The Commentariat -- March 21

Michael Wald of the New York Times: William Borchardt, "a top official with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Monday that the nuclear crisis in Japan did not warrant any immediate changes in American nuclear plants."

Helene Cooper & David Sanger of the New York Times ask what the "coalition"'s objective is, "Is it merely to protect the Libyan population from the government, or is it intended to fulfill President Obama’s objective declared two weeks ago that Colonel Qaddafi 'must leave'?" ...

... Mark Ambinder of the National Journal has one answer: the bombings are "the first phase of what will become Barack Obama's first new war. By directing the military to hit targets inside Libya, the Obama administration is trying to strike an incredibly delicate balance between a strong disinclination to invade a Muslim country and their determined desire to avoid looking like they’re walking away from the indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. ...

... Justin Elliott of Salon has another: "... it's quickly becoming clear that the bombing campaign [against Libya] -- at least so far -- is almost entirely an American operation, albeit one that has been packaged to give it an international look. It's a dissonance that brings back memories of George W. Bush's much-mocked 'coalition of the willing.'" Here's NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski making the same point:

... AND Karen DeYoung & Peter Finn of the Washington Post write, "The prominent role played by the United States in carrying out and commanding the initial coalition attacks on Libya appeared to extend far beyond President Obama’s description of a narrow mission in which U.S. forces would play only a supporting part.... Administration officials and military leaders came under a barrage of questions — raised by members of Congress, outside experts and reporters — about the parameters of U.S. participation and the operation’s goals, especially if Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi does not capitulate." ...

... John Bresnahan & Jonathan Allen of Politico: "A hard-core group of liberal House Democrats is questioning the constitutionality of U.S. missile strikes against Libya, with one lawmaker [Dennis Kucinich] raising the prospect of impeachment during a Democratic Caucus conference call on Saturday." ...

... Josh Marshall of TPM explains why the war on Libya is "just a bad, bad idea." ...

... AND when John Boehner sounds like a voice of reason, it's difficult not to worry.

... AND there's this:

... Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "... President Obama on Sunday all but invited the young population of Iran to throw off the government there in a Web address transmitted to the region, adding, 'I am with you.'”

Meanwhile, on the Home Front ...

Washingtonian Deficit Obsession. Is It a Disease? I missed this story Friday, but President Obama, who had other things on his mind Friday, probably didn't read it, either. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "More than 60 senators from both parties are calling on President Obama to lead them in developing a comprehensive plan to rein in record budget deficits, a powerful sign of bipartisan willingness to abandon long-held positions on entitlement spending and taxes." Here's the letter. ...

... Damien Paletta of the Wall Street Journal: "The idea of putting Social Security into play has triggered a firestorm of opposition from several corners of the Democratic party. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), two of the Senate's most powerful lawmakers, have said revisions to Social Security shouldn't be attached to a deficit-reduction plan."

Paul Krugman: "By the sheer craziness of their attacks on [Elizabeth] Warren, however, Republicans are offering the administration a perfect opportunity to revive the debate over financial reform, not to mention highlighting exactly who’s really in Wall Street’s pocket these days. And that’s an opportunity the White House should welcome."

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: new Republican governors like Wisconsin's Scott Walker throw a monkeywrench into the Affordable Care Law. Until Walker took over, Wisconsin was a model for how a state could effectively implement the law governing health insurance; now Wisconsin is a morass.

Job Openings:

     ... Hayley Tsukayama of the Washington Post: "Even before he’s out as Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt is reportedly on the short list to be President Obama’s next Commerce Secretary."

     ... Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times: "The American taxpayer will lose a rare straight shooter when Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program [TARP], leaves his post on March 30. In his frequent testimony before Congress and in the nine quarterly reports and 13 audits his office has published, Mr. Barofsky has served taxpayers well by speaking truth to the powers at the Treasury."

Spy Story. Sam Roberts: "Morton Sobell, who was convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951 in an espionage conspiracy case and finally admitted nearly six decades later that he had been a Soviet spy, now says he helped copy hundreds of pages of secret Air Force documents stolen from a Columbia University professor’s safe in 1948.

Local News

New York Times photo.Sam Roberts of the New York Times on the grid that made New York. "Two hundred years ago on Tuesday, the city’s street commissioners certified the no-frills street matrix that heralded New York’s transformation into the City of Angles — the rigid 90-degree grid that spurred unprecedented development, gave birth to vehicular gridlock and defiant jaywalking, and spawned a new breed of entrepreneurs who would exponentially raise the value of Manhattan’s real estate."

