The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote today that Rep. Charlie Rangel should make his "temporary" resignation from the Ways and Means chair permanent.
The New York Times today tackled the Republican block on federal funds in civilian criminal terror trials, the ban on bluefin tuna, and dealing with the derivatives market before it kills again.
Noting that Congressional Republicans frequently say that the US should use every legal means possibly to combat terrorism, The New York Times found it odd, to say the least, that they would continue to block attempts to use of federal money to hold civilian criminal trials of the 9/11 suspects. The paper urged President Barack Obama to stay strong and combat the GOP on the issue: “It would be disastrous if the administration were to now give in to this effort to abandon terrorism trials in federal courts and retreat to the tribunals, which may never be able to produce a conviction that Americans can be proud of.”
As the bluefin tuna swims toward extinction, The New York Times applauded the Obama Administration’s support for a ban on international trade of the fish and urged European countries to do likewise – though noting that it may be a steep battle for the US to persuade others.
And the derivatives market: Already responsible for the fall of AIG and the decline of Greece, the derivatives market is out of control and must be sorted out, the paper says. Washington must act now, before someone else gets hurt.
The Washington Post shamed attempts to smear the Department of Justice and the Obama Administration and argued that the only way to get America off the oil is to raise taxes.
Liz Cheney’s right-wing national security watchdog Keep America Safe recently released a video that the Washington Post says is nothing more than an attempt to defame the Department of Justice lawyers who have volunteered to defend suspected terrorists and fan the already smoking flames of hysteria. This video, The Post said, is part of a larger attempt on the part of Congressional Republicans to claim that “any lawyer who advocated on behalf of detainee rights in private practice should be barred from involvement in all administration matters involving terrorism or detention issues.” And that, the paper contended, is “akin to arguing that a Justice Department lawyer must recuse himself from all tax prosecutions because he once defended someone against a tax charge.”
The Post, citing a recent Harvard study, claimed that Congress’s one good option to reduce America’s dependence on oil, and therefore on “distasteful foreign regimes” is to raise the national gas tax.
And the Quick Takes:
The Philadelphia Inquirer today argued that embattled New York Representative Charlie Rangel should make his resignation from the powerful Ways and Means Committee chair permanent and claimed that the Obama Administration showed that it’s serious about school reform after it supported the firing of the entire staff at an underperforming Rhode Island school.
The Miami Herald wrote today that Brazil’s dismissal of tougher sanctions on Iran is dangerous and obtuse and argued that only Congress can come to the rescue of the beleaguered US Postal Service, poised to lose hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
The Boston Globe wrote that it’s “galling” to hear deeply obstructionist Republicans claim that Democrats are “thwarting the public” by trying to pass the healthcare reform bill with a majority vote, ie, this reconciliation that everyone’s talking about.
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