The Commentariat -- March 4, 2013

Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: The $85 billion in automatic cuts working their way through the federal budget spare many programs that aid the poorest and most vulnerable Americans, including the Children's Health Insurance Program and food stamps. But the sequestration cuts, as they are called, still contain billions of dollars in mandatory budget reductions in programs that help low-income Americans, including one that gives vouchers for housing to the poor and disabled and another that provides fortified baby formula to the children of poor women." ...

... Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times: "With the Dow Jones industrial average flirting with a record high, the split between American workers and the companies that employ them is widening and could worsen in the next few months as federal budget cuts take hold. That gulf helps explain why stock markets are thriving even as the economy is barely growing and unemployment remains stubbornly high. With millions still out of work, companies face little pressure to raise salaries, while productivity gains allow them to increase sales without adding workers. ...

... BUT, hey, Republicans are happy. From the Democratic National Committee:

... You all know this, but this video from Mashable is a fine restatement of the extent of (literally off-the-cart) wealth inequality in the U.S. Thanks to Julie L. for the link:

Obama 2.0. Annie Lowrey: "President Obama plans to nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the president of the Walmart Foundation, as his budget chief, the White House said on Sunday." ...

... Charles Pierce: "Yeah, I'm completely comfortable that she only worked for the 'philanthropic' side of the world's most conspicuous sweatshop-enabler and government-services sinkhole, and now she's going to advise the president on exactly how much austerity he can 'bring to the table.' ..."

... Jeff Mason of Reuters: "President Barack Obama will announce his intent on Monday to nominate air quality expert Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz to head the Department of Energy, a White House official said. McCarthy would likely become the face of Obama's latest push to fight climate change. Currently the assistant administrator for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, she would replace Lisa Jackson, who has stepped down as EPA chief."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Reelected with strong support from women, ethnic minorities and gays, [President] Obama is moving quickly to change the face of the federal judiciary by the end of his second term, setting the stage for another series of drawn-out confrontations with Republicans in Congress. The president has named three dozen judicial candidates since January and is expected to nominate scores more over the next few months, aides said. The push marks a significant departure from the sluggish pace of appointments throughout much of his first term.... The new wave of [ethnically & sexually diverse] nominations is part of an effort by Obama to cement a legacy that long outlives his presidency and makes the court system more closely resemble the changing society it governs, administration officials said." The Post has a graphic here, demonstrating the diversity of Obama's new nominees.

Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "The nation's biggest banks wrongfully foreclosed on more than 700 military members during the housing crisis and seized homes from roughly two dozen other borrowers who were current on their mortgage payments, findings that eclipse earlier estimates of the improper evictions. Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo uncovered the foreclosures while analyzing mortgages as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement deal with federal authorities.... In January, regulators ordered the banks to identify military members and other borrowers who were evicted in violation of federal law."

Reid Epstein of Politico: John "Boehner told NBC's 'Meet the Press' in an interview that aired Sunday the House will vote this week to keep the federal government operating through September, when the fiscal year ends, and avoid a potentially politically damaging shutdown." ...

... Steve Benen: "... the Speaker insisted, "[T]here's no plan from Senate Democrats or the White House to replace the sequester." Host David Gregory explained that the claim is "just not true.' ...

Well, David that's just nonsense. If [President Obama] had a plan, why wouldn't Senate Democrats go ahead and pass it? -- John Boehner, responding to Gregory

      ... "Now, I suppose it's possible that the Speaker of the House doesn't know what a Senate filibuster is.... The facts are not in dispute: Democrats unveiled a compromise measure that required concessions from both sides; the plan enjoyed majority support in the Senate; and Republicans filibustered the proposal."

... Kimberly Kindy & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Following Boehner on 'Meet the Press,' Gene Sperling, the chairman of Obama's National Economic Council, agreed that it appeared likely the two sides could avoid threatening a shutdown. That would mean the sequester would remain in effect until the end of the fiscal year. But Sperling insisted that Obama will work to undo its cuts in coming months as part of a broader discussion about continued deficit reduction."

