Peter T. King

With Rudy Giuliani and John McCain both clearly on the road to a presidential run, Republican fans of the like-minded Republicans -- hawkish in both foreign policy and temperament -- are going to be forced to pick between the two.

A few weeks ago I was speaking with Rep. Pete King about this very choice. King, you may remember, picked a fight with George Pataki and most of the New York GOP establishment to stand by McCain when he ran against George Bush. But he's also a longtime friend and ally of Giuliani.

So who will it be?

"I supported McCain in 2000," said King. "I still think he'd make a great president. I just feel that at this time, more than anyone, Rudy realizes the type of enemy -- an insidious, amorphous enemy."

"Rudy is number 1, McCain 1a."

-- Jason Horowitz

Dave Mejias recieved some good news last week when the DCCC added his race against Rep. Peter King in the 3rd Congressional district to their "red to blue" program.

I'd heard a rumor since then that the Mejias campaign had actually receieved less money from the DCCC than they were expecting. But campaign manager Mike Premo said that wasn't the case, and that they were receiving "tens of thousands of dollars" plus logistical support to help the candidate in the final week before the election.

"Since we have been targeted there is a heavy influx of support to help us pay those final bills," he said.

In addition, Mejias received the endorsement today of Newsday, which King recently suggested to a crowd of security profesionals in Manhattan isn't a real newspaper.

--Jason Horowitz

The much-anticipated debate yesterday between Rep. Peter King of Long Island and his Democratic challenger Dave Mejias is online over here. Warning. It's an hour long. But it's also worth watching, at least for a couple of minutes, if you're at all interested in this stuff.

Like the Times wrote today, most Republicans have done an about-face on the idea of campaigning on Iraq. King, as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, doesn't have that option, and doesn't sound like he'd want to take it if he could.

Quick highlights:

Mejias, around the 3:20 mark:

"Five years later, after September 11th, we still have not hunted down and killed Bin Laden. That's a crime."

King talks about Iraq around the 4:45 mark:

"There are parts of the country that are stable. There are parts of the country that are deadly...I was on a convoy along the highway when a bomb went off. A bomb went off [and I] was almost killed. Then we went through the city and the city was perfectly stable. It shows how dangerous it is and how stable it is at the same time."

-- Azi Paybarah