Edwards Poverty Foundation Story Spreading
The Associated Press has now done their own take on allegations made by The New York Times, that John Edwards used his anti-poverty foundation work as a cover to stay in the political spotlight and travel to early primary states. Chuck Todd notes, "Neither one of them is a positive for Edwards and, frankly, the AP hit might be worse since it will likely to get picked up in a slew of smaller papers tomorrow. In fact the AP story hints at a potential FEC investigation."

Group Calls Upon Rudy To Fire Placa
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, an advocacy group for victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, are calling upon Rudy Giuliani's security consulting firm to fire Monsignor Alan Placa, a childhood friend of Giuliani who has been accused in a 2003 Suffolk County, Massachusetts, grand jury report of having sexually abused children. Placa was never prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. The company has no intention of firing Placa. "The former mayor believes that Alan Placa has been unjustly accused," said a Giuliani Partners spokeswoman.

Thompson To Announce ... Campaign Headquarters
Nashville NBC affiliate WSM-TV reported yesterday that Fred Thompson's campaign has picked a historic site in the city to be the campaign's national headquarters, with a grand unveiling set for this Tuesday. A source told the station that Thompson would announce his candidacy there, saying that "Everything's in place for Tuesday," but Tennessee GOP Chairman Bob Davis denied that there would be an explicit announcement of candidacy.

Obama Grassroots Operating Independently, Focusing On GOTV
The New York Times has a story on the grassroots support Barack Obama enjoys, and how it often operates independently of the campaign and beyond their control — potentially both a blessing and a curse. "It is our hope that anyone who supports Obama does so directly through his campaign," said campaign spokesman Bill Burton. One concern of both the movement and the campaign proper is that their work ultimately recruits not simply volunteers and small donors, as the 2004 Howard Dean campaign was notable for, but also is able to mobilize and turn out actual voters to win the primaries.

Richardson: I Will Ask Court Nominees About Abortion
Bill Richardson appears to be trying to compensate for his gaffe at the first Democratic debate, in which he said the late Supreme Court Justice Byron White — a Roe v. Wade dissenter — was his model justice. "I know I am going to upset some people, but this is what I would ask them," Richardson said at an Iowa event, when asked about his potential approach to court nominees. "I would say, 'Do you believe that Roe vs Wade is settled law?' If they say yes, they have a good chance of being picked. If they say no I will not pick them."

Elizabeth Edwards To Attend San Fran Gay Pride Event
Elizabeth Edwards will be appearing tomorrow in San Francisco at the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Democratic Club, in a breakfast being held in association with the annual gay pride parade. This marks the first time someone with such a high political profile will be attending the parade festivities — not even Senator Dianne Feinstein, who formerly served as mayor of the city, has gone there. (And on a side note, the local LGBT Democratic club is named in honor of Toklas, who in addition to being the life partner of Gertrude Stein, is also best remembered as giving her name to the recipe for marijuana brownies.)

Ohio Attorney General Curses Out Reporter At Obama Event
This might not be the kind of publicity Barack Obama wants: At a fundraiser for the candidate a few days ago in Ohio, state Attorney General Marc Dann cursed out Warren Tribune Chronicle reporter Steve Oravecz, over a story Oravecz wrote alleging that Dann helped get his adopted daughter a job in the Secretary of State's office. Dann was caught on camera yelling over to Oravecz, "Hey Steve, write this down: Go fuck yourself!"

Obama Pledges New Ethics Rules
Barack Obama said members of his presidential administration would face tough new ethics rules, including a restriction on lobbying from former political appointees, a gift ban, a two-year restriction on working in a domain involving a former employer and others. "When there are meetings between lobbyists and a government agency," Obama said, "we won’t be going to the Supreme Court to keep it secret like Dick Cheney and his energy task force; we’ll be putting them up on the Internet for every American to watch.” The news comes out at a time when the Senator's image as an outsider was threatened by the release of controversial opposition research and his ties to an indicted Chicago real estate mogul.

RNC Out-Raises DNC, House Committees Tied For May
Congressional Quarterly reports that the Republican National Committee raised $6.8 million last month, compared to $4.9 million for the Democratic National Committee. Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee matched the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, at about $4.5 million apiece — though the Democrats benefitted from spending less. While we have previously reported on the DCCC's fundraising lead, the GOP appears to be catching up. One possible explanation might be from Democratic money being taken up for now by competition between the candidates for president, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama raising record amounts.

McCain Camp Apologizes For Supporter's Anti-Mormon Remarks
John McCain's campaign has apologized for a reported incident in April, at a meeting of the Republican Party in Warren County, Iowa. McCain's county chairman, Chad Workman, reportedly said that he would not support Mitt Romney because of Romney's Latter-Day Saints religion, and accused the Mormon church of supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas. "Such comments are inappropriate and unacceptable," said McCain spokesman Danny Diaz.

