The Commentariat -- Sept. 26, 2015
Internal links removed.
Julie Davis, et al., of the New York Times: "President Obama said Friday that he had reached a 'common understanding' with President Xi Jinping of China to combat 'cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property,' but made it clear that wide areas of disagreement remained over how to stop an escalation of Chinese cyberthefts and the possibility of an American response. With Mr. Xi standing beside him at a Rose Garden news conference, Mr. Obama referred to the cyberattacks against American targets and said, 'I indicated it has to stop.' But he also hailed progress with China on climate change and the nuclear accord with Iran, and said that both he and Mr. Xi were committed to pressing ahead against the North Korean nuclear problem, which has defied solution for more than 20 years." ...
... Ellen Nakashima & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "President Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged Friday that neither of their governments would conduct or condone economic espionage in cyberspace.... But U.S. officials and experts said that it was uncertain whether the accord would lead to concrete action against cybercriminals. The agreement, reached in talks Thursday night and Friday morning between Obama and Xi, has the potential -- if enforced -- to confront one of the most significant threats to U.S. economic and national security and an irritant for American corporations trying to protect their intellectual property. The pact also calls for a ministerial or Cabinet-level process aimed at ensuring compliance." ...
... CW: Who knows whether or not either side will wholly comply with this agreement? But it bears repeating that Republicans like Marco Rubio & Scott Walker accused President Obama of "appeasement" for even trying to reach an accord. Donald Trump criticized the state dinner, saying Xi deserved nothing more than "a double size Big Mac" because he was ruining our economy. The GOP, not surprisingly, confuses insults with diplomacy. ...
... Brad Plumer of Vox: "Here in Washington, DC, you'll often hear conservatives argue that there's little point in the United States acting on global warming, because China is the world's largest polluter and will never do anything to rein in its carbon emissions. But that line's looking increasingly silly. On Friday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that his country would enact a national cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions, starting in 2017." ...
... Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: "It was hard to avoid the irony. The leader of China -- nominally, at least, a Communist country — came to Washington and announced that his government was adopting a market-based approach to curbing carbon emissions. Meanwhile, to reduce its carbon emissions, the unreservedly capitalist U.S. of A. is relying on regulations issued by a centralized bureaucracy." Wait, wait, more irony: Saint Ronald of Reagan first adopted cap-&-trade in the 1980s, but his devoted acolytes have turned against the concept & have blocked all U.S. attempts to implement a program here. Kolbert suggests that if it works in China -- which it may not -- Republicans may embrace cap-&-trade once again. Right. Because Republican policy is so reality-based. ...
... The Washington Post's Reliable Source: "Gatekeepers of the silver screen and Silicon Valley were out in full force at the state dinner in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Giants of the industry, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook, rubbed elbows with Robert Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation.... The president's head table was packed with boardroom elites -- the coveted seats were filled exclusively with CEOs and their spouses, making for a group whose combined net worth tops $49 billion...."
Julie Pace of the AP: "The Obama administration is announcing a $300 million program to drastically reduce HIV infections in girls and young woman in 10 sub-Saharan African nations hard hit by the virus. Administration officials are aiming for a 25 percent infection reduction in females between ages 15-24 by the end of next year and a 40 percent reduction by the end of 2017."
Zippity Doo Dah:
... Anna Palmer, et al., of Politico: "Speaker John Boehner's resignation has set off an intense round of jockeying for all four House leadership slots, setting up what's expected to be a hypercompetitive internal party battle in the middle of a key stretch of the legislative session this fall. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is expected to run for speaker, and no other Republican has come forward to challenge him yet.... It's unlikely he'll be unopposed.... Among those who are expected to run for majority leader, or are at least thinking about it, include Georgia Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the Budget Committee; Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the current majority whip; House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington; and Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, who runs the Rules Committee and is former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee."...
... Lauren French of Politico: on "conservatives' plan to expolit Boehner's exit:... The members of the House Freedom Caucus have the broad outlines of a plan -- unify behind their fellow conservatives who have the best shot of securing a leadership position, and, in a sign that headaches over a potential government shutdown are not over, keep up the fight to defund Planned Parenthood." ...
... Shane Goldmacher of Politico: "Movement leaders and activists see the downfall of the House speaker as a coup that's been years in the making -- and one whose momentum they hope will now yield not only more rigidly conservative leadership in Congress but a Republican presidential nominee that is one of their own. The GOP civil war, in other words, is raging as much on the 2016 stage as it is in Washington." ...
