The Commentariat -- Jan. 31, 2015
Internal links, defunct video, discarded photo removed.
White House: "In this week's address, the President described the progress our economy has made, laying a foundation for a future that prioritizes middle-class economics":
Presidential Race
Mitt Loses Billionaires' Bowl. Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In a talk with his eldest son, Tagg, between runs down the mountain on Monday, [Mitt] Romney, 67, said he had all but decided against a third bid for the White House. The conversation, according to a person familiar with it, came after days of increasingly gloomy news reached the Romney family. Donors who supported him last time refused to commit to his campaign. Key operatives were signing up with former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. The Republican establishment that lifted Mr. Romney to the nomination in 2012 in the face of scrappy opposition had moved on."
This lovely woman will not be deciding the presidential election. And neither will you.... CW: So it wasn't Romney who "decided" against running. It was the moneybags. If you don't think this country is run by millionaires & billionaires, contemplate just who chooses the major party presidential candidates. The excitement over Obama in 2008 was partly about him, partly about his race, & partly that he was challenging the big-bucks candidate. I recall Hillary's telling some teevee interviewer in January 2008 that she would win the nomination. The source of her confidence wasn't chutzpah; it was her donor base.
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "In renouncing a new run for president Friday, Mitt Romney becomes the first big casualty of the invisible primary -- the behind-the-scenes competition for donors, endorsements and campaign operatives. Many candidates, including Mr. Romney, are plausible candidates on paper. But party elites winnow the field of prospective nominees by bestowing and withholding the resources and credibility necessary to run a presidential campaign.... [Mitt's "decision"] is also a reflection of the relative strength of the field, and perhaps especially Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who launched an aggressive, even pre-emptive campaign to recruit support in early December."
The text of Romney's statement, as prepared, is here.
A Sad Day for Gail Collins: "For all his faults, there are a lot of candidates in the Republican scrimmage who would make far worse presidents than Mitt Romney. Still, it's sort of a relief to see him go. Although I will miss that dog story." You will want to read Collins for her take on Mitt's announcement.
D. S. Wright of Firedoglake: "... both Bloomberg and The Daily Beast reported that Romney was getting ready to announce that his candidacy for president. Both outlets were forced to update their stories to show that the opposite of what they reported was true providing a sad commentary both on those organizations and the numerous wrong 'breaking' news stories that will come in the 2016 cycle." ...
... CW: That Bloomberg story, BTW, was by consumate "insider" & thoroughly obnoxious prick Mark Halperin. So there was a mini-silver lining to the billionaires' dismissal of Romney. Benjamin Mullin of Poynter has the screen grabs. ...
... The Horseshit Whisperer. Steve M. "All that happy talk, in Halperin's story and others, was Mitt's way of stroking the press so he'd be able to read that he absolutely should have won in 2012 and could certainly win in 2016, and in any event would be far and away the best person for the job. He believes that and he wanted to have that message reflected back to him -- and, obviously, he hoped he could persuade enough other people of his greatness to be a credible candidate again. These weeks of generating speculation were Mitt's Sunset Boulevard -- he's still big, it's the elections that got small! He's ready for his close-up, Mr. Murdoch!" ...
... CW: It wasn't all happy talk, Steve. Prior to Romney's conference call, Ed Kilgore cited bits from Halperin's piece which claimed to characterize Romney's view of rivals Jeb & Chris. Romney sees Jeb as "a small-time businessman..., weighed down .... [by] his family name." As for Crisco, Romney's vetting produced dirt that "would mushroom so broadly that Christie soon would be eliminated from consideration by voters and donors." ...
... Charles Pierce: "Ah, the Lady Ann has had enough of You People who think you should be president rather than Willard, whom god and a trust fund selected at birth. Notice that Willard and Lady Ann are publicly great friends of Jeb (!), but they free up anonymous People Who Are Familiar With Romney's Thinking to slip in the shiv."
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "After announcing that he would not, after all, be mounting a third campaign for the US presidency, Mitt Romney signalled on Friday that he may forge a reconciliation with Chris Christie to stop Jeb Bush's bid for the Republican nomination next year.... Immediately after Romney's call to supporters, the New York Times reported that he would be having dinner with Christie on Friday evening." ...
... CW: Um, also Mitt & Ann had lunch with Chelsea Clinton Mezvinsky yesterday. So maybe he's preparing to back Chelsea's mom. Never mind that Mitt called former Secretary of State Mom "clueless" just a few days ago. Mitt thinks everyone who is Not-Mitt is "clueless." "We talked about disease. Brain disease." -- Ann Romney said of their lunch with Chelsea.
