The Commentariat -- June 8

Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post: historians will not kindly judge President Obama's economic policy. "By mid-2011, it was clear that Obama had done little to address the nation’s fundamental economic problems. As had not been the case during previous recoveries, America’s major corporations and banks were investing abroad rather than at home. Unemployment still exceeded 9 percent. Almost all the growth the nation had experienced since the economy bottomed out in mid-2009 had gone to profits; wages during that time actually declined. Their incomes diminished and mired in debt, Americans were unable to purchase enough to get the economy going." ...

... AND Benanke Shrugged. Neil Irwin of the Washington Post: "The recent slowdown in the U.S. economy is being driven by temporary factors, and growth is likely to accelerate later in the year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Tuesday."...

... Tim Geithner, Exactly the Little Prick You Thought He Was. Zachary Goldfarb of the Washington Post. Geithner is the Last Man Standing of Obama's original economic team, and he's really influential. It was his bright idea to reduce the deficit at the expense of jobs. ...

... Ylan Mui of the Washington Post: "Wal-Mart, which cooperates with unions abroad but is a union-buster in the U.S. & Canada, is coming up against actual international unions, which are demanding the mega-corporation adopt global pro-union policies & practices. CW: so what we have here is union leaders & rank-and file members in other countries standing up for American workers' rights, when our own officials, including the POTUS, can't be bothered.

Michael Cooper & Sam Roberts of the New York Times: "It may be a first in the annals of government secrecy: Declassifying documents to mark the anniversary of their leak to the press. But that is what will happen Monday, when the federal government plans to finally release the secret government study of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers 40 years after it was first published by The New York Times."

CW: looks like today means more Weinermania. Sorry about this:

Anthony Weiner gives Maureen Dowd a chance to do her best stuff: "After seeing a cascade of famous men marrying up and dating down — Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Dick Morris, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Tiger Woods, David Vitter, John Ensign and Arnold Schwarzenegger — and with Dominique Strauss-Kahn being supported by his prominent, elegant and wealthy journalist wife as he fights charges that he assaulted a 32-year-old hotel maid, maybe feminists have learned that male development stops at power." ...

... ** I've posted a comments page for Dowd's column on Off Times Square. ...

     ... Update: comments from Karen Garcia, Kate Madison & me on Weiner & Friends, none published by the Times as of 6:45 am ET.  Not necessarily a great way to start your day, gentlemen.

... Michael Barbaro & David Chen of the New York Times: "Representative Anthony D. Weiner ... moved rapidly on Tuesday to make amends as Republicans called for his resignation and leading members of his own Democratic Party distanced themselves from him." ...

... Jim Dwyer of the New York Times: (a) Weiner is nuts. (b) "... we are about to begin months of inquiries over whether Mr. Weiner sent seminaked pictures of himself to strangers from his personal BlackBerry or from a government-issued computer? Or whether he brought discredit on the House of Representatives? Having abetted nearly a decade of wars, and permitting fat cats to bring the economy to a state of collapse, Congress ought to be able to tolerate a few embarrassing and crude messages sent by one foolish man in Queens." ...

... CW: the three things that most annoyed me about Weiner's virtual dickathon were (1) the likelihood that he was communicating with underaged kids, (2) the likelihood he would get caught & compromise all the stuff he claimed to be fighting for, & (3) he lied to me. Rick Hertzberg, however, explains away my last complaint: "... a pet theory of mine: the Clinton Rule, which states that when a married politician appears before cameras and microphones and starts babbling absurd lies about some sexual something, the person he is really trying to lie to is his spouse. The lies that get told to the public and the press are side effects." ...

... Boys Will Be "Journalists." Glenn Greenwald: "Reporters who would never dare challenge powerful political figures who torture, illegally eavesdrop, wage illegal wars or feed at the trough of sleazy legalized bribery suddenly walk upright ... pretending to be hard-core adversarial journalists as they collectively kick a sexually humiliated figure stripped of all importance." Thanks to reader Kat for the link. ...

