The Commentariat -- December 21

Happy Hannukah!

AND, yes, I know how tasteful this is:

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on Tom Friedman's latest turn on the Iraq War. Of course I caught him in an itty-bitty fib about -- Tom Friedman. The NYTX front page is here. Also, be sure to read the excerpt from Belén Fernández’s book The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work. The excerpt is hilarious, in a creepy sort of way.

Robert Pear of the New York Times: "More than three million people stand to lose unemployment insurance benefits in the near future because of an impasse in Congress over how to extend the aid and how to offset the cost. Jobless benefits have been overshadowed by debate on a payroll tax cut, but have become a huge sticking point in negotiations on a bill that deals with both issues. Republicans would continue aid for some of the unemployed, but would sharply reduce the maximum duration of benefits and impose strict new requirements on people seeking or receiving aid."

The Obama Campaign Doesn't Seem All That Sad about the House Move. Marc Ambinder of the National Journal: "In several hours Tuesday, 10,000 Obama supporters had responded to an e-mail from senior adviser David Plouffe asking what $40 per week, about what the payroll tax cut is worth, would mean to them.... The White House also asked the question on Twitter, creating a hashtag, #40dollars, that was trending worldwide just hours later. The official cited data from hashtracking.com, which showed that the hash tag had generated more than 5.7 million impressions, equivalent to roughly 3 million people."

Nate Silver: "President Obama has seen improved approval ratings in the past few weeks.... The improvement in Mr. Obama’s numbers, while fairly modest, is potentially meaningful.... One popular theory is that Mr. Obama is benefiting from the confrontation with Congress over the payroll tax cut.... I would suggest that another explanation is much more plausible: Mr. Obama’s improved approval ratings reflect rising economic expectations." CW: And I would suggest that's something for Obama to worry about: we haven't much actual reason to expect the economy to improve.

Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post: "President Obama likes to quote Martin Luther King Jr., who said that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' But it doesn’t bend by itself. Faced with the roadblocks of the right, perhaps the pragmatic thing to do and the idealistic thing to do are one and the same: We have to build a movement that will push our politics and our current president — and the next one, and the next one, and the next one.... 2012 must be about more than just his reelection. It needs to be about what comes next, not just who."

In a post titled, "PolitiFact, R.I.P.," Paul Krugman writes: "This is really awful. Politifact, which is supposed to police false claims in politics, has announced its Lie of the Year — and it’s a statement that happens to be true, the claim that Republicans have voted to end Medicare.... The people at Politifact are terrified of being considered partisan if they acknowledge the clear fact that there’s a lot more lying on one side of the political divide than on the other. So they’ve bent over backwards to appear 'balanced' — and in the process made themselves useless and irrelevant." CW: I sent this link along to PolitiFact, which never responded to the explanation I sent them some weeks back that jibed with Krugman's analysis here. Dopes. ...

... Ezra Klein: "The meta-point here is that we’re seeing, in real time, why the 'fact checker' model is probably unsustainable.... [Paul] Ryan actually campaigned to get PolitiFact to name 'end Medicare' their Lie of the Year. And yet Ryan is one of the prime offenders behind the 2010 Lie of the Year — that the Affordable Care Act was a 'government takeover' of the health-care system. But Ryan hasn’t apologized for those comments or even, as far as I can tell, stopped making that argument. He wants PolitiFact on his side when it’s useful for him, and he’ll ignore the outlet when it isn’t. ...

By their logic if Republicans had voted to replace the FBI with a voucher program giving citizens subsidies to pay for private investigators, it would have been inaccurate to say they had 'ended the FBI.' -- Jed Lewison, Daily Kos

... Dave Weigel of Slate: "Getting somewhat lost in this discussion is where the 'ends Medicare' line came from. It was not birthed like Athena from the skull of Nancy Pelosi. It came from an April 4, 2011 preview of the Ryan plan by Naftali Bendavid, writing in the Wall Street Journal -- that simmering pot of liberal bias. Here is how Bendavid described it.

The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills. Mr. Ryan and other conservatives say this is necessary because of the program's soaring costs.

      "In subsequent Democratic spin and ads, this was the citation for the claim that the Ryan plan 'would essentially end Medicare.' Strangely, PolitiFact never mentions this original, reported analysis. The fact-checkers claim that 'Democrats pounced' on Ryan, that 'the Democrats were turning the tables' on the spin, and that the lie is 'the Democrats’ claim.' No mention of how a non-partisan analysis of the bill, by a congressional reporter, first made the 'ending' claim." CW: I sent this to PolitiFact, too.