Romney Decries Efforts To Close Guantanamo
Mitt Romney today denounced government officials who might be looking at ways to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I think Guantanamo is a symbol of our resolve," Romney said. Romney also reiterated his denunciation of habeas corpus rights for terror suspects, which he has voiced at Republican debates. "I do not want to see those prisoners transferred to United States soil," the candidate said. "I do not want to see the legal system in this country potentially opened up to terrorists and feel we’re better keeping Guantanamo in place. And if we need additional space, why, we should be expanding Guantanamo."

Thompson Headed To Early Primary States
The Hill reports that Fred Thompson is headed next week to South Carolina for a lunch with the state Republican party and also to New Hampshire, where he will meet with the Manchester Union Leader editorial board. MSNBC reports that he will practice his stump speech, which is still being finalized.

Lindsey Graham Takes A Beating Back Home Over Immigration
Senator Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) approval rating has sunk to deep low, according to a new poll from Atlanta-based firm InsiderAdvantage. Graham's approval rating is a ghastly 31%, compared to a disapproval of 40%. And thanks to Graham's loud support for the immigration bill — which only 21% of respondents approved of, compared to 63% disapproval — Republicans have a higher disapproval of Graham than Democrats. GOPers' disapproval of Graham is at 46%, compared to Dems at 36%. Graham had for some time been in danger of a primary challenge by state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel — but Ravenel has now been indicted on charges of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine.

Top Arkansas Dems Support Hillary
Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by most of the top Democratic officials, including new endorsements today from Senator Mark Pryor, Congressmen Mike Ross, Marion Berry and Vic Snyder, former Senators Dale Bumpers and David Pryor, and others. Notably absent from the list, at least thus far: Governor Mike Beebe and Senator Blanche Lincoln, who have yet to make any endorsements.

Reid Suggests Bush Do "You Know What" With Rubber Stamp
Straight-talking Nevadan Harry Reid responded today to a threat by the Bush administration to veto energy legislation that includes new automobile gas mileage standards. "They can take their rubber stamp and you know what they can do with it," the Senate Majority Leader said. Let us be the first to suggest a Unity '08 ticket of Harry Reid for President and Mike Lange for Vice President.

Oh, this is fun. Thank you, Senator Inhofe, for the endless entertainment today!

As you know, Inhofe made a bunch of news today by alleging on the radio that he overheard Hillary and Barbara Boxer saying they want a "legislative fix" for talk radio. This story was broken by Drudge "collaborator" Andrew Breitbart today in a TV "exclusive."

But here's what's funny. He told a second version of the story today on Fox News. And, well, let's just say that the two versions are not exactly in sync with one another.

Here's version number one, the one broken by Breitbart:

Inhofe said:

I was going over to vote the other day, and I was walking with two very liberal gals -- they didn't pay any attention to me being with them -- and they were outraged by something that you said, or Rush Limbaugh said. Somebody said something that upset 'em. They said, "We've got to do something about this. These are nothing but far right wing extremists. We've got to have a balance. There's gotta be a legislative fix to this."

Inhofe went on to confirm that the two Senators were Hillary and Boxer. So, in this version, Inhofe overheard this "the other day."

Version number two after the jump. Enjoy!

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Here's an interesting side note on the appointment today of Republican John Barrasso to the Senate vacancy left by the death of Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY): It turns out that Barrasso — who was appointed partly because of his staunch conservative views — has a glaring pro-choice past.

More after the jump.

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The Edwards campaign is pushing back hard against today's enormous front-page New York Times piece alleging that there was something untoward about the fact that the antipoverty programs set up by John Edwards provided a "bridge" to his Presidential campaign. The story has already come under fire here, here, and here.

But we've just learned something new and surprising about the story. The Edwards campaign has just told us on the record that The Times refused the chance to talk to any real, live beneficiaries of Edwards' programs.

If this is so, this strikes us as highly suspect. Particularly in light of the story's lede from reporter Leslie Wayne:

John Edwards ended 2004 with a problem: how to keep alive his public profile without the benefit of a presidential campaign that could finance his travels and pay for his political staff.

Mr. Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself, tax filings show.

We think these lines are highly charged with innuendo in a way that's beneath the Paper of Record. They stray into mind-reading and indulge in motive assessment. They lack factual specificity. Given how potentially damaging they are -- and simultaneously how murky they are -- they should not have been permitted by the editors to get onto the paper's front page. Unless the paper's editors no longer mind murky innuendo on A1 above the fold.

But if you are going to put such lines on your front page -- if you are going to publish an enormous story alleging that a person's antipoverty program was set up mainly to benefit the person who set it up -- then basic journalistic fairness would dictate that you make a genuine effort to see how the program fulfilled its "stated" purpose of helping people. Surprisingly, no mention of how the programs actually impacted people appears until the story's 18th paragraph -- and at that point it comes from the mouth of an Edwards spokesman. There's no indication that the reporter made any genuine independent effort at all to discover whether the programs helped anyone.

Such an effort might entail, you know, speaking to such people, among other things. Yet no such people are quoted in the story.

So we checked in with the Edwards campaign. And yep -- the campaign confirmed that the paper had turned down the chance to speak to any people directly impacted by Edwards' programs.

We've asked the reporter and a Times spokesperson for comment. If we hear back, we'll let you know.

