New York Times — With Command Shift in Afghanistan, Talk Turns to Withdrawal
The word of the day on Capitol Hill is “withdrawal.”
Gen. David Petraeus will start the testimony process as he seeks confirmation as the replacement commander for Afghanistan.
(How strange that the compensation to Congress for taking away the exclusive power to declare war is the chance to officially second guess the commander in chief’s personnel decisions.)
But Obama has been doing some fast talking on the meaning of the July 2011 end date for his 100,000-man Afghan surge.
While Petraeus will surely hear a good bit about the restrictive rules of engagement designed to have U.S. troops use “courageous restraint” on the battlefield and about the staggering corruption of the Afghan quasi-government, the big question will be what the real significance of the timeline is.
If Petraeus says it’s just a trifle, liberals will be incensed and start the quagmire chant. If Petraeus says it’s carved in stone, conservatives will get anxious about supporting a mission they do not believe can succeed.
That’s not to say that Petraeus won’t be confirmed, but that an unsatisfying round of testimony could imperil the president’s nation-building strategy.
Petraeus can at least say that Obama has left him a lot of wiggle room.
Writer Peter Baker explains:
“When he ordered 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan last December, President Obama stressed that they would not stay forever. ‘After 18 months,’ he said, ‘our troops will begin to come home.’
Last weekend, though, he scorned the ‘obsession around this whole issue of when do we leave,’ saying he was focused on making sure the troops were successful. The July 2011 deadline he set was intended to ‘begin a process of transition,’ he said, but ‘that doesn’t mean we suddenly turn off the lights and let the door close behind us.’”
The Hill — Appointment will fill Byrd’s seat until Nov. 2012 special election
On the grounds that it is too late for the parties to pick candidates for the November election, West Virginia’s secretary of state has decided that Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin will have the chance to appoint someone to serve in Sen. Robert Byrd’s seat through the fall of 2012.
Republicans are readying lawsuits to say that it’s unfair to pass up the voters four months from now, but West Virginia’s judiciary is even more Democratic than the rest of the state and any challenge faces an uphill legal climb.
Manchin now gets a long appointment for a friend and the chance to build up his federal war chest. While he faces the prospect of difficult budget years and diminishing popularity for his party as the Obama coal crackdown continues to take its toll on the state, Manchin bets that his high approval ratings and conservative stances will see him through. Plus, as the rising president of the National Governors Association and in a party that is starting to suffer a severe Hopium hangover, Manchin may like the idea of keeping his options open. Clinton-Manchin 2012?
There is some good news for the GOP, though. Without Manchin on the ballot this fall, their chances of picking up at least one of the two vulnerable Democratic House seats are preserved.
Potential seat warming replacements in the Senate for Byrd would include longtime Byrd aide Anne Barth who flopped in a 2008 Congressional run, former party Chairman Nick Casey and current party Chairman Larry Puccio, a Manchin business partner and hometown buddy who served as the governor’s chief of staff. But a scan of the boards of directors at WVU and the state’s big hospitals show that there are many potential picks whose ambitions could be kept in check well enough to accept such a long appointment to such a powerful position without becoming a rival.
Manchin needs to act as quickly as decorum will allow. Not only to get out ahead of a legal challenge but also because, as Examiner colleague Susan Ferrechio points out, Byrd’s death leaves Senate Democrats a man down with key votes piling up. The party wants to be shed of deficit spending and bank regulation and can’t do it until Manchin sends another vote to Washington.
The big issue — being jawboned today at the White House between President Obama and a bipartisan group of Senators — could be on global warming, which the president is pushing in response to the oil pill in the Gulf.
Writer Shane D’Aprile explains:
“The Democrat in Byrd’s seat could be pressured by Senate Democrats to cast some votes that might be unpopular in West Virginia, particularly on cap-and-trade. Manchin is a staunch opponent of the Obama administration’s proposal.
‘If you don’t have someone in there voting the right way, you could make the argument it actually weakens [Manchin’s] position for 2012,’ said one Democratic strategist who declined to comment on the record out of deference to Byrd’s family.
Washington Post — FBI arrests 10 accused of working as Russian spies
George W. Bush famously looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin and now Barack Obama has had cheeseburgers with Putin’s proxy, Dmitry Medvedev.
American leaders have a tendency to assume that because Russian leaders make nice on a personal level that it will change the way the country and its leaders have operated since the Vikings hit the Volga.