Jack Ewing of the New York Times: big banks really want to risk other people's money, including yours, the better to increase the bonuses of their top dogs. "The debate centers on an international accord..., the so-called Basel III rules. The core issue and main point of dispute is capital — the money that banks accumulate through issuing stock and holding onto profits, money that they do not have to repay. The regulators want banks to finance their operations with more capital and less borrowed money. Advocates argue that the bigger the capital buffer, the greater the stability of the financial system. But financing operations from capital, rather than borrowing money, is less profitable, and that means lower bonuses."

The Rev. Jim Rigby on empire: "Christmas is not a fact of history, but Christianity’s particular symbol of every human being’s hope for world peace and universal happiness. When the angels sang, 'peace on earth good will to all,' they were expressing the song written in every heart. But, that song calls us out of empire and into our entire human family. Maybe stopping the frenzy of Christmas long enough to really hear the song the angels sang to the wretched of the earth, would give us the humanity to stop hanging our Christmas lights until we no longer kill our brothers and sisters for the fuel to illumine them."

Dean Baker in Nation of Change: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), evidently realizing that "just because something has failed repeatedly is no reason not to do it again; especially if it protects the interests of the 1 percent," did so for the accolades from the usual suspects. If he weren't such a coward, he would suggest a plan that would actually work to reduce costs & improve healthcare.

Right Wing World *

Dana Milbank mocks House Republicans for their weird embrace of the Mel Gibson film "Braveheart." Of course, it isn't very funny if you're one of the millions of victims of the House GOP caucus. ...

... They've Even Lost the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, which is an Amazing Turn: "The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco.... Given how [GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell] and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest. The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play." ...

... Laurie Kellman of the AP: "John Boehner vowed early on that as speaker, he would let the House 'work its will.' At the end of his first year in charge of the fractious Republican-controlled chamber, it's clear he has little choice. An uncompromising band of conservatives, led by GOP freshmen to whom Boehner owes his speakership, has repeatedly forced him to back away from deals with President, Democrats and, this week, even one struck by Senate Republicans. Gridlock, again and again, has defined Congress in the Boehner era even as Americans fume and the economy continues to wobble."

David Lynch of Bloomberg News (in a straight news article): Mitt Romney & Newt Gingrich "have embraced an explanation of the financial crisis that has been rejected by the chairman of the Federal Reserve, many economists and even three of the four Republicans on the government commission that investigated the meltdown. Both ... lay much of the blame on U.S. government housing policies, saying they led to the real estate crash that almost brought down the banking system and has cost homeowners $6.6 trillion since 2006. 'We are aware of such claims but have not seen any empirical evidence presented to support them,' Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke wrote...."

Actual Audio: Newt's New Campaign Ad from scottbateman on Vimeo.

... Dahlia Lithwick in Slate, on the increasingly irrelevant Mr. Gingrich: "With his escalating attacks on the federal judiciary, he has confirmed that, if elected, he would place himself atop a government that simultaneously manages to be both a dictatorship and a theocracy. In recent weeks — and just as his presidential star was improbably rising — he doubled down on his initial claims that the federal courts 'have become grotesquely dictatorial and far too powerful,' to offer up new promises that, as president, he would abolish federal judgeships, occasionally ignore the Supreme Court, and — in the manner of a tiny tyrant in khaki shirts and mirrored sunglasses — have federal marshals arrest errant federal judges and force them to testify before Congress about their unpopular decisions."

Peter Wallsten of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ron Paul has become a serious force with the potential to upend the nomination fight and remain a factor throughout next year’s general-election campaign.... He has built a strong enough base of support that he could be a spoiler — or a kingmaker. In a muddled field, Paul could win the Iowa caucuses. Over the past week, he has spent more than $600,000 on attack ads that are cutting into support for a fellow front-runner, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.). And Paul has built an organization that will allow him to remain in the race well beyond the early-voting states and amass convention delegates. Perhaps most fearsome to Republican leaders is Paul’s refusal to rule out a third-party presidential bid that would steal votes from the Republican nominee and make President Obama’s path to reelection considerably easier."

Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch: "Calvin Beinser of the Cornwall Alliance has no scientific credentials but has become the go-to person for right-wing activists on questions of science, particularly climate change.... What Beisner does have is close ties to organizations financed by the energy industry and a history of attacking scientists, spreading misinformation, and fueling fears that the environmental movement is a pagan plot to destroy Christianity and kill 'about 95% of the human race.' ... He joined Focus on the Family’s political arm CitizenLink ... to disparage the [Evangelical Environmental Network] for thanking both Republican and Democratic politicians who supported efforts to reduce mercury emissions.... The Center for Disease control did in fact find that one in six newborns ... annually, are 'at risk for developmental disorders because of mercury exposure in the mother's womb.' ... Apparently for Focus on the Family, being 'pro-life' does not entail protecting newborns from mercury poisoning."

* Where all is not right.

News Ledes

AP: "Careening toward a politically toxic tax hike, President Barack Obama implored House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday to get behind a two-month stopgap until a longer deal could be struck early next year, calling it the only real way out of a mess that is threatening the paychecks of 160 million workers and isolating House Republicans." ...

... New York Times: "The holiday brinkmanship over the issue recalled the December budget showdown 16 years ago between another first-term Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and a new Republican Congressional majority — a fight that capped their year of confrontation over the nation’s fiscal priorities by reviving Mr. Clinton politically as he began his re-election race."

AP: "Lawyers for the Army intelligence analyst blamed for the biggest national security leak in American history rested their case Wednesday, with closing arguments ahead before Pfc. Bradley Manning learns whether he will face a court-martial."

AP: "More than two dozen members of Congress are calling for investigation into the CIA's relationship with the New York Police Department."

AP: "The European Central Bank loaned a massive euro489 billion ($639 billion) to hundreds of banks for an exceptionally long period of three years to shore up a financial system that is under pressure from the eurozone's government debt crisis. It was the biggest ECB infusion of credit into the banking system in the 13-year history of the shared euro currency." This Guardian liveblog has details & reactions.

New York Times: "For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics. In the experiments, conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, scientists created a highly transmissible form of a deadly flu virus that does not normally spread from person to person. It was an ominous step, because easy transmission can lead the virus to spread all over the world."

Washington Post: "Eight American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan have been charged in connection with the Oct. 3 death of a comrade who apparently committed suicide in a guard tower, U.S. military officials said Wednesday. Pvt. Danny Chen, 19, an infantryman, died from an 'apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound' at a small combat outpost in Kandahar Province.... A military official told Chen's parents that fellow soldiers had been physically abusive toward Chen, and taunted him with ethnic slurs, The New York Times reported in October."

ABC News: "While blizzard conditions may have ended over the U.S. for now, a Nor'easter is now a possibility for December 24 - 25, which might mean a white Christmas for major cities along the East Coast from Washington, D.C. to Boston and hectic travel conditions for millions. Over the last 24 hours some 24 inches of snow fell in New Mexico, with winds gusting over 70 mph in the mountains. Up to a foot of snow from was seen from Colorado to Kansas and Oklahoma, and 10-foot drifts were reported in Colorado."

AP: "Iraq's prime minister urged the Kurdish authorities in the north of the country to hand over the Sunni vice president accused of running hit squads that targeted government officials, saying he must face justice. The comments by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a news conference Wednesday sharpened the divisions in what is shaping up to be one of the most serious political confrontations in Iraq in years."

AP: "The parliament chosen in a fraud-tainted election that set off protests throughout Russia opened its first session Wednesday with the new speaker promising more genuine debate to win back the voters' trust. Under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the parliament has become little more than a rubber stamp for government initiatives. The previous speaker once famously said it was 'not a place for political discussion.' Sergei Naryshkin said this would change with him as the new speaker."

Guardian: "The Metropolitan police have arrested a 52-year-old female serving police officer over payments from journalists, Scotland Yard has said.... She is the first police officer arrested under Operation Elveden, an inquiry into alleged illegal payments to officers which is running alongside the Operation Weeting phone-hacking inquiry."

The Commentariat -- December 20

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer: "You might think the Sidney Awards are prestigious accolades for literary and journalistic excellence. You might think that, until you find out that David Brooks single-handedly chooses the recipients of the Sidney Awards.... As far as I can tell, the only prize money is the mention in Brooks’ column." The front page of the NYTX is here. ...

... REMINDER for those in the NYC area: the NYT eXaminer is holding a public discussion at 7:30 pm ET this evening at the Brecht Forum at 451 West Street, NYC, on how mainstream media coverage developed from the first days of OWS. More info here.

