Rudy Giuliani was asked today about Judith Regan's lawsuit against News Corp (details here) which alleges that Fox executives told her to lie to investigators and withhold documents about Bernie Kerik in order to protect Rudy's presidential aspirations. His response:

The candidate laughed when reporters asked for his response to one-time publishing powerhouse Judith Regan's $100 million lawsuit claiming that her former employers directed her to lie to federal investigators about Kerik because of the implications for Giuliani.

"I don't respond to the story at all. I don't know anything about it. And, it sounds to me like a kind of gossip column story more than a real story,"

That's Rudy, burying his head in the sand with an "I don't know anything about it." Will the press leave it at that?

Colorado Rep. and Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo had only $110,000 in the bank at the end of the last reporting period. I think he's ready for his final bow and wants to go out with a bang.

The Denver Post reports on his new ad, which critics aptly call "fear mongering." It features a terrorist attack in a shopping mall.

Out in California, menu mapping is now is place. Law Prof Eric Muller has the details.

This month, reports have surfaced about two controversial counterterrorism initiatives in California. In one, Congressional Quarterly's national security editor reported that the FBI had mined data from San Francisco grocery stores to look for spikes in sales of Middle Eastern food that, together with other data, might imply the presence of extremists. In the other, the Los Angeles Police Department is using census and other demographic data to map Muslim communities in order to pinpoint the neighborhoods of potential extremists.

Eric calls it "tahini mapping" and explains why this is the repeat of a 60 year old mistake that will inflame communities and not make us any safer.

As for the LAPD's neighborhood mapping: [More...]

Bump and Update: Perhaps Spitzer should have reviewed the success of New Mexico in granting licenses to the undocumented before he pulled the plug.

In 2003, New Mexico began offering driver’s licenses and identification cards to undocumented immigrants....Before the change, New Mexico had the highest rate of uninsured motorists in the nation – one in every three drivers. Now, New Mexico’s uninsured motorist rate is 10.8 percent, well below the national average of 14 percent.

Many undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico drove before the law changed. Some caused accidents. Their status as uninsured motorists put a financial burden on drivers who were legal citizens and insured.....Licensing undocumented immigrants to drive allows them to obtain insurance and helps protect New Mexicans.

This also highlights the difference between Gov. Bill Richardson and Gov. Spitzer. Richardson has a backbone.

*****
Original Post

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who two weeks ago capitulated to the feds and weakened his drivers' license proposal for undocumented residents, has now bowed to public pressure and rescinded the plan entirely.

More....

He talks a good game.

"My job involves not only an oath, but also a pledge, which I now give you," Mukasey told the 110,000 Justice employees nationwide, some of whom watched on the department's internal TV system.

"And that is to use all of the strength of mind and body that I have to help you to continue to protect the freedom and the security of the people of this country, and their civil rights and liberties, through the neutral and evenhanded application of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it."

His announcement yesterday that security clearances were granted to continue the stalled OPR investigation into warrantless wiretapping was a good sign.

Mukasey has 14 months to repair the damage done to the Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales. While I don't think he'll be the President's errand boy, I'm also not getting my hopes up that he'll have the same definition of "civil rights and liberties" as the rest of us -- particularly when it comes to the "war on terror."

But, he's off to a good start.

How often does Rudy Giuliani mention September 11?

Take a look, great job by Talking Points Memo.

Here's Rudy's actual ad running tomorrow in Iowa and then in New Hampshire -- those early states the news says he doesn't need. No mention of 9/11, only that "he's been tested."

Rep. Jim McGovern has a column up at HuffPo today quoting Barack Obama in earlier days on the War in Iraq.

Talking about how he would have voted on the '02 authorization, Mr. Russert flashed a quote from then-State Senator Obama on the screen that said: "I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports. What would I have done? I don't know." In response, Senator Obama said it was probably the wrong time for him to speak out on the war.

....Mr. Russert also reminded Senator Obama about this comment he made in July of 2004: "There's not much of a difference between my position on Iraq and George Bush's position at this stage."

The point being, Obama is criticizing Hillary for acting like George Bush, when in those early days, he came close to supporting Bush on the war.

McGovern says,

I'm not interested in who was "first" to oppose this awful war. I'm more interested in what's next.

When it comes to ending the war, the question needs to be: Which candidate has the experience, maturity, skill and ability to safely get our troops out of Iraq and bring this sad chapter in our history to an end?

FBI Special Agent George Piro spent 7 hours a day for 8 months with Saddam Hussein after his capture. The goal: to get him to confess to crimes and get information out of him.

He didn't use torture. He used friendship.

