Carl Bernstein: We’ve Got the Hillary of ‘92 BackPlummy with his trademark bravado and bonhomie, Carl Bernstein took the stage at the packed 92nd Street Y last night to talk about A Woman in Charge, his bestselling, closely observed Hillary bio. “The theme of the fear of humiliation runs through her life,” he told the crowd, explaining that that’s why she resisted investigations into Whitewater, for example, and never told her closest law colleagues in Arkansas that she failed the D.C. bar exam. What’s more, he said, her current campaign has found both her and Bill slipping back into their old, unpalatable take-no-prisoners mode, rather than that more supple, negotiation-friendly Hillary that bloomed like a quiet flower in the Senate. “We’re seeing a real devolution back to the Hillary Clinton of the ‘92 campaign,” he said. “She’s shown a lot of her worst.”
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Rudy Giuliani Braves the Delegate Dance of DoomToday the Times plays the delegate game with Rudy Giuliani. “If he carries Florida, he carries New York,” historian and sometime Giuliani adviser Fred Siegel told the paper. That logic has a victory in Florida giving the former mayor the additional 183 delegates from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut (though it blatantly disregards how this race has proven that one primary can have little or no influence on the next). That would give Giuliani 15 percent of the delegates he needs (not counting Florida’s 57). It’s a boost that would not be insignificant, but the paper also reports that even Giuliani’s staunch supporters in the Northeast are worried, and that McCain is edging ahead in New Jersey. (And, hilariously, the Associated Press has taken to calling his Florida campaign a “Hail Mary.”) But as more and more news outlets are revving up their Giuliani Campaign Deathwatches, it’s almost as if they, too, forget the lessons we’ve learned. Sure, all looks bad for him right now, but it did for McCain in late 2007, and it did for Hillary just before New Hampshire. No one can predict what’s going to happen, not even those goddamned delegates.
Even at Home, Backers Worry About Giuliani [NYT]
Earlier: In 2008 Primary Race, Delegates Take the Lead, Heilemann on Michigan’s Republican Goat Rodeo: Is Rudy a Mad Genius After All?
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Is Hillary Clinton Indeed Tracy Flick?This week, Slate V has addressed an issue that we (and others) have been thinking about for a long time. That is: Is Hillary Clinton secretly the exact same person as Tracy Flick, the beloved Reese Witherspoon character from the movie Election? She’s blonde, she’s driven, she’s oddly sexless (even as she is sexualized by others), she’s competitive and ruthless, and sometimes you wonder whether she has the emotions of normal people. (You know, like how you wonder whether Tom Cruise would have to look around at a funeral to see what everybody else was doing before he knew not to cackle.) The video (click above to view) isn’t the best thing you’ve ever seen, but you KNOW the musical howling that goes on the first time you see Barack Obama supporters is exactly the noise that Hillary hears in her head. It even sounds like her voice!
Hillary Clinton’s Inner Tracy Flick [Slate V]
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In 2008 Primary Race, Delegates Take the LeadAs we move out of last night’s Republican primary in New Hampshire, and the fatigued Democratic debate, one thing has become clear: We don’t know what’s going to happen. Pollsters and pundits alike don’t understand the dynamics of the race and can’t seem to predict how the leads in either race will shift as we continue from state to state. But something interesting (or dreadful, depending on how you view it) is emerging. This year’s contest, it seems, is soon going to become all about the delegates.
Sure, every national election is “all about the delegates,” technically. But as we enter the South Carolina primary, we’re hearing more and more about the importance of delegate-oriented campaign planning and how because of the complicated system that many voters don’t understand, strategies might dramatically shift in the coming weeks.
• “I’m not sure it’s about the bump [after Michigan],” Romney told reporters this morning. “It’s about putting together delegates.” Romney, despite having Michigan as his first win, is leading with 42 delegates amassed so far. [Detroit Free Press, AP]
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Great Lakes, Great Times: The Michigan PrimaryHey voters, don’t let the Democrats steal Michigan’s thunder tonight. There may be a much-anticipated battle between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama (how do you effectively spar when walking on eggshells?), and John Edwards (and Kucinich maybe) tonight in Nevada, but don’t forget the Republicans are doing something, too. They’re actually, you know, voting, which is kind of a relief. And the results might have a big effect on the rest of the race. If Romney loses, many suspect it’ll be the effective end of his campaign: a third big loss in a state where he spent three times as much on TV as any other candidate ($2 million) and where he actually was born. Unlike McCain, he doesn’t have the luxury of spending part of today spinning a possible loss and looking forward to South Carolina. According to the most recent polls, McCain and Romney are head-to-head, pulling in around 30 percent of voters each. But turnout across the state so far has been low, and since the state allows independents to vote in party primaries, those numbers are increasingly unreliable. All of which basically means nobody knows who is going to pull it off. Pollsters and pundits are wary of making any predictions today. So if you must watch the Democratic debate, make sure you keep checking the Republican results. Because it’s going to be fun as hell to watch all those TV talking heads say “I told you so” later on tonight, when in fact they told you nothing at all.
