McCain Curses Out Cornyn Over Immigration

The New York Post reports that an argument between Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and John McCain became very heated over the immigration deal, and McCain proceeded to curse out Cornyn, yelling "Fuck you!" and calling Cornyn's objections to the legislation "chickenshit stuff," a cover for Cornyn's unalterable opposition to the bill. Cornyn shot back, noting McCain's chronic absenteeism from the Senate, telling McCain he wasn't allowed to "just parachute in at the last minute and begin making all these demands."



Video: Romney Bashed Contract With America In 1994

Here's a recently-posted YouTube of Mitt Romney running against the national Republican Party's Contract With America in 1994. Romney called the idea of such an organized national platform overly divisive, and called instead for politicians of both parties to sit down and work together on common solutions.






Bush Hits New Low With Rasmussen — Who Tend To Give Him Better Numbers

President Bush has reached a new low in Rasmussen polling, with 34% approval to 64% disapproval — the worst rating he has ever received from that polling firm. And bear in mind, as a look at our Election Central Poll Tracker will demonstrate, Rasmussen has consistently given the President the best approval ratings out of any pollster.



Hoyer: Congress Will Stay In Session Until Iraq Bill Passes

House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer has announced that the House will remain in session, without going on recess, until an Iraq War funding bill gets passed, The Hill reports. Meanwhile, CNN reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged to have a bill passed by Memorial Day, when a recess has been scheduled.



Gingrich Honors Falwell At Liberty University Commencement

Newt Gingrich told the graduating class Jerry Falwell's Liberty University today to honor the memory of their school's founder by fighting "the growing culture of radical secularism" in America, The Daily Press reports. "In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms," Gingrich said.



NYT: Hillary Doesn't Talk About Six Years On Wal-Mart's Board Of Directors

The New York Times has a profile of a chapter in Hillary Clinton's life that doesn't get much mention from her campaign: Her six years as a member of the board of directors for Wal-Mart. On the one hand, Hillary's time with the company is not mentioned at all on her campaign Web site, since the company has become a political target of organized labor and other Democratic groups. On the other hand, Hillary helped pioneer various initiatives, now widely practiced, to improve the company's practices on some issues, such as building stores that were more environmentally friendly, and increasing the roles of women in the company.



RNC Chair Martinez Threatens Home State Over Primary

The Associated Press reports that RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) has been forced into an awkward situation: Threatening to strip his home state of Florida of some of its Presidential if they insist on moving their primary ahead to Jan. 29, before the national parties' officially sanctioned date of Feb. 5. "The rules are inflexible and it doesn't matter who is running the RNC, those rules will be enforced because they are part of the rules that were crafted at the last convention and they can't be changed," Martinez said.



Chris Dodd Takes Credit For Clinton And Obama's Iraq Votes

The Des Moines Register reports that Chris Dodd says his recent ads, critical of his fellow Presidential candidates for not backing measures to cut off funding for the Iraq War, had influence on the decisions by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to vote for the failed Feingold Amendment. "I'm grateful for them having done that and I believe it had influence on that decision," Dodd said.



Jim Gilmore's Strategy: Attack The Others — And Watch Them Attack Each Other

The Washington Post profiles underdog GOP Presidential candidate Jim Gilmore. The former Virginia Governor — who has only a single staffer in Iowa — has a simple strategy: Attack the others with his "Rudy McRomney is not a conservative" line, and watch them proceed to attack each other based on his critiques. "Romney's going to take his $23 million and go shooting at McCain," said Gilmore strategist Kieran Mahoney. "When Giuliani takes his $17 million and shoots at Romney, that's not a bad day, either. It's not necessary that we own the bullets."

Fox Skews Poll To Make It Look As If Americans Disagree With Reid's "War Is Lost" Comment
Check out the phrasing in Fox News' latest poll of this question designed to show that Americans disagree with Harry Reid's assertion that the Iraq war is lost: "Recently Democratc Leader of the Senate Harry Reid said that the war 'is lost' in Iraq. Do you feel this was an acceptable thing or an unacceptable thing for Reid to say while U.S. troops are still in the field fighting?" The answer: 29% Acceptable, 65% Unacceptable. Note that the question adds the line about the troops still in the field — a constant GOP talking point — rather than simply asking whether or not Reid's opinion was legitimate or correct. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same poll, we learn that 57% think America is losing or has already lost the war. It's all in the phrasing.

Conservatives Mobilizing Against Immigration Deal — And McCain
The conservative blogosphere is up in arms over the immigration deal, and mobilizing to pressure 41 Senators to filibuster it. Key point: Lead co-sponsor John McCain is taking a beating from the activists over this.

"Conservative" Fred Thompson Used To Favor Similar Immigration Proposals
Fred Thompson may be criticizing the deal from the right, but Ryan Sager points out that as recently as one year ago, Thompson took a more liberal stance towards accommodating the illegal immigrants already here, and was skeptical of a border fence.

Nostalgia: Falwell Bashed Rudy In 1994 For Welcoming "AIDS-Infected" Immigrants and Gays
Ben Smith has picked up an example of Rudy Giuliani's relationship with the Christian Right back in 1994: An ad by Jerry Falwell, bashing Rudy for allegedly teaming up with the Clinton Administration to welcome "as many as ONE MILLION radical homosexuals and lesbians — many of them AIDS-infected immigrants" to New York City for a gay community event.

Obama And Brownback Team Up
Barack Obama and Sam Brownback are teaming up on a bill to encourage divestment by state and local governments from companies that invest significantly ($20 million or more) in Iran.

Richardson Used Loophole To Build Presidential Campaign With State Account
After his landslide re-election as Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson made payments to people who then became staffers for his Presidential — in other words, Richardson used his state campaign account to set up the infrastructure for his eventual federal campaign. The technique appears to have been legal, a loophole in campaign finance law, but it probably violates the spirit of what the authors of campaign laws intended.

Former Clinton-Era U.S. Attorney Ponders Bid Against Domenici
Former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John Kelly, who served during the Clinton years, is considering a run against GOP Senator Pete Domenici. Domenici is of course a key player in the U.S. Attorney scandal, having been accused by former U.S. Atty. David Iglesias of trying to pressure Iglesias to issue an indictment against local Democrats before the 2006 election. So would a former U.S. Attorney be the perfect challenge to Domenici?

Wu Won't Challenge Gordon Smith, But Vietnam Veteran Legislator Considering A Run
Yet another Democratic Congressman from Oregon says he won't challenge GOP Senator Gordon Smith — this time it's Representative David Wu. Democrats have previously attempted to recruit Reps. Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer and others. However, another possible candidate has emerged. State Sen. Alan Bates, a 62-year old Vietnam War veteran, says he has been considering a bid against Smith for the last six months, but was not going to say anything unless more notable Dems took themselves out of the running.

Democrats Recruit Chabot Challenger
In Ohio, Democrats have recruited state Rep. Steve Driehaus to run against GOP incumbent Steve Chabot, an often-targeted House Republican who was re-elected last year by a fairly narrow 53%-47% margin.

Playboy Head Backs Obama
Christie Hefner, CEO and Chairwoman of Playboy Enterprises and the daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, supports Barack Obama.

Anti-War Dem Will Challenge Kerry In Primary For 2002 Vote
In Massachusetts, former Gloucester School Committee Chairman Edward O'Reilly says he will challenge John Kerry in the Democratic primary, with his major grievance being Kerry's 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq War — when Kerry himself has renounced that vote and become a vocal anti-war Senator.

McCain Is An Avid Pet Lover — Including One That Rudy Might Not Like
Rudy Giuliani might respect John McCain a little less after he hears about this: McCain is a ferret owner.

"Bill Clinton is the most popular person on Earth."

-- Former Clinton adviser and current commentator Paul Begala, talking just now on CNN about Bill's poll numbers relative to those of other global figures.

Today the White House said No to all of Dems' offered concessions on Iraq, effectively telling the Dem Congressional leadership to take its "surrender date" and shove it deep into its posterior. So now what?

A Democratic leadership aide tells us that Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Dem Rep. David Obey will be talking through the weekend to game out the next steps. Further talks with the White House are unlikely, at least this weekend, the aide says. So what do we make of the current political challenge facing Dems?

We checked in with a liberal House Dem staffer who is a sharp observer of Hill politics, and he gave us a surprisingly candid -- and dispiriting -- overview of the political situation. More after the jump.

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Sensing an opportunity to undermine weirdly persistent perceptions of President Bush as supportive of the troops, the House Dem leadership has just opened fire on the White House for the first time over the administration's opposition to a House Dem measure that would hike the pay of U.S. soldiers by 3.5%.

The White House has been saying that a 3% raise is sufficient.

Dem leaders have just sent a letter -- which was just sent our way -- to the White House blasting the President over the issue. It demands that the administration "support our troops" by reconsidering its opposition. Key quote from the letter:

Mr. President, you have consistently called on Congress and the American people to support our troops. Considering the sacrifices that our military families make, the Democratic proposal to provide the troops with the pay raise they deserve and an increase in benefits for the spouses they may leave behind is one small way that we can support our troops.

When it comes to supporting our troops, our actions must match our words.

This is clearly an issue the Dems intend to push as aggressively as possible, linking it to the Walter Reed scandal and other ways the White House has failed the troops. Polls suggest, however, that Americans continue to view Bush as more supportive of the troops than the Dem Congress, suggesting that such stories -- as appalling as they are -- have yet to give Dems the political dividends they're looking for on this front. Full letter after the jump.

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A partial transcript of Nancy Pelosi's post-meeting remarks on the broken-down talks between Congressional Dem leaders and the White House:

“The domestic initiatives on the bill in the original we sent to the President are emergencies. Katrina, hurricane disaster assistance, health care for America’s children, all of those issues are emergencies. But because the President made it an issue that they were not appropriate on the war funding bill, we said, ‘Okay, take those off. And then accept the bill that we sent that includes everything you have asked for our troops and more.’

“But it has accountability in it. The President’s representatives said no. Then we said, ‘Okay, you have a problem with timelines, we’ll give you a waiver on that.’ They said no.

