Today’s edition of quick hits.
* This should be interesting: “Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey is scheduled to appear before the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing Thursday next week to testify about his involvement in the plan to fire certain U.S. attorneys.”
* Jonathan Schwarz raises a very good point: when Oprah has James Frey on, and he’s exposed as having been wrong, she invites him back to humiliate him. When Oprah had two war supporters on in 2002, and they’re wrong, they’re not invited back. There’s an accountability disconnect.
* New Hampshire lawmakers approved a broad new civil unions bill today, which Gov. John Lynch (D) has promised to sign. After it’s law, New England will be the first region to have every state granting a measure of legal rights to same-sex couples.
* Today, Dana Perino repeated the same dumb argument Bush and Krauthammer like so much: “Last November, the American people voted for a change in strategy in Iraq – and the President listened. Tonight, the House of Representatives voted for failure in Iraq – and the President will veto its bill.” I wonder if these guys ever get tired of being wrong.
* Keith Olbermann’s latest “special comment” (video, text) takes on Rudy Giuliani’s claim that electing a Democrat would put Americans’ lives in danger. He didn’t pull any punches — and he delivered one hell of a response. “Even to grant that that formula — whether posed by Republican or Democrat — is somehow not the most base, the most indefensible, the most un-American electioneering in our history — even if it is somehow acceptable to assign “casualties” to one party and “safety” to the other — even if we have become so profane in our thinking that it is part of our political vocabulary to view counter-terror as one party’s property and the other’s liability, on what imaginary track record does Mr. Giuliani base his boast?”
* Speaking of Olbermann, he seems to take an enormous amount of pleasure making Bill O’Reilly look ridiculous. It isn’t tough, but it is entertaining.
* ABC reported yesterday, “President Bush hopes someone is held responsible for the U.S. military’s mishandling of information about the death of former football star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan.” You know, Bush is the president — he can hold someone responsible.
* A missing $200,000 here, an unreported $200,000 there, and pretty soon we’re talking about real money.
* Glenn Greenwald talked to Pulitzer Prize winner David Savage of the Boston Globe about political reporting. “I’ll just mention one principle in particular which is important when writing about complex legal or policy matters: avoiding the easy route of ‘he said, she said’ reporting, which does no favors to readers who don’t have the time to become specialists in the subject themselves,” Savage said. “Sometimes government officials, seeking to ‘muddy the coverage’ (in the words of a DOJ spokeswoman’s internal email that was recently turned over to a congressional committee looking into the US attorneys firings), put out misleading talking points that are intended to distract reporters and the public from the real story. In such a case, one must go beyond simply quoting the government official and give readers the information they need in order not to be misled.”
* Dan Froomkin does a nice job today explaining how and why to “keep an eye on those benchmarks” in Iraq.
* Guess which presidential candidate said, “If the President of the United States cannot say, ‘Here is what we are fighting for in ________, that more Americans may perish in service to the goals, and here is why it is worth that price,’ then, Mr. President, we have no right — no right — to ask Americans to risk their lives in any further misadventures in ________.” If you said John McCain, when Clinton was president, you’re right.
* I suppose anyone can slip up, but I’d feel a little better about our Secretary of State if she stopped referring to the Russians as “Soviets.” It’s been over a decade now, Condi, and you’re supposed to be an expert. (thanks to G.C. for the heads-up)
* If you missed Bill Moyers’ “Buying the War” last night on PBS, you can see the whole thing online. It’s really worth watching.
* Here’s a really interesting project: posting all presidential debate footage online, without copyright restrictions, as a means of political accountability. The DNC is open to the idea, the RNC isn’t. What a surprise.
* And on a related note, just a reminder, the very first debate of the presidential campaign season will be held tonight at South Carolina State University. All eight Democratic candidates are scheduled to appear at the event, which will be moderated by NBC’s Brian Williams and will be shown on MSNBC from 7-8:30 p.m. (eastern). I’ll offer full team coverage — which is to say, a bunch of posts with good comments from you guys — tomorrow.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.