The Commentariat -- Sept. 5, 2015

White House: "In this week's address, the President recognized Labor Day by highlighting the economic progress our country has made, and underlining what needs to be done to continue that growth":

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia met at the White House on Friday in hopes of moving past their differences four months after the king refused the president's invitation to visit amid concerns over American negotiations with Iran. During brief public remarks at the beginning of their meetings, neither of the leaders directly addressed the disagreement that has driven a wedge between their countries, namely the deal to lift sanctions against Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Instead, they stressed a long history of cooperation and friendship between the United States and Saudi Arabia." ...

... Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), in a Washington Post op-ed, says he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "Mr. Cardin's closely watched decision did not jeopardize the implementation of the nuclear accord, but it did raise the likelihood that the president would have to veto a resolution disapproving it this month -- a diplomatic embarrassment the White House is hoping to avoid.... Also on Friday, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, the only incumbent Democrat facing a possibly difficult re-election fight next year, said he supported the deal." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "The pro-Israel lobby organized an important constituency in American politics that shared a relatively unified understanding of its collective self-interest. A month ago, that lobby was gearing up for a massive national campaign to block the Iran nuclear deal, using every medium at its disposal.... The campaign has not only failed, it has appeared almost completely ineffectual, and its failure has left its members stupefied. "

** Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "If you've heard anything about the upcoming budget battle, it's probably that Republicans want to dramatically slash spending. Yay, fiscal conservatism! What you may not know is that many of their desired funding cuts would increase deficits in the long run." CW: Once again proving that ideology & stupid are a bad mix. I realize that some form of representative democracy is the best form of government humankind has devised. Again and again the Congress of the United States reminds us what a misbegotten species we are.

Shut 'Er Down. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), in a New York Times op-ed: "Since its formation, the Select Committee on Benghazi has been aimless and slow moving, not knowing what it was looking for or where. It has acted in a deeply partisan way, frequently failing to consult or even to inform Democratic members before taking action, and selectively leaking information to the press. After 16 months and more than $4 million, the committee has gained no additional insight into the attacks in Benghazi.... The committee is solely concerned with damaging [Hillary Clinton's] candidacy, searching for something, anything, that can be insinuated against her.... A committee that cannot tell the American people what it is looking for after 16 months should be shut down."

Elections Matter! A Lot! Ed Kilgore: Confederate legal theorists have proposed a litmus test for Supreme Court nominees that would require them to "have a clearly documented willingness to ignore both other branches of government -- the principle behind the receding Republican doctrine of 'judicial restraint' -- and stare decisis -- the principle against overturning well-settled Court precedent -- in pursuit of the 'original' meaning of the Constitution. That means treating SCOTUS as an all-powerful institution communing with eighteenth century Founders -- or worse yet, Con Con mythologies about those Founders -- and empowered to kill many decades of decisions by all three branches of government, precedent and democracy be damned.... [The theorists] are very clearly pointing the way to abolition of the entire New Deal/Great Society legacy via rulings by judges serving lifetime terms."

Presidential Race

Heidi Przybyla of USA Today: "Hillary Clinton plans to launch a new initiative this weekend as she seeks to weave women's issues into every facet of her campaign instead of using them in a separate silo as she did in her unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid.... The rollout coincides with the 20th anniversary of the former first lady's 1995 speech to the United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, in which she proclaimed 'women's rights are human rights.'" ...

... Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC: "In an exclusive interview with NBC News/MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Friday, Hillary Clinton said she's 'sorry' there's been so much controversy over her private email server, but declined to apologize for the decision to use it. She also suggested that GOP front-runner Donald Trump is unqualified to be president and weighed in on the surprisingly robust challenge to her candidacy from Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders": (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Rosalind Helderman & Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton and her family personally paid a State Department staffer to maintain the private e-mail server she used while heading the agency, according to an official from Clinton's presidential campaign.... The private employment of [Bryan] Pagliano [-- who this week said he he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination rather than testify before the House Benghaazi! committee --] provides a new example of the ways that Clinton ... hired staff to work simultaneously for her in public and private capacities.... Pagliano did not list the outside income in the required personal financial disclosures he filed each year." ...

... Michael Hirsh of Politico: "If Clinton's long-running problem until now is that the public mistrusts her -- and the revelations about her private email server have only exacerbated this mistrust -- the emails themselves appear to leave the opposite impression. They are, for the most part, utterly mundane, the chatter of daily diplomatic life at a high stratum of society and, all in all, prosaic rather than pernicious. If there's plotting going on, it isn't happening here -- either that or Hillary Clinton has developed a very clever code. Does 'bring some skim milk' really mean 'destroy the documents'?"

Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: "Against the backdrop of a crushing debt crisis, Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio took their presidential campaigns to Puerto Rico on Friday. They offered pointedly different views on how to best resolve the financial woes afflicting the US territory.... Speaking entirely in Spanish [sorry, Donald!] at a restaurant in San Juan, Rubio told around 150 people that allowing Puerto Rican municipalities to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection was not the solution to its problems.... Clinton stood firmly behind her stance [of extending bankruptcy protection] on Friday and, though she did not mention Rubio by name, sharply criticized Republicans in Washington over congressional inaction."

The Drs. Frankenstein Not Happy with the Monster. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "... the mammoth big-money network assembled by Republicans in recent years is torn about how best to defuse the threat Mr. Trump holds for their party, and haunted by the worry that any concerted attack will backfire." ...

... Sean Sullivan & Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Officials with the Club for Growth -- a prominent anti-tax group that frequently targets Republicans it deems not conservative enough -- said Friday that the organization began reaching out to its network of donors in recent weeks to help fund an anti-Trump ad blitz. The organization's super PAC arm, Club for Growth Action, would run the ads, the group said.... But the group's pitch has been met with skepticism among some top GOP financiers, who believe that any effort to attack the real estate mogul could backfire.... Trump has criticized the Club for Growth for attacking him after previously talking to him about donating money....

Who knows more about growth than I do? -- Donald Trump

The stock market. -- Constant Weader ...

