(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
Spring may have come late to much of the country, but the summer Silly Season is starting early. Frank Rich, NYMag, May 15th:
… Wasn’t the BP spill supposed to end the Obama presidency? Or was it the revolt against Obamacare? Not for the first time, the GOP could overplay its hand. In the accounting of Chuck Todd of NBC News, fully a third of House committees are now devoted to investigating the Obama administration. The Republicans see a golden opportunity to rev up their base in anticipation of the 2014 election. If scandal fever keeps escalating and we get anywhere near the frenzy of the impeachment crusade against Bill Clinton (perhaps unlikely, since the key ingredient of sex is missing), it could backfire. That’s what happened in the second-term Clinton midterms of 1998, when Gingrich’s revolutionaries actually lost seats in the House because of their incessant fixation on scandal. In 2014, the Democratic base could well be moved to turn out, too, including Latino voters who will be reminded daily that Congress was too busy investigating the Obama White House to deliver immigration reform.
Dana Milbank, Friday, on the “Conspiracy of the Unproductive“:
President Obama remains lucky in one crucial category: his opposition… Consider Thursday morning’s circus on the east lawn of the Capitol, where Republican lawmakers gathered with tea party leaders to declare their thoughts on the IRS scandal.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), mother of the House Tea Party Caucus, said her constituents are demanding, “Why aren’t you impeaching the president?”….
… And the head of Heritage Action for America, the influential lobbying arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote to congressional Republicans on Thursday urging them to concentrate on the administration scandals and avoid policy issues that could distract from this singular focus.
“[I]t would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference,” warned Heritage Action chief executive Michael Needham. “To that end, we urge you to avoid bringing any legislation to the House Floor that could expose or highlight major schisms within the conference.” …
Jon Chait at NYMag examines the Repubs’ playbook:
… You may think that screaming bloody murder over a non-scandal will utterly backfire. I invite you study volumes I to V of the Wall Street Journal editorial page’s collection of wild denunciations of massive, unprecedented criminality in the “Whitewater scandal.” The scandal, in fact, amounted to nothing in the end. But it did successfully implant an aura of sleaze and wrongdoing. If you’re looking to foment a scandal, having the facts on your side is obviously helpful, but it’s not necessary. (Republicans should probably stay away from actual impeachment — that part of the lesson of 1998 seems clear enough.)
I think Republicans made a huge strategic miscalculation on how to fight Obama in the first term. They assumed his policy agenda, and the economic devastation they figured it would bring, would be so unpopular they could oppose him on policy grounds alone. They made little effort to undermine Obama as a political figure. That reservoir of trust has helped Obama enjoy strong personal favorability ratings. If they’re smart, they’ll get to work on creating a narrative of wrongdoing and sleaze. If they wait for the facts to make the case for them, they may blow their chance altogether.
Or, as Paul Waldman explains in The American Prospect:
… So suddenly it looks like this isn’t going away, not because there was appalling malfeasance (or any malfeasance at all), but because once the train is moving, it’s almost impossible to stop. Put together the right’s desperate longing for an Obama scandal—turn on Fox News or listen to conservative radio, and you’ll see eyelids fluttering in ecstasy as this story gains momentum—with congressional Republicans’ helplessness in the face of pressure from their base, and the media’s inability to resist a presidential scandal story, and this whole thing might not end unless and until Barack Obama is impeached.
“But that’s crazy,” you may say. And yes, it is. Furthermore, it would be unbelievably stupid of Republicans to push it that far, just from the perspective of their own political self-interest. But that doesn’t mean they won’t do it. It’s a little glib to say that they’d do it because they’re nuts, but the truth is that impeachment could well become the inevitable end point of a process that has nothing to do with the actual facts, with all the different parts of the conservative machine feeding coal into the boiler as the train gets faster and faster…
So what’s going to happen? There will be more hearings, each one hyped by Republicans as the one that will “blow the lid off” this whole thing. They will fail to deliver much that’s actually revelatory. Nevertheless, the volume of discussion and speculation will rise inexorably. Republicans will begin calling for President Obama’s impeachment; first it’ll be a few nutbar Tea Partiers, then it will spread to some of the seemingly more sane ones, and finally the desire for impeachment will be nearly universal on the right. John Boehner will know in his heart that it’s a terrible idea, but he may be confronted with a rebellion: schedule an impeachment vote, or face a leadership vote. Boehner’s choice could be between impeachment and seeing Eric Cantor take his job (whereupon there’d be an impeachment vote anyway). Don’t forget that impeachment only requires a simple majority in the House to trigger a trial in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to convict.
The Republicans won’t get that two-thirds majority in the Senate, so the whole thing would be a colossal waste of time. They’ll look increasingly unhinged as they beg for the president they hate so fiercely to be tossed from office, knowing all the time their crusade is doomed. And just like in 1998, they’ll probably suffer losses in the 2014 mid-term elections, after the voters grow disgusted with the whole affair…
Schlemizel
If anyone could survive the coming apocalypse the GOP would become as famous as Nero, and for the same reason. “the GOP played politics while the world burned” would supplant “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” as a way to describe someone so self-involved, so consumed with their own imagined greatness, so lost in their own abuse of power as to ignore the events around them.
Baud
Umbrella-gate will be Obama’s Waterloo!
Seriously, folks, umbrellas are the new symbol of the resistance. When the time comes to stage a massive protest against impeachment, we’ll march on the Capitol with our umbrellas open and raised high.
Hal
Impeach for what? Benghazi, IRS, AP (which conservatives don’t care about), umbrella gate? I’m actually all for this, because I honestly think there would be such an enormous backlash Republicans won’t know what hit ’em.
Of course, Dick Morris said there was a strong possibility of impeachment, so that pretty much guarantee’s it won’t happen.
WereBear
It’s amazing: a Folie à deux that covers millions, thanks to modern mass communication.
