The Politicker

I asked Joe Trippi, a former senior adviser to John Edwards, why the North Carolina senator decided to endorse Barack Obama today.

He said he didn't know the motivations. He wanted to talk impact.

"I don't know why, I just know it's big," he said. "I don't know what other endorsement you'd really want right now. He is Mr. Blue Collar. His whole life has been fighting for blue-collar people."

Trippi argued that Obama should ask Edwards to campaign for him in Kentucky, and help him connect with working-class, white voters. But said the move would help end the primary in any case. "It will open the floodgates" of superdelegates to Obama, Trippi said, because the endorsement was a sign for "everyone to get off the sidelines."

Trippi said the endorsement also freed up any reluctant Edwards-committed delegates or donors to now go for Obama.

The news of John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama was reported as Hillary Clinton addressed her top donors in her Washington, D.C., home today.

"It actually broke during the meeting, and I was passing my BlackBerry around when NBC confirmed it," said one donor in the room.  The reaction of the fund-raisers in the room was mixed, according to the bundler. "Some people said, 'Shit, now we have to deal with this?' Other people said, and I agree with this, 'Who cares? Maybe if he did it two months ago. But now who cares?'"

Someone in the room sought to inform Clinton of the news by declaring out loud "Edwards has just endorsed Obama," according to the donor.  read more »

7:30 a.m. The New York Women's Foundation honors CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour; New York Hilton, 1335 Sixth Ave.

10 a.m. Seniors and advocates rally against budget cuts; City Hall Park.

10:15 a.m. Talk show host/author Tavis Smiley delivers Long Island University Brooklyn Campus commencement address; campus athletic field near Flatbush and DeKalb avenues.  read more »

John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama.

The D.N.C. announced a joint fund-raising agreement with both Democratic campaigns.

Cherie Blair praises Chelsea Clinton in her new book.

Joe Klein says Joe Lieberman is the new Zell Miller.

Clinton defended Obama against attacks from McCain.

She also said that Charlie Rangel was right when he said that her comments about white Americans were "the dumbest thing she could have said."

Obama called a reporter "sweetie."

Congressman Tom Davis spelled Obama's first name wrong repeatedly in a report.

Liz reports that an Albany bill signing ceremony turned awkward today.

Because of Vito Fossella's troubles, the Working Families Party is postponing interviewing candidates for that seat.

State Senate Democrats are pushing for a foreclosure moratorium.

Congestion pricing opponent Hakeem Jeffries is demanding more G trains, Streetsblog notes bitterly.

The City Council overrode Bloomberg's veto on e-waste legislation.

Christine Quinn is still with Clinton.

NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe discusses changes in playground regulations, and notes, "Kids will have fun with a stick and pile of dirt."

Here's video of State Senator Eric Schneiderman explaining his support for "taxing the wealthy New Yorkers."

A Vanity Fair writer interviews a Vanity Fair columnist about an Eliot Spitzer-inspired article--in Vanity Fair.

Matt Bai's article on John McCain for this Sunday's New York Times was just released online.

Among other things, Bai reports that there is a quietly held belief among some of the other Vietnam veterans in the Senate that McCain is an unwavering backer of the war in Iraq, essentially, because prison spared him many of the embittering experiences of Chuck Hagel, Jim Webb and John Kerry:

There is a feeling among some of McCain’s fellow veterans that his break with them on Iraq can be traced, at least partly, to his markedly different experience in Vietnam. McCain’s comrades in the Senate will not talk about this publicly. They are wary of seeming to denigrate McCain’s service, marked by his legendary endurance in a Hanoi prison camp, when in fact they remain, to this day, in awe of it. And yet in private discussions with friends and colleagues, some of them have pointed out that McCain, who was shot down and captured in 1967, spent the worst and most costly years of the war sealed away, both from the rice paddies of Indochina and from the outside world. During those years, McCain did not share the disillusioning and morally jarring experiences of soldiers like Kerry, Webb and Hagel, who found themselves unable to recognize their enemy in the confusion of the jungle; he never underwent the conversion that caused Kerry, for one, to toss away some of his war decorations during a protest at the Capitol. Whatever anger McCain felt remained focused on his captors, not on his own superiors back in Washington.

The jockeying to run for Republican Vito Fossella’s suddenly winnable congressional seat has opened a bit of a rift between Brooklyn and Staten Island Democrats.

