As a reminder, tonight is the Iowa Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, which will feature six presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd — courting the party activists in the key caucus state.

The event will be shown live on C-Span 1, beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

House Parliamentarian John Sullivan has nixed a campaign by Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) to have his fellow members wear buttons saying "Article 1" on the House floor.

The buttons are meant as a statement that the Founders intended for the Congress, and not the White House, to be the superior branch of the government. Sullivan's office ruled that wearing the buttons violates a House rule that forbids members from "wearing of badges by members to communicate a message."

Yarmuth sent the parliamentarian's office a sternly worded letter. "If a simple mention of the founding document of the country constitutes a message, how does it differ from the wearing of the American flag?" Yarmuth wrote, then asking rhetorically if a button saying "U.S. Constitution" would be banned from the House floor.

The McCain campaign has asked an independent group of supporters, calling themselves the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, to stop running ads on the candidate's behalf in South Carolina.

"If anyone considering an outside expenditure thinks they are benefiting me, I would prefer they do not air the ads," McCain said in a statement, according to The Hill. "If there are ads up, I believe they should come down."

In the wake of Dennis Kucinich's attempt to have Dick Cheney impeached, which was scuttled by the House Democratic leadership, a new Rasmussen poll shows that 31% of likely voters agree that the vice president should be impeached, while 41% do not agree.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has admitted that they pulled aside a young college student before a campaign event in Iowa, and then gave her a question to ask the candidate. However, they deny that Hillary herself had any knowledge of this, or that she had been prodded to call on that particular student.

"On this occasion a member of our staff did discuss a possible question about Senator Clinton's energy plan at a forum," a campaign spokesman has said in a statement. "However, Senator Clinton did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event. This is not standard policy and will not be repeated again."

Interestingly enough, the original college paper report of the incident recounts that Hillary began her answer by remarking that young people often ask her this very question.

New Mexico political columnist Heath Hausaman reports that Congressman Tom Udall (D) has informed party leaders that he will run for the Senate, and will announce his decision within the next two weeks. Udall would be seeking the seat of GOP Senator Pete Domenici, who is retiring.

Udall had previously backed out of the race, then informed party leaders that he was reconsidering it. Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez, a centrist, is already in the race.

Polling has consistently shown Udall defeating the two Republican candidates, Representatives Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, by wide margins.

Late Update: It's official. Udall's chief of staff has confirmed the news with the Associated Press.

Here's some more on what exactly happened in the negotiations that led up to the rushed confirmation of Michael Mukasey yesterday.

According to sources inside and outside the Democratic leadership, Harry Reid allowed a vote on Mukasey because in exchange the Republican leadership agreed to allow a vote on the big Defense Appropriations Bill, which contains $459 billion in military spending but doesn't fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reid had wanted to get this bill passed before the end of this week, and in fact, the defense bill did come up for a vote late last night and was passed after the Mukasey vote.

One key reason Dem leaders wanted this defense approps bill passed, sources tell me, is that they wanted to be able to argue that they had sent a bill to the President funding the military, if not the war itself. The idea was that doing this would allow them to protect themselves in the days ahead when the battle over Iraq funding heats up and Republicans inevitably charge that Dems are refusing to fund the troops.

"This lets us argue, `Hey, we just sent $450 billion to the military," one leadership source tells me.

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In a sign that the Democratic leadership is ready to give the liberals their day, the Huffington Post reports that the leaders in both houses of Congress are preparing to back the strongest pro-withdrawal funding legislation yet — but it still has little chance of passing.

A draft of the bill states, "Within 30 days after enactment of this Act, the President shall commence an immediate and orderly redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq." It would also order the president to come up with a plan to finish the withdrawal by December 2008.

An anonymous Dem aide told the HuffPo that the leadership "is committed to pushing this as far as it can go. But it will get filibustered or vetoed. Regardless, this will be the last funding bill in 2007."

The ultimate effect, then, will be to push the funding battles back to February 2008.

The McCain campaign is trying a new tactic to boost their funds, reportedly negotiating a $3 million loan in order to obtain the seed money they'll need to turn his currently boost in the polls into some real progress on the ground.

