Last week, FOX News demanded John McCain stop using debate footage in a new ad. Rudy Giuliani's and Mitt Romney's website was covered in FOX News paraphernalia, then FNC finally applied their demand equally. Romney's campaign says to hell with it, they are going to use it anyway.

Rudy Giuliani

• Giuliani claims he doesn't remember being briefed on Bernie Kerik's ties to the mob, but now there's concrete evidence that it actually took place. Giuliani's connection to Kerik would destroy a political career under normal circumstances but IOKIYAR. September 11 changed everything... except Bernie Kerik's criminal record.
• Senator Kit Bond (R-Missouri) endorsed Giuliani but needs to read the Constitution: presidents serve eight years, Kit, not ten.
• Giuliani lies about healthcare statistics in ads (and continuing to use them) and lies about attacking Senator Joe Biden's (D-Delaware) foreign policy experience... the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee... no experience... said by a mayor. Oh, and there's audio of Giuliani attacking Biden. And despite attacking "gummint healthcare," Giuliani may have received his prostate cancer screening... through the government.
• Giuliani faces an investigation into the radios used on September 11 by the New York City Council.
• It seems Giuliani has a part-time job at his old firm and then there's this:

  Several of the firm's employees do volunteer work for his campaign. And Giuliani did not decide until mid-June, six months after he entered the race, to bill his campaign for the cost of the security detail traveling with him on campaign trips; before then, the firm paid the expense [...]

  Federal election laws prohibit Giuliani's firm from absorbing costs or providing services that legally should be covered by political donations, campaign experts said.

  "This is a lawyer's nightmare," said Republican political consultant Scott Reed, who ran the 1996 presidential bid of then-Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) but is not aligned with a presidential campaign in this race. "I don't think the vulnerability is with voters on the level of his commitment to the race. The concern is really about FEC violations and whether anything this corporation does to help him essentially is making a contribution to run for president in the form of staff time, materials, travel billing or security."

• David Dayen has taken several looks at the media and their continuingfailure.

Mitt Romney

• Yawn. Romney flip-flops again. This one is on immigration.

Fred Thompson

• FDT: The U.N. will take your guns away.

John McCain

• Speaking about torture, McCain says his military service informs his views, and because, you know, he was tortured by the North Vietnamese. Conversely, McCain points to the lack of military service among his top opponents, and their playing footsie with 'enhanced interrogation techniques.'

Ron Paul

• Paul raked in over $5 million last quarter and this is what he spent it on.

  I wrote that day:

  If Mitt Romney wasn't such a flip-flopper and devoid of any real political principle, I would have said this was the worst acting in a presidential ad all season.

Duncan Hunter

• When U.S. diplomats refuse to go to Iraq, Duncan Hunter suggested in a press release:

  Go to Walter Reed and Bethesda for New State Dept. Personnel

  ... State Department personnel who refuse deployment to Baghdad be replaced with wounded veterans at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals.

There's more...

In case you were wondering, the Republican field of candidates don't care about the wildfires raging in Southern California. (This is in, or around, Duncan Hunter's district, mind you.)

FOX News Debate

• TRF liveblogged the debate on FOX News and the candidates were taking some stinging potshots at each other. Conservative bloggers approvingly spoke of Mike Huckabee's car salesman-like qualities by "demonstrating same smooth, articulate, can-sell-snake-oil-to-a-merchant" and that he could "sell ice to Eskimos."


• John McCain released an ad that included footage from the FOX News debate, and FNC demanded McCain's campaign cancel the ad because of the logo. However, Rudy Giuliani's materials are covered in FOX News paraphernalia. McCain's people cut a new ad instead.

Rudy Giuliani

• While speaking to at a town hall in Iowa, Giuliani left the door open on waterboarding, questioning whether it really is torture.


• After bowing out of the race, Sam Brownback met with John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, however, Brownback says he is "more comfortable" with Giuliani's views on abortion.


• Giuliani is defending and protecting an accused child molesting priest that still works at Giuliani Partners.


• In August 2001, Giuliani reportedly told his gay roommates that if same-sex marriage became legal, he would marry them first. Earlier this month, when speaking to Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, Giuliani said he would support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage if states started to legalize it.

Mitt Romney

• Romney employs about a dozen college-aged kids to sit at computers and watch a wall of television screens with news reports in a dark room for "rapid response." I call them the Mitt Floppers; An Army for One.


• A South Carolina baptist pastor retracted his endorsement of Romney. Pastor Don Wilton said he gave his support to use his name locally, and didn't believe it would be used nationally. (And by nationally, I think he means under the nose of the I.R.S.)


• In discussing Barack Obama, Mitt Romney nearly called the senator "Osama bin Laden." Romney's campaign maintains that the governor "misspoke" but anybody remember the sign Romney was holding up approvingly? It said "Obama Osama" and Romney was campaigning in South Carolina, the site of this incident.


