The Commentariat -- March 4, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

CW: See also yesterday's Commentariat. I posted quite a few links (labelled "NEW") after noon.

Boehner Ends Another Crisis of His Own Making. Ashley Parker of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year, averting a partial shutdown of the agency after weeks of uncertainty, but inflaming conservative lawmakers. The legislation passed, 257 to 167, with only 75 Republican votes, and it now heads to President Obama's desk, where he is expected to sign it." ...

... Steve Benen: "Since the Republican victories in the 2010 midterms, Congress has become dysfunctional on a historic scale. Lawmakers have no meaningful legislative accomplishments since the Democratic majorities of 2010, and tasks that were once simple are now nearly impossible. But since January 2011, Congress has excelled in one area: manufacturing avoidable crises. If there's one thing a GOP majority has guaranteed, it's that the nation's legislative branch will careen, over and over again, from one self-imposed crisis to the next." Benen has the list. Very impressive. ...

... Scott Wong of the Hill: "The opening weeks of the 114th Congress have been nothing short of a disaster for Republicans, who declared upon taking control of both chambers last fall that the era of governing by crisis and fiscal cliffs was over.... Counting an emergency measure to keep the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) running through Friday, Congress has sent President Obama a total of only four bills, even as Republicans promised to get off to a fast start this session." CW: Mind you, this is a straight report, not an opinion piece. ...

... BUT "disaster"? Maybe not. ...

... Digby: "Who know what any of this really adds up to for the GOP but in their view it's been worth a lot. Over the course of these last few years of rolling from one crisis to another they have increased their margin in the House dramatically and they won a majority in the Senate. So I wouldn't expect these games of chicken to stop any time soon." ...

... Jonathan Bernstein of Bloomberg View: "Pundits and reporters have portrayed the chain of events as a disaster for the speaker, and are in jeopardy. So why do I think Boehner's 'defeat' was actually a brilliant maneuver? ... On one hand, the speaker gave the radicals and those who voted with them a moment of triumph when they spiked the bill. On the other, it was a good reminder for most mainstream House conservatives, who oppose Obama's immigration actions but don't want a shutdown, that the alternative to Boehner is chaos.... Boehner is wise to accept these 24-hour fiascos, even if they spread reports of coups against him. The griping is just for show."

Arhsad Mohammed of Reuters: "Iran rejected on Tuesday as 'unacceptable' U.S. President Barack Obama's demand that it freeze sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years but said it would continue talks on a deal, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported. Iran laid out the position as the U.S. and Iranian foreign ministers met for a second day of negotiations and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a stinging critique of the agreement they are trying to hammer out." CW: Yeah, thanks for your help, Bibi. ...

... Here's the transcript of Benjamin Netanhayu's speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Video of the speech is here. ...

... William Booth & Ruth Eglash of the Washington Post: "Israeli commentators generally gave the Netanyahu speech high marks, with supporters calling it one of the best of the prime minister's political career. Others said that the speech was rousing and demonstrated the support that Israel and Netanyahu enjoy in Congress, but that Netanyahu did not break new ground or offer a new way of dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions." ...

... Thomas Erdbrink of the New York Times: "The tensions between the United States and Israel over how to address Iran's nuclear program and a politically divisive speech Tuesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the United States Congress are playing to an eager audience in Tehran. The news media [in Tehran] has [sic.] highlighted the division as evidence that Israel is being isolated by its otherwise steadfast ally and analysts are examining how the rift might affect the outcome of the nuclear negotiations." ...

... Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, an Israel hawk, reflects on the possible impacts of Netanyahu's speech. ...

... Matthew Duss of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, in Slate: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did President Obama an enormous favor Tuesday. Given the opportunity, on perhaps the world's biggest political stage, to articulate the best possible case against the nuclear deal currently being negotiated with Iran, Netanyahu came up empty. He whiffed.... Netanyahu had the chance Tuesday to offer a better plan, with the whole world watching. He failed miserably, and in so doing demonstrated conclusively that there isn't one." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "It's pretty shocking that Netanyahu was able not only to dictate a speech to Congress and its timing, but the scope of issues he'd need to address. It's less a reflection of his cleverness and audacity than of the peculiar needs of our country's Republican Party." ...

... Jim Fallows of the Atlantic: To Bibi, it's 1938 all over again. To others, not so much. Fallows runs down some of the ways in which Iran is not like Nazi Germany. ...

... Here's another excellent post by Fallows on how Netanyahu's objectives are at odds with the interests of the United States. CW: It would be nice if Republicans had the brainpower to see that they are undermining their own country's -- as well as the world's -- security interests by promoting Bibi's narrow worldview. Instead, Republicans still hold to a policy of Bomb-Bomb-Bomb Iran All of the Middle East Except Israel. That's worked out brilliantly so far (See Iraq, Libya). And it's so humanitarian. ...