Perhaps, by 2014, Louie Gohmert will cover himself in mayonnaise on the Capital Steps and start screaming about Venusians. But I’m being silly.
The media would cover it with straight faces and speculate in mayo futures.
Another Halocene Human
I love what’s going on to organize Latino voters. I’m glad the Dems have ditched the Lou Dobbs types and are making an appeal to sanity. Nice to be on the right side of history. The Spanish-language press is covering DC obsessively right now and all that racist shit and dithering is going to make a difference in the ballot box. Prepare to be screwed, GOP. (Esp in the SW.)
Hal
@Baud:
Even better, have Bachmann climb to the top of the Washington Monument with an umbrella and jump off. If her cause is righteous, she will float gently to the crowd of Tea Bagger worshipers who will crown her the new Jesus and instate her as President of the world and Marcus Bachmann and his enormous hot dog as First Lady. Maybe then Oscar De Larenta can get one of his damn dresses worn at a white house event.
Another Halocene Human
@Hal: Mary Poppins libel!
Schlemizel
@Hal:
They might have to. The problem is that they have turned the bullshit to 11 for so long that the base assumes that is the baseline. The only way to keep them fired up is to see if this thing goes to 12. Armed marches on DC are just one pustual growing out of this vomitous mass but it is an indication of how crazy they have become. What choice do they have?
There is a new gun nut organization that has sprung up recently because the NRA is not radical enough. Years of keeping the crazy at 11 has actually spawned a group of people who think 11 is too low and demand even more crazy. The GOP has the same problem.
Another Halocene Human
@WereBear: Does anybody else find Louie Goober reminds them of this guy?
(Interestingly, when I was trying to find this reference, since I couldn’t remember the title, the first links were about Shatner calling out Reddit for racism and sexism… nice. If hypocritical, but, hey, so is Clinton.)
WereBear
@Schlemizel: It’s a classic case of Anger Addiction, with cortisol as the hormone that dominates the body’s chemistry and provides the chemical support for their constant cranking of the dial.
Ever known anyone like it? Rage is their drug, and becomes their only emotion; even for things that should be happy. They don’t do happy, you scum-sucking weakling. That’s how “they” get you!
WereBear
@Another Halocene Human: That’s a favorite of mine! Really creepy. And man, I love me some Early Shatner.
Actually, Gohmert reminds me of the principal of the Christian Academy I attended in the 1970’s. There’s demons in there! Nobody wanted to sit in the front row of chapel, because you became covered in spit.
Schlemizel
@WereBear:
This describes the wifes brother to a “T”. Yes he is a teabaggin’ NRA-loving mouth-breathing moran. But he falls for their BS every time and appears incapable of learning from experience or recognizing when he has been had.
He reminds me of the Monty Python sketch: he doesn’t know when he’s beaten, this boy, he doesn’t know when he’s winning either. He doesn’t have any sort of sensory apparatus.
Keith G
There are always some in any population who can be counted on to behave in the most extreme manner. The House will not impeach. Except for the 49 members of the Tea Party Caucus, I imagine that most of the GOP there realize what a loser an actual vote on impeachment would be.
I do think the most in the House GOP want to use the current Sturm und Drang to dilute the power and pace of an already ebbing presidency. That is why I think it is necessary for this President and his supporters to redouble (or in some cases, begin) their efforts to talk policy, policy, policy. The President needs to get out of DC and visit day care centers, clinics, veteran’s hospitals, food pantries, infrastructure construction sites (if one can be found) and the like.
I believe that most of my fellow voters understand that there is a hell of a lot of work that needs to be done and that they will reward those who begin rationally talking about it.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear:
Thanx a heap. I really could have done without that vision, but now I am scarred for the rest of my short but useless existence.
Schlemizel
@Another Halocene Human:
Any time I see Shatner all I can think of is James Doohan’s comment about the 2 of them working a CBC radio drama in the 50’s
“Yes, and the dear boy couldn’t act then either”
Schlemizel
@Keith G:
That certainly makes sense. If this happened the question is will the media follow and cover policy or will they constantly portray it as Obama trying to get away from his “real” problems in DC and/or distract people from them?
Thats the way the Nice Polite Republicans played it this weekend.
BillinGlendaleCA
Just heard the funniest thing I’ve ever heard on Morning Ho, I know it’s a low bar. Joe and Mika were talking to Robert Gibbs about a MoDo column. Mika says to Gibbs: Of course you read MoDo’s column. Gibbs says no, never reads MoDo. She’s written the same column for the last 8 years.
Keith G
@Schlemizel: That will be a claim that is made, but as other successful politicians have learned, one can certainly reap the rewards of the right message paired with the right optics. I know this is not Obama’s favorite pastime, but dammit that is how the game is played. Most Americans have high hopes, mean well, but as a group are not that bright. They need to be led, preferably with a positive/hopeful message. Whenever strong leadership asserts itself, there will always be blow back. That does not mean that the leadership is not needed or will not be successful.
PurpleGirl
Good cartoon.
Dean Booth
Where was Chait in 2008 – 2012?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dean Booth:
with his head up his ass?
TR
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Ha, that’s awesome!
CarolDuhart2
@Keith G: Check out the Obama Diary for things like this. Local media does a better job of covering Obama’s comings and goings than the clearly bored White House press does, and more honestly.
Patricia Kayden
“The scandal, in fact, amounted to nothing in the end. But it did successfully implant an aura of sleaze and wrongdoing.”
I disagree. Most people I know loved President Clinton and while in office, he had high approval ratings. Whitewater may have implanted an aura of sleaziness and wrongdoing with people who hated President Clinton from the get go and were always looking for a reason to discredit him. Not at all with his supporters, who could separate his private life (cheating) with his public life (presidential accomplishments).
Patricia Kayden
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m sure Mika gasped in astonishment and stumbled backwards from her stool.
IowaOldLady
@BillinGlendaleCA: The Obama people see the emptiness of Dowd and her ilk, which explains why the Village hates them.