• This is no surprise: Romney has no idea what he's talking about.

Fred Thompson

• FDT articulated "almost sane views" on executive power.


• Thompson dodged questions on the latest exodus of staffers leaving, to which FDT replied, those questions are for the campaign. David Dayen reminds him, "You ARE the campaign!"


• FDT locked up the Bill Frist endorsement, completing the "creepy doctor,""Klansman" and "global warming denier" trifecta. Fred Phelps' endorsement is in a league of its own.

John McCain

• McCain told a gun manufacturer that if elected president, he would "shoot bin Laden with your products." McCain later said it was a joke and he wouldn't personally shoot bin Laden. You call that leadership?

Mike Huckabee

• Ramesh Ponnuru is not sold on Huckabee.


• Read up on Steve Benen's incredible takedown of Jonathan Alter's whitewashing of Mike Huckabee's "wacky right-wing things."


• Huckabee is a smooth talker but is that all he is?


• At the debate, Huckabee said "most" of the founding fathers were clergymen. That all depends on your definition of "most." In actuality, only one of 56 was a member of the clergy. Using Huckabee's definition of "most," most of the U.S. Senators are independents, and most of the U.S. states are not part of the mainland.

Ron Paul

• Paul is moving up in New Hampshire and the campaign's increasing spending in the state shows they believe so, too.


• The debates among Republican candidates show the base to be adamantly opposed to any kind of withdrawal from Iraq as they incessantly boo Ron Paul's foreign policy views. However, polling shows that the majority of Republican Party caucus goers in Iowa favor withdrawing from Iraq within six months.

Tom Tancredo

• Tancredo wagered his presidential campaign against that of Mitt Romney on the World Series the day after Boston handed Colorado a 13-1 loss in Game 1. Makes you think, maybe Tancredo is trying to lose?

There's more...

CNBC Presidential Debate

Mitt Romney

Rudy Giuliani

Fred Thompson

John McCain

Mike Huckabee

Ron Paul

Tom Tancredo

Alan Keyes

Duncan Hunter

There's more...

(The Week in Review was off last Saturday, so enjoy the double-stuffed edition this week. --Matt)

In the last two weeks, the top Republicans avoided Tavis Smiley's All-American Presidential Forum at the historically black college, Morgan State. (Instead, they went to fundraisers and campaign events with white people.) They also joined President Bush in support of his veto of the S-CHIP reauthorization. Newt Gingrich ruled out running for president to continue to head up a non-profit no one has ever heard of.

The GOP candidates were united, even in messaging, with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York. (Although some of the candidates took it an extra step farther, like seeking to revoke Columbia University's funding.)

Former White House Counsel John Dean gave his outlook on the current state of the GOP. He said Rudy Giuliani would "go even farther than Bush and Cheney in their worst moments."

Asked what GOP candidate he thought was "not quite as frightening as Giuliani," he answered with a laugh, "Ron Paul," saying "there's no chance he's going to be president."

Third Quarter Fundraising: Here's how the money shakes out, via Latest Politics.

Giuliani: $10.5 million ($16 million cash on hand)
Romney: $10 million raised, plus $8.5 million of his own money ($9 million cash on hand)
Thompson: $9.3 million ($7 million cash on hand)
McCain: $6 million ($3.6 million cash on hand and $1.5 million in debt)
Paul: $5 million ($5.3 million cash on hand)

Mitt Romney: In New Hampshire, the former Governor has ran over 10,000 commercials pimping his candidacy. Romney has a new ad going up in the state, and later Iowa, attacking Republicans as "acting like Democrats." Speaking of new ads running, the Log Cabin Republicans, the faction of Republicans that are openly gay, endorsed Romney for governor in 2002, have a new ad going up on Romney. With their new ad, Ben Weyl asks, "Buyer's remorse?"

Did you know that Mitt Romney lives with his biggest contributor? Himself.

As the great TBogg notes, this really is like someone sending themselves flowers at work to prove to everyone in the office how desirable they are. Romney's personal contributions to his campaign now exceed $15 million dollars, which is also the amount of money John McCain sees skipping over to him dressed in a slinky outfit in a nightly dream.

Recently, Mitt Romney made the case for divestment from Iran. He, himself, has plenty of investments in the country.

John Gizzi of Human Events noted the words of a Michigan attorney at Mitt Romney's speech at the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference:

"I fell asleep during Mitt Romney's speech today, and I wasn't even up late last night."

Rudy Giuliani: Earlier this week, Rudy said that the GOP lost in 2006 because of spending, and going on to claim he pushed 23 tax cuts while mayor of New York. He's wrong.

Giuliani has now adopted part of Mitt Romney's messaging.