... AND, to make Fallows' point, here's Ted Cruz. Betsy Woodruff of Slate: "Ted Cruz Compares Obama to Neville Chamberlain and Iran to Nazi Germany." ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "There's really no Plan B here, and even the hawks are mostly reluctant to explicitly say that we should just up and launch a massive air assault on Iran." ...

... CW: Hey, let's check in to see how international policy expert & all-around fine human being Rush Limbaugh assesses the situation:

You look at how Obama has treated and does treat Netanyahu, you would think that Netanyahu was a white policeman from Ferguson, Missouri. I mean, that's the conclusion that you would come to. Or that he was one of the cops that choked Eric Garner, or he was one of the jurors in the Trayvon Martin case.

... ALSO, Sen. Lindsey Graham says he's sorry about making a crack about Nancy Pelosi's facial "surgeries." CW: Apparently Graham was unaware that when you say stupid stuff at a "private fund-raiser," some person in the room is likely to share it with the press. Someone might point him to Not-President Forty-seven Percent and, way two weeks back, to Rudy Obama-Doesn't-Love-Me.

Republicans Show Their Concern for Income Inequality. Jordan Carney of the Hill: "The Senate will vote Wednesday on a GOP-backed motion that would undo a controversial National Labor Relations Board rule that makes it easier for workers to hold union elections. Republicans are using the Congressional Review Act that allows lawmakers to undo regulation through a motion of disapproval, which needs a majority vote in both chambers. The motion can't be filibustered or amended, which will help it bypass Democratic opposition. If the bill gets to his desk, however, the White House says President Obama will veto it. Republicans say the rule is unfair to businesses."

... we expect the firms we oversee to follow the law and to operate in an ethical manner. Too often in recent years, bankers at large institutions have not done so, sometimes brazenly. These incidents, both individually and in their totality, raise legitimate questions of whether there may be pervasive shortcomings in the values of large financial firms that might undermine their safety and soundness. -- Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chair

Binyamin Appelbaum of the New York Times: "As this recovery gains momentum, and the labor market starts to look more normal, a new report offers a reminder that black workers once again are lagging behind.... Tthe problem is a good illustration of the limits of monetary policy."

Carrie Johnson of NPR: "A federal civil rights investigation of the Ferguson, Mo., police force has concluded that the department violated the Constitution with discriminatory policing practices against African Americans, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the report.... The full report will be released on Wednesday, but the source described two emails included in the report that were exchanged between police and local court employees. One says Obama will not be president for long because 'what black man holds a steady job for four years.' Another says a black woman in New Orleans was admitted to a hospital to end her pregnancy and then got a check two weeks later from 'Crime Stoppers.'"

Jon Swaine & Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that after a six-month inquiry it has concluded no civil rights charges should be brought against [Darren] Wilson for killing Michael Brown. A grand jury in St Louis decided last November not to indict Wilson on state charges." Read on: this didn't satisfy Wilson's supporters.

Annals of "Justice," "General Amnesty" Edition. David Graham of the Atlantic: "The Obama administration is against intelligence officials leaking classified information -- but some conditions may apply. If you're a CIA analyst who talks to reporters, you might end up serving 30 months in federal prison or facing more. Even a reporter could end up being named a co-conspirator by prosecutors. But if you're a decorated general, a former CIA director, and a former member of the Cabinet, you might get off with a $40,000 fine and two years of probation. Just ask David Petraeus...." ...

... ** Marcy Wheeler provides some details of Petraeus's "indiscretions" that show the affair itself was a trivial sideshow: "For mishandling some of the most important secrets the nation has, Petraeus will plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Petraeus, now an employee of a top private equity firm, will be fined $40,000 and serve two years of probation. He will not, however, be asked to plead guilty at all for lying to FBI investigators[, which he did]. CW: Read the whole post. Let's hope the judge rejects the plea deal. It is as corrupt as is Petraeus himself. Several journalists have noted that pleading guilty to only a misdemeanor would allow General Betrayus to return to "public service." ...

... CW: Will the Senate now pass a resolution apologizing to MoveOn.org? Don't hold your breath. ...

I'm proud of the fact that basically you've had an administration that's been in place for six years in which there hasn't been a major scandal. -- David Axelrod, former Obama advisor, last month ...

... CW: Sorry, Axelrod, this is a scandal, a scandalous misuse of "prosecutorial discretion." I don't doubt that in view of Petraeus's prominence, Eric Holder signed off on this deal. This is classic Holder; he was a tool of the "connected" people going in, and he's a tool going out.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Michael Tomasky rips the New York Times' reporting on the Hillary e-mail story. Tomasky asserts that Michael Schmidt's Times report was purposely misleading.

CW: We learned last week that Bill O'Reilly lied to his mother. (Of course we learned that from Bill O'Reilly, so that could be a lie, too.) Now we learn that Bill'O also lied to children & teens for fun & profit.

