Indian-American Group Calls On Obama Campaign To Apologize
The Indian-American community is outraged over an opposition research document from the Barack Obama campaign, targeting Hillary Clinton's ties to business interests in India. "There cannot be a suggestion that Indian-Americans are somehow taboo," said Sanjay Puri, chairman of the 50,000-member U.S.-India Political Action Committee. The not-for-attribution document was entitled "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)'s personal financial and political ties to India." The "Punjab" line is a reference to a joke Hillary made at a fundraiser last year, "I can certainly run for the Senate seat in Punjab and win easily." Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a statement, "The intent of the document was to discuss the issue of outsourcing, but we regret the tone that parts of the document took."

Hillary: The White House Is "Evidence-Free" On Science And More.
Hillary Clinton lambasted the White House's position on stem-cell research at a New Hampshire event yesterday: "They've turned Washington into an evidence-free zone, and we've seen this in so many different ways."

Ron Paul Building A Following — But Still Lacks In Poll Numbers
The Washington Post has a story out on the Internet presence of Ron Paul — or, to put it more precisely, Paul's supporters. Paul's numbers in Facebook, MySpace, MeetUp members and YouTube views are the largest in the Republican field, second only to Barack Obama overall. And most interesting of all, Paul himself is somewhat of a Luddite. "To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard about this YouTube and all the other Internet sites until supporters started gathering in them," Paul said. On the other hand, he's had a hard time actually breaking through in real poll numbers. A 28-year old supporter casts some light on the subject: "But I'm not supporting him because I think he could get the nomination. I'm supporting him because I think he can influence the national conversation about what the role of government is, how much power should government have over our lives, how much liberty should we give up for security."

Edwards To Take On G8 Summit Goals
John Edwards is set to give a speech today in Austin, Texas, in which he will announce his support for the G8 Summit's challenge that the United States join in an effort to reduce greenhouse gases by 50 percent by the year 2050.

Bayh's 2006 Campaign Training Work Now Benefitting The Current Candidates
In the 2006 campaign cycle, Evan Bayh set up "Camp Bayh," a training seminar for would-be Democratic staffers, who would then be dispatched to Iowa and New Hampshire to help local candidates, building good will for Bayh's expected presidential run and putting those staffers in position to work for Bayh's campaign. As it turned out, Bayh back out of the race after a very brief exploratory phase — and the Camp Bayh graduates are now giving their services to other Democratic candidates. "It is sometimes surreal to see the fruits of two years of hard work preparing for the Bayh presidential campaign benefiting other candidates and campaigns," said Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director for the Obama campaign. "But at the end of the day Evan Bayh did a great service for these kids and the party as whole."

Hillary And Obama Both Working For Illinois Money
Hillary Clinton is not totally ceding Democratic money in Illinois, the state of her birth, to favorite son Barack Obama. While Hillary raised only one tenth the money Obama did in the first quarter there — $373,000 to his $3.73 million — her campaign is working to significantly increase their Illinois take this quarter. An upcoming June 25 fundraiser will feature longtime Clinton allies from the business community, as well as one of the sons of Jesse Jackson, who is himself supporting Obama. The campaign is hoping to build on May fundraiser in Chicago that took in $300,000.

Joe Lieberman gave a press conference with local reporters in Connecticut today. It was a pretty lively affair. You can watch the video here.

Lieberman was asked to clarify his views on Iran and his recent suggestion that we may need to take military action against that country, which he said was killing our soldiers in various ways. Here are a few excerpts.

Lieberman addressed the question of whether the military is strapped:

"We have a mighty military."

He sought to reassure his listeners that he doesn't envision all-out war with Iran:

"I'm not talking about any massive land invasion of Iraq. I'm not talking about any bombing of civilian areas."

He addressed the question of whether hostilities with Iran might have adverse consequences (our favorite):

"So what I'm saying is, if we knock out a base of theirs, if we have to do that, at which they're training these terrorists, yes, they may respond. But look, they're already on the move against us, and they're killing people as a result of it. I hope this is not necessary."

He talked about the horrors of war:

"None of us like war, people suffer from it."

He also slammed John Edwards for saying that the "war on terror" phrase is a bumper sticker slogan, and said we're in the middle of a "world war."

No doubt there's much more in there that we've missed, but you can watch the whole thing, which is definitely worth a look, right here. Happy Friday!

Obama In February: Oppo Research Should Focus On Issues, Not Ad-Hominem Attacks

Ben Smith unearthed a question and answer session with Barack Obama from February, in which he asked the candidate what approach he would have to opposition research. Obama said there would be an important role in being able to "compare and contrast where we stand on issues," but also said he would take pains in "not making ad hominem attacks toward other candidates." Smith notes, "Hard to see how attacking Bill Clinton's finances fits framework."

McCain To Campaign In Iowa With Former POW Cellmate

John McCain will be campaigning in Iowa this weekend with Ret. Col. George "Bud" Day, a Sioux City native and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. During the Vietnam War, McCain and Day shared a cell as prisoners of war.

Obama's Father's Day Message: Do Not Shirk Responsibility

Barack Obama delivered a message to a Baptist church in South Carolina, to coincide with Father's Day weekend: "Let's admit to ourselves that there are a lot of men out there that need to stop acting like boys; who need to realize that responsibility does not end at conception; who need to know that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise a child." Obama discussed his own childhood, marked by the absence of his biological father, whom he only knew about through stories from his mother and other relatives.