The thing that really struck me about Jeb more than anyone I ever met, is he understood that he was from the world that really counted and the rest of us weren't. It really was quite a waste of his time to engage us. This was kind of his family high school. There wasn't anything he could do to be kicked out so he was relaxed about rules, doing the work. This was just his family's place. -- Phil Sylvester, a classmate of Jeb's at Phillips Academy ...
... "Magic Carpet Ride." Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe on Jeb's schoolboy days at the toney Phillips Academy: "Classmates said he smoked a notable amount of pot -- as many did -- and sometimes bullied smaller students.... He had completed ninth grade in Houston, but he was advised to repeat it at Andover. Still, he barely got grades high enough to avoid being expelled, he said...." CW: Kranish is one of two Globe reporters who broke the dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car story. Americans, and Gail Collins in particular, have a deep debt to Michael Kranish.
CW: While we've had a lot of fun at the expense of risible GOP candidates, as contributor P. D. Pepe reminded us the other day, we won't be having so much fun when the GOP starts bringing up Bill Clinton's flying in planes with underage call girls, etc.
Frank Rich on "American Sniper," Presidents Koch & candidate Hillary: The lede of the Rich chat is buried in its very last paragraph: "The lead of the Politico article [about Hillary's candidacy] is buried in its very last paragraph, where it's noted that the 'next critical task' for the Clinton campaign is 'developing her message.' Indeed! What Hillary Clinton actually stands for beyond party boilerplate -- and, more pointedly, what she would actually want to do as president -- is the question that remains unanswered. Until it is, it doesn't matter who is put in charge of communicating it."
** Dana Milbank on Bernie Sanders' populism. CW: I think both Sanders & Milbank get it just right. Unfortunately.
Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "... the combined convulsions of the House and Senate stand in stark contrast to the GOP's election promises about putting Congress back to work and ending gridlock on Capitol Hill.... The new dawn they promised isn't looking very different from last year's gridlock."
Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times: "Halting President Obama's deportation amnesty will end up hurting Uncle Sam's bottom line, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday in a new report that is bound to cause more problems for Republicans trying to block the White House's executive action. While keeping illegal immigrants in the shadows would save the government billions on spending, it would also mean billions in taxes that never get paid, leaving the federal budget a total of $7.5 billion worse over the next decade than it would be if Mr. Obama's amnesties take effect as scheduled, the CBO said." ...
... CW: Oddly, this story is only being reported in the Right Wing News, as far as I can tell.
Sarah Ferris of the Hill: "A trio of Republican committee chairmen will immediately get to work on drafting the party's ObamaCare backup plan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Friday. The working group is forming one day after McCarthy announced the House would vote next week to fully repeal ObamaCare, marking the first repeal vote of the GOP-controlled Congress.... The group, which includes Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), will also be charged with creating a 'contingency plan' to prepare for a looming Supreme Court decision that could undo Obamacare subsidies in 34 states." ...
... Ryan, BTW, is one of those slimy lawmakers who used to acknowledge that the ACA covered residents of all states, not just those who live in states which set up their own insurance exchanges. Howevah, Ryan has changed his mind now that it's convenient to pretend the ACA only covers people obtaining coverage through state exchanges. ...
... Ian Millhiser: "In 2011, one of the most influential conservative organizations in Washington D.C. flatly contradicted the central claim in a lawsuit seeking to gut the Affordable Care Act. Though Heritage later reversed its previously stated views on how to read Obamacare after it became advantageous for conservatives to publicly agree with the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, Heritage's 2011 paper adds to the wealth of evidence showing that the misreading of the law offered by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit was widely rejected by the law's supporters and by its opponents until the lawsuit itself gave conservatives an incentive to lend credibility to its central claim."
Jonathan Chait: "[Thursday], the Huffington Post was gracious enough to publish an item contributed by once-promising author turned mediocre blogger Barack Obama. That same day, Barack Obama told House Democrats to 'get informed, not by reading the Huffington Post.' This raises not only the question of why Obama does not want Congress to read his own work, but why the Huffington Post continues to employ him at all.... Fire this hack." Includes sample of classic hackery.
Michael Moore confirms that ten years ago, Clint Eastwood threatened to kill him.