... "The Inmates Are Officially Running the Asylum." Charles Pierce: "So, Trey, Louie, Darrell, Mark Meadows, Virginia Foxx, and de facto Speaker Cruz, congratulations. You got him. You're the dog that caught the car. Your entire congressional party is now a third-rate evening drive-time talk show. Have fun. Try to leave a little of the country intact for the rest of us." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Conservatives are already brandishing Boehner's scalp. Marco Rubio was supremely lucky to be speaking at the Value Voters Summit when word of the Speaker's resignation came out, and so he got to announce it to the assembled Christian Right activists as though it was some sort of joint accomplishment in which he shared. And Ted Cruz, who really did have something to do with the development, gloated openly the minute he could." ...
... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Conservatives rush to dance on John Boehner's grave" -- five weeks before the interment. ...
... In an extraordinary late-day encounter Thursday, Speaker John Boehner re-creates for Robert Costa of the Washington Post & Jake Sherman of Politico the moment he met Pope Francis earlier in the day. Boehner of course began sobbing when he saw the Pope: "'So. So, the pope puts his arm around my left arm,' he said as he pulled my arm up to his shoulder. Boehner was now fully committed to acting it out. "'Hold on, hold on," he said as I pulled my arm away. "Let me finish. The pope says to me, "Please pray for me. Please pray for me," Boehner repeated as he dipped his head. 'He said, "Please pray for me."'" CW: Three sheets to the wind, no doubt. ...
... Jake Sherman & others at Politico have more on what was behind Boehner's decision to retire from the speakership & his House seat. ...
... Eric Cantor, in a New York Times op-ed, writes that John Boehner & conservatives are great patriots but Tea Party hardliners are insane: "... a number of voices on the right began demanding that the Republican Congress not only block Mr. Obama's agenda but enact a reversal of his policies. They ... pronounced that congressional Republicans could undo the president's agenda -- with him still in office, mind you -- and enact into law a conservative vision for government, without compromise. Strangely, according to these voices, the only reason that was not occurring had nothing to do with the fact that the president was unlikely to repeal his own laws, or that under the Constitution, absent the assent of the president or two-thirds of both houses of Congress, you cannot make law. The problem was a lack of will on the part of congressional Republican leaders." CW: Not recommended, because the rest of the essay is about how great Boehner & conservatives are. See also Nisky Guy's commentary in today's thread. ...
... Jonathan Chait: "Boehner had the misfortune of leading, or attempting to lead, his party in an era when it had run up to the limits of crazy, where the only unexplored frontiers of extremism lay beyond the reach of its Constitutional powers." CW: It is pretty hilarious that people who boast about their fealty to the Constitution, and never go outside without a copy of it in their breastpockets, have done all that they can to undermine its core structure. ...
... Dana Milbank: "... it was [Pope] Francis who, in his address to Congress, gave deeper meaning to why Boehner could no longer be the public servant he wanted to be with the no-compromise caucus over which he presided. Francis advised lawmakers to 'guard against the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil,' and he said the world 'demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps.'... I watched Republicans join in the applause of this sentiment. But they have practiced the very opposite of what the pope preached. Theirs has been a reign of no compromise -- and of no confidence in Boehner when he tried to sacrifice for the common good." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker writes a balanced post mortem to Boehner's career. (CW: If Carly Fiorina wants to know what an actual rags-to-riches story is, she should read Boehner's bio & quit pretending her fake secretary-to-CEO story is equally compelling.) ...
... Gail Collins bids farewell to John Boehner, but she saved her best material for Marco Rubio: "The right-wing Value Voters Summit burst into applause when Senator Marco Rubio announced the resignation news. 'I'm not here today to bash anyone,' Rubio said, slightly inaccurately. 'But the time has come to turn the page ... and allow a new generation of leadership in this country.' Rubio is always promising to usher in an era of fresh new ideas, which appear to involve lowering taxes on the wealthy."
White House: "In this week's address, on "National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day," the President spoke about the importance of preventing and treating substance use disorders":
Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Francis, who will address thousands of Spanish-speaking families at Independence Mall here on Saturday, has in his visit to the United States become a virtual patron saint of suffering migrants. He hugged immigrant children in New York, and in Washington accepted a letter from a young girl seeking legalization for her parents.... Since 2014, Philadelphia has refused to comply with requests from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to detain undocumented offenders, unless the government presents a judicial warrant and the person in question has been convicted of a first- or second-degree offense involving violence.... At Old St. Joseph's Church, the Rev. Philip Florio said he expected the pope to preach 'welcome the stranger at your door' and reject the round-them-up and ship-them-out approach of Mr. Trump, at the mention of whose name the priest theatrically slid away on the pew." ...
... Rachel Zoll & Michael Sisak of the AP: "... Pope Francis headed to Philadelphia on Saturday for a visit expected to focus more heavily on ordinary Catholics and their families. The pope took off from New York's Kennedy Airport for the City of Brotherly Love, where he will take part in a weekend of activities, including a Vatican-organized rally that will culminate in an outdoor Mass for 1 million people." ...
