Monday’s political round-up

August 27, 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:

* “Democratic National Committee officials ruled [Saturday] that Florida’s Jan. 29 presidential primary is in violation of party rules and gave Florida Democrats 30 days to find a solution or be frozen out of the nominating convention next year,” the Boston Globe reported. “The near-unanimous vote threw the already contentious primary season into further turmoil, setting up a showdown between the states and the national party, which is desperately trying to quell the rush toward early primaries that could determine the nominee before spring.”

* Fred Thompson’s still-unannounced campaign continues to hemorrhage staffers: “Linda Rozett, the communications director for former Sen. Fred Thompson’s (R-Tenn.) presidential bid, has left the campaign, according to an internal e-mail obtained by The Fix. ‘It is my duty to let you know that Linda Rozett is no longer with our committee,’ wrote campaign manager Bill Lacy. ‘I will have to make a lot of tough decisions to make our venture successful, and this was one of them. Linda is a talented, professional and gracious lady who will be missed…. But in the limited amount of time we have I feel it critical to have a communications point person with significant campaign experience.'”

* Rudy Giuliani unveiled the basics of his tax plan over the weekend, which includes reducing corporate taxes, eliminating the inheritance tax, and making Bush’s reckless cuts permanent. The former mayor also compared Dems’ opposition to Bush’s tax cuts to their opposition to Bush’s Iraq policy. “When it’s working, let’s change it. Isn’t that a brilliant philosophy? It sounds a little bit like Iraq,” Giuliani said. (No, the poor guy isn’t very bright.)

* AP: “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama often says he will be a candidate that will bring both parties together and Saturday he named a few of the Republicans he would reach out to if elected. ‘There are some very capable Republicans who I have a great deal of respect for,’ Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘The opportunities are there to create a more effective relationship between parties.’ Among the Republicans he would seek help from are Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana, John Warner of Virginia and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama said.”

* CNN: Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Sunday that voters’ expectations might be too high for Fred Thompson’s run for the Republican presidential nomination. Weighing in on Thompson’s likely candidacy on Fox News Sunday, Huckabee said ‘Well, let’s just hope Fred decides it’s just too hot this summer to even do this. Maybe he won’t get in. But if he does, I think he’s going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the room when he first comes in. But I’m not sure I’d want to be in his position where the expectations are simply just sky-high for him to be able to perform.'”

That ACLU sheep ad you have running on the site is disgusting and dehumanizing.

  • Add tax policy and domestic policy to the list of things Rudy knows absolutely nothing about, which already has terrorism and foreign policy on it.

    Huckabee’s right. Everything about Fred Thompson is perfect right now in the right’s eyes, but he has really yet to open up his mouth. It’s all downhill for Fred from here. That’s just the weight of being crowned the second coming of Reagan.

  • Re: CalD @ #1

    The repeal of the Fourth Amendment (aka the “Protect America Act”) was disgusting and dehumanizing.

  • What kind of drugs is Roodee on? Either that or Roodee’s got a terminal case of cognitive dissonance.

  • Sunday, Huckabee said ‘Well, let’s just hope Fred decides it’s just too hot this summer to even do this. Maybe he won’t get in. But if he does, I think he’s going to suck a lot of the oxygen out of the room when he first comes in. But I’m not sure I’d want to be in his position where the expectations are simply just sky-high for him to be able to perform.’”

    Sounds a lot like he’s talking about Fred’s new marriage to his trophy wife.

  • …Tom Coburn of Oklahoma,

    huzzawha?! Coburn? he’s a lunatic. Obama just went down in my estimation. Now if he’d said Lieberman, I would have appreciated the irony. What about Hagel? He may be very conservative, but at least he’s right on Iraq.

  • The Thompson campaign needs a *candidate* with significant campaign experience, never mind a communications director.

  • Edo@7
    It’s all relative. I’ve seen Coburn defend his incorrect views in a systematic manner that tells me he is capable of reason. This puts him head and shoulders above many of his colleagues stuck in the lockstep-loyalty dance.

    Hagel is definitely a possibility.
    Why did he leave out Snowe and Collins? (Maybe he didn’t want them to get smeared by being liked by a Democrat???)

