Author: Yoda

Sunday morning Arriana Huffington was on CNN pontificating about the Connecticut Primary and other events.

She continued to blast Joe Lieberman for running as an independent and called his actions unprecedented – losing a Primary and continuing to run.

Now in my last post, I pointed to at least one precedent – Mario Cuomo in 1977 who continued his campaign for Mayor against Primary winner Ed Koch as the candidate of the Liberal Party and a party his campaign created – Neighborhood Preservation Party.

But in honor of Arianna, I decided to jog my memory to find more precedents and to see how those who “turned on their Party” were punished.

The results in Connecticut seem to have created a new species in politics – Progressive Yellow Dog Democrats.

The term Yellow Dog Democrats has it’s origin in the states of the old Confederacy where most Whites pledged to never vote for a Republican because of Lincoln winning the Civil War and freeing the slaves. These voters said they’d vote for a “yellow dog” if he were the Democratic candidate.

But now people who would never be considered in any way similar to these Southern racists also seem to be saying similar things regarding Joe Lieberman.

Friday’s NY Times had one of their weekly stories speculating about Mike running for President.

It jumped to the conclusion that Mike having dinner with the Execurtive Director of the DLC meant he was running for President.  I guess when Mike had lunch  a few years ago with stars of  The Sopranos, it meant he was buying HBO.

But one part stood out in the lame story – "the mayor himself has sent mixed signals about his plans".

As I recall Mike has consistently said  he was not running and  has used the phrase "what part of the word No don’t  you understand".

It’s no longer news that Rudy Giuliani is campaigning for candidates who agree with him on virtually no issues.

The latest is Ralph Norman, running for Congress in South Carolina.

Here are some highlights from Norman’s website:

I am proud to be a concealed weapons permit carrier myself and in Congress, I will fight to protect these rights for South Carolinians.

The NY Sun has an editorial today about the shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

The gist of the editorial is that officials are too quick to declare attacks on Jews in the US by  Muslims to be that a lone gunman. The Sun points to previous incidents including NYC. I quote from the Sun –

When, on February 24, 1997, Ali Abu Kamal, a Palestinian Arab, opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one and wounding six, the New York Times reported, "the Mayor said the gunman’s motive was unknown, and he cautioned against drawing any conclusions about terrorism or the man’s Palestinian background."

1997 – Who was the Mayor then?

New York’s election law requirements are justly criticized. So much so that I usually agree with the complaint that they are the worst in the land.

But then I read the following  about Pennsylvania:

Diamond is hoping to get on the fall election ballot as an independent candidate for governor. He gained notoriety for channeling voters’ anger over last summer’s legislative pay raise into an effort to oust those lawmakers.

The NY Post asked Hillary if she would return the campaign contributions she received from alleged Hamptons adulterer Peter Cook.

I wonder will they also now ask the various Republicans for whom admitted adulterer Rudy Giuliani raised money for, to return those contributions too?

Today’s NY Sun had the following – 

"Going after a CEO just because somebody wants to have somebody to blame doesn’t make a lot of sense," Mr. Bloomberg, who is a former CEO, said.

An Non-CEO’s response –

Refusing to consider the possibily that a CEO could be to blame makes even less sense.

Everyone I speak to is wondering why Mike is continuing to defend Con Edison.

My theory is that it’s all part of the Presidential campaign and the energy crisis.

Think about it – Mike can say that the other candidates can promise to cut the use of oil but he’s done it. Look how much was saved in the last week by Queens residents who didn’t run their AC, computers, stereos, TVs or lights.

Hey – it makes as much sense as the other theories about Mike can get elected President.

I couldn’t help but notice the top of the following press advisory posted on this site –

Date: July 14, 2006

Contact: Anne Marie Corbalis

Phone: 914-684-AG06

Pirro hits the Campaign Trail by Foot, Bike and Boat

I guess she decided going by car with her husband driving was too risky.