I recently read a book that claimed the medieval French aristocracy governed in their own areas and led the armies that defended them. When France was unified and especially when a professional army was created, they no longer served a purpose and instead hung out with the king as courtiers, ie useless drones who spent time plotting for power and sucking up resources. Down the road, the Revolution. (I’m sure several historians are cringing right now. Be kind.)
The Villagers are like that. They may once have served a purpose but why listen to Dowd when you have Nate Silver?
Skippy-san
Every election is one the Democratic base has to turn out in large numbers for-namely because the GOP has so many bad ideas. Ideas that were once consider insane-but are now considered “courageous”.
Omnes Omnibus
@IowaOldLady:
French kings specifically encouraged them to become courtiers in order to undercut their power and thus strengthen that of the state. But you are right, once the French aristos were no longer regional administrators and/or responsible for providing troops, they became superfluous but they demanded the privileges and money that they received when they had a purpose.
IowaOldLady
@Omnes Omnibus: Ooh. Encouraging them to become courtiers so the people in power are less likely to be undercut? That’s another parallel.
jibeaux
That’s certainly telling.
So, when these guys read the polls reflecting that Obama’s approval ratings have either stayed the same or gone up a little, I assume they think “the damn polls are skewed again!” ?
Schlemizel
@Keith G:
I agree with you and was not suggesting that it wasn’t the right way to go. But I still think the major theme on the nightly news, around NPR and all the Sunday chats will be the sullying of this President. It really worked when they did it to CLinton (perhaps not exactly the way they wanted it to but the 2000 selection of Boy Blunder would not have been possible without it).
That the media plays along so well is maddening
JD Rhoades
@jibeaux:
So, when these guys read the polls reflecting that Obama’s approval ratings have either stayed the same or gone up a little, I assume they think “the damn polls are skewed again!” ?
This is exactly what I’m hearing here in Darkest Wingnuttia. They never learn.
Snarkworth
@WereBear:
It would be hollandaise, actually. Goes better with asparagus.
geg6
@Schlemizel:
The media plays along because 90% of the media are the very people who create the image. They aren’t non-partisan, they aren’t on our side, they aren’t objective. They are the minions of the plutocrats and, when the time comes, should be in the tumbrels right there with them. I will be knitting away, happy to see them get their due.
Suffern ACE
@Schlemizel: yeah. That’s what they did to Clinton. For Obama the right has been trying to convey the message that everything he does is an incompetent unprecedented power grab. Now they’ll go with “everything thing he does is to misdirect from the scandal.” Tge scandal will be mentioned in every article. The MSM loved that. I expect it to be “Obama wished the country a safe and happy Memorial Day. Some say it is because it happens to be the fourth Monday in May, but others note that IRS gate is hanging over him…”
Cacti
For me, the earliest evidence that Obama had sent the GOPers completely ’round the bend was when they were rooting for those Somali pirates who had taken 2 Americans hostage back in 2009.
Southern Beale
Welcome to the modern Republican Party, where not governing is the political strategy.
What the fuck did people expect? Republicans do not believe in government. They don’t think it has a role in American life, except for national defense. Everything else can be magically performed by that mysterious free hand of the market.
So this is what happens when you elect Republicans. They don’t govern, they just attack government.
Chris
@IowaOldLady:
Did you read that from Hannah Arendt by any chance? I remember reading something similar.
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yep, that was part of the purpose of Versailles. Bring the aristocracy together as one big happy family… far from their estates and completely dependent on the king.
I rather approve of that – made it much easier to decapitate the old regime once it was concentrated into one head.
IowaOldLady
@Chris: It was no one so high-brow as Arendt. It was some tourist’s history of France. The author’s name was maybe Caro?
Southern Beale
By the way, as of now, polls show Obama’s popularity has remained the same despite the GOP’s attempts to tarnish him with these faux scandals. But so far, people don’t seem to be blaming Republicans for wasting everyones’ time.
I think we need to do a little more work on sending that message. How many people know that the Benghazi emails were Breitbarted by Repubicans? How many people know that it wasn’t just Tea Party groups targeted in the IRS “scandal”?
Boudica
@geg6: I don’t knit. Can I crochet with you?
MomSense
@Baud:
This morning I carried my effeminate rain shield in a show of solidarity with the uppity Muslim Kenyan Usurper known to his devoted sheeple as Metrosexual Black Abe Lincoln and in resistance to the scandal mongering, anti science, Republicans.
Plus it was raining and I arrived at work presentable so it really was a two fer.
MomSense
@geg6: @Boudica:
We can have a stitch and bitch!
raven
@Chris: And run Ho off.
soonergrunt (mobile)
OT: had a long night with the storms on our first night in the new house. Had 3-in diameter hail on the new roof. Seems to have held up well. Still don’t have internet or TV or hot water yet. 4G wireless reaches ALMOST to our house, but not yet.
JPL
@soonergrunt (mobile): I’m pleased that you didn’t have any damage. Were your cars safely parked in a garage?
raven
@soonergrunt (mobile): Old bush bunny like you should be able to hack it!
JD Rhoades
@Southern Beale:
What the fuck did people expect? Republicans do not believe in government. They don’t think it has a role in American life, except for national defense. Everything else can be magically performed by that mysterious free hand of the market.
So this is what happens when you elect Republicans. They don’t govern, they just attack government.
“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then they get elected and prove it.”-PJ O’Rourke, the last funny conservative
Montysano
Chait:
Kill me now.
Ash Can
@MomSense:
That’s an awesome term.
@soonergrunt (mobile): Yeesh. I hope this means your place sustained no damage at all. Do you at least have a radio, or at the very, very least are you within earshot of a functioning civil defense siren? A stormy period is a hell of a time to be without access to broadcast media.
JWR
Before long, impeachment may be seen as a badge of honor for future Democratic presidents. (I actually think the R’s will finally get off the crazy train before then, but one never knows.)