  • Edo, I felt the same way when I saw Coburn’s name on that list, but Obama co-sponsored a bill with Coburn on Transparency in Government – which is dandy, but without more explanation as to why he named Coburn, a lot of pro-choice voters may be re-thinking their support, or taking a step back from the possibility of support.

    I’m still of the belief that Obama needs more experience, and this list he’s come up with reinforces my feelings.

  • As a native Oklahoman, I was going to chime in with Edo, but mop makes a compelling case. Interesting.

  • Most likely the reason Obama mentioned Colburn is that the two worked together on establishing a database to run searches on government spending.

    I don’t think much of Colburn either, but working together on a project like that is hardly anything to get too worked up about.

  • I don’t give a damn. One of the things that sickens me most about the extreme right is they think nothing of going around calling people things like “sheep.” The idea that two wrongs somehow make a right is a classic fallacy of critical thinking. The ad is disgusting and dehumanizing.

  • Obama and Coburn have already worked together on good legislation:

    Searchable database for public access to records of federal spending, which, by the way, good government groups really like, as far as I can tell.

    Limiting no-bid contracts in Katrina relief efforts

    We’d normally dismiss Coburn as a nut, but he and Obama have found a few issues of common interest: transparency in government, good government in general (lobbyist, earmark, and ethics reform), government waste (in general) and Katrina relief (in particular). The legislation they’ve worked on together for those issues is pretty good stuff, overall. I did a THOMAS search for Bills that list Obama and Coburn as sponsors or co/sponsors, and got 64 hits. Obviously, a lot of those are pro-forma or otherwise ceremonial bills (Rosa Parks stamps, etc), but it also shows just how much they worked together on the issues listed above. Amendment after amendment was sponsored by one, co-sponsored by the other (and sometimes Ted Kennedy), of painful, meticulous, line-by-line re-drafting of legislation. They also introduced an amendment together that seeks to bar negotiating future employment when Congressmen deal with lobbyists.

    This is good legislation.

    And it seems obvious that a President Obama, who’s signature issue seems to be good government/ethics reform/transparency, would have an effective cross-party point man to work with in the Senate when he would pursue his ethics agenda. A guy with lots of conservative cache.

    I fail to see how this is a bad thing for anyone who cares about good government.

    It seems like a pretty good thing, to me.

  • I knew people were going to get bent out of shape over the Coburn thing.

    Yeah, the guy’s a nut on a lot of issues. But I think it’s a pretty safe bet that Obama wouldn’t appoint him as Surgeon General, or Secretary of HHS, or any other role in which his nutso views would be relevant.

    Despite his social extremism, I somewhat admire Coburn because he’s committed to transparency in government and a federal government that lives within its means. My basic notion is here that Coburn, like others of his somewhat reformist views on the other side, is helping to create a fairer debate about government priorities and processes. And I am very confident that, far more often than not, progressives win fair debates.

  • “The near-unanimous vote threw the already contentious primary season into further turmoil, setting up a showdown between the states and the national party, which is desperately trying to quell the rush toward early primaries. . .”

    How very Democratic: the Rethugs are at an all time low in popularity, the Dems are raising good money, and finding good candidates, how could we possibly lose elections in 2008? Oh yeah: by imploding and finding endless things over which to infight. As they say, I belong to no organized political party. . .

    Two other notes: I had an initial reaction to Obama listing Coburn. Then before posting I read all of the back and forth in the comments. In light of all of that, I am still left at “WTF????”

    CalD, symbolism is a powerful thing. You appear to be suggesting that ACLU should only engage in ineffective advertising. If Reid and Pelosi don’t like being compared to sheep, maybe they should stop blindly following Bush. And if they can’t handle a little indignity, perhaps they should choose another profession. It ain’t beanbag, and its going to get a whole lot worse if they don’t start showing the leadership required of their positions.

  • Being familiar with Obama’s legislative history, to be honest, the name that raised questions with me was Warner. I know Obama has worked closely with Coburn on transparency and good governance issues, and I know Obama has worked closely with Luger on non-proliferation (which has been a big issue for him), but I don’t think he’s done much of anything with Warner. I guess its just political, given Warner’s recent vocal (if half-hearted) criticisms of President Bush, or maybe I just missed it…

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