Last Call: Garner Outrage, Left and Right
Boehner is open to Garner hearings, Buffett goes long on Hillary and Jeb Bush could make history -- or not
Protesters in New York rally in support of Eric Garner. The president and partisans on both sides have condemned the grand jury’s decision not to indict a police officer who killed Garner on camera.
Today In Obama:
"Deep Unfairness”: Speaking at an event designed to highlight administration policies designed to expand access to college, President Barack Obama weighed in again on a grand jury’s decision not to indict a New York City police officer for choking Eric Garner to death. The non-indictment, he said, exposed “deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals” and day-to-day law enforcement.
[READ: After Garner Decision, #CrimingWhileWhite Meets #AliveWhileBlack on Twitter]
View From Abroad: Meanwhile, the Guardian says there are “growing questions” about Obama’s underwhelming response, in their view, to the unrest prompted by the Garner and Michael Brown cases. The paper drily notes Obama hasn’t been to Ferguson or New York City, and has answered street protests with task forces.
Exit Interview: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel explains, sort of, whether he jumped or was pushed from the Pentagon’s top job. While not denying frustration with the job or White House micromanaging, he said his resignation was mutual, and Hagel himself ultimately was discreet: “With all the speculation and all the smart people figuring out what was said and what wasn’t said, only two people know: the president and me.”
Ill Communication: Hagel met with reporters to talk about new Pentagon policies to curb sexual assault in the military, but he probably should have clued in Congress first. Several key senators -- including Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who’s worked on a bill for months -- said they didn’t know anything about Hagel’s new policies until they heard it from the media.
Ouch: Government analysts say the Obamacare shopping experience, which some consumers compare to a root canal, is about to become like a tooth extraction. Officials say technicians have ironed out a lot of the bugs, and consumers will find it easier to find even cheaper health care policies, but premiums are likely to go up over time.
Today in Police Use of Force:
Mistakes By the Lake: Furthering the ongoing national conversation on race and use of police force, Eric Holder went to deliver some bad news to Cleveland: The police force, a member of which last month shot and killed a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a toy gun, are really, really horrible and need federal oversight.
[ALSO: Cleveland Cop Who Killed 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Was 'Distracted' and 'Weepy']
Bipartisan Outrage: Lawmakers on the left and right questioned a grand jury’s decision not to indict in Garner’s death, and House Speaker John Boehner said he was open to convening congressional hearings on the matter.
Scales of (In)Justice: Presumed-but-unannounced 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the Ferguson and Garner cases show
the American criminal justice system is out of balance, especially since the U.S. “has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population” and a disproportionate number of them are black.
Today in Political Cartoons:
.@AnnTelnaes: Eric Garner, Ferguson, and why whites just can’t relate http://t.co/bdrKFGXUVm pic.twitter.com/6A8S5lIjpP
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 4, 2014
Today in 2016:
Champ or Chump: Slate’s John Dickerson takes a long look at Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush -- who has openly criticized his party's run-to-the-right primary system -- and wonders if he sees “a revolutionary figure who overcomes his party’s nominating patterns” or “this cycle’s Jon Huntsman."
Today in Hillary:
Oracle Speaks: When mega-investor Warren Buffett plunks down his money, people pay attention. That’s why his decision to buy shares of Hillary Clinton - through a maximum $25,000 individual donation to her super PAC, Ready for Hillary -- raised eyebrows and raised fresh speculation that a campaign announcement is on the horizon.
Today in Everything Else:
Shutdown Corner: Now that Republicans have
gotten this out of their system, and Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are on the same page, all that’s left is for the House GOP to fall in line and vote for a government spending bill.
Not so fast, says House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. The House Democrats, she says, still have a few cards to play.