EconWatcher
Every now and then Chait writes something insightful and funny (he was great on Rogoff/Reinhart). But overall, the guy has no judgment. Just a couple of days ago, he wrote that the AP scandal was the only one that could have legs and staying power.
What? I mean, that’s just dumb. Maybe that one bothered him as a journalist. But any fool can see that Republicans aren’t going to do a full-court press on violations of civil liberties in the war on terror. They’re hypocrites, sure, but that just doesn’t fit their narrative at all. And despite their best efforts, in the end the nothingburger of Benghazi was exposed.
But the IRS scandal–that was tailor-made for them. What more could you ask for? It’s got the perfect red meat for the base (“see, we really are the victims!”) And ordinary folks don’t particularly like or trust the IRS. Plus, whenever you start digging into the discertionary operations of a law-enforcement agency, you’re likely to run into other things that can be spun or distorted to your advantage.
This one will be around for a while. Obama needs to figure out a way to play offense, not just defense, on this one.
soonergrunt (mobile)
@JPL: yeah. The cars didn’t get a scratch.
soonergrunt (mobile)
@raven: true, but I am RETIRED Bush bunny. I whine a lot less when I’m getting paid.
Debbie(aussie)
@soonergrunt (mobile):
Glad to hear you and yours are ok. Saw the damage on aussie news. Devastating.
Southern Beale
@JD Rhoades:
Hah. I always thought that was Adelai Stevenson. Learned something!
Suffern ACE
@Chris: That’s de Tocqueville. Everyone steals his theory as if it is in the public domain. He should have copytrighted it.
Todd
@soonergrunt (mobile):
Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but have it estimated for damage anyway. The impacts screwed with every inch of flashing and prolly caused microcracking in the shingles – your roof life just took a big hit, and every gust of wind, every rainstorm, every bit of small hail and every frost will widen those cracks.
Sorry. Roof deductibles are a sonofabitch.
ottercliff
@Hal: Impeach for what? Does it matter? Must there be a reason? Just impeach him because we do not like him and it would release chemicals in our brains that would make us feel better. And Michelle Bachmann is the person to lead this charge because it would never occur to her reptillian brain to think this thing through – she will react instantly and thoughtlessly!
NotMax
Minor in the grand scheme of things, but nevertheless Gerard Depardieu has gone right round the twist.
raven
@Todd: What do you know about sewer line right-of-ways under a planned addition?
MeDrewNotYou
A few years ago, Anne posted our dog Danny and I got to see how everyone here at BJ loved him.
Today we had to put him to sleep at age 12 because of liver and pancreas problems. I remember someone here gave the advice to let them go before they’re totally miserable and we did that. He’d been in the hospital for a week and just kept getting worse and he deserved better than to live like that, even if I could push back saying goodbye for a few days more.
I feel better now than I have over the last week, not having to worry and fret over him, and I’m certain he felt better too. We both got to say our goodbyes and we’ll never forget each other. I never thought I could love an ‘animal’ like I loved him (He was a people at heart!) and both of our lives are better for having each other.
Thank you everyone here at Balloon Juice for being here and giving advice and cheering me up. I don’t comment as much as I should, but all of you are wonderful.
raven
@MeDrewNotYou: Aw, happy trails to the little fella. You did the right thing for him.
Original Lee
Overheard at a J-school graduation this past weekend: “I keep telling him, stick to sports reporting. In sports, you gotta get it right all the time, and you gotta apologize when you get it wrong, and if you keep getting it wrong, you get fired. But it’s an honest living and you can sleep at night, and everybody’s happy to see you when they bump into you in the grocery store. Regular news, unless you stick to local news, that’s not journalism anymore, it’s all infomercials.”
Poopyman
@MeDrewNotYou: Peace to you and Danny.
raven
@MeDrewNotYou:
We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.
— Irving Townsend
MeDrewNotYou
@raven: Thanks. I know we did the right thing but I appreciate hearing it from others and it helps.
ETA- Lovely poem. I’ll share it with my sister later.
raven
@MeDrewNotYou: It doesn’t make it even one bit easier.
Original Lee
@MeDrewNotYou: You totally did the right thing. You’ll remember the last part of his life and your farewell in a positive way in the years to come, and that’s huge.
karen
@ottercliff:
Even though they’d love to, they can’t just impeach him for being a black President so since the first day he was ELECTED they’ve been scrambling, looking for a reason. Any reason. And that’s their problem. They’ve cried wolf so many times that sane people just ignore them.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Keith G:
He’s been doing that. We just never hear about it because, hey, the DC press doesn’t believe that that anything exists outside the fucking Beltway.
JPL
@MeDrewNotYou: All dogs go to heaven or at least that I think.
Hugs to you because sometimes doing the right thing hurts.
Ash Can
Condolences to you and yours. You obviously gave Danny a happy and comfortable life, and you minimized his suffering at the end. Kudos.
ETA: @MeDrewNotYou
MeDrewNotYou
Rather than individually reply to everyone (and get modded because of too many links, FYWP!), let me just give a big collective thank you. I really appreciate it and I’m sure Danny would’ve loved all the attention too.
japa21
Sometimes I wish Obama would just call their bluff. Say something like, “You know, I keep hearing impeachment being mentioned by Congtressional Republicans. To them I say, put up or shut up. If you think I have done something deserving of impeachment, go ahead and do it.”
The GOP would be between a rock and a hard place. If they do, most of the country would really turn away from them. If they don’t, the base deserts them.
Suffern ACE
@Original Lee: that is really unfair to weathermen and meteorologists. They may be wrong sometimes, but they are usually competent and try to be right about their predictions. Plus you don’t find a bunch of folks making a living trying to be “contrarian”.
ira-NY
The Whigs had the decency to just fade away.
These bastards are going screaming, kicking and frothing at the mouth.
