| Page 2 of 2 < |
Pessimism About the GOP's White House Prospects
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is urging GOP candidates to break from President Bush, as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, below left, broke with predecessor Jacques Chirac, below.
(By John L. Russell -- Associated Press)
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
-- Dan Balz
MUTUAL-ADMIRATION SOCIETY
Giuliani Returns Ted Olson's Favor
Early in his presidential campaign, Rudy Giuliani got a boost from his Reagan Justice Department colleague Ted Olson. The former solicitor general, well liked in conservative legal circles, suggested that the former New York mayor would appoint the kind of conservative judges that Republicans would like, a boon for Giuliani, whose support for abortion rights makes him suspect to many on the right.
This week, with Olson's name circulating as a possible nominee to take Alberto Gonzales's spot as attorney general, Giuliani is returning the favor. Senate Democrats have suggested they would not confirm Olson, who not only provided advice to Paula Jones's legal team in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton but also successfully argued the disputed 2000 presidential election before the Supreme Court.
"Ted Olson just happens to be one of the very best lawyers in the United States of America," Giuliani said yesterday. "He's a good man, a really good man. And a man who is not a partisan, in the sense that when he has to do his job as a lawyer, or he has to do his job as a government official, he knows how to separate those things."
The former mayor was not as friendly to everyone this week. Yesterday his campaign placed an ad in the New York Times blasting Hillary Clinton for her criticism of Gen. David Petraeus at hearings on Capitol Hill this week. Later in the day, Giuliani released a Web ad that also attacked Clinton's remarks on Petraeus and berated her for criticizing the war after supporting it earlier.
"General Petraeus and the brave men serving under him deserve an apology, and our nation deserves better," the narrator of the ad states, imploring Clinton to apologize to Petraeus.
-- Perry Bacon Jr.
