michigan, "no government agency has tested the water supply for the legionella bacteria that cause the infection, which flourished as the beleaguered city's tap water was being poisoned by lead.... Corrosion encouraged the growth of legionella bacteria, which flourish in warm water that contains flakes of iron -- a nutrient for the bacteria -- from aging pipes."

James Queally of the Los Angeles Times: "Three people were stabbed, including one who was critically wounded, and 13 were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence Saturday, police said.... Six Klansmen and seven protesters were arrested following the fracas, Wyatt said.... Brian Levin, director of CSU San Bernardino's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said he was standing next to the man in the Grand Dragon shirt when a crowd of protesters carrying weapons swarmed the Klansmen. A brawl broke out and one of the Klansmen was knocked to the ground and kicked. Levin said he later saw the man's arm bleeding. Levin said he pushed the Klan leader away as the violence continued and a protester was stabbed. Levin said he asked the man, 'How do you feel that a Jewish guy just saved your life?' 'Thank you,' the man replied, according to Levin.... The Klan has a long and troubling history with the city. Klansmen were once the dominant political force in Anaheim, holding four of five City Council seats before a recall effort led to their ouster in 1924."

Way Beyond

Liz Sly & Zakaria Zakaria of the Washington Post: "The unthinkable happened in Syria on Saturday as an internationally mandated truce unexpectedly took hold across much of the country, raising hopes that the beginning of an end to the five-year-old crisis may be in sight. There were scattered skirmishes and bursts of artillery fire across some of the front lines, a car bomb killed two people in the province of Hama, and Syrian government warplanes dropped barrel bombs on a village in Idlib province, without causing casualties. But for the first time in as long as anyone can remember, the guns were almost completely silent, offering Syrians a welcome respite from the relentless bloodshed that has killed in excess of a quarter of a million people."

News Lede

New York Times: "Wesley A. Clark, a physicist who designed the first modern personal computer, died on Monday at his home in Brooklyn. He was 88.... Mr. Clark's computer designs built a bridge from the era of mainframe systems, which were inaccessible to the general public and were programmed with stacks of punch cards, to personal computers that respond interactively to a user. He achieved his breakthroughs working with a small group of scientists and engineers at the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1950s and early '60s."

The Commentariat -- Feb. 27, 2016

Presidential Race

** Michael Barbaro, et al., of the New York Times: "In a rollicking day of spectacle, spite and scorn, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey declared his allegiance to Donald J. Trump and war on Marco Rubio, describing the senator on Friday as desperate and unfit for the presidency. The endorsement interrupted a 48-hour assault from an emboldened Mr. Rubio, who is adopting many of the real estate mogul's crude tactics and colorful insults as he urgently tries to arrest Mr. Trump's march to the Republican nomination.... Aghast party elders expressed dismay over the alliance, calling it a political marriage of expedience. 'Good Lord almighty,' said Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania and secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush, who is backing Gov. John Kasich. Now it's the walls and bridges team.'..." ...

... Sean Sullivan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Marco Rubio and Donald Trump emerged Friday as the principal antagonists in an all-out brawl for the future of the Republican Party, as establishment opposition to the front-runner's candidacy started to crumble with a high-profile endorsement by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie." ...

... Claude Brodesser-Akner of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Gov. Chris Christie is endorsing Donald Trump for president. Appearing next to Trump in Fort Worth, Texas, Christie said Trump would 'do what needs to be done to protect the American people. The one person Bill and Hillary Clinton do not want to see on that stage is Donald Trump,' said Christie." Thanks to MAG for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... He Said He Was a Whiney-Baby Before He Said He Was a "Strong Leader." Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Here are eight of Christie's biggest knocks, slams and putdowns" of Donald Trump." ...

... Jonathan Chait weighs in on the alliance between a deal-maker & an old-fashioned machine pol: "Trump and Christie are both figures whose self-interest aligned, and whose most important worldviews aligned as well. The deal-makers made a deal." ...

... Nate Silver: "It probably also won't be the last major endorsement for Trump. Even if most 'party elites' continue to resist Trump, a lot of Republican elected officials will be looking after their own best interests instead of the collective good of the party. Some will back Trump because he's popular in their states. Some will be looking for opportunities within a Trump administration. Some will agree with Trump's views on immigration or his critique of the political establishment. So there will be more of these endorsements, probably. But it isn't surprising that Christie is one of the first." ...

... Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg: "As a twice-elected governor of a blue state and former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Christie could also serve as Trump's ambassador to establishment donors, lawmakers and behind-the-scenes operators across the nation.... Meanwhile, senior Republican operatives reacted with a mix of surprise and horror. 'Unforgivable,' said one. 'I'm just in shock,' said another. 'What a nightmare,' said a third." ...

... Nolan McCaskill: "Maine's Gov. Paul LePage "became the second governor to endorse Donald Trump on Friday.... 'I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular. So I think I should support him because we're one of the same cloth,' the governor said...." CW: High praise indeed. ...

... Lauren Fox of TPM: "Donald Trump has an inkling Mitt Romney will endorse his competitor Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination, but Trump says he does not want Romney's endorsement anyway. 'Number one, when you walk into a state you cannot walk like a penguin. He walked like a penguin. I said this is a problem,' Trump said. 'Somebody tell him take some steps. Romney turned out to be a disaster.'"

For those of us who judged the GOP Official Debate & Food Fight Night to be "Animal House"-worthy, if among slightly less mature participants, we were ever so wrong. These guys are class acts. Eliza Collins of Politico: "Marco Rubio relentlessly mocked Donald Trump on Friday, escalating the attacks he unleashed during Thursday night's debate and even suggesting the Republican frontrunner may have wet his pants on the stage." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mighty presidential. ...

...Scott Lemieux: "Let us dispel with the idea that the Rubibot cannot be programmed to imitate the frontrunner.' ...

... Steve Benen: "Had [Marco Rubio] actually won those primaries [in New Hampshire & South Carolina], the media's adulation might have been easier to understand, but ... Rubio made 10 appearances over two Sundays [on the morning talk shows] after embarrassing defeats. The reason for this special treatment is one of those things the political world tends not to talk about, though Slate's Jamelle Bouie recently acknowledged what usually goes unsaid: '[T]he media has a huge crush' on Marco Rubio. With this in mind, it came as something of a surprise to see Rubio on CBS this morning, complaining about an elaborate media conspiracy -- to help Donald Trump.... From Rubio's perspective, the same news organizations that have shown him levels of affection that border on creepy are actually conspiring in secret against him.... Such paranoia says something unsettling about the presidential hopeful's perspective." ...

     ... CW: What it probably really says is that Marco is strategically distancing himself from media adulation. GOP voters have learned to hate the "lamestream media, (TM Sarah Palin) for occasionally slipping unflattering facts into their coverage of the candidates. The guys pulling Marcobot's strings know enough to tell him to pretend the mainstream media is out to get him. ...

... ** Gail Collins: "This is perhaps the first instance of a presidential campaign running on dialogue more normally overheard in a junior high bathroom when the mean girls are doing their hair. The debate itself more closely resembled a Quentin Tarantino movie, in which a group of men are stuck together for what seems like eternity, and try to break the monotony by yelling a lot."

Brian Beutler: "To absolutely no effect, the Republican Party and its conservative movement allies have spent months and months -- and a fair amount of advertising money -- spreading the message that Trump is actually a liberal.... What Rubio and Cruz demonstrated [Thursday] night (and what Rubio continued demonstrating, somewhat haltingly, [Friday]) is that the secret to getting under Trump's skin isn't to call him a liberal but to mock him, or call him a crook, and to not stop (as Jeb Bush did so frequently) after a single pop to the nose. The downside of this revelation, though, is that it leaves open the question of how a crooked, risible demagogue managed to commandeer the Republican Party, almost without trying." ...

Ken Vogel of Politico: "A handful of Republican big-money groups on Friday launched hard-hitting ad campaigns targeting Donald Trump that echoed Marco Rubio's Thursday night debate smack-down of the GOP presidential front-runner. The group behind what's expected to be the most expensive and sustained assault ― a super PAC dedicated to Rubio called Conservative Solutions PAC ― has raised about $20 million in the past week alone, sources tell Politico. They say the cash will power a full-frontal assault on Trump in the delegate-rich states that vote in March, starting with Tuesday's 14 Super Tuesday contests."

