Mike Bloomberg’s my mayor. And I like him. But what’s his appeal nationally exactly? Seems to me that his electoral success was heavily based on the unique partisan dynamics of recent New York City history in which a relatively normal Republican (in this case, someone like Mike, who was actually a Democrat but became a Republican to run for mayor) can run and win by playing off the entrenched interests controlling the Democratic party. In other words, as the Democrat he actually was New Yorkers might have voted for Bloomberg for various offices. But the only way he was going to get on the ballot, for various reasons, was as a Republican.
I’m not sure how those dynamics play nationally, though a billion dollars, admittedly, buys a lot of traction.
This Pew poll shows his nationwide appeal is quite modest.
There’s plenty more, you can bet on that. House Judiciary Committee launches effort to reach out to potential Justice Department whistleblowers.
Rudy responds for the first time to the story about him blowing off the Iraq Study Group.
And needless to say, his response is thoroughly bogus.
What’s next? No Justice, No Peace?
McClatchy has debuted their new website along with a new motto: “Truth to Power”, as in speaking truth to power.
That’s a fairly bold claim for an establishment news organization to make. But I will be the first to say that they’re the only ones in the business who can make such a claim without garnering endless well-deserved snickers.
McClatchy, after all, has led all the big news organizations on the US Attorney story. And in as much as its the inheritor and successor of Knight-Ridder (which they recently bought and merged with) they were simply without peer as a news organization in covering the build up to the Iraq War and War on Terror and not getting taken in by the conventional wisdom and the prestige leaksters.
So all things considered, more power to them. I can’t think of a news organization that, story for story, has a prouder record over the last six years.
Whichever side of the debate you’re on, few can dispute that the paramount issue facing America today is the war in Iraq. How could it be then that a major presidential candidate chooses to avoid said issue whenever possible? Rudy Giuliani shows us how in today’s episode of TPMtv …
Late Update: For a transcript of today’s episode, click here.
Monica Goodling all but called Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty a liar when she testified before Congress last month. But judging by McNulty’s opening statement for tomorrow’s House committee hearing, it looks like he’s not going to return fire.
Big Romney fundraiser faces lawsuits over allegations of child abuse. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.
The Post has a fascinating and very sobering article about the Maliki government on A1 in Thursday’s paper. It describes the centrifugal forces pulling away at the Iraqi state which have the Maliki government bobbling between impotence and irrelevance.
Steven Griles, former #2 at the Dept of Interior, is one of the smaller fish who pleaded out in the Abramoff scandal. And to keep him out of jail his lawyer has a novel argument: he’s nowhere near as bad as Scooter Libby.
Probably true.
Lotta good it’ll do him.