Today’s edition of quick hits.
* AP: “Homeowners threatened with foreclosure would in some instances get a 30-day reprieve under an initiative the Bush administration announced Tuesday. Dubbed ‘Project Lifeline,’ the program will be available to people who have taken out all types of mortgages, not just the high-cost subprime loans that have been the focus of previous relief efforts…. These lenders say they will contact homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their monthly mortgage payments. The homeowners will be given the opportunity to put the foreclosure process on pause for 30 days while the lenders try to work out a way to make the mortgage more affordable to homeowners.”
* About once a year, Bush says something I agree with: “President Bush said Tuesday that recent displays of nooses are disturbing and indicate that some Americans may be losing sight of the suffering that blacks have endured across the nation. ‘The era of rampant lynching is a shameful chapter in American history,’ Bush said in an event marking African-American history month at the White house. ‘The noose is not a symbol of prairie justice, but of gross injustice,’ the president said. ‘Displaying one is not a harmless prank, and lynching is not a word to be mentioned in jest.'”
* Funny, I remember the White House’s allies bragging about the president cutting the deficit in half: “The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year. In its monthly review of the government’s finances, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the budget was in surplus in January, but the deficit totals $87.7 billion so far this budget year, double the $42.2 billion imbalance recorded during the same period in 2007…. The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004.”
* AP: “A federal judge agreed Monday to allow a private group to delve into the operations of an office at the White House as part of a controversy over whether large amounts of e-mail have disappeared. Permitting any private organization to inquire into White House functions is an unusual step, a point U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly underscored in her six-page order…. The issue for Kollar-Kotelly is whether the Office of Administration operates with substantial independent authority. If the judge finds that it does, the private group can pursue data about what went wrong with the White House e-mail system.”
* TPMM: “Speaking to a conference call of reporters this afternoon, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) said that, reflecting on the string of defeats in the Senate today, he thought the House was the best hope for stripping retroactive immunity from the final surveillance bill.” Dodd has vowed to filibuster the bill that emerges from conference, if it includes retroactive immunity.
* On a related note: “Signaling the fight ahead when lawmakers get together to sort out the differences between the Senate and House surveillance bills, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) wrote White House counsel Fred Fielding today to deliver two messages: 1) from what he’s seen of the documents relating to the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, there’s no reason to grant the telecoms retroactive immunity (he prefers the term ‘amnesty’), and 2) Congress needs to know more before it can be expected to consider granting that amnesty.”
* The exodus continues: “Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) will announce this evening that he will retire from the House upon the conclusion of his current term, according to a well-placed Republican source. Shadegg is announcing his retirement a little more than one year removed from his campaign to be House Minority Whip, which he lost to Rep. Roy Blunt (Mo.)…. Shadegg is the 29th House Republican to announce he will not seek another term.”
* I had no idea the Washington GOP primary would turn into this big a mess.
* The caucus process can be complicated. But a caucus/primary hybrid in Texas? It’s just bewildering. (Put it this way: Clinton could get more votes, while Obama gets more delegates. And that’s not even the most complex part.)
* I simply don’t understand how a) Michael Savage stays on the air; and 2) why anyone would listen to voluntarily: “Discussing the recent death of Rep. Tom Lantos, Michael Savage stated, ‘You’re not supposed to talk badly about the dead. I generally wouldn’t do it. But in the case of Tom Lantos, I’ll make an exception. I think he was one of the most — he was a scoundrel. And I’ll tell you why I detested Tom Lantos. The man survived the Holocaust of World War II and used it as a weapon the rest of his life.'”
* And finally, I was delighted to read about Marla Spivack, a student at New England prep school Choate Rosemary Hall, who challenged Karl Rove at an event yesterday, asking him to explain why gay marriage endangers others. Rove dodged, saying it was an issue for legislators and voters. “‘You never actually answered, how does it threaten anyone?’ she asked. Rove asked, what’s the compelling reason to throw out 5,000 years of understanding the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman? What, Spivack countered, was the compelling reason for society to allow interracial relationships when they had once been outlawed. Then Rove invoked the Declaration of Independence before Spivak interjected that its reference to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness seemed to support her claims.” Point, set, match.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.