A first(?) thread on 2008: McCain,Giuliani & the Republicans

Good grief. Even I know how to get there. It's not that inaccessible, or expensive to get to. Jet Blue to Detroit, then rent a van, drive north, cross the bridge, park. That's inexpensive.

Gingrich Says No to White House Bid 19 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will not run for president in 2008 after determining he could not legally explore a bid and remain as head of his tax-exempt political organization, a spokesman said Saturday.

Quote:

Gingrich Says No to White House Bid 19 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will not run for president in 2008 after determining he could not legally explore a bid and remain as head of his tax-exempt political organization, a spokesman said Saturday.

In other Newt news, the former Speaker's "American Solutions" campaign to "outline the challenges facing our country" [..] seems to be off to a somewhat bumpy start. On the group's web site there's an engine for finding workshops in your area and, if you're Newt, you probably hope it's not running properly.

By my count there've been 88 workshops announced in the DC area, which sounds pretty impressive--at least until you notice that 86 of them are currently listed as having "0 People Attending." The two exceptions are a workshop being hosted by "David," which has one person listed as attending, and one hosted by Nancy Bocskor (whom a quick google search reveals to be Newt's former chief legislative assistant) which is raising the roof with eight planned attendees.

Now one might surmise that this is because Newt is no Beltway phenomenon and is rather tapping into Real America--but there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that either. There are over 200 workshops listed in Newt's native Georgia, but all but one of them are listed as having zero attendees. (The exception, in Forsyth County, hardly looks as though it'll be standing room only either, with one slated attendee.)

It may be that the site's software isn't working properly--though, keep in mind that this is how interested parties are supposed to be able to locate nearby workshops; any prospective Newt enthusiast is presumably looking at the exact same column of zeroes as I am. Or perhaps there are pockets of furious Gingrichian problem-solving hidden in unexpected corners of this land of ours.

Otherwise, that goal of $30 million is looking harder and harder.

Gingrich as Speaker: Remembering When

ABC News: The Numbers
September 28, 2007

Newt Gingrich's long flirtation with a run for president - this week he's promoting an "American Solutions" agenda and appearing Sunday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"- warrants a look at public opinion during his tenure as House speaker.

It's not a pretty picture.

Never in more than a dozen ABC/Post polls from 1995 to 1998 did Gingrich's approval rating exceed his disapproval. He never saw better than 41 percent approval (Nancy Pelosi's been 13 points higher), while going as high as 65 percent disapproval during the unpopular government shutdown in a fall 1995 budget battle with Bill Clinton.

Sixty-four percent opposed Gingrich's re-election as speaker in January 1997. And when he announced in November 1998 that he was stepping down, 70 percent approved.

He was broadly seen as divisive: In 1998 data, [..] ninety percent said his successor should try harder to be more cooperative with the then-opposition party. And 82 percent opposed his running for president in 2000.

Gingrich was personally as well as professionally unpopular. More Americans viewed him unfavorably than favorably in every ABC/Post poll in which we asked the question from 1995 through 1998. His final rating in November 1998 was 58 percent unfavorable.

At the time of his 1997 House reprimand in a fundraising inquiry, two-thirds thought he'd broken the law, six in 10 thought he'd tried to mislead the Ethics Committee and 62 percent said he was not honest and trustworthy.

Earlier, in 1995, six in 10 said he did not represent the views of most Americans, and more, 66 percent, said he lacked the personality and temperament to serve as president. [..]

Casting stones

There are a handful of entertaining anecdotes in today's other Times pieceon the Giuliani campaign's recent stumbles. First, someone should probably tell former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan (who just endorsed Giuliani) that this kind of comment isn't likely to help his man in the primary:

"Rudy Giuliani is too liberal for the solid, right-wing Republicans in California, that part of the party," said Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles.

I can see the bumper stickers now--Giuliani: Too Liberal for California.

[..]

Finally, there are Giuliani's efforts to make nice with religious conservatives in an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network on Friday. Something tells me he's not going to get very far with this line:

"I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college," he said. "It's an area I know really, really well academically."

This quote, too, citing a story from the Gospel of John, seems a little ill-advised to me:

"I'm guided very, very often about, 'Don't judge others, lest you be judged,"' Giuliani told CBN interviewer David Brody. "I'm guided a lot by the story of the woman that was going to be stoned, and Jesus put the stones down and said, 'He that hasn't sinned, cast the first stone,' and everybody disappeared."

