Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Subprime mania continues to take its toll: “Citigroup announced a steep cut in its stock dividend and another big investment by foreign investors on Tuesday after taking more write-downs related to subprime securities and posting a $9.83 billion loss for the fourth quarter. Beginning what is expected to be a grim week for financial company earnings, Citigroup said it was writing down $22.2 billion because of soured mortgage-related investments and bad loans…. Facing rising expenses and deepening losses, Citigroup is expected to embark on a major cost-cutting campaign that could result in at least 4,000 layoffs. And thousands more could be in the offing in the coming months.”
* I sure hope we’re near the end of this story: “House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) tried his best Tuesday to diffuse a lingering controversy in the Democratic presidential contest over race by talking about, well, race…. In the wake of the controversy, Clyburn implored reporters to move beyond the controversy to focus on other issues because the race debate has distracted from the big issues confronting the country – Iraq, health care, and the housing slump spawned by a cascade of bad debt. Despite his continued promise to remain neutral, though, Clyburn said he knew who he would vote for. But he added, ‘I could change my mind.'”
* NYT: “Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say. As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.”
* It looks like MSNBC really doesn’t want Kucinich at tonight’s debate.
* Bloodshed in Beirut: “An explosion targeted a U.S. Embassy vehicle Tuesday in northern Beirut, killing at least three Lebanese and injuring an American bystander and a local embassy employee, U.S. and Lebanese officials said. The blast, which damaged the armored SUV and several other vehicles, took place just ahead of a farewell reception for the American ambassador at a hotel in central Beirut. No Americans were in the car, which was carrying two Lebanese employees of the embassy, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington.”
* The House Intelligence Committee was set to chat with former CIA official Jose Rodriguez Jr., who destroyed the now-famous torture tapes, but the testimony was delayed after Rodriguez worked on getting an immunity deal from lawmakers.
* No matter what you think of the race-based dispute between Clinton and Obama, I think reasonable people should be able to agree that Robert Johnson shouldn’t be invited to campaign with any presidential candidates anytime soon.
* The Justice Department doesn’t want to talk to TPM anymore. Hmm.
* David Brooks really ought to know the difference between Ward Churchill and Ward Connerly. So should the editors who presumably check his copy before publication.
* Eric Boehlert: “The dismal truth about New Hampshire was this: Never has a Granite State primary received so much media attention and been covered by so many journalists. And never has the press so badly botched a New Hampshire vote.”
* Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains why Bush’s “cavalier dismissal of the NIE undermines our credibility, again.”
* Good news from the Miami Herald (or, at least, the absence of bad news): “The McClatchy Co., which announced in December it would experiment with outsourcing some production of The Miami Herald’s ‘Broward Neighbors’ sections to an India firm, has canceled that project, the Herald reported Monday.”
* The Obama campaign did make clear just how wrong Richard Cohen is.
* All of a sudden, Michael Mukasey is playing nice with congressional Dems. He must want something.
* And the incomparable Sam Seder gets the answer to the eternal question: who would Republican loyalists prefer: Ronald Reagan, or whomever they’re supporting now?
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.