The Commentariat -- December 3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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