The campaign has also been considering taking matching funds, but they don't want to be encumbered by the per-state spending restrictions that come with the public money.

Meanwhile, the campaign finance reform advocate will be getting some help from a curious outside source, with an new independent group about to run ads on his behalf in South Carolina. The ads are being produced by longtime GOP ad man Rick Reed, who also co-produced the Swift Boat ads in 2004. McCain's aides said they have no involvement or knowledge of the ads.

The group making them, calling itself Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, is being finance mainly by McCain supporters, and Reed himself was a volunteer with the McCain campaign earlier this year.

Hillary Clinton has a new ad out, in which the candidates speaks before a crowd about her plans for alternative energy sources:

Rudy Giuliani's campaign has hit back at the McCain team's criticism of Rudy's association with Bernie Kerik.

Giuliani surrogate Randy Maestro, who served as Rudy's deputy mayor and chief of staff, has responded by airing some of McCain's own dirty laundry.

"It’s no more fair to judge Rudy Giuliani on the basis of one issue than it is to judge John McCain on the Keating scandal," Maestro said in a phone interview with Jonathan Martin. The message to McCain: Back off.

The Romney camp, meanwhile, put out an e-mail that did not directly mention Giuliani or Kerik, but seemed curiously timed given its contents.

"Governor Romney believes the American people want and deserve change in Washington," wrote campaign spokesman Kevin Madden, listing some of Romney's ethics proposals. "They want strong ethics and accountability in government."

Roll Call is reporting that Congresswoman Barbara Cubin (R-WY) will reportedly announce her retirement tomorrow.

Cubin has been absent from the House for much of the year, caring for her ill husband back home in Wyoming. Cubin had already been facing a primary challenge from state House Majority Leader Colin Simpson, the son of former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), as well as a second campaign from 2006 Democratic nominee Gary Trauner.

In Cubin's special case, the open seat might actually improve the GOP's chance of holding the seat. Despite representing an overwhelmingly Republican state, Cubin barely won re-election last year after she threatened to hit the Libertarian candidate — who was himself in a wheelchair.

One of the weirder aspects of last night's rush vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as AG is that none of the four Senators running for President voted on this -- despite the fact that his confirmation was a big issue in the Dem Primary. So what happened?

The question is being asked today because many opponents of Mukasey feel that his confirmation could have been stopped -- or at least slowed -- by a filibuster. Since the Senators running for President -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd -- all oppose Mukasey, they might have been likely candidates for that filibuster, or at least would have added "No" votes to the No column.

So why weren't they on hand for the vote? The answer is pretty straightforward -- but it also deepens the mystery of what really went down here.

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Republicans will apparently have yet another vacant House seat to deal with this cycle. PolitickerNJ reports that 12-term Congressman Jim Saxton (R-NJ) will not seek re-election.

President Bush carried this district by only three points against John Kerry — the same as Bush's national margin that year — so expect the Dems to make a major push for the open seat in what is expected to be a much more Democratic year.

Saxton had already attracted a strong challenger in state Senator John Adler, a leading South Jersey Democrat.

Late Update: It's official.

Bill Richardson's campaign has put out a press release condemning the Senate for confirming Michael Mukasey — and condemning four of his opponents for missing the vote.

"The Senate could have rejected this nomination with a filibuster," Richardson says in the release. By showing up and speaking out, Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama might well have stopped his confirmation. Instead, they chose to sit on the sidelines and watch history pass them by."

The full statement is available after the jump.

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Mitt Romney has a new ad airing in both Iowa and New Hampshire, in which the candidate promises to take a hard line against illegal immigration — and in a subtle hit against John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, warns Republicans against sounding like the Democrats on the issue:

Mike Huckabee has been struggling to gain high-profile endorsements, but the ex-governor and Baptist minister might be on the verge of landing one of the biggest possible Christian right endorsements: James Dobson.

"We are continuing discussions with people who are close to him," an anonymous Huckabee aide told Jonathan Martin. The aide downplayed rumors, however, that the endorsement could be coming as soon as within the next ten days.

