ABOUT FIRST READ

First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



Giuliani to lose another ally to Bush?

Posted: Saturday, September 08, 2007 2:11 PM by Chuck Todd

From NBC's Chuck Todd
Quick Saturday post just to see if you folks are paying attention to anything NON-Iraq. Frankly, many of us are not. But what does it say about the team Giuliani is surrounding himself with if the second major appointment Pres. Bush makes these last six months is somebody who endorsed the former New York City mayor?

According to the Washington Post, former Solicitor General Ted Olsen is viewed as the leading candidate to become the nation's new Attorney General. Why Olsen? His reputation is top-notch and he should have little problem getting through the confirmation process. Oh, and conservatives love Olsen.

Earlier this year, Giuliani lost his chief Iowa supporter, former Congressman Jim Nussle, when Bush named him the nation's Budget Dir. He was just confirmed into the post last week.

Giuliani folks will argue that the preferences Bush is making by tapping his supporters for key admin posts is proof the GOP conservative establishment is not afraid of Giuliani. Will that message resonate with GOP primary voters? The only downside for Giuliani, having key top endorsers end up in the Bush administration is that if he's the GOP nominee, he'll look less like a change agent.

Still, losing endorsers to the administration is very much a compliment to Giuliani, at least as far as the GOP establishment is concerned.

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

Well Giuliani did thank God that Bush was President on 9/11. I suppose he could have be considered the heir apparent by the GOP conservative establishment. Is it a sign that the GOP is trying to move toward the center? And how does Thompson figure into this? Thompson should win out over Giuliani with the GOP far right. Yet Huckabee should not be overlooked as the candidate with the broadest general election appeal. I even like him...and that says a lot.
I know that they would be tight lipped about it but it would be interesting to know more about Bushes preference.
End it - Don't Mend it.
Giuliani lost my support long ago.  If he is conservative what am I?
Maybe Dubya will throw Rudy a Bone and name Hillary as his newly created "Morality Czar".  Designed to counter the bad press the GOP has been getting since the Foley Enabling, who better than someone who has been a very public victim of one of the tops in morale failings, Adultery. Don't be deceived by his shallowness, which he shares will all the 'Born Comfortably Well Off', he hypnotized Nancy a while back with one of his 'Schmooze Dinners', and she's fallen off the map.  I'm not sure if Hilly shares any of his power bases' views on Homosexuality, or should I say their 'Professed Views' as they seem to have a very Large Closet (The opposite of the Democrat's Large Tent.), but that would work to their advantage as she would be less apt to 'Out' even a Republican. Keep your fingers crossed, Rudy.
Who would support Guliani, the baby killer and the gay lover who supports gay marriage, wake up America and campaign for Christian thinkers instead of doing what you think others want just to get elected.
Cmon Chuck!!! This is "breaking news"???? I also hear that Rudy didn't eat all his vegetables growing up!!! Stop the presses!!! you might want to consider stopping into your local department store and GETTING A LIFE!!! Or are you paid by the word???
Bush vs.Gore
How nice Bush is tapping Guiliani supporters for major posts. I think Bush should go out and campaign for Guiliani too, especially after he wins the nomination and enters the general election. Yes, I would like to see lots and lots of shots of George Bush with his arm around Guiliani.
I'm a conservative leaning Independent in Iowa and Rudy "losing" Jim Nussle is positive for Rudy. Iowans hate Nussle and that is why he lost the governor's race. Having Nussle's endorsement in Iowa is like having an endorsement from Bush in San Francisco.