Conservative leader Richard Viguerie has launched a petition drive against Giuliani's candidacy, joining other base conservatives in opposing a pro-choice Republican nominee.

A poll showed as many as 27% of Republicans willing to vote for a third-party candidate if Rudy is the nominee.

The mutiny of religious conservatives over Rudy's potential nomination obliterates Giuliani's claim to be "electable."

It turns out that Giuliani's campaign has all kinds of connections to the initial attempt by Republicans in California to divvy up the state's electoral votes by Congressional district. Giuliani, who has pushed his electability to Republican primary voters, recently released projected electoral maps showing him with 210 electoral votes locked up against Hillary Clinton, including California and New York listed as "swing states."

Giuliani compared Hillary Clinton to George McGovern, the Democratic nominee in 1972. Giuliani voted for McGovern in 1972.

The "surprise phone call" from his wife, Judy, has happened over 40 times on the stump. Apparently, it annoyed the hell out of the National Review's Lisa Schiffren. Giuliani's reason for doing so? You guessed it, 9/11.

Giuliani's hyper-partisan message is costing him independents.

Fred Thompson: FDT has made it a habit to not only forget crucial details, he's coming up with all new ones.

Thompson recently said that Saddam had WMDs, despite reports all concluding to the contrary. (VIDEO)

In 2005, FDT helped usher John Roberts into the Supreme Court. While giving a stump speech, FDT told the crowd that the Democrats were in control of the Senate -- in 2005. (VIDEO)

Continuing on the theme that Grandpa Freddie doesn't know what he's talking about, in a radio interview, FDT referred to Russia as the "Soviet Union." He also said he wasn't aware of a landmark decision by a judge on the death penalty.

Despite the fact that FDT doesn't know anything, he recently said being president ain't very hard.

While on the stump in Iowa, Fred Thompson was reduced to asking for an applause from the small assembled crowd. (VIDEO) The New York Times had four slides of FDT speaking with an Iowan about social security and appear to be in some disagreement. The caption noted that the man later said he was voting for Romney.

FDT pissed off the Iowa press corps by skipping out to meet with them after the Iowa Christian Alliance dinner.

In Florida, FDT is taking a lot of flack for suggesting he would abolish birthright citizenship.

John McCain: With his campaign floundering, John McCain is drinking the crazy juice from the tall cans.

In an interview with Beliefnet, McCain stepped in it several times. He suggested he would not vote for a candidate who was not a Christian, and then proceeded to say that the U.S. Constitution established the U.S. as a "Christian nation." (McCain isn't taking to kindly to the response his comments have earned.)

McCain recently said that the nation's biggest mistake after 9/11 was telling people to go shopping instead of enlisting. (Biggest mistake since 9/11? Hardly. A mistake, yes, but not the biggest.) McCain also contends that if Bush asked people to enlist today, they would.

No they wouldn't.

Ron Paul: The libertarian nearly outraised the former front runner, John McCain, with $5 million in the third quarter.

Mike Huckabee: You would think a serious presidential contender would have one of these already, but the former Arkansas governor is in the market for a national finance chair. Perhaps that would help those sagging fundraising numbers?

Tom Tancredo: The Colorado congressman refused to vote in favor of a House resolution commemorating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. He said that if they were to do the same for Christians or Jews, it would be crossing some "non existent line" between church and state.

Tancredo voted in favor of a resolution celebrating Christmas.

There's more...

Another week, more Republican debauchery.

Mitt Romney: The big news this week was Blackwater USA, the private military firm hired to provide security to U.S. diplomats, was ordered out of the country by the Iraqi government following the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians. Just four days later, Blackwater was allowed to operate on a limited basis. Romney's counterterrorism policy advisory group's head is Blackwater Vice Chair Cofer Black. Romney has kept increasingly mum about it. I think this is a perfect opportunity to use Romney's gimmick "Ask Mitt" to ask him: What are you thoughts on Blackwater? Private contractors, in general?

Speaking of user-interaction with the Romney campaign, Slate took up Romney's offer to supporters, of creating his next campaign ad. Check it out.

Campaigning at a Florida retirement community, Romney took the opportunity to align the Democrats with terrorists, claiming "al-Qaeda would be dancing in the streets" with Barack Obama as president.

It seems that when Romney held a press conference in front of St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan to denounce HillaryCare 2.0, he did so without their consent (the campaign didn't ask at all) and was physically blocking where ambulances enter and exit.

Rudy Giuliani: Seriously what hasn't 9/11 changed for Rudy? This week, he claimed that September 11th changed his views on the Second Amendment (Giuliani was notorious in Republican circles as the most anti-gun Republican in the country; in 1995, he called the NRA "extremists") and fees in national parks. I kid you not.

Giuliani adviser and Congressman from New York, Peter King, says "there are too many mosques" in this country. King stands by what he said, claiming it was "taken out of context" by The Politico, but you have got to read his "explanation."

