The Commentariat -- Nov. 21, 2014
Internal links removed.
Margaret Hartmann of New York gathers up reactions to President Obama's speech from politicians U.S. leaders. Apparently you can now embed videos in your tweets (which sort of undermines the 140-character-beauty-of-brevity purpose of Twitter). Hartmann's intro to Tailgunner Ted's tweet: "Senator Ted Cruz shared this video of himself rehearsing a blistering speech in his bathroom mirror" ...
... Charles Pierce: "This was the second time in two days that they had to put the pinch on somebody exercising Second Amendment freedoms inappropriately in the vicinity of the president's house. (The other one was R.J. Kapheim, the designated liaison between the administration and Someone In Iowa.) Maybe it's time for someone in authority over such matters to tell the more excitable conservatives in the Congress, and on the electric teevee box, ix-nay on the yrrany-tay for a while." ...
... Sahil Kapur of TPM summarizes the components & the impact of the President's executive action. ...
... Here's the transcript. ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker parses the President's remarks. ...
... "It's Legal." Walter Dellinger, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel under President Clinton, in Slate: "he idea that the immigration plan just announced by President Obama is a lawless power grab is absurd. As the Justice Department legal analysis [linked below] that was just released amply demonstrates, much of the advance criticism of the president’s action has been uninformed and unwarranted. The opinion is well-reasoned and at times even conservative. The president is not acting unilaterally, but pursuant to his statutory authority. Wide discretion over deportation priorities has long been conferred on the executive branch by Congress, and it is being exercised in this case consistent with policies such as family unification that have been endorsed by Congress.... No one has been granted 'amnesty,' either literally or functionally.... The president is ... acting on the basis of specific statutory authority from the Immigration and Nationality Act." ...
... Paul Krugman: "... today’s immigrants are the same, in aspiration and behavior, as my grandparents were — people seeking a better life, and by and large finding it. That’s why I enthusiastically support President Obama’s new immigration initiative. It’s a simple matter of human decency." ...
... Carrie Brown, et al., of Politico: Over a nine-month period, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh "Johnson worked, largely in secret on the grand plan that finally became public this week, convening a small group of former Capitol Hill aides with expertise on immigration to work with Homeland Security officials to draft a policy that all expected would provoke not only fierce opposition from conservatives but from liberals who thought Obama should go further. It was a consuming task: in all, sources said, the immigration issue ate up fully half of the Homeland Security secretary’s time in recent months, with Johnson — a high-powered corporate attorney in his previous life — writing the final presidential memorandum himself." ...
... David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Obama administration will begin accepting applications this spring from illegal immigrants who are seeking deferred deportations under President Obama’s new executive action program, and those who qualify will be granted protections for three years, administration officials said.... According to prepared excerpts, Obama plans to say that mass deportation of the nation’s more than 11 million illegal immigrants 'would be both impossible and contrary to our character.' But he will also argue that his plans do not amount to 'amnesty' but rather increased 'accountability' for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.... The administration will release an opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel fully explaining the legal underpinnings of the action after the announcement." ...
... Here's the opinion (pdf). ...
... Justin Sink of the Hill: "President Obama would veto any Republican attempts to undermine the executive action he’s unveiling Thursday night in a primetime address, a senior administration official said Thursday. The official said the White House expects Republicans would 'spend a lot of creative energy making up ways to try and stop us either through funding bills or other' and could 'cook up some riders.' But, the official said, that ultimately was 'all an irrelevant point' because the president would veto any such effort." ...
... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Republicans on Thursday vowed a swift and forceful response to the executive action on immigration that President Obama is to announce in a prime-time address, accusing the president of exceeding the power of his office and promising a legislative fight when they take full control of Congress next year." CW: They just don't seem to have any idea what that "forceful response" might be, although I suppose calling immigrants "illiterate" is one form of "forceful." ...
... Story was updated following the President's speech. New lede: "President Obama chose confrontation over conciliation on Thursday as he asserted the powers of the Oval Office to reshape the nation’s immigration system and dared members of next year’s Republican-controlled Congress to reverse his actions on behalf of millions of immigrants." ...