in other news
Katie Couric Thinks Cindy McCain Looks Like ‘a Husky’Harry Shearer has another funny outtake clip of Katie Couric, this time broadcasting from New Hampshire during the primary. Greatest lines include “Giuliani’s dead. I mean, you know what I mean,” “Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” “[Cindy McCain] looks like a husky!” and “I don’t know much about Huckabee.” Click above to view — it’s sort of boring and riveting at the same time. But it raises the question: How does Harry Shearer keep posting these things without backlash from CBS News and Couric herself? Unless Katie secretly likes this stuff slipping out
Katie Couric 1 [My Damn Channel]
Earlier: Katie Couric: ‘This Tart is Ready to Go’
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Reading Rudy’s Future: It’s a Dry HeatNow that yesterday’s poll numbers on Giuliani in Florida have sunk in, campaign staffers and political analysts (those that can stand to take a break from dissecting Hillary and Obama’s race kerfuffle) are trying to figure out whether this means the end for the former New York mayor. Yesterday, the Times reported that one of their polls showed McCain edging ahead of Giuliani by a small amount in the southern swing state, where Giuliani has been concentrating all of his campaign efforts. Huckabee and Romney were a mere percentage point behind, putting all four within the same margin of error for the poll. Now, with the arrival of the Michigan primary (Giuliani’s first real chance at a strong finish, some are taking a hard look at his future prospects:
• Today Giuliani’s chief strategist Brent Seaborn saw a bright side in not being part of the brutal Huckabee-Romney-McCain battle in early primary states: “I think we’ve been in the fortunate position that a lot of attacks haven’t been directed our way.” Giuliani may remain remarkably unscathed late into the race, which will be a surprise boon for a candidate with many potential negatives.
• But Matthew Continetti in the Weekly Standard points out that Hillary’s recent stumbles against Barack Obama may have taken the wind out of Giuliani’s campaign, which early on was partially based on his unique ability to take down the Clinton machine in a general election.
• And Joel Achenbach adds that when Super Tuesday comes around, previous voting numbers are going to become irrelevant in the face of delegate accumulation. Giuliani has always been aiming for delegates, not total state wins, and this strategy may serve him well on February 5.
• Finally, Talking Points Memo reads the Romney-McCain-Giuliani tea leaves and declares that the question isn’t whether it’s judgment day for Giuliani, but whether it’s high noon for Mitt.
in other news
Hillary Clinton’s Secret Is in the Stars
Last night, Vanity Fair astrologer Michael Lutin did something that nobody has yet been able to do sufficiently: He explained Hillary Clinton. The secret to Clinton’s murky, buttoned-up, hypercompetitive personality is centered upon one simple thing: She’s a Scorpio. Wait, wait, wait, take this seriously for a minute. We’re not usually into astrology or anything like that. Normally when we talk to someone about their zodiac sign, the person always ends up talking about the spiritual lives of animals or reincarnation or something cringe-worthy like that. But this guy Lutin is talking some sense! He explains:
• “The whole Congress-health care fiasco was a disaster, partly because Scorpios do lack subtlety when they have a goal.”
• “Scorpios always have not only Plan B, but they usually have it figured out all the way up to Plan Z.” [Ed: From now on, your Plan C is “Cry.”]
• “In the end, foreign or domestic policies notwithstanding, Scorpio always turns out to be an issue of gender. ”
• “When situations are dire, enterprises failing, businesses stalling, empires falling and extinction is right around the corner, Scorpios get turned on. Only they can walk right down into the Valley of the Lepers with bagels and cream cheese and think nothing of it.”
• “It should come as no surprise that Hillary Clinton came out swinging after her defeat in Iowa. After all, it was in the stars: she is a Scorpio and Scorpio rules the instinct for survival. Scorpio also rules cockroaches. Did you ever try to spray or drown them? They can hold their breath and play dead until you walk out of the kitchen and turn out the light.”
• “Hillary has a higher agenda to help her survive the worst bites, kicks, slaps and cuts. She knows she would rise up again in a brand new incarnation to make her betrayer serve her needs.”
Oh. Well, never mind. This conversation about astrology ended like all the other ones, it seems.
Hillary’s Horoscope: Her Comeback Was in the Stars [HuffPo]
intel
Hey, MSNBC, Stop Trying to Make ‘Tsunami Tuesday’ Happen
Has anyone else noticed that since the December 2004 tsunami that killed over 200,000 people, most networks have shied away from using the sometimes-mentioned Super Tuesday nickname “Tsunami Tuesday”? It has been used to describe February 5, the day when a crazy amount of states will be holding their primaries. But since the word “tsunami” is sort of synonymous with, um, mass death, it’s hasn’t really built up much steam. Except for on MSNBC. They’ve really been trying to make “Tsunami Tuesday” into a buzz term. It’s on all their ads, in their Web editorial language, and used on the air. We have to say, we’re not quite ready to bring the term back into common parlance. What’s next, an election countdown to “Nagasaki November”?
Will Tsunami Tuesday be an afterthought? [MSNBC]
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Media to Bloomberg: Don’t Phunk With Our HeartsThe news that Michael “I swear am not running for president” Bloomberg has spent the last several months doing extensive polling to assess his presidential chances has spawned yet another round of speculative headlines about his possible candidacy, and the Times is getting kind of sick of it. “Even before actually entering the contest, Mr. Bloomberg may have already risked losing something: people’s patience.” Newsday, too, is unsure that the prolonged game of cat and mouse is doing him any favors. “He risks negative coverage, and it’s already begun,” they note. Well, yeah.
it just happened
John Kerry Endorses Barack ObamaRight about now, John Kerry is stepping up on a stage in Charleston, South Carolina, to announce that he’s endorsing Barack Obama for president. This sort of makes sense, as Kerry was the guy who picked Obama to deliver the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which rocketed the young politician onto the national stage. Except, wait, it doesn’t make sense, because Kerry was also the person who chose John Edwards as a running mate that same year. Man, Edwards just can’t win these days, huh? Oh, wait…
2004 Dem Nominee Kerry Endorsing Obama [AP]
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Obama Is Tired But Not Yet CrankyHey everyone! Remember Barack Obama? We know we’ve been pretty obsessed with Hillary these days, but don’t forget, even before she decided to cry, he decided to be black. So we would be remiss if we didn’t look into what the hell that guy has planned after New Hampshire. After all, now that the Democratic contest (or, for now, its press coverage) has narrowed to just the two front-runners, Obama is going to receive a heck of a lot more scrutiny (as was so eloquently explained by New York’s John Heilemann). As many seem to see it, Obama has two choices: He can, as Time puts it, “take up a sharper knife in his fight with Hillary,” and begin hacking at her the way she started slicing at him in New Hampshire. “I come from Chicago politics,” the Illinois senator said yesterday. “We’re accustomed to rough-and-tumble. We have to make sure that we take it to them just like they take it to us.” Or he can stay nice like always.
