Gates, Giuliani

The body of a letter I sent to TPM:

About the Gates nomination, I agree with your readers, especially this line:

I think the "use nomination hearings as a bully pulpit" logic shows that the Democrats are still thinking like a minority party. They got the subpoena power, they got the committees, they can open any can of worms any they want to and don't have to snipe at the Administration from the bushes.

Gates and to a larger extent Diamond Jimmy Baker are signs not only that GHW Bush is exerting his influence but more likely the Republican patricians who watched the wacko bomb-throwers take over the party in 1994 and then drive the party off a cliff in just over a decade.

Its possible that Bush Sr. and the GOP patricians are trying to save the party in the next two years by playing out the coming scandals like they did Iran Contra - as opposed to the Bush Jr./Cheney methods which would in all likelihood lead to another Nixon.

About Giuliani: You ask:

do we really have to pretend that Rudy Giuliani has more than a snowball's chance in hell of getting the Republican presidential nomination.

You're right, as shown by the anti-Giuliani rhetoric on the red-blogs, that he has no chance. But he may be running in order to get back into the political ring (which he left completely in 2001) and to enter national politics for the first time. He's 62 (two years older than Clinton & Bush Jr) and may be hoping to get the VP nomination or even just Attorney General in the next GOP administration.

Yet, naturally, as a Democrat, I'm pretty frightened of a McCain-Giuliani ticket.

Backpost finished 2009-12-14.