I hope that him and I can put this behind us.... -- Gene Sperling, on his dust-up with Bob Woodward. I hope him got better grades in arithmetic than in English; if not, were doomed!

... Charles Pierce on the Sunday shows. ...

... Driftglass on the Sunday shows.

Phillip Rawls of the AP: "The vice president and black leaders commemorating a famous civil rights march on Sunday said efforts to diminish the impact of African-Americans' votes haven't stopped in the years since the 1965 Voting Rights Act added millions to Southern voter rolls. More than 5,000 people followed Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma's annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee. The event commemorates the 'Bloody Sunday' beating of voting rights marchers -- including a young Lewis -- by state troopers as they began a march to Montgomery in March 1965. The 50-mile march prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that struck down impediments to voting by African-Americans and ended all-white rule in the South." ...

... Mount Rushmore but for Vietnam:

Ezra Klein backs off the thesis of his pollyannish column in which he suggested Democrats & Republicans could make a deal if they only established better communications. "... as long as the GOP's position is they won't compromise, there's not going to be a compromise." CW: Read the whole post, which provides a fascinating illustration of Jonathan Chait's argument that "If Obama could get hold of Klein's mystery legislator, [who said if Obama would only agree to chained CPI, a deal was do-able,] and inform him of his budget offer, it almost certainly wouldn't make a difference. He would come up with something -- the cuts aren't real, or the taxes are awful, or they can't trust Obama to carry them out, or something."

Jake Miller of CBS News: "In a wide-ranging discussion [on Fox "News"], [Mitt Romney] and his wife, Ann Romney, opened up on the reasons for their loss, their adjustment to life after the campaign, and President Obama's leadership since his reelection, making clear that they were disappointed by the loss, but even more disappointed about the direction the country has taken since then. 'Nero is fiddling,' Romney said...." ...

... You can watch the interview here. ...

Caroline Bankoff of New York: "Despite son Tagg's December claim that his father didn't even want to be president, the couple seemed pretty bummed about the outcome of the 2012 election. 'I mourn the fact that he's not [in the White House]," said Ann, who admitted that she still sometimes cries about the loss. "You know, the great Princess Bride line, 'mostly dead?' I'm mostly over it, but not completely. You have moments where you, you know, go back and feel the sorrow of the loss. And so, yes, I think we're not mostly dead yet.' When asked about what it's like to watch Washington from the outside, Mitt responded, "I wish I were there. It kills me to not be there, to not be in the White House doing what needs to be done." Thanks to contributor MAG for the link. ...

... We did very well with the majority population, but not with minority populations, and that was a failing, that was a real mistake.... I think the Obamacare attractiveness and feature was something we underestimated, particularly among lower incomes. And, uh, just didn't do as good a job in connecting with that audience as we should have. -- Mitt Romney, explaining his November loss ...

... Ian Millhiser of Think Progress: "During the course of the interview, Romney agreed with [Chris] Wallace that his '47 percent' comment -- his claim that 47 percent of the country will vote for Obama because they are 'dependent upon government' ... -- hurt his campaign.... Nevertheless, the explanation [he gave Sunday for] ... his loss is reminiscent of the explanation he gave his donors for his defeat shortly after the election -- Obama won because of 'the gifts' he gave to African-Americans, Latinos and young voters."

What I said is not what I believe. -- Mitt Romney, on his 47 percent remark ...

... Ouch! Daniel Larison of the American Conservative: "Romney supporters often relied on his record as a famously unprincipled political weather-vane to defend him against any substantive criticism of what he said during the campaign on the grounds that he didn't or couldn't 'really' believe it.... Of course, it never mattered whether Romney 'really' believed what he was saying, because it became clear years ago that he would have said almost anything to win.

I'm happy to blame the media.... It was not just the campaign's fault -- I believe it was the media's fault as well. He was not being given a fair shake. -- Ann Romney, on one reason her husband lost the 2012 election ...

