MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Israel continued to pound Hamas today, though an AP report noted that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would end the conflict if rocket fire on Israel stops and Hamas is unable to rearm. “Anything else will be met with the Israeli people’s iron fist,” Olmert said.
* The Dow fell another 125 points, and other major indexes fell more than 2% each.
* At Obama’s behest, Bush asked Congress today to release the second half of the $700 billion bailout.
* Bernard Madoff is still out on bail, when a judge decided that the government had offered enough evidence that Madoff is not a flight risk or a security risk.*
* Bush had a largely uneventful press conference this morning, and will deliver a prime-time farewell on Thursday night.
* Confirming what was already widely believed, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said today that he’ll support Eric Holder’s A.G. nomination.
* Just because a strategy worked in Iraq doesn’t mean it’ll work in Afghanistan.
* NYT: “Democrats are hoping to roll back a series of regulations issued late in the Bush administration that weaken environmental protections and other restrictions.”
* U.S. Marshalls are not escorts for sports broadcasters.
* Jeffrey Toobin explores what happened to SoapBlox.
* They had to work on a Sunday, but the Senate defeated a Tom Coburn filibuster on a key public lands bill.
* The estate tax is scheduled to disappear in 2010. Obama and congressional Dems are going to make sure that doesn’t happen.
* Far-right bloggers looking for evidence of manipulated war photos are wrong with surprising regularity.
* Lee Stranahan has the latest on Ann Coulter’s voting “issues.”
* And The Beast always does a nice job pulling together its list of the top 50 most “loathsome people in America.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
* edited for clarity