... OR THIS. David McCabe of the Hill: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ... took to the floor of the Senate and delivered a speech that included one of Cicero’s most famous addresses, subbing in Obama's name. 'When, President Obama, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end to that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?” he said, using the beginning of Cicero’s First Oration Against Catiline. By substituting Obama's name for Catiline's, Cruz compared the president to a figure who sought to violently overthrow the Roman republic." ...
... Lisa Mascaro & Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "Republican leaders who had hoped to focus on corporate tax reform, fast-track trade pacts, repealing the president's healthcare law and loosening environmental restrictions on coal are instead being dragged into an immigration skirmish that they've tried studiously to avoid for most of the last year. That's largely because the question of how to handle the estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. bitterly divides Republicans, and the party has been unable to agree on an alternative to the president's plan." ...
... Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "For Republicans the roiling debate over the president’s decision is not only a fight with the White House, but a test of whether they can contain some of the unhelpful passions among their swelling majorities in both chambers. The task is keeping on-message and away from the controversial and sometimes offensive comments that have traditionally hindered attempts to bolster support for the party among Hispanics." ...
... The Post is liveblogging events ahead of the speech. At 5:27 pm ET (Thursday), we learn that Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III will don the gray uniform to speak at the Heritage Foundation to "address the grave concerns about the President’s action – and how to save the country from it." CW: One for the ages, I'm sure. ...
... Esther Lee of Think Progress: "Even now that Republicans will control both houses of Congress, Boehner refused to guarantee a House floor vote on immigration reform — even if the president doesn’t take executive action. And so now, as President Obama announces his executive action tonight, here are some of the many other government programs Republicans are threatening to sabotage in retribution: Threatening to shut down the government..., to selectively defund parts of the budget they don’t like..., to block confirmation of nominees to any and all vacancies..., not to pass any immigration legislation..., to impeach Obama..., to sue the President." ...
... Don't Drink the Water. American Bridge: "... Republicans are adamant that when Obama announces his immigration reform executive action tonight, he will be 'poisoning the well.'... Why, it seems every time the President takes a position, according to Republicans, he’s 'poisoning the well.' When President Obama tried to pass background checks on gun sales after Newtown — a policy supported by 9 in 10 voters — Lindsey Graham accused him of poisoning the well. And when Obama signed legislation reforming a broken health care system — ... John McCain said he had poisoned the well. Jeff Flake said that if Obama took any credit for the immigration reform principles in the bipartisan Senate bill, he would be poisoning the well. According to Marco Rubio, policy to protect DREAMers poisoned the well. To other Republicans it was the president’s refusal to cave to their demands during their government shutdown that poisoned the well, or criticizing Paul Ryan’s draconian budget, or passing a stimulus package, or repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell." ...
... David Atkins, in Hullabaloo on "poisoning the well": "Two things stand out about it. The first is that a simple google search shows that the phrase was almost never used to describe George W. Bush's presidency. Somehow, no matter how outrageous and vindictive the Bush Administration became, nothing they did ever seemed to eliminate the possibility of some sort of cooperation between the Administration and Democrats.... The second is that it's a thinly veiled indication that Republicans cannot control their own caucus at all.... In essence, the GOP leadership is telling the President that if he does anything at all to help people, the crazies that make up the majority of the GOP caucus will get out of line and do crazy things, and that would be bad." ...
... Rebecca Shabad of the Hill: "It would be 'impossible' to defund President Obama’s executive actions on immigration through a government spending bill, the House Appropriations Committee said Thursday. In a statement released by Committee Chairman Hal Rogers's (R-Ky.) office hours before Obama's scheduled national address, the committee said the primary agency responsible for implementing Obama's actions is funded entirely by user fees. As a result, the committee said the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) agency would be able to continue to collect fees and carry out its operations even if the government shut down." ...
... Rebecca Shabad: "Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Thursday rebutted claims by the House Appropriations Committee that President Obama’s executive order on immigration could not be defunded in legislation to avoid a government shutdown. 'The American people’s Congress has the power and every right to deny funding for unworthy activities. It is a routine and constitutional application of congressional power. There is no question that Congress has the power to block this expenditure and no doubt that it can be done,' Sessions said in a statement." ...
... The Word from Kansas. Ahiza Garcia of TPM: "Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) on Sunday warned that President Obama's executive actions and general 'lawlessness' on immigration could lead to 'ethnic cleansing.' Kobach, a vocal advocate of the anti-immigrant movement, claimed during his radio talk show that there was a strategy to replace American voters with Hispanic ones who favored socialism."
