The Commentariat -- July 20
Maureen Dowd on the Murdoch Inc. testimony: "The hunters became the hunted during three hours of riveting testimony in the House of Commons.... They stuck to a hoary formula for scandals, claiming the cognitive advantage that being on top of the world left them out of touch." ...
... I've posted a Dowd page on Off Times Square. ...
... NEW. John Cook of Gawker has an excellent, accurate take on the performances of Murdoch, Murdoch & Brooks. If you skipped the hearings & want to know what went down, read Cook. With videos. ...
... Jeremy Peters & Brian Stelter of the New York Times: analysts say Rupert & James Murdoch did their companies & themselves no harm in their appearance before a parliamentary committee yesterday. ...
... Reid Epstein of Politico: "Rupert Murdoch came across as old, out of touch, and unfamiliar with even the basic workings of his company during Tuesday’s high-stakes Parliament hearing -- but some suggested that was just a ruse.... During nearly three hours of testimony, the News Corp. CEO, wrote the Guardian’s John Plunkett, 'revealed the full extent of his ignorance.' ... But the Telegraph’s U.S. editor, Toby Harnden, wrote that Murdoch’s old-man act unaware of the details of his newspapers was a con job."
... Custard Pie. AND Wendi Deng Murdoch Whacks the Pieman:
... The Guardian has full video and transcript of the proceedings. ...
... Freedom of the Press, British Edition. AND, the House of Commons revoked the press pass of BBC producer Paul Lambert for this video. Pretty ironic considering the vid was shot at a hearing where the subjects, so-called newspapermen, were extolling the virtues of a free press. The New York Times' The Lede has this & other breaking stories related to the scandal here:
"The Debt Default Enablers." Jonathan Chait of The New Republic: "It's not 'the politicians in Washington' who don't understand the risks of failing to raise the debt ceiling. It's the Republican Party.... The problem is that various reporters, pundits, and business types appear intent on blurring that reality. That's an important reason why Republicans are playing debt ceiling chicken. If the Republicans believe that the blame for a debt default will be aimed at the diffuse 'politicians in Washington,' they have little incentive to avoid it." ...
... Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "... now Wall Street is finally reacting and (most) reporters are finally telling the story pretty straight: gambling with the debt ceiling is really dangerous and it's the GOP that has its fingers on the button." CW: which is why we're now seeing polling results like this:
... Americans Are Catching on. Dan Balz & Jon Cohen of the Washington Post: "... the public views the GOP leaders as particularly intransigent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Fifty-eight percent [of Republicans] say their leaders are not doing enough to strike a deal, up from 42 percent in March.... A majority view the president as more committed to protecting the interests of the middle class and small businesses, while large majorities see Republicans as defending the economic interests of big corporations and Wall Street financial institutions.... Exactly half of all Democrats say the president is 'too willing' to compromise.... More than eight in 10 — including 80 percent of Republicans — say there would be serious harm to the U.S. economy if the government could not continue to borrow money to fund its operations and pay its debts after Aug. 2." ...
... Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post: "Seventy-two percent — said they favored the idea of raising taxes on those making $250,000 or more to help shrink the debt.... Eighty-seven percent of Democrats supported such a move, so did 54 percent of self-identified Republicans. And, nearly six in 10 people said they would support raising taxes on oil and gas companies, including 55 percent of Republicans who agreed with the idea. Those numbers suggest that the notion that any tax increase is anathema to the party base — a belief that seems to be guiding much of House Republicans’ negotiating strategy to date — may be misguided or, at least, overstated.... Making major changes to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for the general population were broadly unpopular."
... AND Now for a Really Important Poll. Dave Weigel: "Only 19 percent of Republicans think Obama would be raptured up."
In case you're wondering what's in the Gang of Six (or Seven, but who's counting?) deficit reduction plan, Tim Fernholz of the National Journal has the summary. ...
... As Jonathan Chait of The New Republic points out, discussion of the Gang of Six proposal is mostly academic, since the plan doesn't stand a chance of getting past the anti-tax, anti-government crazoids in the House. ...
... AND there's this from Alexander Bolton & Erik Wasson of The Hill: "Senate Democratic whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a member of the Gang of Six, said Tuesday the group’s plan is not ready to be attached to legislation to increase the debt limit."
... How to Cut a Million American Jobs. Stephen Gandel of Time: "Douglas Elmendorf, director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, ran the numbers on what a deal that either cuts spending or raises taxes in order to reduce the deficit by $2 trillion would mean to the economy." Based on Elmendorf's assumptions, Gandel writes that "a debt-ceiling deal of the size Elmendorf is talking about could cost the economy as much as over a million jobs during the next three years.
Would a Republican President Do All This? Steve Benen: "President Obama has successfully repealed the 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' law; expanded federal benefits for the same-sex partners of executive-branch employees; signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law; cleared the way for hospital-visitation rights for same-sex couples; lifted the travel/immigration ban on those with HIV/AIDS; ordered the Federal Housing Authority to no longer consider the sexual orientation of applicants on loans; expanded the Census to include the number of people who report being in a same-sex relationship; and hired more openly gay officials than any administration in history.... And today, the president has offered his well-timed endorsement of the Respect For Marriage Act. [which repeals DOMA]... There have also been more symbolic gestures...."
You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives. If you have something to say to me, stop being a coward and say it to my face, otherwise, shut the heck up.
-- Allen West (R-Fla.), in an e-mail to Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) ...
... Here's video of the floor speech which inspired Teabagger West's intemperate letter, the full text of which Ben Smith has here:
... You go, Girl! ...
