All day long MSNBC has had on one pundit after another using the election in NY-23 as their springboard to make the case that the Dems are weak. There hasn't been a Democrat elected in that seat for more years than I've been alive, but that doesn't seem to enter into the equation.

The real story, though, is the fighting going on within the GOP. Rudy Giuliani was on with Chuck Todd and saying that the GOP will never win national elections if they never win in NY and California and so there needs to be a more inclusive Republican party. NY-23 didn't pan out that way for Rudy and he had to figure a way to lighten the blow. He said that Scozzafava was really a liberal and implied that he told Newt not to back her. He said the GOP needs moderates in the party, but they have to be 80% with them on issues and 20% against.

Of course Chuck Todd either couldn't be bothered to check Scozzafava's voting record and history on issues or decided to give Rudy the floor with no opposition because Scozzafava is not 80% liberal and 20% conservative, as Giuliani claimed.

The reality is this: When people say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, you should take their advice. The “cover” on Scozzafava was that she was this progressive Republican because she was backed by the WFP, supported a woman’s right to choose and has been a supporter of marriage equality. But the “book” tells the whole story (as it usually does). Scozzafava has a few positions that are more liberal (on abortion and marriage equality) but most of her positions are, at best, moderate-to-conservative. More often than not, however, she is a conservative.

This race is interesting to watch just to see the Villagers scurry around and try to make it a national story, but at least they could take the time and get their facts straight.

Duncan writes:

Tip Of The Spear

I'm not sure if the teabaggers will have much success in purifying their party, but it'll be interesting to see how the Villagers will react. My guess is they'll portray them as just folks exercising their patriotic duties, unlike those dirty fucking hippie traitors who ran a primary against the greatest man in America, Joe Lieberman.

The cable shows are covering these races as if the outcome will determine if Obama should step down as the president.

And very predictably, as the results come in, Doug Hoffman is claiming that ACORN is stealing the election.

At a short press availability in his campaign office here, NY-23 Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman said that a GOTV volunteer’s tires had been slashed, and all but blamed Democrats for the dirty trick. “There are reports that they’re bringing in the troops and they’re bringing in ACORN,” said Hoffman. “I think the Democrats are doing anything they possibly can to steal this election away from the 23rd district.”
--
Update: Anton Troianovski of the Wall Street Journal followed up with the Plattsburgh police on this, and was told that the volunteer actually damaged his tire on a broken bottle. I asked Hoffman campaign manager Dan Tripp about this–he said he had no comment because the campaign had not heard this yet.

They will blame ACORN for everything. Digby sees this through the prism of her brilliance.

I just hope that all the major networks and newspapers assign a special reporter to look into these accusations by the teabaggers' darling. Certainly Fox will be running with them and everyone knows that the mainstream press has been remiss by failing to follow up on such important Fox investigations.

It's actually a smart move. Since Fox has intimidated the pants off of the other news organizations, they will bend over backwards to be "fair and balanced" thus lending credence to the ACORN meme.

I just hope they don't end up accidentally arresting Hoffman's African American staffer in their zeal to reveal the ACORNs in the woodpile.

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Lawrence O'Donnell recounts the pathetic saga of the former New York City Police Commissioner and Bush nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security.

From Bernie Kerik's wikipedia page:

On November 8, 2007, in White Plains, New York, Kerik was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements. Prosecutors say Kerik received about $255,000 in renovations to his Riverdale, Bronx, apartment from a company seeking to do business with the city of New York and concealed the income from the Internal Revenue Service. The indictment also charges Kerik made several false statements to the White House (in his background information statement regarding his Department of Homeland Security appointment) and other federal officials. If convicted on all 16 counts in the indictment, Kerik could face a maximum sentence of 142 years in prison and $4.7 million in fines. He was released upon payment of a $500,000 bond.

On October 20, 2009, Kerik's bail was revoked and he was remanded to jail, after he allegedly disclosed information which was under seal.

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David Axelrod backed up Anita Dunn on ABC's THIS WEEK by saying that he believes FOX Noise is not a news station. It's taken a while for them to say this publicly and at least Axelrod didn't back off her comments.

“I’m not concerned, Mr. Murdoch has a talent for making money,” Axelrod said.

“The only argument that Anita was making is that they are not really a news organization, if you watch even its not even their commentators, but a lot of their news program. It’s really not news, it’s pushing a point of view and the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours, ought not to treat them that way. And we’re not going to treat them that way, we’re going to appear on their shows and participate, but understanding that they represent a point of view.”