First off, accuracy aside, I'm not sure that explicitly comparing himself to an adulterer--the sin of which the woman was guilty--is really going to help take this particular topic off the table. But perhaps more to the point, it seems that in his telling he's implicitly comparing the very people he's trying to win over (i.e., religious conservatives) to the Pharisees. Again, this seems unlikely to earn him a lot of friends in religious circles.

--Christopher Orr

Rudolph Giuliani

Gerard Alexander, University of Virginia politics professor and American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar, European advisory board

Peter Beering, Indiana terrorism preparedness coordinator and principal with consulting firm Indianapolis Terrorism Response Group, homeland security advisory board

Peter Berkowitz; Hoover Institution senior fellow and George Mason Law School professor focusing on laws, ethics and politics; senior statecraft, human rights and freedom adviser

Robert C. Bonner, former U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner and now a partner with law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, chief homeland security adviser

David R. Cameron, Yale political science professor, European advisory board

Robert Conquest; Soviet-era historian and former adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and now a Hoover Institution research fellow; senior foreign policy advisory board

Lisa Curtis, former staffer to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and now a Heritage foundation senior research fellow, senior South Asia adviser

Carlos Eire, Cuban activist and Yale renaissance studies professor, senior foreign policy advisory board

Joshua Filler, former director Department of Homeland Security Office of State and Local Government Coordination director and now a homeland security consultant, homeland security advisory board

Louis J. Freeh, former FBI director, homeland security advisory board chairman

Nile Gardner, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow and onetime foreign policy researcher for former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, European advisory board

Stephen Haber, Hoover Institution senior fellow and Stanford history and political science professor, senior western hemisphere adviser

Charles Hill, former aide to Reagan-era secretary of state George P. Shultz and now a Hoover Institution research fellow, chief foreign policy adviser

Kim R. Holmes, President George W. Bush's former assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs and now the Heritage Foundation vice president of foreign and defense policy studies, senior foreign policy adviser

Daniel Johnson, former Minnesota homeland security director, homeland security advisory board

Former Sen. Robert Kasten, R-Wisc., former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations Subcommittee, senior foreign policy advisory board

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., homeland security advisory board

Martin Kramer, former director of Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, senior Middle East adviser

Andrew B. Maner, former Department of Homeland Security chief financial officer and now a member of the board of directors at emergency management software provider Previstar, homeland security advisory board

John T. Odermatt, former commissioner of the New York City Office of Emergency Management and Citigroup's corporate director of business continuity, homeland security advisory board

Norman Podhoretz, Hudson Institute adjunct fellow and former editor of Commentary magazine, senior foreign policy advisory board

David Pryce-Jones, novelist and essayist, senior foreign policy adviser

John Rabin, former program director of the Department of Homeland Security's Lessons Learned Information Sharing and now a consultant, homeland security advisory board

Stephen Peter Rosen, President Reagan's National Security Council staffer for political-military affairs and now a Harvard professor of national security and military affairs, senior defense adviser

Howard Safir, former New York City Police commissioner and now a crisis management consultant, homeland security advisory board

Richard J. Sheirer, former New York City emergency management commissioner and now a senior vice president with Giuliani Partners, homeland security advisory board

Seth Stodder, former Customs and Border Protection director of policy and planning and now a senior counsel and lobbyist with law firm Akin Gump, homeland security advisory board

C. Stewart Verdery Jr., former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy and planning and founder of lobbying firm Monument Policy Group, homeland security advisory board

Thomas Von Essen, former New York City Fire commissioner and now a senior vice president with Giuliani Partners, homeland security advisory board

Kenneth Weinstein, CEO Hudson Institute, foreign policy adviser

Joe Whitley, former Department of Homeland Security general counsel and now partner with law firm Alston & Bird, homeland security advisory board

S. Enders Wimbush, Hudson Institute director of future security strategies and former security consultant, senior public diplomacy adviser

Stephen Yates, former deputy assistant to Vice President Cheney for national security affairs and now a lobbyist and American Foreign Policy Council senior fellow, senior Asia adviser

John McCain

Richard Lee Armitage, President George W. Bush's deputy secretary of state and an international business consultant and lobbyist, informal foreign policy adviser