“So it is clear that the difference between the Democrats and the President is the issue of accountability. He will not accept any accountability or responsibility for what has happened there. Going into the meeting we had hopes that we could find our common ground, one where the line would be drawn on accountability, without an open-ended war without end, with a blank check. For we are speaking out with the wishes of the American people. To create a new direction in Iraq -- that can only happen with accountability."

Again, the only thing the White House and the Republicans will accept is some form of benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq -- with no consequences for the failure to meet them, of course.

The meeting between Dem Congressional leaders and the White House over how to resolve the Iraq war spending standoff has just ended, and it looks like things are at a serious impasse.

Dem leaders just said at their post-meeting press availability that the White House's negotiators rejected everything that Dems offered. A Dem offer of a war timetable that the President could actually waive -- that is, not follow? Rejected. A Dem offer to get rid of the pork in the supplemental? Also rejected.

Few additional details are yet available on what else exactly was offered and rejected, but it's clear that things are at a standstill right now. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just said on CNN, the difference between Democrats and the President is stark: Dems want accountability, the President wants none. "He will not accept any accountability or responsibility," Pelosi said.

More as we learn it.

Update: The White House's chief negotiator, Joshua Bolten, is now explaining why the Dem offer of waivable timetables was rejected: "We consider that to be not a significant distinction. Whether waivable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong singnal to our adversaries, our allies ... our troops in the field."

Update II: Here's the Associated Press' description:

The Democrats, in a meeting with Bush's top aides on Capitol Hill, said they would strip from an emergency appropriations measure billions of dollars in domestic spending. They also pledged to give Bush authority to waive compliance with a timetable on the war.

But no agreement emerged.

Meanwhile, GOP House leader John Boehner just blasted Dems for still wanted to include a "surrender date" in the legislation -- a "surrender date" that Bush doesn't have to abide by. It looks like the only thing the GOP and the White House are prepared to concede is to allow some sort of benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq -- with no consequences for the failure to meet them, of course.

Update III: A fuller transcript of Pelosi's comments about the meeting is here.

CQ has the rundown on the GOP's travails in Montana, where one after another of the viable GOP challengers to Dem Senator Max Baucus are proving unable or unwilling to make the race:

* Republican Michael Lange, the former majority leader of the Montana House, was considered a choice to go afer Baucus -- until he unleashed a tirade about Montana Dem Governor Brian Schweitzer that got him bounced from the House leadership.

* Four-term at-large Rep. Denny Rehberg is another top potential GOP recruit because he ran a good race against Baucus in 1996, losing by just 5 points. But he is "said to be resisting GOP efforts to draft him into the race," CQ reports.

* Finally, two other GOPers who have been floated as potential challengers -- technology billionaire Thomas Siebel and tech executive Steve Daines -- both told CQ that they're not interested in the race.

Because Montana leans conservative and usually votes Republican, giving President Bush 59% of the vote in 2004, Baucus can never be declared completely safe. But right now he's looking pretty comfortable.

Ron Paul In 2001: My Old Newsletter Was Largely Ghost-Written
Yesterday we highlighted a 1996 Houston Chronicle article about offensive remarks about blacks and other minorities, contained in Ron Paul's newsletter from the early 1990's.

But TPM reader "midnightrunner" has now pointed out to us that Paul has addressed this controversy before. In an article about Paul in the October 2001 issue of Texas Monthly, Paul gave a confession about his newsletter, five years after it got him into trouble during the 1996 campaign: Paul claimed that much of the newsletter was ghost-written, and he did not write or know about certain offensive remarks about the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-TX).

"They were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them ... I actually really wanted to try to explain that it doesn't come from me directly, but they [campaign aides] said that's too confusing. 'It appeared in your letter and your name was on that letter and therefore you have to live with it,'" Paul said. Was Paul's claim true, and does this mean he didn't actually write the offensive comments about blacks being criminals and other remarks?

Reid Attacks McCain For Absenteeism
The Hill reports that Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid's office has attacked John McCain for missing many key votes (He has not cast a single vote since early April, including four missed votes about Iraq this year). "Sen. McCain has spent considerable time defending the president on Iraq and catering to the Republican base on immigration, but has only managed to show up for four of the last 14 Iraq votes and parachute into [yesterday’s] immigration press conference at the last minute," said a Reid spokeswoman. "Who is the real John McCain?" McCain spokesman Danny Diaz hit back — but without any detailed defense of McCain's missed votes. "John McCain has continued to stand up for what he believes: victory in Iraq and improved protection of our nation through comprehensive immigration reform," Diaz said. "It is unfortunate that the Senate majority leader is more focused on partisan attacks than solving the serious problems confronting our nation."

Immigration Compromise Gets A Mostly Negative Verdict From GOP Presidential Candidates
The newly announced immigration compromise is getting a mostly negative reaction from GOP Presidential contenders. Mitt Romney has a press release out slamming the deal, while potential candidate Fred Thompson is also calling for rejection of the bill. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani's campaign has a press release out that doesn't give a straight answer: "Rudy's top priority and main objective is to ensure our borders are secure and to stop potential terrorists and criminals from coming in ... We need to know who is coming in and who is going out of this country if we are going to deal with those who are here illegally." Only John McCain, himself a sponsor of the compromise, is unequivocally supportive.

Michelle Obama Finding Place On The Trail
The New York Times reports that Barack Obama's campaign has been working to find the right place for the candidate's wife Michelle, in an environment where her husband will not only be campaigning to be the first black President, but she would be the first black First Lady. And above all, the job for her and the campaign is to find the right approach to take for a woman who is leery of politics and her husband's image, but is also intensely competitive. "Mrs. Obama dislikes politics, friends and family confirmed, but not as much as she dislikes losing," the Times writes.

Edwards And Giuliani Claim Not To Have Known About Sudan Holdings
The Associated Press reports that John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani — two of the wealthier candidates in the Presidential field — have financial holdings in businesses that do work with Sudan, the country facing international scrutiny for the genocide in Darfur. An Edwards aide said that the candidate did not know about the Sudan-related holdings, and will divest. The Giuliani campaign also said their candidate was unaware of the matter, and will review his portfolio and "take appropriate action."

Rudy Pays Wife $125,000 A Year For Speechwriting
The New York Daily News reports that Rudy Giuliani has been very supportive of third wife Judith Nathan Giuliani's role in his political work, and has been paying her a salary of $125,000 annually as an official speechwriter since before they were married — though this is only about 2% of the money he has made for giving paid speeches since leaving office as Mayor of New York City. "Mrs. Giuliani made a professional contribution and the mayor recognizes and respects her efforts," an aide said. "He is merely acknowledging both her time commitment and her professional value." GOP Strategist Nelson Warfield, however, was critical of the arrangement: "It just looks odd. Most spouses view supporting their significant others as part of the package, not part of the compensation package."

Richardson: Americans Should "Sacrifice For The Common Good" On Energy
The Hill reports that Bill Richardson has unveiled an energy plan calling carbon emissions reductions of 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2040, with a focus on promoting electric cars and strong mandates to cap emissions — a strong step towards asking the average American to, in Richardson's words, "sacrifice for the common good." "On energy policy, we need to change fast or sink slowly," Richardson said.

McCain Raising Money In Rudy's Backyard
The New York Times reports that John McCain held a $200,000 fundraiser in New York yesterday, hosted by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. And McCain is coming back to New York tonight for a fundraiser aimed at younger voters, featuring his daughter Meghan McCain, a new graduate from Columbia College.

Duncan Hunter's Site Says Son — A Candidate For His California Seat — Lives In Idaho
Duncan Hunter may need to speak to his campaign staff, and tell them to stop giving ammo to his son Duncan D. Hunter's opponents in the GOP primary for his House seat: His Presidential campaign site says of the younger Duncan: "Duncan D. and his wife, Margaret, have three children, Duncan Lee, Elizabeth Grace and Sarah Louise, and reside in Boise, Idaho." Duncan D. Hunter is running for the elder Hunter's House seat from San Diego.

• Things are even worse than we thought in our post yesterday about John McCain's absenteeism from the Senate — McCain hasn't made a single vote since April 12, and has missed 42 floor votes in a row!

• Ben Smith reports that Barack Obama's campaign will circulate a petition at New Hampshire campaign events specifically calling on the state's two GOP Senators, Judd Gregg and John Sununu, to change their votes on Iraq.

• Ron Paul supporters are deluging GOP offices in Michigan and South Carolina with complaints about proposals to exclude Paul from future debates — so the South Carolina GOP is giving out Paul's cell-phone number.

• James Dobson: "Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's – Dobson's? – choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran – or if worse comes to worst – not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else."

• Sam Brownback's campaign has sent out a letter to supporters: "Unfortunately one of the current front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani, is a vocal and unapologetic supporter of the 'right' to abortion ... It is a sad statement when the President of Planned Parenthood-the largest abortion provider in America-is praising the leading Republican candidate. This is NOT the direction our party needs to take."

• Newt Gingrich says the current Presidential candidates are "demeaning the Presidency by reducing it to being a game show contest," and too much time raising money and not enough focusing on real ideas.

• Mitt Romney's campaign says a "JFK Speech" separating himself politically from the Mormon Church is still an option for them, but the candidate's outreach to the general population is going well.

• Leading Senators have struck a deal on an immigration bill that would give a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here. Passage of this bill could potentially impact the Republican Presidential race in a big way, with the more conservative candidates like Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and others deeply opposed to it.

• Mitt Romney has picked up his first endorsement from a New Hampshire state Senator, Bob Letourneau of Derry.

• Ron Paul is standing by his contention that American foreign policy helped lead to 9/11. "I found two very clear quotes in the 9/11 Commission report that says that very thing, that our foreign policy has a very great deal to do with their willingness and desire to commit suicide terrorism," Paul said.

• Tom Tancredo has set a high bar: He want to come at least fifth place in the Iowa Straw Poll.

• Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) talked to the Washington Post about the dissatisfaction among Republican activists about their PResidential field, and says it fundamentally has to do with dissatisfaction among Republicans about their party's shape, period.