... ** Trump Is No Biz Wiz. S.V. Dáte of the National Journal: "As 'really rich' as Donald Trump is today, he might have been even rich­er if, instead of dab­bling in skyscrapers and casinos, he'd simply taken his eight-figure inheritance decades ago and sunk it into the stock market. Had the celebrity businessman ... invested his eventual share of his father's real-estate company into a mutual fund of S&P 500 stocks in 1974, it would be worth nearly $3 billion today, thanks to the market's performance over the past four decades. If he'd invested the $200 million that Forbes magazine determined he was worth in 1982 into that index fund, it would have grown to more than $8 billion today.... That a purely unmanaged index fund's re­turn could outperform Trump's hands-on wheeling and dealing calls into question one of Trump's chief selling points on the campaign trail: his business acumen."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Donald Trump is blasting Hugh Hewitt after stumbling over foreign policy questions in an interview with the conservative radio host. '[He is] a third-rate radio announcer,' Trump told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' on Friday morning."

Robert Schlesinger of US News: "The great Donald Trump experiment of 2015 entered a new phase this week with the exchange of attacks between the ersatz (Trump) and erstwhile (Jeb Bush )GOP frontrunners. Trump has been running a campaign so long on tone and posture as to be post-ideological. Bush has started systematically mounting a thoroughly conventional assault aiming to demonstrate issue by issue that Trump is an unsuitable standard bearer for the party. It's not so much a battle for the soul of the Republican Party as it is a struggle over whether the GOP needs a soul -- a core set of issues that define it -- at all. Instead Trump offers leadership -- snarling, angry and combative -- as an end instead of means." ...

... The Bodyguard: David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Two weeks ago, [Trump bodyguard Keith] Schiller stepped between his boss and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos during a news conference and physically ejected the influential journalist...." This week, Schiller punched out a protester who grabbed Schiller from behind after Schiller wrested a banner from the hands of protesters. "'The Secret Service would not operate that way,' Ralph Basham, who oversaw the federal protective agency from 2003 to 2006, said of the fisticuffs outside Trump Tower. 'They're not a bunch of jackbooted thugs.'" Nakamura goes on to report on the system for providing Secret Service protection for presidential candidates. Clinton, because she is a former First Lady, is the only candidate who currently has protection. (No link.)

Beyond the Beltway

James Higdon, et al., of the Washington Post: "An attorney for jailed Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis said Friday that the marriage licenses issued by her deputies to several same-sex couples are invalid. 'They are not worth the paper they're written on,' Mat Staver said outside the Carter County Detention Center, where Davis is being held on a contempt charge." CW: So Kim the Incarcerated is still trying to impose her personal religious beliefs on others. Talk about tyranny, Ted Cruz. ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "... even the judge conceded that those licenses, if issued, may not be valid, although he refused to decide that issue and left it to the lawyers for the same-sex couples to confront. ...

... Renee Graham of the Boston Globe: "Kim Davis ... isn't a religious freedom fighter. She's a homophobe, pure and simple.... Wrong and strong, Davis's actions are reminiscent of Alabama Governor George Wallace's infamous 'Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.'... Defying the rule of law didn't work for Wallace, and it won't work for Davis.... Davis is just the latest in a long, infernal line of fanatics to contort their so-called faith into an excuse for hatred and division." ...

... John Tierney of KGW Portland, Oregon: "A Marion County[, Oregon,] judge has refused to perform same-sex marriages and has asked his clerks to refer couples seeking same-sex marriages to other county judges. Judge Vance Day, a circuit court judge and former chairman of the Oregon Republican Party, is now facing an ethics investigation over that decision, according to the judge's spokesman.... Day hasn't performed any same-sex marriages since he joined the bench in 2011, but only stopped doing marriages of any kind this past spring. Judges in Marion County are not required to perform marriages...."

Way Beyond

Rick Lyman, et al., of the New York Times: "Thousands of migrants who have been bottled up in Hungary, demanding passage to the West, will be allowed into Austria and Germany, the Austrian chancellor said late Friday. Early Saturday, the first buses carrying them arrived at the Hungary-Austria border." ...

     ... The Guardian story, by Emma Graham-Harrison & others, is here. ...

     ... Update. Shawn Pogatchnik & Pablo Gorondi of the AP: "Thousands of exhausted, elated migrants reached their dream destinations of Germany and Austria on Saturday, completing epic journeys by boat, bus, train and foot to escape war and poverty. Before dawn, they clambered off a fleet of Hungarian buses at the Austrian border to find a warm welcome from charity workers offering beds and hot tea." ...

... Griff Witte & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Stepping back from a confrontation with asylum-seekers that drew condemnation from throughout Europe, Hungary will use buses to ferry thousands of migrants from Budapest to the border with Austria, a senior government official said Friday. The government's fierce attitude to asylum-seekers fleeing war and poverty sent more than a thousand of them on a long march across the nation in a bid to reach Western Europe, where they hope for better lives. The turnaround was a major admission of defeat for Hungarian authorities...." ...

... Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Call him Europe's Donald Trump. Hungary's maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban is emerging as the straight-talking voice of right-wing Europe, vowing to block a wave of desperate refugees from seeking sanctuary in the region. Continuing a wave of blunt statements rarely heard from heads of state on this side of the Atlantic, he warned Friday that Europeans now stand to become 'a minority in our own continent' if the floodgates are not immediately closed."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Ben Kuroki, a decorated Japanese-American gunner in the Army Air Forces of World War II, who was hailed on the American homeland at a time when tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were confined to internment camps as supposed security risks, died on Tuesday in Camarillo, Calif. He was 98."

New York Times: The annual pillow "fight on the West Point, N.Y., campus turned bloody as some cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, thought to be helmets, that split lips, broke at least one bone, dislocated shoulders and knocked cadets unconscious. The brawl at the publicly funded academy, where many of the Army's top leaders are trained, left 30 cadets injured, including 24 with concussions, according to West Point."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 4, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), in a Washington Post op-ed, says he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal.

Alex Seitz-Wald of MSNBC: "In an exclusive interview with NBC News/MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Friday, Hillary Clinton said she's 'sorry' there's been so much controversy over her private email server, but declined to apologize for the decision to use it. She also suggested that GOP front-runner Donald Trump is unqualified to be president and weighed in on the surprisingly robust challenge to her candidacy from Democratic primary rival Bernie Sanders":

*****

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Justice Department on Thursday unveiled a new policy that will require its law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to deploy cellphone-tracking devices in criminal investigations and inform judges when they plan to use them. The department's new policy, announced by Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates, should increase transparency around the use of the controversial technology by the FBI and other Justice Department agencies. It imposes the highest legal standard for the device's use, and a single standard across the department."

