The Commentariat -- January 19, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on David Brooks' argument against asking Mitt Romney to release his tax returns & Nicholas Kristof's whitewashing of Bain Capital. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "President Obama comes out swinging at the Koch brothers, the wealthy conservative industrialists, in a new television ad designed to push back against a barrage of attacks on the president’s character."

I think Mr. Romney and the rest of the Republican field are going to be playing to their base until the primary season is over. Overall, I think it’s going to be pretty hard to argue that we have not executed a strategy over the last three years that has put America in a stronger position than it was than when I came into office. -- Barack Obama ...

... Fareed Zakaria of Time: "President Obama dismissed Republican rival Mitt Romney’s critiques of his foreign policy credentials Wednesday in an exclusive TIME interview, saying the GOP frontrunner’s attacks are little more than primary posturing that will wither under the glare of 'a serious debate.'” ...

... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama will hit the road for a three-day, five-state tour after his State of the Union address Tuesday, stopping throughout campaign battleground territory that could be critical to his re-election chances."

NEW. Democracy Now! has a good video report on Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit with Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska and 350.org founder Bill McKibben, an expert on climate change who has led massive protests in Washington, D.C. against the pipeline.

... Glenn Thrush & Darrell Samuelsohn of Politico on the politics of President Obama's killing the Keystone XL pipeline project. Bottom line: it's a win-win.

Prof. Jonathan Turley in a Washington Post op-ed: "10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the land of the free."

... Paul Krugman: "... nothing in our history or experience says that unearned income [like capital gains] has to be taxed this lightly. It’s not a time-honored principle; it’s a Bush-era innovation, pushed through the Senate, by the way, using reconciliation." ...

... New York Times Editors: "If Mr. Romney has done one good thing with his partial disclosure — although it clearly wasn’t his goal — he has reminded Americans of the fundamental unfairness of the current tax code and of how determined Mr. Romney and his party are to keep it that way. Currently, the tax code imposes a top rate of 15 percent on investment income — generally, capital gains and dividends — that flows overwhelmingly to wealthy taxpayers. In comparison, top rates between 25 percent and 35 percent are applied to the wages and salaries for many working Americans. Worse, an egregious loophole in the law lets private equity partners pay the lower 15 percent rate on much of their income — known as “carried interest” — even though those earnings are not typically gains from investing their own money, but rather a share of profits from investing someone else’s money."

Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: "Google and Wikipedia did everyone a big service, and the swift reaction of lawmakers was gratifying. Now, if [Sen. John] Cornyn [R-Texas] and [Sen. Marco] Rubio [R-Fla.] would pay as much attention to the Occupy protesters and the pain of the middle class, the country would be even better off." ...

... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: The "formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet. As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old."

A. G. Sulzberger of the New York Times: "Barring some unexpected act of salvation..., Boeing leaves Wichita, [Kansas,] after eight decades as one of its biggest employers and most prestigious brands: in a trail of broken promises and bitter recriminations. For most of the country, this is just one more plant closing, just 2,160 more lost jobs in a Midwestern city.... But the exit has been another painful blow to the city of Wichita and the airplane manufacturing industry that has sustained it, the sudden reversal of fortune only adding to the feeling of betrayal."

Penn State trustees speak to Pete Thamel & Mark Viera of the New York Times about how they decided to fire University President Graham Spanier & head football coach Joe Paterno as a result of their mishandling the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case.

Fareed Zakaria, frankly, doesn't know much about economics, but I think he might be right in this Washington Post op-ed: "When asked how they will create jobs, Republicans simply talk about cutting taxes and regulations and getting government out of the way. Yes, it is important to have competitive tax and regulatory policies. But the lessons from East Asia to Northern Europe suggest that government policy and investment can play a vital role in providing incentives for the private sector."

Right Wing World

Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven." ...

     ... Update: Kasie Hunt of the AP writes a related story. ...

Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "The wealth that has helped underwrite [Mitt Romney's] career in politics remains shrouded in considerable secrecy, which now poses a major political risk on the campaign trail. Mr. Romney’s finances are complex and far-flung. He and his wife, Ann, have reported holdings in dozens of publicly traded companies, mutual funds and high-end investment partnerships, with much of their family wealth held in blind trusts that conceal their full size from public view." ...

Andrew Kaczynski of BuzzFeed throws "The Book" at Mitt Romney; that is, he has published John McCain's full 2008 oppo research book on Romney. If you'd like to read 200 pages of "Romney Is a Bad Dude," this is the place.

