Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Remember that bizarre veto during the winter congressional break? It looks like there’s been progress on a resolution: “Congress has reached a compromise with the White House over a defense authorization bill provision that had drawn complaints from the Iraqi government. Those complaints prompted President Bush to veto the defense bill last month. He complained that a provision in the bill that allowed victims of terrorism to be awarded compensation from frozen foreign assets of state sponsors of terror could have crippled the fledgling Iraqi government with billions of dollars in liability. Under the compromise, Iraq is excluded from the provision, but other state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Syria, could see frozen assets used as compensation. The compromise is likely to leave American victims taken hostage and tortured by Saddam Hussein’s regime during the first Gulf War without recourse in U.S. federal court.”
* More details about the story behind the torture tapes: “In late 2005, the retiring CIA station chief in Bangkok sent a classified cable to his superiors in Langley asking if he could destroy videotapes recorded at a secret CIA prison in Thailand that in part portrayed intelligence officers using simulated drowning to extract information from suspected al-Qaeda members…. The CIA had a new director and an acting general counsel, neither of whom sought to block the destruction of the tapes, according to agency officials. The station chief was insistent because he was retiring and wanted to resolve the matter before he left, the officials said. And in November 2005, a published report that detailed a secret CIA prison system provoked an international outcry.”
* I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to Giuliani dropping out: “In an interview up at the National Review, Rudy Giuliani foreign policy advisor Norman Podhoretz says that ‘by any reasonable historical standard,’ George W. Bush’s war on terrorism has been ‘a triumph, not a disaster.’ Podhoretz weighs the war on terrorism — he calls it World War IV — against both World War II and the U.S. Civil War. He says the mistakes made in Iraq — ‘assuming they were all mistakes, as alleged, rather than judgment calls that might have gone worse the other way’ — are ‘chump change’ compared with the mistakes made in World War II. As for the Civil War, Podhoretz says: ‘It took Lincoln three years to find Sherman and Grant. It took George Bush three years to find Petraeus.'”
* I think we all saw this one coming: “To review: it’s debatable whether Blackwater can even be prosecuted because they don’t seem to be covered by any law. Beyond that, the State Department provided the Blackwater guards involved in the incident with limited immunity in order to get their version of events, thus further compromising the investigation. And don’t forget that Blackwater quickly mended the trucks involved in the incident, destroying key evidence as to whether the guards were actually under attack when they opened fire (Blackwater says that State gave them the green light to do that). So those are the difficulties.”
* I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that CNN’s John King does not respond well to criticism. The email he sent Glenn Greenwald was pretty stunning.
* James Kirchick reminded me that the Washington Times, which John Solomon considers a legitimate newspaper, has “a rule that the word ‘gay’ can never be used in news copy (except when quoting someone), only ‘homosexual.'” Seriously.
* Remember, CNN gives this guy all kinds of money: “[Yesterday] on his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck went on a rant against former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, blaming him for making the Great Depression ‘go on and on and on for a decade.’ He then added: “I have to tell you, I said on my radio show today, I`m beginning to come to a place where I just — I love my grandfather, but I just want to slap himself across the face for liking FDR. I think that was one evil son of a bitch.”
* Common Cause issued a statement this week, announcing that former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) has been named as the chairman of the group’s national governing board. Think about that one for a second — a Republican who repeatedly supported Tom DeLay for the congressional leadership is now going to help lead a good government group.
* A positive step towards improving miner safety.
* The Michigan Republican Party issued a press release last night congratulating John McCain for winning the state’s primary — right around the time Mitt Romney won.
* And finally, this may not make sense to those who never watched Buffy, but this is a very clever item, matching the Republican candidates to the appropriate Buffy villain. If you can’t appreciate the obvious similarities between the Mayor and Mitt Romney, well, you’re just not paying attention.
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.