Presidential Race

Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin "Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday embraced a move to ban abortion after 20 weeks after repeatedly declining to spell out where he stood on the issue in last year's re-election campaign. It is the latest example of Walker downplaying a major issue until after being re-elected and climbing to the top tier of likely 2016 presidential candidates. Walker did not campaign on plans to spin off the University of Wisconsin System as a public authority and now says he will sign so-called right-to-work legislation even though he insisted for years he would keep the measure from reaching his desk." ...

... See also Nadd2's commentary in today's thread. Also, as Nadd2 suggested in yesterday's thread, now that Hillary Clinton is in deserved hot water for her peculiar/stupid/careless decision to use her personal e-mail account for all her State Department correspondence, she can expect a pass from Scott Walker. ...

... Michael Schmidt & Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Federal regulations, since 2009, have required that all emails be preserved as part of an agency's record-keeping system. In Mrs. Clinton's case, her emails were kept on her personal account and her staff took no steps to have them preserved as part of State Department record. An examination of records requests sent to the department reveals how the practice protected a significant amount of her correspondence from the eyes of investigators and the public.... The White House, in its first response to the news, said it frowned on the practice of officials using their personal email accounts.... But political groups and news organizations said requests for records related to Mrs. Clinton had repeatedly gone unanswered." ...

... CW: Schmidt & Chozick directly contradict Michael Tomasky's assertion, in the post linked above, that "The new regs apparently weren’t fully implemented by State until a year and half after Clinton left State.... Clinton left the State Department on February 1, 2013.... The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) didn't issue the relevant guidance, declaring that email records of senior government officials are permanent federal records, until August 2013. Then, in September 2013, NARA issued guidance on personal email use." Take your pick. ...

The Washington Post story, by Karen Tumulty & Anne Gearan is here. Clinton reportedly used multiple personal e-mail accounts. ...

... Ron Fournier, the sanctimonious dope at the National Journal, equates Hillary Clinton's private e-mail stupidity with her husband's lies about Monica Lewinsky: "... here again is a reminder of the 1990s: When cornered, the Clintons denied facts and demonized detractors. The most obvious example is Bill Clinton's lying about his affair with a White House intern.... Less remembered is an independent counsel's finding of 'substantial evidence' that then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton lied under oath about her role in the 1993 White House travel office firings." But Fournier, if he could get over his hyperbole, does have a point: "[Hillary] Clinton's problem is ... a lack of shame about money, personal accountability, and transparency." ...

... Julian Hattem of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton's exclusive use of a personal email account to conduct official business as secretary of State ... seems to have stayed within the law, experts say. 'What she did was not technically illegal,' said Patrice McDermott, a former National Archives staffer and the head of the Open The Government coalition, a transparency group. However, 'it was highly inappropriate and it was inappropriate for the State Department to let this happen,' she said." ...

... Andrew Prokop of Vox: "The specific legal issue at play here, however, doesn't appear to be Clinton's use of her personal email -- but instead, the failure of Clinton and her aides to properly keep records of her work-related communications from that email account on State Department servers." ...

... Shane Harris of the Daily Beast: "A Clinton aide, who asked not to be named, flatly denied that Clinton let slip any secrets through her personal email. 'Using her own email account broke no laws, and ... was used for communicating non-classified information only,' the aide told The Daily Beast." CW: Why the anonymity? Probably so Trey Gowdy won't subpoena her/him. ...

... ** Digby: "Maybe there's something truly nefarious going on. I'm open to believing it. But at this point what I see is that Villager hysterical impulse asserting itself once again.... Villager handwringing over how it doesn't really matter if it's true or not because 'it's out there' and it 'exposes her character', is cheap and shallow journalistic masturbation." ...

... Steve Benen: "Politically..., Republicans find themselves in an awkward position. The RNC issued a statement asking, '[I]t all begs the question: what was Hillary Clinton trying to hide?' Putting aside the misuse of 'begs the question,' the Republican track record makes this a difficult question to ask." Benen cites both Karl Rove, who got caught flouting the Official Records Act & Mitt Romney, who destroyed e-mails for the admitted purpose of hiding official correspondence. "... Republicans will have to somehow come up with an explanation for why Clinton's misstep is scandalous, while GOP officials and candidates who did the exact same thing are beyond reproach." ...

... Steve M.: "Remember the huge Mitt Romney email scandal of 2012? No?... Which is not to say that what Hillary did was justified -- it put her above the law and it suggests that she's hiding something, or at least that she has a neurotic tendency toward concealment even when there's nothing to conceal.... This reveals bad judgment, but it's not going to be an enduring scandal unless there's much more to it." ...