Todd
@raven:
There are some things I know nothing about – shit, however, is one of my fortes. I’m the irritated operator of a packet residential sewage treatment planr, individual to my home. Damn thing was in operation 30 years, we’ve been in the house for 13, and it turned out that the local health department failed to keep any paperwork on these plants. They also never filed proper certifications with planning and zoning, which issued certificates of occupancy anyway. It was an epic clusterfuck. Anyhow, I managed to get my now nonconforming plant approved for a state permit (nonconforming because my lot is no longer large enough for current regulation and has too much slope. The aerator, pump, filter and sprayers are fine).
Anyhow, if you’re impinging on a sewage right of way, you probably won’t get a permit. If you’re builing it yourself, they may make you destroy it.
Mike E
NPR is pretty bad. One news report started out: (slightly paraphrased) “As Pres Obama tried to get ahead of the scandals that threaten to overshadow his 2nd term agenda…” Wow.
And their news brief reader made a point of mentioning that NPR is a signatory on the news media protest letter sent to the DOJ over APgate. Really. I guess those pearls won’t clutch themselves.
MomSense
@MeDrewNotYou:
I’m so sorry. You did the right thing and he didn’t have to go through prolonged suffering.
Tone In DC
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
Thanks for this. Too many people who say “Obama should say/do something” don’t seem to realize that quite often he is.
gene108
@Patricia Kayden:
Whitewater made it hard for Democrats, who were in areas where Clinton wasn’t overly popular to run for office.
Those Democrats had to run as Democrats, who were opposed to a Democratic President.
It’s one reason Republicans took the House in 1994.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Original Lee:
@Suffern ACE:
Also, Nate Silver’s beginnings were in sports, where he made it big because he was getting it right while all the other sports reporters were constantly getting it wrong, and not paying a price.
Amir Khalid
The Republican party is forever blowing the lid off this Obama administration “scandal” or that, and all the public ever sees is that there’s nothing much in the pot. It doth seem to me that the American public, or at least the non-27%er segment, has become used to this by now, The party isn’t getting a rise out of the public anymore with the baseless scandal-mongering, if it ever did; if it persists, Obama might not be the one to come off badly.
Randy P
@NotMax: His fleeing to Russia to avoid taxes has been well publicized, but I’ve been wondering what else is going on since seeing “Life of Pi”. Articles from when he was cast mention “a cannibalistic cook”. That was already a small part, but the relevant “cannibalistic” scene didn’t make the final cut, if it was ever even shot. So his role in the movie was even tinier, half a dozen lines aboard the ship.
This made me wonder why such a major actor would have been willing to do such a small part, and why he was offered such a small part.
kindness
This morning I lasted 10 minutes with NPR before I had to switch to my i-pod. As soon as Cokie came on and acted as if last weeks ‘scandals’ were real and continuing I had to switch.
I will not give NPR one more dime. It’s too bad too. I used to think giving PBS money was a good thing. Now I might as well be donating to Fox News or the WSJ.
Villago Delenda Est
@Hal:
Being fucking near. There is no greater crime.
MomSense
@Grumpy Code Monkey:
“We just never hear about it because, hey, the DC press doesn’t believe that that anything exists outside the fucking Beltway.”
It is so frustrating! How many times do we have to hear the press say “if only he would say this” or “he should have said that” and then I look at the transcript of the speech or presser and low and behold – he did say that! It is just major disrespect. People are always giving him political advice, telling him what he should say or do, and treating him like he is naive. The President is a lot more accomplished than his critics.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@WereBear: Folie à plusieurs, surely.
@MeDrewNotYou: I am so sorry. You made the right decision.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Original Lee: Local news isn’t really journalism in a lot of places, either. When I moved here from Nashville, I was stunned by how utterly lousy the local news was. Of course, by now the news in Nashville has degenerated into a zombie of itself.
aimai
@IowaOldLady: I’m reading that too. It is Ina Caro (wife of Robert Caro, Johnson’s biographer)’s book on French history “Paris to the Past” which is her thumbnail sketches of the important cities, architecturally and historically speaking, that you can reach from the train from Paris. But its a very well known fact–the Sun King did it quite deliberately and created not just a location for the aristocracy but a competition revolving around himself and his favor that was so complex and expensive that it completely gutted the aristocracy’s wealth and their ability to even conceive of life away from court.
Sly
Barack Obama criticized a Supreme Court decision, which makes him as bad as Al Capone.
schrodinger's cat
Why do we need a dedicated White House Press Corps? Do other democracies have them? I have never heard of a 10 Downing St Press Corps. How much tax payer money will it save if we get rid of the courtiers?
Original Lee
@Suffern ACE: I think the parents behind me at the commencement ceremony do not count meteorologists and weathermen as journalists. If I were to list areas of journalism, I don’t think I would list weather, either.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but are others seeing this bizarre “Tobin Smith” dude looking like some sort of fundigelical grifter touting the “next big thing” which is some sort of “revolution” in heavy oil production?
Why would ANYONE take seriously a guy with a mug like that…a guy who is very obviously weighing your wallet as he talks to you?
Original Lee
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I guess these parents live in an area with competent local news. A friend of mine from college is local news anchor and does (as far as I can tell) a pretty good job at it, but she also does a huge amount of infotainment. I think one of her last big segments was on yoga.
aimai
@japa21: I kind of agree that he should say that because its better for the Democratic party and the country to force them to do it now rather than after the midterms. If they do it on their own schedule they will do it after the midterms in order to prolong their excuse for getting nothing done. If they do it before the midterm it will raise their popularity with their base–which will vote in the midtersm anyway, but kill them with our base who might not vote in the midterms unless they are massively engaged and outraged.
gene108
@Original Lee:
Meteorologists are meteorologists, with a degree in meteorology, i.e. guys who could’ve been physics or math majors, but decided studying the atmosphere was cooler.
They aren’t journalists by trade, though some do aspire to get onto T.V.
Weathermen can run the gambit from David Letterman before he broke big into comedy to meteorologists to hot models, who like a steady gig.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sly:
The guy who wrote that article really needs the Al-Capone-from-behind-with-a-Louisville-Slugger treatment.
