TUESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination this afternoon, on a 13 to 6 vote. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) joined every Democrat on the committee in support of the nominee.
* Also on the House this afternoon, the House Financial Services Committee voted to approve a measure pushed by the Obama administration to impose new restraints on executive pay. The bill passed 40 to 28, along straight party lines. The NYT noted, “The bill does not set pay limits. Instead it gives shareholders the right to vote on pay and requires that independent directors from outside of management serve on compensation committees.”
* President Obama spoke at an AARP-sponsored forum this afternoon, and explained that the biggest threat to Medicare is the status quo.
* Iran’s Mir Hossein Mousavi is calling for a new round of street protests during religious festivities scheduled for next week.
* Media Matters noticed that the president’s conservative detractors have begun heavily relying on racial rhetoric to attack Obama. TPM noticed the same thing.
* Defense Secretary Robert Gates made another trip to southern Iraq this morning.
* Obama cabinet secretaries have identified $243 million in cost-cutting measures, more than double the original $100 million target.
* Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who seems to be disturbed, said today that health care reform will “put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government.”
* Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley will join the president on Thursday at 6 p.m. for a casual get-together at the White House.
* In general, right-wing opponents of health care reform probably shouldn’t walk around in public with nooses and props that hang members of Congress in effigy.
* When Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) blamed right-wing, southern Republicans for the Republican Party’s troubles, he apparently meant it to be “off the record.”
* Under the circumstances, Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) probably shouldn’t casually throw around words like “nuts.” He is, after all, an apparent Birther.
* On a related note, Hawaii’s health director apparently checked the president’s birth certificate again, and discovered that Obama was, in fact, born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, and “is a natural-born American citizen.” Lunatics won’t care.
* I assume you’ve seen it, but just in case, Shatner’s dramatic reading of Palin was an instant classic.
* And tonight on “Countdown,” Phil Longman, a frequent contributor to Monthly, will be talking about health care and the V.A. This 2005 piece is likely to come up, as is this follow-up article from 2007. Tonight’s episode will be guest-hosted by Howard Dean, so be sure to check it out.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