... NEW. Max Read of Gawker: "... West, who was drummed out of the Army for torturing an Iraqi cop, is more or less completely nuts — a violent, short-fused Islamophobe who thinks 'Planned Parenthood women' are 'neutering American men' and who recently said Obama supporters were a 'threat to the gene pool.' .... And why is he demanding pistols at dawn? Apparently because Wasserman-Schultz called him out (as 'the gentleman from Florida' ...) as 'supportive of this plan that would increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries.' This didn't sit well with West. '... Focus on your own congressional district!' West told her. The funny thing is: West actually lives in Wasserman-Schultz's district."
Michele Bachmann's Bad Day. Jonathan Bernstein, commenting on Bachmann's staff roughing up ABC News reporter Brian Ross (see yesterday's Right Wing World): "There are a number of reasons why Members of the House, especially junior Members, don't compete seriously for presidential nominations. One of them ... is that most of them have virtually no experience at all in contested elections with an attentive press."
Right Wing World *
... A more moderate/former liberal like Ronald Reagan ... would never be elected today in my opinion. -- Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.)
Dana Milbank: A hundred "years after Reagan’s birth, it’s clear that the Tea Party Republicans have little regard for the policies of the president they claim to venerate.... During the debt-limit debate, a procession of Democrats ... claimed Reagan’s support for their position.... Half a century after he left the party, the Gipper is winning one for the Democrats."
Where "courage" means never having to understand the first damned thing about legislation on which you are required to vote:
... A Real Headache. CW: I haven't covered the Bachmann migraine story, except as it related to Bachmann's personnel roughing up reporter Brian Ross who was trying to question her about it. A disgruntled former Bachmann staffer initiated the story that Bachmann suffered from "incapacitating ...stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches," & the irresponsible right-wing Daily Caller published it. But now Kasie Hunt & Molly Ball of Politico dig deeper, and it turns out migraines have incapacitated Bachmann in the past. ...
... ** I Am a Headache. In a fairly sympathetic post, Karen Garcia posits a plausible explanation for Michele Bachmann. Period.
... Luckily, Joshua Green of The Atlantic finds "The Christian Cure for Bachmann's Headaches":
* Where Ronald Reagan would not be welcome and it's courageous to be willfully ignorant.
News Ledes
Michelle Obama announces a plan to team with grocers and other retailers to bring healthy and affordable food to communities that typically have not had access to fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods:
... Related New York Times story here.
New York Times: "Prime Minister went before a rowdy special session of Parliament on Wednesday to defend his record in ’s phone hacking scandal and for the first time seemed to distance himself from a former Murdoch employee he hired to work in 10 Downing Street. Shortly before he spoke, a parliamentary panel investigating the spreading hacking scandal released a scathing report accusing the Murdoch empire of “deliberate attempts” to thwart its investigations and said police inquiries had been a 'catalog of failures.'” A pdf of the parliamentary report is here. ...
... Guardian: "The prime minister has refused to deny that he discussed the BSkyB bid with senior executives at News International since the election. Repeatedly pressed on the issue following a Commons statement on the phone hacking scandal, David Cameron would only say: 'I have never had one inappropriate conversation.'" ...
... The Telegraph has a liveblog of the scandal, which includes the amusing back-and-forth in the House of Commons.
I'm at a point where I'm saying we need to hear from the House of Representatives. We have a plan to go forward over here. But until we hear from the House of Representatives, really our, all of our work here would be for naught. I await the word from the Speaker. -- Harry Reid ...
... The Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday claimed his chamber has a 'path forward' for raising the debt ceiling but said he's waiting on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to tell him what can pass the House. ...
... Reuters: "The Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default as a deadline for raising the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit looms.... Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, said the U.S. central bank has for the past few months been working closely with Treasury, ironing out what to do if the world's biggest economy runs out of cash on August 2."
... CNN: "President Barack Obama sat down with television stations from three key political states." He said politics was interfering with efforts to raise the debt ceiling. "'This is actually a self-created crisis in some ways. It has to do with folks who are digging into set positions rather than saying how do we solve a problem,' the president told KMBC, a CNN affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri."
New York Times: "At the Royal Courts of Justice in London, lawyers for the actor Hugh Grant and his former girlfriend, the socialite Jemima Khan — once the subject of relentless tabloid attention — mentioned The News of the World and unspecified 'other newspapers' while demanding police information on Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was jailed in 2007 for hacking into the phones of royal staff members. It was the first suggestion that Mr. Mulcaire, who had an exclusive contract with The News of the World, might have sold his information to other publications.”
The Latest Twist. After repeatedly saying a short-term extension was a non-starter, Politico reports that "President Barack Obama would support a short-term extension of the debt limit if Democrats and Republicans reach agreement on a broader deficit-cutting deal but need more time to move it through."
Guardian: "Lawyers representing the two women who claim Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape them have met for the first time in New York, raising the prospect that they will join forces to strengthen their cases against the former IMF boss."
Reuters: "Applications for home mortgages surged last week, racking up the biggest increase in four months on a flood of refinancing demand as interest rates remained low, an industry group said on Wednesday."
Milwaukee Jounal Sentinel: "Democratic state Sen. Dave Hansen of Green Bay was the first of nine state senators to face a final recall election, and he easily survived Tuesday. Hansen won a lopsided victory over his Republican challenger, wind farm developer David VanderLeest of Green Bay, against whom Democrats and their allies have been hammering away on his personal and legal problems."
AP: "China, the biggest holder of U.S. Treasury debt, appealed to Washington on Wednesday to take steps to boost confidence in the dollar and protect its investors."
Reuters: "Iran has shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane over its Fordu nuclear site, a state-run website reported Wednesday, a day after it confirmed it was installing a new generation of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.... The Pentagon denied that report but acknowledged some spy planes had crashed in the past due to mechanical failure."
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