Rudy says he's the fourth or fifth most well known American in the world.

David Dayen says Rudy is running the Biden '88 campaign.

Fred Thompson: FDT has developed a habit of answering questions with "I don't know" since he announced for president. This week was no different. When asked about the six black students that were arrested and charged with attempted murder in Jena, Louisiana, Thompson said, "I don't know anything about it."

Also, FDT said he would jail women who have abortions in their second and third trimesters.

If you ever wondered what "Ask Mitt" looks like if you produced it with your dad's video camera, check out "Ask Fred" as he answers a question from the internet and says "we can do better."

John McCain: Boasting better fundraising numbers last week, a friend to the campaign put it rather bluntly when speaking to the Washington Times this week. The McCain camp shot for $4.5 million, but with just over a week to go this quarter, McCain has only raised $3.7 million, and has $2.5 million to $3 million in campaign debt. Said the friend: "He's done for."

Also, in Michigan, the heir apparent to the GOP nomination for Governor in the state, Mike Cox, has withdrawn support for McCain's candidacy. Apparently he wants to associate with a winner, and McCain ain't it.

Tom Tancredo: This isn't so much news as it is a reinforcement of everything you think about Tancredo:

Tancredo blamed illegal immigrants for rising crime -- "90 percent of the murder warrants in LA are for illegal immigrants" -- as well as the rising cost of health care and the economic decline in the housing market.

Tancredo contends that illegal, and legal, immigrants are harming the nation because many of the newcomers "refuse to assimilate."

Even many legal immigrants fail to learn English or embrace American culture, choosing instead to keep their old customs and religion, he said. "The American melting pot is broken."

He asserted that such practices are destroying the cultural ties that long bound Americans together. The crowd roared in agreement when Tancredo shouted, "I'm tired of pressing '1' for English, and '2' for Spanish!" [emphasis added]

So don't be fooled when Tancredo or his enablers claim this is about illegal immigration. He's hates the legal ones, too.

There's more...

Big news this week: Chuck Hagel decided to hang it up and passed on seeking the Republican nomination for president. (Some analysts still think he is going to pair up with Mike Bloomberg for an independent run.) Alan Keyes decided he needed to embarrass himself one more time and declared his candidacy. Also, it looks like Newt Gingrich is inching towards a run.

Your front runner for the nomination? Nobody. In the post, Paul Curtis noted a disturbing finding in a recent AP/Ipsos poll: Republicans didn't like that McCain was against torturing terrorist suspects. Not even just terrorists, but terrorist suspects.

David Dayen remarked on the ever-changing race for the Republican nomination. "That's a lot of muddle. And for a party that almost always nominates whoever is at the head of the polls on Labor Day the year before, it's quite astonishing."

Romney: Earlier this week, a website called "PhoneyFred" sprang up, attacking Fred Thompson. The site was linked to the Romney campaign because it was hosted on their account. You can imagine the hilarity of Mitt Romney calling someone else a "phony." Romney's people disavowed the website and denied any ties, claiming it was a rogue consultant. Grandpa Fred accused the Romney people of a "cover-up."

Giuliani: Foreign policy experience is such a drag. Luckily for Rudy, it's not a problem!

You may have heard Giuliani talk about immigration proceedings quite reasonably last week. Now it's hurting him among the GOP base. If it's not spittle-stained anger, they don't want to hear it.

Giuliani spent 9/11 with the 9/11-widow-hating Ann Coulter. But, also, that day, Rudy Giuliani shut down his website in remembrance of the horrific tragedy that he continues to exploit to this day. David Dayen pondered that and how Giuliani recently said that "everyday is 9/11" for him.

If Rudy! shut down his website in commemoration of 9/11, given that he also recently said "For me, every day is an anniversary of September 11," shouldn't his website also be shut down TODAY?

Indeed, since the reason for shutting the site down was that September 11 was not a day for politics, shouldn't he immediately cease all campaigning and permanently ensconce himself in a shiva house?

And when your former staffers start bailing on you like rats jumping off a burning, sinking ship, what do you do? Go trolling for supporters!

Thompson: FDT recently stated that Osama bin Laden was "more symbolism than anything else." FDT's camp, feeling the heat from making such a bad statement, tried to distance himself by denying he ever said the words. But TRF's Paul Curtis received confirmation from the AP that it was in fact, Fred Thompson who said it.

FDT also said that Osama bin Laden deserved due process. It is not exactly an outlandish statement, if in fact your party wasn't the GOP. But this led David Dayen, who noted that FDT's "lawyerin' for hire" may very well get him in trouble, to ask what side of OBL's trial FDT would be on. Because you see, FDT gave legal advice to a colleague serving as the defense of Libyan terrorists.