... Jon Stewart apologizes for not covering the Anthony Weiner press conference:

... Risky Business. Dana Milbank: "... we’d be better off if lawmakers gambled more with their private parts and less with the public good."

** Jim Fallows has an answer to the Peter Diamond fiasco in which a know-nothing, no-everything Southern Senator nixed the confirmation of a Nobel Laureate for the Federal Reserve board because, according to the Senator (Richard Shelby [R-Ala.]), the Nobel Laureate (Diamond, an MIT professor of economics) just didn't know enough. Diamond withdrew his name from consideration ealier this week. Fallows says President Obama should appoint Diamond to replace the departing Austan Goolsbee as Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. This position also requires Senate confirmation, & Fallows says Obama should fight for the Senate to allow Diamond to lead his economic team.

Right Wing World *

Trying to Get Everything Wrong in One Speech. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty called on Tuesday for more than $2 trillion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses over the next decade and two to three times as much in federal spending reductions and loophole closings, saying that such policies would drive rapid economic growth." ...

... Ezra Klein: Pawlenty's fantasy economic "plan" is hilarious. "This plan isn’t optimistic. It isn’t a bit vague. It’s a joke. And I don’t know which is worse: The thought that Pawlenty knows that and went forward with this pandering, fantasy-based proposal anyway, or the thought that he doesn’t know it, and he really thinks this could work."

Dave Weigel in Slate: Republicans express concern/horror that John Bryson, President Obama's Commerce Secretary nominee, has spoken favorably of the United Nations. Radical leftist anti-American.

* Where facts never intrude.

Local News

One-Party Rule. A Tale of Two States:

... Peter Applebome of the New York Times: "Lawmakers over the last several weeks have enacted the largest tax increase in Connecticut history and approved the nation’s first law to mandate paid sick leave for some workers. They voted to extend protections for transgender people, to charge in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants, to extend an early-release program for prisoners and to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. As legislators wrap up the first session in 20 years with a Democratic governor, who is working with two chambers in the Legislature under Democratic control, it is clear that either they did not receive or they decided to tear up the antitax, budget-slashing, confront-the-unions script that has characterized state legislative sessions elsewhere." ...

... Monica Davey of the Times: "In just the last few weeks, Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, has signed legislation to require voters to show photo identification cards at the polls and to deregulate elements of the telecommunications industry. And the Republican-dominated Legislature is now in the midst of advancing provisions to expand school vouchers, to allow people to carry concealed weapons, to cut financing for Planned Parenthood and to bar illegal immigrants from paying in-state tuition at Wisconsin’s universities. Why the urgency? ... They are at risk of losing their newly won majority in the State Senate as early as next month."

News Ledes

"President Obama visits Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia to announce new commitments by the private sector, community colleges and the National Association of Manufacturers to give 500,000 community college students industry-accepted credentials":

Los Angeles Times: "Skeptical questions from three federal judges in Atlanta suggest they may be ready to declare unconstitutional all or part of the healthcare law promoted by the Obama administration and passed last year by Congress." Here's the New York Times story.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The [Wisconsin] state Government Accountability Board voted Wednesday to set recall elections for three Democratic state senators, bringing to nine the number of senators facing recall elections."

New York Times: "The Obama administration has intensified the American covert war in Yemen, exploiting a growing power vacuum in the country to strike at militant suspects with armed drones and fighter jets, according to American officials."

The Hill: "Obama administration officials and lawmakers are lowering the bar for success in Afghanistan ahead of the first strategic review of war policy in the post-Osama bin Laden era."

The Hill: "Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) won one of the biggest victories of his career Wednesday by leading the defeat of a controversial banking proposal supported by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the powerful banking industry.  An amendment sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) that would have delayed regulations on debit-card fees fell six votes short of the 60 it needed to win passage, 54-45.  The vote abruptly ended the biggest K Street battle of 2011, a debate that pitted banks and credit unions against a coalition of retailers and consumer-rights groups."

