The Commentariat -- May 27
Paul Krugman: "... the Ryan plan is turning into a political disaster for Republicans, not because the plan’s critics are lying about it, but because they’re describing it accurately." ...
... I've posted a comments page for Krugman on Off Times Square. You can comment on Our Mister Brooks, too, who writes what he thinks is a related column about reasonable Republicans working with Democrats to fix Medicare. I've added my own comment on Krugman, which the Times moderators are holding back, so you can read it here. Update: Commenter Denis Neville shreds Brooks.
Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Art by Alex Gross for the New York Times.Rick Perlstein in a New York Times op-ed: "January was the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth, and the planet nearly stopped turning on its axis to recognize the occasion. Today is the 100th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey’s birth, and no one besides me seems to have noticed... His diminution is ... an impediment to understanding our current malaise as a nation, and how much better things might have been had today’s America turned out less Reaganite and more Humphreyish." ...
... The full text of Humphrey's landmark 1948 convention speech supporting civil rights is here. The page also links to a video clip. Audio of the full speech is here, but the quality is awful.
Which of these two high school kids is likely to become Speaker of the House? (Answer at the bottom of this post.)
A Cautionary Tale. Donald Marron: "... the United States defaulted on some Treasury bills in 1979. And it paid a steep price for stiffing bondholders." ...
... Bill Clinton Cannot Keep His Foot out of His Mouth. When he wasn't giving Paul Ryan cover for his disastrous budget plan (see yesterday's Commentariat), he was giving the whole Republican party cover to default on the debt. Frank James of NPR: At a fiscal summit, Clinton said, "If we defaulted on the debt once for a few days, it might not be calamitous." At the request of an astonished White House, a Clinton spokesperson retracted his remark, saying the former President "misspoke." CW: Yeah, he does that a lot.
CW: I've been trying to ignore this story, but it won't go away. Do not, however, expect breathless, wall-to-wall links here. Jim Rutenberg & Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "Sarah Palin is fortifying her small staff of advisers, buying a house in Arizona — where associates have said she could base a national campaign — and reviving her schedule of public appearances. The moves are the most concrete signals yet that Ms. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, is seriously weighing a Republican presidential bid." ...
... BUT let's hope Chris Cillizza is right: "Talk of a 2012 presidential bid by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has reached fever pitch (again) after news broke this week of an East Coast bus tour to historical sites, a possible home purchase in Arizona and a new film biopic.... But, for all the chatter..., there remains no evidence in any early voting primary or caucus state that she or her political team are doing anything to lay the groundwork for a 2012 bid." CW: for what it's worth, I tend to agree with Cillizza. All this is just Palin saying, "Look at me! Look at me!" She does that a lot. ...
... CNN Update: and Fox "News" isn't changing Palin's status. Fox canned Newt Gingrich & Rick Santorum some time ago, but let Mike Huckabee remain on the air. CW: it seems to me if you want to know who is & who isn't running on the Republican ticket, just check Fox's lineup. Roger Ailes is always the first to know.
Alexander Bolton & Josiah Ryan of The Hill: Senate Republicans are holding pro-forma sessions during next week's recess to prevent President Obama from making recess appointments, a move that may be specifically aimed at keeping the President from appointing Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Joe Klein: Why has Bibi Netanyahu twisted President Obama's words? Because he can, & because his lies allow him to continue building settlements on Palestinian lands. "Given his congressional support, Netanyahu may be able to get away with playing so bold a hand — but it is inappropriate behavior for an American ally, and you can bet that Obama won't forget it." ...
... The Editors of the Jewish Daily Forward were equally dismayed by Netanyahu's belligerent speech to Congress, which they see as making them choose between Netanyahu and Obama; they suggest their choice will be Obama.
Jon Chait of The New Republic: that radical left-wing news outlet NPR joins the ranks of misguided Washington elites who claim public debt is "the biggest problem facing the nation." Evidently all those out-of-work Americans & irreversible climate change are not too important. CW: NPR has done this before.
Right Wing World *
The only people in Washington, DC who have voted to cut Medicare have been the Democrats, when they voted to cut $500 billion in Medicare during Obamacare. -- Speaker John Boehner ...