Brian Ross of ABC News: "Newt Gingrich lacks the moral character to serve as President, his second ex-wife Marianne told ABC News, saying his campaign positions on the sanctity of marriage and the importance of family values do not square with what she saw during their 18 years of marriage." With video clip.

** Fools or Frauds. Paul Krugman: "... to be a good Republican right now, you have to affirm your belief in things that any halfway intelligent politician can see are plainly false. This leaves room for only two kinds of candidates: those who just aren’t smart and/or rational enough to understand the problem, and those who are completely cynical, willing to say anything to get ahead. What sort of things am I talking about? They range from the belief that Obama is a socialist who will destroy America with his dastardly Heritage Foundation devised health care plan, to the belief that unemployment is high because lazy people prefer their unemployment insurance checks. On budget matters, you have to claim to believe that we can cut taxes sharply, maintain high military spending, and eliminate the deficit — all without upsetting those Republican-voting Medicare recipients."

Philosopher Gary Gutting, in a New York Times post, exposes the inherent contradiction in conservative philosophy. (It would have been nice to read Gutting's views on Calvinism and "prosperity theology," but perhaps the contradictory nature of those "theologies" is self-evident.)

The Do-Nothing Congress, Con'd. Dana Milbank: "The House’s first legislative act of 2012 had been utterly pointless...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday blocked Vermont from forcing the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor to shut down when its license expires in March, saying that the state is trying to regulate nuclear safety, which only the federal government can do."

New York Times: "In what the federal authorities on Thursday called one of the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the Web site Megaupload and charged seven people connected with it with running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.... The hacker collective that calls itself Anonymous attacked the Web sites of the Justice Department and several major entertainment companies and trade groups in retaliation for Mega-upload’s seizure. The Justice Department’s site and several others remained inaccessible for much of Thursday afternoon." Gizmodo has a story & a copy of the indictment. The Rolling Stone story is here.

And then there were four (I think). CNN is livestreaming the GOP presidential debate here. The New York Times liveblog is here.

** CNN: Rick Perry is telling supporters that he will drop his bid Thursday for the Republican presidential nomination, two sources familiar with his plans told CNN." ...

     ... Politico Update: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to end his presidential campaign Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich, two sources confirm to Politico." ...

     ... Update: New York Times post-statement report.

New York Times: "Mitt Romney’s eight-vote victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded on Thursday, following a two-week review by the state’s Republican Party that found that Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Mr. Romney, two party officials confirmed. Matt Strawn, chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party, is set to announce at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time that an actual winner cannot be determined in the caucuses because results from eight of 1,774 precincts could not be located for certification.... Mr. Santorum moved quickly on Thursday to declare victory and dismissed the suggestion that a clear-cut winner could not be determined." ...

     ... Update: Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register has the details.

Bloomberg News: "Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, easing concern that post-holiday firings were on the rise. Jobless claims plunged by 50,000 to 352,000 in the week ended Jan. 14, the lowest level since April 2008, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington." ...

... BUT. Bloomberg: "Builders began work on fewer houses than forecast in December, capping the worst year on record for single-family home construction and signaling recovery in the industry will take time."

New York Times: "Eastman Kodak, the 131-year-old film pioneer that has been struggling for years to adapt to an increasingly digital world, filed for bankruptcy protection early on Thursday. The American icon had tried a number of turnaround strategies and cost-cutting efforts in recent years, but the company — which since 2004 has reported only one full year of profits — ultimately ran short of cash."

New York Times: "In the latest twist in Britain’s phone hacking scandal, the actor Jude Law and John Prescott, a former British deputy prime minister, were named Thursday in a list of 36 victims of alleged hacking who have reached out-of-court settlements with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire." The Guardian is running a liveblog on the story.

Washington Post: "David M. Rubenstein, the billionaire Bethesda philanthropist, will donate $7.5 million to help fix the shuttered, earthquake-damaged Washington Monument, government officials plan to announce Thursday.... It comes a month after he donated $4.5 million to the National Zoo’s cash-strapped giant panda program and seven months after a $13.5 million gift to the National Archives.

AP: "... a U.S. Army depot in Utah finished destroying the last of 1.3 million munitions filled with a witches' brew of toxins, blister and blood agents.... The Utah depot — which at its peak held 13,600 tons of chemical agents, making it the world's largest — expects to complete the job by the weekend when it incinerates bulk supplies of Lewisite, a powerful skin, eye and lung irritant. By then, the U.S. Army will have destroyed about 90 percent of its aging chemical weapons that accumulated through the Cold War."

