The End Of March

++Climate Scientists claim we are at the tipping point where climate change will be irreversible.


++SCOTUS voted in conference on the Affordable Care Act but we will not know until June. In the Nation, John Cole says that its death is exaggerated, believing it will still survive by a 6-3 vote. The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn has written an excellent article "Obamacare on Trial,So is the Supreme Court" on the whole problem of credibility the court will have if a vote to reverse is 5-4. A former Clerk for Anthony Scalia appeared on PBS to say that a reverse would be judicial activism on steroids, something we haven't seen before on an act passed by Congress. Reagan's Solicitor General Charles Fried came away from the oral hearing disgusted at the use by conservative judges of the Tea Party lines and having been encouraged before the hearings on its viability is now convinced the conservative judges decided this before oral arguments. Best line of the week in the Washington Monthly is "Don Verrilli is the Bill Buckner of the legal world." Observers are still wondering why the Obama Administration believed it would be a slam dunk and why they ever thought Anthony Scalia could be impartial.  At the end of the day, we don't know the results yet and several constitutional scholars, who were optimistic but now less so, still believe the Court can't reverse without plunging into disgrace.


++President Obama recorded an unusual video to the supporters of Planned Parenthood on his efforts to stop Republicans from de-funding it. It was an effort to play the Republicans' awesome war on women into a successful wedge issue.


++"Prepare to Celebrate Mitt Romney" is the FOX News line, anticipating that a win in Wisconsin next Tuesday will finally seal the deal. Romney is doing a quick pivot to the general election where he has started to attack President Obama's foreign policy. The ole' Karl Rove technique--attack your enemy at his strongest. Romney's foreign policy team consists of the old George W. crew. While progressives are joking about the GOP not mentioning George, it is likely he will endorse in May. Combine Romney's foreign policy team with his economic team and you have George W. on steroids. 


++The Obama team called out Romney on the Wall Street Journal's investigative report that Bain Capital in the 1980s created a scheme by which employees could avoid taxes. The Obama team asked Romney to release his taxes since the 1980s. The Romney team answered not until Obama released the notes of all foreign leaders to show he had not sold out the country. Clever and plays into the old all Democrats are weak on national security line but also suggests the President would betray the country. This ups the stakes in the anti-Obama rhetoric.


++The Zbig weighed in on Romney, saying he has a viewpoint more appropriate to the 1970s and 1980s and that he lacks any coherent strategic whole view. This is true. What's notable about his advisers is the total lack of anyone who can think geopolitically. Almost all the actual policy experts have a narrow specialty on policy towards Israel and the Middle East. Zbig blasted Romney as not knowing what America's place is in the 21st century.


++John "The Tan Man" Boehner got it right. The Ryan budget is the GOP's political agenda. 


++Sheriff Babeu, famous for his appearance in the McCain "Build The Damn Wall" ad, is being investigated for the disappearance of hundreds of files on the case of his illegal immigrant boyfriend. Also Chief Arapaio has to make a decision whether he will accept that his deputies abused Hispanics and racially profiled immigrants or go to trial.


++Robert Caro gives a preview of his last volume on LBJ in this week's New Yorker. The piece is the section about JFK assassination and captures the event from the viewpoint of LBJ. Fascinating read.