Bernard Aronson, former assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs and now a managing partner of private equity investment company ACON Investments, informal foreign policy adviser

William L. Ball III, secretary of the Navy during President Reagan's administration and managing director of lobbying firm the Loeffler Group, informal national security adviser

Stephen E. Biegun, former national security aide to then-Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and now Ford Motors vice president of international government affairs, informal national security adviser

Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations editor and former Wall Street Journal editorial editor, foreign policy adviser

Brig. Gen. Tom Bruner, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Eliot Cohen, served on the Pentagon's policy planning staff and is now a strategic studies professor at Johns Hopkins, informal national security adviser

Lorne W. Craner, International Republican Institute president, informal foreign policy adviser

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, President George H.W. Bush's secretary of state and a senior public policy adviser with law firm Baker Donelson, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. Russ Eggers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Merrill Evans, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Niall Ferguson, Harvard historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow, informal foreign policy adviser

Michael J. Green, former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush and now Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Asia policy adviser

Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr., President Reagan's secretary of state, endorsed McCain April 10

Maj. Gen. Evan "Curly" Hultman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Robert Kagan; senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for then-secretary of state George P. Shultz; informal foreign policy adviser

Brig. Gen. Robert Michael Kimmitt, current deputy Treasury secretary, informal national security adviser

Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon and President Ford's secretary of state who met McCain in Vietnam and is now a consultant, informal adviser

Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, informal national security adviser

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard editor, informal foreign policy adviser

Adm. Charles Larson, former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and now chairman of consulting firm ViaGlobal Group, informal national security adviser

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, President Reagan's national security adviser and now a principal with Energy & Communications Solutions, energy and national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Warren "Bud" Nelson, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Brig. Gen. Eddie Newman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. John Peppers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Ralph Peters, writer and retired Army officer, informal national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Maurice Phillips, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Gen. Colin L. Powell, President George W. Bush's secretary of state, informal foreign policy adviser

James R. Schlesinger, President Nixon and President Ford's secretary of defense, energy and national security adviser

Randy Scheunemann, national security aide to then-Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott and now a lobbyist, defense and foreign policy coordinator (for this cycle and 2000)

Gary Schmitt, former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and now an American Enterprise Institute scholar, foreign policy adviser

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush and founder of business consultancy the Scowcroft Group, adviser

George P. Shultz, President Reagan's secretary of state and a Hoover Institution Fellow, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. W.L. "Bill" Wallace, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Gary Wattnem, Iowa veterans advisory committee

R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and now a vice president at consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton, energy and national security adviser

Mitt Romney

David Aufhauser, former Treasury Department general counsel and now general counsel of USB investment bank, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Jorge L. Arrizurieta, lobbyist and major Republican donor, Latin American policy advisory group

Former Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., onetime chairman of House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Latin American policy advisory group

J. (Joseph) Cofer Black, former CIA and State Department counterterrorism official and now vice chairman Blackwater USA, senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security

Ted Brennan, former aide to then-Reps. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C. and Henry Hyde, R-Ill., Latin American policy advisory group

Lt. Gen. John H. ("Soup") Campbell, former vice director of Pentagon information systems and now a lobbyist for satellite communications, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Alberto R. Cardenas, lobbyist and former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Latin American policy advisory group

Robert Charles, former assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, Latin American policy advisory group

Samuel Cole, COO of BlueMountain Capital Management, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Mark Falcoff, American Enterprise Institute Latin America scholar emeritus and onetime consultant to President Reagan's Commission on Central America, Latin American policy advisory group

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., ranking Republican on House Intelligence Committee, intelligence adviser

Kent Lucken, foreign service veteran now an international private banker with Citigroup, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

John McClurg, formerly of the FBI computer investigations and critical infrastructure threat assessment center and now vice president Honeywell Global Security, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Larry Mefford, former FBI agent and counterterrorism official, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Amb. Tibor Nagy, Jr., career foreign service officer with ambassadorial tours in Ethiopia and Guinea, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Amb. Roger Francisco Noriega, former assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs under George W. Bush and now a lobbyist, Latin American policy advisory group

Mitchell B. Reiss, former state department policy planning director, foreign policy adviser