... Problem: The campaign controlled the media's access to the candidate, so blaming them both at the same time is a touch precious.-- Erik Wemple of the Washington Post ...

... Problem: Mitt is an all-around pandering, lying dickhead & Ann is a pompous bee-otch, so blaming them both at the same time seems just about right. -- Constant Weader ...

... Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "... can you believe these spoiled whiny multi-millionaires? They lost the election because the American people saw through the pandering to the true Mitt Romney: the rich elitist snob who held them in contempt, and would blatantly lie in his quest for power. With every ungracious word out of their mouths, the Romneys just confirm that this impression was dead on." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The one thing I can say for absolute certainty, after watching Willard Romney try to impersonate a carbon-based life-form for over a year, is that 'people' got as good a look at who he really is as they have of any candidate in the past 20 years. His problem was that he couldn't even fake being a fake well enough."

Paul Krugman: Florida Gov. Rick Scott's support for the Medicaid extension to the Affordable Care Act "came with a condition: he was willing to cover more of the uninsured only after receiving a waiver that would let him run Medicaid through private insurance companies.... This is all about spending taxpayer money.... And despite some feeble claims to the contrary, privatizing Medicaid will end up requiring more, not less, government spending, because there's overwhelming evidence that Medicaid is much cheaper than private insurance.... As long as the spending ends up lining the right pockets, and the undeserving beneficiaries of public largess are politically connected corporations, conservatives with actual power seem to like Big Government just fine."

Steve Rattner, in a New York Times op-ed: "Slapping a catchy acronym like the JOBS Act on a piece of legislation makes it more difficult for politicians to oppose it -- and indeed that's what happened with the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. Unveiled a year ago by House Republican leaders, the proposal was rushed into law with large majorities just two months later; its provisions are gradually taking effect.... The JOBS Act has little to do with employment; it's a hodgepodge of provisions that together constitute the greatest loosening of securities regulation in modern history.... The largest number of jobs likely to be created by the JOBS Act will be for lawyers needed to clean up the mess that it will create.

John Burns of the New York Times: "Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, acknowledged Sunday that he had been guilty of sexual misconduct, a week after he announced his resignation and said he would not attend the conclave to choose the next pope. The moves followed revelations that three current and one former priest had accused him of inappropriate sexual contact dating back decades.... Many analysts saw the cardinal's resignation and absence from the conclave as a result of papal pressure, and British newspapers have cited unidentified Vatican officials as saying Pope Benedict -- who stunned the world with his own announcement on Feb. 11 that he would step down -- had ordered the cardinal to remove himself." ...

... There's always been sinners in the church but there's always been saints. -- Cardinal Cormac O'Connor, on O'Brien's hypocrisy. Later, O'Connor said he have forgiven Gene Sperling for him's ungrammatical remark

Local News

Tara Culp-Ressler of Think Progress: "Arkansas' GOP-controlled legislature has voted to override their governor's veto of a 'fetal pain' abortion ban, ensuring the legislation will immediately take effect. Gov. Mike Beebe (D) vetoed the measure on Tuesday, explaining he felt the 20-week ban would run afoul of women's constitutional right to an abortion under Roe v. Wade, but Arkansas lawmakers can override the governor with a simple majority in both chambers."

News Ledes

Reuters: "Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there was 'finite' time for talks between Iran and world powers on its disputed nuclear program to bear fruit, but gave no hint how long Washington may be willing to negotiate. Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and convinced Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has grown impatient with the protracted talks and has threatened pre-emptive war against Tehran if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile."

Locusts!

Reuters: "Roman Catholic cardinals filed into the Vatican on Monday for preliminary meetings to sketch an identikit for the next pope and ponder who among them might be best to lead a church beset by crises." ...

... AP: "Swarms of locusts have descended on Egypt, raising fears they could spread to Israel ... ahead of the Passover."