The must-read story of the day is by Alex Koppelman and Joe Strupp in Salon. It tells the tale of Monsignor Alan Placa, a longtime Giuliani employee and confidant linked to shocking allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups.

While elements of the story have been out there before, Salon adds a crucial new detail: Despite these allegations, Rudy's business, Giuliani Partners, continues to keep Placa on its payroll. The article claims Rudy believes Placa is innocent.

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The National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both raised about $4.5 million last month, but the Dems spent less, giving them another chance to add to their lead over the GOP in funding for House races, according to CQ Politics. We reported last month about the continuing dominance of the Democrats in fundraising for House races. The Dems spent $2.3 million and ended with $11.5 million cash on hand while the GOP spent $4.3 million, leaving them with $1.8 million cash. The Republicans also have slightly more debt.

The Republican National Committee, with $6.8 million in contributions, continued to out-raise the Democrats, however, who brought in $4.9 million, according to another report in CQ Politics. The RNC has been the exception to the general GOP slump since the transfer of power in the last election. The committee has now raised $39.8 million, over 60 percent more than the Dems' $24.7 million. Their lead in cash on hand is even more impressive: $15 million with no debt compared to $5.5 million and a $2.5 million debt for Democrats.

This morning you probably read about Jay Garrity, the hapless aide for Mitt Romney who's under investigation for allegedly impersonating a cop, harassing a reporter and other shenanigans.

Well, it looks as if it's finally dawned on Garrity that he's creating a problem for his boss. The Romney campaign has just confirmed to Ana Marie Cox that Garrity is taking a quiet leave of absence until those probes are sorted out.

“I am not going to be president.”

-- Michael Bloomberg, quoted by The New York Times, talking on his radio show this morning about whether he's going to run. As The Times notes, this denial is different from past ones. Is this finally the flat-out denial everyone's been waiting for? Or does he mean that he thinks he has no chance of winning? Or should we all get a life and stop talking about this until he himself explains his intentions?

Drudge's banner headline right now:

The shocking headline links to a "Breitbart TV Exclusive" -- Andrew Breitbart is a "collaborator" on the Drudge Report -- saying that GOP Senator James Inhofe says he overheard Hillary and Boxer saying they want a "legislative fix" for talk radio.

Except that...they didn't say this. Or so their spokespeople claim.

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Remember Mike Lange? He's perhaps best known for his rant against Dem Governor Brian Schweitzer during a GOP caucus meeting, an episode that got him pushed out as a State House leader in Montana. The expletive-filled speech turned Lange into a blogosphere and YouTube phenomenon.

Well, guess what -- Mike Lange is back! And this time, he may be running for the Senate!

From the Great Falls Tribune:

HELENA — Ousted House Majority Leader Mike Lange apparently has no intention of going quietly into the good night.

Lange, whose obscenity-laced screed against Gov. Brian Schweitzer during the legislative session is a YouTube feature, has apologized once again for his outburst — not at all coincidentally just before the state Republican Party convention here, where he expects to announce that he's running either for governor or U.S. Senate.

For good time's sake, here's the YouTube of his tirade:

Incidentally, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already released a statement with a short history of his "bizarre" career.

Yesterday we brought you the news that hapless GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa -- fresh from his efforts to build on our southern border the sort of electric fence used for livestock -- was planning to introduce an amendment to prevent Nancy Pelosi from consorting with the enemy.

The amendment -- attached to appropriations legislation -- would have prohibited Pelosi from using State Department funds to visit Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria.

Well, King's measure was voted on early this morning in the House of Representatives. And it went down to a crushing defeat. The final tally: 337 noes; 84 ayes.

Needless to say, all the Democrats voted against it, thus confirming once again the party's uniformly traitorous bent.

However, only 84 of 201 Republicans voted for the measure, suggesting that many Republicans, too, think it's okay for Pelosi to consort with the enemy. Go figure.

If the best strategy in golf is to keep trying to best yourself, Bush is doing a bang-up job of that in the polling game. He just keeps on outdoing himself, with poll after poll showing him with the lowest approval numbers and highest disapproval numbers yet.

And here's another one. In the new ARG poll released this morning, 27% approve of Bush's performance, and 67% disapprove.

Says ARG: "This is the highest level of disapproval and lowest level of approval for the Bush presidency." Meaning, presumably, in ARG's polls.

Ralph Nader is threatening another run for President, arguing that the two major parties amount to little more than a giant two-headed robot whose movements are entirely controlled by corporate America.

But one signature good government group he founded in the 1970s, Public Citizen, appears to disagree. A top official at PC just told me that he sees Barack Obama -- who, last time we checked, was a Democrat -- as a very reliable ally in trying to accomplish the group's goals.

Right now Obama's giving a big government reform speech in New Hampshire. The package he's unveiling includes a provision barring political appointees who leave their position from lobbying the executive branch for the remainder of the term -- thus more or less closing the so-called "revolving door" between government and the lobbying business.