I'm not sure what the difference is between Rudy and Hillary. Rudy needs to copy Romney's plan to eliminate capital gains, dividends, etc taxes for people earning under $200K. Then, Rudy all of a sudden is a candidate that can not only beat Hillary, but will slaughter her in the suburbs. Rudy can win Iowa if he outdoes Romney on the economic issues... and if Rudy wins the Iowa caucuses, he WILL be the next POTUS.
Why would the GOP be afraid of Rutti Tooti? He is a head-busting fascist from the word "go," and supports the War of Lies and revocation of the Constituion. Sounds like the right wing in this country, to me.
Yeah. Namely,this little non-Iraq tidbit from Rep.Raul Kanjorskis Pennsylvania. According to the weekends Times-Ledger,[Wilkes-Barre,Sept.07] ,Murtha [D-Pa] and his pal  Kanjorski [D-Pa] ,back in '98, sheparded an earmark totalling over 9 million dollars to a Kanjorski-family-run technology business known as CORNERSTONE, which was given the dough to work on a pump being ''developed''for the U.S.Navy. Flash-forward to September,2007,and the Navy has finally gotton around to demanding to Murtha and Kanjorski what the hell happened to their pump. Nearly 10 million of taxpayer largesse to a single small company is alot of dough,and the Navy was trying to see what it was getting for its money.
                     But CORNERSTONE doesn't know about any ''pump'' and Kanjorski,according to PORKBUSTERS,has gone into full ''Sergeant Schultz''[Hogans Heroes],mode complete with ''I Know Nothing''scthick and denying that any family members were on a payroll deriving from the Murtha-steered earmark when an investigation by the Times Ledger has now found otherwise. Kanjorskis nephew is being paid fifty grand a year by the congressman himself for ''consulting fees'' for an unknown purpose,operating out of a tiny office in Wilkes-Barre. PORKBUSTERS,the Ledger,and Taxpayers For Common Sense is now attempting to divine how much of these ''fees'' and other monies for other purposes, are being paid out of the original 1998 earmark. Just another day in the ''most ethical Congress'' Dept.

www.porkbusters.org

www.taxpayers.net
"ALL" THEASE REPUBLICANS ARE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS ! PERIOD !
After the World Trade Center was bombed the first time, and police and fire fighters were not able to speak to each other with decent radios, Giuliani did nothing towards getting them radios, how many died because of him?......... He moved his command center into the towers after the first hit , so the reason he was walking around the rumble is because he had nowhere to go!!!!....... His mistress (now wife)  moved in with him while he was still married (do we want her for the new first lady, classy,huh?)... his kids don't like him and they should know him best..... I could go on and on why Giuliani should not be President!!!!!! Leader of the family values party? Are those the new values for the repubs?
THERE IS NOTHING AS IMPORTANT AS IRAQ!
Rudy and shrub the scum of the earth, who cares! Let's get our troops home and stop the madness.
We need leaders not warmongers, leaders who will really care about America. Intelligent leaders, not the sheep in Congress, the House and the Senate need to get to work. THEY are  EQUAL to the the executive branch, they must do the job we the people elected them to do. We will UNELECT the weak and very soon.
Rudy can also crow about those drug dealers and whoremongers that he has had on his campaign team.
LOL

This Chuck Todd person is such the "useful idiot" for Giuliani/Bush/GOP.

Shills like Todd can promote Rudy all they want, but the Republican base isn't going to buy a PRO-ABORTION, PRO-GAY RIGHTS, PRO-ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT, PRO-GUN CONTROL LIBERAL LIKE RUDY!!

How stupid do you think people are?
Well Vito I'd say pretty stupid!  Who the hell voted for the idiot in the WH?  All the stupid people!
Not every one is as smart as you and can see through the BS.
All the republican candidates are just lil Bushies.Enough said.
ted olson does have a problem :His wife ,where is she ,not dead ,because no plane crashed into the pentagon ,and she called him twice from flight #77 also an impossibility ;;; 911 was an inside job and she "just happened to be on the flight that "hit "the pentagon from the wrong side that the commission put the plane in their report ;The stand down in the bunker was being conducted by cheney in the bunker and Mineta testified to that fact but was left out of 911 report ,while Kean left him out completely in his book without precedent
The thought of another republican president makes me want to barf. The idiot in the white house and his neocons and republicans in general have just about destroyed this country, let's not give them anymore chances to finish the job. Roosevelt said, "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" and dubya and his neocons have done a good job of scaring republicans to death, republicans also do not want to think for themselves they want to be told what to do. Thinking for themselves has never occured to them.
Rudy who?


SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=352351

First Read e-mail alerts


Sign up for First Read alerts
The first place for key political news and analysis

Syndicate This Site

Add First Read to your news reader:
live.com xml
myyahoo msn
bloglines newsgator
google