The Commentariat -- May 24, 2013

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama will address Naval Academy graduates on Friday morning.... White House officials said Mr. Obama is likely to address the sexual assault issue in his speech to the graduates in Annapolis. Chuck Hagel, the secretary of defense, is expected to do the same at the West Point graduation on Saturday." ...

     ... Update. New Lede: "President Obama used a commencement speech before Naval Academy graduates on Friday to urge them to follow an 'inner compass' and to warn that rising numbers of sexual assaults in the military threatened to erode America’s faith in the armed forces."

This war, like all wars, must end. -- Barack Obama

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama on Thursday announced new restraints on targeted killings and narrowed the scope of the long struggle with terrorists as part of a transition to a day he envisions when the nation will no longer be on the war footing it has been on since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ...

... The prepared text is here. Toward the end, Obama went off script several times to respond to a heckler. It was, IMHO, an impressive speech that addressed numerous matters, including the issue of journalistic freedom:

Jim Fallows of the Atlantic highlights important points of the President's speech. (CW: Of course I would like Fallows' take as he picked the same one I did as the overarching message.) ...

... Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "One first impression left by President Obama's much-anticipated speech ... is that of the contrast between Bush's swagger and Obama's anguish over the difficult trade-offs that perpetual war poses to a free society. It could scarcely be starker." ...

The President's speech today will be viewed by terrorists as a victory. -- Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) ...

... Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: President Obama's GOP Senate critics respond. CW: the usual suspects with the usual whining. They raise some valid issues, but shouldn't they be helping to solve these conundra instead of just bellyaching? ...

... Saxby there should have caught the top of Rachel Maddow's show. Osama bin Laden's central demand & reason for killing Americans was to force the U.S. to get its military bases out of his home country of Saudi Arabia. We did. Quietly. The same week George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq (April 2003). Similarly, after the deadly bombing of the U.S. barracks in Beiruit, Lebanon, in 1983, carried out to force U.S. peacekeeping troops out of Lebanon -- Ronald Reagan pulled the troops out of Lebanon. What about that, Saxby?

... The ACLU responds. Via Jonathan Bernstein. ...

... Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Arguably, no agency has changed more in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks than the C.I.A., and no agency could be affected more by the new direction of the secret wars laid out by American officials on Thursday. More than half of the C.I.A.'s work force joined the agency after 2001, and many of those new officers have spent the years since almost exclusively on the work of man-hunting and killing. Some American officials and outside experts believe it could take years for a spy agency that has evolved into a paramilitary service to rebalance its activities."

Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "The House approved a Republican proposal Thursday to allow interest rates on federal student loans to rise or fall from year to year with the government's cost of borrowing, ending a system in which rates are fixed by law. The proposal cleared the GOP-led House on a largely party-line vote of 221 to 198, but it faces opposition in the Democratic-controlled Senate and a veto threat from the Obama administration. The legislation responds to a looming deadline: On July 1, unless the law is changed, rates for a certain type of new loan for undergraduate students in financial need will double to 6.8 percent, from 3.4 percent."

Jonathan Chait: absent any evidence that the President was directing the IRS to hassle wingers, the IRS story has nevertheless metastasized into a right-wing/GOP conspiracy theory based wholly on the presumption that Obama Is a Bad Guy. ...

... Obama Is a Bad Guy, one supposes, is also the underlying premise of numerous fantastic right-wing theories, including my newest favorite: that the Moore tornado -- though it could have been a natural phenomenon -- might well have been a "government weather weapon." Yes, this is as crazy a theory as I've heard, & it wouldn't be humorous if it had not been pitched by radio host Alex Jones, a popular guy among "former Rep. Ron Paul and current Sen. Rand Paul; Fox News figures Lou Dobbs and Andrew Napolitano; gun activists Ted Nugent and Larry Pratt; and climate misinformer Marc Morano [who] have all repeatedly appeared on Jones' show," according to an April 16 report by Ben Dimiero & Eric Hananoki of Media Matters. ...

... Bernie Becker & Peter Schroeder of the Hill: "Congressional Republicans are skeptical the IRS's treatment of conservative groups warrants a special prosecutor, fearing that step could limit their own investigation into the agency.... A special prosecutor concentrating on criminal violations, they say, might not look into ways Tea Party groups were harmed that fall short of a crime." CW: Right. Because a special prosecutor would step on Republicans' sworn duty to carry on endless sensationalist hearings right through election season 2014. And 2016. ...

It scares me: Who will appoint the special prosecutor? Holder! Do I really want the administration that I don't trust appointing a prosecutor right now? I think not. -- Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.)

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Lois Lerner, the head of the Internal Revenue Service’s division on exempt organizations, was put on administrative leave Thursday, a day after she invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to testify before a House committee investigating her division's targeting of conservative groups. Lawmakers from both parties said Thursday that senior I.R.S. officials had requested Ms. Lerner's resignation but she refused, forcing them to put her on leave instead. Whether her suspension will lead to dismissal was unclear, given civil service rules that govern federal employment." ...

