Via RochesterTurning...

I don't care if Giuliani has a lead in the polls for the Republican nomination, this ought to finish him off:

When Rudy Giuliani faces Republicans concerned about his support of gay rights and legal abortion, he reassures them that he is a conservative on the decisions that matter most.

"I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am," he told South Carolina Republicans last month. "Those are the kinds of justices I would appoint -- Scalia, Alito and Roberts."

This is a response to Chris's earlier post that I thought was too long for a comment.

The main thing, it seems to me, is that our anti-Giuliani and anti-McCain strategies should be different.  Though the two may seem similar to us, they are not viewed as similar by the Republican base.  Yes, both are disliked by many evangelicals, but there is also a deep distrust towards McCain among non-evangelical rank-and-file Republicans that doesn't exist towards Giuliani.  

My take on Giuliani is this: we should assist the New York press in hammering Giuliani for his ties to Kerik, his profiteering ways as a speaker and head of a consulting company, for his three marriages, and, if possible, for his record as mayor (which is less spotless than many assume).  I think this will happen with or without our help -- there's some nasty stuff there and the New York press can be aggressive.  But we should all be linking to these articles, passing them along to our friends, etc.  It's not much, but every little bit helps.

With McCain, we should constantly hammer the press for its sycophantic treatment of the supposed maverick, we should try to make sure he's tied to the Iraq war in the eyes of voters (calling escalation the "McCain doctrine" is a start), and we should join with the conservative blogosphere in highlighting McCain's crusading, overly regulatory ways.  This is a guy who thinks there's no problem too small for the government to solve, be it steroids in baseball or enforcing fair use laws in blog commnents.  That's anathema to a wide range of Republicans and we need to work on making sure that it gets the attention it deserves

Via RochesterTurning...

Rottenchester's back on the mic at The Fighting 29th, bringing you more tasty nuggets of news and analysis.  The latest is a great roundup of the NY State Senate's desperate attempts to hide their pork "Member Items".  Honestly, they're like my 5 year old daughter trying to lie her way out of having broken something:

The Albany Times-Union has been trying to get a usable list of member items since June. Their first request went to court and the court ordered release of the items. So both houses released a list with the legislator's names blacked out. The Times-Union went back to court, which ordered the release of the items with names included. In response, the Senate released a list of items as images in a "locked" PDF. This meant that it was impossible to search the text in the 3,000 page file, and cutting-and-pasting parts of the file was prohibited.

Why should you care?  Well, if you give two craps about accountability and open government, and don't want your state senator to vote against your interests then buy your love, this is kinda important.

I've finally got a confirmation on the Laura Bush event this Saturday.  It's from the D&C (follow the link for information on tickets if you'd like go).

And just why is Saint Laura coming?  Probably because of this (from the Evans-Novak political report via the conservative Human Events site -- which always makes me think of George Costanza and the Human Fund):

Rep. Randy Kuhl (R) in District 29 has seen his support among women evaporate. Kuhl's dirty laundry -- including the old alleged threat against his wife with a shotgun -- had been aired before, but now perhaps it is finding a more receptive audience in this tough Republican election year.

Interestingly, Evans-Novak lists this seat as "leans Democratic" (which I think is accurate based on the polling I've heard about, some of it public, some of it not).

It's a funny way to use the First Lady: send her to defend Tom Reynolds, who sheltered a sexual predator, and then send her to defend Randy Kuhl, who threatend to kill his wife.  Eleanor Roosevelt must be rolling over in her grave.

Via RochesterTurning

...

Maffei and Walsh debated again last night.  It was more of the same.  One thing I've realized is that Walsh isn't like the other candidates around here: Kuhl, Reynolds, Davis, Slaughter, Maffei, and Massa are all people, who -- love them or hate them -- are where they are because of their own accomplishments (such as they are, in some cases).  Walsh is only in Congress because people liked his father.  He bristles when criticized, wanders off subject to defend himself and the things he holds dear (such as the myth that the Carrier Corporation is still an economic powerhouse), and actually seems to believe his own talking points (unlike Kuhl, for example, who often shrugs amiably when he's called on a whopper).   There is no way Jim Walsh would have been elected to Congress without the family name.

Last night's debate featured two major themes: Maffei calling Walsh a rubber stamper, and Walsh calling Maffei a carpetbagger.  Here's a somewhat more detailed rundown:

Strip down and get relaxed -- to borrow disgraced Congressman Mark Foley's now immortal words -- while we discuss Tom Reynolds' political future, or lack thereof. We know that Representative Alexander (whose page was the recipient of some of Foley's mash notes) told Tom Reynolds about the messages Foley was sending to the young page and that:

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the GOP campaign organization, said Reynolds learned from Alexander that the parents did not want to pursue the matter, AP reported.

Okay, but did his parents explicitly tell Reynolds they wanted Foley to remain the head of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children? Somehow, I think not.

Via RochesterTurning....Randy Kuhl has an ad running in the southern part of the district (presumably on an Elmira station) in which he claims credit for some bacon that a local union says he didn't bring home:

A local union says a recent campaign ad approved by New York State Congressman Randy Kuhl is misleading. United Auto Workers claim that Congressman Kuhl shouldn't be taking credit for bringing the Black Hawk Helicopter project to Schweizer Aircraft.

I don't really blame Kuhl for doing this.  He's a freshman House member and I dare say not a particularly well-respected one (though he has a pretty decent record on transparency issues).  He doesn't have the juice to bring many projects into the district.  So he takes credit for projects that other people brought in.  I doubt that this is that unusual, especially among politically weak Congressmen in tight races BUT...

Via RochesterTurning...There's a new poll in the NY-25 race.  It shows Walsh at 44% and Maffei at 40%.  That's very good for Maffei, who only has 37% name recognition, according to the poll (Walsh had 87% name recognition in the poll -- everyone in the Syracuse area must know who he is, because my impression is that most people in Irondequoit and Pennfield still think Louise Slaughter is their rep).

The poll is an internal poll run by the Maffei campaign, so of course take it with a grain of salt.  It was done by the Benson strategy group, which is a very respected liberal polling group, though, so it definitely means something.  It looks like we've got a race on our hands in NY-25, something I would not have predicted a month ago.

Walsh Watch has more.