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Cory A. Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, endorsed President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran on Thursday, padding support for the accord, which already has enough votes in the Senate to thwart a Republican-backed resolution of disapproval." ...

... Jordan Fabian of the Hill: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) will support the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran, he announced Thursday." ...

... ConservaDem Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) also announced her support today. Via Paul Waldman. That's 37.

... Kevin Drum on why Republicans couldn't kill the Iran nuclear deal: "Ever since 2009, their political strategy has been relentless and one-dimensional: oppose everything President Obama supports, instantly and unanimously. They certainly followed this playbook on Iran. Republicans were slamming the deal before the text was even released.... This did two things. First, it made them look unserious.... Second, by forming so quickly, the Republican wall of opposition turned the Iran agreement into an obviously partisan matter. Once they did that, they made it much harder for Democrats to oppose a president of their own party. A more deliberate approach almost certainly would have helped them pick up more Democratic votes.... [But] it's quite possible that Republicans actually did nothing wrong. They simply never had a chance in the first place." ...

... AND there's this. Times of Israel: "An official from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the US, on Thursday blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for harming the opposition to the Iran nuclear deal by insisting on addressing Congress on the issue in March. 'Netanyahu's speech in Congress made the Iranian issue a partisan one,' the AIPAC official told Israel's Walla news. 'As soon as he insisted on going ahead with this move, which was perceived as a Republican maneuver against the president, we lost a significant part of the Democratic party, without which it was impossible to block the agreement,' said the official, who asked not to be named." ...

... Update: Adam Entous of the Wall Street Journal on Netanyahu's lobbying efforts to scuttle the deal: "Both supporters and opponents say they can't recall any other foreign government inserting itself so directly into an American political debate, especially against a deal the White House considers a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's legacy." Firewalled, so cut & paste a snippet into Google search if you don't have a WSJ subscription.

Amanda Holpuch, et al., of the Guardian: "Aid groups and at least 14 senators have called on the US government to take in thousands more Syrian refugees by the end of 2016, amid international outcry prompted by shocking images of a three-year-old boy's body lying face down in the surf in Turkey.... Asked on Thursday about US plans to take in more refugees, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there are no 'impending policy changes' and that the US will continue to offer aid to Europe." CW: It isn't clear to me who the 14 senators are, but the article obliquely suggests they're Democrats & that Republicans are resisting bringing Syrian "jihadists" into the U.S. See also Way Beyond the Beltway below.

Paul Krugman: "Take it from those who share our language, but not our currency: There are many ways to make money work.... What's important for both capital and trade, it turns out, is whether your economy offers good investment opportunities under an umbrella of legal and political stability." ...

... CW: Which is why Republicans' ceaseless efforts to destabilize the government & tear down the social fabric & that bolsters the economy are, IMO, the largest drags on the U.S. economy. Our biggest economic problem is Republicans.

Deflategate Punctured. Ken Belson of the New York Times: "In a major setback for the N.F.L., New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned on Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January championship game. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan did not rule on whether Brady tampered with the footballs in a bid for competitive advantage. Instead, he focused on the narrower question of whether the collective bargaining agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union gave Goodell the authority to carry out the suspension, and whether Brady was treated fairly during his attempt to have his suspension overturned." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Margaret Talev of Bloomberg: "Vice President Joe Biden opened up for the first time publicly about his painful deliberations over whether to run for president so soon after his son Beau's death to brain cancer, saying the key question is 'whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run. Can I do it? Can my family undertake what is an arduous commitment that we'd be proud to undertake in ordinary circumstances?' Biden told an audience of 2,000 people at an Atlanta synagogue Thursday night, during a question-and-answer session following a speech he gave on U.S. foreign policy. 'The honest-to-God answer is I just don't know.'" CW: So looks like all the tea-leaf reading wasn't complete balderdash. For the first time, Joe himself admits to be considering a run.

Jamelle Bouie cites a number of reasons that Bernie Sanders is likely to lose the nomination. CW: Bouie's list is okay as far as it goes, but he ignores Bernie's biggest hurdle: the superdelegates. These are the 800 or so party poobahs who can shift the nomination despite the states' popular votes. They were such an impotant factor in 2008 that I started Reality Chex because there was no one place where a person could keep track of the superdelegate totals, & those totals would determine whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would get the nomination. No matter how well Bernie does in the primaries, the vast majority of superdelegates are unlikely to give him a nod unless Clinton is under indictment, Biden (or some other savior-candidate) doesn't step in & O'Malley drops out.

Rebecca Traister in New York: "What if the big secret contained in Hillary Clinton's emails is that she's not the monster her critics have portrayed her as for decades? ... Barring the possibility that more serious breaches are turned up, these emails may do the work a thousand soft magazine profiles never could have: letting us in on the fact that after all these years, we do know Hillary Clinton. And she's not half bad." CW: An enjoyable read. ...

... Ellen Brait of the Guardian: "Edward Snowden has branded as 'completely ridiculous' the idea that Hillary Clinton's personal email server was secure while she was secretary of state.... In 2014, Clinton accused Snowden of inadvertently helping terrorists. Since then she has toned down such criticism and said the NSA needs to be more transparent.... Snowden was also asked if he was concerned about what the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump might do to him if he is elected president in 2016. Trump has called Snowden 'a total traitor' and 'a bad guy' and said 'there is still a thing called execution'.... 'It's very difficult to respond in a serious way to any statement that's made by Donald Trump,' he said." ...

... Philip Victor of Al Jazeera America has more here.

Tim Egan: "In just under two weeks, the Republicans who want to be president will gather in Simi Valley, Calif., at the presidential library of Ronald Reagan for their second debate.... The real Ronald Reagan -- serial tax-raiser, illegal immigrant amnesty granter, deficit creator, abortion enabler, gun control supporter and peacenik -- would never be allowed on the stage. The party has moved so far to the right from Reagan's many centrist positions that the guy would be told to go find a home among the Democrats." ...