• Dr. Peter Agre, the 2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and professor at Duke University, as well as a founding member of Scientists and Engineers for America, announced yesterday that he is taking a leave of absence from his duties at Duke to consider a run for Senate from Minnesota. Agre, born and raised in Minnesota, would likely join Al Franken and Mike Ciresi in the DFL primary race to challenge incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. — Andrew Cleary

• Barack Obama's online campaign videos will now include closed captioning, for the benefit of deaf and hearing-impaired supporters.

• Barack Obama is part Irish — or should we call him "O'Bama?"

• John Edwards has gotten advice from John Mayer about how to reach young voters.

• Porno icon Jenna Jameson has endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Here's some audio of the Obama criticism of Hillary on Iraq we referenced below:

Listening to it, Obama's criticism comes across as tougher than I'd originally thought -- asked if this highlighted a difference in the judgment of the two candidates, Obama replied flatly: "It does."

We think this is a significant moment in the campaign -- the first time to our knowledge that Obama has sought to highlight his pre-war differences with Hillary in such stark terms.

It'll be interesting to see: (a) If Camp Obama will continue to press this point; and (b) If it'll have resonance with voters. Polls seem to suggest that the Dem electorate is less inclined to hold Hillary's initial war vote against her than the pundits predicted. We'll see.

Today Hillary took her most direct drubbing on Iraq yet from her Dem Presidential rivals -- so let's take a quick look at what was said and what it means.

First, Barack Obama was on MSNBC this morning, where he drew a distinction between his and Hillary's prewar positions in his sharpest terms thus far:

Obama, who has made his 2002 opposition to the war a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, was asked this morning on MSNBC about comments made last night by former President Clinton, in which he said that Sens. Clinton and Obama have had similar voting records on the war.

"I suppose that's true if you leave out the fact that she authorized it, and supported it, and I said it was a bad idea," said Obama. "That's a fairly major difference."

That is a significant escalation of Obama's rhetoric against Clinton -- the first time to our knowledge that he's made this point with anywhere near this clarity: She supported the war; he opposed it. Camp Hillary -- as evidenced by what Bill said last night -- has been working hard to obscure the initial differences between Hillary and Obama over the war by focusing on the similarity of their overall voting records on Iraq. Obama's broadside suggests a recognition in Camp Obama that those efforts have been working -- polls have been showing that Dem voters don't hold Hillary's Iraq positions against her in significant numbers.

Camp Obama wants -- understandably -- to prevent this initial and very critical difference over the war from getting lost in the fog. But Hillary's supporters have been cranking up this particular fog machine in a big way for some time now. So one has to wonder whether it will still prove possible for Obama to successfully draw this distinction sharply enough for it to make a difference to Dem voters who seem inclined not to care as much about it than the pundits said they would.

The second assault on Hillary's Iraq positions came from Chris Dodd's campaign, which hammered Hillary for her imperfect expressions of support for the Feingold amendment, the measure that would have cut off funding for the war by March of 2008 if it hadn't been defeated yesterday. The criticism of Hillary revolves around the fact that while she said she backed cloture for the amendment, she didn't articulate her support for the underlying legislation forcefully enough. That prompted this from Dodd's camp:

"We're as confused as anyone on Sen. Clinton's position, and frankly it's hard to know whether it's indecision, miscommunication, or simple word games and political gamesmanship we're dealing with," said Dodd spokeswoman Christy Setzer. "Our troops in Iraq don't have time for poll-tested word games."

This strikes us as pretty over the top. A vote for cloture is basically a vote for the bill. And late yesterday, Hillary said: "I support the underlying bill." Could she have made it a bit clearer a bit earlier that she was 100% behind the bill itself? Sure -- but let's face it, she voted for the damn thing, unlike nearly half the Dems in the Senate. And Hillary has been supportive of a host of other measures to end the war.

So that's where we are.

Update: Here's some video of Obama's Hillary slam.

Woah: A new poll finds that Mitt Romney is the bona-fide frontrunner in the key primary state of New Hampshire — with nearly double the support of both Rudy and John McCain! Zogby:

Romney 35% McCain 19% Rudy 19%

Meanwhile, on the Dem side, there's also a surprise — Bill Richardson has moved into a solid fourth place:

Hillary 28%
Obama 26%
Edwards 15%
Richardson 10%

Unlikely liberal hero Ron Paul — who's been receiving plaudits from the lefty blogosphere for opposing the Iraq war and blasting Bush at the GOP debate — is also on the record with some decidedly illiberal sentiments on race, Israel, and other topics, it turns out. Read more after the jump.

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Yesterday we flagged Rudy Giuliani's weirdly unremarked upon interview on Fox News in which he said that he "usually" hears Democrats blaming America for 9/11.

Now the Edwards camp has slammed back at Rudy, become the first Presidential campaign to do so. Edwards senior adviser Jonathan Prince emailed us the following statement:

“It's alarming that Rudy Giuliani continues to run a campaign that relies on the politics of fear. These are the same polarizing tactics that the president has used in his `Global War on Terror,' which has ended up leading to more terrorism than it has stopped. And it is the same kind of politics that has led to this disastrous war in Iraq, where America is now policing a civil war. Instead of more of the same failed policies, we need a smarter approach to fighting terrorists, that will also restore our moral leadership in the world."

As also reported here, the DNC hammered Rudy for the comments yesterday, too.

Such dustups, it should be noted, serve both sides in crude political terms. Rudy gets more attention for his efforts to hyper-politicize 9/11 in order to dupe GOP primary voters into overlooking his pro-choice and pro-gay-rights statements. And Edwards is out front in defending the Dems' honor, something that may hold equal appeal for the Dem base.

The Edwards campaign's disclosure in today's papers that he held more than $7.5 million in investments in the Fortress Investment Group -- an outfit that owned offshore funds that served as tax havens for investors -- is almost certainly going to stoke keen interest among rivals and reporters in Edwards' past statements about such funds.

And wouldn't you know it, but one such statement has already popped up on YouTube. Here's Edwards, slamming offshore havens in 2004, during his debate with Veep Cheney:

Here's a transcript of Edwards' remarks:

"Offshore loopholes for companies avoiding taxes ought to be closed.? When the vice president was CEO of Halliburton, they took advantage of every offshore loophole available. They had multiple offshore companies that were avoiding taxes. Those are the kind of things that ought to be closed. They ought to be closed. They ought to be closed for anybody. They ought to be closed whether they're personal, and they ought to be closed whether they apply to a corporation.?"

While the current financial disclosures are likely to prompt rivals and reporters to do more digging into past Edwards quotes like these, it should be noted that Edwards spokesperson Kate Bedingfield has defended Edwards' involvement with Fortress by pointing out that the company recently ended the controversial practice when it went public.

"John Edwards believes offshore tax shelters are wrong," Bedingfield told the Washington Post recently. "As president, he will end them. By voluntarily going public, Fortress has ended the practice of using offshore tax shelters for deferred compensation and has committed itself to a whole set of transparency and disclosure obligations that no other hedge fund has committed itself to before."

From a new interview with Al Gore in Time magazine:

"If I do my job right, all the candidates will be talking about the climate crisis. And I'm not convinced the presidency is the highest and best role I could play. The path I see is a path that builds a consensus—to the point where it doesn't matter as much who's running. It would take a lot to disabuse me of the notion that my highest and best use is to keep building that consensus."

What it would take, specifically?

"I can't say because I'm not looking for it. But I guess I would know it if I saw it. I haven't ruled it out. But I don't think it's likely to happen."

As Time notes, it's in Gore's interest to "keep the door ajar." But as we reported here recently, many of Gore's closest associates have all but concluded that he isn't going to make the race.

Here's a fun postscript to the big dustup yesterday between Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul, who suggested at the GOP debate that the Sept. 11 attacks could be attributed to American foreign policy.

It looks like Paul will be banned from all future GOP debates -- that is, if Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis has his way:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party said Wednesday that he will try to bar Ron Paul from future GOP presidential debates because of remarks the Texas congressman made that suggested the Sept. 11 attacks were the fault of U.S. foreign policy.

Michigan party chairman Saul Anuzis said he will circulate a petition among Republican National Committee members to ban Paul from more debates. At a GOP candidates' debate Tuesday night, Paul drew attacks from all sides, most forcefully from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, when he linked the terror attacks to U.S. bombings.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how many RNC members sign this, won't it? Are these ideas really too hot for the GOP to even discuss?

Former Romney Aide Killed In Iraq
The Associated Press points out that the death in Iraq of 27-year old Army 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, a son of an anti-war academic, has a connection to the current White House field: Bacevich served as a legislative aide to Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. "I got to know Andrew as a legislative aide in my office, and before he left we met and talked about his plans," Romney said in a statement. "He was driven by a desire to serve, first as part of our team and then as a member of the military. His loss is a deep personal loss for me and for all of those who knew him."

Rudy and Edwards Disclose Wealth — Rudy Made $16 Million Last Year
The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards have disclosed their assets. Edwards, who is worth about $30 million, made about half a million dollars last year at global hedge-fund Fortress Investment Group, and $40,000 directing at a poverty studies program at the University of North Carolina. Rudy, meanwhile, has a net worth of $30 million, most of it from paid speeches since he left office as Mayor of New York City — a big change from his divorce six years ago, when he claimed having assets of only $7,000. The Boston Globe notes that Rudy made about $16 million last year alone.

Obama The Poorest Major Candidate — And He's Worth Millions
The Chicago Tribune reports that Barack Obama's financial disclosures show him to be the poorest of the top tier of Presidential candidates, with a paltry family net worth of $1.14 million, plus the equity in a home he bought two years ago for $1.65 million. This compares to other candidates like Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards — both worth around $30 million — or Mitt Romney worth in the low hundreds of millions range. Most of Obama's income came from sales last year of his two books, The Audacity Of Hope and Dreams From My Father.

Brownback Divests From Sudan
The Associated Press reports that Senator Sam Brownback has divested from stocks in companies that do business in Sudan, in protest of the genocide in Darfur. Brownback dumped investments values between $50,000 and $100,000 from mutual funds, due to the discovery of Sudan-related investments being done by the investment firms

Richardson Rolling Out NH Organization
The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that Bill Richardson has been steadily building his campaign organization in the state, and will announce his 34-member state steering committee today. His committee will include nine state Representatives, plus several public officials and activists in Manchester.

