McCain Curses Out Cornyn Over Immigration

The New York Post reports that an argument between Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and John McCain became very heated over the immigration deal, and McCain proceeded to curse out Cornyn, yelling "Fuck you!" and calling Cornyn's objections to the legislation "chickenshit stuff," a cover for Cornyn's unalterable opposition to the bill. Cornyn shot back, noting McCain's chronic absenteeism from the Senate, telling McCain he wasn't allowed to "just parachute in at the last minute and begin making all these demands."



Video: Romney Bashed Contract With America In 1994

Here's a recently-posted YouTube of Mitt Romney running against the national Republican Party's Contract With America in 1994. Romney called the idea of such an organized national platform overly divisive, and called instead for politicians of both parties to sit down and work together on common solutions.






Bush Hits New Low With Rasmussen — Who Tend To Give Him Better Numbers

President Bush has reached a new low in Rasmussen polling, with 34% approval to 64% disapproval — the worst rating he has ever received from that polling firm. And bear in mind, as a look at our Election Central Poll Tracker will demonstrate, Rasmussen has consistently given the President the best approval ratings out of any pollster.



Hoyer: Congress Will Stay In Session Until Iraq Bill Passes

House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer has announced that the House will remain in session, without going on recess, until an Iraq War funding bill gets passed, The Hill reports. Meanwhile, CNN reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pledged to have a bill passed by Memorial Day, when a recess has been scheduled.



Gingrich Honors Falwell At Liberty University Commencement

Newt Gingrich told the graduating class Jerry Falwell's Liberty University today to honor the memory of their school's founder by fighting "the growing culture of radical secularism" in America, The Daily Press reports. "In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms," Gingrich said.



NYT: Hillary Doesn't Talk About Six Years On Wal-Mart's Board Of Directors

The New York Times has a profile of a chapter in Hillary Clinton's life that doesn't get much mention from her campaign: Her six years as a member of the board of directors for Wal-Mart. On the one hand, Hillary's time with the company is not mentioned at all on her campaign Web site, since the company has become a political target of organized labor and other Democratic groups. On the other hand, Hillary helped pioneer various initiatives, now widely practiced, to improve the company's practices on some issues, such as building stores that were more environmentally friendly, and increasing the roles of women in the company.



RNC Chair Martinez Threatens Home State Over Primary

The Associated Press reports that RNC Chairman and U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) has been forced into an awkward situation: Threatening to strip his home state of Florida of some of its Presidential if they insist on moving their primary ahead to Jan. 29, before the national parties' officially sanctioned date of Feb. 5. "The rules are inflexible and it doesn't matter who is running the RNC, those rules will be enforced because they are part of the rules that were crafted at the last convention and they can't be changed," Martinez said.



Chris Dodd Takes Credit For Clinton And Obama's Iraq Votes

The Des Moines Register reports that Chris Dodd says his recent ads, critical of his fellow Presidential candidates for not backing measures to cut off funding for the Iraq War, had influence on the decisions by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to vote for the failed Feingold Amendment. "I'm grateful for them having done that and I believe it had influence on that decision," Dodd said.



Jim Gilmore's Strategy: Attack The Others — And Watch Them Attack Each Other

The Washington Post profiles underdog GOP Presidential candidate Jim Gilmore. The former Virginia Governor — who has only a single staffer in Iowa — has a simple strategy: Attack the others with his "Rudy McRomney is not a conservative" line, and watch them proceed to attack each other based on his critiques. "Romney's going to take his $23 million and go shooting at McCain," said Gilmore strategist Kieran Mahoney. "When Giuliani takes his $17 million and shoots at Romney, that's not a bad day, either. It's not necessary that we own the bullets."

Fox Skews Poll To Make It Look As If Americans Disagree With Reid's "War Is Lost" Comment
Check out the phrasing in Fox News' latest poll of this question designed to show that Americans disagree with Harry Reid's assertion that the Iraq war is lost: "Recently Democratc Leader of the Senate Harry Reid said that the war 'is lost' in Iraq. Do you feel this was an acceptable thing or an unacceptable thing for Reid to say while U.S. troops are still in the field fighting?" The answer: 29% Acceptable, 65% Unacceptable. Note that the question adds the line about the troops still in the field — a constant GOP talking point — rather than simply asking whether or not Reid's opinion was legitimate or correct. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same poll, we learn that 57% think America is losing or has already lost the war. It's all in the phrasing.

Conservatives Mobilizing Against Immigration Deal — And McCain
The conservative blogosphere is up in arms over the immigration deal, and mobilizing to pressure 41 Senators to filibuster it. Key point: Lead co-sponsor John McCain is taking a beating from the activists over this.

"Conservative" Fred Thompson Used To Favor Similar Immigration Proposals
Fred Thompson may be criticizing the deal from the right, but Ryan Sager points out that as recently as one year ago, Thompson took a more liberal stance towards accommodating the illegal immigrants already here, and was skeptical of a border fence.

Nostalgia: Falwell Bashed Rudy In 1994 For Welcoming "AIDS-Infected" Immigrants and Gays
Ben Smith has picked up an example of Rudy Giuliani's relationship with the Christian Right back in 1994: An ad by Jerry Falwell, bashing Rudy for allegedly teaming up with the Clinton Administration to welcome "as many as ONE MILLION radical homosexuals and lesbians — many of them AIDS-infected immigrants" to New York City for a gay community event.

Obama And Brownback Team Up
Barack Obama and Sam Brownback are teaming up on a bill to encourage divestment by state and local governments from companies that invest significantly ($20 million or more) in Iran.

