Grumpy Old Bigot

Maureen Dowd says Grumpy McCain is "erratic and intolerant." Since the New York Times moderators chose to axe my comment again, you can read it here, modified to return it to its Times-unfriendly form. I home in on an issue Dowd overlooks in her criticism of McCain's opposition to repeal of DADT:

For all of McCain’s supposed advocacy for bending to the whims of the rank-and-file soldiers, for all of his sudden interest in “troop morale,” for all of his concern about the dangers of initiating change in wartime -- which obviously is a time the military must make changes – for all of his knocking the leadership abilities of Adm. Mullen, for all of his questioning of the wisdom of the civilian Secretary of Defense Gates, he sure doesn’t seem to care much about national security.

Oh, down in Arizona, he wants us to “build the danged fence” to keep out ferriners who are driving around purposely causing accidents when they’re not decapitating Americans & burying their heads in the Arizona desert. But if any of the National Guard who are patrolling the Arizona-Mexico border are gay, they’d better keep quiet about it. Wonder how the morale of gay soldiers is doing? Ah, well, McCain doesn’t care about that.

As Daniel Drezner wrote in Foreign Policy, "The rigorous enforcement of DADT is preventing competent and patriotic soldiers from serving their country, particularly in high-demand positions like, say, Arabic translators.... I just want to know why the ranking minority member of the Senate Armed Services committee [i.e., McCain] is throwing national security, civilian control of the military, and the hierarchical chain of command under the f**king bus."

I never liked the “old” John McCain. I thought his phony “maverick” status, the one he denied during the 2010 campaign, was just evidence he was an unprincipled loose cannon. But the new, reconstituted John McCain is not just a blind old bigot; he poses a continuing threat to national security.

(You can read my comment on Frank Rich's column here. It's #5. The other comments on this page are very good.)

The Commentariat -- December 4

Mark Trumbull of the Christian Science Monitor: "... some prominent Nobel Prize winners [-- Joseph Stiglitz, Robert Solow & Paul Krugman --] argue for higher federal deficits – as a means of stimulating economic growth – rather than for quick steps on deficit reduction. Even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appears sympathetic to this position." ...

... Meanwhile, David Dayan of Firedoglake: 14 Democratic senators, plus Dems Dick Durbin & Kent Conrad, rally round deficit reduction. "... the Catfood Commission, while 'failing' in the technical sense, did its job. It created a report that people can label 'bipartisan' moving forward, and it put deficit reduction – when there are 15 million Americans out of work – at the top of the agenda.... And it’s a self-inflicted wound, as this was a Presidential commission."

Alan Grayson goes out with a bang, not a whimper. Recommended viewing!

They can pretend giving the rich tax breaks creates jobs, but we know it doesn’t. If that were the case, the economy would be booming.
-- Harry Reid ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "In a last-ditch effort to control the political messaging in the tax fight, Democrats accused the Republicans of favoring the rich over the middle class, of cruelly holding up an extension of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, and of pursuing bad economic policies that contributed to the recent recession." ...

... Jay Newton-Small of Time has more on today's Senate votes.

John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "... the CBO released a study that shows if Congress does pass the DREAM Act, it would save us $1.4 billion over ten years.... Why does this matter? Because Republicans are screaming that they won't vote for any legislation that doesn't cut the federal deficit." Amato provides a call list of Senators we should lobby. The CBO report is here.

Super PACs provide a means for the super wealthy to have even more influence and an even greater voice in the political process.
-- Meredith McGehee, of the Campaign Legal Center ...

... T. W. Farnam of the Washington Post: "The newly created independent political groups known as super PACs, which raised and spent millions of dollars on last month's elections, drew much of their funding from private-equity partners and others in the financial industry, according to new financial disclosure reports. The 72 super PACs, all formed this year, together spent $83.7 million on the election. The figures provide the best indication yet of the impact of recent Supreme Court decisions that opened the door for wealthy individuals and corporations to give unlimited contributions."

"Death by Budget Cut." Gail Collins writes of an Arizona man in need of a liver transplant who was literally prepped for surgery when "the Arizona state government, which is totally controlled by Republicans, got between him and his doctor." AND here's the backstory by Marc Lacey of the Times. The comments to Collins' column are pretty good, too.

