Daily News Roundup, 1/17/08: The Giuliani Chronicles

The reports on Rudy Giuliani vary widely from day to day, often dependent on the results of the latest GOP primary and the opinions of pundits attempting to fill you in on What It All Means. However, as time progresses towards the line Giuliani has sworn to hold — Florida — the situation has taken on a grim sheen of ultimatum.

If Giuliani does not win Florida, he could lose New York. If Giuliani loses New York, it will complete what some will view as the biggest election non-starter in GOP history. And it will almost entirely be due to a strategy employed seemingly without relish.

If things were just a little different, and Giuliani had managed to keep his profile up despite the series of heavy losses, he would look like a genius: no clear front-runner after so many primaries? Check. A Florida contest earlier than Super Tuesday? Check. 9/11? Check. But unfortunately for Mr. Giuliani, things are what they are, and most pundits (and now even his supporters) are starting to view him as the embodiment of an idea gone bad.

Speaking of bad ideas, how about former Republican Congressman Mark Siljander, who has been indicted for laundering money and having latent ties to al-Qaeda? I can't begin to fathom how the Republican Party will spin this if they talk about it at all.

As we are now in the thick of the 2008 election season, you may be wondering about Speaker Tom Craddick and what he and his pals have been up to. The Texas Observer's Andrew Wheat fills you in on Craddick and Midland oil exec Tim Dunn, who runs more than a few groups that move as Craddick's hand in the world. If Dan Barrett's race is any indicator of things to come, it could be a rough year for Craddick.

And Craddick will have to run a race for his own seat, even though he has taken on the new favorite GOP tactic of trying to torpedo legitimate opposition candidacies before they have barely begun. The Texas Democratic Party has been remarkably successful in combating silly Republican lawsuits and legal challenges, and I'm confident they will have the same measure of success in Craddick's challenge to the candidacy of Midland's Bill Dingus, his Democratic opponent.

If you have a more general interest in Texas House races, our friend Phillip Martin is covering them in a hardcore data display over at Burnt Orange; I recommend the series heartily.

For more on Republican politics in the coming years, you may want to ask Attorney General Greg Abbott what his plans are, as he seems to have enough money to make such determinations. Gardner Selby looks at the dizzying array of political possibilities among what remains of the upper echelon of Texas Republicans and figures out that not many of them will be spoiling for a fight with each other. I would think that Abbott would run for Lieutenant Governor while Dewhurst goes after the mansion, but all of that depends on what Perry wants to do. That someone will upset the apple cart and cause the stirrings of interior war is almost a certainty.

Lastly today, do you remember all the dirty tricks in the South Carolina GOP race in 2000? They're back. One can only imagine what an army of Rove trainees will have waiting for the general election.