Richardson Used Loophole To Build Presidential Campaign With State Account
After his landslide re-election as Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson made payments to people who then became staffers for his Presidential — in other words, Richardson used his state campaign account to set up the infrastructure for his eventual federal campaign. The technique appears to have been legal, a loophole in campaign finance law, but it probably violates the spirit of what the authors of campaign laws intended.

Former Clinton-Era U.S. Attorney Ponders Bid Against Domenici
Former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico John Kelly, who served during the Clinton years, is considering a run against GOP Senator Pete Domenici. Domenici is of course a key player in the U.S. Attorney scandal, having been accused by former U.S. Atty. David Iglesias of trying to pressure Iglesias to issue an indictment against local Democrats before the 2006 election. So would a former U.S. Attorney be the perfect challenge to Domenici?

Wu Won't Challenge Gordon Smith, But Vietnam Veteran Legislator Considering A Run
Yet another Democratic Congressman from Oregon says he won't challenge GOP Senator Gordon Smith — this time it's Representative David Wu. Democrats have previously attempted to recruit Reps. Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer and others. However, another possible candidate has emerged. State Sen. Alan Bates, a 62-year old Vietnam War veteran, says he has been considering a bid against Smith for the last six months, but was not going to say anything unless more notable Dems took themselves out of the running.

Democrats Recruit Chabot Challenger
In Ohio, Democrats have recruited state Rep. Steve Driehaus to run against GOP incumbent Steve Chabot, an often-targeted House Republican who was re-elected last year by a fairly narrow 53%-47% margin.

Playboy Head Backs Obama
Christie Hefner, CEO and Chairwoman of Playboy Enterprises and the daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, supports Barack Obama.

Anti-War Dem Will Challenge Kerry In Primary For 2002 Vote
In Massachusetts, former Gloucester School Committee Chairman Edward O'Reilly says he will challenge John Kerry in the Democratic primary, with his major grievance being Kerry's 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq War — when Kerry himself has renounced that vote and become a vocal anti-war Senator.

McCain Is An Avid Pet Lover — Including One That Rudy Might Not Like
Rudy Giuliani might respect John McCain a little less after he hears about this: McCain is a ferret owner.

"Bill Clinton is the most popular person on Earth."

-- Former Clinton adviser and current commentator Paul Begala, talking just now on CNN about Bill's poll numbers relative to those of other global figures.

Today the White House said No to all of Dems' offered concessions on Iraq, effectively telling the Dem Congressional leadership to take its "surrender date" and shove it deep into its posterior. So now what?

A Democratic leadership aide tells us that Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Dem Rep. David Obey will be talking through the weekend to game out the next steps. Further talks with the White House are unlikely, at least this weekend, the aide says. So what do we make of the current political challenge facing Dems?

We checked in with a liberal House Dem staffer who is a sharp observer of Hill politics, and he gave us a surprisingly candid -- and dispiriting -- overview of the political situation. More after the jump.

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Sensing an opportunity to undermine weirdly persistent perceptions of President Bush as supportive of the troops, the House Dem leadership has just opened fire on the White House for the first time over the administration's opposition to a House Dem measure that would hike the pay of U.S. soldiers by 3.5%.

The White House has been saying that a 3% raise is sufficient.

Dem leaders have just sent a letter -- which was just sent our way -- to the White House blasting the President over the issue. It demands that the administration "support our troops" by reconsidering its opposition. Key quote from the letter:

Mr. President, you have consistently called on Congress and the American people to support our troops. Considering the sacrifices that our military families make, the Democratic proposal to provide the troops with the pay raise they deserve and an increase in benefits for the spouses they may leave behind is one small way that we can support our troops.

When it comes to supporting our troops, our actions must match our words.

This is clearly an issue the Dems intend to push as aggressively as possible, linking it to the Walter Reed scandal and other ways the White House has failed the troops. Polls suggest, however, that Americans continue to view Bush as more supportive of the troops than the Dem Congress, suggesting that such stories -- as appalling as they are -- have yet to give Dems the political dividends they're looking for on this front. Full letter after the jump.

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A partial transcript of Nancy Pelosi's post-meeting remarks on the broken-down talks between Congressional Dem leaders and the White House:

“The domestic initiatives on the bill in the original we sent to the President are emergencies. Katrina, hurricane disaster assistance, health care for America’s children, all of those issues are emergencies. But because the President made it an issue that they were not appropriate on the war funding bill, we said, ‘Okay, take those off. And then accept the bill that we sent that includes everything you have asked for our troops and more.’

“But it has accountability in it. The President’s representatives said no. Then we said, ‘Okay, you have a problem with timelines, we’ll give you a waiver on that.’ They said no.

“So it is clear that the difference between the Democrats and the President is the issue of accountability. He will not accept any accountability or responsibility for what has happened there. Going into the meeting we had hopes that we could find our common ground, one where the line would be drawn on accountability, without an open-ended war without end, with a blank check. For we are speaking out with the wishes of the American people. To create a new direction in Iraq -- that can only happen with accountability."

Again, the only thing the White House and the Republicans will accept is some form of benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq -- with no consequences for the failure to meet them, of course.

The meeting between Dem Congressional leaders and the White House over how to resolve the Iraq war spending standoff has just ended, and it looks like things are at a serious impasse.

Dem leaders just said at their post-meeting press availability that the White House's negotiators rejected everything that Dems offered. A Dem offer of a war timetable that the President could actually waive -- that is, not follow? Rejected. A Dem offer to get rid of the pork in the supplemental? Also rejected.