New York Times: "House Democratic leaders began an orchestrated effort on Wednesday to force Representative Anthony D. Weiner of New York to resign his seat, saying his sexually explicit Internet messages and subsequent lies about them were making him, and the party, the subject of ridicule. The push came as an angry Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader from California, concluded that Mr. Weiner was becoming too much of a problem for his colleagues as they planned to retake the House in 2012."

AP: "Consumers are caught in the middle of a fight between financial institutions and merchants as the Senate approaches a showdown vote over whether to block the Federal Reserve from capping fees that stores pay banks every time a shopper swipes a debit card. The vote, scheduled for Wednesday, is the climax of a long, expensive lobbying battle between two industries that lawmakers hate to cross because of their influence back home and their campaign contributions."

Reuters: "Lawyers for President Barack Obama will on Wednesday ...will present oral arguments as it appeals a ruling by a Florida judge who declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, backing claims by 26 U.S. states that are seeking repeal. A three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta will hear oral arguments by both sides.... No ruling is expected for months and legal experts expect an appeal to the Supreme Court...."

Hostage-Takers Ransom Note Released. Washington Post: "Minority Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) told reporters that Republicans want $2.5 trillion in budget savings in exchange for voting to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit through the end of next year."

Wall Street Journal: "President Barack Obama met quietly with the crown prince of Bahrain on Tuesday to press the royal family to investigate alleged human-rights abuses by its security forces, said senior U.S. officials. By meeting Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, albeit only briefly and without cameras present, Mr. Obama sought to reinforce his position among the prince's royal relatives while not appearing to endorse Bahrain's continuing crackdown on political opponents...."

The Commentariat -- June 7

I have a David Brooks comments page up on Off Times Square. Update: as of 11:10 am ET, the Times is still holding back my comment, which is posted on Off Times Square, along with some real winners.

"In State Parks, the Sharpest Ax Is the Budget's." William Yardley of the New York Times: "The vast majority of states have cut park financing, often significantly, since the economic downturn took full hold in 2008, and some were cutting long before that. Some parks are closing altogether; Gov. Jerry Brown of California in recent days announced plans to permanently close 70 of the state’s 278 parks this fall. Even where parks remain open, the compromises they make to do so are often uncomfortable."

This unemployment rate, for this long, is a humanitarian crisis of the first magnitude. -- James Carville ...

... Michael O'Brien of The Hill: "President Obama's reelection effort could be 'very rough' if job growth remains anemic, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville warned Monday. If the economy only adds about 54,000 jobs a month — as it did in May — Carville warned that Obama's 2012 campaign could be in danger." ...

... Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post fact-checker, gives President Obama three Pinocchios for his last weekly address on the auto industry, but I think Kessler is over-reading. All politicians point the spotlight on readings & facts that support them, and forget to mention info that doesn't suit them. Mostly that's what Obama seems to do here. It is true that providing too much shade can constitute a lie. See what you think. ...

... Here's the speech:

BUT enough about Medicareless, state cutbacks & jobs. Let's Do Der Weinerputz:

... In Search of a Citation. Will powerful, successful men learn from this latest example that their achievements do not exempt them from acts of reckless stupidity? I looked for inspiring quotes from John Adams, Tocqueville, Emerson and Reinhold Neibuhr, but found that John McEnroe said it best: 'You cannot be serious.'
-- Jeff Greenfield ...

... There are already more Weiner stories like this ABC story about a woman named Meagan Broussard, "a 26-year-old single mother from Texas who provided dozens of photos, emails, Facebook messages and cell phone call logs that she says chronicle a sexually-charged electronic relationship with Weiner that rapidly-evolved for more than a month, starting on April 20, 2011." With video. ...

