Today’s edition of quick hits.
* We haven’t had too many signing ceremonies lately, so I suppose today was good news: “President Bush signed into law Wednesday legislation that will bring more fuel-efficient vehicles into auto showrooms and require wider use of ethanol, calling it ‘a major step’ toward energy independence and easing global warming. The legislation signed by Bush at a ceremony at the Energy Department requires automakers to increase fuel efficiency by 40 percent to an industry average 35 miles per gallon by 2020. It also ramps up production of ethanol use to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022.”
* Whether the energy bill was a step in the right direction or a massive sell-out is a matter open to some interpretation.
* Over the weekend, the Boston Globe’s Charlie Savage had a great scoop about the Bush administration planning to take control over the promotions of military lawyers and politicize the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. The response to the story was overwhelmingly negative, prompting the administration to back off the plan yesterday. “In light of the feedback that [William Haynes] received, he thought that it was wiser to try a different approach,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Good move.
* Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) officially resigned from the Senate today, though one assumes he hasn’t seen the floor of Congress for the last time — after a one-year waiting period, he’ll be a very high-priced lobbyist. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) will have 10 days to fill the vacancy.
* ABC News: “The Department of Justice refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors. ‘I’m embarrassed that the Department of Justice can’t even come forward,” said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich. ‘This is an absolute disgrace,’ said Conyers. ‘The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we’re going to straighten out the system right away.'”
* On a related note, Last week, Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said last week that the alleged gang rape of former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones in Iraq was not likelly “an isolated case of assault.” Today, Poe said he knows of at least three other women who were the victims of sexual assaults during their service in Baghdad working for KBR.
* Do you know what Rudy Giuliani really needs? Another association with a suspected criminal that makes his ties to Bernie Kerik look worse.
* The Bush administration desperately wants Congress not to investigate the torture-tape controversy. At this point, the House Intelligence Committee is ignoring the administration’s requests.
* David Frum has a new piece trying to get a rise out of the liberal blogosphere. The article is a little thin, though Yglesias and Drum weigh in on Frum’s flawed approach.
* Jonah Goldberg’s new screed isn’t even out yet, and it’s already the most mocked book in ages. Jon Swift has a great post on the book today: “Apparently, Goldberg unearths for the first time shocking similarities between Nazis and liberals. For example, Nazis wanted to clean up the environment. So do liberals! Nazis wanted to cure cancer. So do liberals! Nazis liked organic food and many were vegetarians. So are many liberals! A lot of Nazis were gay and a lot of liberals are, too! Nazis made Volkswagons and liberals love to drive them! Hitler loved dogs and so do many liberals!”
* A hearty congratulations to Digby on her blog’s fifth anniversary. The ‘sphere wouldn’t be the same without Hullabaloo.
* It’s not particularly controversial, but I’m often surprised at how many people haven’t heard: C-SPAN is conservative: “[A] new evaluation by the Center for Economic and Policy Research … finds that right-wing think tanks got 51 percent of C-SPAN’s total coverage in 2006, while left-of-center think tanks only got 18 percent of their coverage (a mere 5 percent of which were “progressive” think tanks). The other 31 percent of coverage went to centrist groups. So what happened to C-SPAN’s stated mission to provide their audience political coverage ‘without editing, commentary or analysis and with a balanced presentation of points of view’? Well, you don’t need editing or commentary to create an imbalanced presentation when you get to choose whose ideas get coverage.”
* John Kerry is already talking about consequences in the wake of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s decision yesterday to rush through a vote on media consolidation: “Chairman Martin was warned that ignoring the will of the Commerce Committee would have consequences, and I will work hard with my colleagues on the appropriations committee to ensure that the FCC’s funding reflects Chairman Martin’s decision to go against the commission’s own charter and limit media diversity rather than foster it.” Obama had some noteworthy reactions, too.
* There was a two-alarm fire in the OEOB — the office building adjacent to the West Wing — today, specifically in the Vice President’s office. (Insert conspiracy theory here.) No one was hurt, and the fire was quickly put out.
* The Yale Book of Quotations released the most memorable quotes of 2007 today, and the number one quote was: “Don’t Tase Me, Bro.” Other notable political additions to the list are Joe Biden’s very amusing shot at Giuliani (“There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11”) and Larry Craig’s now-infamous explanation for his bathroom run-in with an undercover cop (“[I have] a wide stance when going to the bathroom”).
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.