Few additional details are yet available on what else exactly was offered and rejected, but it's clear that things are at a standstill right now. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just said on CNN, the difference between Democrats and the President is stark: Dems want accountability, the President wants none. "He will not accept any accountability or responsibility," Pelosi said.

More as we learn it.

Update: The White House's chief negotiator, Joshua Bolten, is now explaining why the Dem offer of waivable timetables was rejected: "We consider that to be not a significant distinction. Whether waivable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong singnal to our adversaries, our allies ... our troops in the field."

Update II: Here's the Associated Press' description:

The Democrats, in a meeting with Bush's top aides on Capitol Hill, said they would strip from an emergency appropriations measure billions of dollars in domestic spending. They also pledged to give Bush authority to waive compliance with a timetable on the war.

But no agreement emerged.

Meanwhile, GOP House leader John Boehner just blasted Dems for still wanted to include a "surrender date" in the legislation -- a "surrender date" that Bush doesn't have to abide by. It looks like the only thing the GOP and the White House are prepared to concede is to allow some sort of benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq -- with no consequences for the failure to meet them, of course.

Update III: A fuller transcript of Pelosi's comments about the meeting is here.

CQ has the rundown on the GOP's travails in Montana, where one after another of the viable GOP challengers to Dem Senator Max Baucus are proving unable or unwilling to make the race:

* Republican Michael Lange, the former majority leader of the Montana House, was considered a choice to go afer Baucus -- until he unleashed a tirade about Montana Dem Governor Brian Schweitzer that got him bounced from the House leadership.

* Four-term at-large Rep. Denny Rehberg is another top potential GOP recruit because he ran a good race against Baucus in 1996, losing by just 5 points. But he is "said to be resisting GOP efforts to draft him into the race," CQ reports.

* Finally, two other GOPers who have been floated as potential challengers -- technology billionaire Thomas Siebel and tech executive Steve Daines -- both told CQ that they're not interested in the race.

Because Montana leans conservative and usually votes Republican, giving President Bush 59% of the vote in 2004, Baucus can never be declared completely safe. But right now he's looking pretty comfortable.

Ron Paul In 2001: My Old Newsletter Was Largely Ghost-Written
Yesterday we highlighted a 1996 Houston Chronicle article about offensive remarks about blacks and other minorities, contained in Ron Paul's newsletter from the early 1990's.

But TPM reader "midnightrunner" has now pointed out to us that Paul has addressed this controversy before. In an article about Paul in the October 2001 issue of Texas Monthly, Paul gave a confession about his newsletter, five years after it got him into trouble during the 1996 campaign: Paul claimed that much of the newsletter was ghost-written, and he did not write or know about certain offensive remarks about the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-TX).

"They were never my words, but I had some moral responsibility for them ... I actually really wanted to try to explain that it doesn't come from me directly, but they [campaign aides] said that's too confusing. 'It appeared in your letter and your name was on that letter and therefore you have to live with it,'" Paul said. Was Paul's claim true, and does this mean he didn't actually write the offensive comments about blacks being criminals and other remarks?

Reid Attacks McCain For Absenteeism
The Hill reports that Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid's office has attacked John McCain for missing many key votes (He has not cast a single vote since early April, including four missed votes about Iraq this year). "Sen. McCain has spent considerable time defending the president on Iraq and catering to the Republican base on immigration, but has only managed to show up for four of the last 14 Iraq votes and parachute into [yesterday’s] immigration press conference at the last minute," said a Reid spokeswoman. "Who is the real John McCain?" McCain spokesman Danny Diaz hit back — but without any detailed defense of McCain's missed votes. "John McCain has continued to stand up for what he believes: victory in Iraq and improved protection of our nation through comprehensive immigration reform," Diaz said. "It is unfortunate that the Senate majority leader is more focused on partisan attacks than solving the serious problems confronting our nation."

Immigration Compromise Gets A Mostly Negative Verdict From GOP Presidential Candidates
The newly announced immigration compromise is getting a mostly negative reaction from GOP Presidential contenders. Mitt Romney has a press release out slamming the deal, while potential candidate Fred Thompson is also calling for rejection of the bill. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani's campaign has a press release out that doesn't give a straight answer: "Rudy's top priority and main objective is to ensure our borders are secure and to stop potential terrorists and criminals from coming in ... We need to know who is coming in and who is going out of this country if we are going to deal with those who are here illegally." Only John McCain, himself a sponsor of the compromise, is unequivocally supportive.

Michelle Obama Finding Place On The Trail
The New York Times reports that Barack Obama's campaign has been working to find the right place for the candidate's wife Michelle, in an environment where her husband will not only be campaigning to be the first black President, but she would be the first black First Lady. And above all, the job for her and the campaign is to find the right approach to take for a woman who is leery of politics and her husband's image, but is also intensely competitive. "Mrs. Obama dislikes politics, friends and family confirmed, but not as much as she dislikes losing," the Times writes.

Edwards And Giuliani Claim Not To Have Known About Sudan Holdings
The Associated Press reports that John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani — two of the wealthier candidates in the Presidential field — have financial holdings in businesses that do work with Sudan, the country facing international scrutiny for the genocide in Darfur. An Edwards aide said that the candidate did not know about the Sudan-related holdings, and will divest. The Giuliani campaign also said their candidate was unaware of the matter, and will review his portfolio and "take appropriate action."