V. Manuel Rocha, career foreign service officer and former ambassador to Bolivia, Latin American policy advisory group

Steven Schrage, former State Department international law specialist, foreign policy and trade director

Dan Senor, former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman and now a lobbyist and Fox News contributor, sometimes foreign policy adviser

Jose S. Sorzano, Latin America aide to President Reagan and chairman of corporate consultant Austin Group, Latin American policy advisory group

Larry Storrs, former Latin America specialist at the Congressional Research Service, Latin American policy advisory group

Caleb ("Cal") Temple, formerly with the Defense Intelligence Agency and now executive vice president of Total Intelligence Solutions, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., lobbyist and chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, policy chairman

Ed Worthington, FBI veteran, counter-terrorism policy advisory group

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian making his second run at the White House, will report having raised $5.08 million in the third quarter. The number, which rivals those of John McCain and Bill Richardson, was boosted thanks to last-minute online fundraising that brought in more than $1.2 million in the last week of the quarter alone.

The plan, for instance, indicates that Romney will define himself in part by focusing on and highlighting enemies and adversaries, such common political targets as "jihadism," the "Washington establishment," and taxes, but also Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, "European-style socialism," and, specifically, France. Even Massachusetts, where Romney has lived for almost 40 years, is listed as one of those "bogeymen," alongside liberalism and Hollywood values.

Indeed, a page titled "Primal Code for Brand Romney" said...

This is fun. A strategy document out of the Romney campaign finds its way into public view. Among other highlights, they plan to position Hillary with (god, don't these people have any imagination at all?) socialism, Hollywood, liberalism and...FRANCE.

blatham wrote:

This is fun. A strategy document out of the Romney campaign finds its way into public view. Among other highlights, they plan to position Hillary with (god, don't these people have any imagination at all?) socialism, Hollywood, liberalism and...FRANCE.

Hillary and socialism, Hollywood, and liberalism are pretty accurate characterizations. I hope she is proud of them all. That is who supports her, and those are her biggest fans.

I would add the Chinese military and Chicoms also in her camp.

Hillary's Chicoms Hack Pentagon
It pays to $leep with Killary and Bill Clinton - the dividends never end. Hillary is on the take for the Chinese, but it was Bill, in acts of official perfidy, "that may be unparalleled in our nation's history, Clinton accepted bribes from Red China in the form of illegal political contributions, and in exchange made policy decisions that undermined our national security.
• The Red Chinese military (the so-called People's Liberation Army, or PLA) is now able to deploy much more accurate nuclear-armed missiles pointed at the United States, in large measure because of policy decisions by President Clinton."

Is it too much to ask for the leader occupying the White House be loyal to America and safeguard and protect this nation?


CHINESE MILITARY HACKED INTO PENTAGON Financial Times hat tip John

The Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network in June in the most successful cyber attack on the US defence department, say American ­officials.

The Pentagon acknowledged shutting down part of a computer system serving the office of Robert Gates, defence secretary, but declined to say who it believed was behind the attack.
It was the Clintons!

The WaPo published:

A list of the national security and foreign policy advisers to the leading presidential candidates from both parties.

Here's the Republicans:

On the Republican side, John McCain's list probably contains the greatest quantity of frightening crazy people. Rudy Giuliani's list, on the other hand, is completely untempered with the inclusion of any big-name non-crazy people, whereas McCain at least leavens the Kagan/Kristol/Woolsey axis with some Armitage/Eagleburger/Scowcroft counterweights.

Basically, if McCain becomes president, we're probably doomed, but if Giuliani becomes president we're definitely doomed.

Romney [is] a little short on big-name people, [but] Team Romney includes Dan Senor who you may remember as the CPA's top spokesman from the early days of the Bremer Raj in Iraq, and I find the idea of him back in a position of responsibility to be fairly disturbing.

Basically, if McCain becomes president, we're probably doomed, but if Giuliani becomes president we're definitely doomed.

I'll put this all in, if folks don't mind. Two quite separate elements of the modern republican party and 'conservative movement' are being increasingly forced into diverging positions due to the circumstances of likely electoral defeat and the lack of a candidate who might keep them unified. The 'religious right' component cares pretty seriously about certain litmus issues but the other camp (Heritage, Norquist's crowd, the neoconseratives and the business interests with which they are aligned) cares first and foremost about maintaining power.