Thursday, January 18, 2007

--The conservative Red State blog site has launched a page devoted exclusively to attacking freshman Democrats in Congress, in hopes of defeating them in 2008. New England being full of such newbies (including -- congratulations! -- newly named freshman class president Paul Hodes), this should be worth keeping an eye on.

--The New York Sun column of former Phoenix writer Seth Gitell is always worth reading, and his latest points to a latent anti-war minority within the Republican Party, who are waiting and hoping for Senator Chuck Hagel to enter the Presidential race. (Hagel told CNN's Wolf Blitzer yesterday his decision is coming soon.) If the GOP field contains no war opponents, these folks, and their right-leaning independent brethren, could end up voting in the Democratic primaries instead. That could be an interesting dynamic.

--Even as I stubbornly refuse to believe that he’s really going to run, Rudy Giuliani continues acting unmistakenly like a Presidential candidate. Today, the Union Leader’s John DiStaso reports that the former Mayor has compiled his New Hampshire senior staff, which includes David Tille as state political director and Jeff Semprini -- son of departing NH GOP chair Wayne Semprini -- as regional field director and college outreach director (for those of you at Dartmouth and UNH wishing to get involved with the campaign). Meanwhile out in Iowa, Giuliani scored possibly the best get in the state with former Iowa Governor Jim Nussle. Nussle has reportedly joined the Giuliani team -- a bit of a slap to Mitt Romney, who poured $1.2 million of Republican Governors Association funds into Nussle’s losing campaign.

1/18/2007 11:11:42 AM by David S. Bernstein | Comments [1] |