I don't feel sorry for shooting the guy at all. -- Adam Torres, a Fairfax, Virginia, County police officer who shot dead an unarmed man with his hands raised
... Tom Jackman of the Washington Post on the August 2013 police-shooting death of John Geer. Other police officers, who were at the scene to cope with a domestic argument between Geer & his partner, & civilian witnesses all agree that Geer had his hands up & was unarmed. "... documents also show that Torres[, the shooter,] was involved in an argument with his wife in the 16 minutes leading up to his arrival at Geer's home...."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Charles Pierce takes several stabs at the New Republic & its lovely editors & contributors past. ...
... CW: I read the New Republic cover story the other day & meant to link it but forgot. Canadian journalist Jeet Heer on the New Republic's long history of racism & jingoism & elitism & some other bad. I guess Heer had to be polite because he wrote his report on TNR's dime, but the content, however nicely put, is a condemnation of a supposedly-liberal magazine. To me, that "supposedly-liberal" is the worst part. If you're a liberal reading what is sold as a liberal magazine, you have a bias to believe the content. Thus, you may come away thinking black people are too dumb to be reporters, too lazy to do honest work, & that these & other negative stereotypes are backed up by scientific proofs that the Negro is a genetically-inferior subspecies of the Great White Man. Because you read it in the the Great White New Republic.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Islamic State claimed to have beheaded a Japanese journalist in a video released Saturday night, the culmination of a two-week-long drama that appears to have cost the lives of two Japanese men. The video of the killing of the journalist, Kenji Goto, came two days after a deadline set by the extremist group expired, and the Jordanian government did not give in to its demand that a convicted would-be suicide bomber be exchanged for Mr. Goto's life."
New York Times: "Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as 'the pill,' died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91."
New York Times: "... as officials in 14 states grapple to contain a spreading measles outbreak that began near here at Disneyland, the parents at the heart of America's anti-vaccine movement are being blamed for incubating an otherwise preventable public-health crisis."
Guardian: "Angela Merkel has ruled out the prospect of Greece securing further debt cuts from its creditor nations, potentially putting the country's new leftist government on a collision course with Brussels."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Bobbi Kristina Brown, the 21-year-old daughter of the late Whitney Houston, was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub Saturday morning and was rushed to the hospital, Roswell authorities said. TMZ is reporting that sources close to the family say she's been place in a medically induced coma to address swelling. An AJC reporter was told to leave hospital property Saturday and no hospital representatives were available for official comment."
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Reader Comments (13)
With Mitt out there seems to be a bigger look at Christie.I have been looking forward to this. It seems so far among the hundreds of Republican pre-candidates absolutely no real evaluation of records. Just the usual blah. Well now they are going to start seriously tearing into each other and Christie's record as governor has been a nightmare.
@ Marvin: To quote Bette Davis (as Margo Channing), "Fasten your seatbelts...."
But, as Marie and P.D. point out, it won't be so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot.
The Dana Milbank piece linked above nailed Bernie Sanders' justifiable rage juxtaposed against the reality that the public just doesn't seem to care that, among other things, two billionaires will be spending almost a billion dollars to swing the next election. Milbank's concluding sentence was the saddest: "As Sanders is learning, you can’t have a populist revolution without people. "
Here is a long piece from the New Yorker by Alec MacGillis on Jeb Bush. I wasn't aware he, while governor of Florida had been so involved in education–-charter schools became a priority for him.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/testing-time
I thought that Mitt Romney's valedictory was "perfect Mitt." He could have won if he wanted to, he had it all in his hands, but magnanimously he stood aside to let others have a chance. Others would of course had no chance otherwise, from his perspective.
Whatta guy!!
I think back to the 2012 campaign and recall marveling that he actually remained a contender until September, despite all of the non-trivial lies and distortions. His campaign was really a testimony to the worst aspects of modern campaigns, where money, pandering and brazen lying can solidify your base and confuse the easily confused. And it showed that a large portion of the public is easily confused.
I don't think we'll really miss him, he'll be out there telling lies again as a free agent. But it won't be the same robotic pander performance, if he works on behalf of the party instead of himself. And for the poor, of course.
Looking forward to Romney persona #5, when he looks for the draft swell before the convention.
Don't know enough rich Rightist ideologues to judge (all those I know are ironically middle class at best), but I've long wondered if those, like the Jebber Jabber, really believe that privatizing everything public is really best for all, that government by the people and for the people is economically and morally suspect and unbridled capitalism the pure expression of virtue, or that they are simply cynical manipulators out for the main chance; that is, no more than greedy bastards with big bank accounts who don't give a hoot about anyone else.