... CW: Egan brushes aside Reagan's supply-side economics & neglects to mention his views that elements of the social safety net -- Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. -- formed a network of communistic programs, that unions were there to be busted, the wilderness was there to be raped, & regulations were there to be cut. Nostalgia for Reagan cuts both ways. Today's Republican elites are merely carrying Reaganism to its logical extremes. ...

Patrick Murray of Monmouth University: "When Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Donald Trump leads the pack at 30%, which is up 4 points from early August before the first debate. Ben Carson (18%) has increased his vote share by 13 points and now holds second place. Jeb Bush (8%) has dropped by 4 points and now stands in a tie for third with Ted Cruz (8%). Following behind are Marco Rubio (5%), Carly Fiorina (4%), and Mike Huckabee (4%). Scott Walker (3%), who held third place in Monmouth's August poll, has dropped 8 points since then. Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul each get 2%. The remaining six candidates included in the poll score no higher than 1% each." Via Paul Waldman. ...

... Keep Your Government Hands Off My Medicare. Michael Lind in Politico Magazine: "The success of Trump's campaign has, if nothing else, exposed the Tea Party for what it really is; Trump's popularity is, in effect, final proof of what some of us have been arguing for years: that the Tea Party is less a libertarian movement than a right-wing version of populism.... Tea Partiers are less upset about the size of government overall than they are that so much of it is going to other people, especially immigrants and nonwhites. They are for government for them and against government for Not-Them."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will sign a pledge Thursday to support the GOP nominee in next year's general election, effectively ruling out a third-party or independent run, according to two Republicans familiar with the move." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Paul Waldman: "Since the pledge would be happily violated by the only candidate who it was designed to constrain in the first place, it has little practical significance. But it does make the Republican Party look pathetic. They're so scared of the guy leading their primary race (as well they should be) that they have to beg him to pinkie-swear that he won't turn around and screw them over in the general election...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Prince Rebus's Pyrrhic Victory. Robert Costa: "... bringing Trump more fully within the party's tent, Republicans gain reassurance about his intentions -- and court possible fallout for working closely with the unpredictable and sharp-tongued billionaire, who has angered Hispanic leaders with his controversial comments on illegal immigration. Trump made his announcement at an afternoon news conference after meeting with the loyalty statement's author, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus...." ...

... "Trump Outsmarted the GOP." Jim Newell of Slate: "The Republican Party ... has now committed itself to supporting [Trump's] agenda, which goes against decades of its own dogma, if Trump is able to pull off the nomination. Most of [Thursday's] news has been framed as Trump signs pledge to support eventual nominee. Another way to look at it is Establishment Republican candidates pledge to support Donald Trump." ...

... "Donald Trump Has the Republican Party in the Palm of His Hand." Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "Trump wasn't communicating to the party that its knock against him for threatening an independent run has been effective. To the contrary, it's that he doesn't think the threat is necessary anymore -- that he's now genuinely well-positioned to win the primary, rather than an insurgent threat who can be neutralized by party heavyweights.... It is now easy to imagine Trump eclipsing 40 percent of the vote before the primaries begin, and ripping up that pledge if a panicky Republican Party responds by erecting obstacles to his victory." ...

... Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "In a tussle outside Trump Tower on Thursday, a member of Donald J. Trump's security team responded to a protester, who had grabbed him from behind, by hitting him in the face. The member of Mr. Trump's security team had ripped a large blue sign reading 'Trump: Make America Racist Again' away from protesters gathered outside Trump Plaza, where the candidate signed a pledge to the Republican Party that he wouldn't stage a third-party candidacy...." CW: So, yeah, Trump's rhetoric incites violence against Hispanics -- even in his own staff. ...

... Hugh Stumps Trump. The Internets is abuzz with the news that confederate talk-show host Hugh Hewitt challenged Donald Trump's knowledge on Middle East politics & Trump flunked (oh, & Carly Fiorina pretty-much aced it). But as Steve M. correctly (IMO) notes, "The fans don't care." ...

     ... Update: Trump may not know the names of leaders of Middle-East revolutionary groups, but Greg Sargent notes that his thinking on the Iran nuclear deal is a lot smarter -- and more realistic -- than his rivals'.

What Did the Dingbats Say Today?

Elections Matter -- to the Earth. Sabrina Siddiqui of the Guardian: Marco "Rubio vowed to reverse key components of the climate agenda [President] Obama has been touting in Alaska, while also making the case for turning back some of the nation's energy authority to the states and away from the federal government. While outlining his proposals during a swing through Oklahoma -- currently the fourth-largest producer of natural gas in the United States -- the Florida senator decried in particular the Environmental Protection Agency's new rules to reduce greenhouse emissions under its Clean Power Plan."

Radley Balko of the Washington Post: Scott Walker wrote an opinion piece on the right-wing site Hot Air blaming President Obama -- & others who urge or have implemented scrutiny of policing practices -- for the recent killing of law enforcement officers in Texas & Illinois. Scottie said things were way better in the good old days. "Walker is simply wrong when he tries to use [Texas officer Darren] Goforth's death to say that more oversight and scrutiny of cops have made the job more dangerous. There's just no evidence of that. All the available evidence suggests precisely the opposite.... For some reason, Republicans and conservatives from Donald Trump to Ted Cruz to Walker to Mike Huckabee think the government entity that has the power to detain, arrest and kill should get the least scrutiny of all."

Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny. Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America.... I stand with Kim Davis. Unequivocally. I stand with every American that the Obama Administration is trying to force to chose between honoring his or her faith or complying with a lawless court decision.... Where is the call for President Obama to resign for ignoring and defying our immigration laws, our welfare reform laws, and even his own Obamacare? Blah blah. -- Ted Cruz, on the incarceration of County Clerk Kim Davis

Lawless, tyrannical Judge David Bunning, who jailed Davis for contempt of court, is a George W. Bush appointee. Not quite sure how a judge who tells a defendant she must obey the law is lawless. Maybe Harvard Law should ask Ted to return his sheepskin. It has to be embarrassing for a prominent law school to have a prominent graduate who doesn't know what the meaning of "law" is. Much less "tyranny." -- Constant Weader

AND Jeb! is still confused about the whole thing. Which he described as "a sign of leadership." The Bush family's idea of leadership might not be just the same as yours.