The nickname "Grandpa Fred" is quite fitting for FDT because the former senator doesn't seem to have much of a memory. He can't be bothered to give an opinion on the Terri Schiavo case -- it's ancient history, apparently -- despite the fact that his only stated principle on his website is "federalism," which was at the center of the legal wrangling. While in Florida, FDT was asked about the Florida delegates that would be in violation of RNC rules for having moved up their primary. Fred's answer: "It's above my pay-grade. ... I don't know."

It turns out that Fred's laziness to get into the race for over 2 months caused him to lose some support in Florida, and instead, join up with his arch nemesis, Mitt Romney.

Guess who else is not impressed with Grandpa Fred, the Candidate? Conservative pundits George Will and Robert Novak.

McCain: Trying to make himself relevant in this campaign, John McCain recycled the "they'll follow us home" from Iraq line. David Dayen notes that even General Petreaus was not on board with that idea:

This is the tired old "they'll follow us home" argument, propagated mainly by the fact that V-22 Osprey transport planes leave a trail of bread crumbs. They'll know the routes! Even General Petraeus was careful to distance himself from a notion that Iraqi insurgents fighting for their own country will get on boats and start car bombing Milwaukee.

McCain also disavowed the MoveOn.org ad against Petreaus, noting his opposition to the Swift Boat attack on John Kerry... then went to a campaign event with Swift Boater, Bud Day.

Finally, McCain's campaign is clinging to life financially after two good months of fundraising. Still unable to make major media buys, however.

Hunter: Duncan Hunter scored a "*" in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. Honestly, why is this guy still running? Ron Paul is beating him in his home state of California.

There's more...

Among the headlines this week -- Republicans held another debate, this one in New Hampshire, and former Senator Fred Thompson finally joined the group of candidates.

Mitt Romney: Following the quick departure of Senator Larry Craig as Romney's co-Senate liaison, Mitt and the media's pouncing on the disgraced senator raised questions from Fred Gooltz and more, as to why other members of Romney's campaign, particularly Alan Fabian, that are in trouble with the law were not treated similarly. In any case, Romney finally dropped his Utah finance chair.

Massachusetts Democrats launched a new website, RomneyFacts.com, showing the many sides to "Multiple Choice Mitt."

David Dayen caught Romney shaking in his boots over Thompson joining the pack.

I honestly don't know why Mitt's in such a tizzy about La-Z-Boy Fred, but clearly his polling is telling him he can't make a lick of ground in the South, and a favorite son will demolish him there. With Romney taking the early states, Thompson sweeping the South, and Giuliani taking the big states on Super Duper Tuesday, are we looking at a brokered convention? I don't think so, but it's fun to think about. And it would be a fitting end to a Republican primary that Republicans frankly don't want to see anybody win.

Rudy Giuliani: Brave New Films launched The Real Rudy, a follow up to their The Real McCain. Check out the video. (BNF also tried to help Rudy remember all of his mistakes in 30 seconds. Sadly, it cannot be done.) It seems that Rudy doesn't know which nation, North Korea or Iran, is further along in their nuclear programs. (North Korea detonated a bomb already. Iran has not.) Paul Curtis writes:

Seriously, this is more than an "embarassing goof," as FP put it. It betrays a serious ignorance of the most important national security issues. To not know whether North Korea or Iran is further along is to be ignorant not only of the current strategic situation in East Asia and the Middle East, but of the entire story of how the Koreans ended up testing a nuclear weapon. They did so in large part thanks to serious American policy blunders.

And in case you didn't know already, Rudy is exaggerating his record. But only a little bit. It's not like he's running as a 9/11hero, or anything. Er, nevermind.

Mike Huckabee: Speaking of a fractured Republican Party, Paul Curtis wrote a great piece on the emerging alternatives to a dying Goldwater conservatism.

At any rate, a Huckabee-Giuliani contest would be an interesting referendum on the GOP base's opinions about the future of conservatism. But we seem unlikely to get such an even matchup between the two. Ross Douthat explains some of the reasons -- for one thing, Fred Thompson is about to suck a lot of the air out of Huckabee's media bubble. But also, as a model of a new social conservatism, Huckabee leaves something to be desired: as Douthat points out, his actual policy ideas "tend toward the semi-baked." Still, he seems to be the only candidate representing an important alternative path for the GOP's future...

Fred Thompson: Grandpa Freddie finally joined the pack of Republican candidates, and leaving a trail of roadkill staffers behind him. (Also, did you know his birth name is "Freddie"? Kind of loses its Old Spice muskiness.) Chase Martyn noted Freddie's "first" campaign appearance, and well, it sucked. His appearance on Good Morning Americaequally sucked, notes Dayen:

I don't know, usually a candidate running for President actually comes up with comprehensive strategies instead of bumbling around going "Yeah, somebody should come up with somethin'."

