Today’s edition of quick hits.
* CNN: “The building that houses the White House press corps was evacuated Monday afternoon, after a security dog detected something suspicious in a car located in a nearby park. Security officials are currently investigating a car in Lafayette Park, directly north of the White House. The park is close to Jackson Place, where the pres corps resides, and Blair House, where Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently staying, CNN’s Ed Henry reports.”
* Apparently, some Iraqis aren’t exactly sold on the idea of U.S. forces cooperating with Sunni militias who were, up until reently, killing Americans: “Shiite and Kurdish officials expressed deep reservations on Sunday about the new U.S. military strategy of partnering with Sunni Arab groups to help defeat the militant organization al-Qaeda in Iraq. ‘They are trusting terrorists,’ said Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker who was among many to question the loyalty of the Sunni groups. ‘They are trusting people who have previously attacked American forces and innocent people. They are trusting people who are loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein.'”
* Dems deserve major kudos for this: “Senate Democrats are seeking a major reversal of energy tax policies that would take billions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits from the oil industry to underwrite renewable fuels.”
* Remember that report a couple of weeks ago about the UNMOVIC teams still being in Iraq? Well, there’s some progress on changing that.
* Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, but it astounds me that Walter Reed doesn’t have a PTSD center, and soldiers who suffer from it “are mixed in with psych patients who have issues ranging from schizophrenia to marital strife.” Walter Reed has a leading treatment program for post-traumatic stress, but it’s generally unavailable due to a “bureaucratic divide.” Wow.
* Cheney is shaping U.S. policy towards Pakistan. Uh oh.
* Novak: Bush’s vetoes will “trigger an epochal political struggle in the months ahead.”
* Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) thinks there will be 13 Republicans ready to jump ship on Bush’s war policy come September. We’ll see.
* Some reporters may not realize it, but a Libby pardon would be pretty unpopular.
* Glenn Greenwald’s new book, “A Tragic Legacy: How a Good versus Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency,” is now available for pre-order.
* Bill O’Reilly isn’t welcome in the Mets’ clubhouse.
* John Kerry’s latest speech on counter-terrorism was really very good.
* Ronald Asmus argues that Democrats largely given up on Wilsonianism and have “lost our voice on the issue of promoting democracy abroad — which means that what was once a core Democratic foreign policy idea is being ceded to the GOP.” In an excellent post, publius explains why we should hope Asmus is right.
* Lieberman is losing his Democratic friends in a hurry.
* Bob Woodward thinks he “should have been more aggressive in looking at the run-up to the Iraq war, and specifically the alleged intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction stockpiles.” Now he tells us.
* Sex can sell just about anything on TV commercials — except condoms.
* Republicans want tough mandatory-minimum sentencing for felons — except Scooter.
* And finally, reader R.P. alerted me to a story about a disturbing stink on Capitol Hill: “Usually, if a turd gets into the Senate, it’s because he or she was elected,” Emily Heil reports for Roll Call. “But on Wednesday, several large piles of actual, nonmetaphorical ‘No. 2’ found their way into the Capitol, and the source isn’t yet clear.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.