The Commentariat -- Oct. 20, 2013

** Freeeeedom! Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books on "Back Door Secession." CW: As I wrote some while back, President Obama is fighting the same civil war that President Lincoln fought. Wills makes this abundantly clear. A very fine piece. BTW, every time I write that Lincoln made a terrible -- if understandable -- mistake in prosecuting the Civil War, I get great howls of objection. Here's the thing: people want self-governance. That was ostensibly the purpose of the American Revolution, after all. The North has been forcing its laws on the South for 150 years. Southerners keep resisting. It is reasonable to hate white Southern values. I don't think it is reasonable to hate white Southerners for wanting home rule, no matter how terrible that rule is. Let 'em secede. Please. ...

... Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: Meanwhile, Republicans are engaged in their own internal civil war. "The budget fight that led to the first government shutdown in 17 years did not just set off a round of recriminations among Republicans over who was to blame for the politically disastrous standoff. It also heralded a very public escalation of a far more consequential battle for control of the Republican Party, a confrontation between Tea Party conservatives and establishment Republicans that will play out in the coming Congressional and presidential primaries in 2014 and 2016 but has been simmering since President George W. Bush’s administration, if not before."

Maureen Dowd: "The paradox of Obama is that he believes in his own magical powers, but then he doesn't turn up to use them." I liked this line: "(We have met the enemy and they are ... bloggers?)" Nothing Dowd hasn't written before. ...

... AND this from Dana Milbank: "These 'extremes' who 'don't like the word "compromise" were the obvious target of Obama's demand that we all 'stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict.' (He did not mention newspaper columnists, so you are free to continue reading.) The gloating was a bit unseemly, but the president is entitled to savor a victory lap. The more important thing is that Obama now maintain the forceful leadership that won him the budget and debt fights. In that sense, the rest of Obama's speech had some worrisome indications that he was returning to his familiar position in the rear."...

Every day, I jump out of bed with a smile on my face, because it is a joy to have the opportunity to stand with the American people and work to help restore people's faith and optimism in our nation. It's an incredible honor to play a small role in expanding the American dream. -- Sen. Ted Cruz

Apparently Ted figures the American dream is to die of a treatable illness for want of affordable health care. Also, the image of Ted jumping out of bed with a diabolical smile on his face is ultra-creepy. -- Constant Weader ...

... Tailgunner Ted Is Still Shooting. Robert Costa of National Review: "According to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, it's his [Republican] colleagues, more than anyone, who should be blamed for the failure of the defund-Obamacare campaign -- and he expects conservatives to remember come primary season."

I am excited about being a member of the budget conference committee and I look forward to working with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to end the absurdity of sequestration and to develop a budget which works for all Americans. In my view, it is imperative that this new budget helps us create the millions of jobs we desperately need and does not balance the budget on the backs of working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ...

... Jason Easley of Politics USA: "Majority Leader Harry Reid has shattered Paul Ryan's dreams of killing Social Security and Medicare by putting Sen. Bernie Sanders on the budget conference committee." Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... "The Biggest Victim of the Debt Ceiling Deal -- Your Retirement." Adam Levin of ABC News: "Congressional leaders are playing a dangerous game with their constituents' money, their livelihoods and their retirement savings. On Wednesday, all Congress did was flip over the hourglass on a game of chicken that cost our economy $24 billion and left America's future up in the air -- and, by doing so, may cause some of our hard-earned retirement savings to disappear into it."

Julie Pace of the AP: "Last week, President Barack Obama gathered some of his top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the problem-plagued rollout of his health care legislation. He told his team the administration had to own up to the fact that there were no excuses for not having the health care website ready to operate on Day One. The admonition from a frustrated president came amid the embarrassing start to sign-ups for the health care insurance exchanges. The president is expected to address the cascade of computer problems Monday during an event at the White House."

John Whitesides of Reuters: "Hillary Clinton returned to the campaign trail on Saturday to endorse old friend Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor's race.... At her first overtly political appearance since leaving her post as secretary of state in February..., [Clinton] said the outcome of the bitter governor's battle would show whether voters were ready to choose common sense over ideology. She received a hero's welcome from the packed crowd in a theater in Falls Church, a Washington suburb, during an appearance certain to heighten speculation about a possible 2016 presidential bid."

Ben Protess & Jessica Silver-Greenberg of the New York Times: "JPMorgan Chase and the Justice Department are moving closer to a $13 billion settlement over the bank's mortgage practices, a record penalty that would cap weeks of heated negotiating and underscore the extent of the bank's legal woes, people briefed on the talks said. To resolve an array of federal and state investigations into the bank's sale of troubled mortgage securities to investors in the lead up to the financial crisis, the bank would be expected to pay about $9 billion in fines.... JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, is also likely to spend $4 billion in relief for struggling homeowners, another person briefed on the talks said." (Emphasis added.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Mother Antonia Brenner, who left a comfortable life in Beverly Hills to minister to inmates in a notorious Mexican prison, eventually becoming a nun and spending more than 30 years living in a cell to be closer to those she served, died on Thursday in Tijuana, Mexico. She was 86."

