The bad terrorist men are coming to get you! Oooga booga booga! Isn't it funny how Republicans have continually intoned they are the only ones able to keep us safe from the scary men, but when the Obama administration actually decides to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others for their terrorists acts, they turn--to a one--into the biggest WATBs at the thought of these Guantanamo detainees in a super-max prison standing trial through the American court systems. For all their jingoistic "We're #1" exceptionalism, these Republicans have remarkably little faith in our criminal justice system. And who better to represent these little p*ssified pseudo-toughs than Rudy "A Noun, A Verb and 911" Giuliani? He scored a trifecta of appearances, besting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who only will be on two shows. Meanwhile, the Republicans aren't done scaring Americans about health care reform, and you can bet the Pete Hoekstra on Face the Nation, Newt Gingrich on Meet the Press and Mitch McConnell on Fox News Sunday will be amping up the rhetoric.

ABC's "This Week" - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Clinton; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; the Rev. Al Sharpton.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Eugene Robinson, Katty Kay, Peggy Noonan, Michael Duffy. Topics: Will Obama Suffer Longterm Damage For Afghanistan and Health Care Delays? Will Sarah Palin's Book Tour Convert Her From Republican Rogue to Frontrunner? Meter Questions: Will President Obama Sign a Health Care Reform Bill This Year? YES: 5

NO: 7; Will Delays Over Afghanistan and Health Care Hurt Obama's Image Longterm? YES: 5 No: 7.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Giuliani; White House senior adviser David Axelrod; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Mont.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Fareed gives you a sneak peak into the HBO film he narrated entitled Terror in Mumbai. Plus, an incisive panel discussion on President Obama's first trip to China and the most important relationship in the world - between Beijing and Washington.

CNN's "Amanpour" - Amira Hass, Ha'aretz "Occupied Lands" correspondent, and Aaron David Miller, former diplomat who served six U.S. Secretaries of State discuss peace prospects in the Middle East.

"Fox News Sunday" - Giuliani; Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

Majikthise:

John McCain's senior foreign policy adviser is a close business associate of Stephen Payne, the lobbyist caught on tape offering access to top administration officials in exchange for donations to the Bush Library.

This is explosive news because Payne's company's entire business model is international influence peddling in exchange for oil and gas leases from politically unstable and dictatorial regimes.

McCain's senior foreign policy and national security adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is listed as a member of Worldwide Strategic Energy's executive team in a pre-prospectus obtained by Majikthise.

This document was circulated to prospective investors in 2007, according to the source who provided the document.

Payne is the president and CEO of WSE. The firm Bracewell Giuliani is prominently listed as WSE's outside strategic and legal counsel. "Among this group are former top officials with FERC as well as former top administrators with state and federal agencies that regulate the public utilities and oil and gas industries," the brochure enthuses.

TPM has more...

Giuliani Spotted Sleeping On New York City Subway

"He seemed to jolt awake when a homeless guy started ranting about 9/11, but then he just sighed and went back to sleep."

Consider it open.

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I was a little hesitant to do this post at first because I'm sure I'll be accused of doing a pro-Hillary post. But stay with me here. Looking at this strictly on the level of media bias--and irrespective of the actual candidates--Dan Abrams asks if the media is creating a horse race that does not really exist by downplaying the lead of one candidate and playing up the rise of another just to create a media narrative. And again, irrespective to the actual candidates, there is some truth to what Abrams says (and Rachel Maddow's point that Obama is gaining as well, if you look at the trajectory of the polling data), and we can see it in many other ways, such as the death knell of McCain's campaign four months ago and the presumptive lead of Rudy Giuliani at the same time. Now that actual votes are being counted, who has the delegates and who has gotten out of the race? And let us not forget the media blackout on Edwards and how that impacted his ability to gain traction nor the pundit-declared victory for Obama in New Hampshire before a single vote was counted. Huffington Post's Roy Sekoff, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell chime in as well.

So what do you think? Is the media deciding the terms of the race for us? Tom Tomorrow thinks so.

Jim Booth at Scholars & Rogues takes a slightly different--but related--look at it as it relates to Edwards leaving the race.

Interesting...the media just doesn't seem to be taking to heart the political change in the air. How else can you account for the incredible lack of representation of the Democratic party this Sunday? One presidential candidate and one former presidential candidate is apparently all the exposure the Democratic party gets over FIVE shows. And yet, Romney and Huckabee are double-dipping the news shows again (at the rate that Huckabee keeps showing up for TV appearances, I'm fully expecting him to be on a Very Special Episode of "Two and a Half Men" or "How I Met Your Mother" very, very soon). But expect some pointed questioning of Hillary Clinton by Timmeh "I wear my political buttons under my lapel" Russert.

