The Commentariat -- April 22, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon News:

Jennifer Steinhauer & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Responding to a series of computer security breaches, the House is expected on Wednesday to pass a bill, years in the making, that would push private companies to share access to their computer networks and records with federal investigators.... The cybersecurity bill, similar to a measure approved overwhelmingly by the Senate Intelligence Committee, would be Congress's most aggressive response yet to a burst of computer attacks...."

Missy Ryan & Adam Goldman of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon plans to move up to 10 detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, possibly in June, as officials scramble to reduce the prison's population before Congress attempts to stop future transfers and derail President Obama's plan to shutter the U.S. military facility."

Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis, who has taken a public role in U.S.-Cuba relations, will visit Cuba on the way to the United States this fall, the Vatican announced Wednesday."

Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Barack Obama will venture into the South Florida Everglades on Wednesday to lend urgency to his environmental agenda, declaring the dangers of climate change an imminent threat to the state's economy." ...

David Nakamura & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top Democrats began feuding over President Obama's trade initiative Tuesday as his bid for a major late-term win began tearing at the party's unity and threatened to expose old divisions ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The tensions broke into public view after Clinton hedged during her first remarks on whether she would support an Obama-backed trade package that is gaining traction in Congress but is opposed by some on the party's politically potent liberal wing." ...

... President Obama speaks with Chris Matthews about the TPP:

... Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday said he is emphatically against the new trade powers legislation that is moving through Congress. 'I have never, ever ... supported a trade agreement, and I'm not going to start now,' the Nevada Democrat told reporters. 'So the answer is not only no, but hell no.'" ...

... Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A coalition of labor, environmental and progressive interests is launching a seven-figure ad campaign aimed at pressuring congressional Democrats to block legislation that would expedite an Obama administration-backed trade deal with the United States' Pacific allies."

Dustin Volz of the National Journal: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night that would reauthorize a controversial surveillance authority of the Patriot Act until 2020, a push that comes just as a group of bipartisan lawmakers is preparing a last-minute push to rein in the government's mass-spying powers. A McConnell aide said the majority leader is beginning a process to put the bill on the Senate calendar but said that the chamber will not take the measure up this week. That process, known as Rule 14, would bypass the traditional committee process. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr is a cosponsor."

New York Times: The Senate has set the confirmation vote on Loretta Lynch for attorney general for Thursday.

Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Barack Obama has sent a clear signal to the Iranian government that further arms deliveries to Houthi rebels in Yemen would be unacceptable. '[The crisis will] not be solved by having another proxy war fought inside Yemen and we've indicated to the Iranians that they need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,' the US president said on Tuesday night."

Eli Lake of Bloomberg: "The Barack Obama administration has estimated for years that Iran was at most three months away from enriching enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb. But the administration only declassified this estimate at the beginning of the month, just in time for the White House to make the case for its Iran deal to Congress and the public." ...

... Jim Snyder of Bloomberg: "Nuclear inspectors will need unfettered access in Iran as part of a deal to lift economic sanctions, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said a day after an Iranian general said military sites must be off limits. 'We expect to have anywhere, anytime access,' Moniz, a nuclear physicist who negotiated the technical details of a framework nuclear accord, said Monday in a meeting with editors and reporters at Bloomberg's Washington office."

Michael Crowley of Politico: "President Barack Obama will not use the word 'genocide' to describe the massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians in his annual statement commemorating the historic atrocity later this month."

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to resign soon, according to U.S. officials, following revelations about 'sex parties' involving prostitutes overseas and other misconduct among its agents. Michele Leonhart, who has served at the helm of the DEA since 2007, has come under heavy criticism on Capitol Hill since an inspector general report last month documented a series of episodes in which agents hired prostitutes. Agents were also found to have had sex parties with some women hired by drug cartels in Colombia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

American Justice, Ctd. Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department said Tuesday it was launching a federal civil rights investigation into the death of Freddie Gray, who died after suffering a severe spinal cord injury while in the custody of the Baltimore police. Gray's death has sparked repeated protests in Baltimore, where six police officers have been suspended as authorities there investigate what happened."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the police may not prolong traffic stops to wait for drug-sniffing dogs to inspect vehicles. 'A police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution's shield against unreasonable seizures,' Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority. The vote was 6 to 3.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Justice Ginsburg's majority opinion." ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress discusses the impact of the decision, which may be of little consequence, even for the plaintiff in the case. ...

