Today’s edition of quick hits. (It’s a longer edition than usual, but there’s a lot of good stuff in here.)
* In Connecticut, Joe Lieberman (I), Ned Lamont (D), and Alan Schlesinger (R) met for a three-way debate this afternoon. Rumor has it, Schlesinger surprised a lot of people with a strong performance. Right now, Lieberman gets 65% of Connecticut Republicans’ support. In a close race, if Schlesinger can, say, break double digits (right now, he’s at about 4% support), it will help Lamont tremendously.
* FBI agents raided the home of Rep. Curt Weldon’s (R-Pa.) daughter today, in light of the growing scandal that Weldon steered contracts to her lobbying firm. Last week, Weldon denied that an FBI investigation was even underway. It now appears that he’ll be the fifth House Republican to face criminal charges this year.
* Hey look, yet another high-ranking Bush administration official is facing criminal charges. This time, it’s former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford (whose name may sound familiar to long-time readers). (thanks to SKNM and BH for the heads-up on this)
* How poorly are things going for Bush in Iraq? Even Nouri al-Maliki is selling him out. The Iraqi Prime Minister told USA Today that he’ll disarm the militias at some point, but not now, and in the meantime, the administration’s approach isn’t working. “We have an inherited problem of the security theory adopted by [the Multi-National Force-Iraq] and how they deal with terrorism,” al-Maliki said. “It’s a wrong approach. Terrorism and militias — especially militias — cannot be dealt with only by using tanks, guns and aircraft. You need security cells that gather information and infiltrate the areas where they operate and uproot them from the inside.”
* In light of lingering doubts, it’s worth noting that North Korea really did test a nuclear devise last week. With a relatively weak yield, the test was hardly a success for Kim Jung Il.
* Radar ranks Congress’ 10 dumbest lawmakers. I agree with nine out of the 10 — sorry, but I like Barbara Boxer — but it’s pretty entertaining in either case.
* Keith Olbermann’s ratings have increased 69% since he began a series of extended monologues on the Bush administration. I’m not surprised.
* As political “controversies” go, the case against Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was always pretty weak, but today, the Senate Minority Leader went well beyond what’s required of him and put last week’s property-disclosure matter to rest.
* Note to troops everywhere: If you try to burn down a 10-foot-tall marijuana forest, you will get high.
* In case you missed it, Rep. John Murtha’s response to the White House’s name-calling in a WaPo op-ed was terrific. Here’s a sampling: “It’s all baseless name-calling, and it’s all wrong. Unless, of course, being a Defeatocrat means taking a good hard look at the administration’s Iraq policy and determining that it’s a failure. In that case, count me in. Because Democrats recognize that we’re headed for a far greater disaster in Iraq if we don’t change course — and soon. This is not defeatism. This is realism.”
* RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman doesn’t just lie about his connections to Jack Abramoff, he lies — a little too effortlessly for my taste — about how congressional Republicans responded to the Mark Foley scandal.
* Fox News’ Chris Wallace only responds to emailers’ questions when they’re politically convenient.
* Americans still want a universal health-care system. Why won’t any political leaders offer what so many people want?
* And, finally, former Washington Post reporter Tom Edsall offers one of the more important quotes I’ve seen in a while: “The conservative movement has been very effective attacking the media (broadcast and print) for its liberal biases. The refusal of the media to disclose and discuss the ideological leanings of reporters and editors, and the broader claim of objectivity, has made the press overly anxious, and inclined to lean over backwards not to offend critics from the right. In many respects, the campaign against the media has been more than a victory: it has turned the press into an unwilling, and often unknowing, ally of the right.”