Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Good news: “A federal magistrate ordered the White House on Tuesday to reveal whether copies of possibly millions of missing e-mails are stored on computer backup tapes. The order by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola comes amid an effort by the White House to scuttle two lawsuits that could force the Executive Office of the President to recover any e-mail that has disappeared from computer servers where electronic documents are automatically archived. Two federal laws require the White House to preserve all records including e-mail. Facciola gave the White House five business days to report whether computer backup tapes contain e-mails written between 2003 and 2005. The time period covers the Valerie Plame affair in which at least three presidential aides were found to have leaked Plame’s CIA identity to the news media.”
* As much as we’d hope the Iraqi insurgency is gone, it’s not: “Militants assassinated two key leaders of American-backed neighborhood militias in northern Baghdad over the past two days, highlighting the militants’ strategy of eliminating militia commanders who have embraced partnerships with American forces but who themselves remain vulnerable to attack. On Monday morning, a suicide bomber on foot killed Col. Riyadh al-Samarrai, a founder of the Sunni Awakening Council in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold that until recently was a haven for insurgents…. The bomber struck at the offices of the Sunni Endowment, one of the most powerful Sunni institutions in Iraq and an influential backer of the new Sunni alliances with American forces. The suicide blast and a nearly simultaneous car bombing just yards away killed 14 people and wounded 18 others.”
* Fox News reported today that James Carville and Paul Begala would leave their CNN jobs to help turn around Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Shortly thereafter, Carville flatly denied the report, “Fox was, is and will continue to be an asinine and ignorant network. I have not spoken to anyone in the Clinton campaign about this. I have not done domestic political consulting since President Clinton was elected. I’m not getting back into domestic political consulting.” Not long after, Begala was equally emphatic: “As I say to the boys: N.H.D. Not Happenin’ Dude.”
* Krugman: “When the economy was (sorta, kinda) strong, it showed that tax cuts work, and so we needed to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Now the economy is falling off a cliff — although according to the White House, nobody is predicting a recession (I seem to know an awful lot of nobodies) — and you know what that means: we’d better make the Bush tax cuts permanent.” Dan Froomkin has more.
* I hate to see Dems get caught up in the culture of corruption, but this story about a fishy earmark pushed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) looks discouraging. Let’s hope there’s an innocent explanation.
* Over the weekend, Bill O’Reilly got physical with an Obama staffer he didn’t like. Last night, the Fox News blowhard said his temper tantrum, which drew Secret Service intervention, was necessary to protect the Constitution. He didn’t appear to be kidding.
* Good point from Matt Yglesias, Part I: “My roommate Kriston Capps is having some difficulty explaining to his parents why the Fair Tax is not, in fact, fair. I think the talking point you want to hit here has to do with the effects of excluding savings and investment from taxation. Under the fair tax, Paris Hilton’s maid winds up paying a bigger proportion of her income in taxes than does Paris Hilton. People who can afford giant mansions aren’t going to pay 30 percent on that, people who can afford full-tuition for their kids at fancy private universities aren’t going to pay 30 percent on that, people aren’t going to pay 30 percent on their European vacations, they’re not paying 30 percent on what they pay their maid or their gardner. But ordinary people are going to see the price of everything they buy at the grocery store go up. ”
* Good point from Matt Yglesias, Part II: “Reading Bill Clinton’s slams on Barack Obama you have to wonder if the ex-president and other close associates might be so clouded by bitterness if Hillary Clinton loses that they’ll try to sabotage Obama’s general election campaign. As Hillary’s husband, you expect Bill to vigorously support her campaign. But as a former president and high-profile Democratic Party leader, you also expect Bill to not actually get down and dirty attacking other Democrats as unfit for office. After all, if Obama does become the nominee and John McCain or Mitt Romney starts attacking him as insufficiently experienced to do the job, one surrogate you’d definitely want to have out there in Obama’s camp would be former President Bill Clinton.”
* Very disappointing: “The Defense Department’s top watchdog has declined to investigate allegations that an American woman working under an Army contract in Iraq was raped by her co-workers. The case of former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones gained national attention last month. An ABC News investigation revealed how an earlier investigation into Jones’ alleged gang-rape in 2005 had not resulted in any prosecution, and that neither Jones nor Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been able to get answers from the Bush administration on the state of her case. In letters to lawmakers, DoD Inspector General Claude Kicklighter said that because the Justice Department still considers the investigation into Jones’ case open, there is no need for him to look into the matter.”
* Best healthcare in the world? “France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday. If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.” (thanks to LM and RK for the tip)
* Fox News Attacks: Obama edition.
* Sam Seder reports live from New Hampshire at a Rudy Giuliani “rally.” Hilarious.
And finally, a quick programming note. Tonight, I probably won’t be blogging too much, if at all, about the New Hampshire primary results, but I will set up a special overnight New Hampshire Open Thread for folks who want to talk about the results, brag, complain, speculate, whatever strikes your fancy. I’ll have full coverage in the morning.
That’ll be up in a few hours. Until then, feel free to talk, brag, complain, and speculate about everything else.