Saturday punditry, scaling the height of... something.
Dana Milbank's ode to Rahm:
The failure of the president's message also reflects on his message maven, Axelrod, who is an adept strategist but blinded by Obama love. A good example was Obama's unproductive China trip in November. Jarrett, Gibbs and Axelrod went along as courtiers; Emanuel remained at his desk in Washington, struggling to keep alive the big health-care bill that he didn't want in the first place.
In hiring Emanuel, Obama avoided the mistakes of his Democratic predecessors, who first gave the chief of staff job to besotted loyalists. Now in trouble, Obama needs fewer acolytes and more action. Rahm should stay.
Oh, no! The pundits have a bad case of the shouldas (shouda done this, shoulda done that)! I hope it's not catching. Oops, too late. And right before the final innings, too.
Mark Blumenthal:
The larger point here is that there is a relatively small number (10% to 20%) of Americans who express very strong sympathy to something called the Tea Party movement. The recent polls, including this new one from CNN, tell us a great deal about who those Americans are and what they believe
Salena Zitoon CPAC:
Speakers included such conservative notables as syndicated columnist George Will, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Former Vice President Dick Cheney delivered a surprise speech.
A similar annual conference for liberals, Netroots Nation, typically draws top leaders of the Democratic Party. At a Netroots convention in August in Pittsburgh, former President Bill Clinton, former party Chairman Howard Dean and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett spoke to 1,600 attendees.
"The biggest difference, (besides) ideology, is that we hold ours outside of Washington and make the leaders come to us," said Adam Bonin, chairman of Netroots Nation.
NY Times:
After five years of often bitter internal debate, the Justice Department concluded in a report released Friday that the lawyers who gave legal justification to the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects used flawed legal reasoning but were not guilty of professional misconduct.
Gail Collins:
Today, our topic is: strange stories about Republican presidential hopefuls. Would you rather start with the one about Mitt Romney and the rapper, or Tim Pawlenty?
O.K., if you really insist, Tim Pawlenty. Hehehe.
Bob Herbert on infrastructure and falling behind:
You can travel the United States and find comparable, or worse, conditions in schools throughout the country. It’s part of the overwhelming problem of maintaining and modernizing American infrastructure. It’s hard to even get good data on the physical condition of the nation’s schools. But Lawrence Summers, President Obama’s chief economic adviser, has said that 75 percent of the public schools have structural deficiencies and 25 percent have problems with their ventilation systems.
But raising taxes on those with fixed income and those struggling to get by doesn't fly locally, not in the Northeast and not in California. This will not be an easy fix.
Norm Ornstein on fixing the Senate:
The problem with the Senate is much less the rules than the broader culture, leading to more polarization, less comity, more ideological division, less institutional identity. One way to change that is to alter the Senate schedule. Instead of coming in Tuesday afternoon and closing down Thursday afternoon, go to five days a week, from 9 a.m. Monday to 5 p.m. Friday, with three weeks on and one week off to go back home and maintain direct contact with constituents.
Make 'em work? I'm okay with that.