Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* Keith Olbermann had another one of his special commentaries<\/a> last night, this time on the president, his trip to Vietnam, and the lessons Bush hasn’t yet learned. “There are dozens central lessons to be learned from our nightmare in Vietnam,” Olbermann said, “but ‘we’ll succeed unless we quit’ is not one of them.”<\/p>\n * Marshall Wittmann unexpectedly gave up blogging<\/a> late last week. Now we now why: the former Christian Coalition lobbyist has become the Communications Director for Sen. Joe Lieberman<\/a> (I-Conn.).<\/p>\n * Wesley Clark has written up his latest plan<\/a> for the future of the war in Iraq. He’s big on diplomacy, down on timelines.<\/p>\n * Congressional Dems had planned to package a series of ethics-reform measures together into one big piece of legislation, but then party strategists had a far better idea: pass the reform measures one at a time<\/a> “allowing incoming freshmen to take charge of high-profile issues and lengthening the time spent on the debate. The approach will ensure that each proposal…is debated on its own and receives its own vote.” This way, it’s more positive headlines. Not a bad idea.<\/p>\n * Congressional Dems, not amused by the president tapping an anti-birth control advocate to become the government’s new family-planning chief, has asked Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to find someone else for the job<\/a>. “We are concerned that Dr. Keroack has promoted policies — including the refusal to distribute contraception even to married women — that directly conflict with the mission of the federal program,” Dems said.<\/p>\n * A leading senator today called<\/a> John McCain’s plans for more troops in Iraq “wrong” and “not realistic.” Unfortunately for McCain, the senator was conservative Republican Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a close McCain ally.<\/p>\n * I don’t think any plans for a new military draft are going anywhere fast<\/a>. In fact, Pelosi seems to want Rangell to stop talking about it<\/a> altogether. * Cute story<\/a> about Barack Obama reaching out a critic.<\/p>\n * Just in time for the holiday season: “A new [CBPP] analysis of data<\/a> on hardships faced by American families — based on an annual survey the Administration plans to eliminate this fiscal year — shows that between one-fourth and one-third of all African American and Latino citizen families experience difficulty affording food, lack needed medical care, and\/or live in overcrowded conditions.”<\/p>\n * Yet another setback<\/a> for the right’s outreach to African Americans.<\/p>\n * Fox News’ The Beltway Boys co-host and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes seems to be hard at work on the next right-wing meme<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n* Meet the new Defense Secretary, whose ways sound eerily familiar<\/a> to the old Defense Secretary.<\/p>\n