HAIR TODAY GONE TOMORROW – After appearances with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC, NY-1 with Dominic Carter and Fox News, many readers have e-mailed to ask whether I am dying my hair darker. Why the Progressive Left has such an obsession with my hair, I don’t know. In any event, the “new color” is my natural color after years of bleaching to effect the “Billy Idol” look. * THINKING New York Comptroller Alan Hevasi was removed from office for misuse of a State car and driver. Eliot Spitzer misused the State police to conduct a political dirty tricks operation at taxpayer expense and remains in office…so far. * FRED FLOPS Has anyone else noticed the crowds greeting newly minted presidential candidate Fred Thompson are sparse and non-committal? Thompson has failed to put together a team of professionals with deep Presidential campaign experience. To turn away Conservative theoretician and “idea man” Jeff Bell, one of the original architects of Ronald Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 campaigns, is folly. No wonder the campaign lacks a rationale or compelling message. * RUDY-MANIA New York Times Magazine’s piece a week ago Sunday, “The Crusader” by Matt Bai, sums up the compelling rationale of the Giuliani candidacy. This has been the most incisive writing of campaign 2008 so far providing a clear understanding of why Rudy leads the field. * PATAKI APPOINTMENT The Bush Administration is considering two controversial appointments from New York. Former Governor George Pataki is slated to be nominated for the Ambassadorship of Hungary, although the White House is leery of Senate Democrats raising a “contributions for paroles” scandal in the Pataki Administration in which Pataki’s Parole Board Chairman was named as an indicted co-conspirator. Also under consideration for an Ambassadorial appointment is former Pataki Finance Chairman Charles Gargano who reportedly failed to pass a background check for an Ambassadorial appointment to Italy during the Reagan Administration. * SCHWARZENEGGER The purge of republicans at the highest and mid-level of the Schwarzenegger Administration as First Lady and Kennedy Democrat Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger has consolidated control over the Governor’s office and political operation, forcing out both the Governor’s show-business handlers, Pete Wilson Republicans and any Republican Consultants. This also explains the “move left” on policy issues that allowed the Governor to run as a RINO – Republican In Name Only. * LOOKING AT CRIST Any Republican who wants to be elected President has to carry Florida which brings Florida’s new Governor Charlie Crist under the national spotlight. With approval ratings at 71% and bi-partisan governing in contrast to his predecessor, Crist is on the short list for Vice President with at least two of the front runner’s STRATEGISTS. Crist is a former Attorney General whose tough-on-crime policies earned him the nick name ‘Chain-gang Charlie.’ The Governor brings Florida’s 27 electoral votes with him.