New York Times: "Hedge funds ... [are] suing Greece in a human rights court to make good on its bond payments. The novel approach would have the funds arguing in the European Court of Human Rights that Greece had violated bondholder rights.... Many blame [these same funds] for the lack of progress so far in the negotiations over restructuring Greece’s debts."

The Commentariat -- January 18, 2012

My column in the New York Times eXaminer is on, oh, the banality of the Times op-ed writers. A huge chunk of it is by Akhilleus, which you wouldn't know to read it at this point (9 am ET), as most of the part he wrote is not indented. I'm working on getting that fixed.

Wikipedia is blacked out today. Go to this page to find out why. Also, if you try to call up any Wiki entry, you'll get this page, which guides you to contact your Representative. Do it. ...

     ... Update. Jenna Wortham of the New York Times: "With a Web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment — a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington. The bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, are backed by major media companies and are mostly intended to curtail the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online. But the tech industry fears that, among other things, they will give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they say are abusing copyrights." ...

     ... The Washington Post story, by David Fahrenthold, is here.

In a fascinating New York Times op-ed, historian Kevin Kruse explains how corporate leaders co-opted God in the 1930s & '40s in an effort to discredit "creeping socialism" & restore their own prestige. Their pet phrase: "One nation under God" was meant to be used as propaganda in exactly the way Mitt Romney used it the other day -- to protect the One Percent:

When you have a president encouraging the idea of dividing America based on the 99 percent versus 1 percent, you have opened up a whole new wave of approach in this country which is entirely inconsistent with the concept of one nation under God. -- Mitt Romney

CW: As Kruse notes, Congress [at the behest of President Eisenhower] added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. As a child, I found this change confusing, but our teacher instructed us to say the newly amended pledge, so I did. I don't anymore. I just pause while everybody else says the "under god" bit. I wish more of us would skip the addition. Or skip the pledge altogether. It's a pretty annoying piece of indoctrination, even if it was written by a socialist (who purposely left out the word "equality" because so many Americans were opposed to equality!).

If you read Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek cover story, which I linked a couple of days ago, do go and read Driftglass's response to it. Sullivan is Sullivan. Driftglass is in a class by himself.

Bob Reich: "Mitt Romney is casting the 2012 campaign as 'free enterprise on trial.'" It sure is, but he has it upside-down. "What Romney and the cheerleaders of risk-taking free enterprise don’t want you to know is the risks of the economy have been shifting steadily away from CEOs and Wall Street – and on to average working people. It’s not just income and wealth that are surging to the top. Economic security is moving there as well...."

Stewart & Colbert do this wonderful segment that shows you the total absurdity of pretending there is a "separation" between candidates & the superPACs that support them:

Right Wing World *

Paul Krugman: "Aha. Romney concedes that the estimates people have been making about his taxes are basically right:

At an event in Florence, SC, Mitt Romney told reporters that his effective tax rate is probably close to 15% because most of his income comes from investments, reports Bloomberg’s Julie Davis.

... "And an immediate question is, do you agree that unearned income should be taxed at a rate so much lower than earned income?" ...

Out. Of. Touch. Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "He also characterized as 'not very much' the $374,327 he reported earning in speaking fees last year, though that sum would, by itself, very nearly catapult most American families into the top 1 percent of the country’s earners.... As a candidate, Mr. Romney has also advocated for tax policies that would significantly benefit people who, like him, derive most of their income from investments." CW: These are tidbits from a feature article. Read the whole thing. ...

... Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post: "But that might not be the end of the issue for Romney. It’s likely he also benefited from related tax privileges during his time at Bain. While the lower rate on capital gains and dividend income is supposed to benefit investors, private-equity executives and hedge-fund managers who get paid by taking a share of their firm’s profits rather than a normal salary are also able to classify their income as a capital gain rather than a wage, and so they, too, pay a 15 percent tax rate — even when that money is, effectively, their salary. Ultimately, the private-equity tax loophole could become far more controversial than whether private-equity deals destroy or create jobs. Today, even the Wall Street Journal came out against the loophole...." CW: My tax rate is about double that of Romney's. And I resent it. Big time. ...

... More from Robert Reich on "The Romney Tax Loophole.... "Congress has vowed for years to close this loophole. But somehow it persists. Even when Democrats have been in charge, they haven’t been able to close it. Guess why. The managers and executives of private-equity funds are big donors to Republicans and Democrats alike."