The seat is mostly in Staten Island, but for years, Democratic elected officials there have taken a pass at challenging Fossella since that would have meant giving up their own safe re-elections in order to run (and probably lose). The result was a string of unmemorable candidates who got slaughtered by Fossella and his Republican predecessor, Susan Molinari.

The Brooklyn side, at least, has produced some feisty challengers, namely Frank Barbaro and Steve Harrison. This year, in addition to Harrison, the Democratic field will include Councilman Domenic Recchia, who has even more campaign money at his disposal than Fossella. The Brooklyn Dems, in other words, would seem to have a pretty good chance of producing the nominee this year.

But now it's gotten more complicated. There’s blood in the water, thanks to Fossella’s love child scandal (not to mention a pretty good Democratic trend nationwide), and Staten Island Democrats are looking for someone to get in on the action. This is particularly significant because if Fossella resigns, designating a Democratic challenger for the resulting special election will fall to the folks on Staten Island.

Will Brooklyn get edged out?

Here's how Council member Vinny Gentile made their case: “It seems to me that to suggest that it’s a Staten Island seat, if you look at the last three Brooklynites who were the nominees, they did as well if not better than the State Islanders who were nominees."  read more »

This morning at a press conference in the Bronx, I asked Michael Bloomberg what he thinks of the reaction to a video of the exchange he had with a Newsday reporter this week, which now has nearly 10,000 hits on YouTube, and was written about in The New York Times and elsewhere.

"What exchange with a Newsday reporter?" Bloomberg responded, before saying he hadn't seen any of the reaction.

For anyone keeping track, that Newsday reporter, Michael Frazier, had an easier time today.

EMILY's List, which supports Hillary Clinton, reacts harshly to what it calls the "tremendously disrespectful" endorsement of Barack Obama by NARAL.

The following is a statement from EMILY’s List president Ellen R. Malcolm on NARAL’s endorsement in the Democratic presidential competition:

“I think it is tremendously disrespectful to Sen. Clinton - who held up the nomination of a FDA commissioner in order to force approval of Plan B and who spoke so eloquently during the Supreme Court nomination about the importance of protecting Roe vs. Wade - to not give her the courtesy to finish the final three weeks of the primary process. It certainly must be disconcerting for elected leaders who stand up for reproductive rights and expect the choice community will stand with them.”

On a conference call today, the Clinton campaign argued that after her victory in West Virginia–and counting the votes in Florida and Michigan–Hillary Clinton now leads in the popular vote. "Hillary Clinton has now moved ahead in the popular vote," said campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe. (In that calculation, the Clinton campaign is not awarding any Michigan votes for the "uncommitted" choice to Obama, who was not on the ballot there.)

Also, reacting to news from earlier today, Howard Wolfson said he is "surprised" by NARAL's endorsement of Barack Obama.

Wolfson again argued the merits of the alternate delegate target (now 2,210 up from 2,209) that the Clinton campaign has said it is pursuing.

Speaking about an interaction on the Senate floor yesterday between Clinton and Barack Obama, Wolfson told reporters listening in that the exchange was about pleasantries. "They did not discuss the debt," Wolfson said, referring to the millions of dollars Clinton has loaned to her campaign. Many political observers have speculated that Clinton will require Obama to cancel that debt as a condition of her withdrawal.

Wolfson said that the campaign had raised "seven figures," which, he said, "is about as specific as we are going to do."

In a meeting Clinton will have with donors at her D.C. home today, she will make the case for her nomination based on her performance last night, her chances in upcoming contests, and her strong performance in swing states, according to Wolfson.

He then thanked the donors.

"We have been extremely pleased by the continuing show of support we have seen both from big donors and grass-roots donors," said Wolfson, who acknowledged that "They are not oblivious to the news that they read and see."

Wolfson also laughed off (literally) a question about whether any of the members of his communications team had been allowed to move over to Obama.

"The answer to the last question is no," he said.

The woman who booked Eliot Spitzer's date with a prostitute plead guilty. [Daily News]

David Soares raises more money. [Capitol Confidential]

It might be a coincidence that Jim Webb's book comes out tomorrow. [Ambinder]

Joshua Green is his own guinea pig as he investigates the Obama fund-raising operation. [Atlantic]

Here's Mike Huckabee on the Republican brand. [Jonathan Martin]

New York considers the ways in which John McCain's S.N.L. appearance could go wrong. [Intelligencer]