Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Convicted felon Scooter Libby cut a check today at the U.S. District Court for $250,400 — $250,000 as part of his criminal sentence that Bush didn’t clear away, and $400 for a special assessment. (A picture of the cashier’s check made it to Smoking Gun.)
* If he had it to do over again, Novak would still write the Plame story. Amazing.
* Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), one of my favorites, announced today that he’s planning to introduce a censure resolution against the president as a result of the Libby commutation. Bob Fertik makes the case that Wexler’s measure is well-intentioned but flawed: it doesn’t include any major penalties beyond the symbolic value.
* WaPo: “Nearly five months into a security strategy that involves thousands of additional U.S. and Iraqi troops patrolling Baghdad, the number of unidentified bodies found on the streets of the capital was 41 percent higher in June than in January, according to unofficial Health Ministry statistics. During the month of June, 453 unidentified corpses, some bound, blindfolded, and bearing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official.”
* First Lady Laura Bush and I, surprisingly enough, have something political in common: we both disapprove of the president’s abstinence-only policy requirements regarding international AIDS relief.
* What can civilians in the United States to do help the men and women in uniform? According to the president, “You can car pool.”
* McClatchy’s Warren Strobel and Dion Nissenbaum explain the ways in which the Bush administration’s bumbling policies helped lead to the Palestinian conflict in Gaza.
* Rush Limbaugh wants to scare children into hating liberals. Here’s what he told a 13-year-old caller who resents being asked to read Newsweek for school: “There are liberals everywhere. You may think that just because your town is conservative — there are liberals. They’re hiding in the shadows, and they are lurking there, and they’re around and the odds are that many of them are in the school system.”
* The AP had the audacity to note that Fred Thompson is all hat, no cattle: “Top candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain mix it up daily, taking questions from voters and fleshing out their presidential agendas. Not Thompson. His stump speech consists of broad conservative themes, talk of bipartisanship and commentary on issues of the day, but it largely lacks any vision for the future of the country. He deflects questions on what a Thompson presidency would look like and demurs when pressed for specific proposals for how to fix the nation’s ills. He opines on hot topics, from taxes to terrorism, in online columns and on his Web site, usually without being challenged.” Good for the AP.
* Henry Waxman is going to investigate the mess surrounding the U.S. embassy in Iraq. I’m glad someone’s going to.
* John McCain’s presidential campaign is in freefall, in the midst of empty coffers and weak polls. So, I suppose it’s time for the media to come in and rescue him: “During the July 3 edition of CNN’s The Situation Room, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (AZ): ‘The straight talker is back. And he’s hoping to turn into the comeback kid.'”
* Schwarzenegger hasn’t had an ethics scandal in a while, so I guess he was due: “Special interest groups can’t buy a multi-millionaire like California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), as he has claimed since his recall election campaign in 2003. But charities can use tax-deductible donations to pick up the tab on his private jet jaunts and stays in top tier hotels, the Los Angeles Times reports.”
* I’m fairly certain that if Bill Clinton had been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, I’d remember it. But that didn’t stop Neal Boortz from falsely claiming that “Scooter Libby and Bill Clinton got sentenced and convicted for exactly the same crime.”
* And finally, Bill Clinton may be one of the most recognized and popular figures on earth, but in Iowa, alongside his wife, he can still be mistaken for someone else. “Bob Barker! It’s Bob Barker!” two Iowa women yelled, according to the New York Times, as they saw the former president campaign with his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, in Clear Lake, Iowa, yesterday. When the women realized who it was, they shouted “Ohhhh!” and “seemed just as thrilled,” according to the Times.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.