Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The Congressional Black Caucus Institute may be willing to cooperate with Fox News on presidential debates, but the Democratic National Committee isn’t. The DNC announced today that it would officially sanction six debates during the primary process, but will refuse to sanction any event that includes the Republicans’ news network.
* This was inevitable: “The Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News it has launched an investigation into General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan, probing concerns she may have violated a ban against conducting partisan political activity at government expense by participating in a meeting featuring a presentation by a White House political aide on GOP election strategy.”
* Interesting tidbit from the same ABC News report: “The White House political office has been giving presentations similar to the one at GSA since at least 2002, briefing officials throughout the government on Republican campaign information, according to a recent book by two Los Angeles Times reporters. ‘[White House political adviser Karl] Rove and [former Bush campaign chief and one-time Republican National Committee head Ken] Mehlman ventured to nearly every cabinet agency to share key polling data’ leading up to the 2002 midterm elections, wrote Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten in their book, ‘One Party Country,’ ‘and to deliver a reminder of White House priorities, including the need for the president’s allies to win in the next election.’ While previous administrations had sent officials to cabinet agencies, the duo wrote, ‘Such intense regular communication from the political office had never occurred before.'”
* Conservatives claim Speaker Pelosi delivered an incorrect message from Israel to Syria during her meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Today, Pelosi proposed a simple solution: since State Dept. officials attended her meetings, they should feel free to confirm whether she was right or not.
* Remember the flap last week about James Carville appearing on CNN as an objective campaign analyst, despite having helped Hillary Clinton raise money? Last night, before Carville could discuss Q1 fundraising totals, Wolf Blitzer explained Carville’s role as a Clinton supporter. Good move.
* Catholic League head Bill Donohue is usually quite proficient in making himself appear foolish, but the twisted minds behind South Park can skewer like no one else.
* The San Francisco Chronicle’s Edward Epstein had a piece today suggesting the “Who lost Iraq?” debate is barreling down onto the political establishment. “In the current Iraq debate, UC San Diego congressional scholar Gary Jacobson said that unless the president’s decision to increase combat troops works, ‘the game is going to shift to who is going to be blamed for the failure in Iraq. Bush wants to make sure it’s not him.'” Call me crazy, but aren’t we way past the point in which the president can blame anyone else?
* It’s a bad sign when calls for Alberto Gonzales’ resignation come from veterans of Bush’s own Justice Department. Today, Mark Corallo, the Justice Department’s chief spokesman from 2002 through 2005, says it’s time for Gonzales to go. As he put it, “Alberto Gonzales’ loyalty to George Bush has got to trump George Bush’s loyalty to Alberto Gonzales.”
* Next Tuesday, in the Russell Senate Office Building, John Kerry will debate Newt Gingrich on climate change. It should be fascinating, though I hate to see Kerry share a stage with someone like Newt.
* John McCain’s heavily-guarded Iraqi shopping excursion may have become a political problem for the senator, but Gen. David Petraeus tried to bolster his friend a bit, saying McCain “helped the Iraqi economy quite a bit.” If Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) bought “five rugs for five bucks,” one wonders what McCain did to help improve the local economy.
* I guess former neocon Francis Fukuyama is burning the bridge behind him: “The End of History was never linked to a specifically American model of social or political organisation. Following Alexandre Kojeve, the Russian-French philosopher who inspired my original argument, I believe that the European Union more accurately reflects what the world will look like at the end of history than the contemporary United States. The EU’s attempt to transcend sovereignty and traditional power politics by establishing a transnational rule of law is much more in line with a ‘post-historical’ world than the Americans’ continuing belief in God, national sovereignty, and their military.”
* And finally, my friend Rob Boston, from Americans United for Separation of Church and State, appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show last night, alongside Charmaine Yoest from the Family Research Council. It went pretty well — Yoest didn’t want to talk about how old she thinks the earth is. Religious right activists rarely do.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.