The Commentariat -- January 19, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' argument against asking Mitt Romney to release his tax returns & Nicholas Kristof's whitewashing of Bain Capital. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "President Obama comes out swinging at the Koch brothers, the wealthy conservative industrialists, in a new television ad designed to push back against a barrage of attacks on the president’s character."

I think Mr. Romney and the rest of the Republican field are going to be playing to their base until the primary season is over. Overall, I think it’s going to be pretty hard to argue that we have not executed a strategy over the last three years that has put America in a stronger position than it was than when I came into office. -- Barack Obama ...

... Fareed Zakaria of Time: "President Obama dismissed Republican rival Mitt Romney’s critiques of his foreign policy credentials Wednesday in an exclusive TIME interview, saying the GOP frontrunner’s attacks are little more than primary posturing that will wither under the glare of 'a serious debate.'” ...

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama will hit the road for a three-day, five-state tour after his State of the Union address Tuesday, stopping throughout campaign battleground territory that could be critical to his re-election chances."

NEW. Democracy Now! has a good video report on Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit with Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, an expert on climate change who has led massive protests in Washington, D.C. against the pipeline.

... Glenn Thrush & Darrell Samuelsohn of Politico on the politics of President Obama's killing the Keystone XL pipeline project. Bottom line: it's a win-win.

Prof. Jonathan Turley in a Washington Post op-ed: "10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free."

... Paul Krugman: "... nothing in our history or experience says that unearned income [like capital gains] has to be taxed this lightly. It’s not a time-honored principle; it’s a Bush-era innovation, pushed through the Senate, by the way, using reconciliation." ...

... New York Times Editors: "If Mr. Romney has done one good thing with his partial disclosure — although it clearly wasn’t his goal — he has reminded Americans of the fundamental unfairness of the current tax code and of how determined Mr. Romney and his party are to keep it that way. Currently, the tax code imposes a top rate of 15 percent on investment income — generally, capital gains and dividends — that flows overwhelmingly to wealthy taxpayers. In comparison, top rates between 25 percent and 35 percent are applied to the wages and salaries for many working Americans. Worse, an egregious loophole in the law lets private equity partners pay the lower 15 percent rate on much of their income — known as “carried interest” — even though those earnings are not typically gains from investing their own money, but rather a share of profits from investing someone else’s money."

Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Google and Wikipedia did everyone a big service, and the swift reaction of lawmakers was gratifying. Now, if [Sen. John] Cornyn [R-Texas] and [Sen. Marco] Rubio [R-Fla.] would pay as much attention to the Occupy protesters and the pain of the middle class, the country would be even better off." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: The "formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet. As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old."

A. G. Sulzberger of the New York Times: "Barring some unexpected act of salvation..., Boeing leaves Wichita, [Kansas,] after eight decades as one of its biggest employers and most prestigious brands: in a trail of broken promises and bitter recriminations. For most of the country, this is just one more plant closing, just 2,160 more lost jobs in a Midwestern city.... But the exit has been another painful blow to the city of Wichita and the airplane manufacturing industry that has sustained it, the sudden reversal of fortune only adding to the feeling of betrayal."

Penn State trustees speak to Pete Thamel & Mark Viera of the New York Times about how they decided to fire University President Graham Spanier & head football coach Joe Paterno as a result of their mishandling the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.

Fareed Zakaria, frankly, doesn't know much about economics, but I think he might be right in this Washington Post op-ed: "When asked how they will create jobs, Republicans simply talk about cutting taxes and regulations and getting government out of the way. Yes, it is important to have competitive tax and regulatory policies. But the lessons from East Asia to Northern Europe suggest that government policy and investment can play a vital role in providing incentives for the private sector."

Right Wing World

Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven." ...

     ... Update: Kasie Hunt of the AP writes a related story. ...

Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "The wealth that has helped underwrite [Mitt Romney's] career in politics remains shrouded in considerable secrecy, which now poses a major political risk on the campaign trail. Mr. Romney’s finances are complex and far-flung. He and his wife, Ann, have reported holdings in dozens of publicly traded companies, mutual funds and high-end investment partnerships, with much of their family wealth held in blind trusts that conceal their full size from public view." ...

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed throws "The Book" at Mitt Romney; that is, he has published John McCain's full 2008 oppo research book on Romney. If you'd like to read 200 pages of "Romney Is a Bad Dude," this is the place.

Brian Ross of ABC News: "Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage." With video clip.