... AND -- AP: Andrew Breitbart "who reported that a photo of a man's crotch had been sent from Rep. Anthony Weiner's Twitter account to a woman college student says he has an X-rated picture he'll publicize if the New York Democrat attempts reprisals against him." ...

... CW: Steve Benen issues the left's he's-not-as-bad-as... defense of Weiner:

On the Political Sex Scandal Richter Scale, I’m still not altogether sure why this even registers at all. Given what we know, Weiner shared adult content with women he met online. They were adults and the interactions were consensual. He didn’t commit adultery (Ensign), he didn’t hire prostitutes (Vitter, Spitzer), he didn’t solicit anyone in an airport bathroom (Craig), he didn’t pretend to be someone else in order to try to pick up women (Lee), he didn’t abandon his office for a rendezvous with his lover (Sanford), he didn’t leave his first two wives after they got sick (Gingrich), he didn’t have a child with his housekeeper (Schwarzenegger), there’s no sex tape (Edwards), and no interns were involved (Clinton). He’s not even a hypocrite — Weiner has never championed conservative 'family values,' condemning others for their 'moral failings.' ...

... Andrew Miga of the AP: Weiner's Congessional colleagues aren't exactly embracing him. ...

... Despite the Conventional Wisdom that Weiner should tough it out & try to hang onto his Congressional seat, Steve Kornacki of Salon wonders why he would want to -- his whole purpose has been to position himself in the New York City mayoral race, and that's out now. Plus, as a sideline, he was a popular talking head, and it's not likely now he'll be called on to comment on Medicareless or the jobs crisis. ...

... Others make light of Weiner's confession. Andy Borowitz: "Just minutes after Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) held a press conference to admit his culpability in the scandal involving pictures of his penis sent via Twitter, thousands of women claiming to have received such photos took to the streets of the nation’s capital to demand reparations. Traffic snarled for miles around the Capitol building as the streets filled with the penis-photo recipients, whom police sources said ranged in age from 21 to 22." ...

... CW: I'll let Mrs. Weiner, the House Ethics Committee and possibly law enforcement deal with Weiner's wiener. He violated you and me when he repeatedly lied about what was "the incident," and now turns out to be a pattern of behavior. Democrats should invite him to resign. Half-nude Rep. Chris Lee, a Republican from Upstate New York, has more class than Weiner. Lee quit when caught, albeit at the behest of the Republican leadership.

... AND here's Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM on the weird moment when Andrew Breitbart hijacked Weiner's confessional/press conference -- before Weiner took the podium. With video. ...

... Wonkette: "THANK YOU, ANTHONY WEINER, you have now guaranteed that greasy pustule Andrew Breitbart will never go away, ever." ...

... CW: AND John Edwards, who was indicted last Friday for "repurposing" campaign money, must be really glad that fellow Democrat Anthony Weiner has won the Prick of the Week Sweepstakes. ...

... Roger Simon of Politico notes all the press about how weak the government's case against Edwards is. Simon thinks Edwards may beat the rap: "John Edwards does sincerity very, very well. His next act may be to jurors. And I’ll bet you he wows them."

Right Wing World *

Charles Babington of the AP: in announcing his presidential run, Rick Santorum makes stuff up. CW: this, of course, is the Republican tradition,** and Santorum is hardly one to break with tradition.

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: in a speech today, Tim Pawlenty will offer the country what he calls a "Better Deal" than Obama's failed economic policies. CW: Get ready. Here's the plan: lower taxes on corporations and the rich! Best Deal: an actual progressive president. Unfotunately, no such candidate is available.

"Democrats & the state teacher's union turned my daughter against me."  ABC News: "A North Carolina lawmaker doesn't think it was right for his daughter and her third-grade class to write to him and other elected officials protesting possible cuts in state education spending. Republican state Rep. Mike Stone says his daughter asked in her note to "please raise the budget, dad" and help keep two teacher assistants employed.