Yes, Mitt Romney is gone. And all other former presidential contenders; e.g., Michele Bachman, Palin, Jindal, et al—sorta gone. Unfortunately, the Republican Party seems to have a self-generating ability to regrow body parts and there are always more non-entities out there to replace the most recent demise of one.
Read CW's mention of the Foster's Daily Democrat item about the NH woman returning a drive-through bonanza. "Hey, I ordered fries with that, this bag just has money in it!"
Pretty typical New Englander! Just before the last big storm hit here, I waited patiently in the longer than usual checkout line, when I noticed the woman in front of me had just a few items...mostly small yoghurt containers. I tapped her on the shoulder, "...why don't you use the Express Lane." "Oh, I can't," she said. "I have seventeen items."
You see, the Express Lane is for 14.
Couldn't resist this. There's this well-written obituary for Ms. Gordon... Bernice was a woman of letters and words over, across, & down! I'd sure be intrigued to see her Happy Hooker's puzzle!
@MAG: Have to admit I do the same thing. If I were one or two over & several of the items were the same, I would probably take the express lane unless it looked like there wasn't a long wait in another line.
It pisses me off when people use the express lane to buy a boatload of groceries. Once I "helpfully" told the woman in front of me -- who had a cartful -- that she was in the express lane.
She replied, by way of explanation (and with a straight face), "Oh, I know. I have a large family & there's less than 20 things apiece for them." Probably a Republican. Selfish & willing to use any excuse to "justify" her bad behavior.
Marie
And on grocery check out lines:
As a perhaps trivial and self-congratulatory display of virtue, I refuse to use the self-checkout option because it replaces (often union) workers; and I happily tell management why.
Expending an extra few minutes (or more, if I'm behind a Republican in the express line) seems worth the small price.
As we bid Mr. Mitt farewell we need to keep an eye out for that Wisconsin cheese whiz–-Scott Walker–– who appears to have made quite a splash at the republican summit––"So forceful!"––"He was using his father's (Dad was a minister) sermon-type tone"––And mention of him in the MSM by the pundits of long standing are giving him some positive press. So–––to refresh your memory on the works and days of S.W.––if you want to take the time––after reading (and if not scroll down to the very end) the New Republic piece above (which is very good) there is a link to a piece by our guy, Alex McGillis, who has a long and thorough run-down not only on Walker, but on Wisconsin politics and its history. We posted this article last summer, but now that it looks as if Walker might walk the center stage, you might just want a refresher.
And after reading this today the term passive/aggressive pops up in my mind––a description of Walker perhaps. There is something passionless about this guy––his religious trappings giving him a wrap-around security of sorts in which he presents as immune to emotionality yet his past antics and governing are fraught with duplicity with little empathy for the downtrodden.
PDPepe, I'm happy to keep everyone informed about Scott Walker's history and current antics now that the national media is fawning over him. If the MSM allows him to get away with his lies and record as our state media has, prepare for a ver grisly term of a Walker presidency. His political skill far outweighs his intellect and Wisconsin is paying a dear price--pretty much the destruction of all the best parts of the state--public education, a world class university, beautiful environment, and friendly, convivial people.
the latest news from Wisconsin is Walker's proposal to cut state funding for the UW system by 13% ($300 million) in order to help offset his huge budget shortfall. The brain drain of high school and college graduates looking for better opportunities (my three children included) has picked up pace during Walker's reign. The UW already has difficulty attracting quality faculty due to his policies, and it will get precipitously worse.
Walker, by the way, left college well short of attaining a degree. Yet his latest idea was accompanied by the suggestion that to adjust to budget cuts, professors should work harder and teach one more class each semester.
I'm urging everyone who doesn't want to see Scott Walker get away with his nasty lies to put pressure on your media to expose his crap. A good place to look is The Capital Times, one of the sites at madison.com.
Here is a helpful link from a Wisconsin blogger exposing some of Walker's hypocrisies:
http://www.thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com
I don't think Walker has a chance. Personally, he's not attractive (narrow set ferret-like eyes, for example) and he's not ivy league blessed. He may get Koch money but he won't get establishment money or blessings.
James,
It may be that the Kochs don't expect their marionette to win either, but they may be using him both as a stalking horse who will set the table for their true candidate, and as an example for the remaining triflers, letting them see that the treasure chests in Wichita will be thrown open for them as well as long as they agree to be just as unapologetic and arrogant a retro asshole as Walker.
He can serve as a lightning rod for the others plus pull everyone even further towards Bircherdom.