Craig Holman, the ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, tells us the group endorses all the principles in Obama's speech. "These are all things we've been advocating for several years now," he says. "Obama has been working on many of these reforms for the last year."

Asked if this meant Obama was really better than the other Dems on good-government issues, Holman said: "Certainly in terms of his active roles. I would expect many of the Democratic candidates to endorse similar proposals. But Senator Obama has been actively working on these since even before he considered running for President."

New York Times: Edwards Used Anti-Poverty Charity For Personal Gain
The New York Times reports that the largest beneficiary of John Edward's anti-poverty tax exempt charity was the former Senator himself, who was looking for a way to keep busy after his failed presidential candidacy. Edwards used the Center for Promise and Opportunity, which raised $1.3 million in 2005 without the need to disclose donors or limit contributions like political groups, to fund travel and hire members of his former campaign staff. "He was not a U.S. senator; he had no office," said Ferrel Guillory, a political program director at the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "So he set up a series of entities to finance his travel, to finance a political shop and to finance an issue shop. It all adds up to a remarkable feat of keeping a presidential candidacy alive without any of the traditional bases for it."

Investigations Open Of Reporter's Allegation Against Romney Campaign
The New Hampshire Attorney General's office is now investigating an accusation by New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich that the Romney campaign's security men pulled his car over, told him they ran his license plates, and ordered him to stop following them. It is illegal in new Hampshire for private citizens to access license plate databases or to pull over other private citizens. Meanwhile the district attorney's office in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, is also investigating whether a Romney staffer falsely represented himself as a state trooper when calling them for the license information. Romney's campaign has denied the allegation.

Michael Moore: Clinton Supporter Weinstein Tried To Make Me Cut Hillary Scenes
Michael Moore is alleging that movie executive Harvey Weinstein "begged" him to cut a scene from his new film Sicko, a scene in which Moore blasts Hillary Clinton for her big donations from the medical insurance industry. "I said, 'No, Harvey. I gotta do the right thing.' He understood," Moore said. Weinstein is a friend and political supporter of the Clintons.

Giuliani: Venezuelan State Oil Company Subsidiary Is An "American Company"
After giving a speech yesterday in Florida where he ripped into Latin American dictators, Rudy Giuliani was forced to respond to a question about the ethics of work his law firm did for the Venezuelan state oil company and he waffled: “My firm did represent Citgo, they never represented Venezuela. They represented an American company that employs thousands and thousands of people in America,” he said. A Giuliani campaign aide later said: “The mayor does not say it is an American-owned company. He calls it an American company, which is accurate.”

Gore Inner Circle Remains Unallied In 2008 Race
Senior advisors to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign have largely remained neutral in the 2008 presidential race. The Hill speculates they may be leaving themselves available for a possible Gore run, but all deny it in the article — they don't think Gore is running.

Once Wall Street's Nemesis, Giuliani Now Pursues Its Donations
Some of Rudy Giuliani's highest profile cases during his time as U.S. Attorney for New York were against Wall Street tycoons accused of fraud that he aggressively pursued. Those days are long gone as Giuliani raised $1.8 million by the end of last quarter from securities and investment firms for his presidential bid a close second to only Mitt Romney.

Catholic Hierarchy: We'll Stay Involved In Presidential Politics And Abortion Debate
Catholic bishops are continuing to discuss how to address politics, especially on abortion, and in light of the pro-choice Republican Catholic candidate, Rudy Giuliani. And one thing is becoming clear: They are not going to hold back. "I personally think that anybody that is pro-choice as a Catholic is not being faithful to his Catholic identity, and I think that people who are Catholics, when they look at those issues, should take that into consideration when they vote," said Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. "I didn't name names last time, and I'm not going to name names this time. But I think if you study people's history and their records, you know the people."

Poll: Hayes Vulnerable
A poll just released by Democratic polling firm Anzalone Liszt finds that Congressman Robin Hayes (R-NC) may be vulnerable to a challenge from 2006 Democratic nominee Larry Kissell, whom he defeated by less than 400 votes. The poll finds that Hayes, with a name recognition of 83%, leads Kissell by a mere 45%-43% margin, despite Kissell's name recognition of only 34% — meaning nearly ten percent have no idea who Kissell is, but are ready to vote him simply by virtue of opposing Hayes. The poll was conducted last month.

Ralph Nader Discloses More Details On Possible 2008 Campaign
Ralph Nader told The New York Times that he is seriously weighing another third-party bid for the White House, in which he would continue to take on the Democrats and Republicans as both being tools of corporate power. One obstacle, though, would be getting infrastructure in place and overcoming onerous ballot access laws across the 50 states. "This doesn't diminish my interest," Nader said. "It means that if you are going down a certain road, you need gasoline in the tank. You need volunteers to get way and above the minimum number of signatures and a network of pro bono lawyers. But that in itself is not a reason to give up."

Stuart Rothenberg: National Dems Are On Verge Of Recruiting Two Big 2008 Senate Candidates
Stuart Rothenberg reports that the DSCC is on the verge of scoring two big candidates to run in key 2008 Senate races. He says national Dems are close to getting former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen to run against GOP Senator John Sununu and Bob Kerrey to run for the Nebraska Senate seat that would be vacated should Chuck Hagel decide not to seek reelection.

