Wiretap: The real mystery of Obamatrade

June 12, 2015

Shadow deal

The real mystery of Obamatrade — as some conservative opponents of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) dubbed the deal – is why Obama wants it so much. He says it’s not the new NAFTA – which it isn’t – and will, in fact, do great things for the economy, but just what great things we can’t know because the treaty is being negotiated in private. He is all in on this fight, which would give him fast-track authority to bring the treaty back to Congress for an up-or-down vote with no amendments. Liberals tend to hate the deal. Labor definitely hates the deal. Republicans who would never vote to give Obama anything hate the deal just because Obama is involved. Which still doesn’t tell us why Obama is so involved. Via the New Yorker.

Family values

E.J. Dionne on Beau Biden and why family values, the non-partisan kind, should not be written in quotation marks. Via the Washington Post.

Odd state

Gail Collins writes in the New York Times that you know things are bad for the choice-side on abortion rights when the best news comes out of Idaho.

Sen. Uterus 2.0

Is Lindsey Graham the next Sen. Uterus? He introduces a 20-week abortion limit, and Burgess Everett writes in Politico about why this could be problematic for Republican Senate candidates in 2016.

Singled out

In defense of being single and in light of Sen. Mark Kirk’s bizarre remark that he’s “a bro with no ho,” Lindsey Graham says, “I don’t think I’m a defective person.” Via Vox.

Foul ball

Does Chris Christie really want to be president? Well, here’s the latest: His PAC paid for his (costly) ticket and travel to Cleveland to watch an NBA Finals game. Of course he was there to attend private meetings. Via the National Journal.

Sexist ed

There’s no crying in science. Or there wouldn’t be, says the Nobel laureate, if we could just get the “girls” out of the lab. Why is sexism so enduring in the sciences? Via the Atlantic.