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Hillary Clinton: Minority CandidateWell. We’ll be honest. We thought Ellen DeGeneres set the all-time record for the amount of discussion that could be had about an older blonde woman crying in public. But Hillary really blows her out of the water. (And she didn’t even really cry — as Jezebel put it, “It’s not crying if there’s no snot.”) Regardless of whether “The Cry,” as we’re calling it henceforth, actually put Hillary over the top in New Hampshire, the media is going bananas about it. And while there’s a lot of talk about how almost crying “humanized her,” what it really did, in the eyes and words of the media, was make her a minority candidate again. She is a woman. You almost forgot, didn’t you? It’s not that crying is a particularly womanly thing to do; it’s that the coverage of the tears suddenly has everyone from Gloria Steinem to Arianna Huffington to Chris Matthews howling about her femininity. Clearly, Hillary being a woman was a much bigger deal to us than we thought it was.
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New York City Would Prefer Bloomberg in Albany Over WashingtonWow, the dramatic turn in the contest between giant personalities Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has done the unthinkable: It’s knocked Bloomberg out of the presidential primary coverage! What a relief! Except now he’s snuck into political reports in another way: in the results of a Quinnipiac poll. Turns out a whopping 70 percent of New York City residents think that Bloomberg would be a good governor. That’s compared to the 52 percent who think he’d make a good president. Not that he can’t run for both; current governor Eliot Spitzer’s term runs out in 2010. But we already know this idea is on his mind. Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, makes a very good point (with two potential meanings) in her analysis: “Historical note: A couple of 20th Century New York governors have become President. No New York City mayor has.”
New Yorkers Like Bloomberg for Governor [NYO]
Related: Noncandidate Bloomberg Just Happens to Have Better Ideas Than the Real Candidates
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The Press Feels Bad It Made Hillary SadLast night’s Hillary victory raised a lot of questions, to be sure. Specifically, it put into the limelight the role of women in this primary season — and the way that woman candidates are covered. Check out a sampling of headlines from this morning:
Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House? [NYT]
Clinton Camp Goes From Glum to Giddy [LA Times]
A Clinton Wake Becomes a Revival [USA Today]
WHO’S CRYIN’ NOW [NYDN]
Almost everyone emphasizes that she was sad, and now she’s happy. As though that’s what matters the most, how Hillary feels. Now, it may be her fault for near-crying in the first place, but all of a sudden, the candidate who was the most robotic is the emotional heart of this race. Look at her face! She’s happy! (And perhaps a little demented!) We did something good to cheer mom up! We’re not sure that the crying was responsible for Clinton’s among women in New Hampshire (how quickly we forget that Obama had America’s real woman-in-chief, Oprah, stumping for him in Iowa). But we do know this: If Hillary wants to keep women caring about how she feels, she’s going to have to rethink those outfits. Because that whole Talbots–Meets–Madame Chiang Kai-shek thing is enough to turn ‘em away like OxyClean on a tough stain.
Earlier: This Thing Is Still Wide Open
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As Voting Winds Down, Who Is Still Wound Up?While the press has been running ragged up in New Hampshire, we set journalist Peter Keating to work watching the candidates to see which ones were putting in the most effort. Contrary to what the 24-hour news cycle would have you believe, some of them sleep. Some of them skip events. And some of them, well, aren’t really trying. Later tonight, we’ll bring you the results of all the hard work. For now, Keating’s report from the campaign trail begins in a predictable place:
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Visit Here Today At 4:30pm Has Been Cancelled,” reads a sign hanging in the window at John’s Barber Shop, an old-school establishment nestled among the charming shops on Daniel Street in Portsmouth, N.H. Of course it’s been canceled. Rudy had better things to do this afternoon than to keep grubbing for votes in a state where he’s been vying to keep pace with Duncan Hunter in the polls.
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Bill Clinton Accuses Obama Camp of Preparing Dirty Financial AttacksSo we have been watching Bill Clinton’s blistering anti-Obama rant from a New Hampshire rally today, and it’s really juicy. You know, the one in which he calls Obama’s campaign a “fairy tale”? (And not in the good way?) Well, if you listen (and we transcribed below), Bill accuses the Obama camp of secretly drudging up old Clinton financial concerns and preparing a memo about them that was never released. Plus, you know, he goes bonkers. Which is fun enough on its own.
“That is the central argument for his campaign: ‘It doesn’t matter that I started running for president less than one year after I got to the Senate from the Illinois State Senate. I am a great speaker and a charismatic figure, and I am the only one that had the judgment to oppose this war from the beginning, always, always, always.’”
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New Hampshire: The Wild Rumpus Has BegunPress reports claim that lines at New Hampshire polling stations are already stretching down the street. Anyone still in line at 8 p.m., when the polls close, will be allowed to vote, state officials said. As you can see from last night, above, things were off to an auspicious start.
