Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Given the pressures he’s facing in his House district, I suppose the timing was right for Dennis Kucinich to step aside: “Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is abandoning his second bid for the White House. In an interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the congressman said he was quitting the race and would made a formal announcement Friday. ‘I want to continue to serve in Congress,’ he told the newspaper. Kucinich said he will not endorse another Democrat in the primary.”
* Discouraging-but-expected news from the Senate this afternoon: “The Senate just voted to kill (table) the Senate Judiciary Committee’s surveillance bill, which did not contain retroactive immunity for the telecoms. The vote was 60-36 to table, with a number of Dems crossing over.”
* Just one year ago, the president, in coordination with the Maliki government, presented the nation with 18 fairly specific benchmarks, which would demonstrate for Americans how much progress the administration’s policy was making. Twelve months later, by the Center for American Progress’ estimate, just three of the 18 benchmarks can fairly be described as complete.
* Encouraging: “Just 24 hours after it was launched, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign pulled a South Carolina radio ad that targets Barack Obama for his recent comments on the Republican Party…. Clinton’s South Carolina spokesman did not provide a reason why the ad was pulled, saying only, ‘we are on schedule with our closer ads starting.'”
* Even more encouraging: “CNN reported that the Hillary campaign has yanked their radio ad in South Carolina hitting Obama for saying the GOP is the ‘party of ideas.’ … Now the Obama campaign has responded in kind with their S.C. ad hitting Hillary for being willing to ‘say anything’ to win. Obama spokesperson Bill Burton tells us: ‘Once we confirmed that Clinton was taking down her attack ad, we instructed radio stations in South Carolina to take down our response ad.'”
* I plan to have a more detailed report on this tomorrow, but EPA Chief Stephen Johnson had a very rough day before a Senate committee this afternoon, with the administrator struggling to explain why he rejected his staffers’ advice and blocked states’ efforts to combat global warming.
* It’s about damn time: “Ending months of resistance, the White House has agreed to give House members access to secret documents about its warrantless wiretapping program, a congressional official said Thursday. The Bush administration is trying to convince the House to protect from civil lawsuits the telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on Americans without the approval of a court. Congress created the court 30 years ago to oversee such activities. House Intelligence and Judiciary committee members and staff will begin reading the documents at the White House Thursday, said an aide to Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas.”
* Fox News personality John Gibson continued to mock Heath Ledger’s death today, because the actor portrayed a gay man in “Brokeback Mountain.” MSNBC’s Scarborough described the homophobic undertones of Gibson’s comments as “mean-spirited and hateful.” I still don’t know why anyone would listen to Gibson’s show voluntarily.
* Even William Safire seems disappointed that the NYT hired Bill Kristol as a columnist. Is there anyone outside the paper’s leadership who still thinks this was a good idea?
* Al Gore supports gay marriage. May others follow his lead.
* I can’t believe Fox News did a hatchet job on one of my wife’s favorite video games.
* The problem with some “independent” voters.
* This probably shouldn’t surprise anyone: “The White House confirmed Wednesday that its new budget next month will not request a full year’s funding for the war in Iraq, leaving the next president and Congress to confront major cost questions soon after taking office in 2009.”
* And finally, this story was painful to read: “A passenger who went through an airport security checkpoint — before remembering that he had a loaded gun — is facing charges after going back to report his error, authorities said.” Seriously. A guy passed through security at Washington National Airport with a loaded gun, and went undetected. He realized his mistake and returned to the checkpoint. He could have gotten on the plane and been on his way, but he did the right thing — so he was charged with possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal. As Steve Verdon put it, “Wouldn’t it make more sense to not come down so hard on what appears to be a decent law abiding citizen and instead spend more time focusing on how the security checkpoint failed? Just an idea.”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.