A president that touts ego, power, and a hatred for dissent above everything else, that's Barack Obama, that's the leader of this country. I don't think this administration realizes that the First Amendment wasn't a suggestion. The Bill of Rights is not a wish list, it's a set of non-negotiable limits on the federal government. -- RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Monday evening ...

I don't think this Lois Lerner did herself or the scandal any favors by pleading the Fifth Amendment yesterday, which -- whether you agree with it as a basis of law or not -- implies there are some criminal aspects of the investigation.... I understand. I went to law school. I get it.... You don't need to plead the Fifth if you've done nothing wrong.... If you have an administration that says they've done nothing wrong & this is just a bunch of low-level people in Cincinatti, & then you have Lois Lerner come forward & plead the Fifth, I think it raises questions. -- Reince Priebus, Thursday morning

Sometimes, it's such a short distance between you and your own petard. -- Charles Pierce

Apparently the Fifth Amendment is "just a suggestion" which is debatable "as a basis of law." -- Constant Weader

... the [Fifth Amendment] privilege protects the innocent as well as the guilty. -- U.S. Supreme Court, per curiam.

... This part of the discussion among Prince Rebus, John Heilmann & PretendDem Harold Ford -- from the same "Morning Joe" show -- is interesting, too. Heilmann, BTW, is not a partisan; he's an even-handed journalist who obviously sees no reason to give Squeaky a pass on his sleights of hand -- "we must wait for the facts, which are that Obama is the mastermind of a vast criminal operation." (Notice how Squeaky doesn't see anything wrong with that "logic.") Also, Jeanne B. & I were unaware there were 132 Democratic Senators:

... Juliet Eilperin & Ed O'Keefe: "House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is inclined to recall Internal Revenue Service official Lois G. Lerner to testify before his panel, but will await recommendations from committee lawyers, the nonpartisan House Counsel, other outside legal experts and committee Democrats before making a final decision, he said Thursday." ...

... Andy Borowitz: "In a dramatic departure from existing White House procedures, President Obama requested today that his staff start cc’ing him on stuff." ...

... ** Norm Ornstein, writing in the National Journal, gives the IRS story some needed context: it "is all about disclosure of donors, and about political actors trying to find ways to avoid disclosure. And we should be clear that the ability to conceal donors, to launch stealth attack ads, or to threaten lawmakers with such ads if they don't support the policy preferences or legislative goals of the donors is something the Supreme Court rejected 8-1 in the famous Citizens United decision. But political professionals on both sides of the aisle, through their high-priced campaign lawyers, have for many years probed for ways to finesse the law and the norm of disclosure endorsed by the Supreme Court (most eloquently, by the way, by Justice Antonin Scalia)." Read the whole article.

Surprise! Tom Curry of NBC News: "With one of President Barack Obama's key nominees on the verge of being confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appeared to edge away Wednesday from an idea that some Democrats are calling for: enacting a change in Senate rules to stop filibusters which delay votes on Obama appointees. During a debate on the Senate floor with Republican Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Reid said, 'I'm not saying we're going to change the rules' regarding the filibuster, but argued that the Senate must move faster to confirm Obama nominees." ...

... BUT on Thursday, McConnell Blinked. Brian Beutler of TPM: "McConnell caved Thursday morning on the Senate floor. A small cave. But a cave nonetheless. [Sri] Srinivasan will be confirmed [as a judge in the DC Circuit Court] Thursday afternoon. But the 'cave' is only a small part of the story.... McConnell is actively trying to undermine Reid's efforts to present Republicans with a Sophie's choice between dropping their filibuster threats against nominees they oppose and standing by as Democrats do away with the filibuster on presidential nominees altogether." ...

     ... Update. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "Sri Srinivasan – the principal deputy solicitor general President Obama has nominated to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was confirmed in a 97 to 0 vote Thursday. The vote is significant for several reasons. Srinivasan is the first D.C. Circuit nominee confirmed since 2006...."

... Jonathan Bernstein in the Post: "Even though one might think there's an incentive for both sides to eventually find an equilibrium in which Republicans block some nominees but not quite enough to trigger the nuclear option, the chances for miscalculation are pretty large." ...

... Bernstein: "... it's absolutely ridiculous that a unanimous pick took eleven months.... Having given up on Srinivasan, will Republicans now blockade the remaining three vacancies on the DC Circuit Court, perhaps on the bogus pretext that those judges aren't actually needed? ... And ... it would help if there actually were nominees for those three vacancies." ...

... Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) explains to Chuck Grassley (RDopey-Iowa) what "packing the court" means after Grassley complains 5 times that Democrats are attempting to pack the D.C. Circuit Court, a preposterous assertion. Via Dylan Matthew of the Washington Post:

Thursday morning on the Senate floor, John McCain ripped Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee, who is a frequent co-conspirator with Tailgunner Ted & Li'l Randy:

... Greg Sargent: "Tea Party Senators have pushed their disregard for basic governing norms so far that even fellow Republicans are calling them out for it.... As McCain rightly pointed out, the Tea Party demand is effectively is that Republicans must not negotiate over the budget 'unless certain conditions are imposed' on the negotiations beforehand 'that happen to be important to a small group of United States Senators.' ... This is really remarkable stuff, and again goes to a basic fact about today's politics, which is that Tea Party lawmakers have -- willfully, it seems -- decided that they no longer have any obligation to engage in basic governing."