... ** Richard Escow: "Taxing Romney under the same rules most of us follow would have put something in the neighborhood of $61 million more into the US Treasury." Escow lists some programs that just Romney's taxes (not people like Romney -- just Mrs. & Mrs. Willard) could have saved -- and hey, some of those programs actually do create jobs! Thanks to reader Bonnie for the link. ...

... Ruth Marcus: "Romney would spend hundreds of billions for a tax cut whose benefits flow overwhelmingly to the wealthiest Americans, even as he would cut even more from programs that help the most vulnerable. Those skewed priorities are hard to square with Romney’s stated concern, however heartfelt, for the poor. The man from Bain Capital needs to take another look at his figures." CW: Read Marcus' column to get a good overview of Romney's plans to make live easier for him & his super-rich friends & harder for everyone else.

How South Carolina Republicans Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Reader Haley S. sent me the link to this video. Listen to the crowd reaction -- if you can stand it. Never mind Gingrich; he is just playing to the crowd. It is they who make me weep:

... CW: I don't know how many cheering racists attended the debate, but assuming there were 2,000 there, that means than for every one of those bigots, 500 Badgers signed petitions to recall Scott Walker. On, Wisconsin! ...

... ** New York Times Editors: "In South Carolina, where a Confederate flag still waves on the front lawn of the State Capitol largely because of the efforts of the state Republican Party, it remains good primary politics to stir up racial animosity and then link it to President Obama. Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Santorum and the crowd that cheered them are following in a long and tawdry tradition, singling out a minority group for lectures while refusing to support policies that help all Americans." ...

... Dog-Whistling through Dixie. Charles Blow of the New York Times: "Gingrich seems to understand the historical weight of the view among some southern whites..., that blacks are lazy and addicted to handouts. He is able to give voice to those feelings without using those words. He is able to make people believe that a fundamentally flawed and prejudicial argument that demeans minorities is actually for their uplift. It is Gingrich’s gift: He is able to make ill will sound like good will." ...

... Ari Berman of The Nation: "This racially inflammatory rhetoric was on full display last night, as candidate after candidate auditioned to be the next George Wallace." ...

... Jon Stewart comments:

... This what that reprobate Gingrich -- I mean his non-coordinated superPAC -- thinks an Obama-Romney debate would look like. I hope he's -- I mean they are -- right:

* Where racial bigotry is a citizenship requirement.

Local News

John Nichols of The Nation on the Wisconsin recall effort: "No other gubernatorial recall drive in American history has gathered the signatures of so large a proportion of the electorate. The total number of signatures submitted Tuesday represents 46 percent of the turnout in the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election." ...

... Think Progress: "The number of signatures comes close to the 1,128,941 votes Walker received, and was far more than the 540,000 needed." ...

... Charles Pierce on the Wisconsin recalls: "On the day that his state rose up and hocked a loogie in his general direction, Scotty Walker was in the Big Apple, raising money with [Maurice Greenberg,] the founder of AIG &mdash a guy with his own checkered history — the company which, if this were a just world, would have its corporate logo serve as the official collective mugshot of the criminals and grifters and dunces who almost wrecked the world's economy. The company that paid its executives $165 million in bonuses a year after all of us bailed their sorry asses out? I mean, what the fk, Scotty? Was the banquet hall in the old Enron building booked?"

News Ledes

Reuters: "The Obama Administration rejected the Keystone oil pipeline on Wednesday, a move that Republicans decried for sacrificing jobs and energy security in order to shore up the president's environmental base before elections. President Barack Obama said the administration denied TransCanada's application for the $7 billion Canada-to-Texas oil sands pipeline because there was not enough time to review an alternate route that would avoid a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska -- within a 60-day window set by Congress."

New York Times: "Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday threw his unequivocal support behind a $100 billion high-speed rail line that has come under fire here in California and across the country, embracing it in a strikingly optimistic State of the State speech in which he asserted that government should pursue ambitious ventures even during times of economic strife."

AP: "As details emerged Wednesday about the missing and the dead in the grounding of the Costa Concordia, the captain was quoted as saying he tripped and fell into the water from the listing vessel and never intended to abandon his passengers.... Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship."

Small Fry. New York Times: "On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against [Sandeep] Goyal and six others, depicting a 'circle of friends' that together earned about $62 million in illegal gains in Dell stock."

Washington Post: "Four people were arrested as hundreds of protesters from the Occupy movement gathered Tuesday on the west lawn of the Capitol, chanting, singing, marching and disrupting congressional offices throughout the day. The demonstrators came from across the country for Occupy Congress, billed as the first nationwide gathering for the movement that began in September as a protest against corporate greed on Wall Street." ...