MoveOn Swiftly Raises $200,000 For Opponent Of Lieberman Ally
Joe Lieberman is once again in the sights of the netroots. MoveOn.org sent a letter to supporters decrying the Connecticut Senator's fundraiser today for Republican colleague Susan Collins of Maine and the anti-war group promptly raised $200,000 for her opponent.

MSNBC Investigates Journalists' Campaign Contributions
At least 144 journalists gave money to political campaigns in the past few years, according to an MSNBC investigation. The magazine, newspaper and television reporters and editors offered various explanations, ranging from ignorance to outright irreverence of their news organizations rules.

Tribune Writer To Release Obama Biography
An upcoming unauthorized biography of Barack Obama by Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell portrays Barack Obama as a more calculating figure than the one seen by some of his idealistic admirers. A key tidbit: The book allleges that his 2002 anti-Iraq War speech was given not simply because of his opposition to the invasion, but specifically to pick up the support of key liberal donors in Chicago early in the primary race for Senate.

Edwards To Visit Historic Cooper Union
John Edwards will deliver a speech this evening about protecting consumers from predatory lenders and otherwise reforming the credit market in this country. The site: The famous Cooper Union in New York City, where Abraham Lincoln delivered the famous "House Divided" speech in 1860, which rocketed him to the Republican nomination and the Presidency.

Has Edwards Only Raised $6 Million This Quarter?
Ben Smith reports that the Edwards campaign is either doing a masterful job of setting fundraising expectations or are having serious fundraising travails. Joe Trippi sent an e-mail to supporters this morning saying that the campaign is two-thirds of the way to its goal of raising $9 million before the end of the second quarter in ten days. That's $6 million -- which, compared to the fundraising figures that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been pulling in, means that Edwards is way behind. Unless the campaign is bluffing.

Senators Make Deal On Fuel Economy, Taxes
Senators rejected an effort to fund renewable energy with a tax on oil companies and agreed to increase fuel economy standards on new cars to 35 miles per gallon, the first such move in 20 years. Democrats were three votes short to overcome a filibuster threat from Republicans on the tax provision.

Iraq Study Group Redux
Legislation introduced today in the House would revive the Baker-Hamilton Commission to offer a new report on the best strategies in Iraq. The legislation introduced by Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) would give Congress an alternative to the one expected from the Bush Administration in September.

Late Update: This post originally contained a historical error. Robert LaFollette's disastrous speech in 1912 was not at Cooper Union.

Oh, this is a good one. GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa apparently wasn't satisfied with the attention he got for proposing the use of an electrified fence -- the kind used on livestock -- for our southern border. He must've wanted some more.

So he hit on a nifty solution: Dust off the old Pelosi-to-Syria controversy!

Just in from The Hill:

House Republican wants to restrict Pelosi’s travel

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday.

The amendment to the $34 billion State and Foreign Operations bill, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), prohibits funds to be used to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria.

The idea did get attention -- it was the lead on Drudge for some time.

So we thought it would be fun to check in with a spokesman for King and ask if the amendment would also apply to any of the Republican members of Congress who went to Syria recently. As you may recall, they included GOP Reps. Eric Cantor, David Hobson, Darryl Issa, Frank Wolf, and several others.

We reached a King spokesman and posed the question. The answer: "The measure only applies to one position -- the Speaker of the House."

When we asked why the measure wouldn't also apply to Republicans who might want to go to Syria, King's spokesman replied: "The Speaker of the House is the third in line, and Nancy Pelosi has made it very clear that she wants" to interfere in the crafting of foreign policy.

We then inquired why the measure didn't also apply to members of Congress, since journeying to "enemy" countries is presumably a bad thing even when done by lowly Congressmen. The spokesman's answer: He wasn't sure whether that had been considered, or why it might not have been.

Oh, well. One can try.

Call it the Dick Branch of the American government.

Rahm Emanuel's office just sent out a nifty chart illustrating Veep Cheney's latest. As you may have heard by now, Cheney reportedly exempted his own office from the presidential order establishing government-wide procedures for the guarding of classified national security info. He reportedly did this by asserting that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

That inspired the following from Rahm's office:

Rahm's statement:

"Today, we discovered that everything we learned in U.S. government class was wrong. Evidently, the Vice President does not consider himself a part of the executive branch, and therefore believes he can obstruct meaningful oversight and avoid being held accountable. If the Vice President truly believes he is not a part of the executive branch, he should return the salary the American taxpayers have been paying him since January 2001, and move out of the home for which they are footing the bill."

Rudy Giuliani is promising to make enormous cuts in the federal workforce -- but two experts we contacted dismissed the ideas as highly unworkable.

One even dismissed his proposals as "naive at best," adding that they revealed Rudy's "lack of knowledge about the internal workings of the federal government."

Rudy's promise came in Iowa yesterday, where delivered a speech on fiscal discipline that contained a rather outsize vow:

Giuliani said 42 percent of civilian employees in the U.S. government will retire in eight to 10 years, and he would not replace one-half of them.

