ED KILGORE ADVOCATES "VOTE-A-RAMA"

Ed Kilgore in NEW YORK magazine says that Senator Enzi's motion today for a budget reconciliation just tied up the action for Obamacare Repeal. The GOP wants to see the Repeal on Trump's desk by February. 

Kilgore says that even though the Democrats can't filibuster they can introduce amendments that will spell out everything the ACA does. For instance, get the Republicans to vote against every good thing the ACA does. For instance, preventive medicine. Or lifetime caps. Or parents being able to insure their children to the age of 26. Make it as long and drawn out as possible. Make the Repeal as painful in public as the Democrats can make it.

Then the Republicans have to say how long before the repeal takes place. One year, two years,three years. This would make it obvious they don't have a plan.

If they are going to destroy the union,make them do it publicly.

Takes On The Donald

++Let's not mainline Trump, he's still a marginal character. Our first Cartoon candidate.

++Republican Governor of Massachusetts will  not vote for Trump.

++Republican Senator from Nebraska will not vote for Trump but will look for an independent candidate.

++Ed Kilgore weighs in at New York magazine that there are not enough white men in America to make Trump president. Ed points out that he would have to win over 70% of white men while splitting the white female vote to win.  Ronald Reagan in a white country couldn't get as high a number. Ed also points out that the "working class" is browner than before. 

++Timothy Egan at the New York Times points to Trump's negatives. He is disliked by 73% of minorities,over 80% of Hispanics,70% of voters under the age of 35,67% of college graduates, and 67% of women. His negatives are the highest in modern times for a candidate from a major party. Hillary's negatives are high but not nearly as bad as Trump's. Hillary has a good comeback. Her approval ratings while doing a job are high. Both as Senator and as Secretary of State.

++Gene Robinson says the new GOP slogan is "We are all Visigoths now."

++The New Yorker has a devastating profile of Melania Trump. No, she didn't graduate from college as she claims on her resume, she dropped out in her freshman years. There is more.

At Last,The GOP Civil War

++The National Review launched a whole issue of conservative writers, barkers and has-beens to attack Donald Trump. As a result,they lost sponsorship for the next Republican debate.

++Josh Marshall at Talking Points and Martin Longman has pieces today explaining the significance of the war of hates.

++Jeb!'s mother cut an ad for her son. Actually it was nice. Ed Kilgore had a piece on Michael Murphy,Bush's brain and what's gone wrong.

++Listen for the signal, not the noise. Nate Silver warns that the filers in the latest Iowa polls show that turnout is the key. Nate says Sanders' ground game is good but not at Obama levels.

++The Cook Political Report has an excellent report on the Democratic primary. It analyzes the margins both candidates need to secure the nomination. Sanders is way behind the official delegate count in a way that Obama in 2008 wasn't. The other factor is that Iowa and New hampshire are the "whitest" states in the Democratic primary schedule. Sanders support is basically "Portandia" without much support from African-Americans.

++Conservatives are thrilled more Clinton e-mails have been released.

Peggy Noonan Doesn't Want To be Rude but

++she refers to the Bush campaign in the past tense saying he never had a broad base in the party and has never been a national figure. She argues that question was raised about Walker, now it is time to raise it about Bush. He doesn't like the rough and tumble of politics and has only been a state figure. He believes he should be better known because he's from a national political family. But it is not to be.

++Harry Etten at Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight argues along a similar line saying that the problem with Bush's campaign is ,in effect, Jeb himself. His campaign can't make voters like him any better. Etten points out that JEB!'s favorables sink the further he campaigns. He's at Rand Paul levels now.

++Ed Kilgore, while playing the best hits of Grace Slick today,points out that the leaked memo about Rubio made a revealing statement about Jeb's Iowa campaign. Only 1,200 supporters is bad enough but Ed points out that they could only get 7 volunteers from 70,000 calls in a state where you must have organization.

