Today’s edition of quick hits.
* As if today’s headlines weren’t discouraging enough: “The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday. The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.” (Kevin Drum makes a compelling case that this may not be quite the outrage that it might seem to be at first blush.)
* On a related note, NPR reported yesterday that the administration is considering a “lily pad” strategy that would maintain a strong U.S. military presence in Iraq for several decades. As NPR explained, “[W]hat it essentially envisions is a series of military installations around Iraq, maybe five or six of them, a total of maybe 30-40 thousand U.S. troops in Iraq for a long period of time, lasting, maybe a few decades…. And that will enable the U.S. military to maintain a presence in the country.”
* Lt. Gen. William Boykin, about whom I’ve written on more than a few occasions, has finally resigned. Good.
* The Des Moines Register had a really good editorial about Alberto Gonzales and the various Justice Department scandals: “If he will not resign, and if the president will not fire him, Congress should begin proceedings to impeach him. That should be just the beginning of the work of Congress, however. Based on new details that emerged before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, more questions must be asked of Bush administration officials, including whether President Bush personally – and in contradiction of the advice of his attorney general and the Justice Department’s top legal adviser – directed spying on American citizens in violation of the law. Congress should follow that thread wherever it leads.” (thanks for the heads up, D.B.)
* On a related note, the chances of getting a no-confidence resolution through the Senate this week are looking pretty slim. GOP obstructionism will probably push it back until June. The measure now has seven Republican supporters.
* How bad is the Pentagon’s bureaucracy? This bad: “The Marine Corps waited over a year before acting on a ‘priority 1 urgent’ request to send blast-resistant vehicles to Iraq, DANGER ROOM has learned. According to a Marine Corps document provided to DANGER ROOM, the request for over 1,000 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles came in February, 2005. A formal call to fulfill that order did not emerge until November, 2006. ‘There is an immediate need for an MRAP vehicle capability to increase survivability and mobility of Marines operating in a hazardous fire area against known threats,’ the 2005 ‘universal need statement’ notes.”
* Gary Kamiya had an interesting explanation for why Bush hasn’t been impeached yet: “The truth is that Bush’s high crimes and misdemeanors, far from being too small, are too great. What has saved Bush is the fact that his lies were, literally, a matter of life and death. They were about war. And they were sanctified by 9/11. Bush tapped into a deep American strain of fearful, reflexive bellicosity, which Congress and the media went along with for a long time and which has remained largely unexamined to this day. Congress, the media and most of the American people have yet to turn decisively against Bush because to do so would be to turn against some part of themselves.”
* Paul Cameron, one of the nation’s leading anti-gay activists, was quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle without telling the reader what a giant nut he is.
* On a related note, it’s not enough for the military to discriminate against gays, the military also has to punish those who think it’s wrong to discriminate against gays.
* As much as I appreciate Chuck Hagel’s wisdom on Iraq, it’s really important to remember how conservative he is.
* Bush hit all-time lows in approval ratings in the latest Rasmussen and American Research Group polls.
* Food Stamp Challenge has wrapped up. The WaPo article on it is quite good.
* Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves: “On the May 18 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing May 17 Senate negotiations on a comprehensive immigration bill, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly asserted: ‘Now, the far right, the hard right, somehow believes that, in the United States of America, the federal government at some point is gonna form federal squads to go in and grab people where they live or where they work and throw them out of the country. These are the talk show nuts who are telling you that they’re gonna nuke Tehran.'” Yes, O’Reilly refers to others as “talk show nuts.”
* And finally, as awful as we know Duke Cunningham to be, he can still get … ickier: “What repelled Wilkes — and others invited to the parties — was both the water Cunningham put in the hot tub and the congressman’s penchant for using it while naked, even if everybody else at the party was clothed.” Read the rest, but not on a whole stomach.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.