The Nine Lives of the Catfood Commission, Resurrection 1

A group of senators, both Republican and Democrat, are determined to turn the draconian recommendations of the infamous Catfood Commission into legislation. David Brooks, in a New York Times op-ed column, calls these senators “courageous … public heroes.”  Brooks is so enamored of these “heroes” that he urges the public to “mobilize” behind them. The American people will back these belt-tightening efforts only if the senators can continue to fool them. There’s a good chance of that – because much of the public doesn’t know what would happen to them if the senators got away with their little “reform” movement. To wit,

According to Suzanne Mettler, writing in “Perspective on Politics,” a huge percentage of people who receive federal benefits don’t know what they’re getting. (You can read her figures here; you have to sign up to read the original pdf.) In the entitlements areas, 44 percent of Social Security beneficiaries and 40 percent of Medicare recipients claim they receive no government social assistance. The same goes for non-entitlement programs: 43 percent who get unemployment benefits, 27 percent who get some form of welfare or public assistance, 25 percent of people who get food stamps and 30 percent of people who get SSI disability say they’ve never received government assistance.

 The tea party crowd may claim they want smaller government, but they want the government to keep its hands off their Medicare. Woe to those deficit-hawk politicians who think they would be smart to “reform” – i.e., cut – social programs upon which almost all Americans rely at some time in their lives – even if they don’t know it.

Rep. Lee Resigns over Craigslist Scandal

CW: I've moved this post up, as there are some updates.

Congressman Christopher Lee (R-NY) in his official photo & in the one he sent to the woman he contacted via Craigslist. Left: Congressional photo; right: photo by Chris Lee via Gawker."A Classy Guy." Maureen O'Connor of Gawker: "Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist's 'Women Seeking Men' forum, he's Christopher Lee, 'divorced' 'lobbyist' and 'fit fun classy guy.' One object of his flirtation told [Gawker] her story.... By email, Lee identified himself as a 39-year-old divorced lobbyist and sent a PG picture to the woman from the ad. (In fact, Lee is married and has one son with his wife. He's also 46.) Read the whole story; Lee at first asserted his e-mail account had been hacked, but Gawker has him dead to rights. ...

     ... This story was going down the page in The Soaps till I read the update. Now it's news: "Three hours after his shirtless Craigslist antics appeared [in Gawker], Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) announced his resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives."

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has some info on the political ramifications. Lee represents the 26th Congressional District -- between Rochester & Buffalo -- which went for McCain with 52% of the vote in 2008, the year Lee was first elected. He easily won re-election in 2010.

Jimmy Vielkind of the Albany Times Union runs down what happens next in the 26th Congressional District as best he can, inasmuch as there are lots of complications.

Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times just got an item up -- the story is running on the front page of the Times website, complete with the beefcake picture. I'm sure this schmuck always imagined himself on the front page of the Times, but probably not in just this context. Here's an expanded story by Hernandez that doesn't really cover any new ground. ...

Jill Terreri of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has some tidbits: "Conservative radio talk show host Bill Nojay described Lee as a rising star in the Republican Party, and a Boy Scout.... Here's a good one:

At the same time, responding to what may seem like a friendly e-mail or an appealing marketing offer can have serious consequences. Private information and images can so easily be transmitted to friends and strangers alike. -- Christopher Lee, 2009, in an opinion piece in support of an Internet safety bill he was sponsoring

Update. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday called the resignation of Rep. Chris Lee 'the right decision,' but declined to talk about whether he had advised Lee to go.... Boehner also deflected questions about a report in a Capitol Hill newspaper last year, which said he had advised a group of GOP legislators - including Lee - to curb inappropriate behavior with female lobbyists." ...

     ... What Fahrenthold is too delicate to mention is this National Enquirer story, which seems to have legs as it's been reported independently elsewhere. Here's a snippet from the online story; you have to buy the tabloid to read the full story:

Capitol Hill insiders and political bloggers have been buzzing about an upcoming New York Times probe -- detailing an alleged affair that  [John Boehner,] the 61-year-old married father of two, had with pretty Washington lobbyist Lisbeth Lyons. And an ENQUIRER investigation has uncovered a bedroom encounter that Boehner - second in line of succession to the presidency - allegedly had with Leigh LaMora, a 46-year-old former press secretary to ex-Colorado Congressman Joel Hefley.