++Jeb! says he feels fantastic and that his campaign is the best thing for someone like himself to grow intellectually,spiritually and morally. A Far cry from his I "have cooler things to do."

++But by mid-afternoon the campaign's  CO was fired.

It's Yahweh Or the Highway

++Ed Kilgore reminds us that Good Friday used to be celebrated in Europe with pogroms. True.

++The AFA said that the backpedaling on the Indiana Religious Freedom Bill was brought about because Big Gay wants homosexual supremacy.

++Glenn Beck's The Blaze had a telethon to raise money for the pizza parlor who won't cater gay weddings. So far it was raised over $500,000. One of the owners appeared on FOX News and said serving pizza to gays is a sin. No one asked her how can you tell whether someone is gay.

++Mike Huckabee says The Gay will not stop until all the Churches are closed. 

++Tehran Tom Cotton says that gays should be happy they don't live in Iran where gays are hung. I suppose.

++Meanwhile, the silent majority of the religious world is beginning to stir. The Frozen Chosen,the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians,the Unitarian Universalists , the Reform Jewish community and the Central Conference of American Rabbis have all come out against Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

++My Matzos for Passover are Yahuda's, which are great. But I have guilt that I didn't get my stand-by, Streit's which will cease its New York East Side operation after 100 years.

++Don't not get Manechewitz because they are owned by Bain Capital.

++Ted Cruz will be advertising on "Killing Jesus" and "AD 100" this weekend.

++Happy Passover and Easter,everyone! I will be celebrating Easter in Manhattan,listening to Jazz at the Village Vanguard.

That Didn't Take Long

++Israel denounces the agreement as a capitulation and says it leave Iran with all its nuclear sites and a military nuclear program.

++Actually uranium can only be enriched at only one place and the military site that was believed beyond the reach of Israeli and American bombers will be converted into a research facility with foreign scientists working there.

++Haavertz also says it is a bad deal. 

++But Bill O'Reilly told Fox News that we should support the deal,right after President Obama's press statement.

++However Jennifer Rubin says we gave Iran everything they wanted. 

++Oh myyy.

++Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly this morning had a piece on what Munich means in the present debate.  He points out that the effect of the Munich Agreement with Hitler was to push Stalin into the Moscow-Berlin agreement that stalls allied actions against Hitler. But he points out where is the authoritarian regime now going to rush to Tehran's side--Saudi Arabia?

The Israeli Elections Aftermath

++The Times of Israel writes that pressure will resume on Israel but it may not be that bad.

++The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the occasional Washington Post op-ed felt the election was awful and Bibi cynical.

++Tehran Tom Cotton was the first Republican who said that Bibi's no Palestinian state was practical. John McCain said that he preferred a two-state solution but isn't bothered that Bibi changed his mind.

++An Israeli writes Josh Marshall about what is Likud thinking that Israel will survive while there are boycotts against it and its leaders can only fly to the United States because they are wanted by the ICC. Do they really think the Palestinians will abandon their hope for statehood and accept their meager fate? What is the Likud excuse--that they want to avoid an Islamic terrorist state next door? Then why wait ten or twenty years? For what?

++Almost at the same time as Michael Tomasky's column tab the DailyBeast, Jonathan Chait in New York magazine wrote a piece about Bibi moving far right and embracing the fate of a garrison state that appeals only to right-wing Republicans.

++Ed Kilgore thinks Bibi acted like George Wallace while J.Goldberg at the Atlantic bemoans his embrace of Lee Attwater dog whistles against the Israeli Arabs.

++Should Bibi be seen as a radical factional leader leading a small state? Another writer questions.

++John Kerry called to congratulate Bibi but didn't talk about anything. President Obama's spokesman said that Obama would call him after his created his coalition but the President was bothered by his any-Arab language. 

++The interesting question is that both the White House and the State Department have openly questioned the need to change policy on the peace negotiations. The question is when and if to use our vetoes at the United Nations when the issue of Palestine arises. But avoiding the veto,President Obama throws the ball back at Bibi in a way that makes it impossible for him to govern.