Lots Of Applause At Right To Life Convention

Mitt Romney defended his about-face on abortion as a genuine conversion at the National Right to Life Conference in Kansas City. He earned a standing ovation for his remarks, but Sam Brownback garnered yet more applause. Brownback attacked Romney: "In the past, he has said unequivocally he’s pro-choice. He’s saying now he’s pro-life ... That seems to me to be an inconsistency where you’ve been in one position in the past and you’re different now."

Bloomberg Has Dinner — In New Hampshire

New York City Mayor Mark Bloomberg is headed to New Hampshire for his girlfriend's college reunion. He will also travel to California to have appearances with Governor. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and at Google, which is coincidentally also hosting presidential candidates. The mayor dismissed any speculation about a possible presidential bid, however. "I don’t think the country’s quite ready for me," Bloomberg said.

Tancredo Lauds Cutting Security Funds For Sanctuary Cities

The House passed an amendment 234-189 to the homeland security appropriations bill cutting funding for cities with policies and laws giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants. Tancredo, who sponsored the measure, hooted and cheered with his staffers in his office. "The times, they are a changing," Tancredo said in a statement.

Richardson Raising Cash In Twin Cities

Indian donors, Latino leaders and bloggers attended a Bill Richardson fundraiser today, netting the Democrat $75,000. Barack Obama and John McCain plan visits to Minneapolis in the coming weeks.

New Jersey GOP Votes For Winner-Take-All Primary — Seen As Pro-Rudy Move

The New Jersey Republican State Committee has officially adopted a winner-take-all rule for the state's February 5 primary, as opposed to a system under which presidential delegates would be distributed proportionally to the GOP candidates' vote percentages in the state. The rule is widely seen to be done to benefit Rudy Giuliani — hailing from neighboring New York and being a socially liberal Republican, he'd be heavily favored in the state primary, and this rule would give him all of the state's delegates.

Mike Huckabee Doesn't Like Miniskirts

In an interview with the magazine Marie Claire, Mike Huckabee had an exchange in which he talked about his distaste for miniskirts. "If a person dresses provocatively, they're calling attention — maybe not the most desirable kind — to private parts of their body," Huckabee said. Huckabee is now complaining that the interview is being taken out of context, and he was joking around. In Huckabee's defense, when asked if he owns a miniskirt, he said he owns a thong. So this was probably a joke — at least, we sure hope it was!

Something fun for a Friday: The Edwards campaign is having a bit of fun today spoofing all the nasty and vicious skirmishing that's been going on between the Hillary and Obama campaigns today over opposition research.

The Edwards campaign just sent out a "not-for-attribution" document that they'd dressed up as a mock version of an oppo dump about themselves:

JOHN EDWARDS: THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT HIS "GREAT" WEEK

Some John Edwards supporters have said this was a "good" or "decent" week, but a closer examination of the record proves: this was a great week. Between bringing down health care costs for families, widely successful grassroots fundraisers, busy Iowa and New Hampshire trips, and even a little of mom's pecan pie, the facts are clear—John Edwards is on a roll.

Friday fun.

"We need a president who can walk and chew gum at the same time."

-- John Edwards, quoted by ABC News talking about his qualifications at a news conference today. Well, it's a start, anyway.

This video that's been making the rounds on the Internet is very ... interesting — it shows former Senator and current presidential candidate Mike Gravel doing nothing but staring into the camera for a solid minute, motionless, as if peering into the viewer's very soul. He then throws a rock in a pond and walks off into the distance. We asked Gravel's spokesman about it, and got some intriguing answers. But first, give it a watch:

Exciting, huh? We asked Mike Gravel's press secretary, Alex Colvin, what the point of it is. And Colvin tells us that there's no single, intrinsic point here at all.

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Here's a kind of contemptible postscript to the whole Bill-made-money-on-Sept. 11 saga we posted on below. The story in question -- that Bill allegedly gave a for-profit speech commemorating 9/11 on Sept. 11, 2006 -- was heavily promoted by Drudge yesterday, beginning in the late afternoon:

Here's the interesting thing, though. The Observer proved this story false yesterday, posting this debunking of it in the late afternoon or early evening yesterday, proving that Bill's schedule showed that he'd given the speech the day before, on Sept. 10.

But Drudge still had the above headline going strong this morning, pushing a false story for a full 12 hours after it had been proven to be thoroughly bogus.

Drudge does this all the time. Not long ago he linked to an article in the Boston Herald that purported to show that Hillary may have had botox. The paper did this with before-and-after photos -- but it turned out that the pics had been reversed. Hours and hours after The Herald put the photos back in the right order, rendering the visual entirely bogus, Drudge still had them up on his site in the wrong order.

We bring this up for a reason. Many of you will ask why we bother with this when we've all known for years and years that Drudge is chronically mendacious and dishonest. Here's why: Because many people at the big news orgs, particularly at the TV networks, take their cues from Drudge and even treat him as their de-facto assignment editor. So we point it out whenever Drudge leaves false information up on his site for hours and hours in (perhaps vain) hopes that the good people at these news orgs will take note of it one of these days.

Relatedly, John Aravosis asks a very good question: "what was Matt Drudge doing, and with whom was he doing it, this past September 11? Was he honoring the dead?" Well, we can tell you one thing: His site was active all throughout that day.

Still more bad news for John McCain, this time in a new Rassmussen poll.

It finds that his approval rating has plummeted below the 50% mark for the first time during this campaign, to 48%. That's down from 55% in April and the peak of 59% in December. This sinking popularity among across-the-board voters, Rasmussen theorizes, is due to his increasing identification with the unpopular war.

One potential bright spot for McCain, at least for the GOP primary: The poll finds that more and more voters are seeing him as a conservative. Forty five percent thought this in May's Rasmussen poll, up from 26% in December. Perhaps less voters are seeing the old "maverick" McCain and now are seeing the one who's now working overtime to win the affections of the right.