Freddie's failure to meet expectations cannot bode well for those that see FDT as their Reaganesque savior. Writes Paul Curtis:

Ronald Wilson Reagan was 12 feet tall, shot laser beams from his eyes, and wiped out communism with the devastating charm of his smile alone.

Thus every conservative pundit pines for him, every right-wing voter waits for his reincarnation, every GOP debate is darkened by his shadow, and every Republican candidate tries desperately to be whatever legend has it he used to be. For Fred Thompson, trading in Reaganostalgia seems to be a key strategy...

Also this week in FDT, Dick Morris appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show and noted that while working for FDT, the former Senator was worried then that his background as a lobbyist would come back to haunt him. (O'Reilly's defense, "But every Republican in the world is a lobbyist...," is probably the most truthful thing he's ever said.)

And now that Grandpa Fred is off and running as Candidate Grandpa Fred, it seems as though he may be using his young 3-year old daughter as a campaign prop.

Ron Paul:New Hampshire is "tailor made" for Ron Paul, says Dayen.

Sam Brownback: Brownback sure knows how to pack them in. (Defensive responses from the campaign and supporters were that many students left to go to their 1pm class, and at that time, about 20 kids left, but I don't see how 20 kids fills all of those seats in the slightest.)

In a riff on Barack Obama's speeches about 30,000 here, 20,000 there, can you imagine Brownback's?

Duncan Hunter:Feel the Dunc-mentum! The Duncan Hunter suuuuurge! The California Republican won the Texas Straw Poll, but recent polling reported by the Capitol Morning Report (sub. req.) has Hunter losing to Ron Paul in his home state of California. Ouch.

Chuck Hagel:Stop me if you think you've heard this story before: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) says he is calling a press conference to inform voters of the next steps in his political life. Rumors have it, Hagel is calling it quits.

New Hampshire Debate: Republicans sparred on the campus of the University of New Hampshire. Once again, the candidate nobody left as the runaway favorite, as evidenced by Frank Luntz's focus group of 29 Republican primary voters following the debate.

FOX News moderator Chris Wallace knocked Ron Paul upside the head on the war, with Rudy Giuliani laughing in the background. (You can hear Giuliani laughing here, too.) Paul responded by stating quite clearly that the neocons "hijacked" American foreign policy. (Check out this Headzup.tv video response.)

Shorter Tom Tancredo: "Waterboarding forevah!!1!"

And, apparently, New Hampshire is "overwhelmed," crawling with illegal immigrants.

Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul got into it on Iraq.

The lack of a clear winner, at least to those who saw Frank Luntz's focus group following the debate, naturally, forced spin alley to be in full-on damage control and what we have is virtually every candidate declaring victory.

Ignoring Minorities: What a surprise, Republicans refuse to show up at debates hosted by organizations of color. This ain't the first time either.

There's more...

Breaking news: Republican racism is going to hurt them as a party for a long time. You know what else showcases the Republican Party as a relic wishing this was the 1950s again? Their ineptitude on the intertubes.

This past week marked the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and David Dayen scanned the websites of the Republican candidates to see what they had to say about one of Bush's largest domestic failures. (That says a lot, given that there's been so many of them.)

Turns out, quite frankly, not many of them gave a damn. In fact, Duncan Hunter was the only one that cared enough to attend the "Hope and Recovery" Summit in New Orleans. Yes, that's right, Duncan Hunter.

Forget Iowa, Wyoming is First in the Nation! I can't wait for the carnival-like atmosphere, barbecues, the buses filled with paid, out-of-state supporters to be there in Dick Cheney's hometown of Casper!

Mitt Romney: When news broke that disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was resigning, Romney called on President Bush to not only keep Alberto Gonzales, but to "double" him.* Earlier this week, the "politically amoral" Mitt Romney put on a clinic on how to knife a former supporter as quickly as possible. Within hours of the breaking news that Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested nearly three months ago on charges of lewd conduct, Romney's campaign team scrubbed their YouTube of Craig's endorsement. Now one may argue that this was because of Craig's arrest -- and that would likely be the case if this wasn't the Republican Party. When another Romney supporter was busted for impersonating a police officer, it took the Romney camp several weeks to disassociate themselves.

Hey, did you know that getting busted for lewd conduct, or targeting under-18 boys for sex, is the same as committing adultery? Well given that the first two are illegal and the third isn't, you would probably say "no," but don't tell that to Mitt Romney.

And in an obvious jab at the golf cart-bound Fred Thompson, a new Mitt Romney ad features the former Governor running (and sweating), touting his "energy" for the job.

* This post is pure satire.

