Oh-eight (R): A mob hit on Rudy?
Posted: Thursday, October 25, 2007 9:12 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans, 2008
Today, Huckabee and McCain will be the sole participants at a scaled-down AARP forum in Sioux City, IA, NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann reports. The event, which will focus on health care, Social Security, and senior issues, was to be broadcast nationally on PBS and on Iowa Public TV. But those plans were scrapped after the other major candidates decided to skip the event. Dann notes that the prominent no-shows say something important about the GOP race. At best, it demonstrates that Republicans don't view Iowa as the same sacred cow that Democratic candidates do. Iowa opinion-setter David Yepsen called the GOP candidates out in his column this weekend for that very reason, and the Sioux City Journal's scathing
editorial last week called their decision "a slap in the face" to Iowa Republicans.”
GIULIANI: The
New York Post looks at the mob plot to kill Giuliani back in 1986, when he was a federal prosecutor. The mob plot was revealed yesterday in the FBI papers made public during the trial of a former FBI supervisor. The five New York crime families met to discuss whether or not to put a hit out on Giuliani, but they voted 3-2 against it. The ones pushing the idea were eventual
capo di tutti capi John Gotti and Colombo crime family chief Carmine "The Snake" Persico.
A new Village Voice article suggests Giuliani did not have the type of knowledge about Al Qaeda’s terrorism before 9/11. The article, by Giuliani critic Wayne Barrett, comes from a 15-page memorandum of Giuliani’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission. Giuliani said he received briefings about Al Qaeda after the attacks, “but we had nothing like this pre 9/11, which was a mistake.”
Speaking at a town hall last night, Giuliani was asked by Linda Gustitus, the president of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, whether he believed waterboarding should be used as an interrogation tactic, NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger reports. The question came after AG nominee Michael Mukasey (and former Giuliani policy adviser) did not say whether the technique constituted torture during confirmation hearings last week.
At the town hall, Giuliani said, like Mukasey, he was unsure whether waterboarding was torture, and it depended largely on the circumstances. “I think the way it’s been defined it in the media, it shouldn’t be done,” he said. “If that’s the description of it, then I can agree that it shouldn’t be done. But I’d have to see what the real description is.” He went on to say presidents should be allowed to have leeway to interrogate prisoners to possibly find information about a pending terrorist attack. “There is a distinction sometimes when you are dealing with terrorists,” he said. “You may have to use means that are a little tougher.”
A USA Today story looks at Giuliani's electability pitch.
The New York Daily News wonders if Giuliani made a deal with the devil in rooting for the Red Sox. “Last July, The Providence Journal asked the former mayor this fateful question: If the Devil said you can be President if you become a Red Sox fan, would you do it? ‘I'm a Yankee fan,’ Giuliani replied then. ‘I always believe it's a sign of my being straight with people, about not wanting to fool them, that I was one of the first mayors to be willing to say I was a Yankee fan.’” He added that “becoming a Red Sox cheerleader in a Devil's bargain, ‘Probably that's a deal I could not make.’”
Indeed, the lead of John DiStaso's must-read New Hampshire Union Leader column? The Rudy-Red Sox "scandal."
HUCKABEE: Another day, another liberal columnist coming out for Mike Huckabee. Can Huckabee start a "liberal media for Huckabee" steering committee? It might be his most popular team of supporters.
MCCAIN: NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann reports: In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech Wednesday night in Des Moines, McCain warned of Iran's "revolutionary, hegemonic challenge," chided Russia's president for acting "like a dictator," and slammed his GOP rivals for their tolerance of torture. "One of the fascinating things about this debate among people who are seeking the nomination of my party is that it is divided between those who have worn the uniform of the military and those who haven't," said McCain, a veteran who was held as a POW in Vietnam for over five years.
ROMNEY: The former governor said he wants all of the delegates seated at the national convention.
THOMPSON: The Boston Globe uses Thompson's critique of the Schiavo interference by Congress as a way of noting how more Republicans are being openly critical of the intervention in that case. The New York Times’ Luo writes up Thompson's throat clearing problem. It’s a bit of a tough piece, and one that would get the campaign's back up since it seems they get picked on more for appearance than any other major campaign on either side.