Huckabee: I'd Have Trouble Working With Pro-Choice Republican
The Pine Bluff Commercial reports that Mike Huckabee is uncertain about whether or not he could work with a pro-choice Republican. "This is an issue to me that is very critical. It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people," Huckabee said. "It's something I would have to think long and hard about."

Dem Aides Registered Herseth Domain Name When Tim Johnson Fell Ill
The Argus Leader reports that Democratic Senate aide Doug Landry, who now works for DSCC head Chuck Schumer, registered the domain name www.HersethForSenate.com after Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) became sick in December — hoping to lock down the address in case South Dakota Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin ran to replace Johnson. Landry, who at the time worked for Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), says he acted on his own and without telling anyone else. "I had only the best intentions in reserving the address, but in retrospect, I shouldn't have done it and I am sorry that I did," Landry said in a statement released by Schumer’s office.

Menendez In Line For DSCC Chairmanship
Roll Call reports that Senator Chuck Schumer has named New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez as vice chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Committee, where Schumer has amassed much power and prestige since helping Democrats take the majority in the last election. Roll Call speculates that Chuck Schumer may be laying the groundwork for a successor at the DSCC in the 2010 election cycle, when Schumer would likely step down to focus on his own re-election. "Over the next year and a half, [Menendez] really has the chance to audition for the position," said a Democratic leadership aide. "There’s no doubt he would have the inside track."

Dems Targeting Musgrave, Graves In GOP Strongholds
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will be actively targeting Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) and Sam Graves (R-MO), in districts where President Bush won the past elections with healthy majorities, but Democrats have begun making progress. Musgrave had a close race in the last election, and first-term state Sen. Brandon Shaffer has told Democratic leaders that he will run, and there are other potential Democratic candidates. Graves' district was carried by newly-elected Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) last fall, and former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes has declared her candidacy.

McNerney Gets A Challenger
The Hill reports that former California state Assemblyman Dean Andal has announced his candidacy against freshman Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney, who won an upset victory in a usually Republican district over powerful GOP incumbent Richard Pombo. "Dean Andal is a political heavyweight and the kind of top-tier candidate we have been looking for," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain. "He is a proven vote-getter with close ties to the community, and we believe that he has what it takes to put the seat back in the Republican column."

GOP Chairs Want Less Candidates At Debates — And Definitely Less Ron Paul
The Hotline reports that several Republican state chairs are hoping to cut out the lesser Presidential candidates from future debates — and one chair from a large state specifically cited Ron Paul, calling his behavior "embarrassing."

In response to our story below reporting that Rudy said on Fox News that he "usually" hears Dems blame America for 9/11, John Edwards campaign manager Jonathan Prince has just sent us the following statement blasting Giuliani:

"It's alarming that Rudy Giuliani continues to run a campaign that relies on the politics of fear. These are the same polarizing tactics that the president has used in his `Global War on Terror,' which has ended up leading to more terrorism than it has stopped. And it is the same kind of politics that has led to this disastrous war in Iraq, where America is now policing a civil war." "Instead of fear-mongering, we need a broader approach that will fight terrorists while restoring our moral leadership in the world. Instead of partisan attacks, we need to end the war and bring our troops home. We need to work together to keep American safe - not work against each other to score political points."

The Democratic National Committee also slammed Rudy today for the comments. More coming?

• The office of Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), who has been out of action in the Senate due to treatment for a severe stroke in December, has released a photo of the Senator receiving physical therapy, learning to walk again:




(click to enlarge)



• Rudy Giuliani says the Democrats should hold a debate on the Fox News Channel. "I think they would get a good chance to explain themselves. If the Republicans candidates are willing to debate on MSNBC and CNN, the Democrats should be willing to debate on Fox," Rudy said. "I don’t think they’d want us to look like the bolder group of candidates."



• The campaign of former Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY), who is opposing incumbent Governor Ernie Fletcher in the GOP primary next week, is apologizing for late night robocalls that annoyed Kentuckians yesterday."It was a computer glitch by our vendor," said a campaign spokesman. "We are profoundly sorry for any and every inconvenience." They have good reason to be profoundly sorry: That kind of nuisance can cost them votes.



• Mitt Romney says that among the attributes Republicans need in a candidate is "a record that supports their capacity to generate a strong family" — a possible swipe at the twice-divorced adulterer Rudy Giuliani.



• Barack Obama made almost $600,000 last year on payments from his two books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity Of Hope.



• Obama has also decided to divest his personal financial holdings involving Sudan. He recently dumped $1,000 in stock when he discovered that the company did business in the country.



• Newt Gingrich will be on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News show, On The Record, tonight at 10 p.m. ET.



• John Edwards said his past work for a hedge fund should not overshadow his anti-poverty agenda. "If you look at what I've done since the last election, it is true that I did consulting work for a hedge fund, part time," Edwards said. "It's also true that I started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina, that I led minimum wage initiatives in six states — all successful — that I started a college-for-everyone program for poor communities in eastern North Carolina, that I helped organize thousands of workers into unions, that I did humanitarian work in Africa."



• Ben Smith points out an interesting dynamic in yesterday's Democratic primary for Mayor of Philadelphia: The candidate whom Barack Obama endorsed ended up losing, while the candidate who was the most like Barack Obama ended up winning.



• Bill Richardson will make his official campaign announcement on Monday.



• Mike Huckabee has released his financial disclosure. The most notable aspect is that the candidate made $138,500 last year from speaking engagements.



• New Hampshire GOP Chair Fergus Cullen says that future Presidential debates ought to have less candidates.



• Republicans plan to make freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) one of their top targets in 2008.



• Hillary Clinton wants the people's advice on a truly important issue:

A quick postscript on today's rejection of the Feingold amendment in the Senate: Guess who missed the vote this morning?

John McCain.

The same John McCain who's made the Iraq War central to his candidacy. This, by the way, is at least his fourth missed vote on Iraq during this Congress. Candidate McCain is a vocal advocate for staying in Iraq, but Senator McCain is rarely there in the Senate to actually give material support to the President's policies.

Here's a list of all of McCain's missed Iraq votes of late:

(1) The anti-surge resolution that failed on a slim 48-50 vote on March 15? McCain missed it — even as he publicly argued that we should trust in the judgment of President Bush and Gen. David Petraeus.

(2) McCain also missed the vote on the succeeding resolution that renounced the cutting off of funds.

(3) McCain did show up to vote for the Cochran Amendment on March 27, which would have stricken timetable language from the Iraq supplemental. But then after the Cochran Amendment failed, and after McCain voted No on initial passage of the Senate version, he later missed the vote on the final passage of the conference report on April 26.

(4) Just this morning, McCain missed the Senate vote on the Feingold Amendment, which would have provided for the the redeployment of troops form Iraq.

Bottom line? Candidate McCain is so busy touring the country and going on TV to defend the White House's positions that he doesn't have time to actually vote in defense of them.

Here's the lede on the New York Times's story today on the defeat of the Feingold amendment:

WASHINGTON, May 16 — Democrats who are highly critical of President Bush’s Iraq war strategy suffered a stinging defeat today when the Senate overwhelmingly rejected a measure to cut off money for the military campaign by March 31, 2008.

Aren't pretty much all Dems "highly critical" of Bush's war strategy? So the loss of Feingold was a stinging defeat for all Dems -- even the ones who voted against the Feingold measure, too?

Here's a first: A new poll finds that Mitt Romney is in first place in Iowa — albeit by a statistically insignificant margin — while Rudy is dropping in the state.

The new Zogby poll has Romney at 19%, followed by Rudy Giuliani and John McCain with 18% apiece. The Democratic side shows a similarly tight race, with John Edwards (who's led in Iowa in other polls) at 26%, Hillary Clinton at 24%, and Barack Obama with 22%.

Key footnote: The poll also finds that Romney is now enjoying potentially significant momentum in Zogby's sampling. Romney is up by eight points from two months ago — while Rudy is down by seven. By contrast, the Dem side didn't show any significant movement in the first caucus state.

Updated below: Democratic National Committee blasts Rudy for comment.

Everybody's talking about Rudy's dressing down last night of GOPer Ron Paul for suggesting American Middle East policies are to blame for 9/11.

But here's another moment from yesterday that is at least as deserving of attention. It came in Rudy's interview on Fox News after the debate was all over:

Yes, Rudy slipped it in quick, but there it was: He said that he "usually" hears Democrats blaming America for 9/11:

It reminded me of the Saudi prince that gave me the $10 million. He did the same thing: "This is America at fault, the way America has outreach to the world." Look, it's real simple what happened. These people came here and killed us because of our freedom of religion, because of our freedom for women, because they hate us...If you're confused about this, I think you put our country in much greater jeopardy. The reality is, these people are planning to kill us because -- and this is hard for people to recognize, I usually hear this on the Democratic side, don't usually hear it on the Republican side -- you've got to face reality. If you can't face reality, you can't lead.

This is the second time Rudy's gone down this road -- last month he suggested that electing a Dem President would mean the country would go on "defense" against terrorism. We've got a pattern here, students, in which Rudy plays the hyper-partisan 9/11 game in hopes that it'll dupe the GOP base into overlooking his pro-choice and pro-gay-rights positions.

Will Dems respond? And perhaps more important, how effectively will Dems respond?

Update: In response to our flagging of Rudy's anti-Dem assault, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Karen Finney has just blasted back at Rudy in a statement emailed to me:

"There Rudy goes again trying to use scare tactics to win votes. Rudy should focus on explaining why it is that he didn't face the reality after the first time the world trade center was attacked and improve communications equipment for first responders, and why he failed to protect the health of the ground zero workers and re-opened sections of lower Manhattan when he knew that the air was toxic? What kind of leadership is that?"

This is interesting: In a speech today to a Republican group, Joe Lieberman inadvertently admitted that he promised to caucus with Dems during his victorious reelection campaign as an Independent against Ned Lamont.

