SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:22 P.M. ET: 

A NEW DEFINITION FOR "DUMB" – From Fox:  "Two American tourists now have a criminal record in Italy after they were caught carving their names into Rome's Colosseum, according to The Guardian.  The visiting Californians snuck away from their tour group on Saturday and began scratching their initials into the amphitheater walls using a coin, The Guardian reported.  Police caught the pair but not before they managed to carve a 'J' and an 'N' around 3 inches high into the Colosseum wall. The paper also reports that the women took a selfie with their carvings.  The young women, aged 21 and 25, were cited for 'aggravated damage to a building of historical and artistic interest,' according to The New York Post."  Had they carved "Barack," the US Embassy would have come to their aid. 

POOR CHOICE – The Chicago politicians are at it in the White House again.   Robert Malley, a US negotiator at the 2000 Camp David talks on the Mideast, has been named to head the Mideast desk at the National Security Council.  Problem is, Malley is known for his anti-Israel positions.  I guess the payback for Bibi's speech has already begun.  It's the way small timers operate.  Had Obama been a real American president, rather than a student-government president, he would have appointed someone in whom our Israeli ally had confidence, to show that he could rise above his personal disputes with Netanyahu and reaffirm the alliance.  Petty man, this Obama, a cross between Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon.

TREY ON THE CASE – From the New York Post:  "WASHINGTON – The chairman of the House Benghazi Committee said 'there are huge gaps' in the Hillary Clinton emails turned over to his committee investigating the deadly attack that killed four Americans on Sept. 11, 2012.  For instance, there were no emails on Oct. 18, 2011, the day of the iconic picture of the Secretary of State clad in sunglasses and bracing her Blackberry on a plane to Libya. In fact there were no emails from that entire trip.  'We don’t have all of them,' said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), whose committee unearthed the existence of Clinton’s exclusive personal accounts.  'It strains credibility to believe that if you’re on your way to Libya to discuss Libyan policy, that there’s not a single document that’s been turned over to Congress. So there are huge gaps,' said Gowdy, who has requested emails related to Libya, before, during and after the attack."  The future for Hillary looks suddenly "iffy."

March 8, 2015