"We have to end the culture of spending in Washington, D.C., and we can do that. ... I've done it before," said Giuliani, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

In other words, Rudy is claiming he'd cut the civilian government work force by at least one-fifth.

But is this really possible? Not according to the academics we interviewed.

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President Bush just keeps on shattering record after record. The new Newsweek poll has him breaking a whole bunch of them:

* Approval rating at 26%, his lowest in this poll and lower than Carter's worst.

* Sixty-five percent disapprove, the most ever in the poll.

* Seventy-three percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq, the highest yet in the survey.

* Twenty-three percent approve of his Iraq performance, the lowest yet.

Of course, Congress fares even worse than the President, checking in with an approval rating of 25%.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE...MUST CREDIT ELECTION CENTRAL...

Elizabeth Edwards has blasted and mocked Matt Drudge for picking on the Edwards' nine-year-old daughter -- and Ms. Edwards even suggested Drudge has the intelligence and sophistication of a child, Election Central can reveal!

Her comment came in response to a Drudge item quoting a local newspaper account that suggested that the Edwards' nine-year-old child supported Hillary, not her father.

Election Central has learned that Elizabeth put a comment in the comments section of another Web site's post debunking the Drudge item.

Elizabeth claimed the daughter was joking and mocked Drudge as follows:

"It was Emma Claire, who pointed to a Hillary pin slyly and then, smiling pointed to her father. A nine-year [old] sense of humor -- you would have thought Matt Drudge would have been able to pick up on that."

The Edwards campaign has confirmed to Election Central that the Elizabeth Edwards in question is indeed John Edwards' wife!

Impacting...

Now that everyone's talking about Mike Bloomberg as potential Presidential material, it seemed to us like a good idea to take a look at where he has been on, you know, the most important political issue of our time: Iraq.

Right now Bloomberg is distancing himself from Bush and his foreign policies. As part of his whirlwind "I just may go for it" tour this week, he gave a speech on Monday at Google headquarters criticizing Bush's approach to foreign policy, though it's also worth noting that he stopped short of calling for withdrawal from Iraq. He said this:

"We are in trouble overseas. There's obviously an unpopular war, but a war that has no easy answers. The people that say, 'let's just automatically pull troops out,' I don't think have really looked at the consequences of destabilizing the world, and the genocide that may or may not occur, depending on who you believe."

And this:

"Our reputation has been hurt very badly in the last few years. We are, we have had a go it alone mentality in a world where, because of communications and transportation, you should be going exactly in the other direction. There's no one country that can stand on its own anymore, we're so interconnected through trade and everything else..."

It's worth noting, however, that Bloomberg tacitly endorsed -- and certainly didn't oppose -- Bush's international approach and his quasi-unilateral invasion of Iraq back in 2002 and early 2003, when it really counted.

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Remember Tom Marino? He's the U.S. Attorney from Pennsylvania who was on the firing short list and was viewed by national Republicans as perhaps the most promising challenger to Dem Rep. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania.

Well, Carney can rest easy -- for now, anyway. Marino has told national Republicans that he's taking a pass on the race.

We hear from the Edwards campaign that he's planning to revamp his 2004 "two Americas" theme in a speech tonight that will center on a variety of proposals designed to turn "two Americas" into "one America."

"I have learned something in the last four years," he will say, according to advance excerpts of the speech sent to us by the Edwards camp. "It'?s not enough to talk about the Two Americas. We also need to talk about what we need to do to build One America ?and to do that, I believe we have to build One American Economy."

One key thing -- though not the only thing -- on the agenda tonight: Edwards is planning on proposing a "Family Savings and Credit Commission" which would help those who are the target of abusive lenders and to otherwise help those who are borrowing and investing.

"We should start with the Wild West of the credit industry, where some abusive and predatory lenders are robbing families blind," Edwards, who's made poverty the center of his campaign, will say in tonight's speech at Cooper Union in New York City. "It?s time for a new sheriff in town.?"

More details later as we get them.

This is interesting: Barack Obama is vowing to detail all his earmark requests today and is challenging his Presidential rivals to do the same.

Obama, who's tried to be out front on good government and ethics issues, is apparently the first Presidential hopeful to do this.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton says that Obama will detail his earmarks today by posting a 113-item list on his Senate office website.

Burton emailed us the following quote challenging the other candidates to follow suit:

As a matter of transparency and good government, Obama thinks it?s important that voters know who their candidates are, what their sources of income are and whether they have any potential conflicts. We would hope that other candidates follow suit in disclosing their earmarks as well.

Not a huge deal, but clearly, a challenge to Hillary.

Update: Here's the list of Obama's earmarks.

Poll: Americans Have Almost No Confidence in Congress
A new Gallup poll shows that Americans have a record low level of confidence in Congress as an institution — only 14% said they had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence. By contrast, 18% trust big business, 19% trust organized labor, 33% trust the public schools, 46% trust organized religion, and 54% trust the police.

