Friday’s political round-up

March 9, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Rudy Giuliani’s fight with the International Association of Fire Fighters grew rather intense yesterday, and Giuliani will now be the only major presidential candidate from either party to miss the IAFF’s candidate forum in Washington next week.

* Following Gov. Bill Ritter’s veto of a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize, the AFL-CIO is considering asking the DNC to move its 2008 convention from Denver. “Union members and working people will make up more than a quarter of the delegates to the Denver convention,” a statement from the union said. “Unless we can be assured that the governor will support our values and priorities, we will strongly urge the Democratic Party to relocate the convention.”

* Hillary Clinton was asked yesterday about Bush’s 2000 comment about Clinton and Gore “overextending” and “neglecting” the military in the late ’90s. Sen. Clinton responded, “It wasn’t true when he said it, but it sure is true now. [Bush] has in a very deliberative way created conditions that are straining our military, underfunding it with respect to what actually gets to troops on the ground and what they get when they get home.”

* GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared to argue yesterday that voters should take into account a candidate’s religion in evaluating candidates. “I find that very important because my faith will let people know what my judgments are based on, what my values system is about and where it comes from,” Huckabee tells The Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s a good predictor of how I would likely make decisions and what I think are the important factors in that.”

* Add Maryland to the list of states planning to move up their presidential primary.

* And following up on an item from yesterday, James Dobson asked Newt Gingrich directly about infidelity in his background. “The honest answer is yes,” Gingrich said, according to a transcript provided to the Associated Press. “There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There’s certainly times when I’ve fallen short of God’s standards.”

I’ll be very interested to see how much play the “Rudy vs. the Fire Fighters” story gets. Giuliani’s whole persona is a media creation; the virtual fellatio he’s enjoyed from the national press–including the NYT, which should know better by virtue of being here during those years–has been the full equal of what McCain enjoyed in 2000.

The IAFF directly strikes at the myth with some stomach-turning reality. If it’s ignored by the MSM, I think it’s more likely than not that he’s their caudillo of choice for 2008.

  • Dean makes the right decision to put the Convention in Denver, one of the few cities in the non-coastal West with the facilities to handle it, and marking our symbolic commitment to expand the “blue” part of the map into the more libertarian mountain states, and now the AFL-CIO goes back into traditional Democratic circular firing squad mode. Helpful. Go after Ritter on this one all you like, but don’t screw up the Convention.

  • Huckabee makes a strong case for considering his religion when voting and I agree. I would certainlt take HIS religion into account should he appear on my ballot.

  • I’m all for examining politicians’ religious views.

    Two questions I’d like to see asked of religious candidates is “According to your church’s theology, who among the American population is doomed to eternal torment in hell?” and “How would your belief that a constituent is going to hell affect your ability to act in that constituent’s best interests?”

  • I’m with Zeitgeist on this. Denver is the right spot for the Dem convention. The mountain states are ours for the taking and may be the key to our electoral success.

    Gov. Bill Ritter’s veto of a bill

    Question, is Ritter a Dem? If so, what is he thinking? If not, then why does the AFL-CIO think the National Democratic Party leadership has any influence over him?

  • Google “Giuliani in drag“. It was the talk of this morning’s Ray Taliafero show (SF KGO). I can’t imagine these images going over well with the corn pone crowd. This isn’t simple cross-dressing, as for a gag at a stag party; it’s the makeup, high heels, stockings, boobs, gloves and all. He/She’d have been a hit at the now defunct Finocchio’s. Not sayin’ there’s anythiing wrong with cross-dressing, but as a wannabe in the GOP?? What would Ann “Arthur Coltrane Coulter say?!

  • Two more items:

    I strongly urge the AFL-CIO to reconsider its push to shun Denver. Aside the from the circular firing squad and what’s ours for the taking, there’s that “into the lion’s den” thing.

    Newton Leroy Gingrich engaged in adultery precisely at the time that he was attempting to impeach (Bill) Clinton for engaging in adultery (whatever pious platitudes the hypocrites spun about lying under oath … which is pure bullshit).

  • If Brownback and Gingrich are intent on injecting more of “god” into the GOP, then they should be encouraged to do so. If the GOP becomes the Party of God, it will only exacerbate the schism in the radical right. Apart from whose “god” will be celebrated, the average person who believes in “god” begins to itch uncomfortably when being preached to, running away from moralizers. Maybe they won’t vote or will vote Democratic.

  • If it’s ignored by the MSM, I think it’s more likely than not that he’s their caudillo of choice for 2008.