Update: Bloody hell. Right now the Drudge Report’s banner headline (with a siren!) is this: “EPIC TURNOUT FOR DEMS – We Are Out of Ballots!”
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Breaking: Hillary Cries!
While Barack Obama is waltzing around New Hampshire cracking dirty jokes, Hillary Clinton is up there crying. It happened during a chat with a gathering of women at a coffee shop in Portsmouth. Sixty-four-year old Maryann Pernold told Hillary that as a woman, she knew “it’s hard to get up every day and get ready and get out of the house in the morning.” She asked Clinton how she did it every day on the campaign trail. The Wall Street Journal was there and caught the moment:
“It’s not easy, it’s not easy,” Clinton said shaking her head. Her eyes began to get watery as she finished answering the question, “I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do. This is very personal for me. I have so many ideas for this country and I just don’t want to see us fall backwards. It’s about our country, it’s about our kids’ future,” she said softly crying, her voice breaking. The group of 15 women sitting around a table at the Cafe Espresso nodded understandingly. Clinton continued, her voice still cracking: “We do it each one of us because we care about our country, but some of us are right and some of us are wrong, some of us are ready and some of us are not, some of us know what we’ll do on day one and some of us don’t,” she said.
The Journal wonders whether this may be Clinton’s Edmund Muskie moment (Muskie appeared to tear up in 1972 after a New Hampshire newspaper attacked his wife, and the image managed to derail the popular Maine senator’s candidacy). But we have to wonder, like Bob Shrum before us, if this isn’t exactly what her campaign needs. Finally, proof that Hillary is human. Even though the campaign is ravaging her physically and emotionally, she’s still fighting because she cares. What better testament to someone’s character as a candidate?
Either that or she faked it, which would also be totally stellar.
Emotional Moment for Clinton in N.H.[WSJ]
Video: Teary Hillary [ABC News]
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Bob Shrum Shows Bill Kristol How It’s DoneHey guys! Did you see Bill Kristol’s first column appeared in the Times today? Boy, was it a doozy. Kristol took his classic conservative bluster and put it front and center on his first day:
Thank you, Senator Obama. You’ve defeated Senator Clinton in Iowa. It looks as if you’re about to beat her in New Hampshire. There will be no Clinton Restoration. A nation turns its grateful eyes to you. But gratitude for sparing us a third Clinton term only goes so far. Who, inquiring minds want to know, is going to spare us a first Obama term? After all, for all his ability and charm, Barack Obama is still a liberal Democrat.
Blah, blah, blah, Hillary is a national nightmare, liberal Democrats will doom us all. Pretty standard boilerplate, most likely selected to startle the tepidly Democratic readership of the Times opinion pages. But Kristol doesn’t teach us anything we don’t know (“some Democrats are licking their chops at the prospect of a Huckabee nomination”), and he doesn’t question anything we take for granted (“Voters seem to be enjoying making up their own minds this year. And Huckabee is a talented politician.”). So it’s not really that startling at all. But over in the Daily News, we get the same sort of indictment of Hillary Clinton and her campaign machine — only more surprising, this time it’s from former Clintonite and Democratic mastermind Bob Shrum.
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An Imaginary Obama-Huckabee MatchupOf course, there’s no way of knowing what will happen to Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee next week or during any of the following primaries. Hillary, we’re guessing, has a lot of tricks left up her sleeve, and McCain and Romney are sure to make a surge in less evangelical states like New Hampshire, Michigan, and Nevada. But, if the thus-far-imaginary Huckabee-Obama contest were to one day take place, the Huffington Post has poll data from before the caucus. SurveyUSA polled voters in a handful of swing (and non-swing) states about a potential general election between the Illinois senator and the former Arkansas governor. Here are some of the more interesting results:
Obama gets:
Wisconsin by 16%
Iowa by 13%
Oregon by 11%
Virginia by 9%
Minnesota by 5%
Ohio by 1%
Huckabee gets:
Kentucky by 13%
Missouri by 2%
New Mexico by 1%
Now, that’s not all of the potential swing states, and in general it doesn’t really mean anything. But you were kinda wondering, weren’t you?
Huckabee vs. Obama: Who Wins? [HuffPo]
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Hey, Did You Know Bloomberg Had a Say in Iowa, Too?After barely allowing the spotlight to wander off of him yesterday during the Iowa caucus, Bloomberg is at it again, inserting himself into the presidential discussion. During his weekly call-in talk show with John Gambling on WABC-AM, Bloomberg opined on the results from the Midwest and on why he thinks the candidates aren’t really telling America what it needs to hear. Some highlights:
• “I think you can’t read an awful lot into any one state’s election.”
• “I have no idea who’s going to win. I’m not in the business of handicapping.”
• “[The candidates] are unwilling to face the big issues, and take the risks, and give it straight to the public. And that’s not good for democracy, and it’s certainly not good for America.”
• “There’s [no issue or solution] without cost that is facing us. And it’s just … You know, the people running for office always say, ‘I don’t want to bring that up now. If I do, I won’t get elected. But if I don’t mention it and get elected, then I can do the difficult stuff.’”
• “I would just like to get [the candidates] to address the important issues with more specificity of what they’d actually do to solve the problem of who’s going to pay for health care, and what are we going to do overseas, and how are we going to keep our economy — which seems to be slowing down — how we’re going to get that going again, and how we’re going to make sure that everybody shares and that the tax burden is fairly distributed.”
Is this going to happen after every primary? The “What Does Bloomberg Think?” hour? Because, if so, at this rate he’s going to be in the electoral dialogue way more than Giuliani. Without paying a dime.