** Fools or Frauds. Paul Krugman: "... to be a good Republican right now, you have to affirm your belief in things that any halfway intelligent politician can see are plainly false. This leaves room for only two kinds of candidates: those who just aren’t smart and/or rational enough to understand the problem, and those who are completely cynical, willing to say anything to get ahead. What sort of things am I talking about? They range from the belief that Obama is a socialist who will destroy America with his dastardly Heritage Foundation devised health care plan, to the belief that unemployment is high because lazy people prefer their unemployment insurance checks. On budget matters, you have to claim to believe that we can cut taxes sharply, maintain high military spending, and eliminate the deficit — all without upsetting those Republican-voting Medicare recipients."

Philosopher Gary Gutting, in a New York Times post, exposes the inherent contradiction in conservative philosophy. (It would have been nice to read Gutting's views on Calvinism and "prosperity theology," but perhaps the contradictory nature of those "theologies" is self-evident.)

The Do-Nothing Congress, Con'd. Dana Milbank: "The House’s first legislative act of 2012 had been utterly pointless...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to shut down when its license expires in March, saying that the state is trying to regulate nuclear safety, which only the federal government can do."

New York Times: "In what the federal authorities on Thursday called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.... The hacker collective that calls itself Anonymous attacked the Web sites of the Justice Department and several major entertainment companies and trade groups in retaliation for Mega-upload’s seizure. The Justice Department’s site and several others remained inaccessible for much of Thursday afternoon." Gizmodo has a story & a copy of the indictment. The Rolling Stone story is here.

And then there were four (I think). CNN is livestreaming the GOP presidential debate here. The New York Times liveblog is here.

** CNN: Rick Perry is telling supporters that he will drop his bid Thursday for the Republican presidential nomination, two sources familiar with his plans told CNN." ...

     ... Politico Update: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to end his presidential campaign Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two sources confirm to Politico." ...

     ... Update: New York Times post-statement report.

New York Times: "Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded on Thursday, following a two-week review by the state’s Republican Party that found that Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Mr. Romney, two party officials confirmed. Matt Strawn, chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party, is set to announce at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time that an actual winner cannot be determined in the caucuses because results from eight of 1,774 precincts could not be located for certification.... Mr. Santorum moved quickly on Thursday to declare victory and dismissed the suggestion that a clear-cut winner could not be determined." ...

     ... Update: Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register has the details.

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, easing concern that post-holiday firings were on the rise. Jobless claims plunged by 50,000 to 352,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, the lowest level since April 2008, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington." ...

... BUT. Bloomberg: "Builders began work on fewer houses than forecast in December, capping the worst year on record for single-family home construction and signaling recovery in the industry will take time."

New York Times: "Eastman Kodak, the 131-year-old film pioneer that has been struggling for years to adapt to an increasingly digital world, filed for bankruptcy protection early on Thursday. The American icon had tried a number of turnaround strategies and cost-cutting efforts in recent years, but the company — which since 2004 has reported only one full year of profits — ultimately ran short of cash."

New York Times: "In the latest twist in Britain’s phone hacking scandal, the actor Jude Law and John Prescott, a former British deputy prime minister, were named Thursday in a list of 36 victims of alleged hacking who have reached out-of-court settlements with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire." The Guardian is running a liveblog on the story.

Washington Post: "David M. Rubenstein, the billionaire Bethesda philanthropist, will donate $7.5 million to help fix the shuttered, earthquake-damaged Washington Monument, government officials plan to announce Thursday.... It comes a month after he donated $4.5 million to the National Zoo’s cash-strapped giant panda program and seven months after a $13.5 million gift to the National Archives.

AP: "... a U.S. Army depot in Utah finished destroying the last of 1.3 million munitions filled with a witches' brew of toxins, blister and blood agents.... The Utah depot — which at its peak held 13,600 tons of chemical agents, making it the world's largest — expects to complete the job by the weekend when it incinerates bulk supplies of Lewisite, a powerful skin, eye and lung irritant. By then, the U.S. Army will have destroyed about 90 percent of its aging chemical weapons that accumulated through the Cold War."

New York Times: "Hedge funds ... [are] suing Greece in a human rights court to make good on its bond payments. The novel approach would have the funds arguing in the European Court of Human Rights that Greece had violated bondholder rights.... Many blame [these same funds] for the lack of progress so far in the negotiations over restructuring Greece’s debts."