The Commentariat -- March 3, 2013

The Atlantic: "In 1913, the first major national efforts [to secure women's suffrage] were undertaken, beginning with a massive parade in Washington, D.C., on March 3 -- one day before the inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson. Organized by Alice Paul for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the parade, calling for a constitutional amendment, featured 8,000 marchers, including nine bands, four mounted brigades, 20 floats, and an allegorical performance near the Treasury Building.... Marchers were jostled and ridiculed by many in the crowd. Some were tripped, others assaulted. Policemen appeared to be either indifferent to the struggling paraders, or sympathetic to the mob. Before the day was out, one hundred marchers had been hospitalized." The linked page has terrific photos. ...

... Here's the Library of Congress page on the parade. ...

... Speaking of women's equality, Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast: "this week we've seen a great deal of hue and cry about Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer, the new poster child for corporate assholery, and her demand that telecommuting employees show up at the office. What's bothersome is that this has become less a debate about the relative merits of telecommuting for employer and employee, and more a debate about child care and 'family-friendly' policies."

New York Times Editors: "A commemoration of the [Bloody Sunday] march  [March 7, 1965] is scheduled to begin Sunday in Selma, led by [Rep. John] Lewis and Vice President Joseph Biden Jr., and will end in Montgomery on Friday. Its urgent purpose is to underscore why the Supreme Court must uphold a central provision of the Voting Rights Act, which is now under challenge in Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder." ...

Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Friday that he was 'absolutely shocked' to hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia describe a key piece of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement, as a 'perpetuation of racial entitlement' earlier this week." Clyburn is the third-ranking Democratic leader in the House. ...

... Chief Justice Roberts Gets It Wrong. Nina Totenberg of NPR: "At the voting rights argument in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Chief Justice JohnRoberts tore into Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, grilling him on his knowledge of voting statistics. The point the chief justice was trying to make was that Massachusetts, which is not covered by the preclearance section of the Voting Rights Act, has a far worse record in black voter registration and turnout than Mississippi, which is covered by Section 5 of the act. But a close look at census statistics indicates the chief justice was wrong, or at least that he did not look at the totality of the numbers.... Census officials say, and it is really not possible to compare states because those with relatively low minority populations have a much higher margin of error."

Scott Wilson & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Obama ... is taking the most specific steps of his administration in an attempt to ensure the election of a Democratic ­controlled Congress in two years. 'What I can't do is force Congress to do the right thing,' Obama told reporters at the White House on Friday after a fruitless meeting with Republican leaders to avert the country's latest fiscal crisis, known as the sequester. 'The American people may have the capacity to do that.' Obama, fresh off his November reelection, began almost at once executing plans to win back the House in 2014, which he and his advisers believe will be crucial to the outcome of his second term and to his legacy as president."

The NRA Goes from Worse to Worst. Igor Volsky of Think Progress: "The National Rifle Association (NRA) is increasing its outreach to African Americans with a new campaign that links the Civil Rights struggle and nonviolent resistance to gun ownership, arguing that blacks need firearms to protect themselves from the government":

Ilya Shapiro of the libertarian Cato Institute: "... the Cato Institute has joined the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) on an amicus brief [in Hollingsworth v. Perry, now before the Supreme Court,] that focuses on supporting marriage equality under the Equal Protection Clause."

Maureen Dowd interviews Coim Toibin, an Irish writer who pontificates on the ex-pontiff, among other topics. CW: I don't think I've ever noticed before how choppy Dowd's writing is & what a terrible interviewer she is. But some of Toibin's remarks are worth reading & they touch on that sacrifice thing we discussed in the Comments section a few days ago. ...

... AND since it's Sunday & we're doing Roman Catholic stuff, let's here from Brother Douthat, the New York Times' emissary to the Vatican (sorry, MoDo; despite your seniority, that's a job not open to girls), who says that Joe Ratzinger "stabilized" the Church while he had the top job. ...

