Today’s edition of quick hits.<\/p>\n
* The plan to add two additional seats to the House of Representatives — one likely Dem from the District of Columbia, and one likely Republican from Utah — was unfortunately scuttled<\/a> by congressional Republicans. It’s a shame; it was a good, common-sense bill. Expect congressional Dems to bring it back next year.<\/p>\n * Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) during yesterday’s confirmation hearings from Robert Gates: “I talk to those who’ve lost their lives<\/a>, and they have that sense of duty and mission.” There’s nothing funny about fallen troops, and I don’t mean to make light of it, but Sessions’ obvious error struck me as amusing.<\/p>\n * The FBI’s half-billion dollar Sentinel program, which will replace a problem-riddled database of investigation files, is a total mess<\/a> and Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department apparently no longer has the money to finish it. Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), questioning whether the funding gap would bring cuts to the FBI’s counter-terrorism programs, said “mismanagement of this project seems to know no bounds.” He added, “I remain seriously concerned about the handling of this project. The American people cannot afford another fiasco.”<\/p>\n * USA Today reported this morning, “The Bush administration repeatedly sought ways to limit payouts<\/a> to nuclear weapons workers sickened by radiation and toxic material, according to a memo written by congressional investigators.” Wow.<\/p>\n * World-wide spam volumes have doubled from last year<\/a>. I’m not inclined to support the death penalty, but….<\/p>\n * For Florida Republicans, to care about the integrity of an election is apparently to support “destroying democracy<\/a>.”<\/p>\n * I suppose it’s alright for Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions to swing by the White House for a social visit<\/a> later this week, just as long as they remember Bush will no doubt have a “divide and conquer” agenda in mind. * Why so few medals<\/a> for the troops in Iraq? (thanks to J.B. for the tip)<\/p>\n * All this Santorum-for-U.N.-ambassador talk<\/a> is making me a little nervous.<\/p>\n * For too many in the media, Democrats flip-flop, but Republicans make “pragmatic” reversals<\/a>.<\/p>\n * If we’re all really lucky, the White House will heed Al Gore’s advice<\/a> about Iraq. (I know, don’t hold my breath.)<\/p>\n * Don’t tell Prager — it’ll only hurt his feelings — but a Muslim ambassador used a Koran for his swearing-in ceremony seven years ago<\/a>. It’s amazing American civilization was able to survive.<\/p>\n * And, by way of TP<\/a>, it seems Comedy Central is working on its next big hit: “Lil’ Bush: Resident of the United States<\/a>.” Apparently, it’s a cartoon satire that “re-imagines President Bush and key executives in his administration as elementary school misfits. The title character is surrounded by close pals like Lil’ Cheney, who grumbles unintelligibly, and Lil’ Condi, who pines for Lil’ Bush and does his homework for him.” What’s not to like?<\/p>\n If none of these particular items are of interest, consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today’s edition of quick hits. * The plan to add two additional seats to the House of Representatives — one likely Dem from the District of Columbia, and one likely Republican from Utah — was unfortunately scuttled by congressional Republicans. It’s a shame; it was a good, common-sense bill. Expect congressional Dems to bring it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n* When former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) delivered a farewell address to the Senate, nearly all Senate Republicans showed their appreciation for class and decorum by boycotting. Now that Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is poised to deliver a farewell speech of his own, incoming Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is urging Dems to take the high road and not follow the GOP’s example. According to a report<\/a> in Roll Call, Democratic attendance is expected for Frist.<\/p>\n