I’ve told a number of people over the last few days that for all the talk of this evangelical third-party candidacy if Rudy gets the nomination, I’ll believe it when I see it. Sam Brownback, a big pro-lifer, appears to be laying the groundwork for a Rudy endorsement. It makes a hypocrite of one or the other of them. Probably both. But I bet you’ll see others making their peace as well, especially if Romney doesn’t, can’t make the sale.
Horowitz says Princeton University is participating in “Islamofascism Awareness Week.” But University and the campus college Repubs say that’s news to them.
“Asked in an interview this week with The Daily Princetonian why Princeton was listed as participating in Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, Horowitz said he thought he was invited to speak at the University as part of the program. He added that he thought College Republicans scheduled the event last week, rather than during the official Islamo-Fascism Awareness week, so that it wouldn’t conflict with midterm exams.”
The state of Pennsylvania has decided not to release a list of state polling places to prevent terrorists from disrupting the state’s elections.
Just glad we have our priorities straight.
Watch the Duke Cunningham/Brent Wilkes scuba diving video shown at Wilkes trial. Bali Hai indeed!
FEMA employees played the roles of reporters at a press conference yesterday given by the deputy FEMA administrator on the California fires. The Post‘s Al Kamen has the details.
Late Update: You may remember that in the early days after Katrina, hundreds of firefighters sat in Atlanta awaiting deployment to the hurricane zone. When one group of firefighters was finally dispatched, it was to serve as a TV backdrop for the President’s press conference.
Jake Tapper talks with Fred Thompson about executive power:
Thompson agreed that he didn’t share the views of Vice President Cheney when it comes to the supremacy of the executive branch.
“No, I think the constitution in times of war, especially, is very definitive about that,” he said. “The president is the commander in chief, but the Congress has the power of the budget. The power of the purse. So everything has to go through that prism. So itâs divided power in the constitution. Our founding fathers divided that up. Divided it up at the federal level, the idea being that things like Watergate should be made very difficult to happen. So no one branch of the government can misuse power.”
. . .
Thompson said he sides with the Bush administration in its struggle with Congress over “issues of surveillance,” but he suggested in some of the cases on detainees that have been ruled upon by the Supreme Court he sides with the Congress.
I’m not sure what to make of this, but it’s not what I expected to hear from Thompson.
New developments in unearthing the details of the administration’s torture policies. Paul Kiel has the details.
Here’s one to keep an eye on. We’ve written a fair bit about John Tanner, the chief of the voting rights section at DOJ. This is the guy who thinks voter ID laws are inherently unfair to whites because–and you have to follow the logic here carefully–the elderly are less likely to have ID cards, minorities have less access to health care and therefore die younger, the elderly are thus disproportionately white, and, if you’re still following, voter ID laws therefore actually benefit minorities.
That logic from the federal officer in charge of protecting minority voting rights prompted Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to call for Tanner’s resignation. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) followed suit yesterday. Sen. Ted Kennedy is now asking that AG-nominee Mike Mukasey conduct a review of Tanner and consider firing him.
That’s not the only eyebrow raiser from Tanner. He also inserted himself into the investigation of voting irregularities in Ohio after the 204 elections. Tanner is not a political appointee, but he still manages to do the bidding of those on the Republican side who view minority voting protections as a hindrance to GOP electoral success.
Next Tuesday, after DOJ essentially stonewalled allowing him to testify, Tanner finally goes up to the Hill for an appearance before a House Judiciary subcommittee. Might be a fun one to watch.
As Josh noted earlier, there may have been a seismic shift in the GOP primary race yesterday, when Sam Brownback essentially gave Rudy Giuliani a pass on his abortion rights views.
Over at TPM Election Central, we’re tracking the fallout from Brownback’s remarks. And they really do have far-reaching consequences–for Giuliani, for the prospect of a third-party pro-life candidacy, and for some of the other candidates, Mitt Romney, in particular.
For instance, a major Romney supporter, who is pro-life, is outraged over Brownback’s remarks, telling Greg Sargent in an interview that Brownback is “cozying up” to Giuliani for some purported personal political gain. That in turn complicates things for Romney, who is still trying to secure a Brownback endorsement to shore up his own weakness among evangelicals. Around and around it goes.
Late Update: Brownback’s political director in Iowa (up until his departure from the race) says Giuliani may get the nod from Brownback because he has the best chance of beating Hillary.
If you’re Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), this is not what you want to read your lawyer saying to the press:
âBy the time somebody comes to me, they are pretty far up the creek. The good thing is they will pay almost anything.”
–Brendan Sullivan, quoted by the Washingtonian