Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Al Gore did a terrific job testifying on climate change this morning before the House Energy Committee. Gore had a particularly lively exchange with right-wing Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), who rejects the science on global warming. Gore told him, “The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says, ‘You have to intervene here,’ you don’t say, ‘Well, I read a science fiction novel that says this isn’t important.'” Here’s a more extensive play-by-play of Gore’s day on Capitol Hill.
* Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) unveiled the Fair Elections Now Act yesterday, which is a sweeping reform measure that would bring public financing to the system. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has signed on as a co-sponsor. Good for both of them.
* Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) managed to embarrass herself just a little more this week, whining that the shoddy treatment recovering veterans received at Walter Reed was not important. “I found the situation at Walter Reed to be overblown by both politicians and the media,” Schmidt said. (In the contest for dumbest House member, Schmidt would have to be in the top three.)
* House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) picked House Republicans to serve on the new select committee on climate change based on whether they’d say that human activity has no effect on climate change. When Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) said he believed the evidence that people are contributing to global warming, Boehner scratched him from the list. Apparently, only Luddites need apply.
* If CNN insists on giving blowhard Bill Bennett a high-profile platform to bash Democrats, perhaps the network would be so kind as to identify him as more than just a “CNN contributor.”
* The NYT’s Thomas Friedman has said he’s willing to give the war in Iraq “six more months” so many times, it’s become a punch-line. As of today, Friedman says if the latest escalation policy isn’t working by “late summer,” it’s over.
* Paul Begala and Dem pollster Mark Mellman often disagree with party activists and the netroots, but on Fox News, everyone is on the same page.
* Another embarrassing Tony Snow quote from 1998: “What kinds of conversations does executive privilege protect?…What are the limits on privilege? Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything.” I bet he wishes he could take that one back right about now.
* Mark Halperin, political director at ABC and overseer of its The Note, will give up his post, reportedly because he wants “more time to pursue writing.” David Chalian of ABC will replace him.
* Here’s Rudy Giuliani in 1994: “We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don’t see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” That’s pretty twisted. (thanks to R.S. for the tip)
* Sean Hannity talked tough and challenged Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson to a debate. Now, Hannity is trying to get out of it. Chicken.
* If the networks are going to give Tom DeLay a lot of free airtime, would it kill them to mention that he’s under criminal indictment and has been admonished by the House Ethics Committee five times?
* Jonah Goldberg’s upcoming book, Liberal Fascism, seems to have run into some publishing trouble. Poor guy.
* I think John McCain has lost Jon Stewart’s endorsement.
* And finally, Jay Leno: “This afternoon, President Bush held a news conference where he accused the Democrats of playing politics with the firing of the US attorneys. You know, the attorneys he fired for not playing politics?”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.