The Commentariat -- July 18

Paul Krugman says there's no rhyme nor reason that federal officials are pressing "state attorneys general to accept a very modest settlement from banks that engaged in abusive mortgage practices." ...

... I've posted an Off Times Square page on the Economy. But you have the usual leeway to veer off topic. Karen Garcia, Kate Madison & I have commented on Krugman's column. ...

... E. J. Dionne: "The House Republican strategy to link a normally routine increase in the nation’s debt limit with a crusade to slash spending has already had a high cost, threatening the nation’s credit rating and making the United States look dysfunctional and incompetent to the rest of the world.... What’s even worse is that this entirely artificial, politician-created crisis has kept government from doing what taxpayers expect it to do: Solve the problems citizens care about." ...

Then there is the coming debate over a 'balanced budget' amendment to the Constitution that would limit government spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product and require a two-thirds vote to raise taxes. It’s an outrageous way for members of Congress to vote to slash Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, aid to education and a slew of other things, to lock in low taxes on the rich — and never have to admit they’re doing it. It’s one of the most dishonest proposals ever to come before Congress, and I realize that’s saying something. ...

... David Rogers of Politico: "Turning right with a vengeance, Republicans will bring to the House floor Tuesday a newly revised debt-ceiling bill that is remarkable for its total absence of compromise at this late date, two weeks before the threat of default." CW Note: this story has a new lede:

President Barack Obama and the two top House Republican leaders [John Boehner & Eric Cantor] held an unannounced meeting at the White House Sunday, trying to get debt talks back on track with just two weeks left before the threat of default. ...

... Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post explains in terms a child could understand why the Tea Party's three main arguments for not raising the debt ceiling are idiotic. ...

... CW: You know I don't do polls only do polls I really like: "a new CBS News poll show[s] a majority disapprove of all the involved parties' conduct [in the debt ceiling crisis], but Republicans in Congress fare the worst, with just 21 percent backing their resistance to raising taxes. President Obama earned the most generous approval ratings for his handling of the weeks-old negotiations, but still more people said they disapproved (48 percent) than approved (43 percent) of what he has done and said."

... Is Harry Reid Royally Screwing up the McConnell Proposal? Erik Wasson of The Hill: "Liberal and centrist budget experts are joining conservatives in raising red flags about the debt-ceiling plan that is being hashed out by Senate leaders as a last-ditch option for avoiding a national default." Rebecca Theiss of the liberal Economic Policy Institute said it now "appears to involve only spending cuts and not tax increases," making it "a worse option than the original McConnell proposal, which involved a clean debt-ceiling increase." ...

... Chris Bowers of Daily Kos writes a post on the successful "class war" Democrats are waging in Wisconsin, but his opening salvo, which speaks to a larger issue, gets to the heart of what's going on in Washington:

As you read this, rich and powerful people in Washington, DC are trying to determine not whether they should cut programs designed to help low and middle-income Americans, but by how much they should cut those programs. The rich and powerful people in DC are making these cuts in order to pay for tax breaks they recently gave to rich people and large corporations. Additionally, the cuts are being made at the behest of the lobby organizations and media operations owned by rich people and large corporations. If that isn't a class war, I don't know what is.

Elizabeth Warren in a White House blogpost: "There's lots of good news, but make no mistake: this agency still has enemies in Washington, D.C. And they have a plan.... I remain hopeful that those who want to cripple this consumer bureau will think again and remember that the financial crisis -- and the recession and job losses that it sparked -- began one lousy mortgage at a time.... I'm not taking my eye off those who want to cripple this agency. We got this agency by fighting, we stood it up by fighting, and, if takes more fighting to keep it strong and independent, then we can do it." ...

... Elizabeth Warren for Senate! Robert Kuttner of American Prospect: "In Massachusetts, the Democratic field right now is stunningly weak, and Warren is the one candidate who can galvanize voters and take back the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy." ...

... Glen Johnson of the Boston Globe assesses the field of Democratic candidates running against Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R), & writes that Brown is in excellent shape to win a full term.

James Traub of the New York Times writes a nice profile of Sen. John Kerry (R-Mass.), who has used his new position as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee to good effect.

"Obama's Last Lecture." David Dayan of Firedoglake parses the President's remarks to a group of college students. Watch the video, then read Dayan. CW: I think Dayan has it exactly right:

Larry Summers, who did such a fine job saving our economy (oh, don't get me started) writes a Washington Post op-ed in which he advised Europeans on what they can do to save theirs. Sorry to say, I didn't read that genius's advice, but maybe you'll want to.

** CW: Paul Krugman & commenter Calyban highly recommends this article by the New York Times' David Carr on Rupert Murdoch's tactics. So do I. A taste from the top:

Time and again in the United States and elsewhere, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation has used blunt force spending to skate past judgment, agreeing to payments to settle legal cases and, undoubtedly more important, silence its critics. In the case of News America Marketing, its obscure but profitable in-store and newspaper insert marketing business, the News Corporation has paid out about $655 million to make embarrassing charges of corporate espionage and anticompetitive behavior go away. ...