We've just obtained an email that shows that the Obama campaign yesterday circulated a negative, and ultimately false, story about Bill Clinton -- that he allegedly made money giving a speech on September 11, 2006.

Campaigns, of course, circulate negative stuff about each other all the time. This email is unusual in that it is flagging something potentially negative not about a primary rival but about the former President -- one who obviously isn't running in the Democratic primary and who remains popular with Dem primary voters.

Indeed, the email is particularly noteworthy in that it reflects one of the curiosities of this race -- that one of the candidates' spouses is a popular former President, and thus is playing a highly visible role in the campaign, making him a target for anonymous attacks from Hillary's rivals.

We obtained the email from the Hillary campaign, which declined to say how it got it.

The email, which was sent out by Jen Psaki of the Obama campaign and circulated to reporters (not us) on an off-the-record basis late yesterday, details some things that the Obama campaign found in Hillary's financial disclosure documents, which were released yesterday. More after the jump.

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This is funny. Mitt Romney's campaign — in an effort to defend itself against criticism from John McCain on abortion — has just released a video tape that it says refutes McCain's attack against him.

But that video inadvertently revealed yet another flip flop from Romney on another issue: Stem cell research. The vid seems to show that back in 2005, he endorsed federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research. That's a position that's off limits to any GOP candidate — and one that Romney now claims he opposes.

A quick recap. As we
noted two days ago, John McCain's campaign circulated a YouTube of Mitt Romney in May 2005, in which he seemed to be endorsing the pro-choice status quo in Massachusetts. McCain charged that this shows that Romney's claim that he'd had an earlier conversion on the issue was bogus.

In response, the Romney campaign released this longer YouTube of that same press conference, showing the remark in its proper context:

(Turn up your volume — the audio signal on this video is rather weak.)

The vid does seem to back up Romney's case to a degree — it shows that he also said he opposed embryo farming, and that he was against abortion but was going to fight more winnable battles in liberal Massachusetts politics, such as the cloning issue.

The problem, though, is that on this longer video, Romney also said this:

"The United States House of Representatives voted for a bill that was identical to what I proposed. What they voted for is what I proposed, all right. They voted to provide for surplus embryos from in vitro fertilization processes, being used for research and experimentation. That's what I've said I support."

It sure sounds like Mitt Romney endorsed federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research in this video, doesn't it?

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Clinton Campaign Manager: We Expect Obama To Out-Raise Us
In a possible case of playing the expectations game — or potentially a premature admission of being behind — Hillary Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle told the Chicago Tribune that Barack Obama's campaign will probably out-raise them in the second quarter, which ends at the end of this month. "He's raising a lot and it’s likely he will out-raise us this quarter. God bless, good for him," she said. "I know how difficult it is to raise money and I have admiration for how they do it."

Fred Thompson Addresses National Right To Life By Video
Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network has obtained an early copy of Fred Thompson's video address to the National Right to Life conference in Kansas City — a prime opportunity for Thompson to address his pro-choice leanings in his 1994 campaign. In a folksy manner, Thompson talks about different groups coming to see him in his Senate offices to talk about various business matters. "When you came to see me," Thompson says, "I always knew it was about something much more important than that, the most important thing of all in this World and that is life and I must say that those issues are even more profound to me as the years go by."

Immigration Bill: Back From The Dead?
Senate leaders have announced a new attempt to revive the immigration bill, possibly bringing it back to the Senate floor as early as next week. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell have said that work on the bill will be restarted after the Senate finishes current debates on the energy bill.

Clintons Sell Oil, Drug Stocks
Hillary and Bill Clinton have liquidated a blind trust containing most of their assets, in order to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest and divest from companies in sectors such as petroleum and pharmaceuticals that might offend Democratic voters. The Clintons only learned what was in the blind trust when they were forced to disclose it to the public as a result of Hillary's presidential bid.

Spanish TV Debate Will Actually Be In English
All candidates at the proposed Democratic debate hosted by Univision at the end of the summer are going to be required to field questions in English, with their responses simultaneously translated into Spanish in order to create a more level playing field. Bill Richardson and Chris Dodd, the only two candidates who speak Spanish, are upset at the decision. Richardson's spokesman said that "This is a disservice to Univision’s viewers. It is a Spanish-language network and candidates who speak Spanish should not be penalized because other candidates do not."

Candidates Apply To Wyoming GOP For Senate Vacancy — Lynne Cheney Not On List
The Wyoming Republican Party has closed the application process yesterday for the Senate vacancy left by the death of Senator Craig Thomas. The state party will pick three names, one of whom will then be temporarily appointed to the Senate by Democratic Governor Dave Freudenthal. Notably not on the list of 31 names is Lynne Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney, around whom some rumors had been circling. One prominent name on the list is state House Majority Leader Colin Simpson — the son of former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson — who has already indicated that he will challenge Congresswoman Barbara Cubin in the GOP primary if somebody else is appointed to the Senate.

Richardson Endorsed By Hispanic New Hampshire Republican
Bill Richardson has picked up the support of Carlos Gonzalez, a New Hampshire Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of Manchester in 2003. "Governor Bill Richardson is by far the most qualified candidate in the race for President," said Gonzalez. To support Richardson in the primary, Gonzalez will be changing his registration from Republican to Democratic.

Year Of Green Conventions
Both Democratic and Republican parties are planning conventions designed to have minimal environmental impact, including such measures as recycled confetti and budgets for purchasing carbon offsets. Democrats are looking for hybrid vehicles to shuttle passengers around Denver. "You can make a lot of speeches, but in the end, you've got to back up the words," said Leah Daughtry, chief executive officer for the Democratic convention.

