Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Why is the GOP fighting a non-binding resolution with such intensity? Because the public relations involved with a presidential rebuke are awful.
* Speaking of which, the House will kick off its debate on a resolution against escalation next week.
* Following up on a post from the weekend, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is standing firm “against a political firestorm generated by his order that sixth-grade girls be inoculated against a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer.” Perry told reporters yesterday, “Providing the HPV vaccine doesn’t promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the Hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use.” (Was Perry replaced with a sensible body-double?)
* If the major news networks could stop referring to Rudy Giuliani as “America’s Mayor,” I’d appreciate it.
* Chris Bowers makes the case that single-person political blogs are starting to die off as group blogs become more common and popular. I found this kind of depressing.
* The right has been worked up this week about Speaker Pelosi allegedly demanding a military aircraft to travel back and forth between DC and her home district in California. As is too often the case, the story is a crock.
* Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson invited Congress to offer an alternative to Bush’s budget, but insisted that lawmakers’ plan eliminate the deficit by 2012 and not raise taxes. (The budget process is likely to be a train wreck very soon).
* Muckraker: “What happened to billions in Iraqi funds that were overseen by the Coalition Provisional Authority? That’s not ‘important,’ according to David Oliver, the former Director of Management and Budget of the agency.”
* On a related note, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was all set to chat with Bush’s reconstruction coordinator in Baghdad to discuss possible waste and abuse in war funding. Then, all of a sudden, the State Department refused to let him appear.
* ABC News: “A line item buried in the president’s budget reveals the Bush administration is gearing up for emboldened legal challenges from Gitmo detainees. A brief paragraph in President Bush’s 2008 budget request shows he plans to hire nearly two dozen new Justice Department lawyers to fight suits brought by Guantanamo detainees challenging their imprisonment.”
* A new Gallup Poll finds Bush with a 32% approval rating, within one point of his all-time low. His approval rating on handling the Iraq war, at 26%, is now at its lowest point ever.
* Joe Klein seems to be having some trouble making friends in the blogosphere. In his latest spat, Klein is in a dust-up with Arianna Huffington, who clearly seems to have won the round.
* I suppose I should no longer be surprised by Joe Lieberman, but his fight yesterday with Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) over patriotism and support for the troops was breathtaking.
* Reader B.H. reminded via email that just about every Democratic presidential candidate praised Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy during their speeches at the DNC’s winter meeting. No word from James Carville on the development.
* And, finally, my very own congressman, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) became the first member of Congress to commit to reducing his office’s greenhouse gas emissions to effectively nothing. He’s “installing low-energy fluorescent bulbs, turning down the office temperature, and spending $672 of his own money to buy ‘carbon credits’ from two Vermont renewable energy projects that are part of an emerging business practice called carbon trading. In essence, the two Vermont projects will save the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions that Welch’s offices will produce, making his offices ‘carbon neutral.'” Good for him.
If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.