News Ledes

At a press conference in Chile today, President Obama gave an extended answer to a reporter's questions about the attack on Libya:

I Know It Must Be True, Because I Read It in the Daily Mail *: "Colonel Gaddafi suffered a massive personal setback today when one of his sons was allegedly killed in a suicide air mission on his barracks. Khamis, 27, who runs the feared Khamis Brigade that has been prominent in its role of attacking rebel-held areas, is said to have died on Saturday night. A Libyan air force pilot crashed his jet into the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli in a kamikaze attack, Algerian TV reported following an unsubstantiated claim by an anti-Gaddafi media organisation. Khamis is alleged to have died of burns in hospital. The regime denied the reports." ...

... FYI. New York Times: "An American-led military campaign to destroy Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s air defenses and establish a no-fly zone over Libya has nearly accomplished its initial objectives, and the United States is moving swiftly to hand command to allies in Europe, American officials said Monday. But the firepower of more than 130 Tomahawk cruise missiles and attacks by allied warplanes have not yet succeeded in accomplishing the more ambitious demands by the United States — repeated by President Obamain a letter to Congress on Monday — that Colonel Qaddafi withdraw his forces from embattled cities and cease all attacks against civilians." Here's the letter, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times. ...

... Politico: "White House officials argued late Monday that President Obama has the authority to attack Libya without going through Congress, pointing to Bosnia and Haiti as examples in which a president decided to send in American troops." ...

... AP: "A cruise missile blasted Moammar Gadhafi's residential compound in an attack that carried as much symbolism as military effect, and fighter jets destroyed a line of tanks moving on the rebel capital. The U.S. said the international assault would hit any government forces attacking the opposition." The New York Times story is here; they keep updating it, & right now (8 am ET) the story is as confusing as war. ...

... Washington Post: "U.S. and allied warplanes continued pounding Libya’s air defenses Sunday and launched deadly strikes against ground forces as Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi offered no serious military challenge to the establishment of a no-fly zone over his country." ...

... AP: "A U.S.-led coalition has succeeded in scattering and isolating Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi's forces after a weekend of punishing air attacks, Pentagon officials say, and American military authorities are moving to hand control of the operation to other countries."

AP: "An Arizona judge on Monday ordered [Jared Loughner,] the suspect in the January shooting rampage in Tucson, to undergo a mental evaluation at a specialized facility in Missouri as soon as possible.

Der Spiegel (English): "A group of rogue US Army soldiers in Afghanistan killed innocent civilians and then posed with their bodies. On Monday, SPIEGEL published some of the photos -- and the US military responded promptly with an apology. Still, NATO fears that reactions in Afghanistan could be violent." The article includes three photos. CW: I didn't look at them.

Washington Post: "Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty will announce the formation of a presidential exploratory committee this afternoon, according to two aides briefed on the decision." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota became the first major Republican to enter the 2012 presidential race, announcing an exploratory committee on Monday that formalizes an ambition that has been steadily building for more than a year."

Washington Post: "Buoyed by U.S. and allied airstrikes that relieved a siege of Benghazi, Libyan rebels launched an offensive early Monday aimed at retaking the strategic city of Ajdabiya, as Western warplanes continued pounding forces loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi." ...

... New York Times: "The Libyan government released four New York Times journalists on Monday, six days after they were captured while covering the conflict between government and rebel forces in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. They were released into the custody of Turkish diplomats and crossed safely into Tunisia in the late afternoon."

New York Times: "In an apparent erosion of military support for Yemen's embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, five army commanders on Monday threw their support behind protesters calling for his immediate ouster. The move came a day after Mr. Saleh fired his cabinet following the deaths of at least 45 people killed by government-linked forces on Friday."

AP: "Operators evacuated workers from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant Monday after gray smoke rose from one of its reactor units, the latest of persistent troubles in stabilizing the radiation-leaking complex. The evacuation brought to a standstill some of the work on restoring the plant's electrical lines and restarting the water pumping systems needed to keep nuclear fuel from overheating and releasing even greater amounts of radiation." New York Times story here. ...

... Washington Post: "The massive earthquake and tsunami that wiped out entire villages in northeast Japan caused up to $235 billion in damages, the World Bank said Monday, making the natural disaster one of the most expensive in modern history. The rebuilding effort could take five years, the bank said in its report, and will cost far more than earthquakes in Haiti last year and Kobe in 1995, as well as Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast in 2005 and the tsunami in South Asia in 2004."

Washington Post: "Haiti struggled once more to pull off an orderly election Sunday, as confusion broke out at polls and turnout appeared low, but when the day ended quietly without major violence, election officials and foreign observers called it a success."