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
It’s also one of the reasons that 2010 was such a bloodbath — for some reason, Democrats managed to convince themselves that they needed to publicly oppose Obama and all his works (particularly Obamacare) in order to get re-elected, and they got massacred instead. It’s not a coincidence that 2010 basically killed the Blue Dog Caucus in the House, most of whom vocally opposed Obamacare and ran on a platform of reversing it.
The Blue Dogs who survived were the ones who supported Obamacare and ran on it as an accomplishment, like my rep here in California, Adam Schiff.
Burnspbesq
Anything that keeps the House Republicans from pursuing an actual legislative agenda is OK in my book.
Elie
@Southern Beale:
And — how many people are aware that the person who “broke” the IRS story, was a max contributor of $2500 to the Romney campaign, Lois Lerner — and that she planted the question to be asked by a Republican supporting Tax lawyer attending the ABA conference where this broke. Ms. Lerner has been at the IRS for a while and the poor outgoing acting commissioner further cited her as the source for the story. Please remember– timing is everything… this happened back in 2010 — before the mid-term elections under the previous IRS commissioner who was a Bush appointee. There was an IG report on this issue that the administration also duly reported to Darrell Issa in 2011!
There is no story here other than bullshit and the fact that the rank and file IRS bureaucrats working on these applications are severely overwhelmed and overworked with little guidance from the Congress on how to interpret the new regulations…
This is ultimately not going to play out — there is nothing here.
StringOnAStick
@soonergrunt (mobile): Hey, about that hail…. I can speak from numerous experiences here in Hail Alley; 3″ hail DID damage, no question (unless it fell with nearly zero speed and/or was hardly frozen, which is unlikely). You’ll only see it after things dry out a bit and there are obvious dents where there is not much of the mineral bits left. Call your insurance agent; there will be a line so get on the list.
All the roofing companies here in Denver subscribe to a service that tells them down to the specific addresses of what parts of town got hail of sufficient size to require a new roof; they start working the ‘hoods within hours of the end of the storm. In our last roof-killer storm they were papering our area with fliers and sales guys before the streets had dried!
Grumpy Code Monkey
@gene108:
My father was a meteorologist in San Antonio, and he had little patience for TV weathermen. I remember him cackling with glee when Jud Ashmore (KENS weather “personality” with a moustache that Friedman could only fantasize about) once got locked out of the studio right before a broadcast.
There was a different occasion when Ashmore was out of the studio, and the anchor (Chris Marrou) and sports guy (Dan Cook) had to do the weather report. It was awesome.
Villago Delenda Est
@Burnspbesq:
There is no evidence that they’d know what to do with an actual legislative agenda if they had one. They’re too busy frothing about that damn ni*CLANG* in the White House.
Patrick
@Mike E:
That’s just appalling coming from NPR.
It was NPR’s own ombudsman that wrote the following:
But no matter how many distinguished groups — the International Red Cross, the U.N. High Commissioners — say waterboarding is torture, there are responsible people who say it is not. Former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney, their staff and their supporters obviously believed that waterboarding terrorism suspects was necessary to protect the nation’s security.
One can disagree strongly with those beliefs and their actions. But they are due some respect for their views, which are shared by a portion of the American public. So, it is not an open-and-shut case that everyone believes waterboarding to be torture.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2009/06/torture_round_two.html
So NPR is throwing a tantrum over APgate, yet has no fricking problem with torture. So I assume NPR thinks that the US should apologize to Japan for having prosecuted their soldiers in WWII for waterboarding (we prosecuted them for torture!). Please, I beg Congress to cut their funding.
Suffern ACE
@Elie: Someone should ask Issa why he covered this up to help Obama get elected. Hell, post his home phone number. Darryl Issa-RINO Traiter! Let the Tea folks run him out of town on a rail.
After the reports that one of the people involved in the “scandal” is supposed to help set up the collections process for the ACA I think that that is the point. The Republicans do not want ACA implemented. They do not want it funded.
JPL
@Suffern ACE: As a member of the House, Darryl Issa did the correct thing.
btw . that was so hard to type.
Elie
@Patrick:
forgit NPR — I listen to their news only because I have to put something on in the car once in a while and I like their non news programming. They also bought into the poor Gallup polling prior to the election and seemed downright sad the morning after Obama beat Romney to smithereens
— they aren’t even Nice Polite Republicans anymore — they haven’t seen a dime of my money — and won’t
StringOnAStick
@Grumpy Code Monkey: RE: weathermen vs meterologists, isn’t one of the loudest global climate change deniers that retired weatherman Anthony Watt? You know, the guy who has harped on it like crazy, gotten lots of funding, has an all-things-denialist website, and has exactly zero degrees in meterology and yet constantly gets cited by the denialist press as a “professional in the field”? Yeah, that’s him.
artem1s
@kindness:
same here. Cokie has become a joke. she should have stuck to reading SCOTUS transcripts. What NPR has done to their political reporting is an insult to Daniel Schorr. He’d be embarrassed to affiliated with that dreck now.
Elie
@Suffern ACE:
He didn’t think they would need it! I am sure they all thought that Romney would win in a cakewallk, remember?
Of course, its wonderful that this could be an embarrassment to ol’ Darrell and I imagine that he is gonna get some of it as blowback at the right time.
As usual, these Repubs remain hard and fast on pulling the trigger but not so good on getting the content of the target and the set up lined up. They remain stupid stupid stupid and that is our only hope that they remain so… Lord knows they have the intense motivation and the persistent and intense hatred to keep running their stupid, block heads into the wall often enough… with the media’s help however, they never seem to experience the full pain and consequence from it.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@JPL: I have never met a bad dog. Scared, yes. Poorly trained, yes. Abused, yes. But one that was bad in the vicious, cruel way that humans can be, no. If there’s a heaven every dog I have ever met will be there.