Danielle Belton of TheLoop21 interviews the woman who outted Chris Lee. ...

     ... Update. The Washington Post's Reliable Source identifies the woman at the center of the scandal as Yesha Callahan, a faculty specialist for the University of Maryland and single mother of a preteen son.

Last year, Roll Call listed Lee among the 50 richest members of Congress:

The churn in the Lee family assets continued last year, and the New York Republican appears to come out a little better off than he was before. After his election in 2008, Lee — who had been an executive in his family’s mechanical parts business — sold numerous assets, and his apparent net worth dropped from a little more than $11 million to just more than $7 million.

Last year, Lee bought and sold dozens of mutual fund accounts in hundreds of transactions, and his reported minimum net worth increased more than $1 million.

Alan Bedenko of WNY News: "The sole member of the New York State congressional delegation to vote against guaranteeing health care and monitoring for the heroes of 9/11 was Chris Lee from NY-26. Lee’s objection? He can’t STAND the government having the job-killing audacity to expect companies making a profit in the United States to actually pay income taxes on those profits. Only the little people pay taxes."

K. Lee of the New York Examiner: Chris Lee was one of the sponsors of H.R. 3, the draconian bill designed to stop funding abortions except in cases of "forcible rape." (Republicans removed the adjective "forcible" from the bill after a public outcry, but the bill itself is wending its way through the House.) 

Brian Stelter of the New York Times argues that Gawker's new "news" format -- widely panned by the site's regulars -- helped drive the Chris Lee story by keeping it in a prominent position on Gawker's main page, wheras in the older blog format the story would have moved down the page as staff posted new stories.

The Commentariat -- February 10

Tahrir Square, Wednesday night. AFP photo. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times profiles the young professionals who instigated and guided the Egyptian uprising, some of whom are coming forward for the first time. ...

... Stephen Kinzer in the Daily Beast: "Hosni Mubarak is falling from power in Egypt partly because he refused to heed one of history’s hidden lessons: Dictators shouldn’t have sons. Most do. That often hastens their downfall or that of their nations."

... Tony Karon of Time: "Having initially come close to suggesting it was time for Mubarak to go (without actually saying as much), the Obama Administration brought relief to its regional allies — Israel and other Arab autocrats — by endorsing Mubarak's intelligence chief, hastily appointed as Vice President, to oversee an 'orderly' political transition.... Not only has Suleiman failed to engage seriously with any of the key demands of the opposition but he has begun to darkly warn that the 'intolerable' protest action must be speedily brought to an end. And so the Administration has found itself having to scold and berate the man Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last weekend hailed as the leader to oversee the transition." ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The White House is moving to stamp out reports that top officials — including Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — are sending conflicting signals about how best to resolve the crisis in Egypt. On Wednesday, the White House and the State Department staged a 50-minute conference call for reporters ... to insist that the administration’s messages on the standoff between embattled President Hosni Mubarak and demonstrators demanding his ouster have been consistent both in public — and private." ...

... Nicholas Kristof on the Obama Administration's response to the Egyptian crisis: "... whatever message we’re trying to send, the one that is coming through is that we continue to embrace the existing order, and that could taint our future relations with Egypt for many years to come."

Cord Jefferson of Good Culture: "The rise of the anti-big government Tea Party movement in America has also seen a rise in the number of citizens publicly decrying both taxes and the social welfare programs for which those taxes provide. A recent study shows, however, that many Americans actually have no idea that they're on the dole, calling into question the validity of their attacks on government handouts." To wit:

     ... The numbers in the graph represent "the percentages of people who benefit from the specified government program while also saying ... they 'have not used a government social program.' Besides these numbers, more than 25 percent of people on food stamps think they don't take government assistance, and nearly 30 percent of people getting Social Security disability benefits."

... Jay Newton-Small of Time on how the House found $100 billion to cut -- at the insistence of the teabaggers -- and how the Senate will add most of that $100 BB right back in. She predicts there could be a government shutdown/showdown. ...