    Or it means that Rudy-as-hero is, as Bob Somerby used to put it, “a story they like,” i.e., one they like telling and therefore won’t abandon no matter what facts emerge to contradict it.

    Your interpretation and mine are not mutually exclusive, of course. If he’s their caudillo of choice (and I think he will be), it’s because they love the hero myth.

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    I don’t think it’s being ignored by the MSM. Unless, and this could very well be, we have different ideas of MSM. The AP and Reuters has run it nationwide. That’s pretty MS to me.

  • And following up on an item from yesterday, James Dobson asked Newt Gingrich directly about infidelity in his background. “The honest answer is yes,” Gingrich said, according to a transcript provided to the Associated Press. “There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There’s certainly times when I’ve fallen short of God’s standards.”

    This quote from Gingrich in his confession to Mullah Dobson is important:

    Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton’s infidelity.

    “The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge,” the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton’s 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. “I drew a line in my mind that said, ‘Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept … perjury in your highest officials.”

    The nice thing is, here we have Newt Gingrich of all people laying out exactly what the standards should be in the further investigation of George W. Bush’s crimes against America.

  • Now Newt just has to find a rehab facility to cure him for a couple days, get some counseling with some ministers, and he should be good as new.

    Maybe the mistake the Democrats have been making is in not fielding enough sinners.

  • Bill Ritter, governor of Colorado, is a Dem.

    Denver Post
    Ritter broke from his party and ignored a campaign pledge when he vetoed House Bill 1072, which would have eliminated one of two votes needed for unions to negotiate all-union shops. The bill sparked an outcry from business interests, who said it would hamstring the state economically.

    At the time, Ritter said he didn’t object to the bill itself but rather to the way both sides handled it.

    He said that proponents made “no effort to open a dialogue,” that opponents were “neither respectful nor civil” and that his signing the bill would look to voters like an endorsement of cynical politics.

    Say a bill you pledged to support, and claim to still support, is passed, and you veto because of appearances/perception. What kind of politics do you call that?

  • Newt Gingrich, “There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There’s certainly times when I’ve fallen short of God’s standards.”

    Here are a few of those times – ah, the memories of “youthful indescretions”:

    Early 70s – “We would have won (congressional election) in 1974 if we could have kept him out of the office, and screwing her (a young campaign staffer) on the desk.” – Dot Crews, Gingrich Campaign Scheduler at the time. Newt married to first wife, Jackie Battley, at the time.

    Mid 70s – “We had oral sex. He prefers that modus operandi because then he can say, ‘I never slept with her.” – Anne Manning (who was also married). Newt was married to Jackie at the time. They had two young girls. Great male role model for them I say. Hey, at least Newt and Jackie weren’t a couple of homos!

    1980 – Famous incident where Newt visited Jackie at the hospital to discuss the terms of his divorce with her while she was recovering from uterine cancer surgery. Newt later explained why he divorced her, “She wasn’t pretty enough to be the wife of the future President of the United States.” Nice. After the divorce, Newt refused to pay alimony or child support and the First Baptist Church in his hometown had to take up a collection to help Jackie and her abandoned family.

    Early 80s – Six months after dumping Jackie, Newt married Marianne Ginther, who he had been having an affair with.

    Early 90s – Newt began his longtime affair with Callista Bisek, a House Clerk 23 years younger than him. Of course, this means he was having an extramarital affair all the while he was strongly condemning the morals of Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky affair. However, this was consistent with Newt’s Hypocritic Code – for example, much earlier in his career, after leading the charge against Democratic House members involved in the 1992 Banking Scandal, it came out later that Newt had bounced 22 checks himself. Oopsie, I guess.

    1999 – In what appears to be another of his strange predilections, Newt informed Marianne that he was divorcing her while she was in the hospital recovering from a ruptured appendix.

    2001 – Newt marries and makes “an honest woman” of Callista. Gosh, that was quick.

    Since I am mainly concentrating on Gingrich’s adulteries and hypocrisies, I will just mention in passing that Newt is the only member of the House of Representatives to ever be censured and fined by the House Ethics Panel (and it was chaired by his fellow Republicans – how sleazy do you have to be to accomplish THAT?).

    So, this is the guy that Dobson and the Family Values crowd now loves. Well, he’ll fit right in with McCain and Guilliani on this marital values stuff. Besides, I’m just so sure that Newt is well past all of this shameful behavior. I’m also sure that you (and Callista too, I bet) are confident of this as well. Right?

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