Bloomberg Parses the Iowa Results [NYT]
True To Form, Bloomberg Downplays Iowa, Criticizes Process [NYO]
Related: Bloomberg: Primary? What Primary? & Noncandidate Bloomberg Just Happens to Have Better Ideas Than the Real Candidates
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Iowa Changes EverythingEvery single political candidate, at some point in this primary season, has talked earnestly about change. It’s a standard part of political rhetoric, harping upon the populace’s general mistrust for whatever current government has lately been in power. Even Hillary Clinton, with her recent-president husband over her shoulder, talks frequently about “shaking up Washington” and “making a difference.” But while nobody was looking, it seems like Iowa voters were finally listening. Last night they made a push to challenge political assumptions and long-accepted truths about money and Establishment. When Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama rocketed to decisive visits in the caucuses, the conventional wisdom was that, well, conventional wisdom itself had been shaken up. At least, that’s what the press thinks. Take a look at today’s headlines:
The Status Quo Lost, and Change Won [The Nation]
Two Newcomers Jolt Parties’ Status Quo [NYT]
Establishment Gets a Jolt [Seattle Times]
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Hillary Calmly Plays Her Last HandHillary Clinton’s final Iowa ad is on YouTube. It will be broadcast tonight at 6 p.m. in every media market in the state. It’s two minutes long, it’s calm, and it’s reasonable. It also promises that the last image of Hillary is one of her rested and in control (as opposed to John Edwards, who is right now nearing the end of his grueling 36-hour bus-tour marathon). We wonder how long ago the video was filmed (either that, or how much video airbrushing went on. The gal looks ten years younger!). It’s a funny contrast, to see the image that Hillary wants you to have of her, after weeks of fatigue, sniping, and near-desperation. Is the Clinton in this video the one who would run the country every day? Or the snappy, haggard, calculated one we’ve come to see on the trail? You decide. Hahahahah. Just kidding. Iowa decides. You have nothing to do with it.
Click here to view.
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John Edwards Attacks the Wealthy in Their Place of Worship“Morning, Brock! I see you were reading the Wall Street Journal in your Town Car on the way to work!”
“Hullo, Trip! Indeed I was. Can you push the elevator button for the executive suite? Thanks. You know, I happened to notice that there was an op-ed by Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in there.”
“Really. I haven’t been much paying attention to those liberals out in Iowa. Can you imagine spending the New Year in Des Moines?”
“There aren’t even mountains there. Where do people ski? And more important, where do they après ski? The Wal-Mart parking lot? Ha-ha! Oh, dear, you’re stepping on my Bally briefcase with your Ferragamo loafer, it seems.”
“Sorry, my boy. Anyway, what does that old Edwards boy have to say? He does have good dental work and trustworthy hair. Maybe he’s finally appealing to us, his own income class?”
“Let’s take a look, shall we? Hm ‘the bargain of America’ ‘skyrocketing education and health care costs’ ‘foreclosure crisis’ wait a minute! Listen to this: ‘The problem is forty percent of all economic growth over the past 20 years has gone to the top 1% of families.’ That’s the problem? Egad. Someone page Mindy. I need a Mylanta!”
in other news
Benazir Bhutto AssassinatedAs you’ve most likely heard by now, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today at a rally in Rawalpindi. As the opposition leader, she was a leading contender to be reelected prime minister during the early January elections.
There’s a lot to be said about this tragic turn of events, but we’ll instead direct you to New York’s own interview with Bhutto, published in late September, in which she has some advice for Hillary Clinton.
Nuturer-in-Chief [NYM]
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Surprise! It’s Election Day!
Just a reminder — today is Election Day! It may not matter to you, but it matters a lot to the 125 residents in the Adirondack hamlet of Raquette Lake who want to get clean water in their taps, so don’t forget your civic duty! These folks at Gray’s Papaya in the West Village want you to be thinking about politics today.
What’s that you say? This picture has nothing to do with today’s ballot? Oh, right. Did you vote yet? No? Talk to us when you can prove you really care about our government.
in other news
Michael Mukasey Fails to Incite RiotsHow about that attorney-general position? It’s as transitory as the seats on The View, no? According to the morning papers, the Justice Department’s latest benchwarmer will likely be a local boy: Bronx-born Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge with formidable experience (he was a prosecutor during the Giuliani era and, after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, presided over the trials of Jose Padilla and Omar Abdel Rahman). Other than the almost-sketchy (but not quite) fact that he and his son are currently serving as judicial advisers to Giuliani’s presidential campaign, there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly offensive about this guy. Even Senator Chuck Schumer, who loves him some outrage, is a fan: Mukasey “seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House,” the senator said in a statement yesterday. Well! We’re actually not filled with total despair! And at this stage of the game, if the administration doesn’t inspire bloodcurdling screams of outrage, even the littlest Hail Mary should be considered a total miracle.
Bush to Nominate Mukasey as Attorney General [NPR]
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Spitzer’s New Pal: Charlie RangelOnce upon a time, Charlie Rangel was the kind of entrenched political boss reformer Eliot Spitzer was trying to remove from the conversation. And once upon a time, Spitzer was the kind of steamrolling, prosecutorial, holier-than-thou Ivy Leaguer Rangel snidely termed “the smartest man in the world.” Spitzer ditched Rangel’s lieutenant-governor suggestion at last minute; Rangel dubbed Spitzer’s plan to reduce health-care costs “disastrous.” Now the two are about to step into a joint press conference to present a plan to protect health care for children. Strange bedfellows, indeed. What gives? According to a source close to Spitzer, making nice with Rangel is part of the embattled governor’s plan to reach out to old foes and shore up his political backing. “The governor is now looking to places where he never used to for support,” the source says. And Rangel sees Spitzer’s problems as presenting an opportunity to get a deal he likes, a source close to Rangel says. “The governor is certainly in need of some friends right now,” the source says. In exchange for political cover, Rangel is looking to pick up “chits,” the Rangel source says. “There are a lot of projects in New York that Charlie cares about, and I’m sure the governor is taking that into account.” —Geoffrey Gray
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Obama Comes to Brooklyn, Visits Hotel Ballroom
So Barack Obama came to Brooklyn last night, and it’s a funny thing: Turns out Barack in Brooklyn looks a hell of a lot like Barack anywhere else. They couldn’t have done this by the bridge? Or the Cyclone? Or with a hot dog in his hand? Disappointing.