JoyfulA
@IowaOldLady: Name of book about French aristocracy? It sounds interesting.
IowaOldLady
@JoyfulA: Animai identified it in post 90: Ina Caro, PARIS TO THE PAST. She writes very engagingly.
Steve Crickmore
Balloon Juice wants a lively press going outside the Beltway, investigating and reporting stories. However the orgainization that has been known for the widest coverage of civil rights, and wars, some of which they were very critical, such as the second Iraqi war and it’s conduct, often called the “Marine Corps of journalism”—always first in and last out—was the Associated Press. The Obama Adminstration, on the other hand don’t wish investigations or detailed questions or probing. They have gone after, incoherently, and charged the reporting of the torture, the whistleblowers, not the torturers, in the Bush/Cheney administration, whom they have not demoted or charged.
If you run all the threads together of these mini ‘scandals ‘, the Obama administration seems very keen on mangement of the news, ‘informercials’ and their critics, taking actions , which every government tries to justify as a threat to ‘national security’. And Balloon Juice continues to criticize the beltway mentality but not that of the incumbent in the White House, who wouldn’t even know about these abuses of power, for which he is ultimately responsable, without the leakers, whom he bitches about..
Randy P
@Steve Crickmore: Ron? Ron Fournier? Is that you? The “Marine Corps of journalism”. Heh. If they’ve “often” been called that it wasn’t somewhere that people could actually hear it. Maybe that was a signature line on official corporate internal memos or something.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Suffern ACE: I live in Issa’s district now and have always lived right next door to it, I’m pretty familiar with the area and the voters. It has changed just a bit, after 2010 he got some of Bilbray’s former district and I now happen to be unfortunate enough to live in his territory.
Here’s the weird thing; he got into office and has stayed there via an odd combination of the elderly (we have an awful lot of those) and the Mexican haters, but the Tea Party has really never been a factor in his ability to turn out electoral victory after victory. If younger voters voted at the same rate that the older voters in his district do, he wouldn’t have survived two terms in the House.
Elie
@Steve Crickmore:
shut up
those “leakers” are not just benign actors… they have gotten people KILLED (see valety Plame and her international contacts)
the problem is that the leakers are frequently not benign actors but political operatives whispering in the ears of your less than hard working and intellectually honest reporters.
No admnistration is going to put is staff and major initiatives at risk open ended with the realityof the current poisonous environment that the PRESS CONTINUES TO SUPPORT by giving voice to liars and political manipulators as “truth tellers”
Tell you what, you might get treated with more respect if you acted like you deserved it instead of spending your time bending down licking Republican hind ends.
wmd
FWIW there were some old folks with Impeach Obama signs (and Bengazi) at the post office in Scotts Valley California last Wednesday. Scotts Valley is in Santa Cruz county, which the people calling for Obama’s impeachment likely regard as more communist than Stalinist Russia.
Cacti
@Steve Crickmore:
Leaking classified information is illegal in the first place, because of its potential as a threat to national security, the lives of intelligence officers, and the lives of informants.
The First Amendment prohibits prior restraint on publication of this information by the press. It doesn’t immunize the leaker from criminal prosecution, or the publisher from information that can be obtained through the normal investigative process.
Consequently, Judith Miller was not a martyr for withholding the name of Scooter Libby in the outing of Valerie Plame.
soonergrunt (mobile)
@StringOnAStick: you’re about the third person to suggest that. We called USAA a little while ago. They’ll have somebody out tomorrow.
Steve Crickmore
@Randy P: Perhaps I was taken in by their the AP puffed up self-praise too. but my point being if liberals want a inquistive and curious press, the Obama White house will have to have the confidence they will not have to massage the news, that their performance compared to their predeccessor can speak for itself, and the GOP provided a very low bar- You remember all the 2008 talk about transparency, that’s what these scandals have been about,.the lack of..I think Obama is too worried about what will the Republicans think too much? This is why he has curried favor with the national security state people to such a degree, since he was thought to be dovish. But look at how the gay marriage and a groundswell from ordinary folks has evolved so called progressive leaders like Hillary and Obamas’ opinions. The Republican preseidential candidates all 8 of them two years ago wanted to reinstate DADT and put it back in the genie bottle. They will continue to be history.
Elie
@Cacti:
Consequently, Judith Miller was not a martyr for withholding the name of Scooter Libby in the outing of Valerie Plame.
Absolutely correct — Judith Miller was not a “reporter” — she was a political operative. When the Press tries to have it both ways – that is broadcasting the results of a leak for nefarious reasons and then trying to escape consequence — they do enormous damage to our system. That this whole point has not been discussed yet is a real problem in the brooha ha about the AP “scandal”. Many time the “role of the press” is carried out by operatives with agendas… hiding behind the “freedom of the press” shtick.
raven
@Todd: Ack! Some local contractors I have talked to think thar we will be able to reinforce around the section that will be under the slab. Got my fingers crossed.
JoyfulA
@IowaOldLady: Thanks! This happens every time I don’t read all the comments first. And if I do read all the comments first, I wind up writing long two hours after the last previous comment—
Yatsuno
@Steve Crickmore: Just curious: did that leap of logic strain your brain?
Seanly
All my unhinged Facebook glibertarian friends swear this has nothing to do with the President being black.
I look forward to them trying to impeach Obama for the next 3 years and then spending the next 8 years trying to impeach President Clinton or Biden or [insert Democrat here]. In the meantime, our health insurance costs will continue going up, our roads & bridges will continue crumbling and we’ll have massive & avoidable unemployment. Hooray!
