Morning Must Reads

Even though John Ensign was not a credible 2012 candidate, the week after week admissions of sex scandals by conservatives is a heavy blow. The GOP had just gotten over the damage from the Mark Foley/Larry Craig sex scandals and the Bob Ney/Duke Cunningham corruption cases that were major contributors to the electoral drubbings of the past four years.

With the party brand still ailing, many Republicans hoped that seemingly straight-arrow Sanford could help get them past their past. But with him gone, the GOP must find a new rising star on which to pin its hopes.

But not all conservatives had lost their sense of humor about it:

“I disagree with the idea that this shows problems for the modern Republican Party,” said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that applauded Mr. Sanford’s attempt to refuse some federal stimulus funds earlier this year. In reference to the fiscally conservative philosophies of Mr. Ensign and Mr. Sanford, he joked, “I think instead it shows that sexual attractiveness of limited-government conservatism.”
 
Los Angeles Times — Lawmakers reject budget fix; state could begin issuing IOUs next week

California is cracking up, and after the defeat of a Democratic plan for some cuts and lots of taxes for the already overburdened residents, the prospect for a federal bailout of the state draws nearer.

Writers Shane Goldmacher and Patrick McGreevy explain that despite the looming disaster, lawmakers can’t yet get serious about a compromise, with Democrats refusing to let Republicans into negotiations and Republicans flatly refusing any tax increase.

Their plan having failed, Democrats may now take a second look at the deep cuts offered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, including ending state subsidies for government workers’ health care, or they may just hope to look very desperate and qualify for some of that bailout cash by paying off welfare recipients and vendors with IOUs.

“[Controller John Chiang], meanwhile, described the state’s money troubles as unlike anything “since the Great Depression,” with an anticipated $2.8-billion shortfall in July that could grow to $6.5 billion by September.

“IOUs are almost an admission of guilt that we can’t pay our bills,” said Garin Casaleggio, Chiang’s spokesman.

Without a budget solution, the controller expects next month to issue more than $3 billion in IOUs to some of the state’s most vulnerable citizens. Those would include the aged, blind and disabled, college students who receive state grants, welfare recipients and patrons of regional centers for the developmentally disabled.”
 
New York Times — As Crackdown Goes On, Ahmadinejad Assails Obama

With the Islamists among the Iranian protesters breaking ranks and the crackdown seeming to take hold, Iranian “President” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is taunting President Barack Obama, saying that in his his Tuesday press conference Obama succumbed to political pressure at home and abandoned a posture of international equanimity in favor of saying “things that previously Bush used to say.”

Despite some grumbling among the political elites in Iran, the tremors of revolution seem instead to have roused a fascistic beast within the regime.

“Evidence suggests, moreover, that Mr. Ahmadinejad has filled security agencies with crucial allies.

‘What has been going on since 2005 is the shift of the center of power from the clergy to the Pasdaran,” or the Islamic Revolutionary Council Corps, said a political analyst with years of experience in Iran who feared retribution if identified. ‘In a way one could say that Iran is no longer a theocracy, but a government headed by military chiefs.’

Security agents continued to fan out across the country, detaining former government officials, journalists, activists, young people and old, anyone seen as siding with those who reject the conclusion that Mr. Ahmadinejad won a landslide against Mr. Moussavi.”
 
Washington Post — A First Lady Who Demands Substance
 
While the Washington Post seems to have a crush on President Barack Obama, it’s real love is the first lady, who last week got a full-page comparison to Bill Cosby’s TV wife. Here, writer Lois Romano cheers on Michelle Obama as she makes her political presence felt in the White House, and not just doing all that mom and hostess stuff.

When Michelle Obama booted her previous chief of staff to bring in one of her mentors from Chicago, the story was overshadowed by the fact that her outgoing chief of staff was sent to the agency that oversees AmeriCorps and the inspector general who bird-dogged White House friends getting grant money was summarily fired.

Romano got lots of access to the first lady’s inner circle and gushes at great length about her style, her glamour and the “Obama brand,” but she also manages to be revealing about how much more demanding the first lady and her team are going to be – a move that could have consequences for the unity and message discipline.

“Her new chief of staff, Susan Sher, 61, is a close friend and former boss who the first lady thinks will be more forceful about getting her and her team on the West Wing’s radar screen. The first thing Sher said she told senior adviser David Axelrod, whom she has known for years: When I call, ‘you need to get back to me right away.’”
 
Wall Street Journal — White House Hosts Bipartisan Immigration Talks
 
With health care, global warming and a supreme court nomination all at a rapid boil on Capitol Hill, the White House is going ahead today with a long-promised and often-delayed summit with congressional leaders on immigration with an eye on producing a bill by year’s end.

Writer Jonathan Weisman looks at how things will shape up differently this time versus 2007.
“Instead, it would be up to a new cast, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and opponents of the last immigration-overhaul efforts, such as Sens. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) and John Cornyn (R., Texas), to forge any bipartisan compromise, lawmakers say.

Mr. Schumer, who took over from Mr. Kennedy this year as chairman of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee, said he believes an immigration bill can get done this year, though he admitted he is a lonely voice in Washington. Democratic officials say the passing of the baton has its advantages: The New Yorker is likely to be tougher on stemming illegal immigration, and less prone to support civil liberties for illegal immigrants, a stand of Sen. Kennedy that infuriated some Republicans.

‘If you can convince Americans we can and we want to stop future waves of illegal immigration, they will accept a tough but fair path to citizenship and a very rational future flow of legal immigrants,’ Mr. Schumer said in an interview.”