Top Items:
John Harwood / Wall Street Journal:
Giuliani Loses Lead In Republican Race — Ex-Mayor Is Tied With Romney In National Poll of Republicans — WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani has lost his national lead in the Republican presidential race, creating the party's most competitive nomination fight in decades just two weeks before voting starts.
Discussion:
American Thinker, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, Oliver Willis and The Strata-Sphere
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Poll: Iowa's GOP Race is Battle Between Huckabee, Romney — The race for Iowa's Republican caucuses has narrowed to a two-person battle between former governors Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and Mitt Romney (Mass.), with Huckabee now perched atop the field, propelled by a big jump in support among religious women.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Des Moines Register, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, Reuters, Vox Popoli, The Corner and Jonathan Martin's Blogs
Heather Hollingsworth / Associated Press:
Giuliani Admitted to St. Louis Hospital … KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Republican Rudy Giuliani was admitted to a hospital Wednesday night for flu-like symptoms, his campaign said. — The former New York City mayor felt the symptoms while campaining for the Republican presidential nomination in Missouri …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:POLL: Religion Drives Iowa GOP Race, Lifting Huckabee Into the Lead
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!, Marc Ambinder, The Corner, Weekly Standard, TPM Election Central and Pollster.com
Tom Tancredo / You Decide 08!:
TOM TANCREDO TO DROP OUT OF PRESIDENTIAL RACE — Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo plans to drop out of the race during an announcement Thursday afternoon in Des Moines, Iowa, GOP sources close to the campaign have told FOX News. — Tancredo, who has aggressively pushed …
Discussion:
Buck Naked Politics, eyeon08.com, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, Pajamas Media, Tammy Bruce, Hot Air, LewRockwell.com Blog, The Stump and The Politico
RELATED:
George Merritt / Associated Press:
Tancredo to abandon presidential bid — DENVER - Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo, whose forceful opposition to illegal immigration vaulted him to national prominence, plans to announce he is abandoning his long-shot bid for the presidency, a person close to Tancredo said Wednesday.
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister
Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
Tucker Attacks John Edwards For Remembering Homeless Vets In Holiday Ad — On Wednesday's Tucker, the hopefully soon to be unemployed host gets riled up because Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, had the nerve to mention homeless veterans and those less fortunate in his holiday ad.
RELATED:
Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
EPA Chief Denies Calif. Limit on Auto Emissions — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson yesterday denied California's petition to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, overruling the unanimous recommendation of the agency's legal and technical staffs.
Discussion:
Gristmill
RELATED:
David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Congress Averts Higher Tax Bill for Middle Class — WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday gave final approval to a plan that will spare millions of middle-class taxpayers higher taxes in the coming months. The White House welcomed the development and said President Bush would sign the bill.
RELATED:
David Stout / New York Times:Congress Votes to Spare Millions From Alternative Tax
Discussion:
On Deadline
Greg Gordon / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Official: Justice Dept. slowed probe into phone jamming — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department delayed prosecuting a key Republican official for jamming the phones of New Hampshire Democrats until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over.
John Koblin / New York Observer:
Kristol, Krauthammer Are Out of Time — Bill Kristol. — Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month.
Jimmie / The Sundries Shack:
The Politico Story on Thompson is Wrong (Update: Not Just Wrong. Really, Really Wrong) — From Dan Riehl we have this story about an allegedly less-than-stellar campaign stop for Fred Thompson. I say “allegedly” because there's at least one large portion of the story that did not happen as written.
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, The Politico, Riehl World View, Hot Air, A Second Hand Conjecture and The Stump
RELATED:
The Corner:
Curious Huck — Mike Huckabee is now becoming a very divisive figure in the Republican party. It's not his faith or his Merry Christmas commercial that many conservatives question (I certainly don't), but it's his record as governor and his stated positions on the war, foreign policy generally, taxes, spending, and illegal aliens.
Discussion:
Hot Air
Gay Patriot:
Sondra K-Grande Conservative Blogress Diva 2008 — When we launched the Grande Conservative Blogress Diva contest this year, we expected to have a number of blogresses nominated and seconded as we did. So, we assumed a run-off would be necessary. — What we did not anticipate was the number of glitches in this year's competition.
Discussion:
Tammy Bruce
Tom Firey / Cato-at-liberty:
A Moment of Idiocy, of Real Idiocy — The above title is the correct assessment of the new energy bill that President Bush just signed into law, less than 24 hrs after the House approved it by a 314-100 margin. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, speaking just prior to yesterday's vote …
Post / Washington Post:
Clinton Advisers Say Edwards Is a Threat — 2-WAY RACE? DO I HEAR 3? — Clinton Advisers Say Edwards Is a Threat — INDEPENDENCE, Iowa — Advisers to Hillary Clinton have been pushing the notion that John Edwards poses a growing threat in the Iowa caucuses, suggesting …
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Did Huckabee Have Gastric Bypass Surgery? — Zogby says that we're in the middle of a Huckaboom — they find that Mike Huckabee is within 1 point of Giuliani in the national polls. Whether the Zogby poll is an outlier or not, Huckabee's surge over the past two months has been remarkable …
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!
