Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior White House Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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The Pearl Harbor Day Massacre
March 06, 2007 9:27 AM
One quick item on Giuliani…..Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, points out helpfully today that while former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads in the polls, according to the good folks at Gallup, three-quarters of respondents were unaware of his liberals views on gays and abortion.
“His backers are mostly conservatives and evangelicals drawn by his 9/11 strong leadership," Cook says. "That support will melt like an ice cream cone in August once abortion, guns, gay rights, Vietnam draft, marriage to his second cousin, and infidelities come out.” This quote comes from the esteemed FINANCIAL TIMES which, like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ON CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING, mis-characterizes Giuliani's views on same sex marriage, saying that he supports it when, in fact, he backs only civil unions.
You can see some of our Giuliani coverage IN THIS FREE VIDEO or read about it HERE ON DOT-COM.
Today on the Hill we'll be following the House Judiciary Committee's look into the December 7 firing of seven U.S. Attorneys -- what's being called the Pearl Harbor Day Massacre.
Democrats allege that the U.S. Attorneys, all Republican appointees, were canned for being insufficiently partisan. For looking too closely into various GOP alleged shenanigans and not closely or quickly enough into Democratic alleged malfeasance.
Most potentially explosive -- the testimony of former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias-- the model for the Tom Cruise characater in "A Few Good Men" -- who will say that last Fall Rep. Heather Wilson, R-NM, and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM, pressured him to speed up a corruption investigation of local Democrats allegedly to embarrass Wilson's congressional opponent. Wilson and Domenici DENY any pressure, though they acknowledge talking to Iglesias.
There's also THIS REPORT from an anonymous ex-U.S. Attorney that Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made a “pointed comment that indicated that somehow anyone who talked might become more embarrassed if the story continued on. The inference was that they were holding themselves back from saying more about why people were fired - that it was likely the department was going to step up the defense of their actions. It could have been construed as friendly advice or a casual prediction. But I think it was expected that everyone would be told about the call.”
This comes the same day that in the NEW YORK TIMES the former Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio claims that he was forced out in early 2005 because of political pressure stemming from the fact that he had been investigating whether associates of then-Gov. Bob Ehrlich, a Republican, had improperly used cash to promote legalized slot machines from gambling interests.
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
-- jpt
March 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)
As I've noted here in the past, 9/11 saved Giuliani's political bacon. He was persona non grata here in NYC as his second term was ending. The Diallo and Dorismond cases had revealed Giuliani as the heartless bully everyone always suspected he was. Were it not for 9/11, Giuliani would have faded into memory many years ago.
Posted by: DKNY | Mar 6, 2007 1:23:38 PM
Although any particular candidate's poll numbers are certainly of interest to that candidate, I'm not so sure we need to worry about poll numbers when we're slightly less than a year before the first primary. There's plenty of time for poll positions to change--and the most certainly will!
The "Pearl Harbor Day Massacre" bears watching, especially if it's ever discovered that this intstitutional harrassment came from the orders of higher-ups at Justice. I envision a scandal which could rival that of Watergate if it can be shown that officials of the current administration were targeting the opposition.
Posted by: chuck | Mar 6, 2007 10:02:07 AM
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