We are at least now getting some clarity on the Rudy question. Pretty simple. Even now, at the point when bluffing would have maximum advantage, most of leading conservative and pro-life lights are happy to get behind Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy. The third party talk is basically just a lot of talk.
So Ben Craw and I just got back from the final day of Islamofascism Awareness Week at Columbia University where David Horowitz delivered a speech that might be better titled David Horowitz Awareness Week. He actually seemed a little more scattered and ragged than I’d seen him in previous speeches. The highlight of sorts was when he discussed the recent incident in which a noose was left on the door of an African-American professor at the university. He agreed it was an ‘unfortunate incident’. But his real point was the double standard it showed since nooses were being figuratively left on the doors of college Republicans who’d invited him to campus. And of course, a noose always hangs over Horowitz’s head because of the threat of violence he’s under from college progressives who want to silence Islamofascism Awareness Week.
On one level, it’s obviously offensive. But the comedic dimensions of the man’s self-pity and fantasies of victimization are far more profound.
Here’s a video sneak peek look at next week’s episode of TPMtv on the finale of Islamofascism Awareness Week and Horowitz’s quote.
Dick Cheney goes hunting again Monday. Those of you in the Hudson River Valley are in the warning zone. Take heed.
A House vote on holding Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress could come within the next couple of weeks.
Fox News goes after John McCain for using some of its debate footage in one of his campaign ads and demands he remove any Fox News reference from his campaign website.
But lookee, here.
Rudy Giuliani has Fox News plastered all over his campaign website, and as far as we know, Fox News hasn’t said a thing.
Rudy and Fox News chief Roger Ailes go way back.
McCain gets a cease and desist letter. Giuliani gets nothing.
Coincidence?
Late Update: Fox News responds–bars all candidates from using its footage and images.
Celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos surprised everyone, including prosecutors, by putting alleged Duke Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes on the stand in his own defense when trial resumed in San Diego today. In his testimony, Wilkes made specific denials of a number of the pieces of evidence arrayed against him. Then there was this exchange:
Prosecutor Phillip Halpern asked Wilkes whether he had told colleagues to deny any wrongdoing about their transactions with Cunningham.
“I believe you’re referring to the phrase, ‘Admit nothing, deny everything and make counteraccusations,'” Wilkes said. “It’s a CIA saying. It’s a joke.”
We have all either heard of or experienced cases where a misaddressed email or a “cc:” that was supposed to be a “bcc:” got the sender in really hot water. But the House Judiciary Committee has taken it to a whole new level.
A while back the HJC set up a web tipline for tipster with information on politicization and wrongdoing at the Bush DOJ. Today the committee sent an email to all the tipsters alerting them to extremely tight safeguards in place to keep their identities and stories confidential. Unfortunately they put the 150+ email address in the “to:” field in the email, not “bcc:”. So everyone’s email got sent to anyone else. And probably because of pranksters one of the addresses those emails got sent to was none other than the vice president’s office.
Paul Kiel has the whole sorry tale.
Family Research Council bucks the emerging pro-life embrace of Rudy.
Check out this Times article on South Carolina as the pivotal state in the GOP nomination process. It seems more than likely that Mitt Romney will win Iowa and New Hampshire. Nothing is for certain; but his leads there are substantial and consistent. But South Carolina is where the white evangelicals — en masse — come into play. If Rudy can’t win there, the importance of his strong plurality showings on the national level probably fade quickly, both as an indicator and as a reality, since Romney will likely pick up the support of others who throw in the towel. If Rudy can win there it probably means the lifers will trade their principles on abortion for beefed up aggression abroad.
Of course, none of these developments may mean any such thing. But that’s my read as of now.
The Times paints it as a four-way contest with McCain and Thompson. I’d discount those two — McCain as a collapsed candidacy, Thompson’s as a joke waiting for its punch line.
And for those of you interested in such things, here are the latest Intrade prediction markets charts for Rudy (at 42.1) and Romney (25.8) …
Rudy
Romney
That’s the race.