... WAIT, WAIT, There's More -- most via Steve Benen's "This Week in God":

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "In 1859, the Italian village of Isola found itself under attack. Two dozen soldiers occupied the village and ... set about torching, raping, and generally terrorizing. Then [Gabriel Possenti,] a twentysomething student at a nearby Catholic seminary, pulled out two knockoff Colt Navy Model .36 caliber revolvers and ended the hostilities ... by sizing up a lizard 20 paces away and blasting it to bits. The invaders fled. At least, that's how John Snyder tells it. Snyder, 73, is the founder of the Saint Gabriel Possenti Society, an organization dedicated to getting Possenti, who was canonized in 1920, officially certified as the 'patron saint of handgunners.' Wednesday is St. Gabriel Possenti Day -- an annual event that this year coincides with the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on assault weapons. The problem, according to Catholic authorities: ... the entire incident never even happened." ...

... Mark Oppenheimer of the New York Times: "... in 2007, Texas passed a law requiring school districts to pay attention in their curriculums to religious literature, including the Bible, and its 'impact on the history and literature of Western Civilization.' ... Since 2006, public schools in four other states -- Arizona, Georgia, Oklahoma and Tennessee -- have passed laws similar to the one in Texas, and North Carolina is considering such a bill." Many schools have ministers teaching their, um, Bible literature & history classes. Surprise! There's proselytising going on there. CW: Most of the "teaching" would be unconstitutional, of course -- if we had a different Supreme Court.

... MEANWHILE, in EvangelicalLand, friend-of-Pat-Robertson-&-Jack-Abramoff Ralph Reed is upset that Congress is helping to foot the bill for repairs to the earthquake-damaged National Cathedral. Reed's problem? Oh, noes. The National Cathedral performs same-sex marriages! Rob Boston of Wall of Separation: "There is one thing that could have stopped taxpayer aid from propping up the National Cathedral -- the separation of church and state. Reed has spent nearly his entire professional life laboring to undermine that principle. Thanks in part to his nefarious schemes, tax money is now flowing to a church that has policies with which he disapproves." ...

... When Woolite Won't Do. Reed's old friend Pat Robertson has advice for how you can get rid of any demons that have attached themselves to the sweaters you bought at the GoodWill.

Congressional Race

Josh Israel of Think Progress: "Massachusetts State Rep. Dan Winslow (R), one of three candidates for his party's nomination in the upcoming special election to fill Secretary of State John Kerry's Senate seat, won a GOP straw poll Saturday.... After giving his speech to the party faithfuls, Wilson tried to disassociate himself from the event's location, the Danversport Yacht Club.... 'They gave us three minutes to speak today; three minutes is longer than I ever wanted to spend in a yacht club,' Winslow said.... [Never mind that] he served on the board of directors for the Pamet Harbor Yacht & Tennis Club. Both Danversport and Pamet Harbor could well benefit from HD1965, Winslow's proposed bill to repeal the sales tax on the sale of boats built or rebuilt in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Joseph Frank, whose magisterial, five-volume life of Fyodor Dostoevsky was frequently cited among the greatest of 20th-century literary biographies, alongside Richard Ellmann's of James Joyce, Walter Jackson Bates's of John Keats and Leon Edel's of Henry James, died on Wednesday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 94 and lived in Palo Alto."

AP: "A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who's now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection. There's no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus' genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world's second reported cure."

AP: "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's 'future as a democracy.' Yet Kerry also served notice that the Obama administration will keep close watch on how Morsi, who came to power in June as Egypt's first freely elected president, honors his commitment and that additional U.S. assistance would depend on it."

Guardian: Britain Queen Elizabeth "has been taken to hospital for the first time in 10 years after symptoms of gastroenteritis led her to cancel a visit to Rome this week. She is expected to remain in the King Edward VII hospital, central London, for assessment after being admitted on Sunday afternoon."