It's much more than a point of view. FOX News should be considered a right wing PAC. They actively set up rallies and protests. When will they start raising money for republican candidates? Will FOX advertise a big network special and take a full day out of their schedule and raise money for the 2010 mid terms? Hannity already does republican fundraisers. I might have given them an idea...

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September 10, 2009 CNN

ROBERTS: In his make or break speech to Congress and the nation, President Obama walked a fine line trying to reach out to Republicans but saying he had no time for those out to score short-term political points. And the GOP response, Republican congressman Charles Boustany said what Americans really want is for Congress to start over from scratch.

So, can the two parties ever see eye to eye? Let's bring in former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who has got some thoughts on this. Mr. Mayor, it's great to see you.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Good to see you, John.

ROBERTS: So back in August, you did an interview with Sean Hannity on the Fox Network in which you said, "I hope there is no hope for the health care plan this year." After watching the president last night, do you still feel that way?

GIULIANI: If he changes it significantly, if he can really do medical malpractice reform - of course, what he did was he said there would be a study of medical malpractice reform.

ROBERTS: He said as the Bush administration wanted to do, there would be some experimentation on local levels to see if it could be done.

GIULIANI: But there already have been. Texas has changed its whole system. There are now 20 percent more doctors in Texas. Other states have done it. There are about 10, 15 states that have done medical malpractice reform. If he really was serious about it, he would just do it the way he's talking about this public option or non-public option.

ROBERTS: He did have a very powerful lobby in the trial lawyers association breathing down his neck.

GIULIANI: He does.

ROBERTS: But I mean, is it not a start that should be embraced?

GIULIANI: Of course, but he should actually do it and he should take on the lobby rather than be afraid of it and he also should explain to us how much it is going to cost. Again, he's saying it's not going to cost any money, it's going to be deficit neutral. I always scale back -

ROBERTS: He said the total price would be $900 billion and it would not add a penny to the deficit. You don't believe him?

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Rudy needs a little more work on his be afraid, be very afraid shtick when it comes to health care reform. He obviously hasn't had quite enough time to recite Frank Luntz's talking points memo since he stumbled and stuttered through the interview. Blitzer actually tries calling him out for some of the talking points, but of course like a good little Villager, relents in the end and doesn't really challenge him.

BLITZER: Let's talk about health care reform, a critical issue right now for the country.

Republican Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina, he made news this week when he said this: "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

He's not backing away from that either.

Do you agree with Senator DeMint?

GIULIANI: Well, I think it's a critical measure for a different reason. I don't see the politics of it as much as I do a tremendous impact that I think could have a destructive impact on the American system as we know it. I doubt that...

BLITZER: Because right now, 40 million or 45 million Americans don't have any health insurance.

GIULIANI: They don't, but about half of them could afford it if it was just more affordable. And what you don't want to do is ruin the system for the whatever million, 90 million, 100 million, 118 million.

BLITZER: Because President Obama keeps saying if you like what you have with the private insurance, if you like your doctor, you can keep exactly that. Nothing is going to change.

GIULIANI: Well, then what are all these commissioners that he's appointing that are going to determine health care outcomes? And the fact that you add 30 million, 40 million people to a government program that's already very large means the government will be the major player in health care. It already is pretty close...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He says that he wants one government option to compete with the private insurance companies.

GIULIANI: But that government option will be so big, it will just overwhelm all private insurance companies. If it's 40 million people, that conceivably could be part of it.

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MSNBC's irony alert button is broken. For some reason the producers of Morning Joe thought anyone should care what Rudy Giuliani thinks about Mark Sanford's marital problems. And they managed to make it through the entire segment while completely ignoring Giuliani's own affairs. Imagine that.

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I think Joe Scarborough is attempting to make his show almost as unwatchable as Fox News. First he decides to attack Jesse Ventura for his comments on The View:

SCARBOROUGH: Perhaps Jesse should stop smoking whatever Jesse's been smoking and keep his mouth shut about things he knows absolutely nothing about. This is a guy who, by the way -- I must continue to say this -- that got paid two million dollars by this network, did one show and sucked so bad that they sent him back to Minnesota and said "we never want to see you again."

I wish I was that bad. Perhaps I am. Maybe they'll fire me and I'll take my money and go to Florida. [...] Seriously, that's the sort of stupidity -- it's just -- it should seriously be a crime to be that dumb and on TV. [mocking Jesse's voice] We only waterboard Muslims. Oh God.