The Commentariat -- Oct. 19, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

Adam Clymer of the New York Times: "Thomas S. Foley, a courtly congressman from Washington State who as speaker of the House sought to still the chamber's rising tide of partisan combat before it swept the Democratic majority, and Mr. Foley himself, out of office in 1994, died on Friday at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 84." CW: In case you are hazy on what a horrible excuse for a human being Newt Gingrich is, read Speaker Foley's obituary.

AP: "Republican Rep. Bill Young, Florida's longest-serving member of Congress and a defense hawk who was influential on military spending during his 43 years in Washington, died Friday. He was 82." Andrew Meacham writes the Tampa Bay Times' obituary. ...

... Fox "News"'s oracle Gretchen Carlson reported Rep. Young's death yesterday, which was uncanny, inasmuch as Young was still living.

Julia Preston & Ashley Parker of the New York Times: Democrats want to press immigration reform legislation, but it all depends upon whether House Speaker John Boehner thinks President Obama hurt the widdle feewings of crazed hostage-takers.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "Americans for Prosperity has spent millions in states around the country, including Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania," and Virginia to undermine the Affordable Care Act by lobbying against the Medicaid expansion in these states.

Maggie Haberman & Anna Palmer of Politico: Republican donors are sick of Republicans. ...

... Michael Bender & Kathleen Hunter of Bloomberg News: "A battle for control of the Republican Party has erupted as an emboldened Tea Party moved to oust senators who voted to reopen the government while business groups mobilized to defeat allies of the small-government movement."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: " The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court released a new legal opinion on Friday that reauthorized the once-secret National Security Agency program that keeps records of every American's phone calls. The opinion also sought to plug a hole in a similar ruling made public last month."

Friday afternoon, President Obama announced his nomination of Jeh Johnson as Secretary of Homeland Security:

Heart of Darkness, Ctd. From the Mind of Dick to "Homeland" Script. AP: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he once feared that terrorists could use the electrical device that had been implanted near his heart to kill him and had his doctor disable its wireless function.... Years later, Cheney watched an episode of the Showtime series 'Homeland' in which such a scenario was part of the plot."

Local News

California Really Is a "Laboratory of Democracy." Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: Virulent partisanship is on the wane in California. "Lawmakers came into office this year representing districts whoselines were drawn by a nonpartisan commission, rather than under the more calculating eye of political leaders. This is the first Legislature chosen under an election system where the top two finishers in a nonpartisan primary run against each other, regardless of party affiliations, an effort to prod candidates to appeal to a wider ideological swath of the electorate. And California voters approved last year an initiative to ease stringent term limits, which had produced a statehouse filled with inexperienced legislators looking over the horizon to the next election. Lawmakers can now serve 12 years in either the Assembly or the Senate."

Gail Collins: "These days, when you say 'Texas' in the context of heavy-breathing Republican extremism, everybody immediately thinks of Senator Ted Cruz. Which is really unfair when there are so many other members of the state delegation trying to do their part." ...

... Wait, Wait, Gail. You Left Out the Candidates for Lt. Gov.! "Scenes from a Broken Republican Party." In Texas, GOP candidates for lieutenant governor are arguing the merits of repealing the 17th Amendment, which provides for the popular election of U.S. senators. As Jonathan Bernstein writes in theWashington Post, the prominence of this ridiculous "issue" is symptomatic of what's wrong with the Republican party. Thanks to James S. for the link. CW: I'd wouldn't mind if Texas would repeal the whole Constitution & secede. ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: Texas Republicans still love Ted Cruz. "He's a fighter." "Texas is not America." Etc.

Elizabeth Chuck & Pete Williams of NBC News: "Same-sex marriages will begin Monday in New Jersey after the state Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state must begin granting same-sex marriage licenses, a rebuff to Gov. Chris Christie." ...

... Chris Geidner of BuzzFeed: "Before Senator-elect Cory Booker comes to Washington, he plans to start the ball rolling on marriage equality in New Jersey by marrying several same-sex couples at 12:01 a.m. Monday, Oct. 21...."

The Commentariat -- Oct. 18, 2013

All of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists and the bloggers and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict and focus what the majority of Americans sent us here to do.... -- President Obama, speaking Thursday morning  ...

The President of the United States has accused me of being worse than useless. He is not attacking my ideas; he is attacking me as a person, suggesting not only that I have negative value but also that I profit from the harm I do to the rest of the American people. He says the same about half the writers whose works I link. I take these charges seriously. I will stop Reality Chex the moment I decide the POTUS is right or likely right. -- Marie Burns

Since Obama doesn't brook bloggers, he would not have read this before he condemned me.

