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

BREAKING TRADITION – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:  The Secret Service has gotten ready for an imminent appointment of a new director with a senior military rank. This is the first time a Secret Service agency chief would be appointed from outside of the agency in modern history, the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday.  Secret Service agents and officers are expecting retired Marine general and former head of U.S. Central Command John Kelly, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to tap another general to lead the agency.  Two sources told the Washington Examiner that the outside hire would help reform the agency and impose more rigorous and even-handed discipline. Employees are anticipating the announcement of the new appointment to take place next week.  The new hire would come in the wake of several controversial moments that the Secret Service has faced since the 2016 presidential campaigns.  It's time for a change.  The Secret Service used to have a pristine reputation, but no more.  Just last week an intruder got over the White House gates, and spent more than 20 minutes on White House grounds before the Secret Service realized he was there.

HE MAY BE RIGHT – FROM THE HILL:  Former Vice President Joe Biden late Friday night voiced regret about his decision not to run for president, predicting if he had secured the Democratic nomination he could have won against Donald Trump.  "I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won," he said. "I don't know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won."  "I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party's nominee, I had a better than even chance of being president," Biden continued.  Biden explained that he didn't regret the time he was able to spend with his son Beau Biden, who later died after battling cancer. “But do I regret not being president? Yes,” Biden said. "I was the best qualified."  Biden is a decent man, but his record on foreign policy is filled with bad ideas.  However, his presence would have given the Democratic nomination race a bit more drama than it had, and a bit more class.

AMERICAN POLITICS 2017 – FROM FOX:   A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where President Donald Trump supporters were marching as counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday.  The violence erupted when the march of about 2,000 people at Bolsa Chica State Beach reached a group of about 30 counter-protesters, some of whom began spraying the irritant, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police.  Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray and a fourth person was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Pearsall said.  I'm sure the media will figure out a way to blame Dick Cheney.

March 25, 2017