the morning line
Stone Quits
• GOP consultant Roger Stone resigned his job with the state Republican Party over that call to Pa Spitzer, but he still maintains — busted alibi and all — that Democratic operatives may have just broken into his house and made the call from his phone while using some kind of high-tech device to impersonate his voice. Ya-huh. [NYT]
intel
Roger Stone’s Alibi: No ‘Frost/Nixon’ on Monday NightsEveryone agrees that, whatever else happened, the bizarre late-night phone call to Eliot Spitzer’s dad was made on the evening of August 6, a bit before 10 p.m. Bernard Spitzer’s lawyers says it came from Roger Stone, a Republican consultant; Stone says Democratic operatives broke into his Central Park South apartment and used his phone to frame him. He couldn’t have made the call, Stone said in a statement posted to his Website, because “[o]n the night this call was allegedly made, I was at the theater catching the play NIXON and FROST [sic].” We’ll ignore the ironies that Nixon is modern politics’ greatest dirty trickster, that Stone worked for Nixon, and that the fulcrum of Frost/Nixon is a (fictional) bizarre late-night phone call. We’ll just note this: August 6, 2007, was a Monday. And like many Broadway shows, the play, which closed this weekend, took that night off. “We were completely dark on Mondays,” a rep from its management company told us. —Geoffrey Gray
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And It Will Become Necessary to Destroy the Country in Order to Save ItSorry, this has no New York connection and is outside our usual bailiwick and all that, but, still:
How did this man get elected twice?
Bush to Invoke Vietnam in Arguing Against Iraq Pullout [CNN]
Related: Bush’s Iraq-Vietnam Parallel [The Lede/NYT]
intel
Who’s Supporting Brooklyn-Bound Obama?
Barack Obama is in Brooklyn for a fund-raiser tonight, and we were curious who — in addition to Caroline Giuliani, of course — might be turning out. So we looked to mybarackobama.com, where we discovered all sorts of affinity groups for supporters of the Illinois senator. There’s Burners for Barack (for Burning Man attendees) and Octogenarians for Obama (“We are never too old to back Barack”). There are groups for Final Fantasy fans (they plan to “fight back against the Shinra companies of our world” via Obama) and flight attendants vowing to harness their “unique ability to fly around easily” to spread the word. There are spiritualists and psychic mediums who “emphatically believe” that Barack’s the man for the job and Prince Fans for Obama, who believe he “upholds the ideals” of the singer and that “if Prince wasn’t apathetic towards voting due to his religion, he would vote for Barack Obama.” Ballers for Obama are planning three-on-three basketball tournaments to help raise cash for the campaign, and Canadians like him, even though they can’t vote. And then, of course, there’s NYC 4 Obama. “We have a lot of really serious supporters here as well,” insisted Molly Lombardi, spokesman for that group. —Janelle Nanos
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Spitzer Brings in PR-Fight Reinforcements
Embroiled in a dogfight with Joe Bruno over what he knew and when he knew it, Governor Spitzer is ramping up his press offensive in Albany, hoping to turn the tide on a story that hasn’t looked good and won’t seem to end. Late last week, the State Democratic Party hired the PR firm that successfully fought to block the Starrett City sale earlier this year to handle Spitzer’s wartime press against Bruno and his fellow Republicans in the State Senate. Jonathan Rosen, a principal of the firm, BerlinRosen, says he spoke with Spitzer chief of staff Richard Baum several times last week before accepting the gig. Now, though, he’s raring to go. “The Senate investigative hearings are like the legislative equivalent of O.J. Simpson’s hunt for the real killer,” he told us, taking his new talking points out for a spin. “They’re over the top, they’re overplaying their hand badly, and it’s going to backfire.” His new client is sure hoping so. —Geoffrey Gray
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Good-bye, Mr. Turd Blossom
Sometimes, Monday mornings can actually be kind of pleasant.
Karl Rove, Top Strategist, Is Leaving the White House [NYT]
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The Mayoral Campaign Just Got More Fun: Welcome, Lenora FulaniLenora Fulani, the kooky campaigner who helped Bloomberg get elected in 2001 by drumming up 59,000 Independence Party votes for him, will announce the formation of an exploratory committee today for a mayoral run in 2009, reports the Post. Fulani is notable for her two campaigns for president of the United States, in 1988 and 1992, and her reported anti-Semitic comments (she’s never denied claiming that the “Jews sold their souls to acquire Israel” and are “mass murderers of people of color”). She’s also fanatically devoted to her mentor and campaign manager, the controversial Marxist psychotherapist Fred Newman, who will probably be along for the ride. All of which is to say: It’s a very, very good day for the tabloids.