Quote of the Day. A broken clock is right once a day. -- Rick Perry, responding to Donald Trump's remark that Perry was dropping out of the presidential race

Beyond the Beltway

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Deputy clerks at the [Rowan C]ounty[, Kentucky,] clerk’s office [in Morehead] issued a marriage license to [a] same-sex couple on Friday, a day after their boss was jailed for refusing to do so. Trailed by supporters and the news media, a couple, James Yates and William Smith Jr., entered the Rowan County clerk's office and received a marriage license, ending a standoff that has captured the attention of a country still coming to grips with a Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage." ...

She has done her job. Just because five Supreme Court judges make a ruling, it’s not a law. -- Legal scholar Joe Davis, husband of Kim, today

Kim Davis mugshot.... Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A defiant county clerk rejected a proposal that would have allowed her deputies to grant same-sex marriage licenses, hours after she was sent to jail by a federal judge for disobeying a court order. Through her lawyer, the clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, said she would not agree to allow the licenses to be issued under her authority as county clerk. Had she consented, the judge would have considered releasing her from custody. Five of the six deputies told Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court that they would issue the licenses, though some of them said they would do so reluctantly. The lone holdout was Ms. Davis's son, Nathan." CW: Holy cow! Nepotism, too? This story was linked yesterday when the lede was,

A federal judge [in Ashland, Ky.,] on Thursday ordered a Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt of court because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, was ordered incarcerated after a hearing here before Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court. ...

... Ryan Felton of the Guardian, relying partially on new agencies: After Davis refused to allow her clerks to issue the licenses in her stead, "the judge then ordered ... the deputies to begin issuing the licenses on Friday. Upon the hearing's conclusion, [Judge David] Bunning said he expects compliance, even with the clerk's continued dissent.... Davis, a Democrat, earns $80,000 annually; she took office in January after winning a close election last fall." ...

... MEANWHILE, Davis's lawyer sees the whole thing as the U.S. goosestepping toward the Holocaust. ...

... Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "It's just fine ... for a public official to say that he or she won't enforce any law that's fundamentally immoral and in contradiction to God's laws. But the only way to keep that promise consistent with the oath of office is for the official to resign when she thinks enforcing the law would be wrong.... Indeed, she must [resign] -- or she'd be living in a position of hypocritical sin.... Under the Constitution, the government can't force you to engage in a religious action or stop you from exercising your freedom of religion. Normally, it shouldn't coerce you to act against your faith. But no one was or is coercing Kim Davis. She's free to serve the public and obey her oath to God to follow the law. And she's free to quit and absolve herself of that oath. The choice is hers." ...

... CW: One of Davis's arguments is that she is following her oath because she is obeying the law as it was at the time she swore the oath. That is ridiculous. It would suggest that public officials are required to enforce only the laws in effect at the time of their swearings-in. In addition, if Davis had no idea the law in regard to same-sex marriage could change while she was in office, it's her own damned fault. She has said, "I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage." As I noted in a comment yesterday, Davis suffers mightily from a lack of imagination. It was common knowledge while Davis was running for office -- thanks in part to Nino Scalia -- that the Court would likely make marriage equality the law of the land. By the time Davis swore her oath, Obergefell was already before the Supreme Court, & there was a better-than 50-50 chance that the Court would uphold Obergefell's petition. Davis knew the risk she was taking that her beliefs would force her to violate her oath. I'd say it was "immoral" for her to run for office, then swear an oath that she knew from the get-go she could not keep. So in addition to breaking the law, encouraging her employees to break the law & being a first-rate bigot, she ran for & accepted a public position under false pretenses. Immoral cow. ...

... Charles Pierce: "Let me explain to you what happens now. The entire political communications apparatus of the wingnut welfare system goes to DefCon 1.... Kim Davis now becomes the latest ornament on the Hang Yourself Cross of Bible-banging victimhood. There will be marches and vigils. There will be a six-figure book deal; my money's on John Fund as Davis's ghost. There may even be one of those movies produced by gullibility trawlers like the one helmed by Rick Santorum. Anybody want to bet me that she doesn't speak at next year's Republican National Convention? You have made a star, Judge Bunning, and the rest of us have to live with her."

Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "Last week, a Tenn. judge refused to grant a straight couple a divorce because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed gay marriage." Thanks to D. C. Clark for the link. The judge -- who is elected -- is using the travails of this couple -- who reportedly presented valid & customary reasons to divorce -- for his own ideological purposes. The state judicial bar should sanction him for dereliction of duty in failure to follow established state law.

AP: "The white man accused of killing nine black churchgoers during a Bible study will face the death penalty, according to court documents filed Thursday. The documents said prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against Dylann Roof, 21, because more than two people were killed, and that others' lives were put at risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mookie's Misfire. Henry Curtis of the Orlando Sentinel: "Spike's Tactical [in Apopka, Florida] is marketing an assault rifle it claims was 'designed to never be used by Muslim terrorists.' The AR-15 assault rifle is laser-etched on one side with a Knights Templar Long Cross -- a symbol of the Christian Crusades to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims -- and Psalm 144:1 on the other side: 'Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.' The company's spokesman, former Navy SEAL Ben 'Mookie' Thomas said he came up with the idea and believes no devout Muslim would touch such a weapon.... 'Is it designed for Christian terrorists?' asked Hasan Shibly, executive director of CAIR-FL, who said out of 205 mass killings so far this year in the U.S. only one involved a Muslim." CW: Sorry, Mookie. I think Hasan just pointed out a teensy flaw in your anti-terrorism plan. But nice try.

Way Beyond

Nicholas Watt of the Guardian: British Prime Minister David Cameron has bowed to overwhelming domestic and international pressure and announced that Britain will accept thousands more Syrian refugees." ...

... Rick Lyman & Alison Smale of the New York Times: "With thousands of migrants pouring out of Afghanistan and the Middle East, the business of smuggling them across the Balkans into the European Union has grown even larger than the illicit trade in drugs and weapons, law enforcement officials said. In Greece alone, there are 200 such smuggling rings, said Col. Gerald Tatzgern, head of the Austrian police service fighting human trafficking." ...

... Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "As Amnesty International recently pointed out, the 'six Gulf countries -- Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain -- have offered zero resettlement places to Syrian refugees.' This claim was echoed by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.... That's ... shocking..., given these countries' relative proximity to Syria, as well as the incredible resources at their disposal. As Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, a Dubai-based political commentator, observes, these countries include some of the Arab world's largest military budgets, its highest standards of living.... Moreover, these countries aren't totally innocent bystanders. To varying degrees, elements within Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the U.A.E. and Kuwait have invested in the Syrian conflict, playing a conspicuous role in funding and arming a constellation of rebel and Islamist factions fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad." ...

... Anne Barnard of the New York Times: "It was never any secret that a rising tide of Syrian refugees would sooner or later burst the seams of the Middle East and head for Europe. Yet little was done in Western capitals to stop or mitigate the slow-motion disaster that was befalling Syrian civilians and sending them on the run."

News Lede

New York Times: "The American economy added 173,000 jobs in August, a bit less than expected, making it less likely that the Federal Reserve will feel comfortable enough to make its long-awaited move to raise interest rates when policy makers meet this month."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 3, 2015

Defunct video removed.

Afternoon Update:

Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "A federal judge [in Ashland, Ky.,] on Thursday ordered a Kentucky clerk jailed for contempt of court because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The clerk, Kim Davis of Rowan County, was ordered incarcerated after a hearing here before Judge David L. Bunning of Federal District Court." ...

... Mike Wynn & Chris Kenning of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "The court is expected to reconvene at 1:45 p.m. [CT], when Davis' deputies will tell the judge whether they will comply with the order or risk jail."

AP: "The white man accused of killing nine black churchgoers during a Bible study will face the death penalty, according to court documents filed Thursday. The documents said prosecutors would pursue the death penalty against Dylann Roof, 21, because more than two people were killed, and that others' lives were put at risk."

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will sign a pledge Thursday to support the GOP nominee in next year's general election, effectively ruling out a third-party or independent run, according to two Republicans familiar with the move." ...

... Paul Waldman: "Since the pledge would be happily violated by the only candidate who it was designed to constrain in the first place, it has little practical significance. But it does make the Republican Party look pathetic. They're so scared of the guy leading their primary race (as well they should be) that they have to beg him to pinkie-swear that he won't turn around and screw them over in the general election...."

Deflategate Punctured. Ken Belson of the New York Times: "In a major setback for the N.F.L., New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady prevailed in his battle to have his four-game suspension overturned on Thursday, as a federal judge reversed a ruling by Commissioner Roger Goodell to bench one of the league's biggest stars in a dispute over underinflated balls he used in a January championship game. Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan did not rule on whether Brady tampered with the footballs in a bid for competitive advantage. Instead, he focused on the narrower question of whether the collective bargaining agreement between the N.F.L. and the players union gave Goodell the authority to carry out the suspension, and whether Brady was treated fairly during his attempt to have his suspension overturned."

*****

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland on Wednesday came out in support of President Obama's Iran nuclear accord, the 34th Democrat in favor. Her decision gave Mr. Obama the votes needed to assure the deal will survive a congressional challenge.... With momentum on their side, the White House and Senate Democrats hope to find seven more votes next week to filibuster the Republican resolution of disapproval. That would ensure the resolution would never leave the Senate, and Mr. Obama would not be forced to use a veto." ...

... Carl Hulse & David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "One after another, lawmakers pointed to the warnings from foreign leaders that their own sanctions against Iran would be lifted regardless of what the United States did. But the president's potentially legacy-defining victory -- a highly partisan one in the end -- was also the result of an aggressive, cooperative strategy between the White House and congressional Democrats to forcefully push back against Republican critics, whose allies had begun a determined, $20 million-plus campaign to kill the deal." ...

... Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "With President Obama securing the votes Wednesday needed to assure the Iran nuclear accord will survive congressional challenge, Republicans are considering legislative options to counter the deal, including the possible reimposition of sanctions the agreement is supposed to lift."

... Julie Davis of the New York Times: In Northwest Alaska, "climate change is not a political talking point or a theoretical scientific phenomenon but a punishing everyday reality. Some communities are sinking into the water, as erosion and melting permafrost wash away their foundations. It was here that President Obama arrived on Wednesday to deliver his alarm-sounding message about the warming of the planet -- a phenomenon occurring twice as quickly in Alaska as in the rest of the United States -- bringing with him promises of new aid for Arctic communities whose shorelines and infrastructure are crumbling because of rising temperatures. In a history-making stop -- the first presidential visit to Arctic Alaska -- Mr. Obama delivered a speech laying out new federal efforts to help these communities cope with coastal erosion and high energy costs and, in some extreme cases, relocate altogether." ...

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Army announced Wednesday that it is opening its legendary Ranger School to women on a full-time basis, following the historic graduation last month of two female soldiers. The school, with headquarters at Fort Benning, Ga., has been a centerpiece of the military's ongoing research on integrating women into more jobs in combat units."

Я Kidz Я Dum. Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Scores on the SAT have sunk to the lowest level since the college admission test was overhauled in 2005, adding to worries about student performance in the nation's high schools."

E. J. Dionne on violence & racism: "... politicians and, yes, even political commentators have an obligation: to try to make things better, not worse. There is always a choice between the politics of resentment and the politics of remedy." So Ted Cruz -- who is also a big fat liar -- & Bill O'Reilly should STFU or change their tactics.

Welcome, Plaintiffs! Linda Greenhouse: Conservative judges find creative ways to establish "standing" in order to allow plaintiffs to bring suits against the Obama administration "modern regulatory state."

A 180-Foot Pope. Emily Rueb of the New York Times: The Diocese of Brooklyn has commissioned "possibly the largest hand-painted mural of [Pope] Francis ever done" at 494 Eighth Avenue. The billboard "towers over Madison Square Garden, where Francis will celebrate a Mass on Sept. 25...." CW: It's no 900-foot Jesus but still pretty cool.