... Noah Feldman in Bloomberg: "Are the past year's examples of racially charged police abuses from Ferguson to Staten Island to North Charleston affecting the U.S. Supreme Court?... It's possible to discern a subtly changing attitude on stop-and-frisk policing, the centerpiece of the broken-windows approach.... Tuesday's decision suggests that the judicial pendulum may be beginning to move. The first movement may seem small. But the pendulum tends to have momentum." CW: This was my first thought upon reading the decision. Read the whole post because Feldman explains why Ginburg concentrated on the time element.

Tim Devaney of the Hill: "Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) last week tweeted a picture of himself and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the leader of the House's Benghazi investigation, holding an AR-15. Having the AR-15 in the District could be a violation of the city's strict gun laws, and the city attorney general's office has referred the matter to police, a spokesman told The Hill."

The Thrill Is Gone. George Packer of the New Yorker: Politics isn't fun any more. Packer makes some suggestions that he thinks would enliven the moribund sameness of it all.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Digby, in Salon, on the history of mainstream media's "eagerly chasing every shiny object that David Bossie [of Citizens United] and other right-wingers threw in their path.... The press's track record during [the 1990s] and into the 2000 campaign can only be described as malpractice. It's beyond belief that after all their failures and journalistic malfeasance they would formalize an agreement with a right wing operative to 'share' his information."

The Rich Man's Burden. Simon Miloy of Salon explains basics of the U.S. tax structure to Bill O'Reilly, whose ignorance thereof has led him to conclude that "the real inequality is found in the government's unfair taxation of wealthy people like himself."

Presidential Race

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: Clinton surrogates point out that Hillary Clinton has been a "populist" for decades. "Mrs. Clinton was the original Elizabeth Warren, her advisers say, a populist fighter who for decades has been an advocate for families and children; only now have the party and primary voters caught up.... A 16-page dossier, titled 'Hillary Clinton: A Lifetime Champion of Income Opportunity' and assembled by a close friend and adviser to Mrs. Clinton, calls Ms. Warren a 'footnote.' The document, provided to The New York Times, presents 40 instances in which Mrs. Clinton took the same stance as Ms. Warren on issues -- like organized labor and tax increases on the wealthy -- in some cases years before the senator's ascent in the national spotlight." ...

... Greg Sargent: "Clinton's agenda may end up looking a lot more like the Center for American Progress' 'Inclusive Prosperity' agenda, with its focus on boosting wages, workplace flexibility, and investments in education and the future, than like Warren's emphasis on the rigged,inequality-ridden rules that hold sway on the domestic and global economic playing field. But even so, Clinton will draw on Warren's repertoire, and the differences won't be all that vast."

Myth-Busting. Ed Kilgore in TPM: Their executive experience & outside-the-Beltway status "were supposed to make the rich bumper crop of GOP governors and former governors in the field this year the collective frontrunners. But in case after case, their records back home are undermining their credibility...."

Alex Roarty & Scott Bland of the National Journal: "When Chris Christie went to New Hampshire to propose the most sweeping set of changes to Social Security in recent memory last week, he set off a rush among top Republican contenders, including Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, to offer their own aggressive plans for the program. But according to many Republican strategists, Christie's dive into Social Security did more than that -- it pushed the party in a perilous direction ahead of the 2016 election. Because while 'entitlement reform' has become part of the Republican platform, Social Security, the strategists say, is a topic still too perilous to touch."

Koch Cattle Call. Jonathan Chait: "Mike Allen [of Politico] report[ed] that, per an unnamed 'top Koch aide'..., 'Jeb Bush will be given a chance to audition for the [Koch] brothers' support.' The Kochs seem to be hoping for a lead character who can play the role a little less patrician and a little more Middle America, but Jeb will be given an opportunity to show that he can stretch. So for anybody concerned that the democratic process might be short-circuited by the Kochs precipitously anointing a front man, rest assured. All the candidates will have the chance to curry their favor." ...