Rudy Pays Wife $125,000 A Year For Speechwriting
The New York Daily News reports that Rudy Giuliani has been very supportive of third wife Judith Nathan Giuliani's role in his political work, and has been paying her a salary of $125,000 annually as an official speechwriter since before they were married — though this is only about 2% of the money he has made for giving paid speeches since leaving office as Mayor of New York City. "Mrs. Giuliani made a professional contribution and the mayor recognizes and respects her efforts," an aide said. "He is merely acknowledging both her time commitment and her professional value." GOP Strategist Nelson Warfield, however, was critical of the arrangement: "It just looks odd. Most spouses view supporting their significant others as part of the package, not part of the compensation package."

Richardson: Americans Should "Sacrifice For The Common Good" On Energy
The Hill reports that Bill Richardson has unveiled an energy plan calling carbon emissions reductions of 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2040, with a focus on promoting electric cars and strong mandates to cap emissions — a strong step towards asking the average American to, in Richardson's words, "sacrifice for the common good." "On energy policy, we need to change fast or sink slowly," Richardson said.

McCain Raising Money In Rudy's Backyard
The New York Times reports that John McCain held a $200,000 fundraiser in New York yesterday, hosted by New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. And McCain is coming back to New York tonight for a fundraiser aimed at younger voters, featuring his daughter Meghan McCain, a new graduate from Columbia College.

Duncan Hunter's Site Says Son — A Candidate For His California Seat — Lives In Idaho
Duncan Hunter may need to speak to his campaign staff, and tell them to stop giving ammo to his son Duncan D. Hunter's opponents in the GOP primary for his House seat: His Presidential campaign site says of the younger Duncan: "Duncan D. and his wife, Margaret, have three children, Duncan Lee, Elizabeth Grace and Sarah Louise, and reside in Boise, Idaho." Duncan D. Hunter is running for the elder Hunter's House seat from San Diego.

• Things are even worse than we thought in our post yesterday about John McCain's absenteeism from the Senate — McCain hasn't made a single vote since April 12, and has missed 42 floor votes in a row!

• Ben Smith reports that Barack Obama's campaign will circulate a petition at New Hampshire campaign events specifically calling on the state's two GOP Senators, Judd Gregg and John Sununu, to change their votes on Iraq.

• Ron Paul supporters are deluging GOP offices in Michigan and South Carolina with complaints about proposals to exclude Paul from future debates — so the South Carolina GOP is giving out Paul's cell-phone number.

• James Dobson: "Speaking as a private citizen and not on behalf of any organization or party, I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008. It is an irrevocable decision. If given a Hobson's – Dobson's? – choice between him and Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama, I will either cast my ballot for an also-ran – or if worse comes to worst – not vote in a presidential election for the first time in my adult life. My conscience and my moral convictions will allow me to do nothing else."

• Sam Brownback's campaign has sent out a letter to supporters: "Unfortunately one of the current front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani, is a vocal and unapologetic supporter of the 'right' to abortion ... It is a sad statement when the President of Planned Parenthood-the largest abortion provider in America-is praising the leading Republican candidate. This is NOT the direction our party needs to take."

• Newt Gingrich says the current Presidential candidates are "demeaning the Presidency by reducing it to being a game show contest," and too much time raising money and not enough focusing on real ideas.

• Mitt Romney's campaign says a "JFK Speech" separating himself politically from the Mormon Church is still an option for them, but the candidate's outreach to the general population is going well.

• Leading Senators have struck a deal on an immigration bill that would give a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here. Passage of this bill could potentially impact the Republican Presidential race in a big way, with the more conservative candidates like Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and others deeply opposed to it.

• Mitt Romney has picked up his first endorsement from a New Hampshire state Senator, Bob Letourneau of Derry.

• Ron Paul is standing by his contention that American foreign policy helped lead to 9/11. "I found two very clear quotes in the 9/11 Commission report that says that very thing, that our foreign policy has a very great deal to do with their willingness and desire to commit suicide terrorism," Paul said.

• Tom Tancredo has set a high bar: He want to come at least fifth place in the Iowa Straw Poll.

• Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) talked to the Washington Post about the dissatisfaction among Republican activists about their PResidential field, and says it fundamentally has to do with dissatisfaction among Republicans about their party's shape, period.

• Dr. Peter Agre, the 2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and professor at Duke University, as well as a founding member of Scientists and Engineers for America, announced yesterday that he is taking a leave of absence from his duties at Duke to consider a run for Senate from Minnesota. Agre, born and raised in Minnesota, would likely join Al Franken and Mike Ciresi in the DFL primary race to challenge incumbent Republican Norm Coleman. — Andrew Cleary

• Barack Obama's online campaign videos will now include closed captioning, for the benefit of deaf and hearing-impaired supporters.

• Barack Obama is part Irish — or should we call him "O'Bama?"

• John Edwards has gotten advice from John Mayer about how to reach young voters.

• Porno icon Jenna Jameson has endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Here's some audio of the Obama criticism of Hillary on Iraq we referenced below:

Listening to it, Obama's criticism comes across as tougher than I'd originally thought -- asked if this highlighted a difference in the judgment of the two candidates, Obama replied flatly: "It does."

We think this is a significant moment in the campaign -- the first time to our knowledge that Obama has sought to highlight his pre-war differences with Hillary in such stark terms.

It'll be interesting to see: (a) If Camp Obama will continue to press this point; and (b) If it'll have resonance with voters. Polls seem to suggest that the Dem electorate is less inclined to hold Hillary's initial war vote against her than the pundits predicted. We'll see.

Today Hillary took her most direct drubbing on Iraq yet from her Dem Presidential rivals -- so let's take a quick look at what was said and what it means.

First, Barack Obama was on MSNBC this morning, where he drew a distinction between his and Hillary's prewar positions in his sharpest terms thus far:

Obama, who has made his 2002 opposition to the war a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, was asked this morning on MSNBC about comments made last night by former President Clinton, in which he said that Sens. Clinton and Obama have had similar voting records on the war.

