Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Good news this morning in the House: “Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority Leader, postponed a press conference announcing new reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers banded together and said they would fight any legislation that did not include a set of eight principles on wiretapping that preserve the ‘rule of law.’ ‘What’s most significant is that the Progressive Caucus came together and said to the leadership that all 72 of us require that these provisions be included,’ said Caroline Fredercikson, Legislative Director for the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘This changes the dynamic significantly.'”
* NYT: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered new security procedures today for American diplomatic convoys in Iraq amid continuing repercussions over the shooting of Iraqi civilians by employees of the Blackwater USA security company.” And since Rice’s State Department has covered for Blackwater before, the agency has credibility, why?
* The Burmese streets aren’t quite as chaotic, but the crackdown continues: “Myanmar’s junta said Friday that hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained during its crackdown on pro-democracy activists and that it was hunting for four more clerics it described as ringleaders of the uprising. The government insisted that most of the monks had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast on state TV.”
* The Brass and the Dems seem to be on the same page: “Four and a half years after the nation’s top military leaders saluted and fell in behind President Bush’s pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, their replacements are beginning to question the mission and sound alarms about the toll the war is taking on the Army and the Marine Corps…. ‘It’s part of a sea change,’ said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a national-security research center in Washington. ‘The ideologues have been replaced by managers who view Iraq not as a cause, but a problem to be solved.'”
* I have no idea if this is true, but if it is, it’s incredible: “The male escort responsible for the downfall of Christian evangelist leader Ted Haggard is now alleging that embattled Senator Larry Craig also came to see him.”
* On a related note, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) suggests censure, not expulsion, is more likely for Craig.
* Ackerman: “Associated Press spokesman Jack Stokes confirms today that the AP still hasn’t received a videotape confiscated by U.S. troops on Wednesday.”
* Josh Marshall: “Verbal gymnastics are more offensive when they’re about oral sex than they are when they’re about state-sanctioned torture.” That does seem to be the prevailing wisdom in DC.
* David Brooks believes Republicans are falling apart because they’ve strayed from Burkean roots. John Cole has a more compelling explanation.
* I genuinely love it when candidates campaign on a pro-science platform: “In a stinging critique of Bush administration science policy, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said yesterday that if she were elected president she would require agency directors to show they were protecting science research from ‘political pressure’ and that she would lift federal limits on stem cell research.”
* Chris Matthews’ preoccupation with Mitt Romney’s appearance is a little odd.
* Scott Jennings, the Karl Rove aide who helped deliver legally-dubious partisan briefings to government employees in government buildings on government time, is also resigning from the White House.
* American Spectator editor-in-chief R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. said Rush Limbaugh has “already apologized” for his September 26 “phony soldiers” comments. He hasn’t.
* The NYT editorial board believes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas may not be “impartial” in hearing cases. You don’t say.
* Glenn Beck to Sharida McKenzie, a Muslim American who recently organized the Muslim Peace March: “[Y]ou’re reasonable. How do we know the difference between you and those that are trying to kill us?” (Note to CNN: your credibility suffers a little more for every second you keep this clown on the air.)
* You, too, can get a love message from Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.).
* What is it with these conservative Republicans and their sex scandals? The latest is a local official in Louisiana, who’s running for the state Senate, who has been stopped twice for suspicion of engaging in lewd behavior in public restrooms. (thanks to WB)
* Great new DNC ad on Republicans avoiding minority groups.
* And finally, Elizabeth Edwards continues to be the toughest campaigner on the national scene. Yesterday, she went after Limbaugh: “My classmates went to Vietnam, he did not. He was 4F. He had a medical disability, the same medical disability that probably should have stopped him from spending a lifetime in a radio announcer’s chair; but it is true, isn’t it? If he has an inoperable position that allows him not to serve, presumably it should not allow him to sit for long periods of time the way he does.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.