Today’s edition of quick hits.
* This was way overdue: “State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard, under scrutiny for his brother’s link to the Blackwater security firm, has decided to resign, U.S. officials said on Friday. Krongard, the State Department’s top investigator, has been accused by current and former subordinates of thwarting probes into waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq, including alleged arms smuggling by Blackwater.” (You’ll notice, of course, that Krongard waited until Friday afternoon — the only time administration officials are allowed to resign in disgrace.)
* Remember when U.S. officials freaked out a bit when Iraqi lawmakers took a break and stopped working over the summer? They’re taking another break over the winter, and just suspended parliamentary sessions for the rest of December.
* NYT: “In a sharp rebuke to White House counterterrorism policy, a Congressional conference committee has voted to outlaw the harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency against suspected high-level terrorists. The vote to require all American interrogators to abide by the Army Field Manual, which prohibits coercive methods, came during negotiations of the Senate and House intelligence committees over the annual intelligence authorization bill. It will not be the last word on the subject; the full House and Senate must still pass the bill, and it would likely face a veto by President Bush.”
* By all appearances, leading Democratic lawmakers on the Intelligence committees, Jane Harman and Jay Rockefeller, had at least some knowledge of the tapes the interrogation tapes the CIA destroyed, but didn’t say anything. Yglesias had a good post exploring the bind they’re in: “A member who believes he or she is in possession of evidence of crimes being committed and covered-up through illegitimate classification ought to seriously consider civil disobedience: calling a press conference, stating the facts, and accepting responsibility for the consequences. The White House could, of course, then turn around and seek to prosecute a member for violating classification laws, and the member could argue justification and we’d have it out. That’s a tough call to make, clearly. But our political leaders have responsibilities to the country and to the Constitution.”
* Olbermann’s “special comments” are always terrific, and last night he tackled the president’s obvious dishonesty over the National Intelligence Estimate. You’ll really want to watch this one: Olbermann calls the president a “bald-faced liar.”
* My friend Blue Girl reads white papers about massive financial waste at the Pentagon so we don’t have to. It’s amazing.
* Not too long ago, Bush was taunting Kim Jung Il, calling him a “pygmy” and compared him to a “spoiled child at a dinner table.” Around the same time, Bush, on a whim, added North Korea to the “axis of evil.” Now, Bush is sending Kim Jung Il personal correspondence about normalized relations. It’s deeply amusing.
* I think the WaPo seems to realize that awful story about Obama and bogus “rumors” was a disaster, and the paper is trying to correct the problem. Let this be a lesson to all of us: sometimes, a blog-driven fit pays dividends.
* Those misguided Reagan-on-Rushmore nuts really need a new hobby.
* Fallout from the “big sticks” nonsense: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says a swipe that Vice President Cheney took at Democratic House leaders is ‘beneath the dignity of his office.'” Wait, you mean Cheney has no class and/or dignity? Who knew.
* The TPM team did a really nice job putting together a Shag Fund timeline. It’s a handy resource we can reference every time Giuliani digs deeper into the muck.
* Mitt Romney’s wife seemed to compare his speech yesterday on religion in America to the Gettysburg address. She did not appear to be kidding.
* Bill O’Reilly argued last night, “If you read these far-left websites, you’re a devil worshipper. You are…. Satan is running the DailyKos. Yes, he is!” Later, he called his remarks “a little satire,” but added, “I still think they are satanists.”
* And finally, a Quote of the Day from Paul Krugman: “Back when Hillary Clinton described Dick Cheney as Darth Vader, a number of people pointed out that this was an unfair comparison. For example, Darth Vader once served in the military. Here’s another reason the comparison is invalid: the contractors Darth Vader hired to build the Death Star actually got the job done.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.