Jonah Goldberg finds the long-lost first draft of "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Dubya Longfellow. Goldberg has the entire draft, which begins,

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear   
Of the early evening ride of Paul Revere,   
On the twentieth, or twenty-first, of May,
     or possibly June, in Seventy-six, or maybe Seventy-seven;   
Hardly a man is now alive   
Who refudiates that famous day and year.

* ... Is hard to distinguish from LiberalLand when Democrats like Weiner make themselves nearly indistinguishable from the denizens of Right Wing World.

** For example, here's the Pants-on-Fire Romney rollout, and here's Pinocchio Pawlenty's announcement in which he lies right out of the box.

News Ledes

President & Mrs. Obama welcome German Chancellor Angela Merkel & her husband Joachim Sauer to tonight's state dinner:

President Obama & Chancellor Merkel hold at joint press conference in the East Room:

... Washington Post: "President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel played down their differences Tuesday over the military campaign in Libya and the flagging European economic recovery, offering assurances that they share the goals of pushing Moammar Gaddafi from power and restoring the global economy."

New York Times: "In a sudden, sharp escalation of NATO’s air campaign over Libya, warplanes dropped more than 60 bombs on targets in Tripoli on Tuesday, obliterating large areas of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya command compound."

New York Times: "The uncertainty surrounding the political future of Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, deepened Tuesday as he was treated for far more severe burns than had first been disclosed, while maneuvering intensified in the capitals of Yemen, the United States and Saudi Arabia to head off an emerging and dangerous power vacuum."

Los Angeles Times: "Austan Goolsbee is stepping down as chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, the White House announced Monday night, shaking up the economic team just as the recovery is sputtering."

ScotusBlog: "The Senate on Monday approved the nomination of Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., to be the next U.S. Solicitor General.  The final vote was 72-16.  A statement by Attorney General Eric Holder on the approval is here.  Technically, Verrilli will succeed Elena Kagan, who left the post to become a Supreme Court Justice.  Since her departure, the office has been headed by her former deputy, Neal K. Katyal, as Acting Solicitor General."

Politico: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Steve Israel, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, have called for an investigation into Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) over the series of sexually explicit conversations and lewd photos he exchanged with a half-dozen women during the last several years." ...

... Wall Street Journal Update: "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) sent the Ethics Committee a letter Tuesday formally asking the panel to investigate whether Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) violated chamber rules by exchanging sexually explicit messages with at least six women." Here's the letter from Pelosi.

The Commentariat -- June 6

Paul Krugman explains the difference between demagoguery and telling the truth to people who don't know the difference. ...

... I put up a Krugman page on Off Times Square, but you may comment on Douthat or anything else within reason. (Hmm. Did not mean to suggest here that Douthat was reasonable; he is not.)

CW: More later. Perhaps. I'm now living in a McDonald's somewhere in Pennsylvania. It's freezing and they're playing really loud music. BUT they have a WiFi hotspot AND an outlet to plug in my laptop. They will be throwing me out in a few hours. The lives of the unconnected are pitiful indeed.

Okay, here's more:

Dean Baker: "... Welcome to the Second Great Depression."

Sara Murray of the Wall Street Journal: "At least half the states have begun to rein in safety-net programs that swelled during the downturn, even as high unemployment and slow job growth persist. States offer a range of assistance programs such as tax credits for the working poor, unemployment benefits for the jobless and cash for low-income mothers and children. Governors from both parties have begun to make or propose cuts to these programs as they face another year of yawning budget gaps."

Thom Shanker of the New York Times: "President Obama’s national security team is contemplating troop reductions in Afghanistan that would be steeper than those discussed even a few weeks ago, with some officials arguing that such a change is justified by the rising cost of the war and the death of Osama bin Laden, which they called new 'strategic considerations.' These new considerations, along with a desire to find new ways to press the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to get more of his forces to take the lead, are combining to create a counterweight to an approach favored by the departing secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, and top military commanders in the field."