Romney Campaign Denies Pulling Over New York Times Report
The Mitt Romney camp is denying an accusation by a New York Times reporter that their security detail pulled him over, told him they had run his license plates, and ordered him to stop following their car. "We will not comment on security procedures for the governor," said Romney spokesman Matt Rhoades. "We can confirm, though, that at no time was the reporter's license plate run through a check or was his vehicle pulled over," Rhoades insisted — indeed, to have done so would have been illegal under New Hampshire law. The Times Mark Leibovich made the allegation in a feature article about Romney, which ran this past Saturday, and he is standing by his story.

NY Times: Bloomberg Planning Run For Two Years
Mike Bloomberg has been planning a run for president for the past two years, investigating balloting processes in all 50 states and studying Ross Perot's 1992 independent bid, the New York Times reports. He did not intend for his change in party affiliation to become public this week, the Times also alleges, but he is pleased with the attention it garnered.

Romney Tops The $1 Million Mark In Arizona
Mitt Romney's campaign has announced that they've reached $1 million in contributions in rival John McCain's home state of Arizona — clearly a jab meant to signify that they're beating McCain with conservative constituencies. McCain spokesman Danny Diaz said the campaign is not concerned about their support back home, as they've raised twice as much in the state. "We've also done well raising money in Massachusetts," Diaz said. "Senator McCain has been elected and re-elected in Arizona time and time again."

Tommy Thompson: Iraq War Has A "Degree Of Insanity"
Speaking in Des Moines on Tuesday, Tommy Thompson gave his frank opinions about the Iraq War. "If you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results, that has a degree of insanity stapled with it and that is exactly what we're doing," Thompson said. "Eight and a half billion dollars a month and we still do not have a plan on how we're going to win the war or win the peace."

Ron Paul Backers Irate About His Exclusion From Tax Debate
The group Iowans for Tax Relief did not invite libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul to an upcoming event featuring other candidate, and his supporters have besieged the group with protests. Paul's libertarian platform has attracted a raft of dedicated supporters who organize on the Internet. The Iowa group said it considered the candidates' commitment of resources to Iowa when making the cut.

Nader Mulls 2008 Run
Ralph Nader is mulling another independent presidential bid for 2008 in light of what he sees as another contest of establishment candidates who are converging on issues. Nader is widely blamed for throwing the 2000 election to George Bush by draining votes from Al Gore in key swing states, especially Florida, but he blamed recent Democratic losses on the Democrats themselves. "Democrats have become, over the years, very good at electing very bad Republicans," Nader said. "Democrats always know how to implode, how to be ambiguous, how to waver, how not to be authentic."

Tancredo On Bloomberg: "Good Riddance"
Tom Tancredo warmly welcomed Mike Bloomberg's exit from the GOP, saying the move helps purify Republican party ideology, and maintaining that the mayor's independent candidacy would have little impact on Electoral College votes. "Good riddance," Tancredo said, adding that other Republicans should do the same because "it would be a truer reflection of who they really are."

Obama Wins Take Back America Straw Poll
Results from the straw poll at the progressive Take Back America conference: Barack Obama - 29%, John Edwards - 26%, Hillary Clinton 17%. "Obama clearly did himself well with a red-meat speech, showing he knows how to appeal to the activists," said conference organizer Roger Hickey. "But the overall message of this poll is that all three of them have their supporters among the activists." In addition Bill Richardson took 9%, and Al Gore took 8% as a write-in candidate. Dennis Kucinich won 5% of the vote, and Mike Gravel 1%.

Hillary Wasn't The Only One Booed
The crowd was restless at the Take Back America conference — sticking it not only to the Republicans, but to Dem leaders they don't think have been doing a good enough job. Hillary Clinton got some heavy booing in the middle of her speech. The reaction was spurred by her statement that the U.S. Armed Forces had done their job in Iraq, and the failures were instead the fault of the Iraqi leaders. Even Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha were on the receiving end of the audience's heckling, given activist ire at the leadership's failure to stop the war. In short, the activists place the blame squarely at the feet of the Bush Administration — and don't tolerate people who they think are dodging that point or failing to stand up to the Administration.

Poll: Not Too Much Potential For Bloomberg Nationally
A new Pew Research poll finds Mike Bloomberg with little potential national appeal, at least for now. The poll finds that 33% of registered voters have never heard of him. Only nine percent say there is a good chance they would vote for him, while 23% say there is some chance they would vote for him. However, 56% say there is no chance they would vote for him.

McCain: Fundraising Is 'Very Tough' But I Don't Need Money
John McCain offered some insight into his campaign's financial strategy and fortunes today in Florida: "I think it’s important to do O.K.," McCain said. "It's been very tough. There's a lot of candidates, and the people are a little dispirited, but we're working hard. We weren't going to win this campaign on money anyway. It's whether we can do what we did in the year 2000, and that's go out and do the real politicking, the retail politicking that's necessary. It's not money that's going to win or lose."

