Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Afghanistan: “Three U.S. service members were killed and three were wounded in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device detonated Tuesday, NATO officials said. An American contractor was also wounded when the device detonated near Ghazni city, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.”
* An important scoop: “Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News.”
* Seems fair: “Former FBI director James B. Comey apparently isn’t too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trump’s acting attorney general. Matthew G. Whitaker ‘may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer,’ Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted attorney general Jeff Sessions.”
* A new tax package for the lame-duck session? “House Republicans on Monday evening unexpectedly released a 297-page tax bill they hope to move during the lame-duck session of Congress. The legislation would revive a number of expired tax provisions known as ‘extenders,’ address glitches in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and make a range of changes to savings- and retirement-related tax provisions.”
* Hmm: “The head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, General Igor Korobov, has died at aged 62, Russia’s defense ministry says. Gen Korobov, who took up the post in 2016, is said to have died after ‘a serious and long illness’ on Wednesday.”
* Noted without comment: In interviews with “Fox & Friends,” former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s team “chose the topics for interviews, and knew the questions in advance. In one instance, according to emails revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Sierra Club and reviewed by The Daily Beast, Pruitt’s team even approved part of the show’s script.” * Incidentally, Fox News says the issue “is being addressed internally,” a phrase that “makes periodic appearances in Fox News crisis archives.” * An interesting study: “Political analysts tend to use the term ‘aisle-crossing’ in symbolic terms, a metaphor for lawmakers’ willingness to cooperate with the opposing party to get things done. But a new working paper by Bryce J. Dietrich of the University of Iowa finds that in strictly literal terms, members of Congress today are much less likely to physically cross the aisle of the chamber to fraternize with members of the opposing party than they were even 10 or 15 years ago.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