You might want to add the ‘bring on the meteor’ tag…
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: I admit that I have clicked on some of those tempting ads for the next big thing, or the next catastrophe. Then it is a video in which each image is rapidly sketched (although not fast enough to not annoy me) with a magic marker. And each word is written out as well. Is there any medium that is more tedious? Just get to the damned sales pitch. Maybe they are a good sales method for the same people who like Ford truck ads about torque.
sherparick
An interesting story on CNN’s latest polls (from Daily Kos) about how the President’s poll numbers have gone up since the end of March despite all the scandal mongering. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/20/1210419/-CNN-poll-Republicans-only-ones-wrapped-up-in-scandal
One big reason is that all the “grand bargain talk” and “cutting social security and medicare” pretty much stopped around mid-April. Yes, the President made a stupid proposal, but the Republicans were even more stupid and did not take him up on it and the Democrats in the House and Senate have managed to triangulate against it. With all that talk dead, the economy slowly improving despite sequester, the President’s approval ratings naturally went up, especially as he emphasizes jobs and stimulus in his speeches.
Steve Crickmore
The AP withheld the story for five days, then when two National Security officials had informed them that there were no longer any national securty fears, they published a day ahead the White house was going to make the announcement, and for that they had their phone records handed over. Now you have 52 news organizations signing a strenous protest letter, most of whom were sympathetic to Obama and the AP, one of the adminstrations’ strongest backers, is perhaps reappraisng their support. If it wasn’t for the AP and other orgainizations reporting on the frontlines we would never get any stories on war, other the ‘the five o’clock follies’ from the Pentagon, such as the Vietnam war the Johnson administration wanted written up as ‘a bright shining lie’ because of national security fears.
Tonal (visible) Crow
Please, oh please Republicans I beg you don’t throw us in the Impeachment Patch! We’ll die die die in there!
weaselone
@Steve Crickmore:
If the leak was so inconsequential, why exactly did the Republicans in the House demand that the Administration conduct an investigation?
Patrick
@Steve Crickmore:
What do you mean by sympathetic to Obama?
Patrick
@Steve Crickmore:
Whoever thought Obama was dovish did not do it based on facts. They, like many other things, made him out to be to something he never was.
In the 2008 campaign Obama tons of times said he wasn’t against wars, he was just against stupid wars (like Iraq). He also said he was going to end the war in Iraq (which he did). He also said he was going to get bin Laden and put the focus back on Afghanistan (which he did).
Again, anybody who followed the 2008 campaign knew was smart and certainly not dovish.
Elie
@Steve Crickmore:
On what basis and what documentation can you supply that AP is/was one of the admnistration’s strongest backers?
Steve Crickmore
I asume you are referring to the AP leak. The leak may have been inconsequential but significant. Certainly they shoudn’t risk that operation when it was ongoing or in the immediate aftermath or susbequent ones. This is where there could be grounds for going after a specific leak or leaks not so much for publishing, but for the risk they would have published earlier or named agents. I’m not expert on this incident, but it the overall tenor of the Obama adminstration, its ‘war on whistleblowers’ and its hightened secrecy that is troubling. No one seems to tell Obama anything until he reads it in the papers, like the IRS , and then he is shocked. If we intimidate the papers, where will he get his information about what is taking place? His staff only tells him what they feel he wants to hear and he doesn’t seem like the most inquisitve person in the world, and he has a lot on his plate.
Elie
@Steve Crickmore:
I think that you are living in a fantasy of the AP that never was… If they truly were a credible and independent news oranization, they wouldn’t be “backing” this or any other admnistration. They would just DO THEIR EFFING JOBS!
My question to you is how should the press police itself to prevent the political hacks who have infiltrated too many of their reporting ranks, from benefiting from the protections afforded for a free press — when so many of the times, these guys and gals are just wolves in sheeps clothing. How can we keep some of these folks from getting people killed or good policy undermined? Yes, there is a real challenge with maintaining a free and unharrassed press –but what do you do about a corrupt press that is abusing the protection meant for saving our republic — NOT the Republicans (or Democrats for that matter)?
Mnemosyne
@Steve Crickmore:
Yeah, I can’t really cry too many tears about martyred “whistleblower” John Kiriakou, who went on national TV to give cover to the people who claim that torture works, and then tried to walk back the interview because it turned out he was spreading misinformation given to him by other CIA people.
I would love to find out who told Kiriakou to spread disinformation and propaganda about torture on national television, but unfortunately we’ll never know that since he cloaked himself as a “whistleblower” who just happened to be telling us all that torture totally works just like the Bushies claimed it did.
Elie
@Steve Crickmore:
Of course, you know what he knows or doesnt know and who tells him what because of what direct information?
You are really really naive….I am being very kind
jprfrog
So they impeach and convict Obama. And who do they get instead? Biden.
Doesn’t look like a win for them that way. But I hope they try it — the entertainment will be better than people-watching on the NYC subway and it is always a pleasure to see them shoot themselves in the feet and then brag about their aim.
cat48
Boehner has to raise the Debt Ceiling this summer sometime. I predict he will promise the House Cretins that they must raise the Debt Ceiling and then they can start Impeachment Hearings soon after. He has to do something special or they won’t vote the Speakers way. Very sad times……
Steve Crickmore
@Elie: @Elie:You call me naive.
President Obama told us that he’s asked the Pentagon whether the conditions of confinement of Bradley Manning, the soldier charged with leaking state secrets, “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards. They assure me that they are.” That is far as Obama went.
As Dainiel Ellsberg wrote “I would hope he would know better than to ask the perpetrators whether they’ve been behaving appropriately. I can just hear President Nixon saying to a press conference the same thing: “I was assured by the the White House Plumbers that their burglary of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s doctor in Los Angeles was appropriate and met basic standards.”
And shall i remind you what Balloon Juice’s chief editor wrote in connection to the Pentagon´s treatment of Manning and Obama’s denial. “Assholes. Anyone with half a fucking brain (not apparently Obama) could tell he (Bradley Manning) was being treated differently than any other person in custody at Quantico, and the reason for it was he had embarrassed the Brass and the National Security State.
For alleged liberals, there’s not a dimes worth of difference between many of you and Marc Thiessen.”
Who is being naive, John Cole and me or you and Obama?