The Commentariat -- December 25

Virginia O'Hanlon, 1890s. New York Times photo.Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: the descendants of Virginia O'Hanlon, who wrote to the New York Sun in 1897, asking if there was a Santa Claus, "have quietly become ambassadors of the Christmas spirit, crossing the country to appear at events honoring her, and reading the letter and the response to children in schools and to their own children at home." Here's O'Hanlon's letter, and the famous response, printed in the Sun, and later attributed to newsman Francis P. Church.

One of the New Yorker's most popular articles of the year was "What Did Jesus Do?" by Adam Gopnik. I linked to this story earlier, & my recollection is that Gopnik gets it mostly right in this review of recent literature. If you want the title question answered, however, you will be disappointed.

Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "... while the president will be working while he is on vacation, it's not a 'working vacation.' Administration aides emphasized that the president wanted real down time after an intense two-month period after Election Day, and Obama started his 11-day trip with several hours of golf Thursday. He spent much of Friday afternoon at the beach with his daughters, Sasha and Malia."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "Gov. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who befriended President Obama’s parents when they were university students here, has been in office for less than three weeks. But he is so incensed over 'birthers' — the conspiracy theorists who assert that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and was thus not eligible to become president — that he is seeking ways to change state policy to allow him to release additional proof that the president was born in Honolulu in 1961."

A Realistic Christmas Story. Alison Leigh Cowan of the New York Times: "... for patients in state-run mental hospitals [in New York] — people too ill to live on their own and too poor to pay for their care — the state can drain court-awarded damages, effectively deducting the cost of their stays in the very hospitals that failed or abused them."

The Commentariat -- December 24

The View from the White House of the Week that Was:

Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "The massive new tax bill signed into law by President Barack Obama is filled with all kinds of holiday stocking stuffers for businesses: tax breaks for producing TV shows, grants for putting up windmills, rum subsidies for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. There is even a tax break for people who buy race horses."

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "President Obama is planning the first major reorganization of his administration, preparing to shuffle several positions in the West Wing as he tries to fortify his political team for the realities of divided government and his own re-election."

Philip Rucker & Paul Kane of the Washington Post on Nancy Pelosi's last full day as Speaker of the House.

This (I think) is Speaker Pelosi's last floor speech:

It is heartbreaking.... That can't be who we are. To have our kids, classmates of our children, who are suddenly under this shadow of fear through no fault of their own. They didn't break the law -- they were kids. -- Barack Obama, on the defeat of the DREAM bill ...

... Yes, Virginia, There Is a Scrooge, Part 1. Shankar Vedantam of the Washington Post: "Congressional Republicans are pronouncing President Obama's proposal that the next Congress overhaul the country's immigration laws as dead before arrival.... Both House and Senate GOP leaders said they would fight any attempt to legalize any of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country before the administration secured the nation's southern border with Mexico." ...

... Yes, Virginia, There Is a Scrooge, Part 2. David S. Hilzenrath of the Washington Post: "Since the meltdown in the housing market began more than three years ago, Maryland and the District have changed their foreclosure laws to give borrowers greater protection. Virginia has moved in the opposite direction.... Virginia ... homeowners can receive less than two weeks' notice that their house is about to be sold on the courthouse steps."

Greg Sargent: "... Harry Reid is in active discussions with his caucus about moving forward with [filibuster] reform in the new year, and is currently devising a plan to do just that...." ...

... Ezra Klein creates this graph from data compiled by Senate.gov on the history of the number of cloture filings, cloture votes & clotures. Klein explains that even this shocking number does not come close to reflecting the number of filibuster threats:

Larry Margasak of the AP: "If you are a college student, teacher or resident of a state that has sales taxes but no income tax, the bipartisan tax agreement this month could mean significant benefits next year."

Sewell Chan of the New York Times: "Economists in universities and on Wall Street have raised their growth projections for next year. Retail sales, industrial production and factory orders are on the upswing, and new claims for unemployment benefits are trending downward."

Bah! Humbug! Paul Krugman: "... there’s a well-developed right-wing media infrastructure in place to catapult the propaganda, as former President George W. Bush put it, to rapidly disseminate bogus analysis to a wide audience where it becomes part of what 'everyone knows.' (There’s nothing comparable on the left, which has fallen far behind in the humbug race.)"