Okay, as we noted below, we've been trying to find out as much as possible about the conference call that Harry Reid held with liberal bloggers that's created so much noise today.

Now we've obtained a tape of the relevant chunk of the call. Reid did call Pace "incompetent," so The Politico story was factually right about that. But the context does raise questions about whether its placement and headline were overblown.

In the call, The Politico reported, Reid blasted General Pace as "incompetent," and used "similarly disparaging language" to attack General Petraeus. We spoke to as many people as we could on the call to see what was actually said. And a number of liberal bloggers on the call told us that they didn't remember Reid saying these things.

Now we've finally found someone who taped the call -- and this person provided us with a recording of it, on the condition that we not make the audio available, and only post the transcript. The relevant part follows:

REID: Look what this Justice Department has done. And now, with the Surgeon General, we have a man here who has written articles that I think are a little questionable as to in our modern society. He's a medical doctor. And don't worry, he's gonna be looked at very closely.

BLOGGER QUESTION: What's the next step on Gonzales?

REID: Well, I guess the President, he's gotten rid of Pace because he could not get confirmed here in the Senate. Pace is also a yes-man for the President. I told him to his face, I laid it out last time he came in to see me. I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was. But he got rid of his Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, but he still hangs on to this failed Attorney General. And I guess he's gonna [inaudible]. We're gonna keep focusing on it. Every day that goes by, it seems he keeps giving. Now we've learned that the immigration judges are all graduates of Regent University I guess.

REID AIDE: Guys, I think we have time to take one more question...

So The Politico's John Bresnahan, who wrote the original story, was right; Reid did call Pace incompetent. On the other hand, it was in the context of a discussion of Alberto Gonzales and other administration incompetents, not Iraq. The reference to Pace was an aside -- brought up solely to highlight Bush's loyalty to Gonzales. Reid's focus here wasn't on Pace or the commanders.

Seems to me that the larger context suggests more clearly than the shorter snippet posted earlier by Bob Geiger, another blogger on the call, how pumped up the Politico story and headline were. Nonetheless, the truth is, Bresnahan's story was factually accurate. Though it's still unclear what Reid said about Petraeus, which is the more controversial aspect of the story, since Pace is on his way out and Petraeus is the key guy in Iraq. We were only able to obtain a tape of a limited chunk of the call.

Still outstanding question: Why didn't Reid's office just confirm that he'd said this? Why play this one so cute? A lot of people wanted confirmation, and a lot of liberal bloggers were out there saying that they didn't remember Reid saying this stuff. Couldn't Reid's office have just spared a bunch of people a lot of grief and effort by just confirming it?

Update: Taylor Marsh has more on just how unsightly this mess really is.

Christian Right Activist Asks Romney: The Bible, Or The Book Of Mormon?
Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Christian right Traditional Values Coalition, reportedly asked Mitt Romney face to face whether he would be sworn in as president using a Bible, or the Book of Mormon. Romney gave the right answer for Sheldon: The Bible. While Mormons do hold the Bible to be the Word of God, so there is nothing extraordinary about Romney's answer, consider this: Sheldon cared enough to potentially base his political decisions on that question.

Romney: Massachusetts Legislature Ignored "The Voice Of The People" On Gay Marriage
In a new press release, Mitt Romney condemned the failure of the Massachusetts legislature to reach the necessary 50 votes (out of 200) to send a constitutional ban on gay marriage to the voters in 2008: "Today's vote by the State Legislature is a regrettable setback in our efforts to defend traditional marriage. Unfortunately, our elected representatives decided that the voice of the people did not need to be heard in this debate. It is now even more important that we pass a Constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. Marriage is an institution that goes to the heart of our society, and our leaders can no longer abdicate their responsibility."

Upper-Income Black Donors Favor Obama
A study by USA Today finds that Barack Obama has taken the lion's share of donations from ZIP codes with both large numbers of black households and high black household incomes. Obama received about 2,200 donations from such areas in the first quarter, compared to only about 1,000 donations for Hillary Clinton.

Next Dem Debate Based On YouTube Questions
Democratic candidates will face questions posed by average citizens in the next Democratic debate July 23rd in Charleston, S.C. hosted CNN and Google/YouTube. Although the debate is set to be moderated by Anderson Cooper, he will be largely drawing questions from YouTube submissions.

Brownback Pegs Hopes On Straw Poll
Sam Brownback will begin a four-day, 27-town bus tour of Iowa on Monday, part of the campaign's do-or-die effort to perform well in the Ames straw poll this August.

Gay Advocacy Group To Lobby In Ames Straw Poll
The Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gay advocacy group, said it plans to lobby public opinion in key primary states against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and other issues. "It’s a process of moving public opinion and moving public officials," said the organization's president Joe Solmonese.

Biden Loses Top Fundraiser
Joe Biden's campaign has lost Kory Mitchell, a top Democratic fundraiser. Mitchell joined the Biden campaign shortly after his previous favorite, Evan Bayh, dropped out of the race, but he reportedly never fit in among the Biden operation, and is said to have finally left over a salary dispute.

Obama Abandons Coal-To-Liquid Proposals
Under pressure from environmentalist circles, Barack Obama dropped his support for controversial coal-to-liquid technology. With the Senate considering a new energy bill, the issue gained renewed attention from environmental groups and left-wing blogs. A diarist on John Edwards’ campaign blog had criticized Obama this week as hypocritical on global warming over his support for liquefied coal, and asked supporters to sign MoveOn.org’s petition on the issue (ed. note - the original post referred to the site as "John Edwards' campaign blog" without clarifying that the link in question came from a diarist and not Edwards' campaign staff). — Benjy Sarlin

Congress Discloses Personal Finances
Did you know Harry Reid owns a gold mine? Find your own Senator's or Representative's personal finance disclosure form. The latest filings were released today.