Anemona Hartocollis, et al., of the New York Times: "Desperate migrants poured into the Keleti train station in Budapest on Thursday morning but were prevented from traveling to Germany as Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said that the migration crisis was a 'German problem' and that Europe had a moral duty to tell migrants not to come. The comments by Mr. Orban, and the scenes of chaos at Keleti, which has emerged as a potent symbol of Europe's struggle to come to terms with the migration crisis, highlighted Europe's lack of preparedness to cope with an influx of refugees from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere." ...

... Rick Lyman & Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "A ragged metropolis of thousands of weary and bedraggled migrants continued to rise [in Budapest, Hungary,] on Wednesday in the labyrinth of underground passageways outside Keleti train station. The Hungarian authorities, saying they were merely obeying European migration regulations, continued to keep migrants out of the station, despite having allowed thousands onto westbound trains on Monday. At the same time, the desperate migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan -- most of them hoping to reach Germany -- continued to pour over the Hungarian border from Serbia. The construction of a razor-wire fence seems to have barely slowed them down." ...

... Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Twelve migrants thought to be Syrian refugees were feared to have drowned off the coast of the Greek island of Kos on Wednesday after the boats carrying them sank. A number of bodies washed ashore on a beach in the Turkish resort town of Bodrum, probably connected to the disaster. The images of the dead, captured by Dogan News Agency, soon circulated on social media. They included, most hideously, photographs of children.... The scale of the Syrian refugee crisis is hard to grasp: About 11 million people (half of Syria's population) have either died or fled their homes since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. About 4 million of that number have been forced out of the country."

Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China announced on Thursday that he would reduce the country's military personnel by 300,000, using a parade marking 70 years since the end of World War II to present the People's Liberation Army as a force for peace and regional stability. The Chinese military has more than two million members, and Mr. Xi has embarked on an accelerated modernization of the armed forces, which would shift spending from the traditional land forces to more advanced sea and air forces, which require fewer but better trained personnel."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Par for the Course. CW: Ben Terris, the Washington Post reporter most famous for accidentally ending Rep. Aaron Schock's career by marvelling at Schock's taxpayer-funded "Downton Abbey" office decor, now has a piece on Donald Trump's golf game, citing different sources who claim he cheats (or doesn't cheat). I wasn't going to link the story till I read digby, who cites this graf from Terris's report:

Trump has shown that his candidacy is immune to the types of attacks that can bring down normal Republican candidates. He's on record mocking a war hero and praising Nancy Pelosi, he's advocated for higher taxes, donated to Democrats and called for single-payer health care. None of that has mattered. But does his golf history provide opponents with the opening they need? ...

... digby: "They have totally accepted the fact that calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, proposing to deport millions of people (including American children), talking about women like dirt, starting trade wars and real wars isn't something that would bring down 'normal' Republican candidates. That's just par for the course these days. Praising nancy Pelosi, however, would 'normally' bring down any candidate."

Presidential Race

I am not a populist. But Bernie Sanders, he's doing a helluva job. -- Joe Biden, at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser in Miami

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday declined to say whether she and Vice President Joe Biden discussed a potential joint 2016 ticket during a meeting late last month. 'It was a long conversation,' she said after pausing briefly when asked during an event at Suffolk University in Boston whether the subject was brought up even jokingly."

Thanks, GOP! Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "... as she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination, [Hillary] Clinton is struggling with declining poll numbers, questions about her honesty and doubts about her ultimate electability. And once again her Republican rivals are allowing her to turn their own words against them in ways that could help win over some of her skeptics. Branding Mexicans as rapists, calling the children of immigrants 'anchor babies,' decrying abortions for rape and incest victims, threatening to shut down the government over federal aid to Planned Parenthood -- Republicans are giving Mrs. Clinton a political advantage as she tries to divert attention from her woes and bounce back from a politically challenging summer." ...

... Carol Leonnig & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post:Bryan Pagliano, "a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton's private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself." The letter to the House Benghaaazi! committee from Pagliano's attorney "quoted a Supreme Court ruling in which justices described the Fifth Amendment as protecting 'innocent men ... "who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances."'.... The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), complained yesterday that [chairman Trey] Gowdy [RTP-S.C.] unilaterally issued the subpoena. He said the subpoena of a low-level aide is one of several signs that Gowdy is using the committee for the political purpose of trying to smear a Democratic presidential candidate."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders is on the verge of signing a joint fund-raising agreement with the Democratic National Committee, his aides said, a week after Hillary Rodham Clinton entered such an arrangement with the party."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in a Washington Post op-ed, contrasts Donald Trump's & Bernie Sanders' responses to uncomfortable public challenges: "Two roads diverged in a political wood, and one man took the road of assaulting the Constitution and soon will be lost forever. The other will be a viable candidate who, regardless of whether he wins the nomination, will elevate the political process into something our Founding Fathers would be proud of." ...

     ... Donald Trump's response to Abdul-Jabbar, handwritten on a copy of the essay: "Dear Kareem, Now I know why the press always treated you so badly -- they couldn't stand you. The fact is that you don't have a clue about life and what has to be done to make America great again! Best wishes, Donald Trump." Includes photo of Trump's note. ...

     ... Abdul-Jabbar: "Trump's response to my piece is the best, though inelegant, support for my claims. Here again, he attacks a journalist who disagrees with him, not by disputing the points made but by hurling schoolyard insults such as 'nobody likes you.' Look behind the nasty invective and you find an assault on the Constitution in the effort to silence the press through intimidation."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Responding to growing pressure from party donors and officials to dissuade Donald J. Trump from mounting an independent campaign for president, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday asked each of the party's presidential candidates to sign a statement vowing not to run as a third-party candidate. With little warning, committee officials called and emailed campaign representatives requesting that they put in writing what every candidate, except for Mr. Trump, has already pledged to do." ...

     ... The Politico story, by Alex Isenstadt, is here.

I like Jeb. He's a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States. -- Donald Trump

Because speaking to people in their first language is so rude, even if it helps win elections. -- Constant Weader

Donald Trump is trying to insult his way to the presidency.... To say you can only speak English is kind of ridiculous, if you think about it.... This is a diverse country. We should celebrate that diversity and embrace a set of shared values. Mr. Trump doesn't believe in those shared values. He wants to tear us down. He doesn't believe in tolerance. He doesn't believe in the things that have created the greatness of this country. -- Jeb!, Thursday

... Turns out Jeb! isn't feuding only with the Donald. He is also heavily into a smackdown contest with Stephen Colbert. In English!