Fredreka Schouten of USA Today: "Charles Koch said he is considering throwing his political might into the Republican presidential primary for the first time and is likely to provide financial help to several contenders before settling on a single candidate." CW: Let's hope the Brothers Koch start feuding/brawling over which candidate to support. ...

... MEANWHILE, Andy Borowitz "reports," "Koch Industries is defending its acquisition of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker against charges that it overpaid for the Midwestern politician." ...

... Sam Brodey of Mother Jones: "Liz Mair, the GOP operative who resigned from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign-in-waiting after a day on the job, is in campaign mode again -- and this time, she's targeting her former boss. On Tuesday morning, Mair sent an email detailing Walker's 'Olympic-quality flip-flop' on the issue of immigration. On Monday, Breitbart reported that Walker is the only declared or likely GOP candidate so far to support rolling back legal immigration to the United States, including for highly skilled workers." ...

Actual immigration advisor to Scott Walker.... Sahil Kapur of TPM: "Top Republican senators criticized GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker on Tuesday for casting doubt on legal immigration policies and echoing calls by outspoken restrictionist Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for a discussion about whether immigrants harm wages for native-born American workers." ...

... Dave Weigel of Bloomberg: "Walker's statement [suggesting putting limits on legal immigration] puts him to the right of even Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who told New Hampshire voters this weekend that there was 'no stronger advocate' for legal immigration than him.... Just as surprisingly -- and just as impactfully -- Walker's dalliance with immigration limitation puts him at odds with the Koch networks, just a day after David Koch told reporters that he was inclined to back Walker. The Charles Koch Foundation has aggressively campaigned for immigration reform...."

Nick Gass of Politico: "Lindsey Graham and John McCain are 'lapdogs' for President Barack Obama's foreign policy, Rand Paul said Tuesday, at once firing back at recent remarks from the hawkish Republicans and seeking to distinguish his defense credentials. 'This comes from a group of people wrong about every policy issue over the last two decades,' the Kentucky Republican said in an interview with Fox News, touting his credentials as the 'one standing up to President Obama.'... On Monday, Graham said Paul is 'more wrong than right' when it comes to foreign policy and that the current president is stronger in dealing with overseas threats. McCain asserted that Paul 'just doesn't understand' and has carried a naïveté in the Senate." ...

... Ed Kilgore: "Putting aside any analysis of the truth or error of what Paul is saying here about Obama, Graham/McCain, or himself, what’s interesting here is that he's showing every sign of wanting a big debate within the GOP on foreign policy and national security; the 'lapdog' line is media-bait of the highest order."

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Running for president in New Hampshire over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz told a group of gun owners he's 'pressing' Sen. John McCain to convene hearings on whether soldiers should be allowed to carry concealed guns on military bases. McCain (R-Ariz.) says the request is news to him. 'I was fascinated to hear that because I haven't heard a thing about it from him. Nor has my staff heard from his staff,' McCain said of Cruz (R-Texas). 'It came as a complete surprise to me that he had been pressing me. Maybe it was some medium that I'm not familiar with.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Craig Patrick of Fox 13 Tampa: Florida GOP legislators opposing the Medicaid expansion locked reporters out of a meeting in violation of Florida's sunshine law. Something about "liberty." "But they may not have realized a veteran Associated Press reporter was listening through the door." Via Greg Sargent. ...

... Jonathan Cohn on why Rick Scott, et al., are "throwing an ObamaCare tantrum": "The level of hostility to Obamacare makes very little sense -- unless it's about something beyond the policy particulars. It could be the fact that Democrats finally accomplished something big, for the first time in several decades, thereby expanding the welfare state at a time when conservatives thought they were on their way to shrinking it. Or it could be the idea that, on net, the Affordable Care Act transfers resources away from richer, whiter people to poorer, darker people. Or it could be the fact that 'Obamacare' contains the word 'Obama,' whose legitimacy as president at least some conservatives just can't accept."