Okay, we've just spoken to two more bloggers who were on the conference call with Harry Reid.

John Aravosis, who founded and runs the popular AmericaBlog, and Joe Sudbay, a D.C. political strategist who also writes for AmericaBlog, told me in interviews that say they don't remember Reid describing General Pace as incompetent or hear Reid disparaging Petraeus, as The Politico is reporting.

"I don't remember him saying this," Aravosis told us when asked about the assertion that Reid had called Paced "incompetent."

Sudbay, meanwhile, added: "If he had said something really juicy, we would have posted that ourselves."

Both Aravosis and Sudbay remember Reid discussing the two Generals, but said they don't remember him talking about them in the way that the Politico characterized the discussion. The Politico story claimed that Reid had called Pace "incompetent," and added that Reid had made "similar disparaging remarks" about Petraeus. Both Aravosis and Sudbay said they didn't remember Reid making any disparaging remarks about Petraeus.

The Politico story has set off an uproar, with Drudge linking it, John McCain and other leading Republicans attacking Reid over it, and White House press secretary Tony Snow using the story to slam Reid as anti-military at his press briefing today. But as we reported below, three other prominent bloggers on the call -- with Aravosis and Sudbay, that makes five total now -- didn't hear Reid say any such thing.

The Politico reporter who wrote the story is declining to comment on the bloggers' assertion and declining to comment on whether he spoke to anyone who was on the call. All five of these bloggers say they didn't hear from the Politico reporter.

Aravosis, meanwhile, pointed out that it was unlikely that the Politico could have gotten this from anyone on the call.

"Why would somebody on this call, which was on the record, hear something so newsworthy, and instead of posting it, call the Politico and tell them this on background?" Aravosis asked. "We would have written about it ourselves."

Intriguingly, Reid isn't denying directly that he said the remarks attributed to him, but he did say at a press conference today that he held Petraeus in high regard.

To be clear: We don't know what was said on the call, and we're not sure why Reid's office won't say so more directly. We're just trying to find out as much as we can by talking to the people who were on it.

It's possible, for instance, that Reid did mildly criticize Pace, and even conceivably Petraeus, without using the word "incompetent." Of course, without that one-word quote on the front page of the Politico, and then on Drudge, it almost certainly wouldn't have created the explosion that it did.

Meanwhile, AmericaBlog has much more on this in this post, which addresses this and an another important but overlooked aspect of this whole story. Check it out.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) laced into Harry Reid for disputed remarks about General David Petraeus in a statement:

“The fact that Democrat Leader Reid would stoop so low as to insult our top military commanders in an attempt to gain political points with his liberal blogging friends is outrageous. The debate about this war has gone into the gutter when the Democrat Leader of the United States Senate uses ‘disparaging remarks’ to describe our military leadership. Generals Pace and Petraeus are two honorable men who have performed admirably under the most challenging of circumstances. These combat-hardened soldiers have both served their nation with distinction throughout their military careers. To sling political mud at these two men who are not part of the political arena is cowardly."

This story's snowballing. Now the chairman of the Republican National Committee is getting into the game.

GOP chair Robert Duncan just issued this statement blasting Harry Reid over the Politico story claiming that he disparaged Generals Pace and Petraeus:

“Harry Reid doesn’t understand that there are some lines you just don’t cross. There is room for him to express reasonable disagreement about our path forward in Iraq. But to attack our military is unacceptable. To attack General Petraeus, the man actually leading our troops on the ground, is reprehensible. And to call the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, someone who has served our nation for his entire adult life with honor and distinction, ‘incompetent’ is beyond the pale. Harry Reid once said ‘This war is lost.’ What he’s really lost, apparently, is any semblance of respect he might have once had for the best and bravest armed forces in the world.”

As we reported below, three prominent liberal bloggers who were actually on the conference call with Reid say he said no such thing.

Update: Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) also took the chance to lace into the "Democrat Leader" with a statement:

“The fact that Democrat Leader Reid would stoop so low as to insult our top military commanders in an attempt to gain political points with his liberal blogging friends is outrageous. The debate about this war has gone into the gutter when the Democrat Leader of the United States Senate uses ‘disparaging remarks’ to describe our military leadership. Generals Pace and Petraeus are two honorable men who have performed admirably under the most challenging of circumstances. These combat-hardened soldiers have both served their nation with distinction throughout their military careers. To sling political mud at these two men who are not part of the political arena is cowardly."

One of the big stories of the day is this front-page piece in The Politico that claims that Harry Reid blasted General Peter Pace as "incompetent" and described General David Petraeus in similar terms on a recent conference call with liberal bloggers.

The story has already sparked an uproar, and the conservatives have jumped all over it. It was linked on Drudge, and John McCain sent out a press release attacking Reid over it. And White House press secretary Tony Snow use it to hammer Reid as anti-military in today's White House briefing. Snow brought up the Politico story himself, saying that it was "outrageous" for Reid to be "issuing slanders" toward commanders "in a time of war."

But we've just spoken with three of the prominent liberal bloggers who say they were on the call, and they all say they don't remember Reid saying anything like this. One flatly denies that he said it.

The Politico story, which was written by John Bresnahan, only attributes the claim that Reid disparaged the generals to "several sources familiar with the interview," without saying whether these sources were on the call. It contains no direct quote of Reid beyond the one word "incompetent." It goes on to say that Reid "made similar disparaging remarks" about Petraeus, without quoting or paraphrasing any.