Fred Thompson is now taking his "consistent conservative" ad campaign, already running in Iowa and on Fox News, to South Carolina. Jonathan Martin reports that the ads will begin running in the first Southern primary state starting next week.

The media campaign will cover all of the state except for some border counties that are in Georgia or North Carolina media markets.

Here's the one-minute ad:

The 30-second version can be seen after the jump.

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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's new Web ad against Mitch McConnell shows that they might be serious about mounting a challenge against the Senate Minority Leader. And what's more, DSCC spokesman Matt Miller told the Herald-Leader that the DSCC is considering buying air time to show it on Kentucky TV:

Successfully taking on McConnell would be for the Democrats a revenge of sorts against the Republicans for 2004, when they defeated then-Senate Dem Leader Tom Daschle.

Ben Smith has a source who says that the "mystery endorsement" that Camp Hillary has been promising today is none other than Ohio governor Ted Strickland. A big get in a big state.

In the wake of Bernie Kerik's indictment, I'd been wondering whether Rudy Giuliani's GOP rivals would emphasize the fact that Rudy, who says he's the candidate best equipped to defend us from the terrorists, had not just picked Kerik as top cop but also recommended him for the post of Homeland Security chief.

Well, on a campaign stop John McCain has now done just that, and brought up yet another episode from Kerik's past that many have forgotten, chiefly that he abruptly pulled out of Baghdad back when he was training the Iraqi police. McCain:

"That's why I never would've supported him to be the head of homeland security because of his irresponsible act when he was over in Baghdad to try and help train the police. One of the reasons why we had so much trouble with the initial training of the police was because he came, didn't do anything and then went out to the airport and left."

McCain added of Rudy's alleged national security credentials that he suffered from "a fundamental lack of experience."

Rudy was criticized even more harshly by McCain supporter Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security chief, who implicitly pointed out how ludicrous Rudy's effort to install Kerik as DHS chief really was: "We're not talking about some urban city patronage job. That's not what a Cabinet secretary's about."

Ouch.

Chris Dodd is trying to get the other campaigns to pledge that their Iowa staffers and volunteers — many of whom live temporarily in the state and become eligible to vote — will not participate in the caucuses. No other campaign has yet signed the pledge.

"I've been here long enough to register to vote and be involved, but I shouldn't be," said Taylor West, a Dodd staffer from Virginia. "That violates the spirit of what the caucuses are about."

Carrie Giddins, the communications director for the state Democratic Party, said the party's rules would seem to eliminate anyone who comes to Iowa in the final days of the caucus specifically to participate.

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS), who has been the subject of retirement rumors in recent weeks, has still not decided if he will seek a sixth term in 2008, but is telling local media that he will announce his plans in "a few weeks."

Republicans maintain that Tuesday night's re-election of Gov. Haley Barbour (R) underlines Mississippi's Republican trend, but Democrats have a bench of former statewide office holders here and would like to mount a serious challenge for Cochran's seat should it open up.

Here's the top story out of the South Carolina local press: The state's Republican primary has also been subjected to sanctions from the Republican National Committee, having their delegate count cut from 47 down to 24.

State GOP chair Katon Dawson has previously indicated that the state party would consider filing a lawsuit to have all the delegates restored, but RNC chairman Mike Duncan thinks the national party can win any court challenge.

"No one wants to be in a position to penalize anyone, but our rules are self-enforcing," Duncan told reporters. "They give me no options."

Here's the top story out of the New Hampshire local press: The state GOP is reacting to the Republican National Committee's decision to strip them of half their delegates, as a punishment for holding their primary before February 5.

State GOP chairman Fergus Cullen is standing by his state's position. "There will be a time, after the primary, to make the case that the full delegation should be seated, but now was not that time," he said.

This marks the first time ever that the national GOP has sanctioned New Hampshire over the primary.

Here's the top story out of the Iowa local press: Rudy Giuliani told an audience at Iowa State University that the American military needs to be bigger, and he lashed out at Bill Clinton for cutting the military during the 1990's.

"Our military is too small to deal with the Islamic terrorism threats," Giuliani said, "but it really is too small to deter would-be aggressors to even think of challenging us. And that's due to Bill Clinton."