News Ledes

Hartford Courant: "Mary Doyle Keefe, the model for Norman Rockwell's iconic 1943 'Rosie the Riveter' painting that symbolized the millions of American women who went to work on the home front during World War II, has died. She was 92."

Slate: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned Barry Bonds' obstruction of justice felony conviction related to performance enhancing drugs, undoing the only criminal conviction to come from the years-long investigation of the former slugger. The 2011 conviction grew out of answers Bonds gave to a grand jury in 2003."

The Commentariat -- April 21, 2015

Internal links removed.

Afternoon News:

Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to resign soon, according to U.S. officials, following revelations about 'sex parties' involving prostitutes overseas and other misconduct among its agents. Michele Leonhart, who has served at the helm of the DEA since 2007, has come under heavy criticism on Capitol Hill since an inspector general report last month documented a series of episodes in which agents hired prostitutes. Agents were also found to have had sex parties with some women hired by drug cartels in Colombia."

*****

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, announced this morning that a deal had been reached to resolve a dispute with Democrats over a bill to halt sex trafficking.... Referring to the stalled nomination of Loretta E. Lynch, he noted that as soon as the measure was completed, 'we'll move to the president's nominee for attorney general -- hopefully in the next day or so.'" CW: Do bear in mind that the trafficking bill has zip to do with confirmation of the attorney general. Tying a vote for Lynch to the bill was just another GOP stall tactic. ...

     ... Update. The full story, by Jennifer Steinhauer & Emmarie Huetteman, is here.

Clare Foran of the National Journal: "As President Obama rushes to cement his climate legacy, other nations are questioning whether his administration can make good on its promise to slash greenhouse-gas emissions ahead of a major climate summit in Paris at the end of this year.... Legal challenges and political attacks faced by the regulations, which stand as a major pillar of the U.S. climate pledge, highlight the uncertain fate of Obama's most ambitious action to tackle global warming." ...

... CW: This is the second story I've linked to in less than a week (see the top of the April 18 Commentariat) in which other nations mistrust the U.S. on major issues because the GOP is working to undermine international cooperation. (And this doesn't include their egregious behavior on the Iran nuclear deal.) It is not President Obama who is "making the U.S. weaker" as Republicans claim; it is, as it has been, Republican obstinacy. When will voters wake up to the damage they are causing their country & themselves?

Grandpa Is a Selfish Bastard. Brian Beutler of the New Republic looks at poll numbers & finds that the demographic that most hates ObamaCare is old folks who, you know, are on Medicare.

Today in Right-Wing Loony. Dana Milbank: "As the Supreme Court prepares to take up same-sex marriage next week, conservative scholars have produced a last-ditch argument to keep the scourge of homosexual unions from spreading across the land:... They're saying that legalizing same-sex marriage will cause 900,000 abortions. The logic is about as obvious as if they had alleged that raising the minimum wage would increase the frequency of hurricanes."

Charles Pierce has noticed that Dave Brat (R-Va.), the Tea Party victor over former House Majority Leader & current $3.4MM/year investment banker Eric Cantor, "is several tentacles short of an octopus." CW: worth remembering -- Brat is a certified Ph.D. from a respectable university, thus providing more evidence that American education ain't what it used to be.

Dana Somberg & Maariv Hashavua of the Jerusalem Post: Israeli "President Reuven Rivlin has refused to meet with former US president Jimmy Carter during his upcoming visit to the region, due to his stances over recent years seen as 'anti-Israel.'"

Annals of Journalism. Here's the Pulitzer Prize Committee's list of 2015 winners of Pultizer Prizes. The Washington Post story, by Paul Farhi, is here. The New York Times story, by Ravi Somaiya, is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dylan Byers of Politico: "The New York Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have made exclusive agreements with a conservative author for early access to his opposition research on Hillary Clinton, a move that has confounded members of the Clinton campaign and some reporters, the On Media blog has confirmed.... On Monday, a source with knowledge of the arrangements told the On Media blog that CBS' '60 Minutes' and ABC News turned down offers for similar exclusive access to portions of the book's contents." ...

