The XX Factor: What women really think.

From the "I Didn't Get the Memo" Department

Last year, when he was running for president, Rudy Giuliani explained his thinking about the courts. He complained that "civil litigation consumes 2.2 percent of America’s gross domestic product" and argued that "to reduce the impact of the trial lawyer tax, we should reform the system by adopting rules that discourage frivolous lawsuits."

This week, Rudy's son Andrew, 22, filed a suit against Duke University, where he is a student, because he was cut from the golf team. The suit "accuses the university of bad faith by aggressively recruiting him to play golf for Duke and then dashing his dreams by taking steps to remove him from the team," the NYT writes. Andrew G. wants damages and "the right to use Duke’s golf center for the rest of his life." This is such a genius exhibit of self-parodying entitlement that I almost wish Rudy were the GOP candidate, so he'd have to answer for it. As is, he's getting away with no comment. I will have to content myself with the service Andrew does himself by including, in the court filings, that "he may have misbehaved in February when he tossed an apple in a teammate’s face, flipped his putter a few feet, threw and broke a club and gunned his engine in a parking lot."

Hillary Vs. Obama

Forget the Evangelicals in '08. What About the Jews?

It seems like much longer than three years ago that Howard Dean was hailed as the great hope for Web political organizing. Now, Ron Paul has replaced him as the no-chance-in-hell candidate to best harness the misdirected money and idealism of the Internet masses. 

But apparently Dean’s feeling nostalgic for the Internet, because he recently talked about one thing sure to stir up bloggers: who gets to go to heaven. During a speech Sunday to Jewish leaders, according to the Politico, Dean said that “there are no bars to heaven for anybody.” (The article headline—“Dean says Jews can go to heaven”—is a little odd: It seems to suggest that Dean granted Jews access to heaven.) 

That assertion surely won’t sit well with conservative evangelical Christians who think that there actually is a bar to heaven, and a rather high one at that. But though the Democrats have apparently been trying to woo evangelical voters suspicious of potential GOP nominees Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, it’s not likely to happen. Could Dean instead be trying to stop the trend of Jewish Republicans? There have been periodic trend reports this year about Jews in ‘08, including some wondering if Jews might be more inclined to vote for Giuliani than they were to vote for Bush and how they might respond to Obama. Exit polling from the 2006 midterm elections found that young Jews (and Orthodox Jews) were more likely to vote for the GOP than their older counterparts. Is this actually something Dean and the Democrats need to worry about? Or was he just trying to please the audience in the crowd that day?

... and Giuliani questions

More on waterboarding!

After Phil and I wracked our brains to understand why Michael Mukasey wouldn’t just admit that waterboarding is torture, and in light of Rudy Giuliani’s weaselly parsing of the same question, it’s heartening to read this morning – via the AP -- that some of the Senate Democrats seem willing to use that as the basis for a no vote on Mukasey.

 Good to hear. There is just no good reason to call this an open question, a matter of interpretation, or something too secret to discuss rationally. In the same regard see this great new piece on Rudy and executive powers by Rachel Morris. Talk about things that make you go hmmmmmm.

Giuliani and Waterboarding

With Friends Like Rudy's ...

Good catch, Melinda, on how Rudy wants to help the "worst people" in our society as long as they are his pals—and surely Rudy considers child-molesting priests worse than squeegee men. This article describes Giuliani's friendship with the defrocked priest who now works at his firm. It goes back to childhood and the former priest, Alan Placa, presided over two of Giuliani's weddings (and the annulment of the first marriage, over the objection of Giuliani's first wife). Yes, Rudy's big on loyalty, but to a point. Witness his friendship with his former police and corrections commissioner—and crook—Bernie Kerik. Giuliani pushed for Kerik to become head of Homeland Security in the Bush administration, but the guy was such a sleazeball that the nomination had to be withdrawn almost immediately. The embarrassment, and Kerik's subsequent conviction for taking illegal gifts while serving in the Giuliani administration, ended the friendship. But surely Rudy—Mr. Crime Fighter—knew who Kerik really was all along, just as he knows now who Placa is. So why is he so close to such men—and what do they know about him? And won't Rudy soon be forced to rid himself of this troublesome priest?

Law and Order, Rudy Style

Hillary as Scarlett at Twelve Oaks does not work for me, with or without bosoms showing. But what has my big-girl panties in a twist today is Rudy’s regard for a man removed from his job as a priest over multiple allegations of sex abuse. After the church fired Monsignor Alan Placa, he went to work for Giuliani Partners. Where his new boss, the former prosecutor, shows him the kind of compassion he never had for turnstile jumpers: “I know the man,’’ Giuliani told reporters. “I know who he is, so I support him. We give some of the worst people in our society the benefit of the doubt. And of course I’m going to give it to one of my closest friends.’’ Of course; we are all law and order guys until the perp is a pal.

Hillary's Experience

I have been gaga over the Sarkozys and I love the idea that Cecelia is a role model. We shouldn't demand more from our first spouses. We should demand less. Or nothing at all.

A Hillary question from Rudy Giuliani. He said:

 "Honestly, in most respects, I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city, she's never run a state. She's never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people. So I'm trying to figure out where the experience is here. It would seem to me that in a time of difficult problems and war we don't want on the job training for an executive..."

A fair criticism of most senators running for president, it seems to me. But isn't Hillary a solid exception to that rule, given her experience in the White House?