... philly.com is liveblogging Pope Francis's visit today to Philadelphia. ...
... NBC New York: "Pope Francis celebrated Mass at Madison Square Garden Friday evening, offering a challenge to urban dwellers to care for the disenfranchised who live in "deafening anonymity" amid the wealth and bustle of 'our great avenues.'... The pope's sermon capped off a whirlwind day that included a speech before the United Nations, a multi-faith service at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, a visit with Harlem school children and a ride through Central Park before adoring and emotional crowds. As he did in many part of his visit, Pope Francis stopped to bless children with special needs at the Garden." Includes video. ...
... Not Exactly a Walk in the Park. Joe DeLessio of New York: "After visiting a Catholic elementary school in East Harlem, Pope Francis rode through Central Park in his Popemobile [Friday] afternoon in a procession that was expected to draw some 80,000 people." Includes snapshots taken by people in the crowd. ...
... Marc Santora & Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "After standing alone and taking in the vast void where thousands of people lost their lives in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Pope Francis on Friday lamented 'a mind-set which knows only violence, hatred and revenge' and warned against the kind of 'rigid uniformity' of belief that leads to fanaticism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker argues that all popes, including Francis, are anti-liberal. "He appears to be genuinely and, on his own terms, understandably more concerned about protecting the continuities of his organization than with getting absolute justice for its victims."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Matthew Dickinson: "... by focusing on ... 'Trump's blowhard improvisation', and failing to place polls in their historical context, the media has [sic!] both contributed to his polling support and made it far easier for Trump to avoid answering the difficult questions regarding the specifics of his policy beliefs, and how he proposes to implement them. This does a disservice to voters and, I think, to Trump himself." Via Greg Sargent.
Presidential Race
The Petraeus Connection. Bradley Klapper of the AP: "The Obama administration has discovered a chain of emails that Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to turn over when she provided what she said was the full record of work-related correspondence as secretary of state, officials told The Associated Press Friday.... The messages were exchanged with retired Gen. David Petraeus when he headed the military's U.S. Central Command.... They began before Clinton entered office and continued into her first days at the State Department. They largely pertained to personnel matters and don't appear to deal with highly classified material, officials said, but their existence challenges Clinton's claim that she has handed over the entirety of her work emails from the account."
Clown v. Clown. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "After training his fire for much of the summer on former Gov. Jeb Bush, Donald J. Trump has found a new favorite Republican rival to taunt: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. But Mr. Rubio is proving capable of giving it back. And Mr. Trump also discovered on Friday that some conservatives do not respond as kindly when the insults are directed toward Mr. Rubio.... 'You have this clown, Marco Rubio,' Mr. Trump began, in a speech to the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit [in Washington, D.C]. 'And I've been so nice to him.' Before he could go further, though, the audience of social conservatives let out a cascade of boos."
Ed Kilgore on Jeb!'s "free stuff" for black people: "... this is the old 'Plantation' meme, according to which Democrats have ensnared people by the diabolical means of helping them stay alive and make ends meet, as opposed to 'empowering' them with benign neglect. This sort of rap coming from the scion of a rich and powerful family might go over better if he were preceded by some commitments to letting African-Americans vote and abandoning mass incarceration as a social control mechanism and taking seriously complaints about police misconduct. As it is, it's just free rhetoric."
Senatorial Election
Hadas Gold & Elena Schneider of Politico: "Illinois GOP Sen. Mark Kirk's campaign is pushing back and getting ahead of a supposed, yet-to-be published report from the Chicago Tribune that alleges Kirk verbally and physically abused staffers. The campaign sent a dossier of information, emails and screenshots to the in-state political blog Capitol Fax to refute the story."
Beyond the Beltway
Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who went to jail this month for refusing to follow the law and issue a marriage license to a gay couple, was given an award at Friday night's conservative Values Voter Summit. Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, presented Davis with a 'Cost of Discipleship Award' that compared her with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln because, like them, she 'pursued justice at great personal cost.'" ...
My first link of the day, which comes courtesy of Victoria D., because it made us both laugh out loud, is this:
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Ky., who was embraced by Christian conservatives because of her resistance to same-sex marriage, said Friday that she would shun her Democratic Party roots and become a Republican." CW: Mrs. Kentucky Republican 2015 was scheduled to speak before the Values Voters Summit, an organization of, by & for the kind of extremists Pope Francis warned about. I believe the inspiration behind Mrs. Davis's miraculous conversion is what is known in the religious biz as an epiphany. Hallelujah, Sister! It's a Grand Old Party.
Excuse me now, while I see what's going on in the world.