Bresnahan declined to comment on the bloggers' assertions and declined to comment on the question of whether he'd spoken to anyone who was actually on the conference call. Quotes from the bloggers themselves after the jump.

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Check out this Associated Press story on an event Rudy Giuliani spoke at today:

WILMINGTON, Del. - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, in an indirect swipe at President Bush, said Thursday the overwhelming attitude that the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction reflects a lack of leadership...

Speaking at a Flag Day rally in Wilmington, Del., Giuliani told more than 200 supporters: "What we're lacking is strong, aggressive, bold leadership like we had with Ronald Reagan."

So Rudy thinks that under Bush, we're "lacking strong, aggressive, bold leadership," right? It'll be interesting to see what GOP primary voters make of that.

Okay, it looks as if the right-wing Jerusalem Post has decided to stop its bizarre practice of sending out Rudy Giuliani's fundraising mail under the paper's name. Or so the paper has just announced in an email to readers, anyway.

To recap: The other day we reported that Rudy's campaign had sent out a fundraising pitch to readers of the Post. Rudy's pitch attacked Democrats as terrorist-coddlers who couldn't be trusted to defend Israel.

As we noted, what was odd about the pitch was that the sender was identified as The Post, and not as the campaign.

The effect was that it wasn't immediately clear who was raising the money, though it was made clear in the letter itself that the pitch was being made by the Rudy campaign. What's more, the fundraising request appeared at first glance to bear the support of the newspaper.

Well, now the Jerusalem Post has just sent out a new email telling readers that this practice will stop.

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MSNBC's First Read political blog shares a very interesting as-yet-unreleased number from the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll:

The most striking thing about the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is the damage that's been done to the GOP brand. Bush is not only unpopular (his approval rating is just 29% and favorability is only 32% -- both all-time lows for him). But his unpopularity also is dragging down the image of the Republican Party to its lowest level ever in this survey (28% positive rating). For better or worse, the GOP needs Bush to improve if they want the party's image to improve.

Via Jonathan Singer, who comments: "Although it's not terribly easy to draw a conclusion from a description of poll numbers that does not contain all of the available data, these numbers do not seem to bode well for the electoral hopes of the Republican Party. And these numbers should not be viewed as simply in a vacuum, just one outlier poll making a conclusion that is not supported by the preponderance of evidence. Polling earlier this year from CBS News and The New York Times showed the exact same thing -- the Republican Party's image has seldom, and perhaps even never in recent memory, been as bad as it is today."

Check out this story about Hillary's financial disclosure forms that Newsday just posted:

WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton made about $10 million off corporate speeches last year, in addition to making an undisclosed million-dollar book advance -- and a hidden, hefty payday from the embattled boss of consumer list vendor InfoUSA, according to Hillary Rodham Clinton's personal finance disclosures released Thursday.

The former president raked in between $75,000 and $450,000 per chat session, the records show, averaging about $141,000 for each of the 67 speeches he delivered, many of them in Canada and Australia. Hillary Clinton's haul, in addition to her $151,000 Senate salary, included $350,000 from her autobiography "Living History."

An "undisclosed million-dollar book advance"? Did we know that Bill Clinton, who recently published a massive autobiography, is writing another book?

We've checked in with Bill's spokesman. We'll keep you posted.

Update: Yes, he is writing a new book -- it's a continuation of his autobiography dealing with the period after his Presidency.

Nancy Pelosi says it. From The Times:

It has been nearly three weeks since Democrats have held a formal Iraq debate or voted on an Iraq proposal in the House or Senate. Not since they assumed the majority in January has there been such a lull. During the three weeks, Congressional approval ratings have fallen, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she knew why.

“It’s the war, I believe so, it’s the war,” Ms. Pelosi said in a brief interview on Wednesday. “In terms of the issue that the American people want to have resolved, the war is three or four times higher than any other issue.”

No mystery here. Time to get down to it.

Iowa GOP Announces Candidates For Straw Poll — Including Rudy And McCain
The Republican Party of Iowa has announced the ballot roster for the August straw poll in Ames. Interestingly enough, Fred Thompson is not on the list — though the release adds that "other credible candidate will be considered when appropriate." And here's the real kicker: Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, who have pulled out from the poll, will have their names placed on the ballot anyway — possibly just to humiliate them with single-digit vote percentages.

Edwards To Introduce Proposal To Reduce Drug Patent Terms
John Edwards will reportedly unveil a proposal to drastically change how pharmaceutical drugs are developed, patented and marketed. His proposal would remove long-term patents for the drugs, and would instead have the government establish cash incentives for multiple companies to manufacture the drugs.

NYT Focuses On Obama And Rezko
Barack Obama says that pizza chain owner and developer Tony Rezko, who is now indicted for influence peddling, is nothing more than a one-time fundraiser. The New York Times has now picked up on the story, and they write that the two have had a closer relationship than Obama will now readily acknowledge, such as a land purchase from Rezko's wife. "I am sure that Obama saw in Tony the same thing that many of us saw — someone who was willing to help if asked, and for little in return," said former Rezko business partner Michael Rumman.

Rudy: I'd Consider Adding More Troops In Iraq
Rudy Giuliani says he would be open to sending more troops to Iraq if General David Petraeus asked for them. "If he said the strategy was working, and we needed more soldiers to make it work," Giuliani said in an interview with Bloomberg News, "of course I'd look at that and consider that." One question, how can the strategy already be working and still need more troops to "make it work?"

