Huffington Post reports:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani now faces a looming government investigation into his handling of the radios used by firefighters on 9/11.

The investigation, which will examine how the FDNY ended up using faulty equipment during the terrorist attacks and why Giuliani gave a no-bid contract to Motorola for that equipment, has been endorsed by New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, chair of the city's oversight and investigations committee.

Background on this is here.

If this is true, I think Hillary's opponents are making a grave mistake:

Her rivals clearly remained delighted by the turn of events. Edwards, in an interview with liberal talk show host Ed Schultz, promised to "keep pounding the drum on making certain the voters know they have these choices" between what he described as the entrenched special interests in Washington, represented by Clinton, and advocates of change such as himself.

Special interests like undocumented aliens? The issues matter Senator Edwards. And your views on licensing undocumented alien drivers is still unknown. Your misleading doubletalk, and that of Sen. Obama, on lobbyist money, is the height of hypocrisy and gameplaying. Obama's performance in the McClurkin Affair smacks of pandering to bigots. Senator Dodd's position on the question of licenses was simply terrible.

We need a little straight talk from Hillary's opponents on REAL progressive issues. There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton does not provide the most straightforward answers. But those folks living in glass houses need to clean up their act before they start casting stones. I want to hear about issues first. Not Hillary. Speak to the issues and then contrast with Clinton. Do not put the cart before the horse.

Go read Jane and newly-converted Democrat John Cole.

That's all. Oh, except for John Amato of Crooks and Liars who, while watching the debate with Jane last night, said to her of Russert, "“Why doesn’t he just ask her if she killed Vince Foster?”

This nonsense that Hillary did not do well in the debate, contradicted herself, flip-flopped or whatever is media hype and desperate, wishful thinking by supporters of the other Democratic candidates and Republican strategists.

The number of comments on this site today from "newbie" commenters, all attacking Hillary, is telling.

If you are a progressive, stop it. You are feeding Republican dreams. The enemy is not in here. It is outside this room. And this party.

Any one of the Democrats in the running for the Presidential nomination is light-years superior to what the Republicans have to offer and what we've endured under George Bush.

After last night's Russert gotcha moment, Senator Hillary Clinton unequivocally embraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to provide drivers licenses for undocumented aliens in New York:

Mrs. Clinton’s statement affirming her support of Mr. Spitzer in his office came less than a day after she offered a muddled and hesitant position on the bill, prompting a round of denunciations by her opponents. It signaled the extent to which her advisers viewed that moment as the biggest misstep she made in the debate, and one with long-term potential to undermine her candidacy. “Senator Clinton supports governors like Governor Spitzer who believe they need such a measure to deal with the crisis caused by this administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform,’” her campaign said.

Senator John Edwards had lot of criticism for Clinton, but little to say on the actual issue. That little game is over now. Where do you stand on the issue Sen. Edwards? We do not need any doubletalk from you.

While everyone is focused on Michael Mukasey's refusal to acknowledge that waterboarding is torture, another story is being overlooked.

A must read: Wayne Barrett's latest in the Village Voice, No Skeletons in My Closet.

When Mukasey was nominated, I expressed concern about his closeness to Rudy Giuliani.That concern has just grown exponentially.

After reading Barrett, I'm wondering whether the reason Mukasey is willing to take on the Attorney General job for a short 14 months is because Rudy has promised to keep him in the spot should he become President.

Mukasey has said he'd recuse himself from the expected impending federal indictment of Bernie Kerik. But, as Barrett explains, Kerik is just one of many cases with connections to Rudy that the Justice Department will be handling. Mukasey's son, a partner in Bracewell-Guiliani, plays a key role in many of them.

There's also the question about whether Mukasey has been honest or complete in his description of his political activities on behalf of Rudy, particularly while he was a federal judge and not supposed to be politically active.

Here are but two examples:

Taylor Marsh has a great post about last night's Democratic debate and the behavior of NBC co-moderator Tim Russert.

Tim Russert asked 26 questions; 14 were to Clinton, with 5 directly targeting her personally....In contrast, Barack Obama got asked what he would do about air travel; whether there was life beyond earth; and the question on which all Americans' safety depends, What are you going to dress as on Halloween?

....But Russert's softballs to Obama when compared to Clinton were nakedly obvious to anyone paying attention.....Tim Russert who had no business taking sides. But he did anyway.

....Russert played a card [on the archives question] that was not only disingenuous and meant to bring in Bill Clinton into a debate where Hillary Clinton is running for president, but did so using innuendos and outright falsehoods, according to any objective player.