++Thomas Friedman writes that the day of a Palestinian state is rapidly fading. Historically, he doesn't buy Bibi's line but thinks from a practical point of view it is not possible.

++I am seeing the scenario rapidly developing where Israel faces the resistance by the international community that South Africa had to deal with. I can see the pro-apartheid forces lining up right now. The Christian Right,the GOP,and the business community. The situation will take years to play out in the United States but in Europe the momentum is already there. I expect Palestine to be recognized by several European states this year after Sweden's initiative. I also expect Palestine to bring war crimes accusations against Israel for Gaza and the United Nations Human Rights Council to step up pressure on Israel. 

++I also expect to see the taboo about speaking or writing about the Israeli Lobby to fall rather quickly. I also expect that some people in the Beltway will press to have AIPAC register as a "foreign agent". 

++William Brennen, writing for the Atlantic Council,suggested that President Obama appeared weak and vacillating on the Bibi Iran speech and that if he had spoken up and slammed Bibi's interference in our domestic affairs things would have been different. I humbly disagree because President Obama knows that he is detested in Israel and the results in the election would have been the same. It was clear that President Obama wanted a different result but as the LA Times said, we don't tell people in other countries whom to vote for--But now that it's done we can make ourselves be heard.

++Does Bibi's election really affect President Obama's remaining days? I doubt it. He doesn't have to answer the phone calls. And what is it that we have to do on the agenda with Israel--just the Palestinian talks. While Bibi thinks he should have the final say on the Iranian nuclear talks,his election probably diminishes his influence considerable, except among the GOP.

GOP Gives Iran Propaganda Victory

++Dr.Zarif,the Iranian foreign minister,responded to the GOP's Open Letter on the Iranian nuclear deal by saying it "has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy."

++The Authors do not understand international law, and are not fully cognizant of then nuances of their own constitution when it comes to
presidential powers in the conduct of foreign policy."

++He also said,"Some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods,unprecedented in diplomatic history. This indicates that like Netanyahu,who considers peace as an existential threat,some are opposed to any agreement ,regardless of its content."

++Josh Earnest responded for the Obama White House. "It is surprising to me there are some Republican Senators who are seeking to establish a backchannel with hardliners in Iran to undermine an agreement with Iran and the international community."

++"Republicans have taken their campaign to undermine and delegitimize the President of the United States global."

++What Cotton did today as outrageous. Even Nixon, when he sabotaged the Vietnamese peace talks, kept it quiet.

++MR. Kilgore at Washington Monthly goes into depth about the Republicans' lack of respect for President Obama. He asks should Democrats act the same way if a Republican is President. He surmises that a Republican would not even get what he is complaining about. 

Reacts to Bibi's speech

++Josh Marshall says same old, same old but for the reference that you can google the details of the deal on line. This was a reference to the threat by the Obama Administration about leaking info. on the deal.

++Ed Kilgore quotes a Peter Beinert tweet that this was a Bibi speech without any mention of a negotiating process, two state solution or anything of relevance. Kilgore was sort of surprised that Bibi could dictate the issues he would speak about.

++Why I think Bibi spoke about Iran exclusively is that the GOP no longer has any credible people to speak on foreign policy and Bibi was as good as they could get.

++Jake Topper said it was an effective speech.

++Diane Feinstein said there were no solutions. Nancy Pelosi said it was an insult to the American people and Congress that they didn't know what kind of threat Iran was and that didn't have knowledge of the situation.

++Ted Cruz said the Obama Administration knows nothing about Iran.

++Christine Amapour said the speech was "dark and strangelovian."

++Ed Kilgore notes that Bibi suggesting that Iran was bluffing was not the greatest gambit to use since Bibi actually encouraged brinkmanship by the United States and felt that in his experience that isn't the way to negotiate.

++A blogger tweeted that "He hated the speech even more since W gave it in 2003."