The Commentariat -- March 20

Paul Krugman really has had it with the self-proclaimed "oracle of wisdom," Alan Greenspan: "... he’s the man who presided over an economy careening to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression — and who saw no evil, heard no evil, refused to do anything about subprime, insisted that derivatives made the financial system more stable, denied not only that there was a national housing bubble but that such a bubble was even possible. If he wants to redeem himself through hard and serious reflection about how he got it so wrong, fine — and I’d be interested in listening. If he thinks he can still lecture us from his pedestal of wisdom, he’s wasting our time."

President Obama speaks about human rights in Rio de Janeiro:

     ... Thanks to the Uptake, the only outlet I found that had the video. You can donate to them here. I'll always love those kids for covering the Franken-Coleman recount.

Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, on the Libyan effort:

Tom Friedman: "In putting off big policy decisions, we are brazenly taunting two unforgiving forces: the market and Mother Nature.... President Obama has the right convictions on all these issues, but he has not shown the courage of his convictions. The Republicans have just gone nuts.... The world is caught in a dangerous feedback loop — higher oil prices and climate disruptions lead to higher food prices, higher food prices lead to more instability, more instability leads to higher oil prices."

In a Washington Post op-ed, David Rothkopf, an international policy expert who has worked for both Republicans & Democrats, assesses how President Obama exercises foreign policy. CW: you could argue with Rothkopf's thesis, & even some of his statements of fact seem to differ with published reports, but his observations are at least food for thought.

The Obamas & Brazilian President Dilma Vana Rousseff observe the Brazilian honor guard during an arrival ceremony in Brasilia. Reuters picture.Glenn Thrush of Politico: "President Barack Obama ... juggled the pageantry and substance attendant to his first South American visit with urgent phone calls and top-level national security consultations about a pending joint aerial assault against Libya."

Jordan Fabian of The Hill: Michael Moore rips President Obama in a series of tweets deriding the no-fly zone policy against Libya.

Nicholas Kristof on what we could learn about social responsibility from the Japanese.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times praises Elizabeth Warren, whom Repubicans on a House subcommittee treated as "a piñata" at a recent hearing. "Subprime mortgages? Too-big-to-fail banks? Unregulated derivatives? No problem! With the exception of their bête noire, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Republicans act as if nothing needs to be done to prevent another crisis. Indeed, they act as if the crisis never happened."

** Karen Garcia on the New York Times' paywall:

If you are a New York Times subscriber, registered user or commenter, the richest man on the planet owns a piece of you. And if you plan on forking over between $185 and $300 a year in order to scale the digital edition's upcoming paywall, you’ll be contributing even more to the vast fortune of one Carlos Slim.

     CW: by rights, stories & opinion pieces on the Times' paywall -- already in effect in Canada -- should fall under my Infotainment section, but turning the "paper of record" into an exclusive rag is a serious issue for those of us who care about access to news & opinion. So, at least for now, I'm keeping stories about the Times inaccessibility front & center.

Jim Fallows remembers Warren Christopher.

Michael Facone of ABC News: "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to [the dedication of] ‘Joe Biden’ Station [in Wilmington, Delaware]: Federal Railroad Officials Abandon Stranded Train."

Local News

Live Free or Die Smoking. Think Progress: "In a flurry of legislative activity this week, the New Hampshire House approved a tax cut on cigarettes even while cutting funding for education, and health care. The ten cent tax cut bucks a national trend of raising taxes on tobacco... and, according to multiple studies, could lead to a 6.6 percent increase in respiratory cancer deaths."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, deplored the broad scope of the U.S.-European bombing campaign in Libya and said Sunday that he would call a league meeting to reconsider Arab approval of the Western military intervention." ...

... Al Jazeera: "Loud explosions have rocked the Libyan capital, Tripoli, a day after international forces launched an operation to enforce a no-fly zone over the North African country. Anti-aircraft tracer fire erupted in Tripoli late on Sunday, indicating a second wave of incoming jets aimed at targets belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Britain's ministry of defence said one of its submarines had again fired guided Tomahawk missiles on Libyan air defence systems on Sunday." ...

... New York Times: "A day after American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader delivered a fresh and defiant tirade on Sunday, pledging retaliation and saying his forces would fight a long war to victory." Story has been updated: "American and European forces intensified their barrage of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces by air and sea on Sunday, a day after an initial American cruise missile barrage badly damaged Libyan air defenses, military officials said."  ...

... Washington Post: "After fierce street battles [in Benghazi, Libya], after barrages of artillery and rockets pounding this rebel stronghold and cradle of Libya’s populist uprising, Gaddafi’s troops withdrew in the afternoon."