I agree with what she says about Russert playing debater against Hillary, joining the attack, rather than sticking to moderating.

More...

Last night's debate was a bad night for Hillary's opponents, and especially for my candidate Chris Dodd. Let's take a look at the so- called "highlight" for the attacks on Hillary, the licenses for illegal immigration moment (the so called double talk moment):

RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer has proposed giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. You told the Nashua, New Hampshire editorial board it makes a lot of sense. Why does it make a lot of sense to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license?

SEN. CLINTON: Well, what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform. We know in New York we have several million at any one time who are in New York illegally. They are undocumented workers. They are driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds. It's probability. So what Governor Spitzer is trying to do is to fill the vacuum.

I believe we need to get back to comprehensive immigration reform because no state, no matter how well-intentioned, can fill this gap.

There needs to be federal action on immigration reform.

How in the world is this a problematic answer? It seems correct in every particular to me. What progressive Democrat could disagree with this? Why, my candidate, Chris Dodd, shame on him:

Big Tent Democrat and I will be live-blogging tonight's Democrats Debate at Drexel University.

The New York Times says all eyes will be on Obama.

Hillary has already fired the first salvo.

I just hope some sparks fly.

Updates below, mostly in the comments.

The Problem With Obama is the discussion of the day. I especially liked Stoller's and Bowers' discussion. Stoller quoted an earlier piece:

Obama is scared. He hasn't had to make choices for a long time . . . We haven't yet seen what a Barack Obama would fight for in a public debate, and it's something I'd like to see. . . .

Fighting. Obama is not a fighter. That is the problem. In July 2006, I wrote:

How did FDR do it and can Democrats defend FDR liberalism today? Maybe not by calling it FDR liberalism but they surely can and do when they have the courage of their convictions. The most prominent of these instances was the fight to save Social Security Faced with Media hostility, Republican demagogy and flat out lies, Democrats rallied to the FDR liberalism banner and crushed the Republican attempts to roll back the clock. FDR would have been proud of Democrats in that fight. No triangulation. Good old fashioned political populism won the day. And that is FDR's lesson for Obama. Politics is not a battle for the middle. It is a battle for defining the terms of the political debate. It is a battle to be able to say what is the middle.

Obama refuses to fight for Democratic and progressive values. He holds them of course. But he does not fight for them. He believes in finding "common ground" and, in the process, simply does not fight. He does not work to persuade the persuadable. As a politician fighting for issues, he fails (while perhaps succeeding in burnishing his own image.) If you are committed to Obama, you can be pleased with his political style. If you are committed to Democratic and progressive values, I think you can not be satisfied. More.

As long as we're criticizing Barack Obama today, check out the Daily Howler which takes him to task for his "new" strategy of being more aggressive in his campaign against Hillary.

First off, he's attacking her character, not just her position on issues. Bad move.

Worse, he's pretending she has not taken a stand on social security. That's false. She has taken her stand and her stand is, as it should be, There Is No Crisis.

It’s astounding to see a Major Dem pimping Social Security as a big, troubling issue. It’s astounding to see one Dem attacking another because she won’t go along with that plutocrat claim—especially when he’s been reciting the old chestnut about college kids. This claim has been the tool of plutocrats over the course of the past twenty-five years. Now, we see a Major Dem pimping this line—and criticizing Clinton’s troubling “character” because she won’t go there with him.

By the way, tell us again: Which of these two is the “liberal?”

Update: Obama and Hillary are now in an ad war over social security. Here's Hillary latest salvo, to run in Iowa and New Hampshire, detailing what she has done on behalf of seniors.

More....

Dodd says:

Mr. Mukasey's position that the President does not have to heed the law disqualifies him from being the chief attorney for the United States. We have seen for too long, and at great expense to our national security, an Administration that has systematically attacked the rule of law and turned our Justice Department into a political wing of the White House. I'm afraid that Mr. Mukasey as Attorney General would be more of the same.

Obama gets his just desserts:

Surprise, surprise, surprise. Obama's anti-gay religious right activist used the opportunity Obama gave him last night to preach his hate to thousands of African-Americans. That's just great. And the white preacher who Obama picked to help explain to the audience that gays aren't minions of Satan? CNN reports that he said nothing at all - just a short little prayer, then he left. As for Obama, he did a taped introduction in which he praised McClurkin, the religious right activist, as one of his favorites. That's nice, because the way to help combat homophobia in the black community is to make sure the gay-basher is first endorsed by someone as high-ranking as Obama, who then chooses to say nothing about the gay-bashing.