Steve Kornacki

There was a particular urgency in Thursday’s Republican presidential debate for two candidates: Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.

Romney’s campaign hangs in the balance in next week’s Michigan primary, where anything short of a win will likely mark the end of the line for the former Massachusetts governor. And Thompson’s candidacy will expire unless he can come from way behind to win two Saturdays from now in South Carolina, where the candidates gathered tonight.

Each man faces a decidedly uphill climb, Thompson in particular, and nothing that transpired in tonight’s 90-minute forum, which was broadcast on the Fox News Channel, brought either man much closer to his goal.
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Steve Kornacki has write-up of last night's Democratic debate in which he says that Hillary Clinton won because she and Barack Obama stuck to the same script.

From Kornacki's piece:

Mrs. Clinton can only benefit from the willingness of her rivals to be as cautious and “presidential” as she is—and as Mr. Obama was last night. The 20 percent [of like New Hampshire Democratic primary voters] who now support him may have found his performance reassuring, but it offered no compelling reason for undecided voters to think that he could win the nomination.

The gang here is taking a brief, end-of-summer sort-of vacation (it's really more like a temporary work slow-down) starting tomorrow, and we're handing over control of the Politicker to frequent contributor Steve Kornacki.

He usually writes about national stuff, but don’t let that stop you from emailing him with local tips, photos, invitations, etc at steve.kornacki(at)gmail(dot)com.

I’ll also be emailable and posting sporadically as I pop in and out of my undisclosed location.

Anyway, be nice to him.

Jason Horowitz reports on Hillary Clinton's tour of Iraq and Afghanistan and catches up with Barack Obama on the day of his announcement.

Steve Kornacki says that there's nothing gimmicky about Obama's candidacy.

Joe Conason writes that the administration's broad strategy for the Iraq region is no strategy at all.

And Richard Brookhiser thinks that the bad guys in Iraq will have a field day if the American military stops pressing the fight.

-- Josh Benson

Here's one last take from Steve Kornacki on the upcoming, high-stakes House leadership vote:

Earlier this week, I wrote that Nancy Pelosi would suffer no real damage from today's vote for House Majority Leader.

That was then.

The House 230-some odd Democrats will convene in the Cannon Building this morning to choose between Steny Hoyer, the current second-ranking House Democrat and Pelosi's longtime foe, and John Murtha, who has the incoming Speaker's support.

Just a few days ago, this seemed like a simple little exercise. Hoyer would score a lay-up of a victory while Pelosi, recognizing the futility of the situation, would provide a nominal endorsement to her friend Murtha without lending any real muscle to his cause. In other words, she'd refrain from making Hoyer's - and the Democratic caucus's - life too difficult.  read more »

Like I said, that was then.

Steve Kornacki talked to Rudy Giuliani up in NH yesterday and sent along this email:

Rudy Giuliani used his speech at a fund-raiser for NH state House Republican candidates to tout the importance of electing GOP candidates up and down the ballot and the party's general superiority on every issue imaginable. So I asked him if he still thinks Mario Cuomo would make a better governor than George Pataki:

Giuliani's response:

"It's so long ago, I can't even remember it. George Pataki turned out to be a terrific governor and a good friend. Hindsight always makes things easier, and I guess that's kind of the point I was making about even more serious issues like North Korea, September 11, and even yesterday. But I said this before: George Pataki turned out to be a really good governor. If I had known that beforehand, I probably could have made a different decision. I didn't. With the facts I had available then, that was the right decision, I thought, for the city and the state."

-- Azi Paybarah

Joe Conason says Fox and the Bush administration can't handle Bill Clinton's dose of truthiness, and Steve Kornacki looks at the impact of the former president's publicity blitz on Hillary, Gore and the rest of the 2008 contenders.

Jason Horowitz writes about Al Gore's sleeper cells of presidential donors and operatives, still waiting for the call.

Niall Stanage says that John Bolton deserves an up-or-down vote in the Senate even if his UN colleagues find his behavior upsetting.

Matt Schuerman reports that the city's plans for the Sunnyside rail yards could make a guy named Michael Bailkin into New York's next big development kingpin.

Tom Scocca gets rebellious LA Times boss Dean Baquet to say meaningful things about his birthday cake.

And here's an insider's account of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's noisy visit to New York from writer, music exec and Farsi translator extraordinaire Hooman Majd.

-- Josh Benson

Jason Horowitz's election coverage focuses on the new Andrew Cuomo, whose handlers managed to file off most of the rough parts in the course of his establishment-backed primary victory.

Steve Kornacki has a 2008-centered analysis of Hillary Clinton's 2006 re-election campaign, featuring a surprise cameo appearance from a certain former governor of Massachusetts.

And Kornacki gets back to his disturbingly deep roots in New Jersey politics, discussing Democratic panic over Bob Menendez's troubled campaign and the possibility that this year's Frank Lautenberg will be... Dick Codey.

Azi Paybarah and John Koblin have some amusing pieces of ground-level reporting with each of the candidates in the closing days of Yvette Clarke's primary victory in the 11th CD, with David Yassky getting jeered by a crowd, Carl Andrews getting mistaken for Al Sharpton and Chris Owens getting a little weird.

Matt Schuerman writes about Sheldon Silver's determination to stop George Pataki from getting anything built before he leaves office.

Joe Conason listens to the president's 9/11 speech and despairs.

Bonus feature: John Koblin plumbs the significance of Mets pitcher and secret American hero John Maine. Said teammate Steve Trachsel: "He's a really bad piece of shit."

-- Josh Benson

In this week's paper, Jason Horowitz follows Jonathan Tasini, and hears from NY1 why there probably won't be a debate between Tasini and Hillary Clinton.

"We haven't proposed a debate. We haven't prevented him from doing anything--Hillary Clinton will not do one," said Steve Paulus, the general manager of NY1 News. "The bottom line is that we are not the ones preventing him from debating--that's the incumbent."

And Steve Kornacki plays the expectation game with Hillary and thinks she can be the Democratic nominee without winning the early primaries or caucuses in 2008.

"After all, if Hillary can lower the bar enough in the early states, she could be in position to declare victory without actually winning."  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Also in the Observer this week, Jason Horowitz looks at the bad week Joe Lieberman had trying to motivate -- or even locate -- Democratic supporters in Connecticut.

And Steve Kornacki writes about the unusual phenomenon of ideological primary challenges in the Democratic Party.

It's going to be interesting, now that Lamont is the nominee, to see how enthusiastically Lieberman's Democratic colleagues in the Senate actually work against him.

Chuck Schumer's DSCC is already decked out for Lamont, and it's probably fair to assume that all of the other Senators who promised to support the winner are going to follow suit.

It looks like Lieberman will have the support of one prominent liberal Republican: Mike Bloomberg, whose backing should count for something in a general election.

-- Josh Benson UPDATE: Speaking of support from Republicans, George Stephanopoulos is now reporting that Karl Rove has reached out to Lieberman, on behalf of the president, with an offer of help.