Rudy Giuliani: Rudy's scheduled appearance at a memorial for 9/11 at Ground Zero is being met with hostility from the victims' families because no candidate, even for local office, campaigns on September 11. Paul Curtis notes:

Of course, given how far in advance potential presidential candidates lay their plans, who's to say he wasn't campaigning in previous appearances?

Fred Thompson: It looks like the former Nixon mole, Grandpa Fred, is taking sleazy Newt's advice by announcing his intention to announce via "webcast." You know what this means? We should expect another staffer leaving in, about, t-minus one week. (Oh, wow, it only took one day.)

John McCain: The "Straight Talk Express" is slowly screeching to a halt, but in Comedy Central's new game, you can help McCain stay afloat in "Fire 'Em All."

Mike Huckabee: The Huckster is a "nice guy" and according to Newsweek's Holly Bailey, this makes Huckabee ripe for defeat in the GOP primary. Also, did you know that his band, Capitol Offense, opened for Willie Nelson? Given Mike's frequent stops at The Colbert Report, I wonder what Nelson-nemesis Stephen Colbert has to say about that. Huckabee's numbers, however, are steadily rising with huge bumps in the early states following his strong showing in Ames. But as Paul Curtis writes, the Huckster is still no front-running candidate.

Sam Brownback: Larry Craig's arrest was a "very odd thing," but as Paul Curtis writes, given the Mark Foleys and the David Vitters, this is par for the course.

There's more...

Mitt Romney: Did you know flip-flops are hazardous to your health? I think I figured it out. Mitt Romney's flip-flops on, well, just about everything, are cries for help. David Dayen has the latest details on the plea.

Romney, the big spending former Massachusetts Governor that hates the state of Massachusetts, increased his numbers in Iowa, the Gallup poll from 8% to 14%, and the Quinnpiac poll showed Romney leading in three of the four states. Sounds like the Five Brothers are serving this country honorably. (Which is good, because Five Brother Craig Romney sucks at spinning the news.

Paul Curtis welcomed Romney into the Urban Dictionary as ESPN commentator Karl Ravech asked colleague Steve Phillips if he was "pulling a Mitt Romney." Paul writes:

I'm not paying attention, but then I hear Ravech, apparently trying to pin the former Mets GM down on something, saying:

Are you sure? I just want to be sure you're not going to do a Mitt Romney on me here.

Also this week: Mitt Romney took credit for the universal healthcare package in Massachusetts but the word on the street is "our bill ... became law despite Mitt Romney, not because of him."

Rudy Giuliani: In kind of a "mea culpa" on their 2001 "Man of the Year" coverage on the former mayor, TIME found out that the mystique about Rudy Giuliani doesn't jive with reality.

Giuliani tried connecting with rural voters by constantly talking about Staten Island leaving eventgoers looking puzzled. David Dayen comically wrote this week:

He mentioned Staten Island over and over again.

Yeah, I remember driving through the rolling hills of Staten Island, looking out at the crops of wheat and corn and grain, seeing the families wake up at 5am to do the chores and milk the cows.

In 1763.

Also, we heard some news about a police commissioner -- nope, not Kerik. The guy Rudy named right before him: Howard Safir. It was under his watch that "New Yorkers remember Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, and Patrick Dorismond -- incidents of egregious police brutality to which Safir responded with a mixture of incompetence and cruelty,"wrote Paul Curtis.

Giuliani doesn't just have corrupt friends. He's got crazy ones, too! Remember Roger Stone, Jr.? The guy who left a threatening phone call on the voice mail of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's 83-year old father, Bernard? (Audio available.) Well put him in the Giuliani column. He's a Rudy supporter.

Fred Thompson: Robert Novak reported that advisors to Fred Thompson say that the former Tennessee senator must give a superior performance at the first debate he appears in. Novak writes that Thompson will likely not appear September 5 but instead on September 27.

FOX News this week continued to rain on FDT's parade by delivering some rough coverage of his speech performance to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, noting that Grandpa Fred received far fewer applauses than Illinois Democratic Senator Barack Obama.

Blogger Lane Hudson filed an FEC complaint against Thompson for his "non-candidate candidacy" as violating election law on "testing the waters" and his case looks solid.

John McCain: Oh boy, how the mighty have fallen. There was news this week that Arizonans would elect Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano over McCain if the 2010 election were held today. Also this week:

McCain finance chairman Bob Mosbacher says "people feel badly" for the Arizona senator after campaign meltdown, boosting online fund raising. "It's doing very well," he says. Cindy McCain asks supporters to sign an e-card for her husband's birthday on Wednesday -- and donate $142, two dollars a year.

Well, all that money can now go to finance things like the new "Straight Talk Express."

"The next time we roll it out, [the new campaign bus will] be much more like the original version," [Campaign Manager Rick] Davis said. "A piece of shit."

But the good news is that McCain is big in Bermuda.

