The Edge: Crisis in Boston, Fallout in Washington
The Edge is National Journal's daily look at today in Washington -- and what's coming next. The email features analysis from NJ's top correspondents, the biggest stories of the day -- and always a few surprises. To subscribe, click here
Crisis in Boston, Fallout in Washington
Terrorists strike Boston. Ricin-laced letters hit Washington. Floods swamp the Midwest. A fertilizer plant explosion decimates a small town in Texas. And, finally, a shootout, lockdown, and standoff involving the Boston Marathon bombing suspects transfix the nation.
What. A. Week.
The implications are particular for Washington, where crises quickly convert to political fallout.
For example, soon after police named two brothers of Chechen descent as suspects in the Boston bombings, some conservatives used the terrorist attack to question the merits of a bipartisan plan to ease immigration laws.
"It's too bad Suspect # 1 won't be able to be legalized by Marco Rubio, now," tweeted conservative commentator Ann Coulter, a jab at the Florida Republican who backs immigration reform.
A Democratic ally, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, said, "I'd like to ask that all of us not jump to conclusions regarding the events in Boston or try to conflate those events with this legislation.”
Good luck with that, senator.
Ron Fournier
rfournier@nationaljournal.com
TOP NEWS
BOSTON ON LOCKDOWN DURING MANHUNT FOR BOMBING SUSPECT. After a police chase and gun battle overnight that led to the deaths of a police officer and Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, law-enforcement officials have locked down Boston and surrounding towns as they search for the remaining suspect, Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has advised residents to “shelter in place” and open their doors only to law enforcement, saying, “There is a massive manhunt under way.” Read more
The Washington Post has a fascinating interactive timeline and map of developments in the investigation here.
BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT TOUTED CHECHEN INDEPENDENCE ONLINE. A social media page apparently belonging to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev includes links to Islamic websites and other sites calling for Chechen independence, Reuters reports. The page identifies Tsarnaev as a 2011 graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and claims that he attended primary school in Makhachkala, the capital of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. The page was inundated with “abusive comments in Russian and English” after Tsarnaev was identified as a suspect in the bombings. Read more
National Journal provides all you need to know about Chechnya. Read more
SCHOOLMATES RECALL BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT. Former schoolmates of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev offered insight into his personality, saying that he was a talented athlete and well liked, The New York Times reports. Senior Ashraful Rahman said that a friend called the FBI tip line after recognizing Tsarnaev’s photograph on television. Tsarnaev’s older brother Tamerlan, killed in a shootout with police early Friday morning, apparently was quoted in a profile by photographer Johannes Hirn as feeling alienated from Russia and the United States. Read more
National Journal’s Michael Hirsh explores the Boston suspects and the thin line between terrorism and amateurism. Read more
GRASSLEY WARNS ABOUT IMMIGRATION REFORM, POST-BOSTON. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said Friday at a hearing on immigration reform that the bill needed to be examined carefully “especially in light of everything that's happening in Massachusetts now." Those remarks were rejected by a spokesman for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of a group of senators who helped shepherd the immigration deal. "Americans will reject any attempt to tie the losers responsible for the attacks in Boston with the millions of law-abiding immigrants currently living in the U.S. and those hoping to immigrate here in the future," spokesman Alex Conant said, who added that there were, nonetheless, "legitimate policy questions." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano missed the hearing to huddle with the president on the Boston manhunt. Read more
On Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called the immigration proposal not “up to our values” in that it makes undocumented workers wait at least a decade to attain legal status.
