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Iowa with Chase Martyn: Obama, Clinton plant-gate, negative messaging tests by Edwards?
heh… heh…. heh.
But more seriously, Mr. 9/11 has other problems besides his campaign theme. Via Lindsay Beyerstein:
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani raised serious questions about
his record as a public servant when he announced on television that he had
used “intensive questioning techniques” on New York mobsters and
other criminals, and that his brand of intensive interrogation was difficult
to differentiate from torture.Giuliani put on his best tough-guy act in an interview with Al Hunt on “Political
Capital with Al Hunt,” which aired on Nov. 2:I can’t say that I [know more about torture than Sen. John McCain],
but I do know a lot about intensive questioning and intensive questioning
techniques. After all, I have had a different experience than John. John
has never run city, never run a state, never run a government. He has never
been responsible as a mayor for the safety and security of millions of people,
and he has never run a law enforcement agency, which I have done. Now, intensive
questioning works. If I didn’t use intensive questioning, there would
be a lot of mafia guys running around New York right now and crime would
be a lot higher in New York than it is. Intensive question has to be used.
Torture should not be used. The line between the two is a difficult one.Taken at face value, these are shocking revelations. Was Giuliani implying
that he conducted these interrogations while he was Mayor? Or perhaps when
he was the number three official in the Reagan Justice Department? The references
to “mafia guys” and the New York crime rate may be an attempt
to evoke Giuliani’s career as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District
of New York, where he made a name for himself as mafia-busting prosecutor. …
Rudy has some explaining to do. Note from reality: he’ll ignore it like it never happened and the press will let him get away with it. Just listen to Katie Couric’s comments on Rudy and Kerik. Or better yet, see Eric Boehlert’s take down of Brian Williams’ softball session with Mr. 9/11.
When the topic of 9-11 was discussed (several times), Williams did not ask Giuliani why many New York City firefighters bitterly oppose his candidacy.
Williams did not ask Giuliani why his consulting firm adamantly refuses to disclose any information about the clients it represents.
Williams did not ask Giuliani about his shifting (i.e. flip-flopping) positions on hot-button conservative issues such as abortion and gun control. Instead, Williams concluded the utterly painless interview by asking Giuliani if his message to Republican voters will continue to be, “Take me as I am.” A laughing Giuliani answered: “That’s the only message I have!”
Eric also has what Williams asked Clinton, Obama and Edwards, which doesn’t come close to the tone of his schmooze fest with Rudy.
Note to wingnuts at Blog World, this is exactly what I was talking about when you worked so hard to push the ficton of a liberal media.
Chase Martyn joins me today to talk about all things Iowa, including the JJ dinner this past weekend.
Lots to talk about.
Hope you can join us.
UPDATE: The last triangle Rudy needs is a $100 million defamation suit from Judith Regan that places him in the middle of the mess.
… Regan accuses her former employer, News Corp., of engineering a campaign of dirty tricks against her that allegedly involved leaking lies that she was openly anti-Semitic, disgracing and embarrassing her when she tried to publish O.J. Simpson’s fictionalized account of the murder of his wife and her friend, and suggesting she lie about her affair with a married New York City police commissioner to protect former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential dreams.
In a 72-page complaint, Regan’s attorneys claim that she was the victim of a “deliberate smear campaign orchestrated by one of the world’s largest media conglomerates for the sole purpose of destroying her credibility and reputation.
“This smear campaign was necessary to advance News Corp.’s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani’s presidential ambitions,” read the court filing.
The complaint charges that one unnamed senior News Corp. executive “counseled Regan to lie and withhold information from investigators” about her acknowledged affair with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Another unnamed News Corp. executive “advised Regan not to produce clearly relevant documents in connection with a governmental investigation of Kerik,” according to the complaint.
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