Erik Eckholm of the New York Times: "The Boy Scouts of America on Thursday ended its longstanding policy of forbidding openly gay youths to participate in its activities, a step its chief executive called 'compassionate, caring and kind.' ... The Scouts did not consider the even more divisive question of whether to allow openly gay adults and leaders." ...

... Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee: "... when I read yesterday that the Boy Scouts had come up with what can only be described as a pathetic Solomon-like decision of allowing gay boys to join the scouts, but not allowing gay men to be scout leaders, I had to observe that this is perhaps the worst signal that could be sent to aspiring gay scouts. That message is: you're ok as a gay child, but it's not ok to be a gay man. We think you'll eventually become a pervert." Thanks to James S. for the link.

Paul Krugman: "... the really remarkable thing about 'Abenomics' -- the sharp turn toward monetary and fiscal stimulus adopted by the government of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe -- is that nobody else in the advanced world is trying anything similar. In fact, the Western world seems overtaken by economic defeatism.... So, how is Abenomics working? The safe answer is that it's too soon to tell. But the early signs are good...."

Plus ça change.... An excellent post by Eric Lipton & Ben Protess of the New York Times on how banks are writing financial "regulation" bills again. "The cordial relations [between bank lobbyists & members of Congress] now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank." CW: How could this happen? "The lawmakers who this month supported the bills championed by Wall Street received twice as much in contributions from financial institutions compared with those who opposed them, according to an analysis of campaign finance records performed by MapLight, a nonprofit group."

Local News

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "Anthony D. Weiner ... re-emerged on the city's political stage Thursday as his essential, unadulterated self, at once gratingly self-mythologizing and charmingly self-effacing." ...

... Former Congressman, Currently Unemployed. Will Accept Mayoralty of Any Major U.S. City. Azi Paybarah of Capital New York: "The New York City skyline is one of the most recognizable in the world. The skyline portrayed in the banner on Anthony Weiner's campaign website isn't it. It's Pittsburgh. To be precise, the banner shows the top of what appears to be the Roberto Clemente Bridge." The photo has since been swapped out & Weiner's marketing firm "takes full responsibility." Via Gawker. ...

... Oh, Great. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Former congressman and newly announced New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (D) said in an interview Thursday morning with WNYC-FM that there could be women coming forward with more e-mails or photos from the inappropriate digital conversations that led to his resignation in 2011."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Haynes Johnson, a distinguished Washington Post journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for civil rights coverage in the 1960s and later sought to pierce the mysteries of the politics and gamesmanship of the capital, died May 24 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda. He was 81."

Dan Sligh describes his "rough day" after he & his wife plunged in their truck into the Skagit River after an I-5 bridge in Washington state collapsed:

Seattle Times photo.

Seattle Times: "A chunk of Interstate 5 collapsed into the Skagit River near Mount Vernon on Thursday evening, dumping two vehicles into the icy waters and creating a gaping hole in Washington state's major north-south artery. Officials said the highway will not be fixed for weeks at the very least. Rescuers pulled three people with minor injuries from the water after the collapse, which authorities say began when a semitruck with an oversized load struck a steel beam at around 7 p.m....The bridge, built in 1955, was inspected twice last year and repairs were made.... The bridge is classified as a 'fracture critical' bridge by the National Bridge Inventory. That means one major structural part can ruin the entire bridge, as compared with a bridge that has redundant features...."

Reuters: "A North Korean envoy told China's president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take 'positive actions' to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, bluntly told a North Korean envoy on Friday that his country should return to diplomatic talks intended to rid it of its nuclear weapons, according to a state-run Chinese news agency."

The Commentariat -- May 23, 2013

Charlie Savage & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Obama plans to open a new phase in the nation's long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military.... In [a] letter to Congressional leaders, [AG Eric] Holder confirmed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who died in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen. Mr. Holder also wrote that United States forces had killed three other Americans who 'were not specifically targeted.'"

Thomas Edsall, in the New York Times: "... lobbyists have become a semi-permanent class with ever-expanding reach -- they write legislation, they kill legislation. They have usurped many of the political functions that once belonged to elected officials, in part by adapting to new political ecologies faster than those who seek to counter their influence. Insofar as they are protecting the status quo, lobbyists insulate calcified interest groups from challenge....At a time when sectors of the economy ranging from health care to education to manufacturing are under more or less permanent siege, the tentacles of the lobbying community are choking off open exchange between officeholders and the voters they represent. They have created and now maintain a stifling stasis. It is hard to see how this ends well." AND, corporations get a GREAT return on their investment in lobbyists -- on average, for instance, multinationals get 22,000 percent!

Gail Collins: "The [immigration reform] bill, which would give millions of undocumented residents a path toward eventual citizenship, now goes to the full Senate, where it actually looks as though it's going to pass. Any further progress would require cooperation from the House of Representatives, the circle of hell where the damned are condemned to spend eternity voting to repeal the health care reform law."