... ABC News: "While the Obamas were dining at one of Washington's finest steak houses, Occupy DC protesters gathered in front of the White House and for a couple of hours, drew dozens of police cars to Pennsylvania Avenue and briefly kept the press on lockdown inside the building. The cause of the commotion is unclear but may have been a smoke bomb or firecracker hurled by a protester over the White House fence from Pennsylvania Avenue."

New York Times: "With both parties largely in agreement on a yearlong extension of President Obama’s payroll tax cut, the fight in Congress over the coming weeks will boil down to how to pay for it, and Democrats appeared to hold the advantage as members of the House returned to Washington on Tuesday."

AP: "The Obama administration is providing senior state and local police officials with its analysis of homegrown terrorism incidents, including common signs law enforcement can use to identify violent extremists.... The conference Wednesday at the White House marks the first time this unclassified analysis will be presented to 46 senior federal, state and local law enforcement officials, many of whom are police chiefs and sheriffs."

New York Times: A Canadian naval officer who worked in some of the country’s key military intelligence centers has been charged with breach of trust and passing along government secrets to a 'foreign entity.' The officer, Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, 40, remained in jail on Tuesday after his lawyer asked a court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to delay a bail hearing to give him more time to study the government’s case."

New York Times: " China will expand nationwide a trial program that requires users of the country’s wildly popular microblog services to disclose their identities to the government in order to post comments online, the government’s top Internet regulator said on Wednesday." CW: See also stories above for more news on our own Internet freedom controversies.

ABC News: "Authorities in Italy suspended search operations today after the rough seas apparently shifted the grounded Costa Concordia cruise ship."

The Commentariat -- January 17, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Joe Nocera's complaint that bank regulators are imposing too many complex and sometimes contradictory regs on Wall Street. Especially if you found Nocera's argument compelling, please take a gander at the caveats I've added to his "analysis." The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here. ...

... Here's a terrific article by Russ Baker on how the Times slants -- or as he puts it, sugarcoats -- the news. He relies on just one day's main headlines. ...

... AND there's this from Gregory Harms: the New York Times is liberal (not leftist) on domestic social policies, but it is hawkish on American foreign policy, basically following Washington's lead. It defines and solidifies, in effect, "the liberal parameters of American political discourse: basically progressive on domestic issues; basically compliant on matters of statecraft and foreign policy." Well-worth a read.

Gene Robinson: "... capitalism means never having to say you’re sorry. Perish the thought that anyone would critically examine this ethos except in a 'quiet room' [according to Mitt Romney]. But to the horror of radical free-market ideologues, the myth of no-fault capitalism is under scrutiny.... What the ideologues ignore, however, is that workers also have 'capital' at risk — in the form of mind and muscle, creativity, loyalty, years of service. Why is this investment so casually dismissed?"

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "To head off medical conflicts of interest, the Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment. Many researchers have found evidence that such payments can influence doctors’ treatment decisions and contribute to higher costs by encouraging the use of more expensive drugs and medical devices."

Manu Raju of Politico: "Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Scott Brown on Monday demanded a cease-fire of the third-party spending that’s certain to play a major role in this state’s pivotal Senate race. Senior officials from Brown’s and Warren’s campaigns will soon meet to try to craft an unusual pact to curtail the influence of so-called super PACs.... Whether the talk amounts to anything more than public posturing to distance themselves from the millions of dollars in negative attacks launched by the groups remains to be seen. Experts are skeptical that groups will unilaterally disarm knowing that this race could tip the balance of power in the Senate."

Right Wing World *

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post lists the 11 biggest whoppers and head-scratchers from last night's GOP presidential debate. ...

... Steve Benen elaborates on Romney's audacious lie that President Obama "doesn't have a jobs plan." ...

... Jordan Fabian of Univision on Romney's doubling-down on his opposition to measures favored by the Hispanic community. (Report is in English.) Read the whole story.

Major Garrett of the National Journal: "Republican front-runner Mitt Romney said Monday he might release his tax returns -- but not before South Carolina's primary on Saturday. Romney, who has said previously he had no intention of releasing tax returns, said if he becomes the nominee he may release them in mid-April." Romney didn't answer the question when Rick Perry posed it, but responded to the question when the Fox "News" panel asked it. ...