** Jaime Fuller of New York has an excellent rundown of what reporters have learned about Hillary Clinton's e-mail account scandalette. Here's one factoid: "John Kerry is the first Secretary of State to rely on government email." And another: "The regulations requiring Clinton to save emails weren't in place until after she left the State Department."

Beyond the Beltway

Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "Sharply criticizing the Supreme Court for its recent actions on same-sex marriage, the Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday evening ordered all state judges who have the duty to issue licenses to wed to stop doing so immediately for same-sex couples.... The seven-to-one decision, made in three opinions running to a total of 148 pages, put at least some of the sixty-eight probate judges in the state in the position of having to obey directly contradictory court orders.... Chief Justice Roy S. Moore, who had undertaken on his own to try to stop the state probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples..., did not take part in Tuesday's ruling. His absence from it was not explained." CW: Up next: secession. Really, this is extraordinary. ...

... The New York Times story, by Campbell Robertson, is here.

John Danforth, the former Republican Senator from Missouri & an Episcopalian priest, whose claim to fame is bringing us Clarence Thomas, delivered the eulogy for Missouri state auditor Thomas Schweich, who committed suicide last week. CW: Here's the part I find curious. Danforth blames dirty politics for Schweich's suicide, then launches into a related graf that begins, "Words do hurt. Words can kill." But Danforth says in the eulogy that he advised Schweich to be politically expedient & pursue any complaints about antisemitism sub rosa. Danforth admits he may have let down Schweich. Nonetheless, Danforth seems to absolve himself while blaming others. ...

... CW: I may be reflecting my own limitations here, but I feel certain an antisemitic whispering campaign was not the cause of Schweich's suicide. And neither was Danforth's failure to see it Schweich's way. Dirty politics is as old as the nation, & being "accused" of being Jewish is not normally life-shattering in a country where even the usual bigots strongly oppose antisemitism.

Not Photoshopped. Really.

Akhilleus asked in yesterday's thread, "Just wondering if Nelson (Mr. Morals) Shanks included the shadow of a TOW missile in his portrait of Ronald Reagan."

CW: Ha ha, very funny. If you were more into art appreciation, Akhilleus, you would know that the shadow behind Reagan in the Shanks portrait at left is of a Contra in camo. You can see where the Contra is wearing a bandana to hide his identity. Or else it's Davy Crockett.

See also yesterday's Commentariat for context.

News Ledes

AP: "Mark Lippert, the US ambassador to South Korea, has been slashed on the face and wrist by a man armed with a razor and screaming that the two Koreas should be unified. Pictures showed a stunned-looking Lippert staring at his blood-covered left hand and holding his right hand over a cut on the right side of his face, his pink tie splattered with blood."

Boston Globe: "The trial of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev" begins today.

The Commentariat -- March 3, 2015

Internal links removed.

Here are the New York Times' live updates on Netanyahu's speech before the U.S. Congress. CW: Happily for me, I unexpectedly had to be away during the whole thing. ...

... The Washington Post story, by Katie Zezima, is here. "Any agreement 'doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb,' Netanyahu said. 'So why would anyone make this deal?'” (CW: Sadly, no reports that Netanyahu employed high-tech cardboard cartoon visuals aids to emphasize his point. I guess he just couldn't be bothered to bring his magic marker. Maybe he doesn't respect the U.S. Congress.) "Netanyahu praised President Obama, who was participating in a teleconference at 11:30. A White House spokesman said he likely would not watch the speech." ...

... as one who values the U.S. – Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister’s speech – saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation. -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

NEW. Echoes of Dubya. Paul Waldman: "You don’t have to be some kind of foreign policy whiz to grasp that there’s something weird about arguing that 1) Iran is a nation run by genocidal maniacs; 2) they want nuclear weapons so they can annihilate Israel; and 3) the best way to stop this is to abandon negotiations to limit their nuclear program and just wait to see what they do. But that’s the position Netanyahu’s supporters in the Republican Party are now committed to." ...

... Jeff Mason of Reuters: "Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but the odds are still against sealing a final agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday. Interviewed at the White House, Obama moved to dial back tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on Tuesday opposing the Iran deal, saying it was a distraction that would not be 'permanently destructive' to U.S. Israeli ties":

... Here's the full transcript of the interview. ...

... Dana Milbank: "In the brawl between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran nuclear negotiations, AIPAC has joined congressional Republicans in siding wholeheartedly with the Israeli hard-liner.... They gave a boisterous standing ovation to his invocation of a 'moral obligation' to give his views on the Iran negotiations, declaring an end to 'the days when the Jewish people are passive in the face of threats to annihilate us.' Added Netanyahu: 'Today we have a voice. And tomorrow . . . I plan to use that voice.'” ...

... Ted Nesi of WPRI Providence, R.I.: "U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse won’t be among those in attendance when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes his controversial address before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday." ...