Philip Rucker & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: In April (of 2013, I presume,) White House counsel "Kathryn Ruemmler shared the news [of the IRS audit] with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other senior White House aides, who all recognized the danger of the findings. But they agreed that it would be best not to share it with President Obama until the independent audit was completed and made public, in part to protect him from even the appearance of trying to influence an investigation....But Ruemmler and McDonough's careful plan for the IRS was upended on May 10, when Lois Lerner ... broke the news by admitting that the IRS had given extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Senior White House officials were stunned to see the IRS trying to get ahead of its own story -- and in doing so, creating a monstrous communications disaster.... Many prominent Washington lawyers say Ruemmler made the sensible legal call." ...

... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in an interview aired late Wednesday that it's 'inconceivable' someone didn't inform President Obama about the IRS's targeting of conservative groups." ...

... Rachael Bade of Politico: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chair of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, claims that IRS employee Lois Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights by making an opening statement, & he may pursue contempt charges. Legal experts, however, say Issa's argument that Lerner has waived her Fifth Amendment rights might not be as strong as he suggests."

One more reason Sheldon Whitehouse is one of my heroes. He is a man for the ages -- one of those few great orators who lend credence to the Senate's usually dubious moniker "the world's greatest deliberative body":

     ... BTW, this wasn't a speech Whitehouse had been honing for years. He delivered it Monday afternoon in response to the tornado that had flattened Moore, Oklahoma, tornado a few hours earlier. ...

     ... CW Oopsie Update. I was wrong about that. Fox "News": "Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has apologized for remarks Monday in which he linked Oklahoma 'cyclones' to climate change while berating Republicans for their stance on the issue -- around the time a massive tornado killed dozens in that state. A Whitehouse spokesman said Tuesday the politically charged remarks were pre-written as part of the senator's weekly Senate floor speech on climate change." How humiliating to be corrected by Fox "News." Still, no apology necessary, Senator.

Going Nuclear? Brian Beutler of TPM: "Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would hold a vote on Richard Cordray's nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before the Senate skipped town for Memorial Day. Plans change. Cordray will now most likely get his chance after immigration reform legislation clears the Senate. And not because Reid is giving up on Cordray's nomination, but because he wants to turn Cordray and a handful of other nominees into a test of the GOP's vows to filibuster top Obama picks, including two designated cabinet secretaries."

Steve Benen: Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) went winger wacko in a Congressional hearing today over the unsubstantiated and untrue rumor that Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes in 10 years. Harry Reid spread the rumor during the campaign season last year based on what he said an associate of Romney's told him. Gosar told former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman that this was an "alarming" story which the IRS should have investigated, which happens to make no sense. ...

... Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "It was bad enough when Reid made his outlandish charges during the campaign. But now Gosar has compounded the error by treating it as an accepted fact -- long after it has been disproven -- in order to browbeat a witness at a congressional hearing. At the very least, he should have acknowledged that there was no truth to Reid's charge, rather than suggesting that Reid 'obtained' something legitimate from the IRS."

It's All Petraeus's Fault. New York Times Editors: "As Karen DeYoung and Scott Wilson reported in The Washington Post on Wednesday, the e-mails [among the C.I.A., State Department & White House related to the Benghazi talking points] show that Mr. Petraeus was critical to producing talking points 'favorable to his image and his agency.' ... The State Department did a full a public review of its behavior.... Reforms are under way. Congress needs to look closely at the C.I.A.’s role and insist that the agency do the same." CW: Republicans have no incentive to go after Petraeus -- their former hero whom they hoped to make President Petraeus (R) -- so they don't give a flying fuck what the C.I.A. did under his watch. Unless Obama orders a C.I.A. probe -- and he could -- there won't be one.

M. B. Pell, et al., of Reuters: "The fertilizer-plant explosion that killed 14 and injured about 200 others in Texas last month highlights the failings of a U.S. federal law intended to save lives during chemical accidents.... Known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, the law requires companies to tell emergency responders about the hazardous chemicals stored on their properties. But even when companies do so..., it is up to the companies and local firefighters, paramedics and police to plan and train for potential disasters. West Fertilizer Co of West, Texas..., had alerted a local emergency-planning committee in February 2012 that it stored potentially deadly chemicals at the plant. Firefighters and other emergency responders never acted upon that information to train for the kind of devastating explosion that happened 14 months later..., a failing that likely cost lives. It's a scenario that has played out in chemical accidents nationwide...."

Joe Nocera: "On Tuesday, despite the overwhelming evidence presented by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that Apple engaged in dubious tax avoidance gimmicks, [Apple CEO Tim] Cook claimed that Apple never resorted to tax gimmickry.... Apple is as much an innovator in tax avoidance as it is in technology.... [Sen. Carl] Levin [D-Mich.] has proposed a bill that would curb the most blatant abuses of the tax code like the Double Irish." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "One thing became clear this week on Capitol Hill: It is better to be a tax dodger than a tax collector. Armed with a blistering report that said Apple had avoided paying billions of dollars in taxes, senators ... called [Timothy D. Cook] a 'pretty smart guy' and praised the 'incredible legacy' his company had left. They gushed over his products, calling Apple 'a great company' that had managed to 'change the world.' ... It was considerably different for the officials of the Internal Revenue Service.... Wednesday's I.R.S. hearing felt like an inquisition -- unforgiving, angry, prosecutorial." ...