Romney Fundraiser Sued For Child Molestation
Over 100 people are suing the co-chairman of Mitt Romney's Utah Finance Committee, who has helped raise hundreds of thousands for the campaign, over sexual abuse and other crimes they allege took place at a home for troubled teenagers that he ran. The suit is one of many against Robert Lichfield, The Hill reports.

Illinois Joins Super Tuesday Craze
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed a law today moving the primary in his state to Feb. 5, joining many others who have picked the earliest possible date that national party chairs have allowed. The move, which was largely expected, is seen as an attempt to help Barack Obama, an Illinois Senator.

Nader Booed At Take Back America
It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy: Ralph Nader made an appearance yesterday at Take Back America to introduce Mike Gravel. The crowd's response to Nader's presence: A lot of booing.

Edwards' Young Daughter: Hillary Is My Favorite
It's a good thing for John Edwards that his youngest daughter isn't of voting age. At a campaign stop in Iowa on Saturday, Elizabeth Edwards asked her nine-year old daughter Emma Claire who her favorite presidential candidate was. The answer: Hillary.

A new batch of polls just out from SurveyUSA provides us with the first detailed snapshot we have yet of the state-by-state effect a Bloomberg candidacy would have on the 2008 Presidential race.

Bottom line: Bloomberg's impact depends entirely on who the Dem and GOP nominees are, but it's clear that in more cases, his entry actually flips the states from red to blue than the other way around.

One other interesting point: The polls suggest that the two candidates who would be most hurt in a general election by a Bloomberg entry are Mitt Romney and, surprisingly, Barack Obama. And Bloomberg flips states when either of those two are nominated — at least for now.

We have a detailed chart on exactly how Bloomberg's candidacy would affect the race in each state after the jump.

Read more »

So today Rudy personally responded for the first time to the story saying he got bumped from the Iraq Study Group after blowing off a few of the group's meetings.

From the Associated Press:

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, whose tough talk on terrorism is the centerpiece of his campaign, said Wednesday that it was a mistake to join a bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which he later quit.

"I thought it would work, but then after a month or two I realized the idea that I was possibly going to run for president would be inconsistent with that," he said...

"All of the other members of the commission have had distinguished public careers, but none of them were prospective candidates for office."

We really hate to repeat ourselves here (okay, no we don't) but it's apparently necessary: This explanation is thoroughly bogus. The public record unequivocally proves it.

Read more »

We're certainly not the first to observe that the downside of the Hillary candidacy is that it gives the media a chance to relive the nineties all over again.

But we think we've found the most perfect classic of this genre to date. It's a piece by the Associated Press' Ron Fournier, who dreams up a Godawful clever new coinage:

Sen. Hillary Clinton An Artful Dodger

WASHINGTON -- Slick Hillary? Former President Clinton earned the nickname "Slick Willy" for his mastery in the political arts of ducking and dodging. He had a knack for convincing people on both sides of an issue that he agreed with them.

His wife may not be as smooth, but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is doing a passable impression of the ever-parsing former president.

Look, we have no problem with the piece for pointing out questions Hillary won't answer. We were frustrated, for instance, with Hillary's refusal to say whether she favored a Libby pardon.

But artful dodger? Slick Hillary? Can't we be a little more subtle about our panting desperation for a nineties rerun?

Best of all, the piece also gives us this artfully dodgy passage:

She told the crowd Tuesday that she had been calling for a troop withdrawal "for some time," not mentioning that her rivals have held that position for a longer period. On the other hand, she said some troops will need to remain in Iraq to contain al-Qaida, protect Kurds, keep an eye on Iran, protect the U.S. Embassy and maybe train Iraqi forces.

The answer offered a little something for everybody, for or against U.S. involvement in Iraq. Pretty slick.

Pretty slick? Pretty slick of the reporter, actually. Note the weaselly way in which the story says that her answer offered something for people who are for "U.S. involvement in Iraq." That phrase, of course, means nothing. The rather imprecise wording was necessary, of course, because in the real world, there's no way anyone who wants a significant American presence to remain in Iraq would be happy about what Hillary offered here. In other words, her answer actually didn't offer something for everyone. Nope -- just not true.

Also note the inane way in which Hillary's being faulted here for "not mentioning that her rivals have held that position for a longer period." Yep -- she didn't tell the crowd how great her rivals' positions on Iraq are! God, what a massive phony! Slicker than Slick Willy himself.

Further coverage from Newsday

The New York Times

The Chicago Tribune

The Seattle Times

NewsMax

AM New York

MSNBC — But only by way of the First Read Web page. NBC News does not have a standalone article.

CNN's Political Ticker links to Newsday — but CNN does not do a separate, more prominent article.

So far, there has not been coverage of the Rudy's absenteeism from the Iraq Study Group by other journalistic organizations like the Associated Press or Reuters. And Fox News? Don't even think about it!

Wow. That vid Hillary released yesterday spoofing The Sopranos and introducing her new campaign song?

A whopping 500,000 hits yesterday, the Hillary camp just said in a release.

And Ana Marie Cox's head explodes. Again.

That was quick. Less than 24 hours after the news broke that Rudy's South Carolina chairman was indicted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, the Rudy campaign has quickly ushered in a replacement.