... Carl Hulse of New York Times: "Under pressure to make deeper spending cuts and blindsided by embarrassing floor defeats, House Republican leaders are quickly discovering the limits of control over their ideologically driven and independent-minded new majority. For the second consecutive day, House Republicans on Wednesday lost a floor vote due to a mini-revolt, this time over a plan to demand a repayment from the United Nations. Earlier in the day, members of the party’s conservative bloc used a closed-door party meeting to push the leadership to go well beyond its plans to trim about $40 billion from domestic spending and foreign aid this year, demanding $100 billion or more." ...

... John Bresnahan & Jake Sherman of Politico: "It usually takes a lot longer for the party in charge to start with the finger-pointing, the failed votes and the backpedaling on campaign promises. But the House Republican majority has already had two failed floor votes, is experiencing a backlash on the right over spending cuts and has bypassed the committee process it once praised for taking up major bills." ...

... Dana Bash of CNN: "House Republican leaders under fire from fellow conservatives for backtracking on a promise to cut $100 billion in spending this year are suddenly trying to meet that goal, according to a senior House GOP aide." ...

... Lori Montgomery & Shailagh Murray of the Washington Post: "House Republicans sketched their vision for a smaller federal government Wednesday, proposing sharp spending cuts that would wipe out family planning programs, take 4,500 cops off the street and slice 10 percent from a food program that aids pregnant women and their babies. Top White House priorities also would come under the knife: Key Republicans are proposing to defund President Obama's high-speed rail initiative, slash clean energy programs and gut the Office of Science by 20 percent - cuts that would deal a direct blow to Obama's innovation agenda. They would also cut the Environmental Protection Agency by 17 percent."

... Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "... the White House is targeting programs in the $4 trillion budget that benefit low-income Americans. It's a sop to moderates and conservatives, and it's likely to infuriate voters who put President Barack Obama in the White House." ...

... Sam Stein: "Reports that President Barack Obama's upcoming budget will propose steep cuts in the government's energy assistance fund for low-income Americans ricocheted quickly on Capitol Hill Wednesday, spurring some intraparty squabbling. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) wrote a letter to Obama asking him not to drop funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by about $3 billion."

Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "After significant public blowback, House Republicans last week promised to drop a controversial provision in their high-priority No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act that would redefine rape. But almost a week later, that language is still in the bill.... Even if the language is dropped, abortion-rights advocates warn that H.R. 3 would still be a significant step backwards for women's rights. In a press conference on Tuesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said that the legislation shows a 'heinous disregard for the health and well-being of women in America' and would be 'a tax on all women who want access to a full range of reproductive health care.'"

Dave Clarke of Reuters: "The Obama administration's tough, but short-lived, crackdown on pay at the biggest U.S. banks will have little long-term impact...." A report released today by the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel gave Ken Feinberg, the administration's pay czar, "a failing grade."

Howard Fineman explains why Sen. Jim Webb's (D-Va.) decision not to run for re-election is so important -- Virginia will be a critical state in the 2012 presidential election. President Obama will personally lobby DNC Chair & former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to run for Webb's seat. Former Republican Sen. George "Macaca" Allen has already announced he will run or his old seat -- Webb beat him in a close race in 2006.

Karen Garcia on "This Week in Rudeness - Incivility Resurges After Temporary Setback." Garcia invites you to cite more examples....

... Here's a video of O'Reilly interrupting President Obama. The count here is 48 times; others have come up with a count of 72. Whatever, it's incredibly rude:

Right Wing News

** Dana Milbank, relying almost entirely on questions & testimony, gives you a fabulous flavor of what Congress is like when Republicans are in charge. His report on Ron Paul's first hearing on monetary policy is a stunning examply of Crazy in Congress. Here's a sample of the back-and-forth:

Witness/Economist Richard Vedder: I think economists who make predictions are foolish.

Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.): What would happen if we returned to the gold standard?

Vedder: I think we'd be in a better place.

Green: Now what did you say about people who make predictions?

Vedder: I said, "Some economists make bad predictions, some of them make good predictions.

Green: You said they were foolish.

Vedder: Foolish?

... Annie Lowrey, in Slate, makes the case that Ron Paul, famous for his desire to End the Fed, the title of one of his books, is only kidding. She gets support for her argument from Paul himself:

If tomorrow we closed the Fed and started using a gold standard, it would be so chaotic nobody would know what to do. There are interim positions, such as allowing competition in currencies. People aren't ready for that. It's complicated—it is very complicated. -- Ron Paul

The Change (& Change Again) Candidate. David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix: Mitt Romney rewrites chapters in his No Apologies campaign book to sound more teabaggerish.  

