Wednesday’s political round-up

March 14, 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:

* According to a new book by Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, John Edwards’ instincts told him to vote against the Iraq war resolution in 2002, but he was “pushed into it by advisers looking out for his political future.” Edwards spokesman David Ginsberg disputes the suggestion. “John Edwards cast his vote based on the advice of national security advisers and the intelligence he was given, not political advisers,” Ginsberg said. “He got political advice on both sides of the argument, and made his own decision based on what he thought was right, not political calculation.”

* Rudy Giuliani probably won’t like the fact that the only constituents he’s ever had believe his successor would make a better president than him. In a new Quinnipiac poll, New Yorkers say Michael Bloomberg would make a better president than Giuliani, 46% to 31%. Polling director Maurice Carroll said, “America’s Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, doesn’t score all that well where he really was the mayor.”

* Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) will become the new chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, and is scheduled to resign his House seat in July. Massachusetts’ political ladder, which has been backed up for years, will now see a scramble. Niki Tsongas, wife of the late former Sen. Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.); former Lowell Mayor Eileen Donohue; and Middlesex County Sheriff James DiPaola already said they plan on running for the seat. State Reps. Barry Finegold, Jim Sully and James Eldridge are also considered potential candidates.

* CNN reports that John Edwards’ campaign plans to eliminate its contribution to global warming by becoming “carbon neutral.” Speaking to a crowd of college students at Bennett College, the former North Carolina senator urged all Americans to help reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. “It’s time for the president of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war,” Edwards said. “This is an emergency. This requires action now.”

* And in an unfortunate twist, John McCain’s campaign is hosting a NCAA March Madness competition on its website, in which the winner can win campaign gear. This comes after McCain introduced legislation in May 2003 to ban gambling on amateur sports.

I’m sure Edwards was looking at the same political landscape that everyone else was, namely the Israel lobby and what it wanted.

http://www.ihr.org/news/040716_hollings.shtml

The key to understanding this is to read what our politicians say after they have announced their retirement:

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2621

“If the American people understood what grip those people have on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens don’t have any idea what goes on.”
– Admiral Thomas Moorer

  • Bloomberg WOULD make a better President than Rudy — check out people like Mark Klieman, who worked in the AG office with him. In fact, Bloomberg wouldn’t be that bad, an improvement over Hillary, certainly. (He’s a Democrat — a somewhat conservative one on financial matters, but liberal in other ways — who changed parties to get elected without hiding his positions. Not charismatic, a bit of a blunderer at times, but not a total disaster.)

    I’m disappointed to hear Meehan is leaving, and hope he succeeds in getting DA-DT repealed first.

  • Betcha five bucks Bill Bennet was the first guy to head over to the McCain site and start setting up his brackets.

  • I agree with Racerx (#1). The trouble is that the Israel lobby is so one-sided, just like much of American politics. You never hear from the left-leaning Israelis (except when there’s a public opinion poll), just the Netanyahu ones. As here, the progressives are afraid of being called “weak” or “traitor” by the reich-wing, so they seldom make any noise (or else the press is afraid of reporting).

    And while we’re here, haven’t we had just about enough of the stategery of Bob Shrum by now? Won’t he please do the Democrats a huge favor and just sit this one out? along with Donna Brazile?

  • This comes after McCain introduced legislation in May 2003 to ban gambling on amateur sports. – CB
    Does that count as another flip-flop for McCain? – cha

    “Gambling” requires three conditions to be met:
    Consideration, Chance, and Reward.

    Since the competition at McCain’s website doesn’t require you to risk anything you own (consideration), it isn’t really gambling.

    Although, I wonder if giving them my email address could be “consideration”? I doubt it, but still it would be an interesting angle.

  • The secret you’ll never hear from the Rudy-worshiping press is that the murder rate in New York kept going down after Rudy left office at the end of 2001. Yes, Rudy presided over a big drop in crime, but that happened all over the country at the same time — and he didn’t have a patent on crime prevention, because the murder rate is still low (it went up alightly last year, however).

    And until the recent Sean Bell shooting, Bloomberg seemed not to be alienating minority communities here. Even with that shooting, the temperature seems lower than it did in the days of Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima.

  • re: #6
    mccain campaign gear? not much of a prize, either — except maybe as collector’s items when he flames out!

  • If Bob Shrum had any dignity or self-respect, he would have committed seppuku after the 2004 elections. Failing that, the least he can do is keep his pathetic trap shut and never remind the rest of us of his horrible and tragic failures for as long as he blights the earth.

    Meanwhile, there’s a reason–actually a lot of reasons–Rudy is less popular here in NYC than everywhere in Red and Purple America. A functioning national press corps presumably would show some interest in what those reasons are.

  • Ed Stephan,

    And while we’re here, haven’t we had just about enough of the stategery of Bob Shrum by now? Won’t he please do the Democrats a huge favor and just sit this one out? along with Donna Brazile?

    Yes, yes, emphatically YES! Those two should join the media as “experts” (or take an extended vacation to Europe–anything to stop the Dems from relying on them).

  • The response from Edwards’ spokesman doesn’t really help. Edwards comes off as inexperienced and needing to rely too heavily on insiders.

  • “It’s time for the president of the United States to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war,” Edwards said (vis à vis global warming). — Now that’s a quote to remember.

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