Mayor Mike's Move

Do big budget wars lie ahead? Fred Barnes says the White House is spoiling for a fight:

"What looms now is a budget war much like the one in 1995 between House Republicans led by Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Clinton. Only this time it's between a Democratic Congress and a Republican president.

"Bush is prepared to veto at least 11 of the 12 appropriations bills that are expected to reach the White House by late summer. House Democrats have allocated $23 billion more for these bills than the president requested, thus providing a justification for the vetoes. The twelfth is the defense appropriation, which Democrats have set at slightly less than Bush asked for. But he may veto it, too."

Somehow I doubt he'll veto 11 of the 12 bills.

Was Rudy, who as president would inherit the Iraq mess, too busy to be a member of the Baker-Hamilton committee? TPM's Greg Sargent isn't buying the Official Explanation:

"The Giuliani campaign is pushing back on the big story today reporting that he was kicked off the Iraq Study Group because he blew off ISG meetings. The Rudy camp's claim is that he was seen as a 'potential presidential candidate' and didn't want this fact to turn his work for the ISG into a 'political football.'

"But a quick and dirty bit of research shows that the Rudy campaign's pushback here is entirely bogus.

"As you know, Newsday reported that Giuliani was bumped from the ISG after blowing off its meetings. The paper further suggested that a key reason for missing them was that he was busy making money giving high-priced speeches.

"The Rudy camp is disputing the story . . . The argument here is that Rudy backed out of his commitment to the ISG because he knew people were thinking of him as a potential Presidential candidate, something that (he allegedly thought) could potentially politicize his role on the panel. How selfless!

But even a cursory bit of research completely debunks the Rudy camp's pushback here.

Rudy's role with the ISG was announced in March of 2006. This was presumably done with Rudy's consent. That means that Rudy was willing to serve on the ISG in March of 2006, right? Right.

"As it turns out, Rudy himself was openly telling reporters that he was a potential candidate for President many months earlier than this. From the Associated Press in October of 2005: