Today’s edition of quick hits.
* For nearly seven years, the Bush gang held to the opinion that the Middle East peace process is not worthy of its time, in part because Clinton invested heavily in the process. Now, slowly but surely, the administration seems to be coming around: “Saying the time is now for a Palestinian state, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday prodded Israel and the Palestinians to agree at a U.S.-sponsored conference this fall on how and when to start formal peace talks. In one of her strongest statements yet on the issue, Rice declared that creation of a Palestinian state is a key U.S. interest and urged the two sides to drop contentious demands and reach consensus on a substantive joint statement ahead of the international conference.”
* U.S. News: “Rep. Henry Waxman, considered the meanest dog in town by the GOP, is still sniffing around the White House for proof the president lied when making the case for going to war in Iraq. We hear that he’s been quietly summoning former Bush aides, especially speechwriters, to testify behind closed doors about what they knew and how they phrased his words on the issue. Whispers hears that one called in was John Gibson, a former National Security Council speechwriter. He wouldn’t spill to us. The committee had no comment either, but an administration official says, ‘It is yet another item on the ever growing fishing expedition list from Representative Waxman.'”
* The WaPo’s Howard Kurtz seems to believe the Frost family, smeared last week by right-wing activists, brought the attacks on themselves by standing up in support of the bipartisan S-CHIP compromise: “When the parents agreed to make their son available to the Democratic Party as a spokesman for the program, surely they must have expected that their financial situation would become part of the debate.”
* On a related note, Dems are now pointing to the Wilkerson family, whose two-year old daughter Bethany is covered by S-CHIP and had life-saving heart surgery when she was an infant. Earlier today, the Wilkerson family participated in a conference call in support of the S-CHIP bill. As for the inevitable question — “We rent a house, we have one car that is a junker. Let them dig away,” Bo Wilkerson said. “I have $67 in my checking account. Does that answer your question?”
* PBS’s Frontline will take a closer look at Dick Cheney. That ought to be interesting.
* Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) could barely hide his contempt for anyone that dared to question Gen. David Petraeus last month, but who was leading the charge in trying to tear down retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez over the weekend? That would be Lindsey Graham.
* Fox News’ Roger Ailes, without a hint of irony, said, “[S]ome of the cable networks, such as MSNBC, have their opinion people actually anchor the news. We don’t do that.” That Roger; he’s such a kidder.
* Even if you compare Al Gore to Hitler, cable news networks will still treat you like a respected, mainstream academic, whose arguments denying global warming are worthy of airtime.
* Remember that insane press release from the Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee over the weekend? It turns out, their site wasn’t hacked — they meant it.
* Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, in an interview with Right Wing News, said he actually reads Atlas Shrugs, Power Line, Michelle Malkin, and National Review. Sure, I read all of them, too, but only because I’m paid to, not because I find them useful.
* NYT: “With only 15 months left in office, President Bush has left whole agencies of the executive branch to be run largely by acting or interim appointees — jobs that would normally be filled by people whose nominations would have been reviewed and confirmed by the Senate. In many cases, there is no obvious sign of movement at the White House to find permanent nominees, suggesting that many important jobs will not be filled by Senate-confirmed officials for the remainder of the Bush administration. That would effectively circumvent the Senate’s right to review and approve the appointments. It also means that the jobs are filled by people who do not have the clout to make decisions that comes with a permanent appointment endorsed by the Senate, scholars say.”
* Why I don’t usually care for unscientific polls — they’re useless.
* Clarence Thomas’ colleagues apparently aren’t terribly impressed with his “unseemly” new book and public-relations offensive.
* And finally, a Vatican official was caught on hidden camera making sexual advances on a child, but the man, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico, said he was only doing research on “those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity.” Stenico added that he would frequent online gay chat rooms and meet with gay men as part of his work. “I was a victim of my own attempts to contribute to cleaning up the Church with my psychoanalyst work,” Stenico said. Hmm, will “psychoanalyst work” now replace “wide stance”?
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.