Instead, Rudy called for a massive military buildup in order to "send a very strong signal to China and then Russia ... that it doesn't make sense to challenge us."

A new poll from Middle Tennessee State University finds that the state could potentially be close in 2008, though the Republicans do seem to have an edge.

In a match-up between favorite son Fred Thompson and Hillary Clinton, Thompson just reads 50%, with Hillary 42%. Against Barack Obama, Thompson has a much greater 55%-34% lead.

In a match-up between Hillary and Rudy Giuliani, the two are tied at 43% each. Giuliani leads Obama 44%-36%

John McCain leads Hillary by a statistically insignificant 45%-42% margin, and tops Barack Obama 44%-35%.

A new CNN poll shows the Democrats leading the Republicans in the generic Congressional ballot by a 53%-42% margin.

On the other hand, a 53% majority also say that most members of Congress do not deserve to be re-elected, the highest number since 1991, when the question was first asked.

Barack Obama's campaign told the Hotline last night that he would be missing the Mukasey vote, as he was busy on a bus tour through Iowa yesterday when the vote was called on short notice.

"Sen. Obama won't be going back to DC tonight to vote for Mukasey," said Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs. "He's already announced his position on it. I don't think the vote will be close."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN yesterday that the Iraq War is "winding down," and it won't be a factor in the 2008 race.

"The war is winding down," he said. "Next year's election is going to be about this Congress and what it failed to do."

McConnell cited recent reports of lower death tolls, and predicted "fewer and fewer troops in Iraq, fewer and fewer casualties, more and more ... return to normalcy."

In an interview with the Washington Post, Barack Obama questioned Hillary Clinton's electability and overall ability to build a broad coalition.

"Whatever arguments you want to make for Hillary Clinton," Obama said, "I don't think anybody believes that somehow the election is going to be significantly different than 2000 or 2004, that different states or different congressional districts suddenly come into play, that she brings in a whole new group of voters that might not have voted before."

And as for his other main rival, Obama doubts just how genuine John Edwards is, contending that Edwards "wasn't this raging populist" when he ran last time. "He was in the U.S. Senate for six years, and as far as I can tell wasn't taking on the lobbyists and special interests. It's a matter of, do you walk the walk that you talk?"

In all, seven Democratic Senators voted to confirm Michael Mukasey:

Evan Bayh (Indiana)
Tom Carper (Delaware)
Dianne Feinstein (California)
Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
Joe Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut)
Ben Nelson (Nebraska)
Chuck Schumer (New York)

During last night's Senate confirmation of Michael Mukasey — which passed 53-40 — every presidential candidate currently in the Senate missed the vote. Democrats Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden, plus Republican John McCain, were all absent.

I've just learned from several sources that John Edwards will be endorsed by the fiscal group Iowans for Sensible Priorities, a very good get for Edwards in the key early-primary state.

A source on a rival campaign confirmed that the group decided to endorse Edwards; the decision will officially be announced tomorrow morning. The endorsement is a key one because it could potentially deliver a large block of thousands of caucus goers to Edwards.

Peggy Huptert, the head of the group, refused to confirm or deny whether the group had decided to back Edwards. But she did agree to discuss the general importance of the endorsement with Election Central.

"We have 10,000 Iowans who have taken a pledge saying they will vote in the caucuses and only support a candidate who supports shifting 15% of wasteful Pentagon spending into other priorities," Ms. Huptert said, describing her group's litmus test issue. I was unable to immediately confirm whether Edwards had in fact made this pledge.

Ms. Huptert added that all the main candidates had submitted questionaires to the group in search of its support. She noted that the winner of the group's endorsement (who she declined to confirm) would in effect get the support of all these members in one fell swoop. But others in Presidential politics pointed out that this is the first time the group is endorsing in this manner, so its ability to move votes remains untested. We won't know the full significance of Edwards' get until the votes are cast.

Still, the Edwards campaign -- which also declined to confirm the group's decision -- are already announcing a mystery event for tomorrow and are already looking to build excitement around it. The campaign already has an advisory out promising an "Important Campaign Announcement" for tomorrow in Des Moines.