George Warren of News 10 Sacramento: "An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security. The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia." CW: do read the whole story of how federal agents came down on the pilot & watch the News 10 video. Thanks to Bob P. for sending the link.

     ... Here's the follow-up story and News 10 video:

     ... AP Update: "A pilot who posted videos on YouTube that were critical of security at San Francisco International Airport is now the subject of an investigation, the pilot's attorney says. The pilot placed several videos on YouTube in late November or early December that showed how ground crew members can enter secure areas by swiping security cards and without undergoing further screening."

Humanitarian Cigarettes & Gum. Jo Becker of the New York Times: "Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has allowed American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism.... A little-known office of the Treasury Department has granted nearly 10,000 licenses for deals involving [embargoed] countries.... Most of the licenses were approved under a decade-old law mandating that agricultural and medical humanitarian aid be exempted from sanctions. But the law ... was written so broadly that allowable humanitarian aid has included cigarettes, Wrigley’s gum, Louisiana hot sauce, weight-loss remedies, body-building supplements and sports rehabilitation equipment...." With links to lists of licensees.

David House, writing in Firedoglake, reports on the conditions under which Bradley Manning, suspected of passing U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, is being held at the Quantico brig. House includes links to several reports on Manning's detention, including those of Manning's attorney David Coombs. ...

... Glenn Greenwald has much more, including Jonathan Capehart's interview of David House:

Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: "The companies that build futuristic airport scanners take a more old-fashioned approach when it comes to pushing their business interests in Washington: hiring dozens of former lawmakers, congressional aides and federal employees as their lobbyists. About eight of every 10 registered lobbyists who work for scanner-technology companies previously held positions in the government or Congress.... On K Street as a whole, by contrast, only about one in three lobbyists has previously worked in government."

New York Times: "The Interior Department reversed a Bush-era policy on wilderness on Thursday, restoring the authority of its Bureau of Land Management to identify and recommend new areas for protection. Since 2003, the department has excluded wilderness as a criterion it applies in managing federal lands for the public benefit.... Environmentalists welcomed the decision but questioned why it had taken nearly two years for the Obama administration to reverse the policy. They also expressed worry that the new policy could prove weaker than the wilderness designation formulas in place before President George W. Bush took office in 2001."

Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries next year in an attempt to curb global warming. The move, coming on the same day the Interior Department unveiled a plan to protect a broader swath of the nation's wilderness, demonstrated that the Obama administration is prepared to push its environmental agenda through regulation where it has failed on Capitol Hill, potentially setting up a battle next year with congressional Republicans."

National Journal: "A day after President Obama signed legislation repealing the 'don't ask, don't tell' ban on openly gay troops, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had a different message for senior Pentagon officials: The restrictions remain in effect, and service members who violate the 17-year-old law could still face 'adverse consequences.'"

Washington Post: "The number of civilians killed or wounded in the Afghan war increased by 20 percent during the first 10 months of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to a U.N. report issued this week."

The Commentariat -- December 23

President Obama walks out of the Oval Office to board Marine One before departing for Hawaii. He will join his wife and daughters, who are already there, for the Christmas holiday. Getty image.Tim Egan tells a lovely Christmas story. in the tradition of O'Henry's "Gift of the Magi." Read it to the end. BTW, if you're looking for the O'Henry story, you can find it here.

Dana Milbank: during his press conference yesterday, "... when [President Obama] wasn't praising his accomplishments, he was praising himself.... Careful, Mr. President. What got Obama in trouble in the first place were the extraordinarily high expectations that the nation had for his administration - and that Obama's campaign had encouraged." CW: Milbank says it was "the humility forced on him by the Republicans' triumph in November" that accounted for Obama's success. I doubt that assessment. See other analysis of the lame duck Congress & Republican mutiny below. ...

... Nonetheless, Jay Newton-Small of Time is impressed as all get-out by President Obama. She notes that "The headlines this week read, "Obama Bested GOP in Extraordinary Lame Duck Session" (Washington Post), "No Congress Since 1960s Makes Most Laws for Americans as 111th" (Bloomberg), "With Major Bills Passed, [Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid Takes a Victory Lap (New York Times)." Small remembers this President Obama --

      -- who has r-evolved into the old Obama we fell in love with at the 2004 Democratic convention:

Dan Friedman of the National Journal: "All Democratic senators returning next year have signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging him to consider action to change long-sacrosanct filibuster rules.... Adding to the momentum for change, say proponents, is a push by [Sen. Tom] Udall [D-NM] to seek a simple majority vote on changing Senate rules at the start of the session, rather than a two-thirds majority, that is gaining steam." ...

