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 ... moved rapidly on Tuesday to make amends as Republicans called for his resignation and leading members of his own 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. 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 . 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 , 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 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...."
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