Mike Huckabee: The former Governor of Arkansas, in a naked appeal to the nativists said that he would "support changing" (read: abolish) birthright citizenship.

"`I would support changing that. I think there is reason to revisit that, just because a person, through sheer chance of geography, happened to be physically here at the point of birth, doesn't necessarily constitute citizenship,' he said. `I think that's a very reasonable thing to do, to revisit that.' "

If pandering to racists wasn't enough, looks like Huckabee has a dark underside and I'm not talking about his former girth.

Also, despite his strong showing in the Ames Straw Poll, Huckabee downsized his campaign, as well as Kansas Senator Sam Brownback. But the Brownback camp says that was their intention all along.

Ron Paulsays humans are all "God's children" and that he has trouble with the notion that "homosexuality is a sin" yet "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is sound policy to him. I'm still scratching my head on that one.

Duncan Hunter: The pet project of Hunter's, a plane that never got more than a few feet off the ground was finally scrapped.

There's more...

First off, I just wanted to say thank you to Jonathan Singer and the MyDD community for this incredible opportunity.

Secondly, I wanted to introduce my fellow bloggers on staff at The Right's Field: Paul Curtis, Ben Weyl, Chase Martyn of Iowa Independent, and Calitics' David Dayen.

They are the "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" to Kombiz, MBH's and my "Saved by the Bell." (I guess that makes me Screech since I'm still around...)

At The Right's Field, we're "Holding Our Noses So You Don't Have To." Well every Saturday, I get to bring the stench to you. Enjoy below the fold.

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Ames Iowa Straw Poll: Although the straw poll was held at the end of last week, the analyzing of the results produced a series of interesting tidbits, including a substantial drop in the number of voters, and the second victim to drop out of the race.

With Arizona Senator John McCain, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson not contesting in the Ames Iowa Straw Poll, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the odds on favorite to win by a landslide. Romney managed to buy up to a lackluster 31%. (Rumors were that Romney spent over $2 million but I have heard numbers closer to $5 million.)

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee finished in a surprising second, ahead of Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a battle that Chase Martyn says was "the real fight" in Ames. (Read about a little spat they had here.) True to his word, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, quit the race with an extremely poor showing. When his campaign first started, Thompson's plan was to primarily campaign in Iowa and vie for second place. He got sixth with 7.3% of the vote.

Power Rankings: Many in the blogosphere and the media have moved Romney to front-runner status. Paul Curtis disagrees, but something that has yet to really permeate in the media is that McCain has likely dropped out of the top tier into his own: a tier of one.

Romney: So apparently Romney is filthy rich. What is interesting is that Romney is trying to position himself as the anti-Washington, D.C. "change" candidate. I guess our leaders need to be even more wealthy than the rest of us.

Giuliani: Earlier this week, Giuliani established an "Immigration Advisory Board" aimed at "ending" illegal immigration. (Yeah, and I've got a bridge to sell you.) However, as Greg Sargent aptly noted, "will [it] be enough to erase memories of Rudy's past tolerance, or even embrace, of illegal immigration?" And the "anti-terror, national security candidate" doesn't seem to grasp the complexity of the conflict we are in to the point where he validates the terrorists. That's probably because Giuliani's whole mystique about anti-terrorism and national security is built on myths. Did you know that Giuliani's national security plans unites liberals and conservatives? Apparently, they both think he's nuts. Perhaps it was from all that time Rudy spent slaving away shoulder-to-shoulder with the 9/11 rescue workers.

F. Thompson: Lazy boy Fred Thompson was sighted in Iowa this week. I don't think this was the image he wanted to project: a sweaty, tired, wrinkly old man being carted on a golf cart. It's not exactly his very manly red truck he took out campaigning in Tennessee (not North Carolina, FOX News). Somebody get that guy some Old Spice, quick!

McCain: At this point, I just feel sorry for John McCain. I mean, he's a shell of his former self. He pandered away his credibility and now he has nothing to show for it. In fact, we didn't even write about him this week. That's just how irrelevant he's become. But we still have our poll up on the McCain Campaign Death Watch. Vote now!

The Rest: Following his strong showing in the Ames Iowa Straw Poll, Huckabee has emerged as the leading long shot candidate and the new, media darling of the right. Sure enough, with all this media attention, Huckabee blew it by saying nice things about the Clintons.

Apparently, Ron Paul is huge in France. You know what that means? Republicans hate him.

Potential Candidates: Newt Gingrich is expected to say for certain whether or not he will seek the presidency by October. Whether or not he does, we nevertheless know where his head is at:

The "war here at home" against illegal immigrants is "even more deadly than the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

And finally, in case you missed it, catch the music video produced by the campaign of unknown "kind of" candidate, John Cox from Illinois, that aligns illegal immigrants to that of the 9/11 terrorists. It's GOP fear-mongering meets MTV. It even features storm troopers!