SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:20 P.M. ET: 

BACK IN – The United Arab Emirates, which had pulled out of the coalition that is conducting air strikes against ISIS out of concern for its pilots, has rejoined the coalition.  You may be sure that the leadership provided by King Abdullah of Jordan had a great deal to do with this.  A strong leader attracts followers.  I doubt if Field Marshal Obama's presence had any effect at all.

CONTEMPLATION – Brian Williams says he's taking a few days off from his job as anchor of NBC's "Nightly News."  Says he's become too much a part of the story.  No doubt about that.  There are now new concerns about other reporting he's done.  He once claimed he'd saved a puppy from a burning house.  What was he doing in a burning house?  It's being reported that NBC executives repeatedly warned Williams about inflating his resumé.  Oh, by the way, the New York Daily News is saying that Katie Couric, who flopped grandly as anchor of the CBS Evening News, would love to have Williams's job.  She'd also like to be queen of England.

ANOTHER JOURNALISM FLAP – From Newsmax:  "Reports of a new federal investigation of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are at odds with the less sensational reality of the probe, and even reporters for liberal MSNBC and 'The Rachel Maddow Show' — no friend to the Republican governor — are knocking down the new-probe hype.  Turns out the story is more nuanced than the headlines might have you believe, 'Maddow' staffers Nazanin Rafsanjani and Julia Nutter write at MSNBC.com.  News outlets this week identified Christie as the target of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey in a new probe.  This time the allegations are not related to the bridge lane closures in Democratic Fort Lee, N.J., known as Bridgegate, but to a local prosecutor's claims that he was fired and his investigation of a Christie supporter shut down."  A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office denies any investigation at all.  Another case of liberal journalists rushing on the air with a fake story.

February 7, 2015