Here's the schedule. Tell us what catches your eye this morning:

NBC's "Meet the Press" : Hillary Clinton

"Fox News Sunday" : Rudy Giuliani

CBS's "Face the Nation" : Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee

CNN's "Late Edition." Romney, Huckabee, Fred Thompson

ABC's "This Week" : Newt Gingrich, John Kerry

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A sparkling list of hackery marks Friday's Worst Person in The World for Countdown. The bronze goes to Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani for letting his 9/11 Tourettes outbursts reach the point of caricature. Perennial list sitter Bill O'Reilly gets the silver for being too stupid to know the difference between the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as well as having the bad taste to be proud of said stupidity. And finally, the gold goes to the richly deserved Roger Ailes for his revolutionary FOX Business Channel, who has only averaged 6,300 viewers during the day and 15,000 during prime time.

The usual suspects making their rounds, and a lot of double dippers on the Republican side from the looks of it. Will Ron Paul talk about his exclusion from the FOX Republican Debate tonight? Especially considering that he did far better than FOX favorite Rudy Giuliani in Iowa, I'm not sure what justification the FOX people are using other than not wanting their online polls skewed again by the Paulistas.

ABC's "This Week" - Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C .

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - McCain.

CNN's "Late Edition" - Huckabee; Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas; Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.; former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.; Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S.

"Fox News Sunday" - Romney, Huckabee.
"Chris Matthews Show" Can Obama seal the deal in New Hampshire? Can Hillary regroup? Will McCain win New Hampshire, and can he win the nomination? With Dan Rather, Katty Kay, Andrea Mitchell and Patrick Healy.

What's catching your eye this morning?

A Tiny Revolution: When we murder millions, we don't just do it for fun! We have reasons !

Ali Eteraz: The cover of the this month's American Conservative magazine depicts Giuliani in a Fascist uniform

Feministing: Scare tactics and intimidation used against Planned Parenthood Clinic

The Left Coaster: Admittance to the Other Reality

Whiskey Fire: From the perspective of our lazy, script-loving press, Edwards is No Fun

Washington Monthly: Are conservatives just incompetent? Or is it their ideology? Some blame Democrats for the diasastrous BUSHCO reign

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It was Ron Paul's turn to face Tim Russert this morning, and he certainly came out less bruised than past guests Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. I don't think that Dick Cheney's go to guy is a big believer in the libertarian ideals that Paul espouses, so I have to wonder if he just thought that Paul wasn't worth the effort. Certainly, Russert offers no follow up on any of Paul's assertions here that he would abolish income tax and cut spending. For example, aside from pulling the military from overseas assignments, where else would Paul cut spending? It's a valid question that may color what otherwise sounds sensible after seven years of ridiculous spending on war-mongering. If Paul had said that the next program to go was Medicare or Social Security, would it have the same appeal?

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As this second clip shows, Russert's entire M.O. appears to be dredging up every single thing a politician does or says in his entire career to find some evidence of flip-flopping, as if that fairly juvenile game of "gotcha" is the only way to be hard-hitting. Here Russert points out that as much as Paul complains about spending, he has no problem inserting earmarks to benefit his district, even though as Paul says, he votes against them every time. Personally, that's a little convoluted way to hold up your ideology, but expecting Russert to approach it in any other way than a bemused "you're a flip-flopper" tone is apparently unrealistic.

Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

It looks like this is John Edwards' day to make the rounds, perhaps hoping to break the Hillary/Barack press juggernaut in time for the Iowa primary less than three weeks from now. Mitt Romney gets the full hour at Meet the Press, will he do as poorly as Rudy Giuliani did last week? What's catching your eye this morning?

ABC's "This Week" - Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and Edwards.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.

CNN's "Late Edition" - Edwards; Sens. Joe Biden, D-Del., Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, author of a report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball; Reps. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Jane Harman, D-Calif.; Ted Leonsis, owner of the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals.
"The Chris Matthews Show" - Topics: With Christmas around the corner, which Democrat has the momentum in Iowa? Would the GOP really nominate Mike Huckabee? with panel Katty Kay, Dan Rather, Andrew Sullivan and Norah O'Donnell