Ben Kamisar of the Hill: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he backs a 'reasonable' federal minimum wage increase Tuesday, becoming one of the few GOP presidential candidates to do so.... He declined to get into the specifics of a proposed increase, noting Ohio's 'gradual' minimum wage that moves with the consumer price index."

Peter Suderman of the libertarian Reason: Scott "Walker is running a pandering, cringe-worthy campaign marked by a consistent inability to clearly articulate, and stick to, his own positions.... This is the Walker campaign playbook: Say something awkward or ill-advised, watch as the media swarms to cover it, then insist that there was never anything to see.... This sort of flip-flopping, what might generously be called policy confusion, has dogged Walker's campaign essentially from the moment it began." CW: And that's what a would-be supporter thinks.

Ed Kilgore: Ben Carson's soothing bedside manner masks the crazy.

Danica Coto of the AP: "Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio is scheduled to visit the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico this week, his staff said Tuesday.... Rubio's one-day visit will coincide with that of Democrat Hillary Clinton." CW: Oh noes! I hope they don't set & bad example & speak Spanish there!

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said on Wednesday that the government should respect the beliefs of the Kentucky county clerk who has denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying society needs to accommodate public officials who object to carrying out duties they say violate their religious beliefs." CW: Yo, Marco, there already is a way to respect her beliefs: just like any conscientious objector, she can refuse to serve & quit her job. Do you think the military paid conscientious-objector draftees when they refused to serve? Pandering is so often blatantly stupid.

As a public official, comply with the law or resign.... The rule of law is the rule of law.... I appreciate her conviction, I support traditional marriage, but she has accepted a job where she has to apply the law to everyone.... -- Sen. Lindsey Graham, on the right-wing Hugh Hewitt radio show (no link), thus inadvertently demonstrating that Marco hasn't met the minimum qualifications to be president

Gubernatorial Race

Philip Bailey of the Louisville Courier-Journal: "Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin said during a national conference call Tuesday he fully supports Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis' right to refuse gay couples seeking marriage licenses. 'I absolutely support her willingness to stand on her First Amendment rights,' he said. 'Without any question I support her.'The strong defense of Davis' actions underscores how the GOP nominee hopes to make the fight over gay marriage a centerpiece of the 2015 governor's race, which polling shows is a tight race between him and Democratic nominee Jack Conway." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Bevin does, however, have a broader vision: like his junior senator, Rand Paul, he's talking about getting government out of the marriage business altogether.... It may take Bevin a while to explain to regular Kentuckians that they should no longer be in state-sanctioned marriages because some county clerk wants to get paid to do some but not all of her job.

Beyond the Beltway

Ryan Felton of the Guardian: Kim Davis is "not the only defecting clerk in Kentucky. Two other clerks, Casey Davis of Casey County and Kay Schwartz of Whitley County, are also still refusing to perform same-sex marriages." CW: Yo, Ryan, Kentucky clerks don't perform marriages; they issue marriage licenses. That's a difference with a distinction. According to Kentucky law (which still has a specific prohibition against same-sex marriage).

Marriages shall be solemnized only by clergy, justices and judges of the Court of Justice; retired justices and judges of the Court of Justice, except those removed for cause or convicted of a felony; county judge/executives; such justices of the peace and fiscal court commissioners as the Governor or the county judge/executive authorizes, and certain religious societies.

... Scott Lemieux in LG&M: "It may seem like cheap shot to bring up her serial marriages, but I don't think it is. The tendency to be more rigorous about enforcing biblical principles when they impose burdens on others than when they impose burdens on you is one of the many reasons we don't want state officials selectively applying the law according to their own 'principles.'" ...

... CW: Exactly right. There are plenty of people, no doubt some of them license-issuing clerks, who genuinely believe divorce is a sin & remarriage to another person is a worser sin, as some major churches like the Roman Catholic one hold. But those clerks, however deep their religious convictions, cannot deny a license to someone like Kimmy there who applied to marry her second husband after divorcing her first husband while pregnant with the children of her third husband.

She's not being asked to perform a sacrament, she is tasked with ascertaining that the people in front of her, the couple in front of her, have a legal right to get married and to provide them with that license. She is not a minister. She actually thinks she works for God there in the county courthouse, when she actually works for Caesar -- and someone needs to acquaint her with that fact. -- Dan Savage, on Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis

CW: Finally (I wish), here's another problem for Kim of God, & it might be the biggest, baddest one there is: her oath of office:

I ... do swear that I will well and truly discharge the duties of the office of .............. County Circuit Court clerk..., and that I will not knowingly or willingly commit any malfeasance of office, and will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God.

     ... As Dan Savage might put it, she swore to God she would carry out Caesar's law. In the Gospel of Mark 12, Jesus makes the clear distinction. Paul, in Romans 13, is even more direct:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.... For the one in authority is God's servant for your good.... But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God's servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.

     ... The authors of these rules wrote them specifically to inoculate believers like Kim from fear of following secular (Caesar's) laws that did not comport with their own Christian views. Since she doesn't seem to read the New Testament much (& I have a feeling she doesn't check in here), somebody should tell Kim.

Lynh Bui & Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: "Six officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray will have separate trials, a judge decided Wednesday, one of three rulings issued during the first Circuit Court hearing in the closely watched case. Judge Barry G. Williams also denied defense motions to dismiss charges against the officers or force Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby and her staff to recuse themselves from the case."

More in Responsible Gun Ownership. Reuters: "A 19-year-old Texas man who was posing with a gun for a social media selfie photo accidentally shot himself and died from the wounds, Houston police said on Wednesday."

News Ledes

AFP: "Embattled Guatemalan President Otto Perez announced his resignation Thursday, after a warrant was issued for his arrest for allegedly masterminding a huge fraud scheme."

New York Times: "Five Chinese Navy ships were sailing in international waters of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday, in what Pentagon officials said was the first such foray by Beijing. The move came on the last day of President Obama's three-day visit to Alaska.... The White House said that the intent of the Chinese operation was unclear, but that the Pentagon had not detected any threatening activities."