Putin led the FSB, successor to the KGB, and succeeded into making it perhaps the most effective intelligence operation in the world. Russians take spying very seriously and do not have the same cultural qualms about the practice as those in the West.
To get an idea of how big the FSB operation might be in the U.S., consider that prosecutors say the Russian government kept 10 spies at great expense for a decade just floating around in the world of think tanks, politics (one target was a top Democratic donor with “cabinet-level” connections), media and defense.
It’s not to say that the U.S. isn’t constantly trying to find out what Russia is doing, but the use of “illegal” agents operating without diplomatic cover is considered risky and costly in both time and treasure.
Writer Jerry Markon tells us about how well the alleged agents blended in – including, Vicky Pelaez, a writer for a New York Spanish-language newspaper that plumps for the Castro brothers and rails against Yanqui imperialism.
“Two people arrested in New Jersey, known as ‘Richard Murphy’ and ‘Cynthia Murphy,’ were instructed to obtain information about the U.S. position on a new strategic arms reduction treaty and Iran’s nuclear program in advance of President Obama’s visit to Russia last year. Citing intercepted communications between the suspects and their Russian handlers, court documents say, ‘Moscow Center indicated that it needs intels . . . try to single out tidbits unknown publicly, but revealed in private by sources close to State department, government, major think tanks.’”
Wall Street Journal — Justices Expand Gun Rights
At least Elena Kagan will have something to talk about today.
The crux of the decision by the five-justice libertarianish majority on the high court is that your right to bear arms is a federal guarantee that can’t be abridged by state or local authorities.
What it means is that while permits and registrations may be kosher, there’s no way to have the kind of ban that cities like D.C. and Chicago have put forward (to little effect).
It comes at an interesting time as Kagan is working hard to knock down the notion that her career – devoted to the exercise of the law to advance political goals – is unsuitable preparation for service on the Supreme Court.
As the decision by liberal members of the court to embrace states’ rights with the vigor of Dixiecrats on gun laws but not, say, federal air quality standards, suggests the degree to which the court has become a political enterprise.
While Kagan may not be suitable to the Supreme Court envisioned by the founders, she might be ideal for the court as it is.
Writer Jess Bravin explains the crux of the fight.
“Through the Due Process Clause [of the 14th Amendment], the court eventually came to hold that states can’t restrict Americans’ right to the First Amendment’s freedoms of speech, press and religion; the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure protections; the Fifth Amendment’s right against self-incrimination; and other provisions considered fundamental. Monday’s ruling adds the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms to this list of fundamental rights.
‘Unless we turn back the clock or adopt a special incorporation test applicable only to the Second Amendment,’ gun rights must be recognized everywhere, Justice Alito wrote.
Politico — Al Gore raises cash for DCCC
As Examiner colleague Byron York points out today, the allegations of sexual misconduct against former Vice President Al Gore by a Portland, Ore. masseuse summoned to his hotel room late at night are not easily brushed off. Coming out after the end of Gore’s marriage only adds to the piquancy of the woman’s detailed claims.
“Crazed sex poodle” will not soon leave the American political punchline repertoire.
But Gore is a bit of a cottage industry for the green and tech industries – he’s still on Apple’s board and gets paid to advise Google. Gore’s approval has functioned as something as a eco stamp of approval.
It’s been the same in politics too. Gore has been a gusher of campaign cash for Democrats – milking high tech friends and reaching out to the hard-to placate environmental Left. Gore is a liberal martyr for his 2000 loss, which gives him broad latitude.
But as Gore found when he was hounded at a paid speaking gig at a human resources group in San Diego and now with the shocked response to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’ Goe fundraising note, it’s one thing to be vilified by the Right but quite another to be made into tabloid fodder. You might blow off The Weekly Standard, but don’t mess with TMZ.
Writer Andy Barr explains how the DCCC may have moved too soon in trying to rehabilitate Gore as a fundraiser.
“Gore makes no mention of the recent controversy in the e-mail, instead arguing that Republican congressional wins this fall would be a step back to the Bush era.
‘After eight years of the Bush-Cheney administration, America is now beset with major challenges: A massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an economic downturn that has put good people out of work, and a crisis that I have dedicated my life to solving — global warming,’ Gore wrote. ‘And yet, Republicans are asking for another turn at the wheel.’”
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