Fulani Eyes Mayor Run [NYP]
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Fun With Fundrace: Park Slope for Obama, ‘Burg for Hillary, Batali for John Edwards, and More
We told you yesterday about Fundrace 2008, the fun new feature on the Huffington Post that lets you track people’s political contributions by name or by neighborhood. What we didn’t expect was that the thing would prove terribly addictive. Here’s a sampling of what we found after a full day of playing with it:
• Completely random celeb-name search reveals Mario Batali’s $1,000 contribution to John Edwards (as well as the chef’s home address), Tommy Hilfiger’s $2,300 donation to Barack Obama, and the supposedly apolitical Sandy Weill’s $4,600 gift to Hillary Clinton.
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HuffPost Launches Fundrace, Reveals Campaign SecretsAnd the campaign-financing race just got much more fun. The Huffington Post launched its Fundrace 2008 database today, on which you can look up which presidential candidates are milking your friends and neighbors for money, and exactly how much of it. It also includes the very popular neighborhood feature, where you can see whether that dude who sells dime bags in your entryway is actually a junkie for Joe Biden. After some quick scans, we’re delighted with this year’s results so far. For example, in the opportunely named “Chelsea-Clinton” 10001 Zip Code, John Edwards is a surprise favorite. (Explain that, Jodi Kantor.) And among fancy Upper East Siders with 10021 addresses, Hillary is exactly twice as popular as Rudy — and that’s where he lives. Maybe his neighbors don’t like the cigar smoke?
Fundrace 2008 [HuffPo]
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Hamptons Turning on Hillary?Hillary Clinton, her husband, and her fund-raisers are heading to the fertile grounds of the East End this weekend, where it’s expected her campaign will rake in as much as $1 million in just three days. Saturday’s the big day, with a pancake breakfast at Alan Patricof’s house (for $1,000-plus a head), a Bill-only cocktail luncheon at Dottie Herman’s place ($2,000 a head, or $3,000 per couple), and dinner at Ronald Perelman’s ($4,600 a head). There are also other lesser events at Friday night and Sunday, some with price tags as low as a mere $250. With numbers like that, you’d think everyone out there loves her. But you’d be wrong: Witness this week’s Independent, which bills itself as serving East Hampton, Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and Shelter Island. The small type reads, “Hillary to Leave Hamptons With Close to a Million, Leaving Local Democrats With Zilch.” Which prompts a question: Were Manhattan moneybags like Alan Patricof and Ronald Perelman previously in the habit of giving to Suffolk County Dems? We’re skeptical.
Related: Hillary Hampton ‘07
Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma’am [The Independent]
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These Ten People Want to Make Bloomberg PresidentIf it’s Tuesday night at seven, then it’s time for a weekly organizational meeting of the New York City Chapter of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg. And last night, Karin Gallet, the New York chapter’s mastermind and newsletter writer, sipped an Amstel Light as she ran the group’s fourth meeting at the Old Town Bar. A grand total of nine people joined her, and she set a stark goal: to collect 15,000 signatures on a “Draft Mike” petition by Christmas. (Only 1,500 per person!) Cue the jaunty, let’s-get-to-work montage.
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Giuliani Backs Hillary — and He MatchesRudy Giuliani is supporting Hillary Clinton — at least in her mini-feud with Barack Obama over whether the two Democratic presidential candidates would meet with the leaders of hostile foreign countries. (Obama said he would; Clinton said she’d be reluctant.) “I’d say don’t count on Fidel Castro being invited to the White House if I’m president,” Giuliani told us at the Super Saturday shopping benefit for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund over the weekend. “As I understood [Obama’s] statement, he’s either going to invite to Washington or meet somewhere else the head of Cuba, who would be Castro, and the head of Iran, who is Ahmadinejad. That’s quite a crew. I don’t know that I would want to meet with them. Some people you just don’t meet with if they’re going to use that to propagate their own propaganda. I thought Hillary Clinton was on the right side of that.” Giuliani was at the Water Mill event with his wife, Judi, who he said was the shopper in the family. “I shop for limited items: golf clubs, books,” he said. Fashion is his wife’s department. “She tells me if the colors work or the shirt looks nice,” he explained. So do the colors work, Judi? “He doesn’t make any mistakes,” she said, campaigningly. “He’s Rudy Giuliani!” —Jada Yuan
Kelly Ripa, Donna Karan and Mandy Moore were also at Super Saturday. For complete pictures and quotes, read Party Lines.
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Today in Albany: Spitzer’s on Defense, Bruno’s on Offense, and the ‘Post’ Hates Everyone
The latest news from Albany finds the principals in the Spitzer-Bruno-Cuomo battle defining and refining their positions. Last night, the governor finally abandoned what New York’s Steve Fishman called his “silly business-as-usual tactic” and deigned to hand-feed his side of the story to the Daily News. New York’s Hometown Paper reports today that Joe Bruno’s constant requests to use state aircraft were well known in Albany even before Day One; they became “almost a punch line” after Spitzer inauguration, when, the governor says, people would “just roll their eyes.” Still, Spitzer didn’t know his own top aides were scheming to expose Bruno, he told the News — and even if he did, the State Senate doesn’t have subpoena power over the executive branch anyway. You may notice that these three statements clash with each other slightly, but, hey, he’s new at this weaseling-out-of-tight-spots thing. He’ll get better.
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Steve Fishman: Spitzer’s Finally Fighting Back, But Is He Eliot Reagan?Governor Spitzer finally abandoned his silly business-as-usual tactic today, giving up the “I’m going to get back to doing the people’s business” that invariably means something is amiss. The Republican-led State Senate had suggested that it might act like a real legislative body, one with oversight responsibilities and subpoena powers, and investigate whether the governor knew that a top aide was tracking Senate leader Joe Bruno’s use of state vehicles. And Spitzer finally broke his silence on the burgeoning scandal to warn the senator that, in effect, the senators shouldn’t punch above their weight. Never one to be outlawyered, the governor has apparently been reading up on the state constitution, and he charged in a statement that New York’s Senate does not have the constitutional authority to investigate the executive branch. In other words, he seemed to say that he won’t cooperate with any investigation and will instead invoke an Empire State version executive privilege. Whether the potential drama of a constitutional showdown will, in fact, entice the Republican Senate remains to be seen.
intel
The Debate Questions CNN Didn’t Want You to See!
