Politics Blog

Hugh Hewitt has written a speech for CBS’s Les Moonves.

— Lorie Byrd

It is good news that this story was reported in the Middle Eastern media.

— Lorie Byrd

First, I just want to let everyone know that I, Alexander K. McClure, am not the same person as Polipundit. We are different - he is from Washington - I’m from Pennsylvania.

As for the Democratic Senate seats, here are my rankings:

1. Georgia-The Democrats might as well just give up here. The state is now solidly Republican. Senator Johnny Isakson will soon become the state’s junior Senate. Now who would have imagined, thirty years ago, that Georgia would have TWO Republican Senators.

2. South Carolina-Another poll from SurveyUSA confirms the earlier news. Jim DeMint, unless he makes a mistake in the next few weeks, can start measuring the curtains for his Senate office.

3. Florida-We have yet to see any new polling data in this crucial Senate race.

4. North Carolina-Apparently, Congressman Burr is going on the attack against Bowles. This is what I said he had to do several weeks ago to win. I think the ads, tying Clinton to Bowles, are very effective and should make this a single digit race.

5. Louisiana-According to a recent article in Rollcall, there is whispering in Washington circles that Congressman Vitter may win the 50% needed to avoid a run-0ff in December. This would be a huge upset, so you can expect the NRSC to target this race if a win in November is possible.

6. South Dakota-John Thune seems to be doing very well, and several polls have him leading Tom Daschle. Thune did very well in a debate on Meet the Press, but I expect this one to be very close until the end.

7. Washington State-Congressman Nethercutt was closing in on Murray, but he seems to have stalled in the single-digits. The question many are asking is if he can regain his momentum. If the Republicans feel confident about Florida, then you can expect funds to be sent here.

8. Wisconsin-This is the Big Question Mark. Several days ago, the NRSC earmarked 1.2 million dollars in ads for this state. At the time, I thought it was a feint to throw the Democrats off balance. However a new ABC News poll apparently has Feingold with a narrow, single-digit lead.

Michels has plenty of money, and President Bush is very strong in Wisconsin.
I think this may be the surprise Senate race of this year’s cycle.

So there you have it - I think the GOP has eight excellent opportunities to pick up Democratic seats.

— Alexander K. McClure

The rocket scientists at DU can’t quite grasp how the name Rathergate could have been coined and a website registered to that name less than 48 hours after the 60 Minutes piece aired. They just don’t comprehend or appreciate the speed of the New Media.

— Lorie Byrd

I am all for holding CBS accountable for their misdeeds, but I am not going to make CSI:NY and the very kind and generous, Gary Sinise, pay for it. The show is starting now and I will be watching.

— Lorie Byrd

Jonah Goldberg thinks Democrats would have been better off with Wesley Clark as their candidate. To be fair, he admits that Clark turned out to be a lousy candidate, but rather says the candidate Clark could have been, would be preferable to Kerry. That is putting it mildly, though. Clark wasn’t just a lousy candidate. He turned out to be a wild-eyed crazy guy. It scares me to think that he was a general in charge of American troops at one time. Don’t believe me? Just type Wesley Clark’s name into the search box above Polipundit’s archives and read some of his old posts on Clark. I agree that Kerry is a pitiful candidate. I just don’t agree that Wesley Clark would have been much better.

— Lorie Byrd

Tim Russert repeatedly (and annoyingly in my opinion) refers to the “Florida, Florida, Florida” sign he scribbled on the night of the 2000 election. Well, in 2004, a similar sign could read “Iraq, Iraq, Iraq”. In one of the first items I posted when I started as a guest blogger at Polipundit, I argued that Iraq would determine the election, and after an attempt by John Kerry (which I am sure he now regrets) to make this election about Vietnam, the debate has come back to Iraq.

John Kerry’s history of flip-flops on Iraq are now legendary, but John Edwards has problems with consistency on the issue as well. Edwards came to North Carolina this week and said that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney refuse to acknowledge mistakes they made in Iraq. I wonder if Edwards is going to acknowledge that he made a mistake by saying “I think Iraq is the most serious and imminent threat to our country.”

There is a long list of statements both he and John Kerry have made about the danger Saddam Hussein in Iraq posed to the national security of America. Many in the Democrat party have tried to claim that they were misled by the manipulation of intelligence by the Bush administration. The problem they have is that many of the statements made by them, particularly in 1998, were based on intelligence presented to them in the Clinton administration. If the Bush-Cheney campaign is doing it’s job (which it no doubt is) they have already compiled a long list of statements by Edwards and Kerry about the threat posed by Saddam, and the President and Vice President will have them commited to memory in time for the first debate.

– Lorie Byrd

Noemie Emery has questions for Dan Rather:

We understand that numerous people disputed both the content and authenticity of these disputed memos, talked to you repeatedly, and referred you to others, none of whom ever appeared on air. We wonder if anyone ever told you that when there appear to be two sides of a story, it is common to mention them both. There are two situations in which it is customary to present only one side of a disputed story, and neither one is called journalism. One is in court when making a case to a jury, and the other is when making a case for a candidate in a campaign. Which did you imagine yourself to be in this case, a prosecutor or a campaign official?

According to Patterico, this sort of one-sided reporting is the norm, not the exception.

— PoliPundit

Some readers have asked for the specific audio snippet I mentioned below, where Lewis Lapham agrees with a caller who accuses President Bush of treason. It’s about 40:35 into the audio.

— PoliPundit

Prestopundit has a picture up of a clever FReeper protest.

— Lorie Byrd