... Here's the Hill's latest list of which Members of Congress will & won't be attending Netanyahu's speech.

NEW. Jaime Fuller of New York: "Boehner is so ready to be done with all this DHS drama. Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that the House will vote on a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week — perhaps by the end of the day. News organizations have reported that Boehner told his colleagues that a partial shutdown was not an option...." ...

... NEW. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The House will vote as soon as Tuesday afternoon on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year. The measure will not target President Obama's executive actions on immigration, giving Democrats what they have long demanded and potentially enraging conservatives bent on fighting the president on immigration." ...

... Paul Lewis of the Guardian: "In the Senate, Democrats blocked an attempt by Republicans to force negotiations between both sides of the legislature over a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. The failed vote immediately put pressure on the Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner...." ...

... Mike Lillis & Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "House Democrats expect Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring a 'clean' Homeland Security funding bill to the floor this week, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday."

NEW. Barely a Tap on the Wrist. Adam Goldman & Sari Horwitz of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for David H. Petraeus have reached an agreement with federal prosecutors for the retired general and former CIA director to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with his handling of classified materials. As part of the agreement, Petraeus admitted to improperly retaining classified material, according to documents filed Tuesday in federal court in Charlotte. Petraeus has also acknowledged he misled FBI investigators, officials said." ...

... NEW. CW: As a recall, Martha Stewart, a private citizen who did not hold a position of public trust, much less the power of a CIA director with vast capabilities to betray individuals & the nation, went to jail for misconduct no worse than Petraeus's. Oh, well, she's a girl. Besides, she was a role model who had to be held up as an example.

Julie Davis of the New York Times: "President Obama on Monday called for prompt action to change police practices across the country after the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island at the hands of white officers exposed frustrations about law enforcement in minority communities. Mr. Obama, unveiling the recommendations of a White House task force created in the wake of the killings, said local law enforcement agencies should consider requiring independent criminal investigations and independent prosecutors in cases where the use of force by police officers results in injury or death."

Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "President Obama said his administration is not preparing a backup plan in case the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare because he believes there is no 'plausible legal basis' for such a ruling. In his first public remarks on the high-stakes case, Obama stuck with his health secretary’s previous remarks that the administration is not concerned about how to protect the subsidies at the heart of his healthcare law. 'If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are. But I’m not going to anticipate that. I'm not going to anticipate bad law,' Obama said in an interview with Reuters."

Attorney General Eric Holder in a USA Today op-ed: "Over the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide whether state restrictions on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.... This week, the Justice Department will file a brief setting forth our position that state bans on same-sex marriage violate the fundamental constitutional guarantee of 'equal protection of the laws.' It is clear that the time has come to recognize that gay and lesbian people deserve robust protection from discrimination."

AP: "The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from same-sex marriage opponents in California who want to keep the identities of their campaign donors secret.... The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against them in part because the names have been publicly available for five years."

Jim Inhofe, National Embarrassment. Washington Post Editors: "SEN. JIM Inhofe (R-Okla.) chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee — and he seems determined to make that fact a national embarrassment. Mr. Inhofe delivered a Senate floor speech about the 'hysteria on global warming' last week with two conspicuous props. One was a blown-up photo of his family standing in front of an igloo labeled 'AL GORE’S NEW HOME.'" Then he threw a snowball at the presiding officer.... Neither science nor evidence trouble Mr. Inhofe’s benighted complacency.... The Republican Party should be mortified by the face of their environmental leadership."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Brendan James of TPM: "Fox News issued a clarification on Friday on behalf of its star host Bill O'Reilly, saying that he said he'd "seen" bombings in Northern Ireland because police showed him photos of them. The Washington Post spotted a passage in O'Reilly's 2013 book, 'Keep It Pithy,' in which he described seeing lethal bombings in Northern Ireland.... A Fox spokesperson told the Washington Post that O’Reilly did not witness any bombings or injuries in Northern Ireland but was simply shown photos by police officers. The Northern Ireland clarification marks the second time this has happened: On Wednesday, O'Reilly told Mediaite that when he repeatedly said he had seen nuns 'get shot' in El Salvador, he was referring to 'images' he had seen." ...

... CW: Apparently "pithy" means leaving out long words like "photographs." ...

... David Corn & Daniel Schulman of Mother Jones: "Mother Jones has obtained the CBS News report [Bill] O'Reilly filed at the end of the Falklands war. It makes no reference to the dramatic and warlike action — soldiers 'gunning down' Argentine civilians with 'real bullets'— O'Reilly has claimed he witnessed." With video.

Portrait by Nelson Shanks.The Shadow of Her Dress. Stephanie Farr of the Philadelphia Daily News: Portrait artist Nelson Shanks on an official portrait he made of President Clinton:

If you look at the left-hand side of it there's a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him. And so the Clintons hate the portrait. They want it removed from the National Portrait Gallery. They're putting a lot of pressure on them. [... A spokeswoman from the National Portrait Gallery denied that.]