In the lead-up to that election, Lieberman repeatedly vowed to stay with the Dems as a way of reassuring voters that his Independent status wouldn't lead him to switch to the GOP. But in the months since being safely reelected, Lieberman did an about face, repeatedly refusing to rule out a change of parties — with no mention of his previous campaign promise.

But now look what Lieberman just said in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition, according to a transcript at National Review:

In all seriousness, many of you in this room stood with me last year through the long journey up a winding road that was my 2006 reelection campaign. You came to my side without regard for party affiliation, and you stayed there even after I ran as an Independent but said I would caucus with the Democrats. Your non-partisanship in my race is a model for what our politics should be. I thank you personally and deeply for it. I could not have won without it.

So does that mean that Lieberman himself would now acknowledge that his refusal to rule out a party switch constitutes a violation of a crucial campaign promise?

Wow, it has to be acknowledged that this is pretty impressive as far as displays of rank dishonesty go. Take a look at this:

First, note that Snow was the one to bring up the Feingold amendment, in response to a question about the Levin measure. Then check out how Snow repeatedly described the Feingold amendment as mandating "straight-out withdrawal," with no mention of its central provision: It accomplishes withdrawal by cutting off funding for the war. That central provision, of course, is primarily what led lawmakers against it -- not the fact that it accomplishes the end goal of withdrawal.

This phony characterization, of course, was a necessary prelude, enabling him to make this final point about the significance of the Senate voting today:

"I think that sends a pretty powerful message...which is, the idea of withdrawing on a timetable is not something that the American people, or for that matter Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, support."

The American people, and Democrats, don't support withdrawal on a timetable from Iraq, and the defeat of Feingold's amendment proves it.

What does one say to mendacity that's as audacious and as elaborately conceived as this?

Looks like Dems are going to have to keep looking for someone to challenge vulnerable GOP Senator Gordon Smith next year.

One of the most promising candidates who was thinking of challenging Smith — Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — has just announced that he won't be making the run. One the Blue Oregon Web site, Blumenauer himself has posted the following:

"At this unique moment in history there is too much work to be done in the House of Representatives to take on a campaign for the U.S. Senate. The winning candidate should devote 100 percent effort for the next 18 months to overcome the onslaught that will come from the incumbent, Karl Rove and the Bush White House, and the many special interests who want to keep Smith in office."

This leaves Dems without a top-tier challenger to Smith after multiple recruitment attempts, including a recent failed effort to convince Rep. Peter DeFazio to mount a bid.

As you all know, we've been spending a fair amount of time here on the story of the Rudy campaign's snubbing of an Iowa farm family because they weren't millionaires -- and hence weren't suitable props for his anti-"death tax" campaigning. We've also been asking why the media has basically taken a pass on the story when it would have been all over such a story had the campaign of John Edwards or Hillary done this. But now The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has weighed in -- he sees no problem with the lack of media interest in the story. Kurtz's take, and our response, is here -- take a look.

Here are the Dem Senators who voted against the Feingold amendment to cut funding for the war by March 31, 2008:

Baucus (MT) Bayh (IN) Bingaman (NM) Carper (DE) Casey (PA) Conrad (ND) Dorgan (ND) Landrieu (LA) Levin (MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (AR) McCaskill (MO) Bill Nelson (FL) Ben Nelson (NE) Pryor (AR) Reed (RI) Rockefeller (WV) Salazar (CO) Tester (MT) Webb (VA)

A list of Senate Dems who voted for the measure after the jump.

Read more »

I dont think its a conscious thing. it's not like I think reps in the primary field are sitting around sayign do we leverage rudy on this? to be honest with you with rudy its such a target rich env that you could start with one issue and not get to this in four onths

with mccain...he truly feels that rudy pulled the nation toge and did exc job as mayor. john's not the kind of guy to get into the weeds of should their been acomp or was commm up to snuff...should they have had more on situation...that's just not the kind of thing that john does...

what john does is say, wow, he did a great job at a time of natoinal crisis and say, wow he did a great job pulling us together...he gives him enorm amt of credit ... john would want to tarn that im. that's hallowed ground to john...the press is gonna prosecut that anyway. it's a city that eats its own...some of this ... already started doing this...

all that's gonna happen through natural occ. I dont think anybody wants to try to politic the hwhole 9/11 thing...I think that's right, but everyone realizes its a two edged sword...mccain doesn't ... mccain has his celebrity heroism from moment in time in viet. best way to deal with that is not talk about it. doesnt go around make speeches...by not talking about it, pres includes it in things...I think it's sort of a...if you wanna get the most out of 9/11 stop talking about it...

it reminds me of the kerry thing we viet. if you make it a cent of your camp, if you say one of reason you should judge me...then crit what you did is fair game...the fact is, if he wouldn't make it an issue it would be much more diff to criticize him..if he said, I'm n ot saying this is reason you should elect if he said that he'd insulate himself a little bit...you guys will do a plenty good job of running the tables on that stuff...I think...mccain's pub...

I cant' 'imagine a scen where mccain would fault rudy's perf during 9/11...

As expected, it goes down, 29-67.

But the vote allowed the Dem Presidential candidates -- Hillary, Obama, Biden -- as well as many other Dems, to make strong antiwar statements, endorsing the idea of cutting funding in principle. And along with the House vote last week on the James McGovern measure -- a straight up-or-down on whether to end the war -- it helped further the gradual strengthening of the hand of progressives in both chambers.

Finally, it put all GOP Senators on record -- including vulnerable GOP incumbents Susan Collins and Gordon Smith, both of whom face challenges next year -- against yet another legislative effort to put an end to the Iraq conflict and to bring the troops home.

Still, let's face it: The bipartisan nature of the vote against the measure will almost certainly blunt whatever political damage the vote might have done, if any, to Republicans.

The wheels grind slowly.

We'll bring you the roll call as soon as it's available. More soon.

Update: The roll call can be viewed here.

Voting happening as we speak. More in a bit.

Update: Biden votes Yes.

Update II: Straight party-line voting thus far: Dems voting for the measure to end the war; Republicans voting against it.

Update III: Vulnerable GOP Senator Gordon Smith -- up for reelection next year -- votes No. Lieberman a No, too.

Update IV: Senator James Webb -- who rode to power largely because of public unrest over the Iraq War -- votes No.

Update V: GOP Senator Susan Collins, who's also facing a challenge in 2008 and is vulnerable, votes No.

• The most explosive moment last night came from Ron Paul's contention that U.S. intervention in the Arab world, such as sanctions and bombing campaigns against the Hussein-era Iraq, led to enmity against America — including 9/11. "That was an extraordinary statement, as someone who has lived through the attacks of Sept. 11th, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq," Rudy Giuliani exclaimed. After Paul stood by his statement, virtually all the candidates asked for 30 seconds to respond, prompting the moderators to cut off debate on the subject and move to the next line of discussion. Giuliani's forceful reply could potentially be remembered as the big moment of the night, and have him crowned the winner as a result.

• Curiously enough, Ron Paul came in second place in a Fox News cell-phone text message poll asking who won the debate, with 25%. Mitt Romney was first with 29%, and Rudy Giuliani third with 19%.

• Commenting later in the Fox News spin room, Rudy piled on Ron Paul, telling Sean Hannity that he expects Democrats to say America was to blame for 9/11, not his fellow Republicans.

• Also in the spin room, John McCain applauded Rudy for lashing out at Paul: "I thought Mayor Giuliani's intercession there was appropriate and frankly very, very excellent. I really appreciated it because we should never believe that we brought on this conflict. This is an evil force that is trying to destroy everything we stand for."

• This could possibly be the last GOP debate to feature a full minyan of these ten candidates allowed to participate. Fox News Carl Cameron said in the Fox spin room, "Prominent South Carolina Republicans are already suggesting ... that the field will winnow, at least in terms of future debates," citing the widely ridiculed performance by Ron Paul, plus the perceived inability of lesser candidates such as Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter to break through.

• Mike Huckabee had an early laugh line — on a par with Rudy Giuliani's censuring of Ron Paul's remarks, in terms of the applause — saying that in recent years Congress has been spending money "like John Edwards in a beauty shop." The line showed that few things can get applause from a Republican crowd like questioning the masculinity of a liberal.

• John McCain took a swipe at Mitt Romney: "I've been consistent about my position on campaign finance reform. Is there anyone who thinks there isn't enough money awash in politics? ... I have kept my position on the right to life. I haven't changed my position through the years based on the position I was running for."

• Only John McCain and Ron Paul rejected the use of torture to extract information from terror suspects. While McCain allowed that he might permit extreme techniques in a "one in a million" situation if he were fully convinced that it was necessary, he would take full responsibility for the consequences and not sanction torture as a regular practice. "It’s not about the terrorists, it’s about us. It’s about what kind of country we are," McCain said. Paul ridiculed the term "enhanced interrogation techniques," favored by Brit Hume, as "Newspeak."

• Mitt Romney condemned the notion of giving terror-related detainees access to attorneys and courts: "I'm glad they're at Guantanamo. I don't want them on our soil. I want them on Guantanamo, where they don't get the access to lawyers they get when they're on our soil. I don't want them in our prisons. I want them there. Some people have said, we ought to close Guantanamo. My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo." The crowd then applauded.

• Tom Tancredo had some colorful language in how to treat terror suspects in case of a hypothetical attack on American soil. "You say that nuclear devices have gone off in the United States, more are planned, and we're wondering about whether waterboarding would be a bad thing to do?" Tancredo asked. "I'm looking for Jack Bauer at that time!" (Note: The terror scenario posed by Brit Hume did not mention nuclear devices going off in the United States, but was simply about "suicide bombers" attacking shopping malls.)

• Mike Huckabee attacked Rudy Giuliani's simultaneous moral denuncation of abortion and his support for abortion rights, saying it was akin to disapproving of slavery but allowing it anyway.

• Jim Gilmore was prompted to name names and specific policies to back up his frequent contention that "Rudy McRomney" is not a conservative. He then attacked Rudy Giuliani for being pro-choice, Mitt Romney for passing health-care mandates in Massachusetts, plus Mike Huckabee for raising taxes in Arkansas.