"I suppose that's true if you leave out the fact that she authorized it, and supported it, and I said it was a bad idea," said Obama. "That's a fairly major difference."

That is a significant escalation of Obama's rhetoric against Clinton -- the first time to our knowledge that he's made this point with anywhere near this clarity: She supported the war; he opposed it. Camp Hillary -- as evidenced by what Bill said last night -- has been working hard to obscure the initial differences between Hillary and Obama over the war by focusing on the similarity of their overall voting records on Iraq. Obama's broadside suggests a recognition in Camp Obama that those efforts have been working -- polls have been showing that Dem voters don't hold Hillary's Iraq positions against her in significant numbers.

Camp Obama wants -- understandably -- to prevent this initial and very critical difference over the war from getting lost in the fog. But Hillary's supporters have been cranking up this particular fog machine in a big way for some time now. So one has to wonder whether it will still prove possible for Obama to successfully draw this distinction sharply enough for it to make a difference to Dem voters who seem inclined not to care as much about it than the pundits said they would.

The second assault on Hillary's Iraq positions came from Chris Dodd's campaign, which hammered Hillary for her imperfect expressions of support for the Feingold amendment, the measure that would have cut off funding for the war by March of 2008 if it hadn't been defeated yesterday. The criticism of Hillary revolves around the fact that while she said she backed cloture for the amendment, she didn't articulate her support for the underlying legislation forcefully enough. That prompted this from Dodd's camp:

"We're as confused as anyone on Sen. Clinton's position, and frankly it's hard to know whether it's indecision, miscommunication, or simple word games and political gamesmanship we're dealing with," said Dodd spokeswoman Christy Setzer. "Our troops in Iraq don't have time for poll-tested word games."

This strikes us as pretty over the top. A vote for cloture is basically a vote for the bill. And late yesterday, Hillary said: "I support the underlying bill." Could she have made it a bit clearer a bit earlier that she was 100% behind the bill itself? Sure -- but let's face it, she voted for the damn thing, unlike nearly half the Dems in the Senate. And Hillary has been supportive of a host of other measures to end the war.

So that's where we are.

Update: Here's some video of Obama's Hillary slam.

Woah: A new poll finds that Mitt Romney is the bona-fide frontrunner in the key primary state of New Hampshire — with nearly double the support of both Rudy and John McCain! Zogby:

Romney 35% McCain 19% Rudy 19%

In the last poll, released on April 3, Romney tied John McCain for first, with each scoring at 25%.

Meanwhile, on the Dem side, there's also a surprise — Bill Richardson has moved into a solid fourth place:

Hillary 28%
Obama 26%
Edwards 15%
Richardson 10%

Richardson's surge is possibly due to both his visits to the state and to his novel "job interview" themed ads, which have been running in New Hampshire since late last week.

Unlikely liberal hero Ron Paul — who's been receiving plaudits from the lefty blogosphere for opposing the Iraq war and blasting Bush at the GOP debate — is also on the record with some decidedly illiberal sentiments on race, Israel, and other topics, it turns out. Read more after the jump.

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Yesterday we flagged Rudy Giuliani's weirdly unremarked upon interview on Fox News in which he said that he "usually" hears Democrats blaming America for 9/11.

Now the Edwards camp has slammed back at Rudy, become the first Presidential campaign to do so. Edwards senior adviser Jonathan Prince emailed us the following statement:

“It's alarming that Rudy Giuliani continues to run a campaign that relies on the politics of fear. These are the same polarizing tactics that the president has used in his `Global War on Terror,' which has ended up leading to more terrorism than it has stopped. And it is the same kind of politics that has led to this disastrous war in Iraq, where America is now policing a civil war. Instead of more of the same failed policies, we need a smarter approach to fighting terrorists, that will also restore our moral leadership in the world."

As also reported here, the DNC hammered Rudy for the comments yesterday, too.

Such dustups, it should be noted, serve both sides in crude political terms. Rudy gets more attention for his efforts to hyper-politicize 9/11 in order to dupe GOP primary voters into overlooking his pro-choice and pro-gay-rights statements. And Edwards is out front in defending the Dems' honor, something that may hold equal appeal for the Dem base.

The Edwards campaign's disclosure in today's papers that he held more than $7.5 million in investments in the Fortress Investment Group -- an outfit that owned offshore funds that served as tax havens for investors -- is almost certainly going to stoke keen interest among rivals and reporters in Edwards' past statements about such funds.

And wouldn't you know it, but one such statement has already popped up on YouTube. Here's Edwards, slamming offshore havens in 2004, during his debate with Veep Cheney:

Here's a transcript of Edwards' remarks:

"Offshore loopholes for companies avoiding taxes ought to be closed.? When the vice president was CEO of Halliburton, they took advantage of every offshore loophole available. They had multiple offshore companies that were avoiding taxes. Those are the kind of things that ought to be closed. They ought to be closed. They ought to be closed for anybody. They ought to be closed whether they're personal, and they ought to be closed whether they apply to a corporation.?"

While the current financial disclosures are likely to prompt rivals and reporters to do more digging into past Edwards quotes like these, it should be noted that Edwards spokesperson Kate Bedingfield has defended Edwards' involvement with Fortress by pointing out that the company recently ended the controversial practice when it went public.

"John Edwards believes offshore tax shelters are wrong," Bedingfield told the Washington Post recently. "As president, he will end them. By voluntarily going public, Fortress has ended the practice of using offshore tax shelters for deferred compensation and has committed itself to a whole set of transparency and disclosure obligations that no other hedge fund has committed itself to before."