Jonathan Weisman & Jackie Calmes of the New York Times: "With the government reopened and a debt default averted for now, Congressional negotiators on Thursday plunged into difficult budget talks to avoid a repeat crisis within months, and quickly agreed to lower their sights from the sort of grand bargain that has eluded the two parties for three years." ...

... Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, Blogger: "Obama, in this [shutdown/default] crisis, has discovered that a spine is a very useful thing to have. He has discovered that when he hangs tough, the latent schisms in the Republican Party break open. He needs to carry that new toughness into December and January, and beyond. His own worst enemy is both his congenital desire to appease and his on- and-off flirtation with cutting social insurance."

Sixty-two percent of House Republicans voted against their own [budget] number, voted against opening up government and then voted against ending the default of our full faith and credit. What was squandered in that period of time, was not only quantitatively measured in terms of it slowed our GDP growth, jeopardized our credit rating, eroded consumer and investor confidence, it also diminished confidence in government, in governance. Did they know what this irresponsibility cost us? ... Was their tantrum worth $24 billion? [the estimated cost to the economy of the shutdown & debt default threat] I don’t think so. Perhaps they didn’t know how costly it would be…. We knew it was at a cost in addition to the cost to the working families. -- Nancy Pelosi, at a news conference Thursday

An interesting tidbit in this longish piece by Carrie Brown & Jonathan Allen of Politico: It was President Obama, not Leader Reid, who quashed Susan Collins' so-called bipartisan offer. ...

... Greg Sargent, Blogger: Obama's hard line makes Boehner's job easier. ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he will not allow another government shutdown as part of a strategy to repeal ObamaCare." CW: Could have something to do with the polling back home. See Senate Race below. ...

... Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Thursday that he would not rule out pushing the federal government to shut down again in order to defund the health care law." ...

It should have been the Senate Republicans that rode like the cavalry to support the courageous stand House Republicans were taking. Instead, they became the Air Force, bombing our own troops, bombing House Republicans, bombing conservatives, and you can't win when one house of Congress turns its cannons on the other half. -- Ted Cruz, further endearing himself to his fellows at the 100 Club

... Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News: "... by the time Cruz’s crusade to defund Obamacare finally crashed to a halt Wednesday, the Texas senator had precious few friends left. The government shutdown alienated colleagues in both parties. It generated fresh animosity toward the tea party and a flurry of recriminations toward Cruz. Voter support for the Republican Party plunged. And the health care law survived unscathed." ...

... Ha Ha. The Houston Chronicle's editors are really, really sorry they endorsed Ted Cruz. Via Blogger Igor Volsky of Think Progress. ...

... "The GOP's Alamo." Dave Weigel, Blogger: "Republicans are wasting no time in rewriting the history of their own defeat." ...

... ** Huff Post Bloggers Sam Stein & Ryan Grim interview Harry Reid, who has a few choice word for David Vitter (R-La.) & Ted Cruz. CW: One thing Vitter & Cruz have succeeded in changing in Washington: those quaint Senate good manners. Nothing from Harry about "the distinguished gentleman...."

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "The budget measure that ended the partial government shutdown allows for a 1 percent raise for federal employees in January in addition to providing back pay for those furloughed...."

Jia Lynn Yang & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: The business community still loves John Boehner, and "Boehner’s friends in the business community are getting ready to take sides in a few Republican primary races against tea party candidates in Michigan, Idaho and Alabama who could cause the House speaker more trouble." ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic, Blogger: "What was once an uneasy alliance between Tea Partiers and Republican loyalists is increasingly marked by hostility — and many on the right now want a divorce." ...

... CW: Ball's discussion of internal hostility reminds me of Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs' 2010 extended comments derogating the "professional left" who "wouldn't be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president." In reviewing some of Gibbs' complaints, it's kind of obvious that those on the "professional left" (including bloggers!) have been vindicated. Obama has realized the errors inherent in his willingness to negotiate with Republicans -- from rolling over for a grand bargain to the sequester ploy that backfired. He knows that the surge in Afghanistan was a mistake, that Guantanamo remains a festering disaster, & that the NSA should be reined in. The economy -- at least for most of us -- continues to stagnate because the stimulus wasn't big enough & the aid to homeowners (legislated but minimally implemented) continued the drag on the housing market. (But bankers are doing fine!) Obama's decision to throw Elizabeth Warren under the bus had a silver lining that emerged through no fault of his. And the problems ObamaCare is experiencing -- caused in great part by the Supreme Court's allowing states to opt out -- might have been avoided under a single-payer plan. You can probably add to the list.