Senators Add $4 Billion For Border Enforcement To Immigration Deal
In an effort to keep the immigration deal afloat Senate dealmakers have added about $4 billion for border security and workplace enforcement to the bill. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he will move ahead with the deal if 20 more GOP Senators commit to it. "Everybody's trying to prove that they are willing and able to enforce the law this time, unlike 1986," said Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ). "What better way to demonstrate that other than to say, 'We're not going to let congressional appropriations dictate this — we are going to put the money up front.'"

Clinton Rakes In $500K With O'Malley
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley helped pull in nearly $500,000 for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid last night in Baltimore County. The campaign reported that many couples at the event gave $9,200, the federally allowed maximum donation of $2,300 each for both the primary and general election campaigns.

Richardson To Focus On Energy Policy In Campaign Book
Bill Richardson is set to release his campaign book, which will make energy policy its central focus. The book will be entitled, Leading by Example: How We Can Inspire an Energy and Security Revolution.

Giuliani's Untraditional Marriage Kept Off Campaign Trail
After a brief interlude into the national spotlight, Rudy Giuliani's third wife Judith has once again receded to the sidelines of her husband's bid for the White House, the New York Times reports. Unfavorable press on the inconvenient facts of his divorce and her supposed role in his estrangement from his children may end up to be too much for the former New York City mayor, who is facing no less of a family man than Mitt Romney.

George Allen Reappearing On Virginia Fundraising Scene
The Washington Post that George Allen was the star attraction at a fundraiser last week for Republican candidate Gary H. Baise, who is running against an incumbent Democrat on the Fairfax County Board. While Allen disappeared from politics after his political self-destruction last year, it has been rumored that he's considering a run for governor in 2009 — and if so, expect him to be seen at a lot more local GOP fundraisers in the next year or two, rebuilding his reputation bit by bit.

Mike Huckabee: Media Pays More Attention To Paris Hilton Than Things That Matter
Mike Huckabee is upset with the news media for spending too much time on Paris Hilton and events like "Britney Spears getting out of a car without underwear" than more important matters, as in who will be the next president. So how does Huckabee think he might be able to boost the attention for the presidential race, and his own campaign? "Accompanying Paris Hilton to jail might work," the frustrated candidate said.

Tommy Thompson Fakes Out The Press — Is Staying In
Tommy Thompson has found an interesting way to finally get some attention from the media: Tell them that he'll be making a "major announcement," have his campaign deny he's dropping out, then tell us what the big news is — that he's staying in the Ames straw poll. "I know most of you have tuned in to see if I was dropping out of the race," Thompson said. "I am very much involved in this campaign." Meanwhile, Thompson has a new radio ad in Iowa, explaining his plan for Iraq.

New Poll: Bush And Congress Both At Astonishing Lows
A new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll released this evening has President Bush at a horrible 29%-66% approval-disapproval rating. Congress, however, is even worse off at 23%-64%. In the presidential primaries, the national numbers are: For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton 39%, Barack Obama 25%, John Edwards 15% and nobody else above 10%; And for the Republicans, Rudy Giuliani 29%, Fred Thompson 20%, and Mitt Romney and John McCain tied at 14% apiece.

NewsMax Promoting Gerth/Van Natta Book
Ben Smith has a great find: conservative website NewsMax is selling Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta's Hillary Clinton biography "Her Way" and promoting it heavily: "Two veteran New York Times reporters — with almost 42 years of combined experience — decide to tell the true story of Hillary Clinton in a new biography. For doing so they are attacked by their own newspaper."

McCain And Hillary Trade Blows
John McCain went after Hillary today over the roughly $150 million in earmarks that Hillary put into the defense appropriations bill. McCain vowed to slice the pork from the bill. The Hillary campaign hit back, pointing out that not long ago McCain praised the very same bill he's now trashing. More detail on the dust-up here.

Dean On Florida: "Their Primary Essentially Won't Count"
Howard Dean is stepping up the rhetoric against Florida, where both state parties have come together to defy the national leaders by moving their primary date up to January 29. Dean has threatened to not award any Florida delegates to candidates who campaign there. Dean has now reportedly reassured a pro-New Hampshire primary group, "Their primary essentially won’t count."

Giuliani To Join ABC Iowa Debate in August
Rudy Giuliani announced today that he will participate in a televised debate in Des Moines — which will take place about a week before the big Ames straw poll that he has withdrawn from.. "Mayor Giuliani is committed to providing voters with as much information as possible in order for them to evaluate their next president," Giuliani campaign manager Mike DuHaime told ABC News in a statement.

Cardinal: Rudy Is "Directly Against The Fundamental Catholic Position"
Cardinal Walter Kasper, a member of the elite Roman Curia, told the New York Observer in an interview that Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion is unacceptable. "Because if he says, 'Well, I’m personally opposed but I believe a woman should have a right to choose,' well then, how can you be personally opposed? It’s a contradiction," Kasper said. Kasper went even further: "To be pro-choice is directly against the fundamental Catholic position, and I don’t see how it could be possible."

D.C. Voting Rights Clears Senate Committee
A bill to award the District of Columbia a full vote in the House of Representatives has passed in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on a 9-1 vote.

Edwards And Obama Both Going To Each Other's Stomping Grounds
Barack Obama and John Edwards are both set to hold fundraisers in the other's home turf. Edwards has a small-dollar fundraiser tonight in Chicago, with a minimum donation of a mere $15. Meanwhile, Obama will hold a $1,000-plus big-money fundraiser tomorrow in North Carolina.