• Rudy Giuliani had a smooth reply to Gilmore's "Rudy McRomney" line: "I think Rudy McRomney wouldn't make a bad ticket."

• John McCain's reply to Gilmore's outlining of the sins of "Rudy McRomney", which only included the infractions of Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee: "Did I get left out?"

• Remember to tune in tonight to the Fox News Channel at 9 p.m. ET to watch the Republican debate — that is, if you can stomach watching the Fox News Channel.

• Rudy Giuliani has more than made up with Deborah VonSprecken, the Iowan who felt jilted when Giuliani's campaign backed out of holding an event at her farm: The Republican presidential candidate had a two-hour visit with Ms. VonSprecken and her husband, and she's now the chair of Giuliani's campaign in Jones County.

• Harry Reid says he is committed to working with Mitch McConnell to speed through an Iraq funding supplemental that can go to conference — which means amendments will likely be voted for that will strip any troop withdrawal dates from the two-month funding bill.

• Here's another of Romney's old liberal positions, courtesy of Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network: In 1994, Romney opposed officially-sanctioned prayer in schools.

• IowaPolitics.com has a listing of spending in Iowa for the last quarter by the Presidential campaigns. Barack Obama is way ahead of the pack with $633,973 to build his campaign's infrastructure, while Mitt Romney leads the GOP side at $287,840 spent in the first caucus state.

• The very brilliant Professor Charles Franklin observes that recent polling showing Congressional approval as low as the President's may not be the full story. The Congressional Democrats are still in much better shape than the Republicans, not to mention President Bush — and the recent downturn in Congressional approval might just be statistical noise, while President Bush's decline is still trending along. (Full Disclosure: Franklin was a teacher of mine for two semesters at the University of Wisconsin.)

• John McCain put out a statement on the death of Jerry Falwell, saying that "Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country." Not only is this a big change from seven years ago, when McCain called Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance," but The Hill reports that McCain was first out the gate with a statement commemorating Falwell.

• Fred Thompson has declined a challenge from Michael Moore to hold a debate on health care — and suggested that Moore should consider checking into a mental institution.

• Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch — a Democrat who has made a habit in recent years of endorsing Republicans ranging from Mike Bloomberg to President Bush — says he will campaign around the country to oppose Rudy Giuliani if Rudy is nominated. "If I had to sum it up in a few minutes I would say he's a control freak — and the control is over your life," said Koch. Koch's 1999 anti-Rudy book, Giuliani: Nasty Man, will also be reissued this month.

• Mitt Romney's son Tagg, on his father's political conversions: "I think people, as they listen to him and hear him speak on the stump, they're very very convinced that's he's genuine and that he believes very strongly what he says."

• Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by New Hampshire State Senate President Sylvia Larsen.

• Barack Obama's campaign announced a group of New Hampshire co-chairs, including state Senator and two-time Congressional nominee Martha Fuller Clark.

• Former Rep. Hal Daub (R-NE) announced that he will explore a primary challenge against Senator Chuck Hagel. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (R) already has an exploratory committee of his own for a run against Hagel, and has even released a poll showing him beating the Senator in a primary.

• A Harris Interactive online poll has Fred Thompson tied for second place with John McCain nationally, at 18% apiece. Rudy Giuliani leads among Republicans with 38%.

• Republican activist Bill Kelly has bailed as a county co-chair for the McCain campaign, and is switching over to Romney. "Endorsing John McCain was the biggest mistake of my political career — I think he has been more of a detriment than a benefit to our party," Kelly wrote in an e-mail.

• Roll Call reports that two Republican House members facing scandals might receive primary challenges next year: Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and John Doolittle (R-CA)

• Democrats are hopeful that Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture Ron Sparks (D) — who was re-elected with 59% of the vote in his conservative state last year — might declare a candidacy against right-wing Senator Jeff Sessions as early as next month.

• Mark Blumenthal has a quibble with our analysis of ARG polling in the last two months — while there has been a significant increase in Hillary Clinton's lead in ARG's sampling over the last two months, we didn't take the margin of error into account for the smaller changes in the last month of polling. It's definitely worth considering.

• A protester who was arrested for refusing to leave a local office of Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) has a question about her $1,000 bail: "If we had lied about weapons of mass destruction, ordered the invasion of a sovereign nation, were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people and wasted over $400 billion of the taxpayers' money, what would bail be set at then?"

• In a rare victory for civility in politics, Montana State House Majority Leader Michael Lange (R), who achieved fame/infamy through an obscenity-laced tirade about Governor Brian Schweitzer (D) in front of news cameras, has been booted from his leadership position by his fellow Republicans.

Hillary's on board:

"Tomorrow, I will cast my vote to send the President a clear message: Democrats are united in fighting to change course, redeploy our troops out of Iraq, and end this war as soon as possible.

"When the Senate votes on motions to allow debate on both the Feingold-Reid and Reed-Levin Amendments, I will vote for cloture on both. I do so because we, as a united party, must work together with clarity of purpose and mission to begin bringing our troops home and end this war."

So that's it: Hillary and Obama both are in. Ben Smith offers an interesting analysis of the news here.

Another interesting question: Which way will the freshman Senate Dems who won by campaigning on Iraq -- James Webb, Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, etc. -- vote tomorrow.

Update: I just wanted to add that it's hard to cast voting for cloture as anything but basic support for the policy, since claiming backing for cloture but not the policy leaves one open to "backed it before he opposed it" type attacks. So while both Obama and Hillary invoked their support for cloture -- and neither appear to see this as the best policy answer -- they're both essentially backing the Feingold amendment.

Is Hillary electable, or is she doomed to defeat in swing-state America?

New polls in Ohio just out from SurveyUSA say she not only ties Rudy in the state, but beats John McCain and Mitt Romney by comfortable margins there.

Hillary and Rudy are tied at 46% each, Hillary beats John McCain 49%-44%, and against the lesser-known Mitt Romney, Hillary leads 53%-38%.

Two out of three. Unelectable? While it's early in the cycle, it sure doesn't look that way, judging by these numbers, anyway.

Here are the press releases from the top three Republican candidates for President, reacting to the death of Jerry Falwell:

Rudy Giuliani:

"I express my condolences to his family, Reverend Falwell’s family, and to his much larger family ... He was a man who set a direction. He was someone who was not afraid to speak his mind. We all have great respect for him ... he is a person who told you what he thought and you knew where he stood ... My sympathies and my prayers go out to his family ..."

John McCain:

"I join the students, faculty, and staff of Liberty University and Americans of all faiths in mourning the loss of Reverend Jerry Falwell.

"Dr. Falwell was a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Falwell's family at this difficult time."

"An American who built and led a movement based on strong principles and strong faith has left us. He will be greatly missed, but the legacy of his important work will continue through his many ministries where he put his faith into action.

"Ann and I have had the honor to talk and meet with Reverend Falwell and get to know him as a man of deep personal faith and commitment to helping those around him. He will be forever remembered."

Obama will vote for the Feingold amendment:

“Tomorrow, I expect cloture votes on two other proposals. One is the Reid-Feingold plan, which would begin a withdrawal of troops in 120 days and end all combat operations on April 1. The other is Senator Levin's proposal, which would create standards and benchmarks for additional funding.”

“I will support both, not because I believe either is the best answer, but because I want to send a strong statement to the Iraqi government, the President and my Republican colleagues that it's long past time to change course.”

“Meanwhile, I'll continue to press for my own plan, and work to find the 16 votes in the Senate to pass it with a veto-proof majority and bring our troops home quickly, safely and responsibly.”

Perhaps most interesting is Obama's optimism that ultimately Dems will be able to secure enough support to override subsequent Presidential vetoes. He says the following about the Congressional approach vetoed by the President last month: "I think it will become the framework for a bipartisan coalition the President can't resist."

Seems like a long way from here to that veto-proof majority to us. But who knows?

Meanwhile, we'll bring you Hillary's position when it becomes available.

As you know, we've been giving lots of coverage to CBS' bizarre decision to ax retired General John Batiste for slamming Bush in that VoteVets ad. Now MoveOn's jumped on the story, sending out a petition to get CBS to rehire him. It's here.

A new statement from John Edwards challenges unnamed Senators -- read: Hillary and Obama -- to back Russ Feingold's amendment to defund the war:

“It is time to end this war. The only real power Congress has to end the war is their funding power, which is why I and others have been calling on them to use it for some time.

"I would actually go further than Reid-Feingold and use the funding authority, not just to set an ultimate deadline, but to force an immediate withdrawal of 40-50,000 troops, followed by a complete withdrawal in about a year. But using the funding authority to bring this war to an end is exactly the right thing to do. Every Senator who believes this war is wrong and wants to end it should support Reid-Feingold."

This is of course very much in keeping with Edwards' strategy of carving out a niche for himself as the candidate demanding action from the Congress he's no longer a member of. He's also repeatedly demanded that Congress send the same Iraq supplemental bill back to Bush again and again despite his vetoes.

As it happens, the Feingold amendment does create something of a dilemma in particular for Hillary and Obama, as the Associated Press notes today. Will they vote for it?

Update: Ben Smith reminds us that Edwards was refusing to comment on the Feingold measure only a month ago.

Retired General John Batiste may have been fired by CBS as a news analyst for hammering Bush in that VoteVets ad, but he's not letting up.

Now Batiste, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq, is appearing in another ad in which he'll slam John McCain for his pro-war policies. The ad will run on Fox News just after tonight's GOP debate, at a cost of $25,000 to VoteVets. It's a version of the earlier ad, but targeting McCain.

Batiste will say: "Senator McCain, protect America, not George Bush."

Tonight: The Cycle's First GOP Debate In The South

Tonight is the first Republican debate held in the South this campaign season, hosted by Fox News from Columbia, South Carolina. The debate will start at 9 p.m. ET, and will be moderated by Brit Hume. The whole gang of ten Republican candidates will be there: Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Tommy Thompson, Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul.