Did you catch the big, exciting CNN-YouTube Democratic presidential debate last night, in which candidates got the chance to respond with pre-scripted sound bites to questions asked by real, live Americans who videotaped themselves asking the questions?! Yeah, us either, and if the Times report today was any indication, we didn’t miss much. But what about the YouTubed questions that didn’t make air? Surely some of those must have been entertaining. Well, maybe. After the jump, some highlights, as selected from the several thousand unasked questions available on the ‘Tube by New York’s indefatigable interns.
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Brooklyn, Meet Your New Borough President
Councilman Charles Barron has become the first candidate to officially announce that he wants to be the next Brooklyn borough presidency. With part-time steamboat Marty Markowitz set to sail off in 2009 because of term limits, the position is open, and Barron couldn’t be more different from the tireless cheerleader of the cheesecake-and-bagel Brooklyn. For one thing, he’s a former Black Panther who’ll be, in his own words, “taking care of black folk. Unapologetically.” For another, Barron comes with the distinction of already having seriously pissed off Bloomberg: Earlier in the year, the mayor called Barron’s initiative to rename an avenue after activist Sonny Carson “the worst idea anybody in the City Council has had” — amid some stiff competition, to be sure. Barron’s first endorsements come from Al Sharpton and retired police sergeant Noel Leader, a co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. Sadly, even Leader’s hundred didn’t quite care enough to attend the announcement en masse: The trio spoke yesterday, in the Daily News’ estimation, to “about 75 supporters.”
Barron Says He’d Back Black Brooklyn [NYDN]
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What Does Shelly Have Up His Sleeve?The Daily News’ Daily Politics blog reports that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office is calling up members of his Democratic majority as we speak, and asking them to return to Albany tomorrow. Exciting! Also, puzzling. The News deems this “a significant development,” but we know it can’t be to suddenly pass the now-scuttled congestion-pricing idea — unless Mayor Bloomberg just found some pictures of Silver riding in Alan Hevesi’s limo or on Joe Bruno’s horse. So what does Shelly need the Assembly for? Some theories:
1. The Lower East Side is dangerously low on pickles and herring; the LES Preserved Foods Preservation Act is in order.
2. He loves to mess with people’s vacations, just as a test of loyalty.
3. He read the last page of the leaked Harry Potter and has no one to discuss it with.
4. He just brainstormed a law, retroactive to 2001, that would make it illegal for media-company owners to run for mayor.
5. He needs help getting the gigantic bug out of his ass.
Breakthrough? [Daily Politics/NYDN]
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Bloomberg, Spitzer Prompt Conceptual Breakthrough: Could It Be Better Not to Be an Asshole?We have — we have always had — a soft spot in our heart for those who can expertly muster and deploy arrogance, obnoxiousness, self- righteousness, and general assholery. (No, there’s no particular reason we appreciate those traits. Ahem.) This is one of many reasons we have admired both our governor and our mayor. But this week there’s some bad news. First, Steve Fishman’s cover profile in the magazine showed that Eliot Spitzer’s trademark and self-assured aggressive intransigence may not be working for him and may well actually be working against him. Then come reports today that Mike Bloomberg’s trademark and self-assured mellow certitude could have been what did in his congestion- pricing plan.
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Hillary Buys ‘Post’ Endorsement — for a QuarterOnce upon a time, there was little doubt as to the Post’s opinion of Hillary Clinton. But questions arose when the Clintons reached their détente with Rupert Murdoch last year, and now, well, things are clear. This morning, the tabloid learned that Mrs. Clinton is a reader — and, better yet, a nonreader of the Daily News. “Like hundreds of thousands of other discerning New Yorkers,” gushed “Page Six” in reporting the news, “White House front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton buys The Post.” It’s not just the gleeful promotion of Hillary to the front-runner status that made us smile. And it’s not just the item’s headline (“The Right Choice,” which, placed over a decent photo, pretty much makes a free campaign poster). It’s mostly this: Can you believe they’re finally calling her a New Yorker?
The Right Choice [NYP]
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Joe Bruno’s Spitzer Peace Plan
Eliot Spitzer’s epic feud with Joe Bruno has been lots of fun for headline writers and politics watchers, if perhaps not so good for Albany’s effective functioning. But here’s a funny thing: As Steve Fishman reports in this week’s cover story, their big fight didn’t even have to happen. In the last days of the legislative session, about a month ago, Bruno approached Spitzer with the idea of a non-aggression pact: He’d support the governor’s cherished campaign-finance proposal if the governor would agree not to campaign against Senate Republicans. The plan to reduce the money flowing into state politics is “Spitzer’s obsession,” Bruno told Fishman, but the Republican leader wouldn’t disarm in the face of a wealthy, powerful governor determined to break the GOP’s hold on the Senate. Under Bruno’s deal, Spitzer would get the campaign-finance reform he wanted, Bruno would get protection, and both would be able to move forward on four or five pieces of legislation caught in the crossfire. But Spitzer would agree merely to congratulate the Republicans if they helped push his agenda. “That’s not good enough,” Bruno told him, according to Fishman’s source. And a few days later they were at war.
The Steamroller in the Swamp [NYM]