Rudy Giuliani Tries To Goose The Election In California

2:01 am EST September 29th, 2007 | News | 1 Comment

Rudygiulianisneer

So early for shenanigans.

A close friend and major fundraiser of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has identified himself as the mystery financer of the proposed California initiative to apportion the state’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all.

He is New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. He said he provided the $175,000 to initially finance the petition drive to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot. But as The Times’ Dan Morain revealed in an exclusive story on this website last night, the drive has foundered on internal disputes and lack of further financing.

The DNC has questions.

“Rudy Giuliani should come clean and explain his ties to this blatant Republican power grab.” said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. “Voters deserve to know if Rudy Giuliani is involved in this dirty trick to steal the White House for the Republicans. Does Rudy support this Republican power grab? Is it part of his campaign plan?”

Topic: 2008 Election

Republicans Are Really Stupid. Really Stupid.

7:09 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 19 Comments

Michelle Malkin and the usual gang of idiots are trying to say John Edwards was racist for pointing out the fact – the fact – that current rates of incarceration for young black men are unsustainable and leading to a prison generation. Again, Sen. Edwards was right, on the money, addressing issues that are affecting black Americans. Unlike the Republicans, who couldn’t be bothered to show up at a debate in front of a black audience last night, lest they offend the racists in the base of the Republican party.

Rudy Giuliani: 9/11 Made My Wife Call Me

7:03 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 1 Comment

Captain Ridiculous strikes again.

Topic: 2008 Election

Michael Medved: Slavery Wasn’t That Bad

6:47 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 23 Comments

Conservative Michael Medved writes a column explaining to us that slavery in America wasn’t that bad and that we need to just get over it and excise the idea that an entire race of people was held in bondage for hundreds of years in the land of the free.

I can’t figure out why there aren’t more black conservatives, what with scholarship like this.

John McCain Fails US History 101

6:20 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 1 Comment

The constitution does not say America is a Christian nation. John McCain does not know this.

Topic: 2008 Election

VoteVets On Rush Limbaugh’s "Phony Soldiers" Attack

6:14 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 17 Comments

>>Dem Rep To Introduce House Resolution Condemning Rush Limbaugh On Monday

Fred Thompson Is Unaware

12:24 pm EST September 28th, 2007 | News | 15 Comments

One of the Republican frontrunners is apparently Grandpa Simpson. Granted, Grandpa Simpson is a funny character… but you wouldn’t want him to be leader of the free world, would you?

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson said Thursday he was unaware that a federal judge had ruled last week that lethal injection procedures in his home state were unconstitutional.

Thompson also told reporters he was unaware that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to consider a Kentucky case about whether lethal injection violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Thompson’s support for the death penalty was a major part of his campaign platform when he first ran for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee in 1994. Asked for his response to the recent Tennessee and Kentucky cases, Thompson responded, “I hadn’t heard that. I didn’t know.”

…

It’s not the first time Thompson has been caught off-guard by questions on hot-button topics. In Florida earlier this month, Thompson seemed surprised when asked about oil drilling in the Everglades, a major issue in the state.

Thompson also gave no opinion when asked about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive two years ago, saying he did not remember details of the case that stirred national debate.

(via)

Topic: 2008 Election

John Edwards Taking Public Financing: Not A Good Sign

4:55 pm EST September 27th, 2007 | News | 20 Comments

There’s no way a candidate can essentially disarm himself like this during an election. Sure, in an ideal world this money thing is not an issue, but we don’t live in that world.

Former Sen. John Edwards Thursday said he will accept public financing for his presidential campaign, and challenged his chief rivals for the Democratic nomination, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to follow his lead.
Edwards is the first top-tier Democratic presidential candidate to accept public financing.
“This is not about a money calculation,” Edwards told CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley on his way to an event in Durham, North Carolina. “This is about taking a stand, a principled stand, and I believe in public financing.”

That kind of decision leads me to believe that the train is just about to leave the station. For a Democrat to be president they must compete and possibly even exceed the amount of money the GOP will/can raise.

UPDATE: Sen. Edwards felt differently in February.

Democrat John Edwards on Monday joined New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in saying he will not use public money for the presidential primary campaign or, if he wins his party’s nomination, for the general election.
The move by the former North Carolina senator is the latest sign of trouble for the public campaign funding system, created after the Watergate scandal to set limits and disclosure rules on contributions to presidential campaigns.
Edwards said in an interview that he expects major candidates in both parties to raise unlimited private dollars rather than participate in the public system. He said he needs to do the same “to have the funds to be competitive.”

Topic: 2008 Election

Mitt Romney’s Poor Web Showing

4:46 pm EST September 27th, 2007 | News | Comments Off

Sad

The results show that the online public takes its ad production responsibilities seriously, with many professional-looking spots. But while the quality was high, the quantity was not. For a contest open for more than two weeks, 129 submissions seems a small number — a reflection, perhaps, of the former Massachusetts governor’s relative obscurity among voters.

Imagine if a similar contest had been held for supporters of Rep. Ron Paul or Sen. Barack Obama, both of whom have consistently led their respective fields in the total number of YouTube views, MySpace friends and Facebook supporters, three ways of measuring online popularity. (Number of MySpace friends? Paul: 64,572. Romney: 30,520. Number of YouTube views? Paul: 4.2 million. Romney: 2.2 million.) But as Micah Sifry of TechPresident.com, which tracks how the candidates are campaigning online points out: “Look, it’s not easy to make an online video. Making an online video is far harder than writing a blog post.” Indeed. Still, Dan Manatt of PoliticsTV.com, which creates news and satirical online videos, counters: “If the contest response is an omen for the primaries, Romney should be worried. MoveOn.org’s ‘Bush in 30 seconds’ contest” — the liberal group asked members to create an anti-President Bush spot — “got 10 times more responses than Romney got. And that was in 2004, before Web video was even big.”

Topic: 2008 Election

Rush Limbaugh: Soldiers Against War Are "Phony Soldiers" (So If The Senate & House Are Condemning Criticism Of Soldiers…)

3:44 pm EST September 27th, 2007 | News | 32 Comments

How about leading conservative host Rush Limbaugh, a man who has regularly interviewed the president, vice-president, and numerous other conservative Republican luminaries?

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq “phony soldiers.”

From the DCCC:

Chairman Chris Van Hollen Condemns Rush Limbaugh’s Outrageous Comment that Soldiers Who Support Withdrawing From Iraq Are “Phony Soldiers”
“Rush Limbaugh’s personal attack on our men and women in uniform is reprehensible. It minimizes the sacrifice our troops in Iraq and their families are making and has no place in the public discourse. Rush Limbaugh owes our military and their families an apology for his hurtful comments that minimize their service to our country.”

UPDATE:

Dems slam Limbaugh on the floor of the House.

Patrick Murphy (Iraq Vet): “Someone should tell chicken-hawk Rush Limbaugh that the only phonies are those who choose not to serve and then criticize those who do. I served proudly, so did two of my fellow paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne who spoke out and died just weeks ago. Generations of American veterans have worn the uniform with pride and we know it is no contradiction to serve your country and still disagree with the Bush-civilian leadership that mismanaged this war.”

There also denouncements from Rep. Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky.

DNC chairman Howard Dean denounces Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” remark.

“Rush Limbaugh should immediately apologize to our brave men and women in uniform for undermining the sacrifices they make every day serving our country. Limbaugh’s comments were un-American, have no place in the public discourse, and show just how far he’ll go to defend President Bush’s failed policy in Iraq. America’s troops deserve better, and Limbaugh owes them an apology.”