From the Times-Picayune …
The “D.C. Madam” served a subpoena Tuesday on Sen. David Vitter, R-La., requiring him to testify about his use of the Washington, D.C., escort service federal prosecutors say was a prostitution ring.
The subpoena calls on the freshman senator to testify at a federal court hearing Nov. 28 looking into the business operations of the $2 million escort service Deborah Jeane Palfrey operated in the nation’s capital for 13 years.
Vitter has acknowledged being a client of Palfrey’s company, Pamela Martin & Associates, and his telephone number appeared six times in the firm’s phone records between 1999 and 2001, when he was a member of the House of Representatives. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.
David Broder again writes about Clinton marriage — less than a week after vowing not to.
The White House is pushing the meme that it is already withdrawing troops from Iraq, and the AP picks it right up:
House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008.
The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate â let alone overcome a presidential veto â Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren’t giving up.
This of course is a reference to the fact that some elements of the ballyhooed surge are coming to an end. It reminds me of the old retail trick of artificially inflating a price so that you can call the actual price a “sale.”
Now you, too, can make a difference: Contribute to the Alberto R. Gonzales Legal Expense Trust.
The Huckabee train keeps on rolling: He catches Romney in Iowa.
It’s early to speculate. Perhaps Huckabee is even peaking too early. It’s always hard to know with these things. But the polls out of Iowa now leave little doubt that Mike Huckabee isn’t just surging or in the first tier. He may even now be tied with Romney.
Now, Huckabee has little organization outside of Iowa and the classic problem of not enough money and infrastructure to effectively capitalize on a strong showing in Iowa. But the issue is less what a Huckabee “win” does for Huckabee as what it could do to Mitt Romney.
There’s been a loose assumption for a while that Romney will sweep or at least dominate the early primaries. But if Huckabee wins in Iowa (and depending on the state of the expectations game a strong second could be a “win”) it could be devastating for him.
Let’s walk through it.
If Romney doesn’t win Iowa then anything but a crushing victory in New Hampshire amounts to a loss since it’s his backyard (a big chunk of New Hampshire is part of the Boston media market and many New Hampshirites work in Massachusetts). And if there’s no momentum coming out of either Iowa or New Hampshire it’s really hard to see how he does well in South Carolina since he’s never been ahead there in the first place.
The Romney strategy is to capitalize on momentum coming out of the first contests just as most voters are really starting to pay attention to the race. But live by the mo, die by the mo. So much of the logic of Romney’s candidacy is based on those early states and he’s spent so much money to build up those leads, that an Iowa loss followed by the probable negative feed back loop would pretty much mean the Romney candidacy is over.
So you can see how a Huckabee win in Iowa, while probably not doing much good for Huckabee, could have a profound effect on the outcome of the GOP race.
A number of you who watched our Rudy Giuliani 9/11 commercial spoof in yesterday’s episode of TPMtv have written in to ask, “Did you re-use any of those Giuliani 9/11 moments for effect? Were there any repeats? Or was every single clip a unique Rudy milking 9/11 moment?”
Well, don’t tell him I told you this. But TPMtv producer/editor Ben Craw was actually kind of hurt that the question was even asked. Because, yes, every clip is unique. I actually handcuffed Ben to his editing chair and told him I didn’t want to see him again until he came back with the montage of Rudy’s moments trying to exploit 9/11 all the way to the White House.
Anyhow, by the time Ben was done putting the thing together he was pretty much fried. So even he didn’t know how many individual clips were used.
So check it out if you missed it yesterday. And if you’re a good counter, try to figure out how many individual clips are included …
State IG Cookie Krongard gets a less-than-ringing endorsement from the State Department spokesperson.
House Dems plan big push against GOP on subprime mortgage crisis, while Harry Reid plots to foil recess appointments during Thanksgiving recess.