Let's bring in Rudy Giuliani. Former Republican mayor of New York City, former presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani. This seems like a great place to start. [begin douchey sarcastic voice] Why is it that people like Jesse Ventura are so concerned about how we treat people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? Why is that?

h/t to Bob Cesca for the transcript and apparently he was as disgusted after watching this as I was. I'll let him take it from here.

Jesse Ventura was a Navy Seal who survived the SERE program and served in Vietnam. He "knows nothing" about torture and war, Joe? And you do? That's rich.

As for your question to Giuliani, Jesse is worried about torturing people like KSM because it endangers our soldiers.

Scarborough then goes into an angry tirade when Carlos Watson dares to suggest that waterboarding doesn't work.

SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got to stop you right there. How do you dare come on this set and say that’s [waterboarding] not effective? That’s just not the truth! And if you have any evidence that it is not effective, let me know right now!

We're not the only ones who noticed Scarborough's angry defense of torture this morning.

Think Progress has taken up Scarborough’s challenge, with this comprehensive document explaining why Bush’s enhanced interrogation tactics were a failure.

The truth may set you free, but not if you're a Republican and the subject is taxes. After all, 95% of American families as promised received a tax cut from the Obama stimulus package. And while three-quarters of Americans support President Obama's proposal to roll back the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250,000 to their Clinton-era levels, it turns out that affluent voters, too, chose Barack Obama over John McCain. Making matters worse, a Gallup poll Monday revealed that Americans' "views of income taxes among most positive since 1956."

So as their furious followers head off to their April 15th orgy of tea-bagging, the leadership of the GOP and its amen corner in the right-wing media have instead turned to tall tales on taxes.

Here, then, are 10 Republican Tax Day lies:

1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.
2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.
3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.
4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.
5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.
6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.
8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.
9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.
10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.

For the details behind each of the GOP's Tax Day deceits, continue reading.

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Rudy Giuliani stopped by the set of Morning Joe. Bob Cesca has more on this:

(Giuliani): It's very, very strange that on the day the president announced this, they discovered a guy that was released, who was killing people. (laughter) I follow this situation pretty closely and just talked to someone who's been to Guantanamo and looked at the conditions there. This is not an unusual occurrence. There have been arguably 30 or 40 situations like that where people are released from Guantanamo have killed innocent people -- have killed American soldiers.

What the hell?! First, laughing and smiling after saying the words "who was killing people" is very simply insane. But also, who released those detainees? Not President Obama who was sworn in on, you know, Tuesday. No-one's talking about shutting down Guantanamo and then letting everyone go. We're shutting down Guantanamo and moving the inmates to other prisons.

And Andrew Sullivan notes that...

As an addendum to Patrick's post, the following are just a handful of other convicted terrorists currently held in Florence, Colorado

Zacarias Moussaoui, Conspirator in the September 11, 2001 attacks
Omar Abdel-Rahman, "The Blind Sheik"; involved in 1993 WTC bombing
Richard Colvin Reid, Islamic terrorist, nicknamed the "Shoe Bomber"
Wadih el-Hage, Conspirator in the 1998 US embassy bombings
Mahmud Abouhalima, Islamic Mujahideen leader, 1993 WTC bombing
Jose Padilla, Convicted of aiding terroristsMohammed A. Salameh, 1993 WTC bombing

But that's not going to stop Rudy from throwing out a big heaping helping of good old Republican fear mongering bright and early in the morning. Oh no, say it ain't so Joe. The savior of 9-11 says be afraid, be very afraid. I thought you were supposed to be some tough guy Rudy?

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Guess what? Out of nowhere Rudy Giuliani starts sucking up to Obama in a recent interview.

“Even those who voted against him, like me, say ‘We’re very thankful this has happened. This is the consolation prize’,” he said. “If you look at America - which I believe is a great nation… one of the terrible marks against us is slavery and racism, and I think that’s a great thing for America to have overcome.” He said of Obama’s victory:

I believe that will gain us a tremendous amount in the world community. We can now be an honest nation and not a hypocritical one.

That was not out of the kindness of his heart. I believe Rudy has his eyes on something much bigger than throwing around a few meaningless compliments after he trashed Obama during the general election. Caroline Kennedy is being mentioned as a possible choice to fill Hillary's seat in the Senate. She was a big supporter of Obama and came out with an op-ed called: A President Like My Father.

She has the Kennedy name, but can she defeat Rudy in 2010?