... As Byers notes, Media Matters is already on the case: "Media should be cautious with Republican activist and strategist Peter Schweizer's new book Clinton Cash. Schweizer has a disreputable history of reporting marked by errors and retractions, with numerous reporters excoriating him for facts that 'do not check out,' sources that 'do not exist,' and a basic failure to practice 'Journalism 101.'" The report, by Eric Hananoki, cites case after case of Schweizer's misreporting.

Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes of the Washington Post responds to Garry Trudeau's lecture on "appropriate" cartooning.

Catherine Thompson of TPM: "Staff writer Dylan Goforth and enterprise editor Ziva Branstetter of The Tulsa World newspaper published a report Thursday that cited multiple anonymous sources alleging supervisors had signed off on firearms certifications and field training that Reserve Deputy Robert Bates did not complete.... Branstetter was named Monday afternoon as a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for local reporting.... The reporters left the publication on Monday.... Goforth told TPM in a direct message over Twitter that he, Branstetter and two other The Tulsa World reporters had another job offer in the works for a few months."

Presidential Race

Steve M. on money in politics, & specifically, Clinton money in politics: "Here's the thing: We will elect a corrupt president in 2016. That's simply a fact. The question is whether we'll elect a corrupt president who'll take a wrecking ball to what's left of the social safety apparatus, to voting rights, to reproductive rights, to progressive taxation, and so on. I say: Vote for the left-centrist crook, as opposed to one of the other crooks." CW: Reality sucks. ...

... Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg: "Hillary Clinton dismissed scrutiny of the Clinton Foundation's donors as just part of running for president and said [in Keene, N.H.,] Monday that she's ready for the incoming attention. 'It's worth noting that Republicans seem to only be talking about me,' she told reporters after a roundtable discussion on small businesses.... 'I don't know what they'd talk about if I weren't in the race.'" ...

... Mary Bruce & Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "The White House today declined to address reports that Clinton Foundation donors were purportedly given preferential treatment by the administration while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. 'I know there's been a lot of accusations made about this, but not a lot of evidence,' Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing. 'The president continues to be extraordinarily proud of the work that Secretary Clinton did as the secretary of State. But for the details of some of those accusations, I'd refer you to Secretary Clinton's campaign.'" CW: Earnest sure does a lot of talking for someone "declining to comment."

Margaret Hartmann of New York is a tiny bit skeptical of claims that Mayor DeBlasio has a secret plot to become President DeBlasio.

The Princes & the Populist. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "Charles G. and David H. Koch, the influential and big-spending conservative donors, have a favorite in the race for the Republican nomination: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. On Monday, at a fund-raising event in Manhattan for the New York State Republican Party, David Koch told donors that he and his brother, who oversee one of the biggest private political organizations in the country, believed that Mr. Walker was the Republican Party's best hope for recapturing the White House. 'We will support whoever the candidate is,' said Mr. Koch, according to two people who attended the event. 'But it should be Scott Walker.'" CW: In case you were wondering who-all might back an anti-labor "populist." (See yesterday's comments thread for context.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In a statement, David Koch said that his comments did not constitute an endorsement." ...

... CW P.S.: Many a Democratic rival could use the Kochs' backing to their great advantage. Hillary? Not so much. ...

... Charles Pierce: "... back in America's Dairyland, they may never get out of the death spiral into which Walker has shown the actual state he allegedly actually governs. His new budget is so draconian that even some of the Republicans in his pet legislature are starting to get nervous. And the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, a newspaper of wild ambivalence regarding Walker and his prospective candidacy, dropped a dungbomb on him that demonstrated that, while Scott Walker may have bought a shirt at Kohl's, he isn't qualified to run a cash register there." ...

... Regression of the Meanies. Only last week we learned that "Gov. Scott Walker's approval rating of 41 percent is its lowest point in three years, according to the latest Marquette Law School Poll." ...

... New Jersey, We Have a Winner. Quinnipiac University: "New Jersey voters disapprove 56 - 38 percent of the job [Chris] Christie is doing as governor, his lowest approval rating ever and the lowest approval rating for any governor this year in the nine states surveyed by Quinnipiac University."