... But It Ain't So. Greg Sargent: almost all House Republicans and most Senate Republicans "did vote to pass the Ryan budget.... According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Ryan plan cuts the amount of Medicare spending on seniors in relation to overall health care costs. It also reduces the amount of annual Medicare spending as a share of GDP." CW: the Democratic cuts to Medicare were to Medicare Advantage, a costly, unpaid-for Bush prescription drug program that the Affordable Care Act phases out, depending on how effectively the various Advantage plans work. People on Medicare Advantage can switch to plans that are more cost-effective.
Paul Ryan Lobs a Hail Mary that Lands out of Bounds. Amy Sullivan of Time: don't believe (1) everything you read in Politico, (b) anything Paul Ryan tells you, (c) that Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan (the "Pope of America") endorses Ryan's budget. (1) Politico grossly misread Dolan's letter -- a response to a letter from Ryan, who was smarting because the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (who report to Dolan) said they were concerned that Ryan's budget hurt the poor; (2) Politico misread Dolan's letter because Ryan untruthfully spun it as an endorsement, which it wasn't; (3) Archbishop Dolan agrees with the U.S. Catholic bishops -- Ryan's budget appears to add "further burdens to the poor ... and the vulnerable." ...
... AND/BUT I worship the ground that Paul Ryan walks on.
-- Dick Cheney (link to disturbing video)
Theology Question of the Day: Will Saint Peter let Saint Paul into heaven after Paul lied to and about the Pope of America, AND after Peter finds out Paul's number one disciple is Dick Cheney?
Ben Smith: Tiffany's backs up Gingrich's story, claims it gave "identical" deals to more than 1,000 other customers & never lobbied wife Callista's committee. No mention of Gingrich's claim that he's "frugal."
Grass Roots, Republican Style. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post: American Action Network, "a Washington advocacy group that spent millions of dollars on Republicans in the 2010 election and claimed to have broad grass-roots support, actually drew all of its first-year revenue from fewer than a dozen well-heeled donors, according to a recent tax filing.... 82 percent of the group’s initial revenues came from three donors...." And now, for the laugh-o-licious definition of grass-roots backing: "Jim Landry, the group’s spokesman... not[ed] that more than 215,000 people had indicated they liked the group’s Facebook page."
* Where facts never intrude.
Local News
Miami Herald: "Gov. Rick Scott signed Florida's $69-billion budget Thursday, using his line item veto power to chop more than half of a billion dollars in spending. Many of the cuts were for higher education construction projects, and health and human service programs." CW: Click on the audio that accompanies the post for more detail.
___________
If you guessed "Both," you'd be right. That's Gingrich and Pelosi. Maybe I should have asked, "Which of these two ... would you want to be Speaker of the House?" More creepy high school photos of Republican presidential hopefuls here. But, writes Joshua Green, "A quick office straw poll here at The Atlantic, conducted amidst uproarious laughter, confirms that this is, in fact, the single worst year book photo that most of us have ever seen."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Leaders of the wealthiest industrialized nations pledged on Friday to send billions of dollars in aid to and , hoping to reduce the threat that economic stagnation could undermine the transition to democracy."
New York Times: "A Serbian judge gave preliminary approval on Friday to transfer to The Hague to be prosecuted for war crimes, including genocide. But his lawyer said he would appeal to block the transfer, saying Mr. Mladic’s health was too frail to face trial."
New York Times: "Secretary of State visited on Friday in what officials described as an effort to measure Pakistan’s commitment to fighting Islamic extremism after the killing of badly strained relations with the United States. It did not appear to go well."
AP: President Obama signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act by autopen shortly before the act was set to expire.
Another Reason Not to Vote Republican. New York Times: New Jersey "Gov. said Thursday that New Jersey would become the first state to withdraw from a 10-state trading system, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, declaring it an ineffective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."
AP: Italian "Premier Silvio Berlusconi has taken his claim that he is being persecuted by leftist judges to the G-8 summit, telling a clearly perplexed President Barack Obama that in Italy they represent 'almost a dictatorship'. His comments carried on Italian TV news broadcasts from Deauville, France, set off a barrage of criticism Friday from Italian magistrates and his political opponents."
Reuters (item): "Russia believes Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has lost his legitimacy and Moscow is prepared to mediate to facilitate his departure from power."
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