++Civil rights legend John Lewis ,who boycotted the speech, said, "it was an insult to his president."

Boehner Admits To Stumbles

++John Boehner admits his new House hasn't got off to the smooth start he wanted. Today the House couldn't figure out their own border security bill, which even Jeff Sessions admitted got too confusing. Senate Democrats are united in telling Mitch McConnell to just fund Homeland Security and not even thinks about bringing the House bill to the floor.

++John Boehner said that he is about ready to sue President Obama over immigration. The litigation strategy has just been reviewed. We are still waiting for his suit on Obama delaying the employer mandate.

++But Good news for fans of the Boehner/ Bibi show. John Boehner insisted he had the absolute right to invite Bibi because the House is a co-equal branch of Government. Even his math fails him. 1/6th or forget it. And by gum, he's going to stick by his decision.

++Dave Weigel reports that the Boehner invite was the brain child of Louie Gohmert and that Boehner made his dream real.

++Ed Kilgore , who isn't a very persistent Israel watcher, writes today "Bibi's Reckless Gamble". In sum, he writes that Bibi has alienated Obama's White House,congressional Democrats and American Jews, who overwhelmingly voted for Obama. He's receiving mixed reviews at home and earned a new bond with Republicans who have nothing whatsoever to do with foreign policy. Other than that,his plan is working brilliantly. 

++More seriously he gives the floor to Jeffrey Goldberg, who has been a fan of Bibi, but who writes "The Netanyahu Disaster" in the Atlantic. Goldberg thinks that Bibi's management of his relationship with President Obama has been a disaster and perhaps beyond repair. He's suspicious of the timing from the point of view of the Israeli elections. He's relieved Bibi hasn't attacked Iran--yet--which he agrees would be a real disaster. He's concerned that a bipartisan support for Israel may be threatened and he hopes it is not irreparable. That's heavy coming from Goldberg.

++So far,Jennifer Rubin has backed Bibi and Marc Thiessen. Marc as you know supports Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, which really did come from Gestapo handbooks. 

++Perhaps in honor of the occasion, they should invite Dick Cheney to be honorary President of the Senate so that the optics are complete.

Fun Read

++ Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly writes"President Obama didn't give the speech the Republicans wanted". It's a fun read about the petulant take of conservatives about the speech. The President basically ignored the mid-terms which conservatives believe negated the 2008 and 2012 elections and is bringing the unstoppable conservative triumphant. He cites Bryon York's piece in the Washington Examiner contrasting the graciousness of George W. Bush on Nancy Pelosi becoming Speaker of the House to President Obama ignoring Mitch McConnell, the single most obstructionist against the President, becoming leader of the Senate. Brian Beutler comments that the Republicans bring nothing to the table with regards to  any of the subjects President Obama mentioned. Ezra Klein at VOX remarked that if President Romney was delivering the same speech citing America's economic progress the ovations would be so loud that he couldn't speak. 

++Petulant is a great description.

Chock Full of Nuts

++This afternoon's Impertial Post allowed the voices of wingnuttery sway. We have Allen West write that President Obama doesn't understand the meaning of his own signing statements since West is such a great constitutional lawyer. George Will weighed in on how the President has gone rogue. Judge Michael Mukasy defends the great fortress Gitmo and laments the grotesque display at the Rose Garden and how the leaders of a terrorist group have gone free. The Judge thinks that President Obama doesn't understand the significance of what he has done.

++Marco Rubio earlier in the day said that President Obama was acting as an Emperor.

++The bottom-line since 2008 has been to impeach President Obama and to make sure he can not carry out any of his policies. There is no doubt about this. 

++What you see are people seeing their worldview and the instruments they created to box in the President crumble around them. In a way,the disturbing trend of Post op-eds for the past two months on foreign affairs indicates this--an entrenched interest of the national security state trying to save the war machine and hype military interventionism at a drop of the hat.