A Plan for All Seasons. Jonathan Chait explains why Marco "Rubio's plan is so crazy and unrealistic it might as well be no plan at all." Even mathematically-challenged Republicans have noticed the "plan"'s flaws. They "are afraid that Rubio's plan to cut taxes for the middle class would cost too much, forcing him to 'fix' his plan by curtailing his promises to rich people." CW: Of course we know that is not what would happen: Republicans -- and some Democrats -- will always keep their promises to the rich. The unwashed masses get to vote only once. Wealthy puppetmasters hold the strings 365 days/year.

Paul Steinhauser of the Washington Post & NH1News: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich Monday took a big step toward a possible 2016 Republican presidential run with the launch of a new a 527 group, the Washington Post and NH1 News in New Hampshire have learned. The new group is called New Day for America, and one of the biggest political names in New Hampshire -- former Sen. John E. Sununu -- is serving as a director." CW: Does this mean God has spoken? (See yesterday's Commentariat.)

Beyond the Beltway

Dark & Dirty. Mary Bottari in the Huffington Post: "Two court cases next week -- one being heard in open court, another being considered in silence behind closed doors -- will decide the future of Wisconsin campaign finance law, the independence of the Wisconsin judiciary, and will impact the future of presidential candidate Scott Walker. The stakes could not be higher, but the converging cases have garnered little national attention."

Lindsey Bever & Abby Ohlheiser of the Washington Post: "A 25-year-old man who died several days after being arrested by Baltimore police suffered a fatal spinal injury, authorities said Monday, as city officials announced that six police officers have been suspended." A court document "reports that [Freddie] Gray 'was arrested without force or incident' on April 12."

Jessica Roy of New York: "88,000 people applied for the 55 affordable rental units available at [New York City's] Upper West Side 'poor door' building. The condo features 219 luxury river-facing condos, and 55 street-facing units for those who earn 60 percent or less than the median income." CW: Apparently hobnobbing with the rich & famous was not uppermost in the minds of the applicants.

Steve Schmadeke & Jeremy Gorner of the Chicago Tribune: "In a stunning, abrupt end to the first trial in years of a Chicago police officer for a fatal off-duty shooting, a Cook County judge acquitted the veteran cop Monday on a legal fine point, drawing outrage from the black victim's family and leaders in the African-American community. Judge Dennis Porter ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Dante Servin acted recklessly, saying that Illinois courts have consistently held that anytime an individual points a gun at an intended victim and shoots, it is an intentional act, not a reckless one. He all but said prosecutors should have charged Servin with murder, not involuntary manslaughter." CW: A legal fine point? How about a blunt corruption of justice.

News Ledes

AP: "An Egyptian criminal court on Tuesday sentenced ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison over the killing of protesters in 2012, the first verdict to be issued against the country's first freely elected leader.

AP: "Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries issued a voluntary recall Monday night for all of its products on the market after two samples of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream tested positive for listeria, a potentially deadly bacteria."

The Commentariat -- April 20, 2015

Internal links removed.

Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "Turning disgust with billionaire super PAC benefactors into a platform that moves voters has been an elusive goal for activists seeking to curb the massive sums sloshing through campaigns. But five years after the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision -- which held it was unconstitutional to ban independent political spending by corporations and unions, and helped set off a financial arms race -- there are signs that politicians are beginning to confront a voter backlash." ...

... Joshua Replogle of the AP: "The letter carrier who caused a full-scale security review in Washington when he violated national airspace by landing his gyrocopter on Capitol Hill expressed frustration Sunday that his message wasn't getting through.... 'We've got bigger problems in this country than worrying about whether the security around DC is ironclad,' [Doug] Hughes told The Associated Press. 'We need to be worried about the piles of money that are going into Congress.'"

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: After President Obama called the delay in Senate confirmation of Loretta Lynch "embarrassing," Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said on CNN Sunday that the "issues" which Senate Republicans used as an excuse to stall her confirmation would likely be resolved within the next few days.

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "... the nation's 1.3 million active-duty service members are in a special bind, virtually powerless to hold accountable the health care system that treats them. They are captives of the military medical system, unable, without specific approval, to get care elsewhere if they fear theirs is substandard or dangerous. Yet if they are harmed or die, they or their survivors have no legal right to challenge their care, and seek answers, by filing malpractice suits."