The Pressure Is On Rudy Tonight

The Washington Post reports that the pressure will be on Rudy Giuliani at tonight's GOP debate, where he will answer for the pro-choice position he has enunciated clearly since the last debate. "I think the candidate that has the most to prove is Giuliani," said Scott Reed, who served as campaign manager for Bob Dole's campaign in 1996. "Since the first debate his standing with conservatives has spun out of control, and he has a real challenge ahead of him."



Report: Mike Bloomberg Ready To Spend $1 Billion On Indy Bid

The Washington Times reports that Mike Bloomberg is not only getting ready to mount an Independent candidacy for President — he's set aside a whopping $1 billion of his own money for the race. Mayor Mike has also reportedly lowered the bar on whether he'll make a run — he used to tell associates he would only run if he thought he could win a three-way race, but now he's ready to run if he simply thinks he can influence the national debate. And remember: He's been seen dining recently with Chuck Hagel.



Gallup: Congress Now More Unpopular Than Bush

A new Gallup poll shows Congressional approval at a paltry 29%, with disapproval at 64%. Meanwhile, President Bush is at a 33%-62%. By this measure, Bush can take some small comfort that his own pathetic ratings aren't as bad as Congress' numbers.



The Club For Growth Praises Rudy

The Hill reports that the Club For Growth — whose issues are entirely fiscal/economic, not social — is lauding Rudy Giuliani's record cutting taxes and regulation in New York City, which it calls a city "dominated by liberal Democrats, public-sector labor unions, social-welfare activists and a powerful local news media actively hostile to a limited-government philosophy." Club president Pat Toomey, a former GOP Congressman from Pennsylvania, the said the group does have some reservations about Giuliani — such as his past support for the McCain-Feingold law and skepticism about NAFTA — but his overall record is nevertheless impressive.



Romney's Five Sons Enter The Blogosphere

The Boston Globe reports that Mitt Romney's five sons have become a fixture on his campaign blog. "New postings go up all the time, full of travel photos, gentle ribbing, and behind-the-scenes looks at some Very Romney holidays, like the recent birthday celebration for mom Ann at the family's New Hampshire vacation home," writes the Globe. "The blog items themselves evoke episodes of "The Brady Bunch," in which the boys confront everyday dilemmas and resolve them with pluck and good humor."



Group Of House Dems Criticizes The Pope On Excommunication

The Hill reports that a group of House Democrats led by Rosa DeLauro (CT) have put out a statement criticizing Pope Benedict XVI, whose church hierarchy has said that pro-choice legislators should not participate in communion. The letter states that remarks in favor of excommunication of legislators "offend the very nature of the American experiment and do a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done."



Poll: Norm Coleman's Ratings Down — But He Leads Al Franken Big

A new Mason-Dixon poll for Minnesota Public Radio shows Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) way ahead of both Democratic challengers. Coleman leads Al Franken 54%-32%, and is ahead of trial attorney Mike Ciresi 52%-29%. Franken has a net unfavorable rating, 29% favorable to 32% favorable, compared to Coleman's 43%-25%. Meanwhile, Coleman has a lackluster job approval, at 48% Good or Excellent compared to 50% Fair or Poor — but he still beats his two Democratic challengers.



Executive: Fred Thompson Likely Won't Be Back On Law & Order

The Associated Press reports that NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said he does not expect Fred Thompson to be back for the next season of Law & Order — regardless of whether or not Thompson runs. "It's pretty clear that Fred is going to be leaving the cast of the show no matter what," Reilly said. Production of the season is expected to begin early, so as to stockpile episodes in case of a writer's strike, so if Thompson wants to be on the next season after all, he would have to take himself out of the Presidential race soon.



New Dodd Ad: The Other Presidential Candidates Aren't As Strong On Iraq As I

Here is Chris Dodd's new ad, running in Iowa and New Hampshire, in which he faults his Presidential rivals for not joining him in sponsoring the strongest Iraq-withdrawal measure. "I'm fighting for the only responsible measure in Congress that would take away the President's blank check and set a timetable to bring our troops home," Dodd sayd. "Unfortunately, my colleagues running for President have not joined me."

• This should drive Democratic activists nuts: Joe Lieberman will help raise money for Republican Senator Susan Collins' re-election, who campaigned for Lieberman's re-election last year.

• A CNN poll finds that Americans oppose military action against Iran by a margin of 63% to 33%.

• A new SurveyUSA poll shows Mitt Romney benefitted from his appearance on "60 Minutes" — and nearly one fifth of adults watched it.

• Aides to Rudy Giuliani say he will not skip Iowa and South Carolina entirely — and he plans to compete big time in New Hampshire.

• Bill Richardson has taped an hour-long interview set to air May 21 with V-me, an organization that creates Spanish-language content for public television.

• Newt Gingrich told Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America," "I think right now, it is a great possibility," that he would run for President.

• Governor Ernie Fletcher (R-KY) enters the two-week home stretch of his primary with a cash-on-hand advantage of more than 3-2 against challenger Anne Northup, a former Congresswoman.

• Mitt Romney's campaign has reportedly bought two more weeks of airtime in Iowa and New Hampshire.

• Chris Dodd will be airing ads this week in Iowa and New Hampshire..

• Former Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Kay Barnes (D) has announced her campaign against Rep. Sam Graves (R), who until now has not received a strong re-election challenge since his first race in 2000.

• Mitt Romney's sons have never served in the military — though one of them says he feels "guilty not having done it."

• Hillary Clinton formally received the endorsement of her adopted home state's Governor, Eliot Spitzer, plus the state's other top Democratic officials.

• Meanwhile, Barack Obama was endorsed by two big-city Mayors in New Jersey, Cory Booker of Newark and Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City.

• Hillary Clinton's campaign rolled out some Wisconsin endorsements, including Dane County Executive and 2006 Attorney General nominee Kathleen Falk.

• Tom Tancredo worries that the United States is becoming "a Balkanized nation."

• In a great case of unintentional irony via Crooks and Liars, the folks at Fox News' The 1/2 Hour News Hour managed to write an attempted comedy sketch making fun of liberals by ... basing the joke around Rush Limbaugh's drug of choice.

Fox News just ran a segment reporting on potential illegal "double-voting" in South Carolina. Take a look:

Notice anything missing? As in, non-black voters?

Ahhh. A segment on illegal voting that only features B-roll of African Americans...great job, guys!

Good news for war foes: Harry Reid just spoke on the Senate floor, revealing that he'll allow a vote this week on the Feingold-Reid amendment, which would cut off funding for the war by March 31, 2008.

This is a big deal for war opponents -- it's the first vote in the Senate on a measure of this kind. "This is a vote that folks have been clamoring for for some time now," enthuses a staffer who works for a Senator favoring the approach.

The staffer added that while the measure faces an uphill struggle, a vote on it will move the parameters of the debate and force Senators into a straight up-or-down vote on the war -- just as last week's House vote on Dem Rep. James McGovern's proposal to end the war did.

The staffer claims that the Senate leadership was going back and forth all weekend on whether to allow this vote. "I think there are probably some people who would prefer not to see a vote on this," the staffer says. "It forces people to take a stand."

More soon.

Update: The "take a stand" comment by my unnamed staffer is understandably drawing some attention. Atrios comments:

"I imagine there's a pretty close correlation between those who regularly prattle on about Democrats needing to stand for things and show strong leadership, yadda yadda, and those who aren't too thrilled that they'll have to actually take a stand.

"People hate this war and George Bush, I really don't know why some lawmakers are still a couple years behind the polls."

Indeed. I'd only add that there's also probably a fair amount of overlap between people who aren't too thrilled about taking a stand and people who think Dems shouldn't take a stand against the war lest they be painted as weak.

We couldn't help but notice that in the past few days Hillary Clinton twice used a phrase she's virtually never employed before: She described the American people as eager to "turn the page."

Hillary used the turn of phrase in a phone interview with The New Hampshire Union Leader late last week: "I believe part of it is people are anxious to turn the page," she said. She repeated the phrase verbatim again on MSNBC on Friday:

I’m getting just a tremendous response around the country. But I really think that it’s in large measure because people are so anxious to turn the page, you know?

But as it turns out, the phrase "turn the page" is a signature line that's been used countless times by Barack Obama in nearly all his stump speeches. Is it now becoming part of Hillary's rhetorical arsenal as well?

A new ARG poll finds that Hillary is expanding her national lead over Barack Obama:

Clinton 39%

Obama 22%

Edwards 19%

The same poll a month ago found that Hillary had 36% to Obama's 24% — meaning Hillary has expanded her lead by 5 points in ARG's sampling. By contrast, on the GOP side, Rudy holds a 28%-24% lead over John McCain, pretty much unchanged from a 27%-23% lead a month ago — which is intriguing, since the poll was taken on May 9-12, after Rudy's recent battery of bad press. Has Rudy's bad publicity on issues like abortion not been sinking in with GOP voters nationally?

As you may recall, we spent a fair amount of time Friday hammering away at CBS over its decision to fire retired General John Batiste for cutting an anti-war, anti-Bush ad for VoteVets.org.

Well, here's another one from VoteVets, this one featuring another former U.S. commander in Iraq, Paul Eaton. In it, he demands that Congress stand up to Bush and end the war:

The ads are running from today through the end of the week in markets targeting
Senators Susan Collins and John Warner, as well as Reps. Mary Bono, Mike Castle, Phil English, Jo Ann Emerson, Tim Johnson, and Heather Wilson. It would be interesting to know just how responsible this sort of activity is for sparking all the talk among Republicans that they'll soon break ranks with Bush if the "surge" shows no progress.

Bill waxes nostalgic about Hillary in a new "Hillcast":

This is far and away the longest thing Bill has cut for Hillary yet. He says -- reinforcing the campaign's "experience" message -- that you should support her for President because "she spent a lifetime caring, working, and delivering."

Hillary Reaching Out To Cell Phone Users
The New York Post reports that Hillary Clinton's campaign will launch a new program to keep in touch with supporters through cell-phone text messaging, in what the Post calls "a sign the campaign is hunting for every possible vote in her bitter battle with rival Sen. Barack Obama." Supporters can sign up for the updates by texting "JOIN" to 77007.