David Graham of the Atlantic elaborates.

Presidential Race

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record. Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.... Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach." ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Examining the registry information for 'clintonemail.com' reveals that the domain was first created on January 13, 2009 -- one week before President Obama was sworn into office, and the same day that Clinton's confirmation hearings began before the Senate." ...

... NEW. The Shadow of Her Shades. Margaret Hartmann: "Take a moment to enjoy the 'Texts from Hillary' meme one last time, because henceforth the image of Hillary Clinton scrolling through her BlackBerry with her eyes concealed by dark sunglasses will have an entirely different meaning." In her post, Hartmann gets to the gist of Hillary's little e-mail problems. (Yeah, there's more than one.)

NEW. Charles Pierce: "Hillary Clinton finds a rake to step on." CW: Actually, it was Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-Benghaaazi!) who put the upturned rake in the middle of her primrose path to the presidency. Nonetheless, Hillary sent Trey the map to the path.

How to Look Tough AND Smart. OR Sneering & Pointing Fingers While Bespeckled. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Following a weekend full of conservative attacks on Hillary Clinton at the Conservative Political Action Conference, former Texas Governor Rick Perry added to the list, questioning the former secretary of state’s 'loyalty' in an interview that aired Sunday. Responding to news that the Clinton foundation had not notified the State Department when it previously accepted a donation from a foreign nation, Perry argued that Clinton was disloyal." ...

... Steve Benen: “'Where’s your loyalty?' is an exceedingly difficult question for Rick Perry, of all people, to ask. ... Perry flirted openly with the idea of state secession a few years ago, which makes it a little awkward, to put it mildly, when the governor decides to question others’ patriotism or loyalty to the United States." Thanks to Akhilleus for the links on Perry.

Election 2016

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, announced Monday that she will leave the Senate next year at the end of her fifth term. Mikulski, 78 and in good health, departs the way she came in — with a sharp tongue, an unabashed liberalism, and a reputation for straight talk. She won all ten of her elections to the House and then the Senate with support from more than 60 percent of voters."

Beyond the Beltway

Richael Oppel of the New York Times: "Moving to stem fresh anger over how Cleveland has handled the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Mayor Frank G. Jackson apologized on Monday for language that the city’s lawyers used in court filings to assert that the boy’s death was his own fault.... The newest controversy was spurred by a filing made in federal court late last week by lawyers for the city in response to a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Tamir’s family. The city’s lawyers argued in the filing that the boy died because of his own actions and not because of police department errors."

Emma Margolin of NBC News: "Yet another same-sex marriage ban has fallen – this time, in Nebraska. On Monday, U.S District Judge Joseph Bataillon – a President Bill Clinton appointee – struck down the Cornhusker State’s voter-approved amendment prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying.... The decision also comes just days after Nebraska’s child welfare officials agreed to stop enforcing the state’s policy blocking same-sex couples from becoming foster parents." ...

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell on Monday fired the opening salvo in a bid to get his public corruption conviction thrown out, arguing in a filing that the case against him was 'built on a boundless definition of bribery' and that the judge made legal errors throughout the process that warrant a new trial."

Kate Brumback of the AP: "Georgia postponed its first execution of a woman in 70 years late Monday because of concerns about the drug to be used in the lethal injection. The pentobarbital was sent to an independent lab to check its potency and the test came back at an acceptable level, but during subsequent checks it appeared cloudy, Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said. Corrections officials called the pharmacist and decided to postpone the execution 'out of an abundance of caution,' she said. No new date was given."

Marissa Payne of the Washington Post: "In response to two male athletes on its volleyball team coming out in an article published on OutSports.com last year, [Erskine College of South Carolina], which is aligned with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian tradition, released a strongly worded denouncement of homosexuality on campus that many read to be a behavioral ban."

NEW. Katie Baker of BuzzFeed: Another woman accuses Bill Cosby of drugging & raping her. Baker puts the number of Cosby accusers at more than 30 now.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Besides providing updates on the assassination of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the BBC provides a list of the violent deaths of opponents of Vladimir Putin since 2003. You'd have to pretty credulous to believe these were "accidental" or "coincidental" or some such. Via Steve Benen.

The Commentariat -- March 2, 2015

Internal links removed.

Mike DeBonis & Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "House Republican leaders will face a familiar dilemma this week when they try again to approve funding to keep the Department of Homeland Security functioning through the end of September: They know their party is too divided to resolve the crisis on its own but fear the political fallout if they rely on Democrats to get them out of the jam." ...

... Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "House speaker John Boehner on Sunday dismissed reports that conservative rivals are planning to oust him following a deal to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amidst rumours that he promised a vote on a 'clean bill' on the issue next week." ...

... Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Sunday rejected rumors that GOP leaders struck a deal with Democratic leaders to bring a 'clean' Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill to the floor for a vote this week. 'There is no such deal and there's no such bill,' Scalise said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'On Friday, there was a bill on the House floor to pass a clean funding bill. We rejected that because we said we're fighting the president on what he's doing illegally on immigration.'"

NEW. Peter Baker & Julie Davis of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday opened his high-profile visit to the American capital by playing down any personal dispute with President Obama, but he said that he had a 'moral obligation' to warn against the dangers of an American-brokered nuclear deal with Iran." ...

... Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday addressed perceived tensions between the Obama administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, insisting that the two parties are committed to working together on international security." ...

... Ruth Eglash & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off Sunday for Washington, a group of 180 retired Israeli generals and former top security officials warned that his upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress on Iran's nuclear program will cause more harm than good." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "So far, 30 Democrats -- four senators and 26 representatives -- have said they will not attend the speech. Nearly half are African-Americans, who say they feel deeply that Mr. Netanyahu is disrespecting the president.... But a half-dozen of those Democrats planning to stay away are Jewish, and represent 21 percent of Congress's Jewish members." ...

... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly has a roundup of U.S. commentary on Bibi's Big Ploy. ...

... Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Switzerland to meet again with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who earned a Ph.D in international law and policy from the University of Denver, to try to negotiate the very accord that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived in Washington that same day to denounce." CW: As I said last week, if Iran has any intention of ever signing an agreement, now would be the moment to do it. Bibi might do a Rumpelstiltskin & rend himself in two in front of the U.S. Congress. ...

... Julia Edwards of Reuters: "President Barack Obama would veto a bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate allowing Congress to weigh in on any deal the United States and other negotiating countries reach with Iran on its nuclear capabilities, the White House said on Saturday." ...

... Mark Langfan of Israel National News: "The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma'an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report Saturday, that US President Barack Obama thwarted an Israeli military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities in 2014 by threatening to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran. Following Obama's threat, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reportedly forced to abort the planned Iran attack. According to Al-Jarida, the Netanyahu government took the decision to strike Iran some time in 2014 soon after Israel had discovered the United States and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran's nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement in that regard behind Israel's back."

** Workers Are People, My Friend. Paul Krugman: "... extreme inequality and the falling fortunes of America's workers are a choice, not a destiny imposed by the gods of the market. And we can change that choice if we want to."

Jeff Toobin in the New Yorker: "This week, the Court will hear arguments in a momentous case, King v. Burwell.... But, in contrast to other landmarks in Supreme Court history, the King case is notable mostly for the cynicism at its heart. Instead of grandeur, there is a smallness about this lawsuit in every way except in the stakes riding on its outcome." ...

... Digby: "Also too: these same lawyers [who brought the King suit] heavily lobbied the Republican states not to build exchanges." ...

... Nicholas Bagley, in a New York Times op-ed, makes the case that the four confederate justices who dissented in the 2012 ACA case made the same argument in that case that the government is making in King; that is, that removing a major element of the ACA (in 2010, it was the individual mandate, not the tax credits) would impose "such unexpected burdens -- for example, leaving millions of people without health insurance -- 'would be in absolute conflict with the design' of the law and 'would pose a threat to the nation that Congress did not intend.'" ...

... CW: AND, here's an interesting tidbit -- which Bagley doesn't mention -- for Roberts watchers: It was Chief Justice Roberts himself who wrote the dissent that contains that language. Only at the last minute did Roberts change his mind & side with the more liberal justices to save the ACA. If he knew that then, he knows it today. And so do the four dancing justices who signed that 2012 dissent as co-authors. ...

... "Provable Fiction." Steven Brill for Reuters: "Congressional intent will be hotly debated in the U.S. Supreme Court this Wednesday in King v. Burwell.... 'Congress could not have chosen clearer language to express its intent to limit subsidies to state exchanges,' the plaintiffs, represented by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, argue in their brief. That is fiction. Provable fiction.... I interviewed 21 congressional staffers and members last year in my effort to reconstruct the day-by-day narrative of how Obamacare happened. None ever mentioned the possibility that the subsidies did not apply to the states in the federal exchange. On the contrary, everything they told me -- and all of the contemporaneous emails and other internal documents I reviewed -- assumed that the federal exchange would simply be a substitute for a state exchange if a state decided not to launch its own, and that the same rules would apply." ...

... Sens. Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander & John Barasso (R, R & R) in a Washington Post op-ed: "We have a plan for fixing health care." CW: And we wrote it on the back of a napkin! And there's not a chance in hell this plan to put millions of Americans in a fix would ever get past the wingnuts in the House. But, hey, it's a "plan." ...

... As Greg Sargent points out, the main purpose of this advertised "plan" is "transparently designed to make it easier for conservative Justices to side with the challengers." ...