... CW: I never thought I'd ever link to a Wall Street Journal editorial, but this whiney, everybody's-picking-on-us effort is too good to pass up: "We also trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics. The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw." Yup. (BTW, they usually firewall their editorials.)

Right Wing World *

Manu Raju of Politico: Republican presidential candidate "Herman Cain says voters across the country should have the right to prevent Muslims from building mosques in their communities.

* Where there is no First Amendment right to freedom of religion, except, I guess, some voter-approved Christian denominations.

News Ledes

Bloomberg: "News Corp. is considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to chief executive officer to succeed Rupert Murdoch, people with knowledge of the situation said. A decision ... depends in part on Murdoch’s performance before the U.K. Parliament today.... News Corp. executives who watched Murdoch, 80, rehearse for his appearance had concerns about how he handled questions...."

... Guardian: "Detectives are examining a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin near the riverside London home of Rebekah Brooks." Brooks' husband Charlie Brooks tried to reclaim it," but a "security guard refused to release it" and "called the police." ...

... Guardian: "Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead.... Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home." The police are treating Hoare's death as "unexplained" but not "suspicious." ...

... Guardian: "The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates has become the second high-profile Scotland Yard officer to resign over the phone-hacking scandal. The resignation of Yates – the country's top counter-terrorism officer – comes a day after his boss, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, stepped down." More from the Guardian on Yates here. ...

     ... Telegraph: The Independent Police Complaints Commission is "considering Mr Yates's decision in 2009 that there was no need to re-open the hacking inquiry and allegations that he inappropriately secured a job for a friend's daughter." ...

     ... Here's the Telegraph's liveblog of news related to the hacking scandal, which is practically a necessity to keep up with this stuff.

President Obama announced the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He also spoke about the debt ceiling & deficit.

Release: The President formally announces he would veto the House's so-called "Cut, Cap & Balance Act." Jay Carney just called the bill the "Duck, Dodge & Dismantle Act." Here's the Washington Post story.

Reuters: "Ratings agency Moody's on Monday suggested the United States should eliminate its statutory limit on government debt to reduce uncertainty among bond holders. The United States is one of the few countries where Congress sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates 'periodic uncertainty' over the government's ability to meet its obligations, Moody's said in a report."

New York Times: "Gen. David Petraeus handed over command of American and coalition forces to Gen. John Allen on Monday, ending a year that saw the costly counterinsurgency strategy he espoused and implemented coming under increasingly heavy criticism."

New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron cut short an African trip on Monday and ordered a special parliamentary session back home just hours after Britain’s top police officer resigned and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, was arrested on suspicion of illegally intercepting phone calls and bribing the police." ...

... Bloomberg: "Independent directors of New York-based News Corp. have begun questioning the company’s response to the crisis and whether a leadership change is needed." ...

... Washington Times: "Speaking on NBC’s 'Meet the Press,' Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Congress should join an FBI investigation into whether News Corp. — the parent company of Fox News, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal — engaged in illegal activity."

AP: "Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq, the state news agency reported Monday."

AP (via the NYT): "Egypt's prime minister named 12 new Cabinet members Sunday in a reshuffle under pressure from protesters demanding a purge of remnants of the former regime, state television reported. A lawyer for Hosni Mubarak, meanwhile, said the ousted president had suffered a stroke and was in a coma — a claim that was quickly denied by Mubarak's lead doctor."

More on the Murdoch Mess

Guardian: "Elisabeth Murdoch is emerging as the strongest family contender to take over at the helm of her father's empire after reports that she had pushed for Rebekah Brooks's resignation against the wishes of her brothers James and Lachlan last week. The revelation comes as James Murdoch, the News Corporation deputy chief operating officer and heir apparent to Rupert Murdoch until he was engulfed by the phone-hacking scandal, is facing calls to stand down as chairman of BSkyB."

... Think Progress: CNN has reported on the Murdoch scandal more than the other major news networks, but they aren't covering the part played by "Piers Morgan, the British journalist and talk show host who took over for CNN’s venerable Larry King." Morgan "is a former editor of the now-defunct News of the World.... Moreover, Morgan has been implicated in a separate celebrity phone hacking scandal while he was editor of the U.K’s Daily Mirror." In a book Morgan wrote in 2005, he explained how easy it is to hack a another person's phone messages. ...

... New York Magazine: "Rebekah Brooks ... is said to be in line for a $5.6 million payout. Others likely to leave with a well-padded envelope ... include ... Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton. One condition of the severance deals: gagging orders so none of them get the company in any more trouble than it's already in."

Media Matters: "CNN And MSNBC Report On News Corp. Scandal More Than Twice As Often As Fox News. According to a Media Matters analysis, in the nine days since the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal reignited, CNN reported on the developing story in 108 segments, MSNBC covered the story in 71 segments, and Fox News; covered the story in 30 segments."