Michael O'Brien of The Hill: "Democrats hoping to move forward with legislation other than tax cuts shouldn't look to centrist Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to break the logjam. Collins said again on Friday that, while she would vote with Democrats to end the military's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy, she wouldn't do so until a debate over tax cuts has been resolved." CW: assuming Harry Reid can keep all the Democrats in line, Collins' "after-tax" vote is the 60th vote needed to break a filibuster. ,,,

... Daniel Drezner in Foreign Policy in his "one post on repealing DADT: "... the status quo is undermining national security far more than any change. The rigorous enforcement of DADT is preventing competent and patriotic soldiers from serving their country, particularly in high-demand positions like, say, Arabic translators.... I therefore really and truly don't give a s**t why John McCain's position has shifted. I just want to know why the ranking minority member of the Senate Armed Services committee is throwing national security, civilian control of the military, and the hierarchical chain of command under the f***ing bus." ...

... Matt Yglesias: "I really wonder what’s happening, subjectively, inside the heads of people who oppose repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Do any of them think they’re on the right side of history here? That people are going to look back from 2040 and say 'if only we’d listened to John McCain thirty years ago?'"

Steve Benen on Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-NJ) comparing negotiating with Republicans to negotiating with terrorists. Republicans are having hissy-fits, but, Benen asks, after citing examples, "what about when Republicans compare themselves to terrorists?"

Ron Brownstein in the National Journal on why Dick Luger is the lone Republican Senator to openly back the New START treaty.

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "A small stockpile of spent nuclear fuel destined for disposal in Russia remained behind in a lightly guarded research center, apparently because of a fit of pique by Libya’s mercurial leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. In a frantic cable back to Washington, American officials in Tripoli warned of dire consequences unless the carefully brokered deal to remove the 5.2 kilograms (11.4 pounds) of highly enriched uranium stored in seven five-ton casks was quickly resurrected."

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks ... offer the most intimate view to date of the wily, irreverent and sometimes erratic Yemeni autocrat [Ali Abdullah Saleh], who over the past year has become steadily more aggressive against Al Qaeda. But he appears determined to join the fight on his own terms, sometimes accommodating and other times rebuffing American requests on counterterrrorism." ...

... In the National Journal, Matthew Dowd, a former Bush strategist, writes, "... we’re mired in a political environment where much of the public distrusts the federal government and despises both parties.... If we want to restore trust in our government, maybe we can start by telling the truth, keeping fewer secrets, and respecting the privacy of average citizens a little more." Dowd castigates the media for not "defending WikiLeaks and doing some soul-searching of their own about why they aren’t devoting more resources to the search for the truth."

... Chris Cillizza (who is high on my list of village idiots) of the Washington Post says WikiLeaks made for a ruinous week for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. BUT Glenn Kessler of the Post sees a silver lining: "Arab angst about Iran's nuclear ambitions has been exposed, perhaps giving the United States greater leverage in international talks scheduled for next week."

The Commentariat -- December 3

Having reviewed the Pentagon report, having spoken to active and retired military service members and having discussed the matter privately with Defense Secretary (Robert) Gates and others, I accept the findings of the report and support repeal based on the secretary’s recommendations that repeal will be implemented only when the battle effectiveness of the forces is assured and proper preparations have been completed. -- Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass)

Jim Fallows of The Atlantic remembers a "broad-minded, tolerant" John McCain, & writes, "Seeing him now is surprising not simply because it reminds us: this man could be the sitting president, but also because it again raises the question, how did he end up this way?" ...

... AP: "The top uniformed officers of the Army and the Marines told a Senate panel Friday that letting gays serve openly in the military at a time of war would be divisive and difficult, sharply challenging a new Pentagon study that calculates the risk as low." New York Times story here.

Greg Sargent: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore) "is working behind the scenes to build support for a rules change that would force Senators to actually filibuster on the floor." Here's a pdf of Merkley's memo to fellow senators.

AP: "An austere deficit-cutting plan by President Barack Obama's budget commission has failed to win the supermajority required to force a quick vote in Congress. The plan won support from 11 of 18 commission members. Fourteen were needed for official approval."

George Zornick of Think Progress: Bush officials are gloating over the "tax-cut trap" they laid when they talked Congress into passing "temporary" tax cuts. ...

... Paul Krugman thinks President Obama should be wearing a "Kick Me!" sign on his backside. CW: I disagree, & if my comment doesn't make the cut, I'll post it. ...

... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones draws a nice little picture of the Obama tax cut plan (blue) v. the GOP plan (red). Drum didn't have enough room on his blog to depict the total GOP tax cut for the richy-richest, but you get the idea. Notice that under the White House plan, everybody, including the super-rich, get some cut. ...