Steve Benen: "After days of meetings and delays, a broken promise to hold an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill, and a surprising number of pot shots at their Senate Republican colleagues, the House GOP came up with a convoluted scheme.... The way House Republicans have set this up, those who vote 'yes' are actually voting 'no' on the bipartisan Senate compromise. In fact, under this scheme, the House will hardly be voting on the Senate version at all... The new House Republican scheme is intended to raise middle-class taxes without making it look like House Republicans are raising middle-class taxes. In two weeks, Americans will discover in early January that their paychecks have shrunk, and because political journalism is largely broken, they’ll be told it’s the result of 'both sides' being unwilling to compromise. Those reports will be wrong." See also today's Ledes. Also see Right Wing World below for more on the "philosophy" behind the GOP moves.

Zeke Emanuel in the New York Times: "Premium support [plans, like the Wyden-Ryan plan] will not reduce the government’s costs without shifting those costs to older people who can’t afford them. Only a plan that transforms how we pay doctors and other health care providers can do that.... To address the root of the cost problem, we must change how we pay doctors and hospitals. We must move away from fee-for-service payments to bundled payments that include all the costs of caring for a patient, thereby encouraging providers to keep patients healthy and avoid unnecessary services. Medicare should announce that it will make this change by Jan. 1, 2022, and that it will begin by switching to bundled payments for cardiac and orthopedic surgery within one year and for cancer patients within five." ...

... Here's Paul Krugman from a few days ago, describing Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) as a "useful idiot" -- and explaining why that is. Krugman's POV is consistent with Emanuel's. CW: personally, I've thought for some time that Wyden was either stupid or corrupt. I'm not it matters which, if he's going to keep giving cover to anti-middle-class GOP tricks.

Joe Nocera: "On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission waded into the Fannie/Freddie wars by filing a lawsuit against three executives from each company. The complaint charges them with making 'materially false' disclosures about the size of the companies’ subprime portfolios.... What it shows is how desperate the S.E.C. has become to bring a crowd-pleasing case. The complaint is extraordinarily weak." CW: I'm no expert, but I think Nocera is probably right. (If I read something credible to the contrary, I'll share it.) Then again, these guys paid Newt $1.6 million to shill on the Hill. Shouldn't they go to jail for that?....

... Update: here's a rebuttal (or pre-buttal) by Wall Street investigative reporter Gary Weiss, writing in Salon, re: one of the defendants -- Richard Syron, Freddie Mac's former CEO. Weiss reports that Syron has made a career of (and millions from) looking the other way.

James Goodale, who served as counsel to the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case, in a letter to the Wall Street Journal editors (republished in the NYTX): "It is important for the First Amendment community to support [Julian] Assange. If Mr. Assange can be successfully prosecuted, other publishers can be too." Pinch Sulzberger, are you listening? ...

... Graham Nash & James Raymond (son of David Crosby) composed this song & released the video (Nash vocals) in support of Bradley Manning:

"Twitter Terrorism." Glenn Greenwald: "The Obama administration and The New York Times are teaming up to expose and combat the grave threat posed by a Twitter account, purportedly operated by the Somali group Shabab, and in doing so, are highlighting the simultaneous absurdity and perniciousness of the War on Terror.... At this point, there is an almost perfect inverse relationship between the seriousness of the Terrorist threat and the severity of the powers the U.S. Government claims in its name.... The War on Terror is not a means to an end; it is the end in itself." ...

... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Since September, at least 60 people have died in 14 reported CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The Obama administration has named only one of the dead, hailing the elimination of Janbaz Zadran, a top official in the Haqqani insurgent network, as a counterterrorism victory. The identities of the rest remain classified, as does the existence of the drone program itself. Because the names of the dead and the threat they were believed to pose are secret, it is impossible for anyone without access to U.S. intelligence to assess whether the deaths were justified.... 'They’ve based it on the personal legitimacy of [President] Obama — the "trust me" concept,' law Prof. Kenneth Anderson said. 'That’s not a viable concept for a president going forward.'”

A reader links us to this site, Win with Women 2012, which promotes female Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate.