Washington Post: "Well-known political opposition figures stayed away from meetings with visiting Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Saturday.... Kerry encouraged Egypt's Islamist-led government to take politically difficult economic steps that are crucial to securing international loans and outside investment. President Mohamed Morsi, whom Kerry will see Sunday, has been unable to marshal support for such economic measures. His opponents accuse him of reneging on pledges of political and religious openness." ...

... Washington Post: 'Concerned about Egypt's political instability and the U.S. budget crunch, a growing number of American lawmakers are challenging the wisdom of providing $1.3 billion a year in military aid to Cairo, arguing that the policy is overdue for a wholesale review. Lawmakers say that Washington's largess, which includes large fleets of M1A1 tanks and F-16 fighter jets, could backfire, given the unpredictability of Egypt’s Islamist-led government and its fraught relationship with Israel." CW: leading the "concerned lawmakers" is Jim Inhofe, while John McCain "has taken a more moderate view," so I'd view their "concerns" with some skepticism. ...

... AP: "Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak will face a new trial beginning April 13 on charges related to the killings of protesters during the uprising against him, a court ruled Sunday. Mubarak and his former interior minister were sentenced to life in prison in June for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the 18-day revolution in 2011 that ended his 29-year rule. In January, an appeals court overturned the sentences and ordered a retrial."

New York Times: "The Las Vegas Sands Corporation, an international gambling empire controlled by the billionaire Sheldon G. Adelson, has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that it likely violated a federal law against bribing foreign officials." CW: gee, I wonder if Willard, the Newt, et al., will return the millions in filthy lucre they got from Sheldon. Imagine the kind of uproar we'd be hearing if Sheldon had contributed to Democrats.

New York Times: "Chad's military said Saturday that its soldiers in Mali had killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the mastermind of the January seizure of an Algerian gas plant that left at least 37 foreign hostages dead."

AP: "A privately owned Dragon capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering a ton of supplies with high-flying finesse after a shaky start to the mission. The Dragon's arrival was one day late...."

The Commentariat -- March 2, 2013

The President's Weekly Address:

     ... The transcript is here.

... Ewen MacAskill of the Guardian: "Barack Obama signed an order on Friday night to implement $85bn in spending cuts, a move he described as 'dumb' and 'arbitrary' and that he blamed on the intransigence of Republicans in Congress." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama and Congressional leaders emerged from a White House meeting on Friday without resolution to the budget impasse, meaning that the across-the-board spending cuts that take effect Friday could remain in place for weeks if not months. Speaking to reporters after the hourlong meeting, Mr. Obama called the cuts 'just dumb,' and criticized Republicans for their refusal to negotiate a package that includes some new revenue to balance those cuts. 'The only thing we've seen from Republicans so far in terms of proposals is to replace this set of arbitrary cuts with even worse arbitrary cuts,' said Mr. Obama":

     ... Here's a transcript of the President's remarks & the Q&A. ...

... David Firestone of the New York Times: "President Obama is obviously sick and tired of the widely peddled notion that the sequester and all other budget failures are ultimately his fault because he's the president. His frustration made for a surprisingly lively news conference this morning... The Constitution always envisioned Congress, not the president, as the real locus of government power, particularly with regard to the budget. For any voter who doesn't like it, the entire House of Representatives will be up for election in just 20 months." ...

... ** David Atkins of Hullabaloo: "The idea that spending cuts are morally and politically superior to revenue increases is so ingrained the Village political press that to even put the shoe on the other foot creates an unthinkable scenario. This is one of Ronald Reagan's most baleful legacies: a Washington establishment that can't stop believing it's the 1980s or early 1990s." BUT, in his deficit reduction proposal, Obama "advocates lots of cuts and a few tax increases. The other side advocates only cuts. It's hard to blame just the press for implicitly placing cuts on a higher moral pedestal." ...

... CW: one thing nobody ever mentions is the fact that the Village People are all financially comfortable. We tend to think of journalists as underpaid idealists, but the syndicated columnists, the think tank boys, the "influential Washingtonians" are all well-to-do, & they all have (or had) jobs with benefits. If taxes go up, if loopholes are closed, their taxes will go up & their loopholes will close. And if government services decrease, so what? They do not, for the most part, think Social Security & Medicare are crucial to their retirement years, & they do not qualify for most of programs that benefit children. They are a natural low-tax constituency. ...