Jamie Crawford of CNN: "China and 'probably one or two other' countries have the capacity to shut down the [United States'] power grid and other critical infrastructure through a cyber attack, the head of the National Security Agency [Adm. Michael Rogers] told a Congressional panel Thursday."
Alex Wayne of Bloomberg News: "The Obama administration said it erroneously calculated the number of people with health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, incorrectly adding 380,000 dental subscribers to raise the total above 7 million.... The error was brought to light by Republican investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, using data they obtained from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."
White House: "President Obama delivers remarks at the National Medals of Science and National Medals of Technology and Innovation awards ceremony":
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd.
Johana Bhuiyan of BuzzFeed: "Uber has in recent weeks sought to hire opposition researchers to 'weaponize facts' to use against its taxi industry competition, according to a confidential recruiting document obtained by BuzzFeed News and confirmed by the company.... The new role of director of research and rapid response appears to be part of Uber’s effort to bring the aggressive tactics of American presidential politics to its city-by-city trench wars with existing car companies. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said in May that the company has no choice but to 'throw mud' at taxi companies and the associations that represent the taxi industry, and in August brought former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe to the company to lead a campaign-like effort that now includes both Uber’s communications shop and the new opposition research role."
One’s own employees ought to be one’s own best customers. Paying high wages is behind the prosperity of this country. -- Henry Ford ...
... Here's Something for the Party of Nothing. Nelson Schwartz & Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Pressured by temporary hiring practices and a sharp decrease in salaries in the auto parts sector, real wages for manufacturing workers fell by 4.4 percent from 2003 to 2013..., nearly three times the decline for workers as a whole. Despite that widening gap, Washington still paints the manufacturing sector as a gateway to the middle class, even if the gate is closing."
Rebecca Traister of the New Republic: "No one wanted to talk about Bill Cosby's alleged crimes because he made white America feel good about race." ...
... Amanda Marcotte of AlterNet, in Salon: "The real turning point [in popular views of acquaintance rape] appears to be the crisis over the sexual assault of a high school girl in Steubenville, Ohio.... The past couple of years have also seen increased attention, aided by a White House initiative, to the problem of on-campus rape." ...
... Actually, Bill Cosby has long thought drugging girls was a hilriaous way to seduce them:
... Alan Scherstuhl of the Village Voice: "Even when I heard this bit as a kid, I wondered: Why would famous TV stars need a drug to get women interested in them? Why is sex something to lie and cheat and scheme to get, rather than something to share? Hearing it now, it's positively chilling, especially the crowd's easy laughter, which suggests that Cosby was able to put over his fantasy of women stripped of their ability to say no as something near universal."
Beyond the Beltway
Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog: "With two Justices [Scalia & Thomas] dissenting, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to delay same-sex marriages in South Carolina, leaving intact a federal judge’s order that goes into effect at noon and strikes down the state’s ban. Neither the Court nor the dissenters gave any explanation.... However, because Thursday’s Supreme Court order in the South Carolina case was confined solely to declining to postpone the federal judge’s order, and was not a ruling on the validity of that order, that issue could come up again if the Court agrees in coming weeks to review any case raising the basic question of state power to ban same-sex marriages."
Evan Perez & Shimon Prokupecz of CNN: "Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson ... is in the final stages of negotiations with city officials to resign, according to people close to the talks. Wilson maintains he hasn't done anything wrong, and the resignation talks have hinged on whether a grand jury returns an indictment against him in the death of [Michael] Brown.... Wilson has told associates he would resign as a way to help ease pressure and protect his fellow officers. Wilson has expressed concern about resigning while the grand jury was hearing evidence for fear it would appear he was admitting fault."
Oh, Darkies, How My Heart Grows Weary, Far from de Old Folks at Home." Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "Nevada Assemblyman Ira Hansen (R), who the assembly’s Republican caucus selected as their choice to be its next speaker earlier this month, has a long history of racist, sexist and homophobic statements chronicled in a long list published by the Reno News Review. Among other things, as part of a broader statement of support for school vouchers, Hansen claimed that '[t]he relationship of Negroes and Democrats is truly a master-slave relationship, with the benevolent master knowing what’s best for his simple minded darkies.' Indeed, according to the News Review, Hansen keeps a Confederate battle flag on his wall, which he says that he flies 'proudly in honor and in memory of a great cause and my brave ancestors who fought for that cause.' He also 'tends to use the term ‘Negro’ and often does not capitalize it.'” ...
