Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Good news from the Supreme Court today: “The Supreme Court ordered the federal government on Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars.” Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas dissented. Naturally. (TP has some background and helpful links.)
* John McCain’s safe market in Baghdad was under sniper fire today.
* A scary prospect came up on Meet the Press yesterday: Attorney General Orrin Hatch. Russert asked whether the right-wing Utah senator would be interested in the job. Hatch said it was unlikely, but added, “I would serve this country any way I could.” Pat Leahy added that the rumor on the Hill this week was Hatch was “actively running” for the gig.
* Howard Kurtz: “Nothing the New York senator says or does will ever be as fascinating to journalists as her marital situation.” Truer words were never spoken. (This might even be healthy for the media. Admitting one has a problem is always the first step….)
* Here’s the Bush administration’s approach to accountability in a nutshell: “The government contractor that set up a billion-dollar-a-year federal reading program for the Education Department and failed, according to the department’s inspector general, to keep it free of conflicts of interest is one of the companies now evaluating the program.” Honestly, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
* Video proof — CNN’s Michael Ware didn’t heckle John McCain. Which conservative wants to apologize first?
* Rudy Giuliani tapped an alleged crook to run his police force, lead the Department of Homeland Security, and help him run his consulting firm … and now he has a hunch he should be more careful in vetting his employees. Good idea, Rudy.
* Ramesh Ponnuru explained over the weekend that at a meeting of Club for Growth, the Cato Institute’s President Ed Crane asked Mitt Romney if a president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review. “Romney said he would want to hear the pros and cons from smart lawyers before he made up his mind.” Giuliani, meanwhile, said he should have the authority, but he’d use it sparingly. Glenn Greenwald thinks they’re both nuts.
* Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the D.C. madam, apparently isn’t a people person.
* This could be interesting: “We’re just a month away from what could be the biggest storm yet over who knew what before 9/11 and about those weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, as former CIA Director George Tenet finally tells of those troubled days. We hear vaguely that in At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, out April 30, Tenet takes responsibility for intelligence shortcomings but also isn’t shy about naming officials in the Bush and Clinton administrations who share in the blame.”
* Fox News is giving The 1/2 Hour News Hour 13 more episodes? Do they have literally nothing else?
* Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) believes congressional Dems will eventually overreach and pay a political price. He has a colorful way of putting it: “The Democrats’ honeymoon is fixing to end. It’s going to explode like an IED.” House Republicans sure are a classy bunch, aren’t they? As Josh Marshall put it, “Maybe he can go try that one out on some of the kids over at Walter Reed.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.