A new CBS-New York Times poll finds Hillary Clinton maintaining her double-digit national lead over Barack Obama and John McCain ahead on the Republican side. Complete Repbulican poll results are here (pdf) and Democratic results here.

In the race for the Democratic nomination, Clinton leads Illinois Sen. Barack Obama by a margin of 42 percent to 27 percent. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards comes in a distant third at 11 percent.

Huckabee is in second place after McCain and Rudy Giuliani is sinking fast.

The biggest drop downward is in former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s support, from leading at 22 percent in the last poll to ten percent now.

Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson are tied with only 8% each.

Update: A new Washington Post - ABC Poll is also out. McCain and Hillary lead, but the numbers are different:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 42 percent
Barack Obama, 37 percent
John Edwards, 11 percent
Dennis Kucinich, 2 percent

More...

Jeralyn won't like it buuuut, the Unity Schtick:

BLITZER: You sound like one of those moderate Democrats and Republicans who met in Oklahoma recently, who want to see the Left and the Right basically move closer together.

DASCHLE: Exactly.

BLITZER: That's where you are, personally, I take it?

DASCHLE: Well, it's not only where I am personally. But I think it's where the American people are. It's where Barack is. It's why Barack is drawing so much support from independent and Republicans across the country. It's why Republicans say, for the first time, you know, I think I can work for that guy -- or work with that guy, because they don't feel as if he's representing the old Washington politics of the past.

This is the politics of the future, and he reflects it.

The Golden Globes are airing tonight with a bunch of readers from Entertainment Tonight, E!, the Insider and other gossip shows presenting the awards, poor audio that cuts out frequently, no stars and on CNN, Larry King talking over the readers. The audience, which isn't shown, consists of 600 studio execs and other such types.

If anyone doubted the Writers' Strike is having a huge impact on the entertainment industry, this should remove them.

The Oscars could meet the same fate next month.

Leading with this week's news that telephone companies shut down FBI wiretaps because the agency failed to pay its bills, an editorial in today's Denver Post compares the FBI to "keystone cops."

In addition to the telephone bill embarrassment, the Post points out:

The late payments were part of a larger pattern of loose practices when it comes to tracking money sent to field offices for undercover operations.

With FISA hearings again on the horizon, the Post says we should be paying attention to the FBI's problems as Congress debates the reauthorization of the Patriot Act: [More...]

Efforts to compare the top Democratic candidates are leading to candidate-bashing. That's unfortunate, because people are taking their eye off the ball -- defeating Republicans.

Case in point: Rudy Giuliani gets "a rock star's welcome" Saturday in Florida.

And to top that, today he got religion. He told a church congregation he was not seeking their votes, but their prayers.

Speaking for me only

Here's post that will make all candidates' supporters angry. I am disappointed with all the candidates in the race now. For years I have advocated a politics of contrast and Fighting Dems fighting for the Common Good.

At first blush, I fully expected to support John Edwards who made these concepts a centerpiece of his campaign. He moved the debate back to Democratic values and helped push the other candidates towards this vision. But there were some substantive problems that I had with Edwards, on trade and immigration, that made support of him difficult for me. Later his unfair attacks on Hillary Clinton and his alliance with Barack Obama, despite his very real difference of view on theories of change, made rejecting Edwards quite easy for me.

More . . .

Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson, the President of Black Entertaiment Television, reportedly said:

I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing but he said it in his book."

To me the clear implication is that Johnson is referring to Barack Obama's admitted drug use. Bob Johnson has denied this:

My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect. When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school.n That results oriented leadership -- even as a young person -- is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton.

Umm, I am not sure what Johnson means in this denial. I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether this explanation from Mr. Johnson is credible. Suffice it to say that Mr. Johnson should be more careful in the future with his language.

Barack Obama responded to Hillary Clinton's MTP appearance by proving he indeed is a rough and tumble political fighter, not for Democratic values, but for himself:

. . . Sen. Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn’t make the statement. I haven’t remarked on it . . . the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous

Stop right there. Obama's campaign in fact has pushed this talk for days now. Obama is being misleading at best and mendacious at worst. But he is just a pol fighting for his own political fortunes. Then Obama misleads on what happened on MTP today:

I have to point out that instead of telling the American people about her positive vision for America, Sen. Clinton spent an hour talking about me and my record in a way that was flat-out wrong.

Tim Russert spent an hour asking questions about you, Senator. How is that Senator Clinton's fault? Very misleading of Obama. Again Obama the political fighter for his own cause emerges. Finally, Obama is not honest when he says:

South Carolina may be the end for John Edwards if he comes in third. It seems, once again, he's displaying his preference for Obama over Hillary. At a campaign event at a predominantly black Baptist church today Edwards said :

"I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change that came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that," Edwards told more than 200 people gathered at a predominantly black Baptist church. ...."Those who believe that real change starts with Washington politicians have been in Washington too long and are living a fairy tale," he said.

and,

"As someone who grew up in the segregated South, I feel an enormous amount of pride when I see the success that Senator Barack Obama is having in this campaign," said Edwards. He the added, with a laugh: "Some days I wish he was having a little less success."

I'm not comfortable with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano's endorsement of Obama. She's another law and order prosecutor-turned-politician. She's a former U.S. Attorney who also served as Arizona Attorney General. She's also been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate.

During her 2002 election campaign, she was heavily endorsed by that wacko sheriff, Joe Arpaio (the one puts juveniles on chain gangs, makes inmates wear pink underwear and dui offenders bury the dead, who has prisoners sleep in tents and whose immigration solution is to jail the undocumented.) Arpaio had big praise for Napolitano when an anti-Napolitano ad cropped up in her 2002 race:

Sherriff Joe: This Is Sheriff Joe Arpaio with an Urgent Message. Janet Napolitano Has Been Attacked with the Most Vicious TV Ad in Arizona History. The Ad Is Outrageous and Untrue. As U.S. Attorney, She Was the Number One Prosecutor of Child Molesters in the Nation. As Our Attorney General, Janet Napolitano Has Stood with Law Enforcement to Protect Our Families. This Is Joe Arpaio. Join Me in Rejecting the Attacks Against Janet Napolitano.

Napolitano is a Democrat in a red state with high approval ratings from Republicans. The New York Times says she allowed Arizona's enforcement-only, "toughest in the nation" immigration bill to become law there.

If Obama wants the backing of a law and order politician like Napolitano, fine. It's just one more reason I don't believe he will be a progressive on crime issues if elected President.

[Update below:]

Of course Senator Dick Durbin, a fine man and politician, is doing the work of the Obama campaign when he says:

I’m really troubled by his questioning the sincerity of Barack Obama’s opposition to the war in Iraq . . .

Durbin, a staunch Obama supporter had no qualms apparently when Obama was accusing Clinton and DURBIN (and McCaskill, Nelson et al) of fomenting war with Iran when they voted for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment:

Michael Keller is a computer programmer from Tampa who joined the Florida National Guard where he was in charge of oversight at Abu Ghraib prison. His goal was to protect the inmates. He has written a new book, Torture Central: E-mails from Abu Ghraib. From the St. Petersburg Times:

Keller provides new details of the torture he witnessed at Abu Ghraib.

"The detainee is then laid flat on a medical litter, and another litter is placed on top of them producing a sandwich effect," he wrote in Torture Central: E-mails from Abu Ghraib. "The two litters are then tightened together with ratchet straps, creating a vice. The detainee remains crushed between the litters for one hour, with the guard checking every 15 minutes to ensure that the detainee still has a pulse."

There were other abuses, including those involving children: [More...]