++There is no alternative vision. They just think that if Obama disappears a return to the old foreign policy will materialize. What worries them is that the structures they depended upon to implement policies abroad are disappearing and can't be replaced. The Times They are A-changin' and they don't know why.

++Josh Rogin has written how Hillary Clinton had disagreed with President Obama over this deal two years ago--which is a different deal than in 2014. This really goes to the media elites still not accepting the legitimacy of President Obama. Hillary Clinton's view is the Democratic Party view. It reminds me of Lady Rothschild's lunatic ravings against President Obama. Hillary Clinton did say she approve this deal and ,yes, then sidestepped it more recently. 

++This is a bizarre episode in American history. This is the first time there is a major fight--to the point of calls for impeachment--over a return of a POW. Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly tries to run down the thinking on this as expressed by Lindsey Graham. So the bottom line is that the GOP must fight to preserve the last remnant of the George W. Bush years, the prison at Guantanamo, even if it means impeaching a sitting President of the United States. What an idea! The GOP admits Iraq is gone and soon Afghanistan. Lindsey said that Obama is "losing the wars". So the whole apparatus they have constructed over more than a decade is crumbling so the President must go.

++This is the normal retributions we saw after the Vietnam War, when the United States withdrew and the North Vietnamese won. The Nixon-Ford White House tried to blame the Democrats. In fact, there are  Nixon papers outlining this strategy. Then blame the Left. Then blame Hollywood culture. A lot of the memes from today come from that period in our history. But for the GOP today,they see President Obama has the existential threat to everything they hold dear on the economy and national security. Expect more of this.

++Meanwhile,the gay roadrunners keep moving along. The Supreme Court rejected NOM's petition to hear their objections to Oregon's decision to allow same sex marriage. I couldn't understand what standing NOM had in the case since the Oregon Attorney-General made it clear the state did not want defend their ban on same sex marriage.

++This afternoon Chester Nez,the last of the original Navaho "Code Talkers" died at the age of 93.

++So we finish today in Washington with the desire to impeach President Obama on the following grounds:
1. Like his predecessors he rescued the last POW in Afghanistan.
2. He didn't save the Ambassador and colleagues at Benghazi when they were attacked by someone the Bush Administration released from Gitmo.
3. He had a terrible healthcare. gov website.
4. He ended two wars.
5. He adopted the biggest restrictions on carbon emissions in American history.
6. He didn't know that the IRS was evaluating Dark Money 501-C-4s. He should have if he were like Nixon.

So ending two wars,rescuing a POW and providing health insurance to millions of Americans. Like Fox Shrink Ablow said today, President Obama doesn't want to be part of America. 

Sometimes I think they should impeach President Obama because it would give themselves something to do. But I can't imagine this crew even conveying the necessary fake gravitas.

That's Why He's President and You're Not

++Andrew Sullivan called it his True Grit speech and cited Obama's eloquent ending about Cory Remsberg's difficult recovery from his tragic wounds from Afghanistan as a metaphor for the struggle of America and the President today. Josh Marshall liked the speech and thought the President had a snap and an upbeat message well delivered. Eugene Robinson said it was Obama's finest State of the Union. Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly thought it resembled some of Clinton's laundry list speeches but caught himself and noted that Stan Greenberg for Democracy Corps had a focus group on the speech and that Obama's support of women in the work place made the dials go off the charts in favorables. Kilgore's point was that Obama needed to bring back single women for the 2014 elections.

++Josh Marshall was right, the speechwriting was first-rate. The Libretto did become an opera with Obama's delivery and pacing. 

++The Charlie Rose who had Doris Kearns, James Fellows and Mark Halperin on to respond. All thought it was an excellent speech and Fellow called it Reaganesque. 

++The speech had clearly been poll-tested. All Obama's proposals have overwhelming support of the American people. Some writers think he outlined clearly the direction for the Democrats in 2014 and afterwards the Democrats showed unusual unity in support. John Lewis said the President still stood tall and had the courage to fight on.