Right Wing World

I find some of those articles about divergence or control of the generals to be kind of offensive to me. And here's why. One of the things that makes us as a military profession in a democracy is civilian rule. Our civilian leaders are under no obligation to accept our advice; and that's what it is. Its advice. It's military judgments, it's alternatives, it's options. And at the end of the day, our system is built on the fact that it will be our civilian leaders who make that decision and I don't find that in any way to challenge my manhood, nor my position. In fact, if it were the opposite, I think we should all be concerned. -- Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on GOP presidential candidates' pledges to "listen to the generals"

CW: Jonathan Chait has this exactly right: "Republicans have grown increasingly concerned about the low tax burden on the middle and lower tiers of the income spectrum. The middle-class tax cuts were the price of admission [in earlier tax-cut deals] in order to get the good stuff for the rich folks. It’s become a price of admission fewer Republicans are willing to pay." Read the whole post. ...

... I'd add: throughout our history, we've held to a Platonic ideal that those who govern should do so for love of country; they should not be overly-compensated for the privilege of governing. But in the past two decades, people have gone into government precisely to get rich. Today, holding elective office is the dues they pay to get to K Street, Wall Street, a teevee show, or -- if they're high enough up the food chain -- the lecture circuit and big book deals. It isn't just that they're in the pockets of the rich today. If they have not already made themselves multi-millionaires thanks to insider-trading and sweet lobbying jobs for their spouses, they have big bucks in their sights. Tax cuts for the rich are part of the Congressional pension plan. ...

... CW: Greg Sargent implies there's some question here, but I don't think so: John Boehner cannot control his caucus of know-nothings, even on issues that should be no-brainers like raising the debt ceiling & extending the payroll tax. This isn't horrible; Harry Reid can't control ConservaDems in the Senate, either. What is ridiculous is Boehner's pretense that he never backed the Senate version of the payroll tax extension. "CNN quoted a source over the weekend saying that Boehner had called the Senate compromise a “good deal” on a conference call. Meanwhile, Roll Call reports that Boehner was in touch with Mitch McConnell while the Senate deal was negotiated, suggesting the possibility that he may have been supportive before his caucus rebelled."

Driftglass explains the Republican nominating process: "... once again the party's leading hustlers and lunatics scramble up another, dangerously-teetering mountain of lies and pious claptrap to compete for the right to lead an army of bitter morons into another round of Conservative failure and catastrophe."des

NEW. Peter Finocchiaro of Salon describes this as Mitt Romney's "charm offensive." Finocchiaro's assessment: "Emotionless political robot or not, Mitt did alright." CW: I'm glad if someone is going to rate a Romney performance as "alright," he misspells "all right":

$167 Is Not Zero. The DNC just put out this fine video that nails Romney's hypocrisy on middle-class tax cuts. What it does not show is what big tax cuts he has, my dear, planned for himself:

Ron Paul's Turn. Jim Rutenberg & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Emerging as a real Republican contender in Iowa, Representative Ron Paul of Texas is receiving new focus for decades-old unbylined columns in his political newsletters that included racist, anti-gay and anti-Israel passages that he has since disavowed. The latest issue of The Weekly Standard, a leading conservative publication, reprised reports of incendiary language in Mr. Paul’s newsletters that were published about 20 years ago.... On Monday, his deputy campaign manager, Dimitri Kesari, reiterated that Mr. Paul 'did not write, edit or authorize' the language."

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones on Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's warped concept of civil rights. "If they call me names, my civil rights have been violated." Serwer asks, "Has a statement more symbolic of runaway right-wing victimhood ever been uttered? It's all there, the lack of empathy, the narrative of persecution, the ludicrous sense of self-pity, even the comically distorted understanding of the law. Naturally, the statement also actually helps confirm what Arpaio's critics are accusing him of—any sheriff thin skinned-enough to think it's illegal to call him a name is probably also enough of a megalomaniac to arrest people for criticizing him." ...

Still, Arpaio Is Not as Bad as This Guy: Robert Mackey of the New York Times re: "... a retired general who now serves as an adviser to the [Egyptian] military government’s public relations department. In comments published by the Egyptian newspaper Al Shorouk on Monday, the adviser, Gen. Abdel Moneim Kato, said that the protesters who came under attack by soldiers were delinquents 'who deserve to be thrown into Hitler’s ovens.'”

Justin Berrier with "Fox & Friends"' Stupidest Moments off 2011.

News Ledes

President Obama makes a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room on the House GOP's refusal to cooperate on the payroll tax & unemployment compensation extensions:

New York Times: "The Federal Reserve on Tuesday proposed rules that would require the largest American banks to hold more capital — and to keep it more easily accessible — to protect against another financial crisis. But the Fed, the nation’s chief banking regulator, added that the final capital rules were unlikely to be more stringent than international limits that were still under development. That is a small victory for banks who warned that they would be severely disadvantaged if capital requirements here were stricter than those governing overseas banks."