... Howard Schneider of the Washington Post: "A global effort to tighten corporate tax rules is gaining momentum as politicians in Europe and the United States take aim at American tech giants whose savvy use of international tax laws has provoked a public backlash. A day after a U.S. Senate report slammed Apple's use of Irish regulations to minimize payments to the U.S. government, European heads of state said they hoped for quick action from an international effort to change rules that let companies shelter profits." CW: I sure hope European countries' (where perhaps fewer politicians have corporate sponsors) tax reforms help the U.S. because the U.S. Congress isn't going to help the U.S. See Michael Shear's report above.

Stephanie Gaskell of Politico: "The Army is investigating a soldier who helped train cadets at West Point amid allegations that he made secret videos of female cadets, the latest in a rash of cases that have brought heavy political pressure on the Pentagon to crack down on sexually oriented offenses in the ranks. The Army said Sgt. 1st Class Michael McClendon, a 23-year veteran who did two tours in Iraq, was charged with indecency, dereliction of duties, cruelty and maltreatment for being in 'possession of inappropriate images taken without consent.'"

** John Cassidy of the New Yorker has some questions for President Obama on just how far he is willing to go to pursue leak cases. ...

... Dana Milbank: "The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of. ...

... Oops, missed this: James Goodale in a New York Times debate forum: "The search warrant filed to investigate the Fox News reporter James Rosen proved as many had suspected: President Obama wants to make it a crime for a reporter to talk to a leaker. It is a further example of how President Obama will surely pass President Richard Nixon as the worst president ever on issues of national security and press freedom." Goodale is an attorney; he represented the Times in the Pentagon Papers case. ...

... CW: I agree that at this point the Rosen probe appears to be a "flagrant assault of civil liberties," but going Nixon on this & on the AP probe is premature. So far, there is no evidence that Obama or his top staff directed these investigations of journalists -- with the exception, of course, of Eric Holder, whom the White House likes to claim is "independent" of White House influence. In addition, whether you think they violate the First Amendment or not (I tend to think they do), the FBI had proper warrants for its search of Rosen's records. Nixon, of course, did directly order & encourage suppression of journalists & he didn't ask a judge if it was okay -- because it wasn't. ...

... John Stanton of BuzzFeed: "According to Republicans, at least two [House] committees -- the Judiciary and Government Affairs and Oversight panels -- are currently discussing holding separate hearings into spying on reporters from the Associated Press and Fox News by the DOJ as part of its efforts to root out leaks."

FAIR makes the case that the New York Times is going all Judy Miller on weak evidence that the Assad government has used chemical weapons. (CW: I tried to read the FAIR piece with skepticism, but unless they have omitted NYT articles [or qualifiers in the articles cited] that are more cautious, the FAIR argument seems, well, fair to me.) Just Foreign Policy has a form you can complete asking the Times' public editor Margaret Sullivan to "push the Times to be more skeptical." Thanks to Kate M. for the lead.

Maybe NOW no Sunday morning producer will ever book Peggy Noonan again:

Right Wing World

There Is the Only Trustworthy Person in the Whole U.S.A and He Is Ted Cruz. The senior senator from Arizona urged this body to trust the Republicans. Let me be clear, I don't trust the Republicans. I don't trust the Democrats and I think a whole lot of Americans likewise don't trust the Republicans or the Democrats because it is leadership in both parties that has got us into this mess. -- Ted Cruz, on the Senate floor Wednesday

... Nevertheless, Trustworthy Ted used to be willing to at least camouflage his trusty intransigence -- back in 2000 when he was working for Dubya's campaign. Beth Reinhard of the National Journal: "Cruz helped craft the campaign's immigration policy, which called for speeding up the application process, increasing the number of work visas, and allowing the relatives of permanent residents to visit the U.S. while their applicants were pending.... Tuesday ... Cruz ... called the [immigration reform] bill 'toothless' to enforce border security. His amendments, which failed, would have tripled the number of border-patrol agents and barred illegal immigrants from earning citizenship."

Local News

Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Gov. Bob McDonnell is under investigation over the statements of economic interest he has filed. The investigation was initiated by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who sent a letter in early November 2012 to Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael N. Herring, appointing him to review McDonnell's statements. By law, elected officials are required to account for all gifts received in excess of $50.... McDonnell, the titular head of the state Republican Party who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016, is supporting the attorney general [in his race for governor] and helping to raise money for him."

News Ledes

AP: "The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table."

Reuters: "An envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un told a senior Chinese leader on Thursday that North Korea is willing to take China's advice to start talks to resolve tension on the Korean peninsula, China's state television reported."

