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 ’s air campaign over , 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 ’s president, , 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.
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