... Ezra Klein on the Democrats' letter to Reid: "They say elections have consequences. So too, it turns out, does obstruction.... [The Democrats'] Their unity stems from an unlikely source: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has mounted more filibusters in the past two years than occurred in the ’50s and ’60s combined." ...

... ... CW: I don't usually link to political analysis by Politico writers, but how can I resist this one by Glenn Thrush & Manu Raju titled "Mitch McConnell's Iron Grip Slips"? "... while nobody in the White House thinks McConnell has lost his grip, they see an opportunity to increase their leverage as McConnell finds himself squeezed between an incoming class of emboldened conservatives with a tea party tinge - and the eight to twelve Republicans who showed their independence on “don’t ask don’t tell” and START." ...

... Gail Collins celebrates the success of President Obama & the lame-duck Congress. ...

... What a Difference a Lame Duck Makes. Perry Bacon of the Washington Post: "... a six-week session that was expected to reflect a weakened president has turned into a surprising success." ...

... Ezra Klein on why the lame-duck Congress succeeded in passing so much legislation: "Sen. Lindsey Graham summed up the session by saying, 'When it's all going to be said and done, Harry Reid has eaten our lunch.' But it wasn't really Harry Reid who ate their lunch.... It was the Republicans.... The incumbent -- and the outgoing -- Republicans know that the fact that Republicans will have more power in 2011 doesn't necessarily mean that they'll use that power to pass sensible legislation. So those of them who wanted to pass sensible legislation decided to get it all done now...." ...

... Adam Serwer on why Republican obstructionism rendered Republicans their own worst enemy & gave a boost to President Obama, whom they hoped to destroy.

"Murkowski Goes Rogue."Meredith Shiner of Politico reports on Sen. Lisa Murkowski's new situation: "... she heads back to the Senate with a fresh six-year term without owing much to either her home state party establishment or her Washington leadership."

David Halbfinger of the New York Times examines the Senate career of New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. ...

... Scott Keyes of Think Progress: Ground Zero workers visited Sen. Tom Coburn's office yesterday. Coburn was blocking the 9/11 responders' bill & eventually won deep cuts in its funding. Watch the video to the end:

Holiday Cheer! In this USA Today op-ed, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the TSA is doing a great job. ...

... BUT Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post reports that "Muslims aren't alone in their antipathy toward the new security measures. Followers of other religions, including Sikhs and some Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians, also say the scanners and pat-downs make them uncomfortable or breach the tenets of their faiths."

Greg Gordon & Kevin Hall of McClatchy News: "The Federal Reserve Board ... missed a chance to prevent much of the financial chaos ravaging hundreds of small- and mid-sized banks. In early 2005..., the Fed rejected calls from one of the nation's top banking regulators, a professional accounting board and the Fed's own staff for curbs on the banks' use of special debt securities to raise capital that was allowing them to mushroom in size. Then-Chairman Alan Greenspan and the other six Fed governors voted unanimously to reaffirm a ... magic bullet [that] allowed the banks to count the securities as debt, even while counting the proceeds as reserves. Banks were then free to borrow and lend in amounts 10 times or more than the value of the securities being issued."

Nate Silver looks at the potential effects of the upcoming changes in the Electoral College, and concludes it won't have much of an effect on the of the 2012 presidential election.

Lanny Davis & Mike Espy -- Two Sleazy Democrats Get Sleazier. Helene Cooper & Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times: "As the United States continued to push for President Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast to step down, two former Clinton administration officials were trying to present Mr. Gbagbo, who has clung to power despite international condemnation, in a more sympathetic light. Michael Espy, the former agriculture secretary who is now a lobbyist, has appeared on Ivorian television on behalf of Mr. Gbagbo’s government, while Lanny J. Davis, former chief counsel to President Clinton who was hired by Mr. Gbagbo’s government this month, worked the phones and described himself as a liaison of sorts to the tainted regime." ...

... Justin Elliott of Salon has more here and here.