Tucker Carlson Presents False Choice On Abortion
Tucker Carlson tried to sway pro-life Family Research Council president Tony Perkins towards Rudy with a hypothetical matchup, asking "What's the right decision to make if you're morally opposed to abortion, you've never supported a pro-choice candidate, but it is a choice between a pro-choice candidate, Giuliani, who says he will work to reduce abortions and Hillary Clinton, who takes money from people who commit them, what do you do?" But here's the thing: Tucker Carlson's imagined "choice" is a false one. Hillary Clinton gained significant media attention in 2005 after she presented a plan to work together with pro-lifers to reduce abortions. And not only have similar claims by Rudy been debunked but he made six donations to Planned Parenthood in the 1990s alone. — Benjy Sarlin

Robert Novak's new column (no link available yet) is absolutely brutal about John McCain's Presidential prospects:

While Sen. John McCain claims that everything is "fine" in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, events strongly suggest otherwise. The former frontrunner is now in deep trouble. With respect to the positive signs a presidential campaign can point to at this early stage -- fundraising, national polls, state polls, endorsements -- McCain finds himself almost empty-handed.

For this and other reasons, the nascent campaign of former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson poses a challenge for McCain in particular. Thompson has reportedly raised millions in just days after filing an exploratory committee, and a new national Bloomberg poll puts him at 21 percent, in a strong second place against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. McCain has plunged to 12 percent, just ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, but at least Romney has some bright points in his favor: his lead in fundraising and his lead in Iowa and New Hampshire polls.

McCain has no such good news. To make matters worse, key McCain supporters on Capitol Hill and in the political consulting world are jumping ship to go to the Thompson campaign. If Thompson is the charging bear, McCain is the slowest of the three campers fleeing him -- the most likely to be devoured.

Yikes! We don't think Thompson is all that scary -- by our lights, Novak is far more the devouring kind than Thompson is. Either way, that is one vicious column.

If Thompson is the charging bear, McCain is the slowest of the three campers fleeing him -- the most likely to be devoured.

-- Robert Novak, in a new column (no link available yet). Thompson doesn't seem that frightening to us, but the column is indeed brutal about John McCain's prospects, opining that McCain is "in deep trouble."

Rudy Giuliani has been saying again and again lately that we need to beware going "back to the 1990s" -- that is, back to the time when Bill Clinton was President -- in our attitudes towards terrorism.

Just yesterday, as Think Progress notes, Rudy directly attacked Bill on Fox News, saying he "let things go" in the war on terrorism:

GIULIANI: Well, that’s the preeminent challenge of our generation that’s been imposed on us by the terrorists. I mean, they’ve been at war with us for a long time. Unfortunately, tragically, we didn’t recognize it until September 11th, or America didn’t, but now we do....

It’s a frustrating thing, and America needs leadership to remain on offense. We can fall back easily into what the Democrats are talking about. It sounds very appealing, you know? Don’t react, let things go, kind of act the way Clinton did in the ’90s.

He sounds so sincere, so matter of fact, doesn't he?

So we thought it would be useful to pull up another quote on the topic from the very same Rudy Giuliani. Back in September 2006 Rudy was asked to comment on the controversy over ABC's docudrama, The Path to 9/11, which faulted him for missing an opportunity to kill Osama Bin Laden and otherwise being soft on terror. Wanna know what he said?

Read more »

Check out this video that the McCain campaign is distributing of Mitt Romney at a news conference on May 27, 2005, the day he vetoed a Massachusetts stem cell bill while serving as Governor there:

"I am absolutely committed to my promise to maintain the status quo with regards to laws relating to abortion and choice, and so far I've been able to successfully do that. My personal philosophical views about this issue are not something that I think would do anything other than distract from what I think is a more critical agenda, which relates to the topic we are talking about today but also jobs, education and health care."

The McCain campaign claims that this video, taken alongside Romney's claim that he'd had an epiphany about abortion six months earlier than this press conference, shows that Romney's claims of an earlier revelation are bogus.

"Mitt Romney's biggest challenge in this election will be convincing Republicans he has principled positions on important issues, especially now that it's known that he remained committed to pro-choice policies after his 'epiphany' on abortion in 2004," McCain spokesman Matt David says in a statement being circulated with the vid.

So was Romney caught in a contradiction here? Unclear. Romney, despite his personal views, may have simply been sticking to his promise to Massachusetts voters not to mess with the state's abortion laws -- an interpretation perhaps supported by his reference to his "personal" views.

Via Atrios, Obama campaign general counsel Robert Bauer caused the Senator some trouble today by writing a piece on the Huffington Post blog arguing for a pardon for Scooter Libby. Presumably not a popular position among Dems.

So we just asked the Obama campaign where he stood on a pardon. The answer: He's against it.

The Obama camp just sent us a transcript of an interview Obama did with ABC News' David Wright that hasn't been posted by ABC yet:

Wright: Another person who enjoys extraordinary privilege in our justice system, Scooter Libby, should he go to jail?

Obama: I think that based on the evidence and conviction that he deserves jail time, yes.

Wright: Full sentence?

Obama: Well, I have not followed the case closely enough to want to render a judgment on what would be typical in these types of sentences but what I can say is, he obviously betrayed the basic principle that you tell the truth to investigators to federal investigators. He did not do that and I think that’s a problem.

Wright: And if the President were to pardon him would that be a travesty of justice?

Obama: I think that people expect that if someone breaks the law that they are treated like other people who break the laws regardless of the connections or contacts they have.

Not as forceful as it could have been, but pretty much opposing a pardon.

Update: Yes, he definitely opposes a pardon. The Obama campaign just sent over this from spokesman Dan Pfeiffer:

"Bob was speaking on his own behalf. Senator Obama opposes a pardon and strongly believes that Libby should be held accountable for his actions."