Today’s edition of quick hits.
* CNN: “President Bush on Wednesday told CNN he would personally ‘facilitate’ peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis but dismissed the idea that he would travel to the region to engage in talks.” The president prefers a kind of hands-off, long-distance style of engagement. That ought to work, right?
* Some of the White House’s previous Middle East envoys ended up opposing the president’s policy. We’ll see if the new one sticks to the script: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tapped a former NATO commander on Wednesday to serve as a special envoy for Middle East security, moving quickly to maintain momentum coming out of this week’s international conference that launched new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. She said James Jones, a retired Marine Corps general, was ‘the person we need to take up this vital mission.'”
* Romney is so totally busted: “I just got off the phone with another Nevada Republican who confirmed that Mansoor Ijaz’s account of Mitt Romney saying he’d nix Muslims in his cabinet is accurate. This is the first person I’ve spoken to who directly confirmed Ijaz’s account of that particular event…. ‘I can tell you that what was reported by Mansoor is accurate,’ this person said to me. The man, a real estate broker and volunteer in local Republican politics, declined to allow his name to be used.” For those keeping score at home, that’s three separate Nevada Republicans who corroborate Ijaz’s account.
* WaPo on the latest poll from the Pew Research Center: “A new poll released yesterday underscored the changing political environment, finding the public more positive about the military effort in Iraq than at any point in 14 months as a surge of optimism follows the rapid decline in violence. Yet Bush remains as unpopular as ever in the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, and the public remains just as committed to bringing U.S. troops home.” There’s been a major upswing in the public’s attitudes about progress in the war, but it’s had no effect on the number of Americans who want to withdraw.
* We’ve certainly lost sight of what used to be the “center” of American politics — Nixon’s universal healthcare plan, embraced by Republicans, was to the left of what most Dems would propose now.
* I know it’s a hackocracy in the Bush administration, but I don’t understand why this guy is still employed: “When John Tanner, chief of the Civil Rights Division’s voting section, appeared before a Congressional panel last month, he was upbraided by Democrats for his ‘ineffectiveness.’ Little did they know that as the section, probably the most politicized in the Justice Department under the Bush Administration, has done less and less to protect African-American voters from discrimination, Tanner has been seeing the country on the taxpayers’ dime. He even managed to make taxpayer-funded trips to Hawaii in three consecutive years, two of them a week long. One Department lawyer who accompanied Tanner on his first trip took the earliest available flight back after having completed all necessary work in just two business days. But Tanner insisted on staying a full week, despite the lack of apparent Department business. It’s a crime for government officials to use public funds for personal travel.”
* E&P: “Journalists covering the war in Iraq contend stories about ordinary Iraqis are not getting the play that the U.S. military and insurgents are, according to a study released Wednesday. It reveals: ‘Overall, journalists working in Iraq give their own coverage a mixed but generally positive assessment. A majority (58%) regard press coverage in Iraq as ‘good,’ the second-highest mark. Another 16% rate the coverage as excellent. But nearly a quarter (23%) rate the coverage as only fair. Another 2% grade the coverage as poor.’ Most also say reporting has not been overly negative, adding that the situation there is actually worse than most Americans believe.”
* More on permanent U.S. bases in Iraq: “President Bush might not require Congressional approval for the upcoming U.S.-Iraq security agreement. But al-Dabbagh said the Maliki government will need to secure a blessing for the deal from the Iraqi parliament. And even though the deal will cover a U.S. military presence for years to come, Dabbagh doesn’t expect any parliamentary turbulence — let alone refusal.”
* The exodus from the White House continues apace: “President Bush’s top economic advisor Al Hubbard will resign at the end of the year and be replaced by his deputy, the White House announced Wednesday. The resignation of Hubbard, who served as the director of the National Economic Council, comes amid growing concerns about the state of the U.S. economy that could pose political perils for Bush and congressional Democrats. House Democrats are mulling an economic summit next week as a way to seize a political advantage on a potential recession, which they hope would be blamed on Bush.”
* Ten leading researchers in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health have implored congressional leaders to reconsider continuing federal investments in abstinence-only funding. If common sense still means anything, lawmakers will listen.
* And finally, don’t forget that the latest debate for Republican presidential candidates is tonight at 8pm eastern. All of the questions will come via YouTube, though CNN has carefully screened the submissions, because CNN senior vice president David Bohrman said the public isn’t reliable enough to choose substantive questions. As an example, he complained that before the Dems’ YouTube debate, the “second-most-viewed video question was: Will you a convene a national meeting on UFOs?” If I remember correctly, didn’t Tim Russert ask a couple of UFO questions during a recent NBC debate?
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.