SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

OH – FROM THE HILL:   Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said in an interview Sunday that the Russian ambassador who met with Trump campaign officials also met with “people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.”  “Well, if you look at some people connected with Hillary Clinton during her campaign, you would probably see that he had lots of meetings of that kind,” Dmitry Peskov told CNN “GPS” host Fareed Zakaria. “There are lots of specialists in politology, people working in think tanks advising Hillary or advising people working for Hillary.”  Peskov said it is the job of Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to meet with officials on both sides to talk about “bilateral relations.”  This won't make a bit of difference to the anti-Trump asylum.  He was influenced by the Russians, and that's the line.  Period.

THE LEFT HAS DISCOVERED...TELEVISION! – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   There is a new safe space for liberals in the age of President Trump: the television set.  Left-leaning MSNBC, after flailing at the end of the Obama years, has edged CNN in prime time. Stephen Colbert’s openly anti-Trump “Late Show” is beating Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight” for the first time. Bill Maher’s HBO flock has grown nearly 50 percent since last year’s presidential primaries, and “The Daily Show” has registered its best ratings since Jon Stewart left in 2015.  Traditional television, a medium considered so last century, has watched audiences drift away for the better part of a decade. Now rattled liberals are surging back, seeking catharsis, solidarity and relief.  And they will get it.  One Oscar show should satisfy them for a year.  It confirms once again that the left is reactionary.  They're even flocking to an old medium.  At least sitting on a couch will keep them out of trouble.

A DESERVED HONOR – FROM FOX:   Some retired Marines in California want the Navy to name a warship for the photographer behind the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo.  Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo shows Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on the Japanese island on Feb. 23, 1945. The picture became the model for the Iwo Jima Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, known officially as the Marine Corps War Memorial.  The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday that the campaign to honor Rosenthal includes an online petition that has gathered more than 1,300 signatures.  “Joe Rosenthal took one of the greatest photographs in history, and yet he has been bypassed by history,” campaign organizer Tom Graves told the paper.  Graves belongs to the Marine Corps Correspondents Association in San Francisco and wants to collect thousands of more names before submitting them to the Navy.  It would be appropriate, as the Iwo Jima photo has come to symbolize the Marine Corps.  Also, Rosenthal took the risks of a combat photographer, a number of whom were killed in World War II and subsequent wars.  Honoring him would honor them.

March 12, 2017