From a new interview with Al Gore in Time magazine:

"If I do my job right, all the candidates will be talking about the climate crisis. And I'm not convinced the presidency is the highest and best role I could play. The path I see is a path that builds a consensus—to the point where it doesn't matter as much who's running. It would take a lot to disabuse me of the notion that my highest and best use is to keep building that consensus."

What it would take, specifically?

"I can't say because I'm not looking for it. But I guess I would know it if I saw it. I haven't ruled it out. But I don't think it's likely to happen."

As Time notes, it's in Gore's interest to "keep the door ajar." But as we reported here recently, many of Gore's closest associates have all but concluded that he isn't going to make the race.

Here's a fun postscript to the big dustup yesterday between Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul, who suggested at the GOP debate that the Sept. 11 attacks could be attributed to American foreign policy.

It looks like Paul will be banned from all future GOP debates -- that is, if Michigan GOP chair Saul Anuzis has his way:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party said Wednesday that he will try to bar Ron Paul from future GOP presidential debates because of remarks the Texas congressman made that suggested the Sept. 11 attacks were the fault of U.S. foreign policy.

Michigan party chairman Saul Anuzis said he will circulate a petition among Republican National Committee members to ban Paul from more debates. At a GOP candidates' debate Tuesday night, Paul drew attacks from all sides, most forcefully from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, when he linked the terror attacks to U.S. bombings.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how many RNC members sign this, won't it? Are these ideas really too hot for the GOP to even discuss?

Former Romney Aide Killed In Iraq
The Associated Press points out that the death in Iraq of 27-year old Army 1st Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich, a son of an anti-war academic, has a connection to the current White House field: Bacevich served as a legislative aide to Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. "I got to know Andrew as a legislative aide in my office, and before he left we met and talked about his plans," Romney said in a statement. "He was driven by a desire to serve, first as part of our team and then as a member of the military. His loss is a deep personal loss for me and for all of those who knew him."

Rudy and Edwards Disclose Wealth — Rudy Made $16 Million Last Year
The New York Times reports that Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards have disclosed their assets. Edwards, who is worth about $30 million, made about half a million dollars last year at global hedge-fund Fortress Investment Group, and $40,000 directing at a poverty studies program at the University of North Carolina. Rudy, meanwhile, has a net worth of $30 million, most of it from paid speeches since he left office as Mayor of New York City — a big change from his divorce six years ago, when he claimed having assets of only $7,000. The Boston Globe notes that Rudy made about $16 million last year alone.

Obama The Poorest Major Candidate — And He's Worth Millions
The Chicago Tribune reports that Barack Obama's financial disclosures show him to be the poorest of the top tier of Presidential candidates, with a paltry family net worth of $1.14 million, plus the equity in a home he bought two years ago for $1.65 million. This compares to other candidates like Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards — both worth around $30 million — or Mitt Romney worth in the low hundreds of millions range. Most of Obama's income came from sales last year of his two books, The Audacity Of Hope and Dreams From My Father.

Brownback Divests From Sudan
The Associated Press reports that Senator Sam Brownback has divested from stocks in companies that do business in Sudan, in protest of the genocide in Darfur. Brownback dumped investments values between $50,000 and $100,000 from mutual funds, due to the discovery of Sudan-related investments being done by the investment firms

Richardson Rolling Out NH Organization
The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that Bill Richardson has been steadily building his campaign organization in the state, and will announce his 34-member state steering committee today. His committee will include nine state Representatives, plus several public officials and activists in Manchester.

Huckabee: I'd Have Trouble Working With Pro-Choice Republican
The Pine Bluff Commercial reports that Mike Huckabee is uncertain about whether or not he could work with a pro-choice Republican. "This is an issue to me that is very critical. It's one of the reasons that I got into politics because I believe the manner in which we treat innocent life and the matter in which we respect human life, at whatever stage ... is an incredibly powerful statement about who we are as a people," Huckabee said. "It's something I would have to think long and hard about."

Dem Aides Registered Herseth Domain Name When Tim Johnson Fell Ill
The Argus Leader reports that Democratic Senate aide Doug Landry, who now works for DSCC head Chuck Schumer, registered the domain name www.HersethForSenate.com after Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) became sick in December — hoping to lock down the address in case South Dakota Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin ran to replace Johnson. Landry, who at the time worked for Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), says he acted on his own and without telling anyone else. "I had only the best intentions in reserving the address, but in retrospect, I shouldn't have done it and I am sorry that I did," Landry said in a statement released by Schumer’s office.

Menendez In Line For DSCC Chairmanship
Roll Call reports that Senator Chuck Schumer has named New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez as vice chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Committee, where Schumer has amassed much power and prestige since helping Democrats take the majority in the last election. Roll Call speculates that Chuck Schumer may be laying the groundwork for a successor at the DSCC in the 2010 election cycle, when Schumer would likely step down to focus on his own re-election. "Over the next year and a half, [Menendez] really has the chance to audition for the position," said a Democratic leadership aide. "There’s no doubt he would have the inside track."

Dems Targeting Musgrave, Graves In GOP Strongholds
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will be actively targeting Reps. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) and Sam Graves (R-MO), in districts where President Bush won the past elections with healthy majorities, but Democrats have begun making progress. Musgrave had a close race in the last election, and first-term state Sen. Brandon Shaffer has told Democratic leaders that he will run, and there are other potential Democratic candidates. Graves' district was carried by newly-elected Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) last fall, and former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes has declared her candidacy.

