“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
The Sunday Talking Heads:
This Week with Christiane Amanpour:
This week Ms Amanpour’s guest are Banking Committee member Republican Senator Bob Corker, former New Jersey Governor and former Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine, member of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, and Martin Regalia of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They will discuss the failing economy and how to get it back in track.
She will host a roundtable with ABC’s Cokie Roberts, political strategist Matthew Dowd, Chrystia Freeland of Reuters and David Ignatius of the Washington Post will discuss the crisis in Pakistan, how Russia’s severe drought and wildfires are triggering a global food crisis, Iran’s nuclear program, the winners and the losers in this week’s primaries, and all the week’s politics.
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer:
Mr. Scheiffer’s guest will be Tim Kaine, DNC Chairman, Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., Ed Gillespie, Former RNC Chairman, Ed Rollins, Republican Strategist, Karen Tumulty, Washington Post and John Harris, Politico.
Mr. Matthews will host discussions with Howard Fineman, Newsweek
Senior Washington Correspondent, Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC, Chief Washington Correspondent, Kelly O’Donnell, NBC News, Capitol Hill Correspondent and John Heilemann, New York Magazine, National Political Correspondent. The questions that they will discuss:
Will Barack Obama’s Luck in His Weak GOP Opposition Hold for 2012?
What Investigations Would Top the GOP’s List if it Won Control of the House This Fall?
State of the Union with Candy Crowley:
This Sunday on State of the Union, Ms. Crowley is joined by DCCC Chair, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to talk 2010 politics.
Her roundtable will discuss the state of the economy with Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post and Jeanne Cummings of Politico.
Finally, she will talk about the “wacky weather” Climatologist Heidi Cullen and NASA scientist Tom Wagner.
Mr. Zakariah will discus the troubled economy with Jeffrey Sachs, the man the NY Times has called “the most important Economist in the World”.
A panel of experts, including Mr. Sachs, will talk about climate and the flooding in Pakistan and Europe and the fires in Russia.
Also
What IS the state of Islam – in America and also around the world? What are its problems? What are the solutions to those problems? Fareed talks to a former Muslim and Muslim reformer.
And finally French criminals find themselves facing the short arm of the law.
Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly: Testing The Limits Of Grabbing The Third Rail
In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower (R) wrote a letter to his brother. “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history,” Ike said. The president acknowledged in the letter that there are some who advocate such nonsense, but added, “Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
Eisenhower’s Republican Party has come a long way in the last half-century, and what was once considered fringe stupidity has become far more common. And with Social Security celebrating its 75th anniversary, there’s a renewed effort to shine a light on the GOP’s willingness to gut this bedrock American institution, if not eliminate it altogether.
Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: The Memory Hole
The real tragedy of the Omar Khadr trial.
When Attorney General Eric Holder announced last fall that he planned to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York, he was met with a firestorm of abuse. Despite the fact that hundreds of terror suspects have been tried and convicted in U.S. courts, the administration’s Republican opponents spun out a thousand reasons for treating Mohammed differently: His trial would create a target in New York City that would cost millions of dollars for security measures; he would use the proceedings to spread jihadist propaganda; he shouldn’t be entitled to the constitutional rights and protections afforded U.S. citizens. In short, KSM became the poster boy for the man too dangerous for the law. In March, the White House indicated that a decision on Mohammed’s trial was just weeks away. Months later, the administration is still mulling.
But instead of subjecting the so-called “worst of the worst” to a military tribunal, this past week the Obama administration fired up the tribunal system to try Omar Khadr, a child soldier. Khadr’s defense counsel, Jon Jackson, collapsed Thursday while questioning a witness and was airlifted back to the United States for treatment. There will be at least a 30-day delay in the proceedings. Maybe we can use this small break to look again at what Guantanamo has become and to acknowledge that Omar Khadr represents everything we shouldn’t be trying before a secretive military commission.
Bob Herbert: Fire and Imagination
The Obama administration seems to be feeling sorry for itself. Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, is perturbed that Mr. Obama is not getting more hosannas from liberals.
Spare me. The country is a mess. The economy is horrendous, and millions of American families are running out of ammunition in their fight against destitution. Steadily increasing numbers of middle-class families, who never thought they’d be seeking charity, have been showing up at food pantries.
Gail Collins: My Favorite August
The story in American history I most like to tell is the one about how women got the right to vote 90 years ago this month. It has everything. Adventure! Suspense! Treachery! Drunken legislators!
But, first, there was a 70-year slog.
Which is really the important part. We always need to remember that behind almost every great moment in history, there are heroic people doing really boring and frustrating things for a prolonged period of time.
That great suffragist and excellent counter, Carrie Chapman Catt, estimated that the struggle had involved 56 referendum campaigns directed at male voters, plus “480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to get constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions; 277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks, 30 campaigns to get presidential party campaigns to include woman suffrage planks in party platforms and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.”
And you thought health care reform was a drawn-out battle.
Bill Richardson: Time for Western Hemisphere countries to collaborate
Arizona’s attempt to create and enforce its own immigration policy has once again amplified — and politicized — the immigration debate in this country. But the fallout of that debate extends beyond our borders. The anti-
immigrant push in Arizona has further alienated our neighbors throughout Latin America, who had been hoping for better relations with the United States after President Obama’s election. We need to turn this opportunity to our advantage and engage with our neighbors throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Latin America has perhaps the greatest impact, in terms of trade and culture, on the daily lives of most Americans. U.S. exports to Latin America have grown faster in the past 11 years than to any other region, including Asia. Hispanics represent the biggest ethnic and most sought-after voting bloc in the United States. And nearly every country in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean now has a democratically elected government.
The time is right to leverage our trade and partnerships and advance a more collaborative relationship with our neighbors to the south.
Emily Bazelon of Slate: The best way for Prop 8 to Lose
In allowing gay marriages to go forward on Aug. 18, Judge Vaughn Walker noted that Proposition 8 proponents may not have standing to bring an appeal. How can that be, since they were allowed to defend Prop 8, the voter referendum banning gay marriage, at trial? And if they really don’t have standing in court to continue the fight for Prop 8, would that be a good way to resolve the case?
Andrew Sullivan has been tackling those questions in a series of posts. As I read it, he’s OK with kicking the case out of court for lack of standing because it would hoist conservatives on their own petard. After all, they’re the ones who usually cheer for narrow standing requirements. I take his point. And I surely see the benefits of halting this case before an appeal. No matter how many times Prop 8 big-shot lawyer challengers Ted Olson and David Boies say they know the heart of Justice Kennedy, and promise us that it is a heart that beats for gay couples at the altar, the smart money for same-sex marriage advocates is still on keeping this case-at this moment in time-away from the Supreme Court.
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