The Washington Post on Ibragim Todashev, the associate/acquaintance of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whom an FBI agent shot & killed in Orlando yesterday. "Law enforcement officials said Todashev ... was being interviewed about his possible role in a triple slaying in Waltham, Mass., in September 2011. They said Todashev acknowledged involvement in the killings and also implicated Tsarnaev in what the law enforcement officials described as a drug deal that went bad."

Reuters: "Public defenders representing James Holmes, accused of killing 12 moviegoers in Colorado last summer, will return to court on Thursday to challenge the state's insanity defense law in a bid to try to avoid the death penalty for their client. Lawyers representing Holmes, 25, are challenging Colorado's capital punishment statute on several fronts, and on Thursday are arguing that it unconstitutionally bars him from calling his own mental health experts at sentencing if he refuses to cooperate with court-appointed psychiatrists."

AP: "The nation's record-low teen birth rate stems from robust declines in nearly every state, but most dramatically in several Mountain States and among Hispanics, according to a new government report. All states but West Virginia and North Dakota showed significant drops over five years. But the Mountain States of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Utah saw rates fall by 30 percent or more.... Hispanic women have been part of that trend, possibly due to the economy and to illegal immigration crackdowns in some states that reduce the number of young Hispanic females entering the country from Mexico and other nations, said John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health."

AP: " A government investigation found that 'extremely' poor quality construction materials and a series of violations caused the collapse of a garment factory building in Bangladesh that has been called the worst garment-industry disaster in history.... The report found that building owner Sohel Rana had permission to build a six-story structure and added two floors illegally.... The report also said the building was not built for industrial use and the weight of the heavy garment factory machinery and their vibrations contributed to the building collapse."

New York Times: "Boy Scout leaders from around the country, engulfed in a culture war over homosexuality, gathered for a vote [in Grapevine, Texas,] Thursday on a landmark proposal that would permit openly gay youths -- but not openly gay adult leaders -- to participate in scouting."

The Commentariat -- May 22, 2013

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "...lost in the contentious debate over the legality, morality and effectiveness of [drones] is the fact that the number of strikes has actually been in decline. Strikes in Pakistan peaked in 2010 and have fallen sharply since then; their pace in Yemen has slowed to half of last year’s rate; and no strike has been reported in Somalia for more than a year."

Most homebuilders would be against [requiring safe structures in new homes] because we think the market ought to drive what people are putting in the houses, not the government. -- Mike Gilles, a former president of the Oklahoma State Home Builders Association (Gilles puts storm shelters in the luxury homes he builds)

Might as well just sit back. If it gets you, it gets you. If not, another day. -- Leon Harjo, a Moore, Oklahoma, resident ...

... ** John Schwartz of the New York Times: "... no local ordinance or building code requires [storms cellars or safe rooms], either in houses, schools or businesses, and only about 10 percent of homes in Moore have them. Nor does the rest of Oklahoma, one of the states in the storm belt called Tornado Alley, require them -- despite the annual onslaught of deadly and destructive twisters like the one on Monday.... Schwartz attributes the lacks of such codes to "cost & Plains culture." The cost for homes, BTW, is in the neighborhood of $4,000.

I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations and I have not provided false information to this or any other committee. -- Lois Lerner, to the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee

Lauren French & Kelsey Snell of Politico: "Lois Lerner, the director of the scandal-plagued IRS division that oversees nonprofit groups, struck a defiant tone in her first public appearance since the agency acknowledged that it wrongly targeted conservative groups applying for a tax exemption.... For now, Lerner is refusing to answer additional questions from the committee by invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.... Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin told the panel that although he was aware the IRS was being investigated, he knew nothing about the results of that review and didn't interfere with the probe in any way." ...

     ... The Washington Post is liveblogging the hearing. ...

... CW: I often disagree with Dan Balz of the Washington Post because he tends to take the "fastidious whiner" approach to controversies. But I think he's right today: "... the White House has added to the confusion by changing its story of who knew what and when. By happenstance or design, officials are employing an approach that former White House press secretary Mike McCurry once classically described as 'telling the truth slowly.' ... If White House officials hoped the IRS controversy would quickly go away, they have acted in a way designed to produce just the opposite." ...

... BUT Jeff Toobin, in the New Yorker: "It was immediately clear that neither President Obama nor anyone in the White House ordered the alleged I.R.S. misconduct. So the question became what the White House 'knew' about the wrongdoing.... Shouldn't [White House counsel Kathryn] Ruemmler et al. have told the President about the audit? Actually, that would have been just about the worst thing they could have done.... By not telling the President, Ruemmler made sure that Obama could not be accused of influencing the audit." ...

... CW: nevertheless, Ruemmler told the President's chief of staff Denis McDonough & other White House officials about the investigation, & isn't it reasonable to suspect that any one of them might have clued in Obama? Not that it matters, because it doesn't unless it turns out the President sent the Cincinnati office a big gift basket with a "keep up the good work" card. ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: Lois Lerner, "the Internal Revenue Service official who tried to temper efforts to target conservative groups and then made the issue public, will plead her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a House hearing on Wednesday." ...

... Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman told Congress Tuesday that he only learned the full extent of the agency's targeting of conservative groups after he left his post and did not know why employees initially implemented the policy. Shulman said IRS staffers should have more quickly alerted their superiors about the higher scrutiny given to Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status -- a feeling shared by the acting commissioner, Steven Miller. The two officials faced tough questions about the IRS scandal before the Senate Finance Committee...." ...

... Old News. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "An Internal Revenue Service review of the agency's approach of scrutinizing conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status questioned the now-controversial policy a year ago, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee spokesman Ali Ahmad." ...

... Matea Gold of the Los Angeles Times, via the Chicago Tribune: "Crossroads GPS, the behemoth conservative advocacy group behind some of the most robust attacks against President Obama's administration, said Monday that it believes it is among the organizations subjected to special scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service. The statement by the group comes as campaign finance reform advocates and congressional Democrats have claimed that the IRS failed to examine the activities of Crossroads and other major political players...." CW: Good. And I hope there's a provision in the IRS practices & procedures manual for applying thumbscrews to Karl Rove. If there isn't, there should be. ...

... David Grant of the Christian Science Monitor: gee, maybe this whole IRS brouhaha is Congress's fault for writing such an ambiguous law, then letting the IRS interpret it -- for 50 years. ...

... The Starr Chamber II. As contributor MAG noted, Bill Keller is advancing the bright idea of a Ken Starr investigation of the IRS. I was hoping Keller had suggested Starr investigate Benghazi, which would put him back in the familiar Clinton territory he so enjoyed. Maybe he could have finally nailed Hillary on Whitewater. Unless it turns out Lois Lerner was auditing Steven Miller's privates, IRS-gate would be no fun for Ken.

We have got to get past [unfounded accusations about Benghazi] and figure out what are we going to do going forward. Some of the accusations, I mean you wouldn't believe some of this stuff. It's just -- I mean, you've got to be on Mars to come up with some of this stuff. -- Unnamed Senior House GOP Aide ...

... CW: it isn't just staffers whose eyes are beginning to glaze over. As Ben Ambruster of Think Progress points out, Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) & Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) & Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) have all backed away from endorsing the Big All-Benghazi-All-the-Time Show. ...

... It Was All Petraeus's Fault, II. Scott Wilson & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "at [an] informal session with [Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.),] House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the ranking Democrat asked David H. Petraeus, who was CIA director at the time, to ensure that committee members did not inadvertently disclose classified information when talking to the news media about the attack.... What Petraeus decided to do with that request is the pivotal moment in the controversy over the administration's Benghazi talking points. It was from his initial input that all else flowed, resulting in 48 hours of intensive editing that congressional Republicans cite as evidence of a White House coverup.... Petraeus's early role and ambitions in going well beyond the committee's request, apparently to produce a set of talking points favorable to his image and his agency. The information Petraeus ordered up when he returned to his Langley office that morning included far more than the minimalist version that Ruppersberger had requested."

New York Times Editors: "With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter [Jay Rosen] a possible 'co-conspirator' in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening the fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news."

McCain & Collins Are Sick of Tailgunner Ted & Li'l Randy. Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Long-simmering divisions among Republicans burst into public view Tuesday evening, when GOP moderates challenged tea-party conservatives on the Senate floor over their refusal to proceed to formal negotiations with Democrats over the federal budget." ...

... Dave Weigel of Slate: "What Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee want -- and have wanted -- is a guarantee that a debt limit increase cannot be included in the budget agreement that comes out of the House and Senate conference. It only takes 51 votes to pass a budget. Cruz, on the floor, has asked the Senate to preserve the 'traditional 60-vote threshold' for raising the debt limit. This is a strange definition of 'tradition.'" ...

...  Steve Benen has more: "Between 1939 and 2010, the debt ceiling was raised 89 times. How many of those increases were subjected to the '60-vote threshold'? Zero. Even earlier this year, a debt-ceiling increase was approved with 52 votes, not 60. It's possible Cruz doesn't understand what 'traditional' means.... What Cruz wants isn't traditional; it's unprecedented.... And as of yesterday, even some Senate Republicans are getting tired of this nonsense."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: " Senate committee approved a sweeping immigration reform bill Tuesday that would provide a path to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants, setting the stage for the full Senate to consider the landmark legislation next month. After five days of debate over dozens of amendments, the Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 in support of the bill, with three Republicans joining the committee's 10 Democrats. The legislation emerged with its core provisions largely intact, including new visa programs for high-tech and low-skilled workers and new investments in strengthening border control." ...

... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Tuesday said he would not try to block immigration reform from reaching the floor despite the opposition of some conservative leaders. The green light from McConnell is a promising development...." ...

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Most U.S. high-tech companies would not be required to offer jobs to Americans before they are able to hire foreign workers under a compromise worked out Tuesday by Senate negotiators on an immigration reform bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the deal, which came as an amendment to the immigration legislation, to satisfy concerns from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), whose support is seen as crucial to building strong bipartisan momentum for the overall proposal." ...