Instead of bright lights, loud music or waterboarding, the Beirut-born Arabic speaker - who immigrated to the U.S. as a teen - built a rapport with the dictator nabbed in a spider hole. He treated him with respect and took care of his every need.

And, he got results. Piro's account is contained in a new pro-Administration book, "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack."

Until 9/11, Saddam thought UN sanctions would go away and he could make a nuclear bomb. His prewar weapons of mass destruction deceptions were a ruse to convince Iran - whom he feared - that he had an arsenal.

Other disclosures:

400 journalists from around the country yesterday attended the media walk-through at Denver's Pepsi Center, the site of the Democratic Convention in August. There were tours of the facility, a general q and a session and break-out sessions. It ended with lunch and a short talk by DNC Chair Howard Dean.

Among the mainstream media in attendance asking questions were the Houston Chronicle, AP, WNYC radio, Tribune Company, Minn. Public Radio, Univision and CNN. One reporter in attendance weirded everyone out with his security question in which he named practically every thing that could go wrong, and essentially asked whether there was an exit plan in case of an attack.

A better question was whether there would be greater food availability than there was in Boston, where the choice was Dunkin' Donuts or ....Dunkin' Donuts. They said yes.

Bloggers in attendance (that I knew): McJoan, Wendy Norris and Cara DeGette of Colorado Confidential and Aaron of Square State.

McJoan at Daily Kos has a good wrap-up. So does AP reporter George Merritt (no relation) who until recently, was a reporter with the Denver Post.

Ok, now the important part. The bottom line for bloggers: [More...]

Maybe now this story will gain some traction in the media. It's been way too lenient on the connection between Bernie Kerik and Rudy Guiliani. There were headlines for one day and then no one asked the tough questions, the ones about what Rudy knew about Bernie and his alleged ties to mob associates and a company with alleged ties to mob associates and when he knew it.

The New York Times reports that publisher and former Fox News talk show host Judith Regan has filed a 70 page lawsuit against News Corp and Harper Collins in state court in Manhattan over her abrupt firing during the firestorm over her planned publication of O.J. Simpson's book about how he might have killed Nicole Brown Simpson. The text of the lawsuit is here.(pdf)

Regan alleges in the lawsuit that a Fox executive told her to lie to federal investigators about her relationship with Bernie Kerik in order to protect Rudy Giuliani. She says another Fox exec told her not to turn over relevant documents.

Among the reported details of the Regan-Kerik affair:

Ms. Regan had an affair with Mr. Kerik, who is married, beginning in the spring of 2001, when her imprint, Regan Books, began work on his memoir, “The Lost Son.” In December 2004, after the relationship had ended and shortly after Mr. Kerik’s homeland security nomination fell apart, newspapers reported that the two had carried on the affair at an apartment near Ground Zero that had been donated as a respite for rescue and recovery workers.

Fox claimed it fired Regan for alleged anti-semitic comments.

Then there's this from the December 15, 2004, New York Post:

Now a part of the cowardly Media.

Congrats to him. Now he is part of the problem . . .

Update (TL): Congratulations, Markos. Newsweek couldn't have picked a better choice. I disagree with Big Tent that he's now part of "the problem." If anything, now more people will get to read him and hopefully be swayed by what he has to write.

Many bloggers write for big media from time to time, myself included, and there's nothing wrong with being paid for our work. To think Markos would change his stripes because he's writing for big media is just silly. He won't.

Update [2007-11-13 19:21:41 by Big Tent Democrat]: I was joking. I totally agree with Jeralyn. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

This is hard to understand:

Even seasoned political journalists describe reporting on Hillary as a torturous experience. Though few dare offer specifics for the record--"They're too smart," one furtively confides. "They'll figure out who I am"--privately, they recount excruciating battles to secure basic facts. Innocent queries are met with deep suspicion. Only surgically precise questioning yields relevant answers. Hillary's aides don't hesitate to use access as a blunt instrument, as when they killed off a negative GQ story on the campaign by threatening to stop cooperating with a separate Bill Clinton story the magazine had in the works. Reporters' jabs and errors are long remembered, and no hour is too odd for an angry phone call. Clinton aides are especially swift to bypass reporters and complain to top editors. "They're frightening!" says one reporter who has covered Clinton. "They don't see [reporting] as a healthy part of the process. They view this as a ruthless kill-or-be-killed game."

Of course, Greg Sargent is right (Michael Crowley stupidly argues that Clinton is getting great coverage, but Michael Crowley is pretty dim generally) that Clinton has every reason to be suspicious of reporters, but my question is why would reporters be fearful of reprisals? What will a campaign withhold? Positive spin? What else does access get them? How stupid can the Media be?

I know, as stupid as all get out. See coverage of the Bush Administration if we have any doubt.