Hmmm. From McClatchy …
The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in rigging the country’s upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.
Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.
Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party election monitoring unit, said the report was “very sensitive” and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration, which is seen here as strongly backing Musharraf.
The assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto presented the 2008 presidential candidates with one last opportunity to distinguish themselves before January 3rd’s Iowa caucuses. See how they worked it in today’s (belated) Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv …
(Originally posted — 12.31.07 — 5:23PM)
Okay, the wait is over. You sent in your nominations. The judges pored over each candidate’s dossier. And now the winners are ready to be announced. The winner for Best Scandal — General Interest — the Dukes’ version of Best Picture genuinely surprised me. And one winner and one winner alone was the unanimous choice of all five judges, that was the winner for Outstanding Achievement in Corruption-based Chutzpah.
We are pleased to bring you this year’s Golden Duke Awards winners …
Can’t keep your comments to yourself? Discuss the Dukes awards announcement in this special thread at TPMCafe.
From the Times of India …
In a dramatic U-turn, Pakistan government has “apologised” for claiming that former premier Benazir Bhutto died of a skull fracture after hitting the sunroof of her car during a suicide attack.
Caretaker Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz Khan has asked the media and people to “forgive and ignore” comments made by his ministry’s spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema which were slammed by her Pakistan People’s Party as “lies” and led to an uproar at home and abroad.
The Interior Minister made the apology during a briefing for Pakistani newspaper editors on Monday.
…
The government’s apparent damage control exercise on Cheema’s comments made at a news conference a day after Bhutto was assassinated at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27, came after TV channels aired privately shot photos and video footage which showed a gunman shooting at Bhutto.
The Pakistan People’s Party leader is seen in the footage falling through the sun-roof before the suicide bomber detonated his explosives.
I suspect that TPM Readers are as divided in their support of the candidates as much of the public seems to be. But as we get ready to kick off the 2008 election season I think it’s an appropriate moment to give thanks for something we can all be thankful for, even across our political divisions and support for contending candidates — that’s right, the collapsing campaign of Rudy Giuliani.
In Iowa, where admittedly Rudy hasn’t made much of a run at it, he now appears on track to come in last place among the major candidates. And, to be clear, I’m here defining ‘major’ rather generously as including Ron Paul. In other words, sixth place.
In New Hampshire, Rudy is similarly dropping like a stone. He may still come in third ahead of Mike Huckabee, though they now seem to be roughly tied there.
Nationally, Rudy appears either tied with Huckabee or in a three or four way tie with Huckabee, Romney and McCain, depending on which of the very most recent polls you look at. And expect that number (to borrow the Army aphorism) not to survive first contact with his drubbing in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Mark Steyn, normally known as America’s designated BritCanadian-expat War on Terror chieftain, points to the key trend for Rudy in a post at NRO. In whatever state or jurisdiction, Rudy’s number plummet more or less in line with the imminence of the election. Which is another way of saying that the more voters focus on the election, the worse it gets for Rudy.
Even in his ‘firewall’ states like Florida, Rudy’s lead is rapidly diminishing.
The truth is that more than anyone in the race — even more than Romney — Rudy needs the primaries to happen as quickly as possible. Everyday that goes by he gets less popular.
Late Update: To give thanks properly, and see what the country has avoided, you should probably take a moment to watch this short video on Rudy’s pro-apocalypse foreign policy advisors …
It’s tough keeping the “official” story of Benazir Bhutto’s death straight. Over the holiday, the Pakistani government first took back its claim that she died when she hit her head on the sunroof lever–then later reasserted the claim. And did we mention the crime scene was washed down afterwards with fire hoses?
As you know, I stuck my neck out by concluding that among the entire field of weak Republican candidates and flailing campaigns, Mitt Romney stood the best chance of taking it all. Even with all the new information on the table, I’m not sure I’d change that prediction. After all, it wasn’t Mitt’s strength that I based that prediction on, only the universal weakness of the other candidates.
And yet, there’s at least a decent chance right now that Romney’s campaign could be effectively over by this day next week. The Huckabee surge seems at least to have plateaued in Iowa. And the most recent polls show McCain tied with Romney in New Hampshire.
If Romney loses Iowa after having spent $1.8 billion there and then loses in his backyard in New Hampshire he’ll be in bad, bad shape. The horrid press over the following few weeks would likely kill him.
(ed.note: I had meant the reference to Mitt’s $1.8 billion in spending in Iowa to be an obvious bit of sarcasm at Romney’s expense. But it seems Romney’s efforts to buy the Republican nomination have become so notorious and proverbial that many readers are asking if it’s really true. So, no, I believe his spending is well below $1.8 billion. But he wants it really bad and there’s still a day left. So who knows.)
The new Pew poll just released this morning has the national numbers at McCain (22%), Giuliani (20%), Huckabee (17%).
We’re hearing this morning that as his campaign tanks, Rudy’s today falling back for the last Hail Mary pass, announcing a new plan to basically go to war with everyone, in order to salvage his flailing campaign. And that means it’s important to game out the full implications of Rudy’s now probable, eventual ignominious withdrawal from the race.
You’d think that a post-campaign Rudy could just go back to cutting more sweetheart business deals with various tycoons, crooks and bad actors as well as chasing more skirts. But failure doesn’t score pricey consulting contracts or babes.
So there’s a decent chance a post-presidential campaign flop Rudy would have to settle for actual monogamy from here on out. Secondly, what about the fate of Giuliani Partners?
Whatever else you can say about Rudy, had he not tried to exploit 9/11 to build a third career as a presidential candidate, I have little doubt that the halo of 9/11 would have hovered over his head for the rest of his life and provided him a lifetime of fat residuals in the form of consulting work for Giuliani Partners. But what about now? What does Rudy now have to offer Gulf sheiks or Chinese princelings that they can’t get from a real consultancy? And if you’re a pharmaceutical company in trouble for pushing narcotics, is Rudy your guy?
The Today show this morning ran an interview with Hillary where she defended herself from questions about her actual foreign policy experience by touting herself as the first “high-profile American to go into Bosnia” after the Dayton peace accords.
In response, Meredith Vieira noted that Hillary had gone to Bosnia with . . . Sinbad:
Hillary also made the somewhat curious claim that caucusing in Iowa is especially daunting for women voters.