In a widely expected move, the Republican National Committee officially announced today that it is stripping half the delegates from five states, as punishment for holding their primaries before February 5: New Hampshire, Florida, South Carolina, Michigan and Wyoming.

Iowa and Nevada escaped sanctions because their early contests will be caucuses, not primaries.

The Democratic National Committee has been even more severe, stripping all the delegates from the offending states.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has a new pair of 60-second ads set to go on TV tomorrow — one for each of Kentucky's media markets — extolling the incumbent's virtues.

Going up on the air this early is a sign that McConnell is taking his re-election effort seriously, even though he doesn't yet have any official opponent. Outgoing state attorney general Greg Stumbo is exploring the race, while some Democrats are trying to recruit state Auditor Crit Luallen, who was re-elected by a landslide this week.

The ads compare McConnell to the late Kentucky Senator Alben Barkley, who served as the Democratic Leader during the New Deal era and became Harry Truman's vice president, and even feature the support of Barkley's grandson.

Here's the Louisville version:

The Lexington version can be seen after the jump.

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Mike Huckabee has picked up a Christian right endorsement of his own, albeit one that's not as high profile as Pat Robertson or Bob Jones III.

American Family Association chairman Donald Wildmon, has endorsed the former governor and Baptist minister, saying that Huckabee "understands the needs of our country and has the ability to lead us in meeting those needs."

Wildmon's activism has included organizing boycotts against the entertainment industry, as well as the Ford Motor Company, for sponsoring the homosexual agenda.

This is fun. The Obama campaign is blasting out a new Web video to Iowa supporters calling on them to flock to his upcoming appearance headlining the pre-rally at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner this coming Saturday in Des Moines. It's worth a watch:

The vid features old newsreel-style footage of crowds of men in hats filling the streets of what presumably is supposed to be Des Moines as an old-fashioned-style radio announcer calls on Iowa Dems to come see Obama. There really is something kind of weirdly compelling about seeing pics of Obama in the context of this old footage -- a juxtaposition that serves as a perhaps unintended reminder of the historic nature of his candidacy, something that is easy to forget amid the day to day brawling of the campaign.

Top Hillary Clinton advisor Mark Penn has said that the executive at his public relations firm who generated some controversy by taking an assignment for Blackwater is no longer with the firm, and that he himself was not involved in any dealing with the private army.

In his own personal defense, Penn said he hasn't actually been working on the individual cases at the firm, Burston-Marsteller, since he began giving almost all of his attention to the Hillary campaign.

"The Blackwater [client] was actually I think either a nine-day or two week assignment by somebody who had a personal relationship with them, who actually doesn't continue to work at the firm," Penn said during a radio show appearance. "And so there are 2,000 clients. I'm really focused on some of the management, but really my focus is on Senator Clinton's campaign."

The Huffington Post confirmed the departure of Robert Tappan, and also report that Burston-Marsteller say Tappan was not fired. Instead, Tappan left to accept a position as president at another firm.

This really is a feat: Open Left, the liberal blog that's leading the charge on behalf of netroots heroine Donna Edwards' spirited primary challenge to Dem incumbent Al Wynn in Maryland's 4th district, has just sent out a release claiming that the netroots raised $100,000 for Edwards in just this week.

Wynn, who's been targeted by the bloggers in part over his vote for the Iraq War, has the backing of Nancy Pelosi and the Dem Congressional leadership. But Wynn -- who barely survived a challenge from Edwards in 2006, is getting targeted even more aggressively by the netroots this time around, suggesting the possibility of a netroots-fueled upset over the Dem leadership.

Kentucky Democrats are already feeling emboldened by their big win in the gubernatorial race this week, and are looking for more Republicans to challenge. Democratic state Senator David Boswell has told the Herald-Leader that he is planning to run against GOP Congressman Ron Lewis.

Lewis won his first race for Congress in the very Republican year of 1994, and did not face any remotely competitive challenger until 2006, when he defeated a conservative Dem by a 55%-45% margin.