... David Morgan of Reuters surveyed state governors & legislatures to see how they might deal with the loss of subsidies for residents of their states. Though spokespeople, the governors of five states -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and Wisconsin -- said, "Let 'em die!" (Paraphrase.) "State government officials in Georgia, Missouri, Montana and Tennessee -- a mix of Republicans and Democrats - said that opposition by majority Republican state legislators could make it all but impossible to set up a new exchange."

E. J. Dionne: "The absurdity of going to the wire on funding the Department of Homeland Security tells us that many in the party, particularly right-wingers in the House, do not care how their inability to govern in an orderly fashion looks to citizens outside the conservative bubble."

Charles Blow: "There remains in the Republican Party, as evidenced by the speakers at [CPAC], a breathtaking narrowness of vision and deficit of creative thought.... [At CPAC, there] was too much rhetoric about defending, defeating, defunding, deauthorizing. There was so much anti-Obama and anti-Hillary obsessing that the 'pro' alternatives -- to the extent that a case could be made -- were obscured." ...

... Brian Schatz of Mother Jones: "Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican who recently became the chair of a key congressional subcommittee on science and technology, didn't vaccinate most of his children, he told a crowd at his first town hall meeting last week.... 'I believe it's the parents' decision whether to immunize or not.... Most of our children, we didn't immunize. They're healthy.' Loudermilk's comment sparked sharp criticism, including from Rick Wilson, a prominent Republican strategist who called for the congressman's resignation. Having 'healthy,' unvaccinated kids does not mean that they aren't at risk, or that they won't put others at risk later...." CW: Sorry I forgot to link this last week. Don't worry; I'm sure Loudermilk is still stupid.

Perversion of the Principle of Eminent Domain. Josh Israel & Katie Valentine of Think Progress: "... the groups that usually are vocal proponents of property rights, including the Institute for Justice, have been silent when it comes to [Keystone XL's seizure of private property]. 'I have not seen a single group that would normally rail against eminent domain speak up on behalf of farmers or ranchers on the Keystone XL route,' said Jane Kleeb, founder of the anti-Keystone group Bold Nebraska.... Oil pipelines like Keystone XL are often classified as common carriers -- both in Texas and in other states.... The pipeline, [environmentalists] say, is an example of ... 'private to private' transfer -- it's a privately-owned pipeline that will use private land to transport oil, and that oil will end up benefiting private interests." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link.

"Elected by the People." Garrett Epps of the Atlantic on the language of the Seventeenth Amendment. Where it isn't clear, expect legislators & governors to abuse it.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Tape Debunks O'Reilly's JFK Tale. Tom Kludt of CNN: "... phone recordings indicate that [Bill] O'Reilly learned of the suicide second-hand and was in a different location at the time. Years later, however, O'Reilly would repeatedly claim to have been at the scene. In his 2012 book 'Killing Kennedy,' O'Reilly wrote that he knocked on the door of a South Florida home when suddenly he 'heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide' of George de Mohrenschildt, a Russian immigrant who knew Lee Harvey Oswald. While promoting the book, O'Reilly said on Fox News that he 'was about to knock on the door' when de Mohrenschildt 'blew his brains out with a shotgun.'" CW: Kludt has produced a good-quality audio tape in which an investigator informs O'Reilly of the suicide. It is clear that O'Reilly had no first-hand information & that he was not in Florida at the time de Mohrenschildt killed himself; O'Reilly doesn't even know the town where de Mohrenschildt died. ...

... Digby: "... at what point does Fox have to deal with this? Ever? Isn't it time for people to start asking the allegedly straight reporters Brett Baier, Ed Henry and Chris Wallace what they think about this?"

Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times: "Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch's media holdings in Britain, acquitted last year on charges related to the phone hacking scandal, is likely to return to News Corporation to focus on new avenues for digital and social media, people familiar with the company's plans said."

Presidential Race

Now He's Severely Confederate. Leigh Munsil of Politico: "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says his views have changed on immigration -- and he doesn't support amnesty for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S." CW: Because Obama.

Beyond the Beltway

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer's shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said. According to several officials who have been briefed on the report's conclusions, the report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Africans and relying on the fines to balance the city's budget. The report, which is expected to be released as early as this week, will force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by it on civil rights charges."

News Ledes

New York Times: "The Iraqi military, alongside thousands of Shiite militia fighters, began a large-scale offensive on Monday to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State, a battle that could either become a pivotal fight in the campaign to reclaim north and west Iraq or deepen the country's bloody sectarian divide."

Daily Beast: "In less than 12 hours, there were two separate attempts to penetrate the White House grounds."

Los Angeles Times: "The video-recorded fatal shooting by Los Angeles police of a homeless man on skid row Sunday night has investigators looking for additional footage that could shed light on the deadly confrontation."