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in the Huffington Post: "If you watched the Republican debate on Thursday, you probably noticed the candidates agreeing that insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies across state lines.... This is often presented as the Republicans' Big Idea on health care -- in fact, as with Trump, it's often the only idea they can come up with. But ... it's absolute nonsense. For starters..., nothing in federal law prohibits states from allowing out-of-state insurance companies to sell policies to their citizens. In fact, six states have already tried it. And guess what? It doesn't work.... Eighteen [states] looked into allowing out-of-state insurance sales before Obamacare became law, and 13 have considered it since. But very few have actually decided to do so. And the ones that have report unanimously that it has accomplished nothing.... Smaller insurance companies based in a single state have found again and again that ... it simply isn't worth the hassle." Thanks to P. D. Pepe for the link. ...

... CW BTW: Hey, single-payer insurance would eliminate of this problem, wouldn't it?

Amendment I, U.S. Constitution. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances....

... Hadas Gold of Politico: "Donald Trump said on Friday he plans to change libel laws in the United States so that he can have an easier time suing news organizations. 'One of the things I'm going to do if I win..., I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected,' Trump said." ...

... Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: Donald Trump "said during Thursday's debate that he can't release his tax returns because he is the subject of an audit. At a press conference on Friday, he reiterated that he would not make his returns publicly available until the audit is complete.... Trump is not prohibited from releasing his tax returns because he is being audited, according to the Internal Revenue Service. 'Nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information,' the IRS said in a statement." ...

... Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "With his enormous online platform, Mr. Trump has badgered and humiliated those who have dared to cross him during the presidential race. He has latched onto their vulnerabilities, mocking their physical characteristics, personality quirks and, sometimes, their professional setbacks. He has made statements ... that have later been exposed as false or deceptive -- only after they have ricocheted across the Internet. Many recipients of Mr. Trump's hectoring are fellow politicians, with paid staff members to help them defend themselves. But for others, the experience of being targeted by Mr. Trump is nightmarish and a form of public degradation that they believe is intended to scare off adversaries by making an example of them.... Others say Mr. Trump's actions go beyond the outlandish and cross into more sinister territory. Parry Aftab, a lawyer who leads the Internet safety group WiredSafety, said Mr. Trump's behavior was a textbook example of cyberbullying." ...

... Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "A pair of homophobic Trump supporters gave CNN's Carol Costello more than she bargained for when they cited bizarre online rumors to suggest Marco Rubio had engaged in gay sex. Lynette 'Diamond' Hardaway and Rochelle 'Silk' Richardson -- known as the 'Stump for Trump Girls' -- have gained fame for their series of online videos supporting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump...." ...

... "Il Trumpo." Annalisa Merelli, an Italian, in Quartz, compares Donald Trump to Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, & compares the media coverage of the two. "There's nothing funny about it." CW: I've thought the same thing for some time, but Merelli takes a deep dive into how Berlusconi succeeded in, well, trumping the Italian media, & how Trump is doing the same thing here. Via Paul Waldman.

Scott Bland of Politico: "Conservative donors have engaged a major GOP consulting firm in Florida to research the feasibility of mounting a late, independent run for president amid growing fears that Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination."

Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post: "If Donald Trump speaks for disenfranchised whites, Hillary Clinton speaks mostly to blacks who feel the same.... Leading up to the South Carolina primary, Clinton kept a breathlessly demanding schedule in the state, shuttling between cocktail parties and black churches, but spending most of her time trying to remind African Americans that she's always been there for them. (Unspoken: Even though they ditched her for Barack Obama.)... Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away, the least empathic human to gaze across the Rio Grande, Donald Trump, continued preaching his own liturgy, lately distilled to a few repeat-after-me slogans.... Those who play to [our] divisions while knowing better -- mining anger and resentment instead of appealing to our better angels -- have made a Faustian bargain for which there should be no forgiveness. Nor, needless to say, votes."