News Ledes

** New York Times: "President Hosni Mubarak told the Egyptian people Thursday that he would delegate more authority to his vice president, Omar Suleiman, but that he would not resign his post, contradicting earlier reports that he would step aside and surprising hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered to hail his departure from the political scene."

President Obama spoke about the National Wireless Initiative this afternoon. Washington Post: "President Obama is to unveil a plan Thursday to bring wireless high-speed Internet access to all Americans, a goal the administration says is key to the country's ability to compete globally in the years to come." Update: here are President Obama's prepared remarks about the wireless initiative; they do not include his comments about Egypt, made near the top of his speech. (The remarks on Egypt were pretty noncommittal, of the "We're watching history unfold" variety.) See video of the President's speech as well as Austan Goolsbee's explanation of the wireless initiative under the February 11 Commentariat above.

     ... Update: here the citation, via al Jazeera:

What's absolutely clear is that we are witnessing history unfold. The people of Egypt are calling for change. People representing all ages and all walks of life -- but it is young people who are at the forefront -- a new generation, your generation, who want their voices to be heard -- and we want those young people to know the United States of America will support an orderly transition to democracy.

Fox "News": "Two GOP sources confirm to Fox that 3-term Senator Jon Kyl will announce his retirement at a noon news conference Thursday in Phoenix." AP Update: "Arizona Republican Jon Kyl said Thursday he won't seek re-election to a fourth term in the U.S. Senate in 2012, creating another open seat as Republicans try to take back control." CW: too bad his swan song got buried in other news.

AP: "Egypt's military announced on national television it had stepped in to secure the country and promised protesters calling for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster that all their demands would soon be met. The CIA director said Mubarak appeared poised to hand over his powers to his vice president, Omar Suleiman." ...

... ** New York Times: "Egypt’s armed forces on Thursday announced that they had begun to take 'necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the people,' a step that suggested the military intends to take a commanding role in administering the strife-torn nation. The announcement of an enhanced role for the military came as officials in President Hosni Mubarak’s government suggested a momentous shift in power was underway, including a possible transfer of power from Mr. Mubarak to his Vice President Omar Suleiman." ...

... Here's Al Jazeera's report on a meeting called by the Eqyptian army & chaired by "Mohamed Tantawi, the defence minister, rather than Mubarak, who, as president, would normally have headed the meeting." ...

... New York Times: "As Egypt’s uprising entered its 17th day on Thursday, bolstered by strikes and protests among professional groups in Cairo and workers across the country, a senior official [Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit] in President Hosni Mubarak’s embattled government was quoted as saying the army would 'intervene to control the country' if it fell into chaos."

... Guardian: "The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak began, and at least some of these detainees have been tortured, according to testimony gathered by the Guardian." ...

... Reuters: "A minister has resigned from the Egyptian cabinet formed by President Hosni Mubarak in response to an uprising against his rule, a family member said on Wednesday. Culture Minister Gaber Asfour resigned for health reasons, a member of his family told Reuters. But the website of Egypt's main daily newspaper al-Ahram said Asfour, a writer, was under pressure from literary colleagues over the post."

AP: "India and Pakistan announced Thursday they would resume wide-ranging peace talks that were frozen after the 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, which were blamed on Pakistan-based militants. The U.S. has been pressing the nuclear-armed rivals to restart their peace efforts...."

New York Times: "Fourteen months after the State Senate soundly rejected legislation that would have legalized same-sex marriage, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is preparing to pursue another vote on the matter in the next few months."

AP: "A suicide bomber linked to the Pakistani Taliban attacked soldiers during morning exercises at an army training camp in the northwest Thursday, killing 31 troops and wounding 42 others."

AP: "The website of an Iranian opposition leaders says authorities have placed him under house arrest because of his calls for a rally in support of anti-government demonstrations in Egypt. Mahdi Karroubi's sahamnews.org says security officers are stationed at the entrance to Karroubi's house in Tehran on Thursday and are preventing relatives from meeting him."

AP: "Ten moderate Saudi scholars say they've formed the kingdom's first political party and have asked the king for recognition."