... Sam Stein: Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) says that if Obama caves on tax cuts for the wealthy, he'd better hope Sarah Palin is his opposition in 2012, implying of course that Obama couldn't beat anyone else.

... We Can't Say This Often Enough. Lori Montgomery & Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post: "The private discussions [between the White House & Republicans], which parallel a more public set of talks, have left many Democrats grousing that President Obama is being too quick to accommodate his adversaries, who are still a month away from taking control of the House and expanding their presence in the Senate." ...

... ** Chicken Crap. CBS News: "Republicans have argued that the midterm elections have given them a mandate on ... the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.... According to a new CBS News poll, however..., 53 percent of Americans want the Bush-era tax cuts extended only for households earning less than $250,000 per year. That roughly matches the proposal put forth by the White House.... Just 26 percent of Americans say they support extending the cuts for all Americans, even those earning above the $250,000 level, which is the GOP proposal." CW: Obama is caving to Republicans on something the public doesn't want & is fiscally disastrous because it's what he wants. ...

My drill sergeant was fond of telling privates that they could 'fuck up a wet dream.' I think that is an apt description of the Democrats handling of the tax issue, unless, like me, you’re slowly coming to the realization that they are equal parts incompetent and equal parts slaves to the money party. -- John Cole of Balloon Juice, who is just catching on to what I've been saying for months

... Jonathan Chait of The New Republic on Paul Ryan: "Ryan's record is mostly (but not consistently) anti-government, consistently opposed to downward redistribution of income, and absolutely rock-solid consistent against anything that reduces the deficit. Ryan favored all the Bush tax cuts and Medicare benefit, favors the unpaid-for permanent extension of those tax cuts, and opposed the Affordable Care Act.... Ryan, like many conservatives, prefers to reside in an alternate universe....  You can negotiate with somebody who has different preferences than you do. But negotiating with somebody who inhabits a different reality is very difficult."

Ed O'Keefe & Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon is increasingly worried that Congress will not act to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, a scenario that defense officials fear would prompt federal courts to intervene and immediately allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces instead of giving the military several months or years to prepare.

Washington Post op-ed, Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, Lawrence S. Eagleburger & Colin L. Powell, all of whom served as secretaries of state for Republican presidents, make "the Republican case for ratifying the New START treaty."

Dana Milbank: "To be sure, [Rep. Charlie] Rangel deserved punishment for his wrongs, which included failing to pay taxes on his Dominican beach home and improperly using his office for charitable fundraising. But in the 30 minutes allotted to him for his defense on the House floor Thursday evening, Rangel and his friends made a compelling case that he was being punished for doing things that lawmakers do routinely. ...

... More Milbank: "Republicans gained control of the House last month on a promise to 'restore the Constitution.' So it is no small irony that one of their first orders of business is an attempt to rewrite the Constitution." CW: and what a great name -- they call this first Constitutional Amendment they are proposing the "Repeal Amendment"; its aim is to return power to the states.

Jamie Dimon. New York Times photo.Roger Lowenstein , writing in the New York Times Magazine, profiles Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, calling him "America's Least Hated Banker." "Dimon sees himself as a patriotic citizen who helped his country in a time of crisis.... Critics say that, as a part — even a solvent part — of a failed system, he should be grateful for the government’s assistance rather than stridently critical, as he has been, of some of its reforms. Dimon, they note, took advantage of the crisis to acquire Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, and J. P. Morgan emerged from the crisis as a vastly larger institution." ...

... BUT Simon Johnson calls him "Our Most Dangerous Banker." Johnson lays out why Dimon's dream of an even larger, more interconnected international bank is a disaster waiting to happen.

Ben Smith & Byron Tau of Politico: "... an analysis by POLITICO found that at least $140 million in stimulus money has gone to faith-based groups, the result of an unpublicized White House decision to spend government money, where legal, supporting religiously inspired nonprofit groups."

Scott Shane, et al, of the New York Times: "From hundreds of diplomatic cables, Afghanistan emerges as a looking-glass land where bribery, extortion and embezzlement are the norm and the honest man is a distinct outlier.... The cables make it clear that American officials see the problem as beginning at the top." ...

... Helene Cooper & Carlotta Gall of the New York Times document Hamid Karzai's fall from favor, as reflected in the WikeLeaks cables.

Michael Scherer of Time has the backstory on "why Nigerian authorities are coming after Dick Cheney."