New York Times: "Yemen’s president fired his cabinet on Sunday, while antigovernment demonstrations here in the capital grew in number and momentum two days after government-directed forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least 45 people and wounding more than 200."

New York Times: "Protesters set fire to the ruling Baath Party’s headquarters and other government buildings in the southern city of Dara’a on Sunday, as protesters rallied and clashed with the police for a third straight day, witnesses said. Police officers fired live ammunition into the crowds, killing at least one and wounding scores of others, witnesses said. But the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, also made some conciliatory gestures...."

New York Times: "Egyptian voters overwhelming approved a referendum on constitutional changes that will usher in rapid elections, with the results announced Sunday underscoring the strength of established political organizations and the weakness of the nascent liberal groups.... The Muslim Brotherhood and remnant elements of the National Democratic Party, which dominated Egyptian politics for decades, were the main supporters of the referendum. They said their position was to insure the swift return to civilian rule."

New York Times: "AT&T announced on Sunday that it agreed to buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom, in a $39 billion deal that will reshape the cellular telephone industry. The merger — one of the largest since the onset of the financial crisis — would combine the second and fourth largest cellular carriers in the nation...."

New York Times: "More than 20,000 people marched Saturday in the southern Syrian town of Dara’a in funerals for protesters killed in demonstrations the day before, and the police used truncheons and tear gas to disperse the mourners. Protests broke out in four [Syrian] cities on Friday, a rare event in a police state tha brutally represses dissent. At the largest one, a march of several thousand people in Dara’a, a police crackdown killed six people."

Reuters: "Japan restored power to a crippled nuclear reactor on Sunday in its race to avert disaster at a plant wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami that are estimated to have killed more than 15,000 people in one prefecture alone. Three hundred engineers have been struggling inside the danger zone to salvage the six-reactor Fukushima plant...." With video.

AP: "The U.S. ambassador to Mexico has resigned after the publication of U.S. diplomatic cables that criticized that government’s anti-drug fight, infuriating the Mexican president. Carlos Pascual appears to be the first senior U.S. diplomat to lose his job because of the WikiLeaks revelations. He had been stationed in Mexico for 19 months. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement Saturday evening that she had accepted Pascual’s resignation 'with great regret.'... Analysts say the opinions expressed by Pascual and other U.S. diplomats in the classified documents aren’t surprising.... But the Mexican government clearly felt exposed upon publication of the criticism by a close ally, which became a media sensation."

CNN: "Hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean was recovering Sunday after he was shot in the hand, his publicist said. Spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum said Jean, who was in Haiti, was shot in Port-au-Prince on Saturday -- on the eve of the country's presidential runoff vote." Jean had planned to run for president, but Haitian officials ruled that he did not meet the residency requirements.

The Dodds of Connecticut

Maureen Dowd writes a thin, somewhat fawning column/interview of former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, who as the new head of the Motion Picture Association of America has become Washington's top lobbyist. She & Dodd take a trip down memory lane, as Dodd relates anecdotes from the old days. He mentions his father, who was also a Connecticut Senator. The moderators scrapped my comment, so here it is, somewhat modified to say what I really think:

Chris Dodd, learning ethics on his father's knee. Undated photo.Since Chris Dodd is so fond of telling old stories & of complimenting his new bosses on their ability to do the same, here's one about Dodd's father, Sen. Thomas Dodd.

My great aunts lived on the first floor of a modest two-flat on Triangle Street in West Hartford. On the upper floor lived a couple with a beautiful young daughter. When she became of marriageable age, she took up with young Tom Dodd, who had just matriculated at Yale Law. Tom was on a tight budget. Every evening my aunts would see Tom going up the steps to have dinner with the fiancee and her parents. Those hearty meals, freely given by the folks upstairs, sure helped their future son-in-law get through law school.

Upon being graduated from Yale Law, Tom went to work for the FBI where his biggest case was an unsuccessful attempt to capture gangster John Dillinger. Oh, and he met a young woman from a wealthy family. So Agent Tom left the girl upstairs -- and her accommodating parents -- and married the socialite, who was to be Chris Dodd's mother. My aunts were Democrats, but they never voted for Tom Dodd. They said he was too untrustworthy.

Chris Dodd also left the Senate under a cloud. As Dowd mentions evah so briefly, "In trouble with Connecticut voters for taking a V.I.P. home mortgage from Countrywide Financial, he didn’t seek re-election." The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

P.S. I notice at the bottom of Dowd's column is an announcement that "Thomas L. Friedman is off today." While I'll warrant Friedman is often "off," he must not have got the memo, because not only did he write a column for today's paper, it is a darned good one.