I’ll make this statement one last time and then I’ll hopefully never "utter" these words again.  I gave up on the Clintons in S. Carolina.  It was the final straw for me.  I gave up on the Democratic Party for not standing up to them.  I became an Independent, but I can’t walk away from the party completely.  I was born a Democrat, and in my heart, I will probably always be one.  I keep waiting for the party to show its courage (and with Barack Obama and Howard Dean’s help, it just may at some point in the future).  What I saw after S. Carolina, was a man who wanted to change the face of politics being battered by politicians who couldn’t let go of the old ways.  Because of his colleagues’ fear, Obama  might have stood alone if it weren’t for the bravery of his supporters who refused to accept "politics as usual".  Has this primary process engendered a bit of bitterness for some of us?  You bet.  Is it helpful to hang onto to it? Probably not.

(Update: Read this diary through CAREFULLY. I've supported Sen. Obama's campaign wholeheartedly. Think that through as you read and put down the red meat).

Jeanine Pirro, Republican candidate for Attorney General, was forced to reveal that she's under investigation from the FBI for wiretapping her husband. She also asked former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik to help her.

Like many other GOP politicians, she defended it, saying it was legal, and her personal family business. New York Newsday ran a headline "Wind Knocked from Supporters' Sails."

Tell me, if she is willing to spy on people she loves, how should we New Yorker strangers feel?

                  It appears former Senate contender and now Attorney General candidate has gotten herself in hot water. She has come a long way from looking like a deer in the headlights from her infamous speech where she lost the script and couldn't come up with an original thought.APPARENTLY NOT!

                  WNBC in New York is reporting she don't like cheating husbands It would her appear her candidancy for Attorney General is pretty much Kaput, not like she had a chance anyway. She is under investigation by six different federal agencies!

                  To top it off our old friend Bernard Kerik
was involved in helping catch her bastard husband. Apparently the FEDS have it all on tape as we all know Mr. Kerik has been under a federal investigation.

AS THE WORLD TURNS!!!!!!!

more on the flip

The New York Post and the Daily News are tickled pink as they get to expand their brand of reporting (celebrity schadenfreude) to the political arena. In the birthplace of yellow journalism, these two tabloids will get to pretend they are reporting about political news again. Even the New York Times quivers in anticipation of some good mudslinging.

Most statewide races will be a real yawn. Faso will try to score a few punches below the belt but the press won't be very helpful. Eliot Spitzer is a Democrat whose bite is bigger than his bark. Mr. Spitzer won't be able to keep the NY Post in check but you gotta love a Democrat that the rest of the MSM is afraid to mess with.

There is one statewide race that both the Zuckerman Garbage Bin and the Murdoch Wingnut Rag can sink their teeth into in their efforts to dumb down the New York City voters. Katie, Angelina and Brittany will be pleased for their baby's sake that they get a little break from the chronicles of stupidity in the Big Apple.

It's going to get bad! Please see below for information and what the Decent Newspaper has written so far.

I mentioned in an earlier thread that I am not happy about the idea of Andrew Cuomo being the nominee. I think that he has too much baggage, and is a dismal campaigner, and acts more out of ambition than in doing what is good for our party (for example, he waited until right before the 2002 Gubernatorial Primary to drop out, which hurt Carl McCall because it deprived him of time to fundraising. McCall was crushed by Pataki in November.)

At this point, I think that NYS is safe in some areas. Hillary's opponent(s) are split along the Republican and Conservative Party lines. John Spencer, the more right-wing of the two, has recently received the Conservative Party's endorsement at their convention. KT McFarland, the little-known former Reagan advisor who thinks that Hillary is spying on her: (http://www.newsday.com/...) may have to battle Spencer in the primary, especially if she gets the Republican nomination. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor, William Weld, may face a primary against former State Assemblyman, John Faso, who himself received the Conservative nod.

The New York Republican Party is a never-ending soap opera. The New York Post (registration required) is reporting that Jeanine Pirro is dropping out of the New York Senate race this Friday to run for State Attorney General.

Republicans have just two female candidates for Senate in 2006, Jeanine Pirro in New York and Katherine Harris in Florida. Yet for various reasons, the Republican establishment is working to push both of them out of the race. The preferred tactic? Seed rumors among political reporters that the two will be exiting the race soon. Such rumors put the candidates on the defensive, serve to dry up fundraising, which then serves as further ammunition for those trying to push them out.

Yesterday, Bob Novak wrote that Harris was on her way out, while the New York media was all over the story that Pirro was also reconsidering her bid. Today, both women reiterated that they're in their respective races to stay.

Pirro:

After weeks of public squabbling, leaders of the New York Republican Party met in a smoke-free back room here today and reversed course, urging Jeanine F. Pirro to run for state attorney general next year instead of the United States Senate, the office they recruited her for six months ago.

Mrs. Pirro, the district attorney of Westchester County, immediately replied that she would continue her challenge against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and chose to interpret the party's plea as a sign of "confidence" in her abilities.

Harris:

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris on Monday denied a claim by syndicated columnist Robert Novak that she might abandon her 2006 bid for the U.S. Senate.

"The statements in Mr. Novak's column are completely absurd," Harris, R-Longboat Key, said in a statement. "I am in this campaign until Election Day next November."

Novak wrote Sunday that unnamed Republican insiders think that Harris, whose campaign against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has gotten off to a rocky start, could drop out of the race.

I heard a general once say that amongst military historians the amateurs study tactics while the professionals study logistics. The same division exists in the study of politics.  The amateurs write economics, welfare and abortion. The professionals study marketing. If you have any doubts about that you should read Bob Dole's autobiography, "One Soldier's Story". In the last month of World War Two, as a 21 year old lieutenant, he was hit by machinegun fire that destroyed his right arm and one kidney and left him without feeling in his other arm. As he lay in a hospital bed he pondered what kind of future he could have.  His decision to go into politics then was not driven by some great social issue facing the people of Kansas (although I have not doubt he did want to serve them). And his decision to seek election as a Republican represented no ideological commitment to the principles of the party of Thomas Dewy or even Wendell Willkie, although Dole was always a loyal Republican. The reality was that if Bob Dole had chosen to run as a Democrat in Kansas his new career would have been short, to say the least.

Today I want to focus on newspaper articles from two different sates which I think give us a nice broad overview of Republican meltdown in the country.

The bigger story comes from the New York Post (registration required) about the rumored pullout of Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro.

She's all class.

Hillary Clinton's senate opponent next year, Republican DA Jeanine Pirro, told a Chemung County Republicans on Tuesday night: "That's a difference between Democrats and Republicans - we don't want them next door molesting children and murdering women."

Below the flip you'll find a short list of registered Republicans that I'm sure Ms. Pirro would love to live next door to.

Yes, you heard it right. New York Senate candidate Jeanine Pirro said last night that Democrats love child molesters.

Didnt see this posted, sorry it is a duplicate. Remember Jeanine "Page 10" Pirro? Well, words are actually coming out of her mouth this time and they show she is crazy. More below the flip...

This is just too funny for words. One sign your candidate is a dumbass is when she asked her oppnent for a campaign donation.