Frances Robles & Shaila DeWan of the New York Times: "Walter Scott's death has focused attention not just on police violence, but also on the use of jail to pressure parents to pay child support, a policy employed by many states today. Though the threat of jail is considered an effective incentive for people who are able but unwilling to pay, many critics assert that punitive policies are trapping poor men in a cycle of debt, unemployment and imprisonment.... The Obama administration is trying to change some of these policies, proposing to rewrite enforcement rules to require that child support orders be based on actual income and consider the 'subsistence needs' of the noncustodial parent, to bar states from allowing child support debt to accrue while parents are incarcerated and to finance more job placement services for them."

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "Medicare ... imprint[s] Social Security numbers on more than 50 million benefit cards despite years of warnings from government watchdogs that it placed millions of people at risk for financial losses from identity theft. That is about to change, after President Obama signed a bill last week that will end the use of those numbers on Medicare cards."

Rebecca Leber of the New Republic: Five years after BP's Gulf disaster, deepwater drilling is just as dangerous. ...

... Josh Israel of Think Progress: "... while scientists continue to observe ongoing [ecological] problems [in the Gulf], a BP spokesman appeared on ABC's This Week on Sunday suggesting the remaining oil no longer poses a risk to humans or the aquatic ecosystem." Ignore those tar balls, people!

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court signaled Friday that it is unlikely to allow President Barack Obama's request to go ahead with a new round of relief for illegal immigrants, making it likely that the White House will have to take its legal case to the Supreme Court within days.... By the time the court session wrapped up, it appeared likely the appeals judges will rule, 2-1, against the administration's request for a stay of a district court injunction...."

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "The Canadian Supreme Court, unlike the United States' Supreme Court, understands that sectarian prayer is sectarian." Also, their Santa Claus outfits are superb.

Daniel Politi of Slate: "President Obama offered support for decriminalizing medical marijuana, as well as an overall change in the way the country deals with drug offenders, during an interview scheduled to air on Sunday night as part of a CNN special on marijuana."

If you didn't read Steve Coll's piece on dangerous Congressional Republicans, linked yesterday, back up & read it. Coll backs up what I've said in the past, but -- unlike me -- he's something of an expert.

Paul Krugman: The Greek economic crisis is still a crisis, & creditors are still behaving badly.

Presidential Race

Jim Newell of Salon reported from Nashua, New Hampshire, the weekend's temporary center for crazy. Not surprisingly, some of the crowd were even whackier than speaker John Bolton.

Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Calling voters 'folks' and boasting about his cut-rate suits from Jos. A. Bank, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker campaigned vigorously in New Hampshire over the weekend, citing his polarizing labor policies and urging Republican primary voters to resist pleas for moderation in a party that has lost the last two presidential elections. Walker's brash, populist pitch was a direct shot at his better-heeled GOP rivals and the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton...."

Elliot Smilowitz of the Hill: "Just days after announcing a 2016 run for the White House, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has already received more than $40 million in donations, according to Reuters." ...

... Old Marco. Ana Marie Cox in the Daily Beast: "Take away Rubio's biography and look at his positions and he becomes less the voice of his generation and more Benjamin Button. If I told you about a candidate that was anti-marriage equality, anti-immigration reform (for now), anti-pot decriminalization, pro-government surveillance, and in favor of international intervention but against doing something about climate change, what would you guess the candidate's age to be? On all of those issues, Rubio's position is not the one shared by most young people. The Guardian dubbed him the 'John McCain of the millennial set,' which isn't fair to McCain, who at least has averred that climate change exists." ...

... Martin Pengelly: "Marco Rubio ... on Sunday said he did not 'believe same-sex marriage is a constitutional right'. Rubio said instead that the issue should be decided at the state level, although he did concede that 'sexual preference is something that people are born with'." CW: This is a quick "evolution" for Marco; way last week "he called homosexuality a choice." Apparently, it's a choice made in the womb. More evidence that zygotes are people, my friend. ...