DEATH TOLL NOW AT TWELVE IN TEXAS EXPLOSION. Authorities investigating Wednesday’s explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas have revised the death toll to 12, with approximately 200 people injured, The New York Times reports. Most of the dead are firefighters and other first responders. “We’re still in search-and-rescue mode,” Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Jason Reyes said at a Friday news conference. Read more
BURWELL CONFIRMATION EXPECTED SOON; NO DATE SET. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, appears to have a clear path to confirmation, The Wall Street Journal reports. Burwell’s nomination was approved Wednesday by both the Senate Budget Committee and the Homeland and Government Affairs Committee, and is expected to come before the full Senate soon. In her new role, Burwell would be charged with crafting the administration’s next budget. Read more
Former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles on Thursday released a modified budget proposal that includes an additional $5 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade, the Associated Press reports. The savings involve a combination of tax increases and entitlement cuts. Read more
WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO RUN FOR CONGRESS? In this week’s National Journal magazine cover story, Shane Goldmacher takes you inside the business of recruiting candidates for Congress. Experienced recruiters say it takes at least a couple of months to get most candidates off the fence and into a race. For some, it takes years. Indeed, Congress can be a tough sell these days, with its popularity rivaling colonoscopies and root canals. Read more
THE SILVER LINING IN THE GUN-CONTROL DEFEAT. Gun-control advocates believe that even though background checks failed in the Senate debate, public sentiment will eventually vindicate them, National Journal’s Fawn Johnson reports. Read more
HERE ARE THE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK. One of the most remarkable news weeks in some time is coming to a close, and National Journal’s Brian Resnick fills you in on what you may have missed, including the Boy Scouts proposing to lift the ban on gay members, a massive earthquake hitting Iran, and hunger strikes at Guantanamo Bay. Read more
QUOTABLE
"Any attempt to make the connection between Chechnya and Tsarnaevys if they are guilty, [is] in vain. They grew up in the United States, their attitudes and beliefs were formed there. It is necessary to seek the roots of evil in America." -- Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov (Foreign Policy)
BEDTIME READING
“AN EXTRAORDINARY ACCOUNTING OF THE EXPERIENCE OF TERROR.” Although the brothers suspected of planting the bombs at the Boston Marathon are of Chechen descent, their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, said Friday the two have never been to Chechnya, The Hill reports. However, the brother still at large, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was quite active on social media and supported several affinity groups relating to Chechnya, The New York Times reports. In the United States, little is known about Chechnya, or Chechen terrorists, but it is a country only a few years removed from nearly two decades of unrelenting violent conflict with Russia. In 2007, C.J. Chivers wrote an account in Esquire of “the experience of terror” during the most brutal event from the ongoing conflict. “On the first day of school in 2004, a Chechen terrorist group struck the Russian town of Beslan,” he writes. “Targeting children, they took more than eleven hundred hostages. The attack represented a horrifying innovation in human brutality.” Read more
PLAY OF THE DAY
A VERY POLITICIZED LOOK AT GUNS. With a high-profile gun-control amendment failing in the Senate this week, the Comedy Central late-night show hosts jumped on the story with a passion. On The Daily Show, much of the show was dedicated to the topic, including a passionate first segment with fewer-than-normal gags. On The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert celebrated the victory and called President Obama “Generalissimo Glock-Snatch.” On ABC, Jimmy Kimmel was named one of Time’s most influential people, and he was quick to share the news. The host described getting a call from Obama and listed a group of influential people not on the list, making Kimmel himself more influential than, for example, Secretary of State John Jerry. Watch it here
REALITY CHECK
IS ANYONE LEFT TO PICK UP THE PIECES OF A BUDGET COMPROMISE? The two routes to a budget deal—regular order or schmoozing—do not seem to be working, despite Washington’s two-year deep dive into fiscal issues. There is no formal budget conference on the horizon between House Republicans and Senate Democrats to reconcile the two parties’ wildly different visions for spending and taxes. The other path to a budget compromise—the White House’s charm offensive—seems similarly stalled. At this point, who else is left to pick up the pieces of a budget compromise, or negotiate with the White House on the debt ceiling, the undoing of the sequester, or a small-scale budget package? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is focusing on his 2014 reelection bid, House Speaker John Boehner and the White House deeply distrust one another, and even Democrats can’t seem to agree among themselves, National Journal’s Nancy Cook reports. Read more
TODAY’S PHOTO GALLERY
SCENES FROM BOSTON IN THE LAST 24 HOURS. The Atlanticrounds up some remarkable photos from Boston over the past day, including eerily empty downtown Boston streets, sharpshooters on suburban roofs, an armored car patrolling the streets of Watertown, Mass., and frightened residents in bare feet running from their homes. See it here