McNerney Gets A Challenger
The Hill reports that former California state Assemblyman Dean Andal has announced his candidacy against freshman Democratic Congressman Jerry McNerney, who won an upset victory in a usually Republican district over powerful GOP incumbent Richard Pombo. "Dean Andal is a political heavyweight and the kind of top-tier candidate we have been looking for," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain. "He is a proven vote-getter with close ties to the community, and we believe that he has what it takes to put the seat back in the Republican column."

GOP Chairs Want Less Candidates At Debates — And Definitely Less Ron Paul
The Hotline reports that several Republican state chairs are hoping to cut out the lesser Presidential candidates from future debates — and one chair from a large state specifically cited Ron Paul, calling his behavior "embarrassing."

In response to our story below reporting that Rudy said on Fox News that he "usually" hears Dems blame America for 9/11, John Edwards campaign manager Jonathan Prince has just sent us the following statement blasting Giuliani:

"It's alarming that Rudy Giuliani continues to run a campaign that relies on the politics of fear. These are the same polarizing tactics that the president has used in his `Global War on Terror,' which has ended up leading to more terrorism than it has stopped. And it is the same kind of politics that has led to this disastrous war in Iraq, where America is now policing a civil war." "Instead of fear-mongering, we need a broader approach that will fight terrorists while restoring our moral leadership in the world. Instead of partisan attacks, we need to end the war and bring our troops home. We need to work together to keep American safe - not work against each other to score political points."

The Democratic National Committee also slammed Rudy today for the comments. More coming?

• The office of Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), who has been out of action in the Senate due to treatment for a severe stroke in December, has released a photo of the Senator receiving physical therapy, learning to walk again:




(click to enlarge)



• Rudy Giuliani says the Democrats should hold a debate on the Fox News Channel. "I think they would get a good chance to explain themselves. If the Republicans candidates are willing to debate on MSNBC and CNN, the Democrats should be willing to debate on Fox," Rudy said. "I don’t think they’d want us to look like the bolder group of candidates."



• The campaign of former Rep. Anne Northup (R-KY), who is opposing incumbent Governor Ernie Fletcher in the GOP primary next week, is apologizing for late night robocalls that annoyed Kentuckians yesterday."It was a computer glitch by our vendor," said a campaign spokesman. "We are profoundly sorry for any and every inconvenience." They have good reason to be profoundly sorry: That kind of nuisance can cost them votes.



• Mitt Romney says that among the attributes Republicans need in a candidate is "a record that supports their capacity to generate a strong family" — a possible swipe at the twice-divorced adulterer Rudy Giuliani.



• Barack Obama made almost $600,000 last year on payments from his two books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity Of Hope.



• Obama has also decided to divest his personal financial holdings involving Sudan. He recently dumped $1,000 in stock when he discovered that the company did business in the country.



• Newt Gingrich will be on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News show, On The Record, tonight at 10 p.m. ET.



• John Edwards said his past work for a hedge fund should not overshadow his anti-poverty agenda. "If you look at what I've done since the last election, it is true that I did consulting work for a hedge fund, part time," Edwards said. "It's also true that I started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina, that I led minimum wage initiatives in six states — all successful — that I started a college-for-everyone program for poor communities in eastern North Carolina, that I helped organize thousands of workers into unions, that I did humanitarian work in Africa."



• Ben Smith points out an interesting dynamic in yesterday's Democratic primary for Mayor of Philadelphia: The candidate whom Barack Obama endorsed ended up losing, while the candidate who was the most like Barack Obama ended up winning.



• Bill Richardson will make his official campaign announcement on Monday.



• Mike Huckabee has released his financial disclosure. The most notable aspect is that the candidate made $138,500 last year from speaking engagements.



• New Hampshire GOP Chair Fergus Cullen says that future Presidential debates ought to have less candidates.



• Republicans plan to make freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) one of their top targets in 2008.



• Hillary Clinton wants the people's advice on a truly important issue:

A quick postscript on today's rejection of the Feingold amendment in the Senate: Guess who missed the vote this morning?

John McCain.

The same John McCain who's made the Iraq War central to his candidacy. This, by the way, is at least his fourth missed vote on Iraq during this Congress. Candidate McCain is a vocal advocate for staying in Iraq, but Senator McCain is rarely there in the Senate to actually give material support to the President's policies.

Here's a list of all of McCain's missed Iraq votes of late:

(1) The anti-surge resolution that failed on a slim 48-50 vote on March 15? McCain missed it — even as he publicly argued that we should trust in the judgment of President Bush and Gen. David Petraeus.

(2) McCain also missed the vote on the succeeding resolution that renounced the cutting off of funds.

(3) McCain did show up to vote for the Cochran Amendment on March 27, which would have stricken timetable language from the Iraq supplemental. But then after the Cochran Amendment failed, and after McCain voted No on initial passage of the Senate version, he later missed the vote on the final passage of the conference report on April 26.

(4) Just this morning, McCain missed the Senate vote on the Feingold Amendment, which would have provided for the the redeployment of troops form Iraq.

Bottom line? Candidate McCain is so busy touring the country and going on TV to defend the White House's positions that he doesn't have time to actually vote in defense of them.

Here's the lede on the New York Times's story today on the defeat of the Feingold amendment:

WASHINGTON, May 16 — Democrats who are highly critical of President Bush’s Iraq war strategy suffered a stinging defeat today when the Senate overwhelmingly rejected a measure to cut off money for the military campaign by March 31, 2008.

Aren't pretty much all Dems "highly critical" of Bush's war strategy? So the loss of Feingold was a stinging defeat for all Dems -- even the ones who voted against the Feingold measure, too?