Poll: New Yorkers Like Bloomberg Better Than Rudy
The New York Daily News has a new poll out of city residents, showing that the current Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, is preferred over his predecessor Rudy Giuliani by a wide margin, either for Mayor or for President. The poll asked two questions — a) "Who do you think was the better Mayor?" with Bloomberg topping Giuliani 56%-29%, and b) "Who do you think would make a better President?" with Bloomberg against beating Rudy 46%-29%. The poll would indicate that only about 29% of actual New Yorkers could be described as die-hard fans of "America's Mayor."

The Horse's Mouth Turns One Year Old Today
Greg's blog on political coverage, The Horse's Mouth, celebrates its one-year anniversary today. Join the festivities.

Giuliani Camp Undecided On Iowa Straw Poll Participation
The Des Moines Register reports that Rudy Giuliani's camp is uncommitted on whether or not they will participate in the Iowa Straw Poll, which will be held on August 11 in Ames, Iowa. If Giuliani skips the event, it could either minimize the event's importance or possibly his own campaign's profile, as other candidates would invest heavily in getting the good publicity that comes from a straw poll victory. On the other hand, if he participates he could do potentially do well — showing that his campaign can appeal to socially conservative voters — or he could do badly and only confirm those fears that the pro-choice candidate is a non-starter with the GOP base.

Report: Christian Conservatives Lining Up For Fred Thompson — Stopping Rudy Is The Priority
The Washington Times reports that many Christian conservative leaders are getting ready to support Fred Thompson, having found serious flaws with all the current candidates — especially Rudy Giuliani. "It's the moment of truth for conservatives," said one source. "Either social conservatives rally to stop a Giuliani nomination and victory for him in November 2008 or our issues — abortion, same-sex marriage, the preservation of the family — are permanently off the Republican Party agenda."

Giuliani May Have To Deal With 9/11 Illnesses
The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani's post-9/11 notoriety may fall victim to another aspect of the tragedy: Illnesses suffered by workers at the site from exposure to toxic substances. "An examination of Mr. Giuliani’s handling of the extraordinary recovery operation during his last months in office shows that he seized control and largely limited the influence of experienced federal agencies," the Times writes. "In doing that, according to some experts and many of those who worked in the trade center’s ruins, Mr. Giuliani might have allowed his sense of purpose to trump caution in the rush to prove that his city was not crippled by the attack."

Edwards Proposes Universal First-Year Tuition
The Associated Press reports that John Edwards has proposed an $8 billion program to guarantee first-year tuition for all college students, paid for through imposing windfall profit taxes on oil companies and a reduction in bank subsidies. Edwards touted the success of a privately funded "College For Everyone" scholarship program he has headed up in Greene County, North Carolina, as evidence that more money can help send students to college who otherwise would not have gone. There's nowhere in this country that families, parents and young people aren't worried about paying for college or getting out of college with crushing debt," Edwards said.

Romney Camp Will Attempt To Sign Up 24,000 Supporters In 24 Hours
The Deseret Morning News reports that Mitt Romney's campaign will seek to build momentum right before this week's Republican debate by signing up 24,000 supporters in 24 hours, right up to the debate. The initiative, called "Sign Up America," will be intended to build grassroots support — and good publicity — before the debate.

Hagel Considering Indy Bid
Telling CBS News, "I am not happy with the Republican Party today," Chuck Hagel left the door open for an Independent run for President yesterday during his appearance on "Face The Nation." "What America will be looking at and wanting and demanding is honest, competent, accountable leadership," he said. "We need some new, fresh, independent ideas to lead this country forward." Hagel also acknowledged having recently dined with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and said Bloomberg should seriously think about his own potential candidacy.

Trancredo: Scrap The Federal Gas Tax — And Free Up States To Repeal Seatbelt Laws
Radio Iowa reports that Tom Tancredo called for the repeal of the federal gas tax, saying it was originally levied to pay for the construction of the interstate highway system, and is thus no longer needed. Instead, he said states could pay for their roads without federal interference "You also accomplish the task of telling the federal government to go fly a kite when they start demanding things like changing [state] laws with regard to highways: seat belts, speed limits, all the rest of that stuff," said Tancredo, who rode a Harley Davidson motorcycle to a rally without wearing a helmet.

Hillary Campaign Working To Find The Right Niche For Bill
The New York Times reports that the Hillary campaign is working to find the right balance for participation by Bill Clinton, who has thus far helped raise money, speak as a surrogate at some events, and has reviewed poll data and given his wife feedback on her public speaking. "He’s grappling with it a bit now, how he properly plays the role of subordinate," said a former senior aide to Bill. "His foundation work gives him real focus. And he wants this for her, so badly. He feels he owes it to her on so many levels, for bringing her to Arkansas in the early ’70s and upending her career and everything since."

Obama: Cut Subsidies For Private Medicare Insurers
The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama has given a specific, and potentially controversial, recommendation for the Medicare program: He would cut government subsidies to private insurers by $150 billion over the next decade, and instead use the money to strengthen the Medicare program overall. On the one hand, some argue that the government's subsidies are too large and do not produce the benefits that would be worth it. On the other hand, a reduction in subsidies could result in a reduction in coverage or an increase in out-of-pocket expenses for some Medicare beneficiaries.

Fred Thompson Discusses "The Rule Of Law" (And Order) With Ultra-Secretive CNP
The New York Times was able to obtain some details of Fred Thompson's speech yesterday before the Council for National Policy, a Christian conservative group so secretive that not only are meetings closed, but members are forbidden in the by-laws from discussing the proceedings before or after the meetings. A source closed to Thompson said the speech would be about "the rule of law and how that comes into play in civil society," as well as including some discussion about Thompson's work guiding Chief Justice John Roberts through confirmation process.

Edwards Campaign Launches New "Support The Troops, End The War" Site
The John Edwards camp has a new Web site up, www.SupportTheTroopsEndTheWar.com, urging readers to organize this Memorial Day weekend for the cause of withdrawal from Iraq. "We will volunteer, we will pray, and we will speak out," the site declares. The site also includes a YouTube clip of Edwards addressing supporters: "George Bush has tried to use patriotism as an excuse for everything he’s done, including what’s happening in Iraq. We need to reclaim patriotism for America."

"Thompson Twins" Top Wisconsin GOP Straw Poll — Rudy and McCain Way Behind
Fred Thompson and Tommy Thompson were the top choices of Wisconsin GOP activists voting in the WisPolitics.com Straw Poll, held at the state Republican convention this weekend. Fred Thompson came in first place with 95 votes (31%), Badger State native Tommy Thompson had 84 votes (27%), Mitt Romney was third with 41 votes (13%), and Rudy Giuliani was a distant fourth with 35 votes (11%). John McCain ran in seventh place with a mere 10 votes (3%), behind Sam Brownback's 14 votes (5%) and Newt Gingrich's 12 votes (4%).

Staten Island GOP Leaders Endorsing Rudy, In Defiance Of State Chairman
The New York Post reports that Republican Party leaders from Staten Island will endorse Rudy Giuliani, breaking an edict from the state GOP chairman to refrain from backing the former New York Mayor. Rudy backers will include Rep. Vito Fossella, state Sen. Andrew Lanza, former Rep. Guy Molinari and others. State chairman Joseph Mondello is close to former U.S. Sen. Al D'Amato, who had long-running public feuds with Giuliani up until he was defeated for re-election by Chuck Schumer in 1998.

Tommy Thompson Blames Anti-Gay Remarks On A Full Bladder
Tommy Thompson has a new excuse for his sanctioning of legal anti-gay discrimination at the recent GOP debate: He couldn't think straight because he was sick, and really needed to go to the bathroom. The Associated Press reports that Thompson said he had been sick, and just three days earlier had been admitted to an emergency room for the flu and bronchitis. "I was very sick the day of the debate," Thompson said. "I had all of the problems with the flu and bronchitis that you have, including running to the bathroom. I was just hanging on. I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom."

Brownback Praises Peyton Manning — In Favre-Loving Wisconsin
The Associated Press reports that Sam Brownback committed a major faux pas at the Wisconsin Republican convention. Seeking to use a football metaphor to explain the importance of the family as an institution, Brownback remarked, "This is your line in football. If you don't have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history." Brownback was then booed by the Packers-loving Wisconsin crowd, who were partial to Brett Favre. "That's really bad," Brownback said, realizing what he had done. "That will go down in history. I apologize."

Okay, it looks as if the tale of the Rudy campaign snubbing the Iowa farm family is beginning to get a bit of traction with the big news orgs.

The Associated Press is now running a story about the incident:

Jerry and Deborah VonSprecken pulled out all the stops getting their farm in eastern Iowa ready to host an event with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The couple moved cattle from the pasture, cleared brush for a makeshift parking lot, brought in hay bales for seats and had even planned to get portable toilets for an expected crowd of about 75 to 100 people.

The couple now says that their efforts were all for naught -- because they aren't "millionaires."

Meanwhile, ABC News' Web site has picked up our story from Friday night about John McCain's subsequent call to the woman. Ana Marie Cox of Time.com wrote about McCain's call yesterday, as did Jonathan Martin of The Politico, who aptly observed that the details of McCain's call are "delicious." The Huffington Post picked up the story, too.

Which brings up another question: Will this "delicious" tale attract the attention of TV and of the bigfoot national columnists? Will it get anywhere near the level of attention that John Edwards' $400 haircut did? Edwards' fair locks, after all, earned a whole column from Maureen Dowd and from The Politico's Roger Simon -- not to mention tons and tons of chatter on the networks and from cable talkers like Chris Matthews.

You'd think that the cable chatterers and pundits would leap at the Iowa tale, too. It's perfect for TV and for practitioners of Dowd-style political writing: It features a hideous campaign gaffe born of an apparent desire to use Iowa farmers as political props; a spurned Iowa woman; a small town alive with chatter about the tale; a juicy class angle; and a candidate (McCain) who deftly swept in to offer the spurned woman comfort.

Wouldn't you agree, MoDo?

Over to you, Roger?

Chris?

Again: Just try to imagine the hailstorm of media attention that would be raining down on the VonSprecken's farm right now if John Edwards' campaign had done this.