Wired: "Accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning sat in the same room with the man who undid his life on Tuesday, when former hacker Adrian Lamo took the stand on the fifth day of Manning’s pretrial hearing. Lamo, who turned Bradley Manning into the FBI and Army for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, denied in his testimony that he’d violated a journalistic or ministerial promise of confidentiality when he turned over the chat logs that led to Manning’s arrest." New York Times story here.

Women protest in Cairo against military violations of women. Reuters picture.New York Times: "Thousands of woman marched through downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening to call for the end of military rule in an extraordinary expression of anger over images of soldiers beating, stripping and kicking a female demonstrator on the pavement of Tahrir Square."

AP: "Encouraging signs out of Europe and a surprisingly strong report on the U.S. housing market drove the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 300 points Tuesday. It was the best day for stocks this month."

Reuters: "The Republican-led House of Representatives will set the stage on Tuesday for a showdown with Senate Democrats over a payroll tax cut extension that is becoming a proxy for 2012 election year battles." ...

... ABC News: "The House of Representatives is poised to reject a Senate-passed two-month extension of a year-end economic package, preferring instead to hold out for a year-long extension and to challenge Congressional Democrats in yet another political showdown over a popular tax break for the middle class." See also today's Commentariat. ...

     ... AP Update: "The House Tuesday rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1." See video above. ...

     ... Think Progress Update: "This afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) appointed eight Republican lawmakers to serve on a bicameral conference committee meant to resolve the impasse over the soon-to-expire payroll tax cut, after the House rejected the Senate’s version of an extension today.... Many of the members Boehner appointed to the conference committee have voiced opposition to the concept of a payroll tax cut in the past." CW: sounds like a great plan.

AP: "Fierce winds and snow that caused fatal road accidents and shuttered highways in five states, crawled deeper into the Great Plains early Tuesday, with forecasters warning that pre-holiday travel would be difficult if not impossible across the region."

AP: "Iraq's Sunni vice president wanted by the Shiite-led government for allegedly ordering hit squads against government officials says he's innocent of any charges. Tariq al-Hashemi told a press conference in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil on Tuesday that he has not committed any 'sin' against Iraq. He described the charges against him as 'fabricated.'" ...

... Guardian: "Tariq al-Hashemi, had left Baghdad on Sunday for the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, presumably hoping the authorities there will not turn him in; earlier in the day, investigative judges in the capital had banned him from travelling abroad."

AP: "The [Philippine] government shipped more than 400 coffins to two flood-stricken cities in the southern Philippines on Tuesday as the death toll neared 1,000 and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of national calamity."

Here's video from the Guardian on Piers Morgan's testimony before the Leveson inquiry panel in the British phone-hacking scandal:

The Guardian has a liveblog on Piers Morgan's testimony in the British phone-hacking scandal. Includes related content. ...

     ... Update: "Piers Morgan, the former News of the World and Daily Mirror editor, has repeatedly denied to the Leveson inquiry that he had any personal knowledge of or involvement in phone hacking or any other illegal practices at either paper."

The Commentariat -- December 19

My column in the New York Times eXaminer: "Ross Douthat decided early on to use his New York Times real estate to build the Church of Ross, which happens to be a Roman Catholic Church masquerading as an op-ed column.... Douthat usually does try to pretend he’s doing something other than scaring the bejeezus into his hapless readers, so in yesterday’s column he ostensibly wrote about the passing of celebrity writer Christopher Hitchens." The NYTX front page is here. ...

... Charles Pierce of Esquire was a little more put out by Douthat than was I. Here's his hilarious take: "For the sheer magnitude of its horsepucky, this column may well stand forever. Generations yet unborn will come and read it, just to stare out of the magnificent vista of presumption, self-regard, and tinpot piety the way people bring their children to look at the Grand Canyon." (And, damn, I can't believe I missed that plagiarism from The Dead, one of the finest novellas ever written. I take that back -- Douthat only borrowed one phrase, and it's a fairly generic one: "the living and the dead.")