... Steve Benen Tries to Explain Governance & Compromise to John Boehner: As he left the meeting with President Obama, Boehner said (hardly for the first time):

Let's make it clear, the president got his tax hike on January 1st. The discussion about revenue, in my view, is over.

      ... Which, Benen notes, "makes exactly as much sense as this sentence":

Let's make it clear, Republicans got their spending cuts in 2011. The discussion about spending cuts, in my view, is over. ...

... New York Times Editors: "House Republicans were elated this week when their leader, John Boehner, made it clear that deep, automatic spending cuts would begin as scheduled on Friday. Incredibly, some consider the decision a victory.... Some Americans will be hurt more than others, and the people who will be hurt the most are those who are already struggling.... Why are the Republicans are so happy when they should be ashamed?" ...

... Why, just look across the page, NYT Editors. There's brilliant macroeconomist Joe Scarborough saying the sequester isn't so bad & President Obama overplayed his hand. CW: why the New York Times gives this lunkhead -- who already has a huge soapbox at MSNBC & another at Politico -- is beyond me. ...

... Dorothy Wickenden of the New Yorker talks with Ryan Lizza & Rick Hertzberg about "the budget fiasco":

... Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect has an excellent retrospective on What Obama Did Is Doing) Wrong. ...

... CW: The Two-Step Obama Can't Master. It has seemed to me for a long time that the only way Obama could self-correct would be to make a huge I-Wuz-Wrong confession & renounce deficit hawkery, Simpson-Bowles, & all that other belt-tightening crap. But politicians, much more presidents, have prohibitively powerful egos, so I don't think that (1) even if his deficit-cutting faith could be exorcised, (2) he could say I Wuz Wrong.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: " That the free market won't work for medicine is an economic truth by now ancient and undisputed." But for conservatives, "the market becomes not an instrument of prosperity but, rather, an icon of piety...." Therefore, when private service costs more & delivers less than can the government, well -- God bless private enterprise!

Pedro Nicolaci da Costa of Reuters: "Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, said on Friday that pulling back on aggressive policy measures too soon would pose a real risk of damaging a still-fragile recovery."

Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Military prosecutors announced on Friday that they had decided to try Pfc. Bradley Manning on the most serious charges they have brought against him and seek a sentence that could be life without parole, despite his voluntary guilty plea to 10 lesser charges that carry a maximum total sentence of 20 years."

Friday Afternoon News Dump. Juliet Eilperin & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday, suggesting the project would have little impact on climate change. Canada's oil sands will be developed even if President Obama denies a permit to the pipeline connecting the region to Gulf Coast refineries, the analysis said. Such a move would also not alter U.S. oil consumption, the report added."

Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: researchers from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum "have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler's reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945. The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington."

Right Wing World

Do Not Challenge "Washington's Reporter Emeritus." Kathleen Parker, one of the many conservative columnists for the Washington Post, is just as apoplectic about White House muscle as is Bob Woodward: "... the Obama administration has demonstrated its intolerance for dissent and its contempt for any who stray from the White House script.... But no president since Richard Nixon has demonstrated such overt contempt for the messenger."

News Ledes

AP: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Egypt to press bickering Egyptian leaders and opposition politicians to forge a political consensus that will allow the country to emerge from economic crisis. Kerry meets Saturday with a number of opposition figures along with Egypt's foreign minister before seeing President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday. U.S. officials say Kerry is particularly concerned that Egypt takes the reforms necessary to qualify for a $4.5 billion IMF loan package."

Washington Post: "Bonnie Franklin, the spunky, ginger-haired stage performer who became best remembered as the independent-minded divorcee with two teenage daughters on the long-running sitcom 'One Day at a Time,' died March 1 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 69."