I'm guessing the GOP will gamble everything on the next election. The alternative is political oblivion, especially if the next president has the stones to really go after the corruption.

Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has a nice ring, doesn't it?

Definite blue shift going on. Your perceptions are right on target.

I live in New Paltz :)

Barone is an idiot; but we already knew that, didn't we?

I think the phenomenon of liberals locating to rural / middle America is far more likely to turn those places blue. Shit, if 100,000 liberals moved to Wyoming, we would own the state, lock, stock and barrel. Rural states have relatively low populations, compared to the big, coastal states, and therefore they have a demographic countenance that would be much easier to manipulate. Every wingnut in the country would have to move to NYC in order to turn the place red.

You make it sound so final, Matt. Corzine will recover, humbled but not broken. And he will probably be re-elected by a wide margin. Granted, he's lost the head of steam he'd built up; but the experienced, and well-liked, Cody will do a fine job till Corzine is back on his feet.

You want tragedy? I did independent expenditure work for Florio. Talk about a waste of time.

How could you guys forget the Victory Caucus?

With Vilsack it's funny; with these guys it's scary -- and they're totally oblivious to the forehead-slapping irony.

I don't know that this has so much to do with declining apathy (though there is certainly some of it going around), or the fact that this is the first time since god-knows-when (i'm sure someone will chime in) that we don't have an incumbent VP running. The fact that the nomination is wide open on both sides could be contributing to the higher-than-usual interest.

It's probably a combination of both factors.

The real reason Dodd and Kucinich take this position is because they're mired in the single digits, poll-wise. They need the exposure a debate -- any debate -- would bring.

Men of principle,  don't 'cha know.

Point taken. But I would suggest that there are so many ways to go after Giuliani, it's like a frakin Whitman's Sampler.

How about the fact that he was banging his mistress, in Gracie Mansion, while his wife was asleep in another room?:

His policy of humiliating and intimidating his critics finally extended to his own household. Giuliani could, in fact, have learned something from the wise guys he used to bust about how to keep a mistress without embarrassing the missus. In 2000, the second Mrs. Giuliani, newscaster Donna Hanover, had to obtain a court order to stop him from bringing girlfriend Judith Nathan to Gracie Mansion, where she and Rudy's children were still living. Rudy struck back by announcing his separation to the press before telling his wife. Donna had a press conference outside the mansion in which she accused the mayor of also cheating on her with his former press secretary, Christyne Lategano, though that wasn't news to any of the reporters in attendance. Rudy had the last word. The wife and kids were eventually booted out of said mansion, and Judy Nathan became his third wife.

There is nothing wrong with marrying a cousin -- even a first cousin -- it was done all the time in previous centuries. Biologists will tell you that there is enough biological diversity between first cousins as to avoid birth defects.

The only reason I know all this, btw, is because I'm a student of nineteenth century English literature. These types of marriages occur constantly in those works. And art is a reflection of the society that creates it, dontcha' know.

This being said, Giuliani is a twisted, goose-stepping moron, whose policies are to the right of Jeffery Dahmer.

I hate Giuliani for so many legitimate reasons. For me, marrying his second cousin isn't something I care about.

And wasn't Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin thirteen-years old at the time they married? The scandal was the fact that she was a minor, not that she was his second cousin.

A little FYI to go with your morning coffee.

I think a fine of at least what they spent on the campaign -- if not double what they spent -- would be appropriate.

They willfully broke the law, and in doing so subverted the democratic process. The intent was quite clear.

If the laws have no teeth, then these guys will just add "fines" as a line item into their respective budgets.

Cheap at twice the price.

I tried to register to leave a comment, and it won't accept my brand-new (confirmed) user name and / or password.

Isn't this kind of problem a late nineties thing? I haven't encountered a registration problem for at least six or seven years.

What a pathetic little site.

God, the Dukakis campaign was a full-blown disaster. I remember wondering when they were going to take the gloves off . . . and wondering . . . and wondering.

Ooh, I love it when you talk dirty.

But wouldn't you be awfully tired?