++David Corn said he should have explained why he was going to take executive action and lay the blame on Republicans. A commentator wrote that the lack of strong partisanship except with an occasional jab was what was needed because the country is fed up with political rhetoric.

++The most interesting effect was that in a town of total bummers the President reminded us of optimism and positive thinking. The contrast between him and Congress is shocking. This is a man who had a bounce in his step and a clear vision about how to move the country along. It was actually refreshing to see that he wasn't dragged down into the snake pit like everyone else. Yes, there were many things he has said before but ,in Andrew Sullivan's words, you have to admire his persistence. If the United States recovers from its doldrums by the end of his term,President Obama is going to reap the lion's share of the credit. 

++CNN has 76% responding positive to the speech with the usual 22% believing it is negative. 

++Democratic Underground had 69% give the President an A and 23% a B. 

++The Daily Kos had 49% give him an A and 33% a B for the speech.

++Joan Welsh at Salon said we all missed the story. The story last night was the utter disarray in the GOP. Ms. Morris didn't flop it and Sweeney Todd like her response. But she claimed the GOP had lots of plans for the economy but never mentioned on concrete idea. She prayed for all of us. Rand Paul gave a libertarian response which basically called for the elimination of government, lowering taxes and ending the social welfare net as the solution to the country's problems. Mike Lee said that a new generation of "reformers" aka the Tea Party are in Washington but failed to say how they would reform the town.

++Brian Beutler at Salon basically said the Right was now reviled and offers up nothing.

++As with most things Obama,the bland ideas if taken together and adopted would profoundly alter the country for the better. In the next year, it will be interesting to see where the most mundane ideas go.

++The Obama Derangement Syndrom continued last night. Steven Stockman, the missing congressman from Texas, showed up only to walk out in protest of Obama violating the constitution aka using executive orders. Rand Paul said he would sue Obama again like they did for recess appointments. A Tennesee congress critter tweeted he was the socialist Commander in Chief. A Kansas congressman lamented there was no mention of Benghazi and that Obama used the military--aka Corey Remsberg--for political purposes and is weakening the military by withdrawing from Afghanistan and trying to close Gitmo. The GOP congresscritters took the time to be photographed with Father Duck of the Duck Dynasty.

++Ms. Lindsey Graham responded that Obama was not aware that the earth is going to blow up.

++There were many highlights from the President's speech which I may get around to. But he was the only adult in the room last night and it was good to see he hasn't been worn down by the Bummers.

The Year of the Great Regression

++The Supreme Court granted a hold on the same sex marriages in Utah.

++The Circuit Court with three GOP women judges will rule--presumably in favor of Texas' anti-abortion laws.

++The Courts will not rule on North Carolina's voting rights until 2015.

++The Guttmacher Institute has published a report that says States have criminalized abortion more in the last two years than the prior decade together.

++Josh Marshalll at TalkingPoints printed a useful chart of GOP obstructionism against Obamacare,showing the dramatic difference between states which embraced it and those run by the GOP that didn't. More than 5 million eligible for health insurance will be excluded in red states.

++Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly points out that there is not likely to be a counter-revolution by Democrats this year, especially in the governor's races. I still hope Pennsylvania, Maine and Florida will change.

++Michael Gerson in today's Post writes about how the tea party has ruined conservatism and urges the GOP to adopt constructive conservatism. He previously got it right that the GOP is well-equipped for 2014 by-elections but not for 2016.

++For reasons that escape me, Charles Schumer believes there will be movement on immigration reform this year. 

++The Senate passed one procedural hurdle on the UI extension. There are at least two left. Mitch McConnell wants it tied to a suspension of the individual mandate on Obamacare.

++The House will be in session a stunning 112 days this year. The GOP strategy is to do absolutely nothing to spoil any chances of re-election.

++President Obama has submitted 64 nominees, mostly for judgeships. Many were already nominated but the Senate never got around to them.

++And Colorado is out of dope.