News for February 13

Why Gregg Withdrew

Republican Sen. Judd Gregg on Thursday withdrew his nomination as Commerce Secretary, citing “irrresovable conflicts” with the Obama administration’s handling of the economic stimulus andthe 2010 census. Gregg is the third prospective Cabinet secretary to bow out of consideration. The abruptness of Gregg’s withdrawal and the statements flying out of the White House and Gregg’s camp have prompted discussion about what might have been happening behind the scenes, and the fallout that can come with stepping across the aisle. Links include:

The Guardian (U.K.) |  “Gregg should certainly have known before he agreed to be nominated that he and this administration had pretty big differences. The arch statement from the White House, taking pains to mention that Gregg sought out the job and not the other way around (this hasn’t been independently confirmed) and assured the president that he could be on the team, suggests that they’re pretty mad, as well they should be. I mean, you try accepting a job and then calling four days later and saying, well, come to think of it, nah. You won’t have a very happy reputation, and for good reason.”

TPM |  “I won’t claim to know the precise reasons why Judd Gregg, who last week stood with President Obama, and vowed to work with him as Commerce Secretary is now withdrawing. But a couple of sources in New Hampshire politics chalk it up to the abuse Gregg was taking over the past few weeks, first from some on the right for going into the liberal Obama administration and then from all sides for being too cute about the stimulus package, abstaining from voting for or against it. Gregg was ridiculed in New Hampshire’s most important newspaper, the Union Leader.”

Political Animal |  “To his credit, the New Hampshire Republican has been fairly candid about accepting responsibility for what transpired. “It was my mistake, obviously, to say yes,” Gregg told reporters. He added, “I should have focused sooner and more effectively on the implications of being in the Cabinet versus myself as an individual doing my job.” But what remains unclear is what prompted Gregg to back away from a job he’d asked for just last week. The various explanations don’t stand up well to scrutiny.”

Ezra Klein @The American Propsect |  “Bipartisanship is hard, it turns out. And for a reason. People disagree about stuff, and while civility may render those disagreements more respectful, it doesn’t make them go away. Even such a dazzling display of respect as offering Gregg a cabinet post can’t overcome the fact that he wants to privatize Social Security and the Obama administration does not.”

The Daily Beast |  “Senator Judd Gregg abandoned President Obama’s nomination to be Secretary of Commerce just nine days after receiving the nod, not for any mysterious fever of principles, but rather because Gregg is good example of what is wrong with the Republican Party after Karl Rove and President George Bush turned it into clumsy crybabies.”

Death in the U.S.A.: The Army’s Fatal Neglect  |  Salon

Late last month the Army released data showing the highest suicide rate among soldiers in three decades. At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008. Another 15 deaths are still under investigation as potential suicides. “Why do the numbers keep going up?” Army Secretary Pete Geren said at a Jan. 29 Pentagon news conference. “We can’t tell you.” On Feb. 5, the Army announced it suspects 24 soldiers killed themselves last month, more than died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. But suicide is only one manifestation of the unaddressed madness and despair coming home with U.S. troops. Salon’s close inspection of a rash of murders and suicides involving soldiers at just one base reveals that many of the deaths seem avoidable.

Lear and the American Way  |  GetReligion

Norman Lear was the the writer and producer behind television hits All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude. He’s also a successful liberal activist behind People for the American Way, a group he founded in the early 1980s to fight the influence of the Christian Right.
He has a new campaign going right now, called “Born Again American,” to promote more political involvement.

• Related link: ‘Born Again American’  |  Truthdig

How Narcissism Conqured Reality  |  Chris Hedges @AlterNet

Celebrity culture plunges us into a moral void. The highest achievements in a celebrity culture are wealth, sexual conquest and fame. It does not matter how these are obtained. These values, as Sigmund Freud understood, are illusory. They are hollow. They are hallucinations. They leave us chasing vapors. They encourage a perverted form of narcissism. They urge us toward a life of self-absorption. They tell us that existence is to be centered on the practices and desires of the self rather than the common good.

What Torture Feels Like  |  My Left Wing

I’ve been reading a lot lately about torture.  What Bush did or did not do, and will Obama reverse those policies and prosecute the offenders.  So many opinions – mostly from people who seemingly have no idea what severe pain actually feels like – especially chronic pain, a curse I’ve been afflicted with for many years.  ‘Cause that’s what torture is, really – the systematic application of chronic, escalating pain.  You’d think over time, a body would become inured to it.  That the perception of pain would lessen with time.

But it doesn’t.

Photo: Ron Edmonds / AP Photo