Alec MacGillis of the New Republic, Blogger: "They’re back! Barely had Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell announced their agreement to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling than zooming in from the leaden skies came our old friends, the fiscal hawks. Fix the Debt, the organization that took flight last year from the very deep pockets of octagenarian Blackstone co-founder Pete Peterson, held an afternoon event at the National Press Club to remind everyone that, crisis averted, the real problem in this country remained our crushing long-term debt.... One by one, the officials offered the usual above-it-all bipartisan bromides, scrupulously avoiding naming the people or even the party that brought the crisis to a head." ...

... Paul Krugman, Blogger: "Fix the Debt didn’t just help create a climate of crisis with its fearmongering over the deficit; the fiscal scolds actively cheered GOP hostage-taking in 2011, and were still lending support to hostage tactics this time around.... Fix the Debt isn’t just ineffectual in its pursuit of a Grand Bargain, it’s an actively malign force in our politics, in effect acting as an ally of the extortionists." ...

... Charles Pierce, Blogger: "This is the real threat to the recovery right here.... It is this permanent class of deficit fetishists and austerian fantasts. These are the people who will wreck lives. These are people who get heard in the White House.... Every time the president mentons the deficit, these guys get their semi-annual woodies and a little bit of actual progressive politics dies again. These are the people whose credentials really should have been revoked last night, if there actually was the kind of Democratic triumph that we're being sold today." ...

... Humor Break. Wonkblog: Fix the Debt hosted a TwitterChat after their dog-and-pony show. "They got trolled." Enjoy.

Ezra Klein, Blogger: Democrats should forget about raising taxes on the wealthy & concentrate on policies that promote economic growth.

Humor Break. John McCain & Louie Gohmert trade jabs about who's smarter.

Obama 2.0. Nedra Pickler of the AP: "President Barack Obama has chosen former Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson as the new secretary of the Homeland Security Department. Obama plans to announce Johnson's nomination Friday. He must be confirmed by the Senate before taking over the post most recently held by Janet Napolitano." ...

... Brian Resnick & Matt Berman of the National Journal, Bloggers: "Johnson's legacy at the Defense Department is marked by two high-profile issues: his advocacy of the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell,' and — as chief lawyer at the Pentagon — his legal authority over all drone strikes carried out by the Defense secretary and President Obama." ...

... Obama 2.0. Reuters: Gen. Keith Alexander, "the director of the National Security Agency, and his deputy are expected to depart in the coming months, US officials said on Wednesday, in a development that could give President Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency. ...

... Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "... documents provided to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden ... reveal the agency’s extensive involvement in the targeted killing program that has served as a centerpiece of President Obama’s counterterrorism strategy." ...

... James Risen of the New York Times: "Edward J. Snowden ... said in an extensive interview this month that he did not take any secret N.S.A. documents with him to Russia when he fled there in June, assuring that Russian intelligence officials could not get access to them.... He also asserted that he was able to protect the documents from China’s spies because he was familiar with that nation’s intelligence abilities.... 'There’s a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents,' he said."

Charles Pierce, Blogger: "Everyone in the courtier press, and a good portion of the blogosphere, is making great sport of that poor stenographer who apparently snapped last night and started yelling about the Freemasons and the Constitution.... There is no intellectually honest way to say that what that poor woman started shouting on the House floor last night, and what Michele Bachmann or Ted Cruz say every day as a perfect illustration of how they view the world. Our courtier media doesn't hate crazy. It just hates improv." ...

... Geoff Earle of the New York Post: Dianne Reidy's husband, Dan Reidy, says the long hours she had to work during the shutdown made her snap. Both Reidys are Pentacostals, who believe God can speak through them.

Humor Break. Ben Yakas of Gothamist: "Stephen Colbert was the keynote speaker at the 68th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation charity dinner last night at the Waldorf Astoria — and he spent the full 14 minutes of his speech zinging NYC's rich and powerful. And that motley crew included Christine Quinn, Ray Kelly, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and of course, diminutive Mayor Bloomberg."

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic, Blogger, reviews the botched ObamaCare rollout, which isn't so botched in most of the states that are running their own exchanges. (Exception: Hawaii, which used the same contractor the feds did.)

Senate Races

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP’s newest Kentucky poll finds voters in the state extremely unhappy about the government shutdown, and taking it out on Mitch McConnell. The Republican Senator Minority Leader now trails Alison Lundergan Grimes 45/43 for reelection." (CW: this doesn't mean too much at this point, but any time a Republican's numbers look squishy in Kentucky, it's news.)

Mississippi GOP Senator Gets Tea Party Challenger. Daniel Strauss of TPM: "Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) jumped into the Senate race for Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-MS) seat on Thursday and was immediately endorsed by two prominent conservative organizations.... Cochran has not officially announced whether he is running for reelection."