One More Way Money Corrupts Washington: Prof. Thomas Edsall, in a New York Times op-ed: Former Democratic Members of Congress are among the top Washington lobbyists for the usual suspects. "... most incumbent members [of Congress], as they go about their daily routine of casting votes and attending committee meetings, must have in the back of their minds an awareness that they are likely to go into the influence-peddling business in the future. This knowledge inevitably influences – and arguably corrupts – their votes on legislation crucial to the interests most likely to hire them after they leave the halls of Congress."

There are only two choices for the House Republicans at this point. Pass this bipartisan compromise or else they alone will be responsible for letting taxes rise on the middle class. -- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) ...

... Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Economists are warning that the looming expiration of a temporary payroll tax cut — and the possibility that Congress will not extend it — would cause families to spend less and could sap strength from a fragile recovery." CW: ... which is exactly what Congressional Republicans want.

Freedom du Lac of the Washington Post: David Emanuel Hickman was the last American to die in the Iraq War. "Hickman, 23, was killed in Baghdad by a roadside bomb that ripped through his armored truck Nov. 14 — eight years, seven months and 25 days after the U.S. invasion of Iraq began."

Vaclav Havel, 1936-2011. New Yorker photo.

In his honor, may I say, as loudly as I can: Ronald Reagan Did Not Win The Cold War. RIP. -- Charles Pierce ...

... David Remnick of the New Yorker: "The death of Vaclav Havel comes in a month in which we mark the twentieth anniversary of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Few voices did more to undermine the foundations of the Berlin Wall and the entire edifice of Soviet-imposed totalitarianism than this shy bourgeois, this sly, reticent, playwright and essayist."

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) in the New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Since my vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act 15 years ago, like tens of millions of Americans, I have reflected deeply and frequently about this issue.... So today, I am announcing my support for the Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals DOMA and ensures that all lawfully married couples — including same-sex couples — receive the benefits of marriage under federal law."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "As [Attorney General Eric] Holder’s third year as attorney general draws to a close, no member of President Obama’s cabinet has drawn more partisan criticism. In an interview last week, Mr. Holder said he had no intention of resigning before the administration’s term was up, although he said he had made no decision about whether he would continue after 2012 should the president win re-election.

Paul Krugman: "China ... is emerging as another danger spot in a world economy that really, really doesn’t need this right now."

To get yourself in the holiday spirit, you won't want to miss the toy collection Fred Drumlevitch has assembled. He doesn't even include the usual horrible stuff. The theme here: teach your children well -- so they'll grow up to respect police brutality.

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "Kim Jong-il's ... failing health had been an official secret and a transparent fiction — the final act of a life lived in lies from his earliest childhood." ...

... AND Seth Abramovitch of Gawker treats us to "the ten most insane delusions of Kim Jong-il."

Right Wing World

The New Lazy, Unemployed Welfare Queens (Just Might Be the Republican Base). Mark Schmidt in The New Republic: "... in their zeal to shift the blame for joblessness to the jobless, House Republicans seem to have forgotten everything they should know about Unemployment Insurance, recasting it as if it were welfare. Strangely, many of the victims of this move are likely to be the GOP’s core constituency — UI beneficiaries are overwhelmingly white, middle-class, and older — and it’s hard to believe they’ll take kindly to the idea that they only have themselves to blame for their current hardship."

Alexander Bolton of The Hill: "Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Saturday afternoon blocked more than 50 judicial and executive branch nominees, demanding assurances that President Obama not make recess appointments during Christmas break. Republicans are wary of Obama appointing a director to the new agency tasked with implementing Wall Street reform during the congressional recess." ...

... Steve Benen: "We’re talking about Senate confirmation of qualified officials to serve in important government posts, who would be confirmed easily if given a vote.... Because the Senate Minority Leader says so, the Senate won’t be able to complete its legal responsibilities unless the president agrees not to use his legal authority."

Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "In what would be the final deal of his private equity career, [Mitt Romney] negotiated a retirement agreement with his former partners [at Bain Capital] that has paid him a share of Bain’s profits ever since.... The arrangement allowed Mr. Romney to pursue his career in public life while enjoying much of the financial upside of being a Bain partner as the company grew.... In the process, Bain continued to buy and restructure companies, potentially leaving Mr. Romney exposed to further criticism.... Moreover, much of his income from the arrangement has probably qualified for a lower tax rate than ordinary income under a tax provision favorable to hedge fund and private equity managers...." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... when Romney declares that Obama has been apologizing for America, or bowing to foreign leaders, or that he believes in American decline, he’s playing into right-wing fantasies. This, the right believes, is what a liberal sounds like.... But Romney ... [is] counting on the media either to cover up his lies, or pretend that both sides do it." ...