... Jennifer Martinez of the Hill: "Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) withdrew a controversial amendment to the immigration bill on Tuesday that would allow American citizens in same-sex marriages to sponsor green cards for their foreign partners. Leahy said he chose to withdraw the amendment 'with a heavy heart' because Republicans have said they would oppose the sweeping immigration bill if it was included." CW: "controversial" only to lunkheads.

Tabassum Zakaria & Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "President Barack Obama's administration has decided to give the Pentagon control of some drone operations against terrorism suspects overseas that are currently run by the CIA, several U.S. government sources said on Monday. Obama has pledged more transparency on controversial counterterrorism programs, and giving the Pentagon the responsibility for part of the drone program could open it to greater congressional oversight."

David Jackson of USA Today: "President Obama has formally appointed the 10 members of a special commission designed to look for improvements in U.S. election systems. The assignment of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration is to 'identify non-partisan ways to shorten lines at polling places, promote the efficient conduct of elections, and provide better access to the polls for all voters,' said a White House statement. The bipartisan co-chairs are Robert Bauer and Benjamin Ginsberg, attorneys who worked for the Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns during last year's presidential election." CW: Hmmm. Ben Ginsberg strikes me as a guy who does not play well with others. I'm not sure this commission will be as effective as the Catfood Commission, which couldn't even agree to produce a report.

Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "Facing down blistering criticism on Capitol Hill that Apple sidestepped billions of dollars in taxes, the company's chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, carefully defended Apple's record Tuesday, rejecting any suggestion of misconduct but avoiding clashes with skeptical legislators." ...

... Contributor P. D. Pepe has what is probably a more true-to-life account of the hearing in today's Comments. ...

... When "Overseas" Means "A New York Bank." David Kocieniewski of the New York Times: "Multinationals based in the United States now hold more than $1.6 trillion in cash classified as 'permanently invested overseas.' These funds will face the 35 percent federal corporate tax only if it is returned to the country. In the convoluted world of corporate tax accounting however, simple concepts like 'overseas' and 'returned to the country' are not as simple as they appear. Apple's $102 billion in offshore profits is actually managed by one of its wholly owned subsidiaries in Reno, Nev., according to the Senate report on the company's tax avoidance. The money is tracked by Apple company bookkeepers in Austin, Tex. What's more, the funds are held in bank accounts in New York."

... Tax Avoidance Copycats? Floyd Norris of the New York Times: "Tuesday’s hearing could have the exact opposite effect from the one that Senator [Carl] Levin [D-Mich.] intended. It is not hard to imagine other chief executives reading news reports and asking their chief financial officers why they never thought of that. That could lead to even more companies finding ways to avoid American income taxes." ...

... ** John Cassidy of the New Yorker: "Partly as a result of their evasive tactics, big businesses now shoulder a lot less of the tax burden than they used to do. In the years after the Second World War, the corporate income tax accounted for about a third of over-all tax revenues. Today, its share is less than nine per cent.... Sixty years ago, individual and payroll taxes accounted for about half of over-all tax revenues; today, they account for more than eighty per cent."

Oh, Great. Gitmo is getting a $200 million renovation. And I doubt there will be an HGTV special about it, even if it becomes the plush resort Orrin Hatch claims it is.

Shahank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times: "The Army suspended the commander of its main basic training camp Tuesday for alleged adultery, the latest in a string of military officers accused of sexual misconduct. Brig. Gen. Bryan T. Roberts, a 29-year Army veteran, was suspended from his post at Ft. Jackson, S.C., while the military investigates allegations of 'adultery and a physical altercation,' officials said.... Adultery is a crime under military law and, if proven, could end his Army career." ...

... CW: The story doesn't detail the allegations about the "physical altercation," so maybe it was -- if true -- suspension-worthy, but adultery should never be a criminal offense. (And, no, I don't favor adultery.)

Local News

Seema Mehta & Laura J. Nelson of the Los Angeles Times: "Wendy Greuel called Eric Garcetti early Wednesday morning to concede the mayoral election, a Greuel campaign source told the Times, ending a two-year campaign to determine Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's successor and the new political leader of Los Angeles. Garcetti will be the first elected Jewish mayor of the city. At 42, he will also be the youngest in more than a century. He is scheduled to take office July 1."

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "After a rocky re-emergence into public life over the past few weeks, marked by circuslike scenes of tabloid photographers chasing him onto the subway, [former Congressman Anthony] Weiner opted to declare his candidacy [for mayor of New York City] from the safe remove of a video":

Fernanda Santos of the New York Times: "A federal appellate panel struck down Arizona's abortion law on Tuesday, saying it was unconstitutional 'under a long line of invariant Supreme Court precedents' that guarantee a woman's right to end a pregnancy any time before a fetus is deemed viable outside her womb -- generally at 24 weeks."

News Lede

Boston Globe: "A Chechen man with ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed by an FBI agent in Orlando early today when the man attacked the agent, the FBI said in a statement. The FBI identified the person shot and killed as Ibragim Todashev, 26. According to the FBI and local news accounts, the shooting took place in an apartment building on Peregrine Avenue while Todashev was being questioned about the bombings and Tamerlan Tsarnaev." ...

     ... Update: the Orlando Sentinel's report is here.