... CW: Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I'm not foreseeing a lot of bipartisan-y stuff happening in Nevada. ...
... Zandar, in Balloon Juice: "Remember kids, racism is a barbarous old relic of the past that is no longer applicable in American politics, therefore political remedies for racism like the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act are equally as outdated.... Nevada’s newly minted Republican majority in the State Assembly had no reservations whatsoever about putting a guy who used the word 'darkies' as their Speaker."
Aleksander Chan of Gawker: "A Bullitt County, Ken. sheriff's deputy was responding to a car accident this past September when his body camera recorded county fire chief Julius Hatfield making a racist remark. In the body camera footage obtained by WDRB, the officer can be heard saying, 'Well, I've got a family of four from Cincinnati, I got to do something with.' You can then hear Hatfield respond, 'We ain't taking no niggers here.'" What with this being a post-racial society, Gawker readers are way shocked to learn a white Kentucky official is a racist:
... Thanks to safari for the lead. CW: Here's what the county can do to mitigate Hatfield's attitude: nothing. Fire his ass. Rescind any public contribution to his pension. Public servants are required to serve all of the public. Obviously, Hatfield hasn't been doing that. ...
... Here is something that actually could mitigate unequal treatment in police stops. ...
... Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "The protests in Ferguson — which may return in force when a grand jury decides whether to indict the police officer — may yet help rewrite the relationship between the police and communities there and in other cities. But what quietly played out in Durham[, North Carolina,] may provide another model for activists: using stop and search data collected by an increasing number of cities and states to galvanize supporters and pressure departments to change policies.... The use of statistics is gaining traction not only in North Carolina, where data on police stops is collected under a 15-year-old law, but in other cities around the country."
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Reader Comments (23)
Speaking of racism...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-fire-chief-caught-on-camera-refusing-to-help-crash-victims-because-they-are-black-9872524.html
And Cato came along to remind Cruz (Cicero)that his frustration with Catiline (Obama) might benefit from these words:
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."
The water cooler sketch with Elaine May and Mike Nichols (these two were fabulously funny).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QgVtN1PTPU&spfreload=10
Re: Volunterios de America (Norte Americanos) crank the Jefferson Airplane to eleven. Good job Prez. Si, Tu Puedes. Pero;
None of the worker ratons that I have crossed paths with are going to bite on the gringo bait.
"The plan to offer immigrants who qualify for Obama’s executive action plan three years of relief would mean that the newly processed applicants would be protected from deportations through the first year of Obama’s successor in 2017. That would leave it up to the new administration to determine whether to continue the program or abruptly eliminate it." The Washington Post
No somos tontos.
If you are working in the shadows and you trust no one but familia you are not going to sign up for anything. After a thousand mile escape from poverty and death squads; a trust is something you wrap your back with so you can keep on keeping carrying the load of concrete or hay.
The only way this plan is going to work is if there is more than a promise of citizenship. Exposing your name and where you live with no gold ring? Nah; workin' in the shadows es major.
The Walter Dellinger comment in Slate (linked above) gives the clearest expression I have seen of the status of immigration enforcement, the reasons this executive action will be very helpful, and the legal underpinnings that fully support the action. This paragraph from the article addresses the legal authority:
"The fundamental fact is this: There are 11.3 million people in the United States who, for one reason or another, are deportable. The largest number that can be deported in any year under the resources provided by Congress is somewhere around 400,000. Congress has recognized this and in 6 U.S.C. 202 (5) it has directed the secretary of homeland security to establish “national immigration enforcement policies and priorities.” In the action announced tonight, the secretary has done just that, and the president has approved."
@JJG makes a crucial point. Sign up & hope for Not-President Cruz? What would you do? Despite Kris Kobach's important warning about ethnic cleansing, undocumented people are still non-citizens, so they can't vote for Not-Cruz.
All those voter suppression laws, first championed by Kobach, BTW, could have a greater negative impact on the Hispanic vote than on the black vote. A 2012 "study by the Advancement Project estimates that voter purges and ID requirements being enacted in over 20 states could disenfranchise at least 10 million Hispanic citizens." Ethnic cleansing is an absurdity. Ethnic purging in states with large Hispanic populations is a reality.
