TUESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Undeterred by yesterday’s international condemnations, North Korea “reportedly fired two more short-range missiles into waters off its east coast” earlier today.
* Exceeding all expectations, consumer confidence numbers soared over the last month. This, in turn, helped rally Wall Street.
* In more discouraging economic news, American home values are still awful.
* Two more New Yorkers have died of the H1N1 virus.
* Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seems to be, slowly but surely, coming around to a more sensible approach on Gitmo detainees.
* President Obama today praised Judge Sonia Sotomayor for having “great empathy.” Wait, did I say Obama and Sotomayor? Actually, that was George H.W. Bush’s quote, when he introduced Clarence Thomas.
* If Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is offended by something Sotomayor wrote in 1996, why did he vote for her nomination in 1998?
* I really doubt Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) will support a Sotomayor filibuster.
* Obama will stop in Riyadh on June 3, discussing Middle East peace with Saudi King Abdullah.
* Yesterday, Obama maintained the presidential tradition of having a wreath placed at a Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery, but started a new tradition by also sending a wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial.
* Norm Coleman is under the mistaken impression that his opinion on the Sotomayor nomination is important.
* Whether Robert Samuelson likes it or not, there is no Social Security crisis.
* Tucker Carlson thinks he can create a credible rival to the Huffington Post. What could possibly go wrong?
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