Here's a first: A new poll finds that Mitt Romney is in first place in Iowa — albeit by a statistically insignificant margin — while Rudy is dropping in the state.

The new Zogby poll has Romney at 19%, followed by Rudy Giuliani and John McCain with 18% apiece. The Democratic side shows a similarly tight race, with John Edwards (who's led in Iowa in other polls) at 26%, Hillary Clinton at 24%, and Barack Obama with 22%.

Key footnote: The poll also finds that Romney is now enjoying potentially significant momentum in Zogby's sampling. Romney is up by eight points from two months ago — while Rudy is down by seven. By contrast, the Dem side didn't show any significant movement in the first caucus state.

Updated below: Democratic National Committee blasts Rudy for comment.

Everybody's talking about Rudy's dressing down last night of GOPer Ron Paul for suggesting American Middle East policies are to blame for 9/11.

But here's another moment from yesterday that is at least as deserving of attention. It came in Rudy's interview on Fox News after the debate was all over:

Yes, Rudy slipped it in quick, but there it was: He said that he "usually" hears Democrats blaming America for 9/11:

It reminded me of the Saudi prince that gave me the $10 million. He did the same thing: "This is America at fault, the way America has outreach to the world." Look, it's real simple what happened. These people came here and killed us because of our freedom of religion, because of our freedom for women, because they hate us...If you're confused about this, I think you put our country in much greater jeopardy. The reality is, these people are planning to kill us because -- and this is hard for people to recognize, I usually hear this on the Democratic side, don't usually hear it on the Republican side -- you've got to face reality. If you can't face reality, you can't lead.

This is the second time Rudy's gone down this road -- last month he suggested that electing a Dem President would mean the country would go on "defense" against terrorism. We've got a pattern here, students, in which Rudy plays the hyper-partisan 9/11 game in hopes that it'll dupe the GOP base into overlooking his pro-choice and pro-gay-rights positions.

Will Dems respond? And perhaps more important, how effectively will Dems respond?

Update: In response to our flagging of Rudy's anti-Dem assault, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Karen Finney has just blasted back at Rudy in a statement emailed to me:

"There Rudy goes again trying to use scare tactics to win votes. Rudy should focus on explaining why it is that he didn't face the reality after the first time the world trade center was attacked and improve communications equipment for first responders, and why he failed to protect the health of the ground zero workers and re-opened sections of lower Manhattan when he knew that the air was toxic? What kind of leadership is that?"

This is interesting: In a speech today to a Republican group, Joe Lieberman inadvertently admitted that he promised to caucus with Dems during his victorious reelection campaign as an Independent against Ned Lamont.

In the lead-up to that election, Lieberman repeatedly vowed to stay with the Dems as a way of reassuring voters that his Independent status wouldn't lead him to switch to the GOP. But in the months since being safely reelected, Lieberman did an about face, repeatedly refusing to rule out a change of parties — with no mention of his previous campaign promise.

But now look what Lieberman just said in a speech before the Republican Jewish Coalition, according to a transcript at National Review:

In all seriousness, many of you in this room stood with me last year through the long journey up a winding road that was my 2006 reelection campaign. You came to my side without regard for party affiliation, and you stayed there even after I ran as an Independent but said I would caucus with the Democrats. Your non-partisanship in my race is a model for what our politics should be. I thank you personally and deeply for it. I could not have won without it.

So does that mean that Lieberman himself would now acknowledge that his refusal to rule out a party switch constitutes a violation of a crucial campaign promise?

Wow, it has to be acknowledged that this is pretty impressive as far as displays of rank dishonesty go. Take a look at this:

First, note that Snow was the one to bring up the Feingold amendment, in response to a question about the Levin measure. Then check out how Snow repeatedly described the Feingold amendment as mandating "straight-out withdrawal," with no mention of its central provision: It accomplishes withdrawal by cutting off funding for the war. That central provision, of course, is primarily what led lawmakers against it -- not the fact that it accomplishes the end goal of withdrawal.

This phony characterization, of course, was a necessary prelude, enabling him to make this final point about the significance of the Senate voting today:

"I think that sends a pretty powerful message...which is, the idea of withdrawing on a timetable is not something that the American people, or for that matter Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, support."

The American people, and Democrats, don't support withdrawal on a timetable from Iraq, and the defeat of Feingold's amendment proves it.

What does one say to mendacity that's as audacious and as elaborately conceived as this?

Looks like Dems are going to have to keep looking for someone to challenge vulnerable GOP Senator Gordon Smith next year.

One of the most promising candidates who was thinking of challenging Smith — Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — has just announced that he won't be making the run. One the Blue Oregon Web site, Blumenauer himself has posted the following:

"At this unique moment in history there is too much work to be done in the House of Representatives to take on a campaign for the U.S. Senate. The winning candidate should devote 100 percent effort for the next 18 months to overcome the onslaught that will come from the incumbent, Karl Rove and the Bush White House, and the many special interests who want to keep Smith in office."

This leaves Dems without a top-tier challenger to Smith after multiple recruitment attempts, including a recent failed effort to convince Rep. Peter DeFazio to mount a bid.

As you all know, we've been spending a fair amount of time here on the story of the Rudy campaign's snubbing of an Iowa farm family because they weren't millionaires -- and hence weren't suitable props for his anti-"death tax" campaigning. We've also been asking why the media has basically taken a pass on the story when it would have been all over such a story had the campaign of John Edwards or Hillary done this. But now The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz has weighed in -- he sees no problem with the lack of media interest in the story. Kurtz's take, and our response, is here -- take a look.