Marie
The Cosby debacle is hard to shake from my mind. Not just because a beloved celebrity has been discovered to have a pathological sickness of a sexual nature, but how it has been discussed in the media. There is that age old reluctance to accept that people can be both good and evil or put another way, wonderful and wayward. Doubting the women that have come forward––15 now by my count––as though their stories are for self gain. Here we have, unlike discoveries of clandestine affairs, serious allegations of drugging and rape. And yet there is that unbelief that all this could be true.
Amir Bar-Lev's documentary "Happy Valley," the story of the Sandusky/ Paterno abuse scandal, was critiqued in the New Yorker by David Denby this week. His last paragraph (see below) corresponds in part to the Cosby situation.
"Paterno had weaknesses—a reluctance to face unpleasant facts and an indifference to the victims’ suffering—which are mirrored and amplified, as Bar-Lev records, in the town’s denial of Paterno’s fallibility. At the end of the movie, Paterno and Sandusky are gone, and State College recovers and becomes enthralled once more. The camera glides above and behind an enormous player, in slow motion, as awestruck fans reach out to touch him. Paradise lost, paradise regained. “Happy Valley” is a devastating portrait of a community—and, by extension, a nation—put under a spell, even reduced to grateful infantilism, by the game of football. ♦
Aryan Master Race - American Master Race (also called Republicans)
Cause of the problems for the Aryan race - Jews, homosexuals, Romani, blacks and any other 'inferior' group.
Cause of problems for the American Master Race- Homosexuals, blacks, and any other 'inferior' group (largest current group are called immigrants).
Aryan and Republican propaganda _ 'you are so special' but the reason you are just a piece of crap is the fault of the 'others'.
Aryan solution- expulsion, gas chambers and ovens.
Republican solution- expulsion, denial of health care and jail.
My local NPR station had a group discussion this morning that included the subject of the broadcast networks not airing President Obama's address. I sent the brief comment, which was read on the air:
"The lack of network coverage gives more strength to soundbites from politicians and pundits. It allows more outrage from a public that doesn't know what was actually said. The general public hears "tyrant" and "unlawful" so it must be true."
Sure enough, in the BBC news briefs at the top of the hour we got sound bites from Boehner including King and Emporer and a full airing of his take on the action, followed by a very short summary of the actual action. The "Con" got significantly more exposure than the actual policy.
I forgot another major Republican method for removing the 'inferiors'-
Starvation.
Update: The BBC news briefs at 10:30 gave Boehner's point of view and ZERO time to the actual policy.
Cruz channeling Cicero must have been something. Was he wearing a laurel wreath and toga? But as with most egomaniacs, it is almost impossible to believe that Cruz would ever realize how perfectly so many Ciceronian barbs apply to him:
"Quo usque tandem abutere, [Theodorus], patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?"
"When, O [Teddy boy], do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now?"
(from the first Cataline Oration, with a slight alteration)
Interestingly, Cicero, who made respect for the rule of law a central characteristic of his public persona, threw all of that aside after Catiline's conspirators against the senate were unmasked. After Catiline skedaddled to the Roman countryside, Cicero had his fellow conspirators rounded up and taken to prison cells where, without a trial, he had them all strangled.
Can't you picture Cruz thinking about how cool it would be for him to be able to dispense with any he considers an enemy in that fashion?
"We've been trying and trying and trying to work with the president for the last few years. We were ready and willing to fix immigration once and for all. But now he goes and sets up immigration policy on his own. He has sabotaged any chance of comprehensive legislation."
John Boehner, 2014
"We have been striving to work with the president on the issue of slavery. We were ready to end the war, go home, free the slaves and give them all forty acres and a mule. Seriously! But now, with this crazy Emancipation Proclamation, he has sabotaged any chance of our working together for peace."
Jeff Davis, 1863
Noam Scheiber says the GOP (with a special hi ho to all the crazy relatives) reaction to Obama's immigration order will be WAY more damaging than they realize (except for those crazy ones who never realize reality even when it sneaks up behind them).
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120361/gop-reaction-obama-immigration-order-deadly
@AK: Your Boehner/Davis: Perfect!
@PD Pepe: Not perfect. @Akhilleus forgot the headline: "Davis: Lincoln's Imperial Proclamation Poisoned the Well."
Marie
John Boehner has a few words about the president's executive action.
Blah, blah, blah....and furthermore....blah, blah.
Bohener is the one nearest the camera, in case you didn't know. The biggest difference? Boehner isn't nearly as eloquent.
Marie,
Dang! I forgot to add that "Poisoned the well" cri de crap.
Good one.
Oh, and PD, I did get to watch that Elaine May/Mike Nichols bit. Superb. Heard one of their classics yesterday, the sketch in which the guy calls his mother. Very funny people. Excellent writing, exquisite timing.
Regarding the idiot from Bullitt, County, KY, who declined to help the, er,...non-white family after a car accident because....well, you know why.
Anyway, this asshol...er, fire chief, Julius Hatfield, seems to have problems with other non-whites as well. During a public hearing on financial management of his fire department, he made an effort to belittle a WDRB reporter, Valerie Chinn, who was inquiring into some of the chief's questionable decisions.
""Do you understand English darling?...Do you understand English?"
The camera at the accident site captures, in all its glory, Chief Hatfield's command of the language of Shakespeare and Emerson, as he worked to help the non non-white family involved:
"You got a jack, ain't you?" Hatfield asked. "If you show me where them things is at, I'll get my guys to start changing the tire for you."
I can just hear him now quoting Cicero at the hearing to consider his dismissal.
@Niskyguy: I second your comments re the failure of the networks to air the statement. I also observed the twisted top of the hour news brief. I believe it was a NBC or ABC feed. They led with a Boehner comment and then gave the POTUS "side." Arrrrgggghhh!
BTW only a third grader would accept Bohner's assertion that the executive action means that Congress can do nothing. It makes no sense whatsoever on any level.
Victoria,
So far every broadcast news operation I've seen leads with Republicans screaming about tyranny and kings and the "end of bipartisanship".
And like the NPR piece yesterday on the Republican Governor's Conference that failed to mention that the three biggest guys they covered were all under criminal investigation, as usual, the GOP, no matter how nonsensical or conniving, always seems to get the Teflon treatment.
Oh, and about 2 or 3 minutes in, we hear that the president actually did something or other about some illegal people, or something. But if you listen to the coverage, it's mostly presented in a he said-she said format. I have yet to hear anyone try to parse the stupid from the reasonable.
As for the screams that the president is behaving politically (what politician doesn't) as opposed to the saintly, impartial, dispassionate manner of the GOP, the fact that these philippics go unchallenged and even unremarked points to the actual reason for the lack of network coverage for such an unusual action. Networks are owned by corporations that tend to be run by Republicans. If he was declaring war on someone, that would be different. But making Republicans look bad by reflection, is not in their interest. Ergo the kid glove treatment of GOP loons and the standoffishness toward the president.
And leave us not forget how apolitical the GOP was in the run up to the recent midterm elections. No politicking around Ebola or immigration or ISIS or BENGHAZZZZZI or IRS or.....
Such saints.
Just heard Our Miss Brooks' lachrymose acknowledgement of his fear that the horrible Nee-groe in the White House is threatening the future welfare of the republic by his unreasonable and sweeping expansion of presidential powers. Golly gee, folks, right thinking Americans (as opposed to Kenyans and anyone else here who can't trace their ancestry back to Gov. Bradford) will never be able to put that genie back in the bottle!
I was so hoping that someone would remind him of his obsequious lackey-like support for the theory of the Unitary Executive as expounded and propagated by the Decider and his Uncle Darth.
I seem to recall Brooks gleefully exhorting Bush and Cheney to ride roughshod over any who complained about an illegal war, outing a CIA agent just for kicks, illegal wiretapping and surveillance of American citizens, illegal rendition, political pogroms aimed at Democratic Attorneys General who refused to play ball, among a long list of executive overreach atrocities.
One more advocate of the IOKIYAR philosophy.
Maybe the 7th investigation is the charm?
Seems as if the House joint committee to investigate Benghaaaazi has found no wrongdoing. In fact, it notes heroic acts on the part of the CIA. Since this is the seventh investigation to exonerate the administration, I hope this means an end to these investigations. Maybe I'm being optimistic.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/republican-benghazi-investigation-debunks-conspiracy-theories-clears-obama-hillary