News Lede
AP: "A New Jersey high school star quarterback died after suffering an injury on the field, school officials said on Saturday. Evan Murray of Warren Hills Regional High School, a three-sport athlete, died after he was hurt in a game against Summit High School on Friday night. Murray had been the football team's starting quarterback for three years."
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Reader Comments (10)
Okay! I hadda stop at 3.26 minutes into Boehner's soliloquy, the rest of it surely as inane. Watching his facial expressions reminded me of a TV series that is on Netflix. "Lie to Me" I've only watched two episodes, but its premise lies in the psychological interpretation of how body language and facial tics reveal the more telling truth.
Boehner's facial/speech-isms are Exhibit 1 through infinity!
I think a more likely explanation of Boehner's slurry resignation speech, and the re-enactment of his talk with Pope Frankie, is that he was 3 sheets (at least) to the wind. He likely has been on a bender since he made the decision to resign. After all, we are told he is happiest when on his way into or out of a bar--and after October 30, he will no longer be constrained by having to show up at the Speaker's rostrum every day Congress is in session.
Really, Eric Cantor? Nothing in your essay, and so far nothing in the comments, about the fact that you were one of the Republican leaders who met on Inauguration night, 2009, and vowed to oppose everything President Obama put forward. You should be proud of what your disciples have learned from you.
@Nisky Guy: Thanks for the timely reminder. Quite right. Cantor was an architect of Tea Party obstructionism. He has a lot of nerve whining about it now & pretending his "disciples," as you rightly call them, somehow betrayed the party. If he had any capacity for self-reflection, as he clearly has not, he would realize that his loss to a Tea Party crazy was a function of his own strategy.
Marie
On this Blessed Sunday, let us all give humble thanks to His Holiness for the Great Blessing he has bestowed upon us in driving Le Donald off the front pages for a few days.
It's almost like an exorcism: "Vade retro me, Satana" (Donalda?)
Too bad it won't last.
Yet a vision of another miracle came to me in the small hours of the night: Suppose Boehner really has grown a conscience, hits the circuit, writes a book, exposes all the GOP inanity he's witnessed over the years...
And then, I woke up...
Good morning everyone.
@D.C.Clark: Yeah, it's possible Boehner will spend his sunset years enjoying the sunsets on Marco Island (where sunsets are spectacular), but it's more likely he'll take "an extravagantly remunerative lobbying gig," as Jonathan Chait would expect.
Marie
In case you thought the wingnuts couldn't get any zoomier, here's a few gems from this morning's "Say What" feature on the Doonesbury page:
"The same people who gave us Obama gave us this pope...He is a wolf in pope's clothing...A danger to the world."
-- radio host Michael Savage
"He wants to be a modern pope. All he needs is dreadlocks and a dog with a bandana and he could be on Occupy Wall Street."
-- Fox News' Greg Gutfeld
"Part of the globalist plan to destroy the world and usher in a one-world government."
-- radio host Alex Jones
Nisky's reminder of Cantor's cantering: Remember the "Young Guns"? A troika of Cantor, Ryan and McCarthy–-they even wrote a book with that title. Since Kevin McCarthy will probably be the next speaker we can well expect more roadblocks on Democratic issues.
The musical group, "Fine Young Cannibals" was quite popular some years ago (I liked them) so when the Young Gun guys appeared looking like gun toting "give em hell, Harry's," I thought, nah, they gonna devour their own kind and maybe they shoulda taken that other title which as it turns out was much more appropriate.
Harry Reid's remembrance of John Boehner is both plaintiff and poignant. Underlying his remarks seems to be a feeling of fear for the country.
Well, well.
It's been an eventful few days, hasn't it kids?
The pope, spiritual leader of the largest bloc of Christians in the world, came to the US to express his dismay at the abysmal manner in which a certain American political wing dismisses science, the poor, the planet, and their Christian responsibilities to all three. And the president of China dropped in for serious talks on cyber warfare and carbon emissions which threaten the planet via increased global warming and climate change.
The President of the United States, the President of China, and the Pope, world leaders who represent an enormous percentage of the world's population, have been digging in to try to work out solutions to some of the world's greatest problems: climate change, poverty, immigration, the refugee crisis, cyber security, income inequality, racism, war and peace.
And what has the Confederacy, which represents a small percentage of psychotics and ignorant haters in the US, been up to in its hermetically sealed bubble?
Celebrating a smug law breaker as if she was Abraham Lincoln and climbing over one another to see who can shut down the government quickly enough for providing healthcare to poor women.
So, on the one hand, we have world leaders working together to ensure our continued existence, and on the other, we have Wile E. Coyote demanding more matches with which to ignite his latest ACME bomb.
Is it just me?