Mayor Mike's Move

" COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) -- Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Sunday he will contemplate next year whether to run for president in 2008. 'I will be considering it next year,' Giuliani said during a visit to Denmark.

"So very clearly, Rudy himself was saying that he was a 'potential presidential candidate' five months before agreeing to join the ISG. He even openly stated that he'd be actively considering a run during the same year -- 2006 -- that the ISG would be doing its work. So why did Rudy join it in the first place? . . . This is just total bull, pure and simple. No polite way to describe it."

Picking up on a Politico story that Republican candidates are starting to distance themselves from the president, Right Wing Nut House's Rick Moran says: nice try.

"All of this slipping and sliding away from Bush by the GOP field will probably go for naught anyway. That's because whoever emerges to claim the nomination will have to face the fact that just about every time a Democratic campaign commercial comes on TV next year, it will show the GOP nominee on one side of the screen and some unflattering picture of the President on the other. The Democrats are going to connect the Republican Presidential hopeful to Bush like superglue. And by the time they're done, voters will think that Bush [is] running for a third term.

"So what's the point of breaking with the President if the other party isn't going to let voters forget George Bush? If the other candidate's name is Clinton, the Democrats are going to have their own problems in breaking with the past. Looked upon with great affection by Democrats and left leaning independents, Bill Clinton is a lot less beloved in many parts of the electorate vital to the Democrat's prospects for success. The idea of 'The Bill and Hill Show' coming back to the White House does not sit well with about half of all independents. And Hillary's negative rating -- an astronomical 49% in the last Rassmussen poll -- would seem to indicate that a GOP counter strategy of tying Hillary to her husband's scandal plagued administration could end up making the entire issue of running away from Bush a wash."

From the other end of the spectrum, Americablog's Joe Sudbay also scoffs at the supposed Republican trend:

"Obviously, part of the 2008 GOP election strategy for presidential and congressional candidates alike is to pretend they don't own George Bush. They'll need the distance to have any chance of success. Our job is to make sure that George Bush is draped around all of their necks. They created the monster. They own him. There will be no distance."

I'm on the scent of a big story. Or rather, Jason Zengerle is in the New Republic:

"Chris Matthews caused some eyes to roll (and some predictable heads to explode) last week when, musing on the 'sex appeal' of Fred Thompson, he asked:

Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man's shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of -- a little bit of cigar smoke?

"And now, courtesy of 'Hotline,' comes this comment by CNN anchor Alina Cho after the network aired an interview with Mitt Romney this morning:

He looks great, sounds great, smells great.

"It's almost as if Mike Gravel is just one spritz of Old Spice away from being taken seriously by the political press."