Anne Gearan & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The Democratic presidential contest moves to South Carolina on Saturday, a primary that serves as two starkly different milestones for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton is looking to her expected victory here to prove her strong support among African American voters -- and to cement her status as the presumptive front-runner heading toward Super Tuesday three days later, when six of 11 Democratic contests will take place in Southern states with large populations of black voters. Sanders spent much of the past week campaigning in other states -- and attacking Clinton on an array of issues with new gusto. He is looking to contests that come after Tuesday, where he has more chance of winning -- and a chance, he says, to hang onto the momentum and enthusiasm that his strong liberal message has generated in this unusual election year."

Steven Myers of the New York Times: "Even admirers of Mrs. Clinton's record as secretary of state acknowledge that the use of the [private e-mail] server had consequences for her select circle of confidants.... The emails -- as well as Mrs. Clinton's initial decision to set up the server -- are now the focus of investigations by the F.B.I., the inspector generals of the State Department and the intelligence agencies and by the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.... The question facing investigators ... is whether enough evidence exists to warrant criminal charges for improperly handling or in any way exposing highly classified secrets to potential disclosure."

... German Lopez of Vox has a helpful post on how Sanders & Clinton have differed on "tough-on-crime" legislation. Sanders has voted for a few "tough-on-crime" bills because they contained other provisions he liked, & he has voted against other "tough-on-crime" legislation. "Historically, Clinton has been much tougher and more punitive on crime."

Robert Reich: "I endorse Bernie Sanders for President of the United States. He's leading a movement to reclaim America for the many, not the few. And such a political mobilization -- a 'political revolution,' as he puts it -- is the only means by which we can get the nation back from the moneyed interests that now control so much of our economy and democracy." ...

     ... CW: Reich was Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor & very briefly dated Hillary Rodham when they were undergrads. ...

... Charles Pierce: "I went over to City Hall and voted for Bernie Sanders Friday morning.... I believe that the movement exemplified by the Sanders campaign ... is an important one, not least because it is a hedge against forgetting what happened to the country in 2008 -- and, more important, what might have happened in 2008 and 2009 had the country not had the good sense to elect this president.... I think [Clinton] is going to be the nominee -- and the more states Sanders wins, and the more votes he piles up, and the more delegates come to Philadelphia pledged to support him, then the more tightly she can be fastened to the positions she adopted to beat him." ...

... CW: I too will be voting for Bernie for the reasons Pierce cites & for another one that one is apt to hear from Republican voters: "he represents my values."

Other News & Commentary

Karen DeYoung & Hugh Naylor of the Washington Post: "Guns fell silent for the first time in years in parts of civil-war-racked Syria early Saturday morning, as a cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect at midnight, Damascus time." ...

... Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "Against the backdrop of relentless airstrikes on rebel-held positions inside Syria, the United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously endorsed a deal negotiated between the United States and Russia for a 'cessation of hostilities.'"

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Joshua Partlow & Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "In recent years, a tide of used batteries has swept into northern Mexico as metal recyclers seek to profit from the country's relatively lax controls on lead exposure in the workplace and the environment.... While U.S. politicians express outrage over elevated lead levels in drinking water in Flint, Mich., they have done little to stem the flow of car batteries -- each containing about 20 pounds of lead -- south of the border. Officials estimate that the number of old batteries shipped to Mexico has grown by more than 400 percent in the past decade, spurred in part by tougher U.S. laws.... As many as one in five lead-acid batteries from American vehicles -- from suburban minivans to fleet buses and trucks operated by government agencies -- end up nowadays in Mexican recycling plants, to be broken down by workers under conditions that range from adequate to abysmal...."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. John Koblin of the New York Times: "In an unusually public flare-up, [Melissa Harris-Perry,] one of MSNBC's television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend."

Beyond the Beltway

Officially Favorite Killing Machines. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "The Barrett .50 caliber rifle is a powerful gun. Widely used in the military, its rounds can 'penetrate light armor, down helicopters, destroy commercial aircraft, and blast through rail cars,' according to a report from the Violence Policy Center, a gun safety group. The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence describes .50 caliber rifles like the Barrett as 'among the most destructive weapons legally available to civilians in the United States.' And as of Wednesday, the Barrett .50 caliber is now the official state rifle of Tennessee.... Tennessee is the seventh state to declare an official state firearm of some sort.... There weren't any state firearms until 2011...."