... AND from an exchange Romney had with Fox "News"' Chris Wallace, here's what Steve Benen learned: "Romney thinks $1,000 a year [via Obama's proposed tax cut] is a 'band-aid,' but $167 [via Romney's proposed tax plan] helps families make 'a brighter future.' The other problem here is simple dishonesty. Romney has spent the last several months telling voters his plan is focused on 'tax cuts for the middle class,' and he doesn’t intend to 'waste time trying to get tax cuts for wealthy people.' The reality, of course, is the exact opposite — Romney supports major tax breaks for the very wealthy, and as he conceded yesterday on Fox News, isn’t much focused on tax cuts for the middle class at all."

NEW. Jim Newell of Gawker on Newt Gingrich's precipitous drop in the polls: "When Gingrich was around 40% in the polls everywhere, his boost came largely from seniors — the ones who would be most likely to remember his catastrophic tenure as House Speaker. And yet they didn't, because now after just a few basic attack ads raising approximately .000000001% of the terrible, public information about Newt Gingrich, he's in free fall. What the hell, gramps?"

News Ledes

New York Times: "AT&T said on Monday afternoon that it had withdrawn its $39 billion takeover bid for T-Mobile USA, acknowledging that it could not overcome opposition from the Obama administration to creating the nation’s biggest cellphone service provider."

New York Times: "Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government was thrown into crisis on Monday night as authorities issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president, accusing him of running a personal death squad that assassinated security officials and government bureaucrats. The sensational charges against Tariq al-Hashimi, one of the country’s most prominent Sunni leaders, threatened to inflame widening sectarian and political conflicts in Iraq...."

New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would devote three days in late March to hearing arguments in challenges to the 2010 health care overhaul law. A decision in the case is expected by the end of June."

Slam Dunk? Maybe Not. Wired: "A day after a government forensic expert testified that he’d found thousands of diplomatic cables on the Army computer of suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, he was forced to admit under cross-examination that none of the cables he compared to the ones WikiLeaks released matched.... The defense also established that it’s possible Manning’s computer could have been used by someone else...." ...

     ... Or Maybe So. Update: "A government digital forensic expert examing the computer of accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning retrieved communications between Manning and an online chat user identified on Manning’s computer as 'Julian Assange,' the name of the founder of the secret-spilling site that published hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables."

Public Policy Polling: "Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson."

New York Times: "Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader who realized his family’s dream of turning his starving country into a minor nuclear-weapons power even as the isolated nation sank further into despotism, died on Saturday of a heart attack, according to the country’s state-run media." ...

... New York Times: "The death of Kim Jong-il provoked uncertainty, anxiety and calls for a peaceful succession on Monday as governments within the region and beyond awaited some signal from North Korea about its nuclear intentions and the prospects, if any, for a new relationship with the world beyond its borders."

Yesterday's News Bear Repeating. Washington Post: "The fate of a payroll tax cut extension backed by the White House and overwhelmingly passed by the Senate is uncertain after a restive House Republican conference expressed displeasure with the two-month deal. Faced with the uprising on his right flank, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) retreated Sunday from his previous support for the package, saying the House does not expect to approve that plan on Monday night after it returns to Washington." ...

     ... Update: "Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid on Monday rejected a demand from House Speaker John A. Boehner to reopen negotiations on a measure to extend a payroll tax cut, setting the Democratic-majority Senate on a collision course with the Republican-controlled House as a year-end deadline approaches. With a deadlock over the measure looming, Reid (D-Nev.) warned that millions of Americans could see their taxes rise by $1,000 next year because of what he called the 'intransigence' of GOP House members." New York Times story here.

New York Times: "A tense showdown between Pakistan’s powerful army and its besieged civilian government brought President Asif Ali Zardari hurrying back from Dubai early on Monday, after weeks of growing concerns by his supporters that the military has been moving to strengthen its role in the country’s governance."

New York Times: "Prince Walid bin Talal of Saudi Arabia announced a $300 million stake in the social media site Twitter, as the billionaire expands his holdings in the United States.The investment by Prince Walid and his investment company, Kingdom Holding, represents roughly 3 percent of the company."

Reuters: "Thousands of Czechs streamed through Prague Castle and the historical city centre on Monday to write condolences and bid farewell to Vaclav Havel, the playwright who became president after leading a "Velvet Revolution" to topple Communist rule."