Mr. Kennedy’s message, according to Democratic aides who were not authorized to discuss the conversations, is that Ms. Kennedy — backed by the Kennedy family’s extensive fund-raising network — would have the wherewithal to run back-to-back costly statewide races without having to seek help from Mr. Paterson or Mr. Schumer. The ability to raise significant money is a key concern for Mr. Paterson, who has been deluged from every direction by politicians interested in the seat, which the governor is expected to fill early next year. Whoever is chosen will have to run in 2010 and again two years later.

Jane isn't so pleased about it: And Jane makes some good points too as does David Niewert. I'm not sure if there is anyone at this point that can take it away from Rudy if he runs unless maybe Mayor Bloomberg switches back to the Democratic party, forgoes a third term race and runs against him. However he just came out and praised her.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave a boost to Caroline Kennedy as a possible Senate candidate, saying she is experienced and "can do anything." "Caroline Kennedy is a very experienced woman, she's worked very hard for the city. I can just tell you she's made an enormous difference in New York City," Bloomberg said after meeting on Capitol Hill with other mayors to seek stimulus spending from Congress.

What are your thoughts?

Keith was visibly upset after the GOP ran their 9/11 "tribute" ad during last week's convention. Tonight, that outrage manifested itself in yet another scathing Special Comment aimed at John McCain and the rest of the 9/11 exploiting GOPers.

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This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.

Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.

But 9/11 has become…... a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form.

9/11 has become… 9/11, with a trademark logo.

FLASHBACK: Keith's 2006 Special Comment from Ground Zero.

Full transcript below the fold:

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  At last week's convention, both Sarah Palin and Rudy 9iu11ani went out of there way to demean Barack Obama's record of community organizing -- indeed, they seemed to mock the very idea of grassroots movements aimed at uprooting the status quo. Today on ABC's This Week, Obama responded forcefully.

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"It's curious to me that they would mock that, when I, at least, think that that's exactly what young people should be doing.

"I worked with churches, who were dealing with steel plants that had closed in their neighborhoods, to set up job training programs for the unemployed and after-school programs for youth, and to try to deal with asbestos in homes with poor people -- community service work -- which John McCain has been talking about, putting country first and extolling the virtues of national service. I would think that's what we want all our young people to do. I would think that that's an area where Democrats and Republicans would agree." 

On Face the Nation this morning, Senator McCain was asked what he has against community organizing. 

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Heather writes:

When McCain is asked about Rudy and Sarah Barracuda mocking Obama being a community organizer, his excuse is that it was just her responding to them saying something about her being a mayor of a small town but of course he doesn't think it's a negative to be a community organizer. If he really thinks that, didn't he even have any control over his own convention?

Apparently not.

  In the most biting of satire, Stephen laughs along with Rudy Giuliani as he disparages Barack Obama's historic campaign, and agrees with Sarah Plain that Barack Obama is a nobody who's only popular for giving great speeches (or in her case, a single speech.)

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Palin: What exactly is our opponent's plan?

Colbert: Exactly! We know nothing about Barack Obama. Only that he can give a great speech... and that is not enough. By the way, Governor Palin, great speech last night.

What a shame. I was really looking forward to all those gratuitous 9/11 references.

Republicans revamped their convention plans for a second day, dropping former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as keynote speaker Tuesday night while trying to determine President Bush's role in the political pageantry celebrating John McCain's candidacy for president.

In Giuliani's speaking slot were former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, one of McCain's rivals for the Republican nomination, and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000 and now a McCain supporter. Republicans say the two will talk about McCain's life and their friendship with him.

In other convention-related news, President Bush will address his fellow Republicans tonight. Jon Perr takes a look back at Bush's (broken) promises to the nation from eight years ago at his own convention.

  Notorious cross-dresser and miserable failure of a Presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has been chosen to give the keynote speech in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 2. For a good idea of what 9iu11ani will say, see: here.

[Newsday]

UPDATE: It looks like Rudy's first gig as GOP keynote speaker, a conference call with the press today, didn't go so well. Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that McCain goons cut the line of Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter Ron Kampeas after he began pressing 9Iu11ani on some of his shady business dealings.

Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria -- the subject of the call -- to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).

"You're making an issue of him taking a hotel room?" Kampeas asked -- and then dropped off the call mid-sentence.

"I think they cut me off," he said in an email just now.

Scheunemann noted that his lobbying contract, unlike Obama advisor Daniel Kurtzer's trip to Syria, was publicly disclosed and not "covert." Giuliani said that Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is an "American company."

"I never represented Saudi Arabia," he said.

The Associated Press reported that Bracewell & Giuliani, a Texas-based energy firm, has represented Saudi Arabia.