"Headwinds." Karen Garcia: President Obama has a new word & the court stenographers have got it down pat. She is having trouble distinguishing among Obama, Romney & Huntsman. Same policies: just different pretenses to shore up their bases..

Lisa Mascaro & Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times suggest Democrats & Republicans will kick the deficit debate down the road & "resolve" the debt ceiling standoff by essentially doing nothing till after the 2012 election. No kidding.

Nathan Schwartz of the New York Times: "Bank stocks took another tumble late last week after Moody’s, the credit rating firm, warned it might downgrade the debt of giants like Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo as the government eases back on support for the sector. Even as the market absorbed that news, reports that Goldman Sachs had been subpoenaed in an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney further unnerved investors, and sent that giant investment’s bank’s shares sinking."

Another Lesson from Alan Greenspan on How to Say, "I Fucked up," without Saying "I Fucked up." Phil Izzo of the Wall Street Journal: "Alan Greenspan, a high-profile proponent of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, now says the U.S.'s debt troubles have become so worrisome that he would support going back to Clinton-era tax rates. 'The fact that I'm in favor of going back to the Clinton tax structure is merely an indicator of how scared I am of this debt problem that has emerged and its order of magnitude,' said the former chairman of the Federal Reserve in an interview Friday on CNBC."

James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: Elizabeth Warren may be both the best loved & most hated person in Washington. "Given the intensely partisan nature of Washington these days, the demonization of Warren and the C.F.P.B. is all too predictable. But it’s profoundly misguided, because Warren is far from the anti-capitalist radical that her critics (and some of her supporters) suppose. Indeed, an empowered C.F.P.B. could actually be a boon to business."

John Burns of the New York Times: "... Britain’s foreign secretary, William Hague, returning from a brief visit to the rebel headquarters in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, hinted at concern in Western capitals about what might come after the toppling of Colonel Qaddafi. Mr. Hague said he had pressed the rebel leaders to make early progress on a more detailed plan for a post-Qaddafi government that would include sharing power with some of Colonel Qaddafi’s loyalists."

Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker: "President Obama named some of the country’s most knowledgeable climate scientists to his Administration. But any hope that he might take the lead on global warming has faded."

Right Wing World *

Art by Boing Boing via Little Green Footballs.Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs: "Man, you’ve gotta almost admire the sheer blind dedication of Sarah Palin’s wingnut acolytes. Now they’re trying like crazy to edit the Wikipedia page for 'Paul Revere' to make it match Palin’s botched version of history." (Paul Revere artwork by Boing Boing is here.) CW: this is taking Right Wing World to a whole new dimension. ...

... Jeff Spross of Think Progress: in a Fox "News" Sunday appearance, Palin herself insists she got the Revere story right. Of course, she botches it again. With video of our Historian Laureate re-explaining history.

* Sorry, can't help it.

News Ledes

New York Times: "At a news conference in Midtown Monday afternoon, Representative Anthony D. Weiner tearfully confessed to sending a photo of himself in his underwear to a woman via Twitter and then lying about it. Mr. Weiner said the indiscretion was part of a pattern of sending inappropriate and at times explicit photos and messages to women he met over the Internet." CNN's print story is here. ...

     ... Update: the Times has a more expansive story here.

New York Times: "Peter A. Diamond said Monday he was withdrawing his name from consideration for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, issuing a sharply worded broadside that criticized Senate Republicans for blocking his nomination. Mr. Diamond, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Nobel Prize laureate for his work on labor markets, had waited more than a year for a Senate vote, a step that Republicans refused to allow."

AP: "Five American troops serving as advisers to Iraqi security police in eastern Baghdad were killed Monday when rockets slammed into the compound where they lived. The deaths were the largest single-day loss of life for American forces in two years."

Reuters: "Israel accused Syria on Monday of orchestrating lethal confrontations on the once-quiet ceasefire line between the two countries as a distraction from Damascus's bloody crackdown on an 11-week-old revolt."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, another Republican who will not be POTUS, says he'll run anyway. WashPo story here.