Monday’s political round-up

March 5, 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:

* Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama “locked arms with civil rights icons Sunday and marched through thousands of well-wishers, crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge to cap the 42nd anniversary Right to Vote and Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” the Birmingham News reports. “Though the tone of Hillary Clinton’s and Obama’s speeches was polite and reverent, Sunday was obviously one of the early campaign showdowns between the rivals for the Democratic nomination for president.”

* John Edwards, who continues to look strong in Iowa, is looking to shore up his current standing by mailing DVDs to more than 70,000 Iowa households this week. The Politico reports that the idea is to introduce likely caucus-goers to his plan for universal health care “with a combination of passion, wonkiness, and implicit comparison with his rivals.”

* Though the results were largely overshadowed by Ann Coulter, a straw poll was conducted at the end of the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Mitt Romney was the first choice for the GOP nomination, with 21% support. Rudy Giuliani was second with 17%, followed by Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) with 15%. Newt Gingrich, who was very well received, was a close fourth, with 14%.

* There were some rumors that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) was contemplating retirement next year, but the senator seems to have put those rumors to rest. Harkin has hired veteran Democratic operative Jeff Link as his general consultant for his 2008 re-election campaign.

* And the NYT caused a bit of a stir over the weekend when it reported that Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew, will not campaign for his father, and the two have had a troubled relationship since Giuliani cheated on his second wife and remarried. Both of Giuliani’s children played significant roles in his mayoral campaigns, but neither his son nor his daughter are even mentioned on Giuliani’s presidential campaign website.

The NY Times needs to get a life. We already know Giuli isn’t exactly The Family Guy.

The wingnuts are trying to play the Hillary doesn’t know herself meme (including an increasingly assholish Andrew Sullivan) because she lapsed into sort of a drawl. I took a California wife back to the South one time and she lapsed into a drawl too. Don’t prove nothin’.

I’m claiming a long dyed blonde scalp for the left blogosphere because Ann(us) Coultish got called on her “faggot” remark by the right.

Hillary sings “We Shall Overcome.” Bill sings “We shall come all over.”

I think Obama got his timeline wrong equating the end of British colonialism in Africa with the Civil Rights battle in the South.

  • NPR did a segment wherein there was zero swordplay between Clinton and Obama, and of course they described them as… being at sword points.

    Jerkwad media.

  • The NY Times needs to get a life. We already know Giuli isn’t exactly The Family Guy.

    Who’s “we”? Not everyone knows this particular aspect of his personal life. Here in New York, we knew he’d had a rocky marital history, but a lot of us didn’t know there was estrangement from the kids. Up here in Secular Gomorrah (and, so they tell me, even in Jesusland), people get divorced all the time, sometimes more than once — but a lot of them remain as close to their kids as they can. We didn’t know Rudy was failing at that.

  • Very clever move by John Edwards. Aside from those blogger-aides he keeps generating good press (and even there events came around eventually). When the GOP slimers were cheered by Coulter’s verbal turd toss (saying she couldn’t use the word “faggot” while using it anyway), he turned it into a fund-raising opportunity. I wouldn’t want to be on the other side of a debate or court room from Edwards … nor a kick-boxing ring. Unlike most Dems the guy fights back.

  • Coultergeist needs to get a wooden stake right about now. The media knows she crossed the line and unless she recants (and she won’t) her sponsors will be officially supporting a bigot.

    Contact the sponsors of any site where you see her bile, and provide them with a calm recap of her offensiveness. Let them decide if they want to support a bigot or not, and let them know you’re watching them.

  • I am becoming convinced that having three big league candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) running, with Gore hovering over them and Richardson poised in the next tier, could actually be very, very good for Dems and the country. Yes, it will cost a fortune. Yes there will be infighting and overexposure. But these three are pushing each other to the top of their game. From everything I have read about Selma, I would have been thrilled to have been at either of their speeches or the march, and Edwards DVD sounds like a very aggressive and promising move. Dems are getting a lot more attention, and are handling it well; whoever ends up the nominee will be a fighting shape. I’m taking the positive view of it.

  • Zeitgeist @5, well said. As long as they don’t get too petty, I think the quality of the candidates should hopefully be apparent.

    As for Coulter, she deserves a special place in Hell. The man’s son dies, his wife has breast cancer, he’s running for president trying to make a difference (agree with his policies or not) and, for that, he gets called a faggot. Thankfully, I doubt seriously whether Edwards even blinked. Sadly, Coulter’s books will continue to sell.

    Who’s her publisher? Do they publish anti-Semitic, Nazi propaganda? How about KKK – David Duke crap? Is there any difference?

  • I thought he was already trying to undermine his father’s career at an early age… wasn’t he the one nonstop mugging as a 9-year-old during the mayoral inauguration?

  • Who’s “we”?
    Comment by Steve M. #3

    I guess by “we” I meant anyone that reads a newspaper. Like you said Giuli’s marital history is well known. I don’t think the binary antagonistic milieu of a political campaign is a subtle enough forum to judge family relationships. Cops say domestic disturbance calls are the most dangerous for them because of the emotions and unpredictability. Leave the “kids” out of it.

    Besides they both supported Giuliani. How good could the kids’ judgement be? 🙂

  • Not really ontopic (except for election 08) but has anyone noticed that Dems and Repubs seem to be deploying the same exact strategy?

    Put out three varieties of candidate who have lots of improbable election profiles (black, female, mormon, thrice-divorced, etc.)…

    but keep Aces in the hole? Al Gore vs. Jeb Bush? (Newt is being kept in the hole, but he’s more like Dan Quayle, I think).

  • An interesting dimension to Giuliani Time (a joke that New Yorkers will get) is that ex-wife #2, Donna Hannover, probably could torpedo his campaign whenever she wanted to. Donna, a newscaster/media type in her own right, very publicly attacked Il Rudy for his very public affair with his jerkass spokeswoman, Christyne Lategano (whom he then installed as head of the city’s tourism bureau in an obvious quid pro quo), in the late ’90s even before he publicly broke up with her and started parading around wife #3 to be Judi Nathan.

    But here, as elsewhere, 9/11 saved Rudy’s worthless ass. He made so much money with his speeches and consulting afterward that Donna was basically able to name her price, provided she kept her mouth shut. Still, her name will come up, and it won’t help Giuliani.

  • Funny thing about that straw poll is that after all the selling of soul John McCain has done to woo the wingnut right to his camp, he’s still getting his butt kicked. Call Mephistopheles and get a refund on your soul John, the deal isn’t working out.

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