... How to speak out of both sides of your mouth: It's not that I'm against gay marriage, I believe the definition of the institution of marriage should be between one man and one woman. -- Marco Rubio, to Bob Schieffer

Also, too, it's unnecessary to make sense. (See, for another example, Victoria D.'s comment in today's thread. -- Constant Weader

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: Mike "Huckabee may not be receiving much attention, but he is as important as any of the other second-tier candidates in the race, like Ted Cruz or Rand Paul. He has demonstrated appeal to a crucial bloc of Republican primary voters: the religious right. If he runs, he will be one of the most significant figures in the primary season, with the ability to deny a crucial segment of voters or even states to another candidate."

Everything Is Relative. Olivia Nuzzi of the Daily Beast: "'I don't consider myself a wealthy man,' Chris Christie said Friday in New Hampshire. That would be the same Chris Christie who, according to his tax returns, made $698,838 in 2013 -- $160,054 of which he earned as Governor of New Jersey, and $475,854 of which came from his wife, Mary Pat Christie, who works at a New York investment bank. Christie isn't rich if you're comparing him to his friends and donors, and he certainly may not feel rich in New Jersey, where his own policies have made living more expensive."

Hunter Schwartz of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said his decision on whether he'll run for president depends on whether he can raise enough money, but he said there's a '91 percent' chance he will. 'If I can raise the money, I'll do it,' he said on 'Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.'"

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ohio Gov. John Kasich continued to signal his increasing interest in running for president Sunday, saying he's waiting for a signal from God before making the call.... While he awaits that clarity, Kasich said he's been active on the trail just in case. 'I'm not going to figure [it] out laying [sic.!] in bed, hoping lightning strikes,' he said." ...

... CW: Apparently, then, lightning is a signal from God. It appears that in the U.S., God is paying closest attention to "Central Florida between Tampa and Orlando [which] is known as 'lightning alley.'" The geologists who manage the site from which I obtained this information have a lot of nerve claiming that "warm, rising air pull[ing] sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico" are the cause of the high frequency of lightning strikes in the region, when the real cause is God's messaging system. In any event, if Kasich is looking for a signal, he might take the kids to Disney World to up his chances of getting a signal from Thor. I do hope that somewhere in the message, God will mention that Kasich's balanced budget obsession is idiotic.

Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "'Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich,' by Peter Schweizer -- a 186-page investigation of donations made to the Clinton Foundation by foreign entities -- is proving the most anticipated and feared book of a presidential cycle still in its infancy. The book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, asserts that foreign entities who made payments to the Clinton Foundation and to Mr. Clinton through high speaking fees received favors from Mrs. Clinton's State Department in return.... Conservative 'super PACs' plan to seize on 'Clinton Cash,' and a pro-Democrat super PAC has already assembled a dossier on Mr. Schweizer, a speechwriting consultant to former President George W. Bush and a fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution who has contributed to the conservative website Breitbart.com, to make the case that he has a bias against Mrs. Clinton.... Major news organizations including The Times, The Washington Post and Fox News have exclusive agreements with the author to pursue the story lines found in the book." ...

... Either Hillary Goes or I Do. AP: "A North Carolina man's obituary asked two things of friends and family: instead of sending flowers for the funeral, give the money to charity. And don't vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Jeffrey Tayler in Salon: "Reporters should do their job and not allow any of these potential commanders-in-chief to get away with God talk without making them answer for it, as impolite as that might be. Religious convictions deserve the same scrutiny any other convictions get,or more. After all, they are essentially wide-ranging assertions about the nature of reality and supernatural phenomena. As always, the burden of proof lies on the one making extraordinary claims. And if the man or woman carrying the nuclear briefcase happens to be eagerly desiring the End of Days, we need to know."

Mark Hensch of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday announced that he will not run for governor in his home state.... Manchin additionally endorsed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during his CBS appearance Sunday."

News Ledes

USA Today: "The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt has moved off the coast of Yemen to prepare to intercept potential shipments of Iranian weapons to the rebels fighting the U.S.-backed government of Yemen, Pentagon officials said Monday."

Washington Post: "An intruder climbed the White House fence late Sunday night but was quickly taken into custody, the Secret Service said."