Giuliani promises to appoint “people like Scalia and Roberts and Alito” to the bench if elected.
This is a follow up on yesterday’s episode of TPMtv, in which we ran through the list of foreign policy fanatics and Iran-war-mongers Rudy Giuliani has advising him. Now normally it’s not reasonable to hold a candidate to every policy and particular embraced by their named advisers. But the case of Iran is unique. Rudy’s key adviser on the issue is Norman Podhoretz. And as we showed in yesterday’s episode, Podhoretz doesn’t think we should threaten Iran with military action or leave it on the table or whatever the phrase may be. He says we must go to the war with Iran. We have to do it.
Nor is Iran just any foreign policy issue. It is the central foreign policy question before us right now. Rudy’s key advisers says war is a must. And his adviser on Iran particularly, Michael Rubin, seems to lean strongly in the same direction, though I’m not sure if he’s addressed the issue recently in public, as Podhoretz repeatedly has.
So, for Rudy, do you believe we must go to war with Iran as your key advisers say they do?
Yet to the best of my knowledge no one has asked Rudy this question, even though he’s interviewed regularly these days. So who will ask it? The question is so central and his advisers’ position is so clear, it’s simply a journalistic responsibility for any reporters who gets a chance to ask it not to.
When I want a healthy dose of arrested psychological development I know to head over to the New York Sun, or at least the oped page (no slight to the several highly sane and well-adjusted reporters). So that’s what I did when one of my colleagues here at TPM passed on today’s editorial. If I’m not mistaken, the editors are hinting that Matt Yglesias and I, two Jews, are peddling some sort of subtle anti-semitism. As they might say, go figure.
Later in the editorial the Sunies vamp about New York City, which, if I’m understanding this correctly, they now appear to own. Praising the city for all its marvels, they gush, “As an entryway for immigration, as Ground Zero in the world war, as an engine of economic growth and trade, as a venue of school reform, and as a capital of commerce, culture, and religion, New York has more than its share to offer in the coming election year. Ethnic paranoia, indeed.”
Ground zero in the world war. Ethnic paranoia? And so many other varieties.
At Table for One this week, Jacob Soboroff blogs on election reform. He is the Executive Director of Why Tuesday? and the host of their weekly video blog. The name Why Tuesday? is a coy reference to the national election day being in the middle of the week. Today, Soboroff and his colleague John Bonifaz tackle electronic voting machines.
President Bush warns of World War III . . . and other amusing tidbits from today’s press conference:
TPM is proud to be a co-sponsor of 10Questions.com, a nifty new project in which you upload your questions, the community chooses the 10 they like best, and the Presidential candidates respond. It’s going to be like the YouTube debate, except for controlled by you instead of cable executives.
The site launched this morning and there are already a few questions up.
Upload yours and vote on your favorites. Then boo and hiss or clap and cheer as the candidates respond.
Don’t look now but Huckabee is tied for second in Iowa, and not that far behind Romney in first.
In a bid to derail the Democrats’ FISA legislation, House Republicans are introducing a poison pill amendment–one that Democrats are loathe to vote against but which would send the bill back to committee if approved.
Greg Sargent has the details.
I watched a portion of Larry Craig’s chat with Matt Lauer. And his denial was so thorough and complete that I had moments where I was almost lulled into the thought that the whole thing was just a misunderstanding. Andrew Sullivan has some germane thoughts on the lifetime investment in denial that keeps Craig on his chosen path.