The new Zogby poll in Iowa shows that Mike Huckabee has now moved into second place in the Republican caucus — though Mitt Romney continues to hold a comfortable lead:

Romney 31%
Huckabee 15%
Giuliani 11%
Thompson 10%
McCain 8%

The margin of error is ±5%, so Huckabee's lead over Rudy is within the margin. But the momentum is clear — Huckabee has gone up seven points since August, while Rudy has fallen by three.

Here's still more on Rudy's acceptance of Pat Robertson's endorsement despite his agreement that America "deserved" 9/11.

A rival campaign points out that back in 2001, Rudy very publicly turned down a $10 million donation for disaster relief from a Saudi prince because the prince had suggested that U.S. Mideast policies had contributed to the 9/11 attacks.

During a visit to Ground Zero shortly after the disaster, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal offered condolences to Americans and handed Rudy a $10 million relief check. But the Prince also said that America "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack." In response, Rudy rejected the money because of the prince's suggestion that the U.S. was in any way remotely responsible for the disaster, saying:

"I entirely reject that statement," Giuliani said. "There is no moral equivalent for this [terrorist] act. There is no justification for it. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification for it when they slaughtered 4,000 or 5,000 innocent people."

The rejection of the Saudi prince's $10 million is a big point of pride for Rudy, something he currently brings up as proof of his anti-terrorism zeal.

Yet here he is cheerfully accepting the endorsement from Robertson, who went even further than the Saudi prince, agreeing that America deserved 9/11 not because of policies but because of its sinful ways.

There are two morals to this tale. The first: Rudy will turn away $10 million in relief for other people from someone who sort of blamed America for 9/11 if it gives him a chance to do a bit of garden variety political grandstanding and get big tabloid headlines. But he'll overlook such comments if it will allow him to help himself politically, as the Robertson endorsement does.

The second moral: If an Arab sort of blames America for 9/11, it's despicable. If a Christian fundamentalist/extremist does it, it's not a problem at all.

Research 2000 has released a new poll, commissioned by the Daily Kos, showing Congressman Tom Udall to be the strongest Democrat for the open Senate seat in New Mexico:

Wilson (R) 45%, Chávez (D) 42%
Wilson (R) 44%, Denish (D) 43%
Udall (D) 55%, Wilson (R) 38%
Pearce (R) 40%, Chávez (D) 39%
Denish (D) 45%, Pearce (R) 39%
Udall (D) 54%, Pearce (R) 37%

Udall had previously passed on the race, but recently informed party leaders that he was giving the race another look.

Lt. Governor Diane Denish has already announced that she is not running, and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez is already threatening a rough primary if Udall gets in.

The prospect of a Rudy presidency is stirring deep fear and unease among a particular group of U.S. citizens: Arab-Americans.

The Huffington Post reports on some of the discomfort felt among many Arab-Americans over Rudy's record on civil liberties, as well as the sheer bellicosity of many of the people on his foreign policy team.

Randa Fahmy Hudome, who works in government relations and is a self-identified Arab-American Republican, told the HuffPo, "on the foreign policy issues I think there is a great deal of concern, and not just because of his rhetoric. I think there is a lack of foresight on his part."

The feeling was perhaps best summed up by James Zogby, a Democrat who founded the Arab American Institute, who went so far as to characterize a Rudy Administration as a "doomsday scenario" for Arab-Americans: "He is like the kid who grew up in the tough neighborhood who wasn't tough and now has the chance to sound tough ... You would be correct to call his administration a doomsday scenario."

The primary wrangling in Michigan has taken another turn, with a county judge invalidating the law setting up their rogue January 15 primary, on a technical clause.

The judge's ruling is based on the fact that the law makes information about which voters requested Republican or Democratic ballots only available to the state parties, and not to the public. The judge decided that this was not allowed under the state constitution.

The state GOP chairman called the ruling a "hiccup" that would not derail the primary. But with only 10 weeks until the primary, the parties don't have much time left to appeal the ruling or rewrite the law.

As noted below, Rudy has now defended accepting Pat Robertson's endorsement by saying that Robertson some time ago "explained" his controversial comments, in which he agreed with Jerry Falwell that America "deserved" to be attacked on 9/11.

Rudy's suggestion is that Rob