... The Democratic National Committee elaborates:

... Winners shoot big game:

... Losers shoot "varmints and small rodents." Here's Romney in 2007. He lost the primary race:

Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: don't kid yourself, Mitt Romney is no moderate. "Romney's proposal to cap federal spending ... would result in harsher cuts to domestic spending than even Paul Ryan has embraced."

Jason Volack of ABC News: "Behind the scenes Campaign Manager Jesse Benton admits to ABC News that [Ron Paul's] team is plotting a back up strategy in case the congressman doesn't pull in enough delegates to become the nominee. If the campaign comes up short at the convention, Benton says the plan is to use all the delegates awarded to Paul as a bargaining chip to force the Republican Party to stick to its limited government platform."

The God Vote Gets Ugly. Ralph Hallow of the Washington Times: "In an evolving power struggle, religious conservatives are feuding about whether a weekend meeting in Texas yielded a consensus that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is the best bet to stop Mitt Romney’s drive for the Republican presidential nomination. A leading evangelical and former aide to President George H.W. Bush said he agreed with suspicions voiced by others at the meeting of evangelical and conservative Catholic activists that organizers 'manipulated' the gathering and may even have stuffed the ballot to produce an endorsement of Mr. Santorum over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich." CW: Sorry, I think preachers stuffing the ballot box is funny as -- hell. Isn't there some commandment against that? ...

... Speaking of Rick Santorum, he approved this message:

... Your Fun Scandalette of the Day. Nancy Hass of the Daily Beast: Before she was Karen Santorum, anti-abortion zealot, she was Karen Garver, and "her live-in partner through most of her 20s was Tom Allen, a Pittsburgh obstetrician and abortion provider 40 years older than she, who remains an outspoken crusader for reproductive rights and liberal ideals. Dr. Allen has known Mrs. Santorum ... her entire life: he delivered her in 1960."

Stephen Colbert drives Jon Huntsman from the GOP presidential race:

... AND Colbert figures out how to get on the South Carolina ballot. Sort of:

Tanya Somanader of Think Progress: Rep. Steve Womack (RTP-Ark.) is proud that the government paid for his college education (he served in the National Guard to get his grant) -- except that he doesn't seem to understand the government paid for his education -- but he voted to cut 100,000 low-income students from Pell Grant funding. And he was really nasty to a college student when she asked him about it.

* Where "I got mine; to hell with you," is the rule.

News Ledes

** Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: "Democrats and organizers filed petitions Tuesday afternoon with more than a million signatures as they sought to force a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker -- a massive number that seems to cement a historic recall election against him for later this year. It would mark the first such gubernatorial recall in state history and would be only the third gubernatorial recall election in U.S. history. Organizers Tuesday also handed in 845,000 signatures against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch as well as petitions against four GOP state senators including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau."

New York Times: "Mitt Romney withstood forceful attacks during a debate here on Monday evening, with his Republican rivals lining up to question his job-creation record, wealth and character, as they implored voters to scrutinize his candidacy more deeply before allowing him to sail to the party’s presidential nomination." The Washington Post story is here.

AP: "A French judge is seeking U.S. permission to visit the Guantanamo prison camp to investigate claims by former French inmates that they were tortured."

ABC News: "Search-and-rescue divers today blasted holes in the hull of the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off Italy's Tuscan coast as they accelerate a frantic search for 29 missing passengers and crew members, as well as a second black-box recorder."

AP: "Strikes and demonstrations against Greek austerity measures hit the capital Athens on Tuesday, as international debt inspectors returned to decide whether the country's reforms are strong enough for it to secure a vital bailout. The officials from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are lending money to Greece to keep it from bankruptcy, are expected to press the government for faster cost-cutting reforms."

Los Angeles Times: "Israel's top justice authorities began a two-day hearing Monday for one of the government's top officials, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman. The proceedings move a years-long legal case closer to the end and signal what could also be the end of the current chapter in Lieberman's politicalcareer -- and eventually the government too. For more than a decade, Lieberman has been under investigation for a wide range of suspicions."

Haaretz: "A recent string of cyber attacks against Israeli credit card companies, banks, and government websites was aided by thousands of Israeli computers operated by remote assailants, a top Israeli software security expert on Tuesday. Hackers shut down both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and El Al’s respective websites on Monday, one day after a hacker network threatened to carry out attacks on both sites."

AP: "British scientists have found scores of fossils the great evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and his peers collected but that had been lost for more than 150 years. Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, said Tuesday that he stumbled upon the glass slides containing the fossils in an old wooden cabinet that had been shoved in a 'gloomy corner' of the massive, drafty British Geological Survey."