See previous: 2007.05.13 Decision '08 // Dem Stupidity Roundup ...

Below the fold, newest items at the top: 

• Will Chuck Hagel Hurt the Republicans?
• Fred Thompson: First Things First
• Video: Rosie’s newest 9/11 theories: Guilani moved steel, kept Command Control in WTC #7
• Hillary Clinton: The Jocelyn Wildenstein of politics

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Will Chuck Hagel Hurt the Republicans?
John Hinderaker

There has been a lot of comment on Chuck Hagel's appearance yesterday on Face the Nation. Hagel said he is interested in making a third-party run for President, likely paired with Mayor Mike Bloomberg:

It's a great country to think about - a New York boy and a Nebraska boy to be teamed up leading this nation.

Hagel attributed his interest in a third-party run to the claim that the Republican Parth has been "hijacked." But his characterization of the supposed "hijacking" was incoherent:

It's been hijacked by a group of single-minded almost isolationists, insulationists, power-projectors.

"Isolationist power-projectors?" That's a previously unknown species; maybe it means something similar to "neocons."

The Face the Nation roundtable seemed to take Hagel almost as seriously as he takes himself:

"It's the kind of thing that it's so tantalizing, I think it meets a need not just with the political system but with the public," said Michelle McQueen Martin of National Public Radio. "I mean, you see a yearning within the public for another option."

Maybe people at NPR are yearning for a candidate like Hagel; I know some Republicans who are yearning for a new candidate, but it isn't Hagel: it's Fred Thompson or Newt Gingrich.

Which brings us to the question: if Hagel runs, will he hurt the Republican candidate, or the Democrat? ...

See also: Glenn Reynolds, Lorie Byrd, Jules Crittenden

Quasi-related:

• Surprising: New Yorkers Prefer Bloomberg over Giuliani, not just as Mayor but as President, too
• Fool. Money. Parted (H. Ross Bloomberg, Part II.)
• Bloomberg Going Perot With A Billion Bucks?

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First Things First
Fred Thompson

Editor’s note: This speech was delivered to the meeting of the Council for National Policy in Tysons Corner, Virginia on Saturday, May 12, 2007.

One thing about folks knowing you are going to speak at the Council for National Policy, you get lots of advice as to what to say.  A lot of good advice.  Good talking points.  In fact enough for several speeches.  Also, some of your friends, knowing that you are thinking about running for President, urge you to give a rousing campaign speech. 

Hopefully there will be an opportunity to do all of those things but tonight instead of all of that, I want to talk a little about what should be the origin of all those talking points.  This would be the principles on which they are based — first principles.  The principles you have been defending since 1981. ...

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Video: Rosie’s newest 9/11 theories: Guilani
moved steel, kept Command Control in WTC #7
Ian Schwartz

[video link] On ABC’s “The View” this morning, host Rosie O’Donnell once again brought up her kooky 9/11 conspiracy theory about WTC #7, this time involving then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani. According to Big Ro, Giuliani ordered steel from WTC #7 be moved to China before any testing could be done. Pregnant co-host and conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck couldn’t help but laugh.

Later in the segment co-host Joy Behar tries to dismiss Giuliani’s heroic role in the aftermath of 9/11, saying he didn’t remove Command Control from the World Trade Center. And guess which building that was in? WTC #7! The building, according to Rosie, that “mysteriously collapsed.” This gave Ro yet another chance to explain Trutherism to the audience.

Behar suggests the show book one expert on each side of the so-called “debate.” Hasselbeck said her expert would be from Popular Mechanics. ...

Lorie Byrd has more here.

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Hillary Clinton: The Jocelyn Wildenstein of politics
Michelle Malkin

Check out my review of Bay Buchanan's new book, "The Extreme Makeover of Hillary Clinton:"

There’s a popular website on the Internet called “Awful Plastic Surgery.” It chronicles the most hideous makeover attempts by celebrities: Nose jobs gone bad. Eye lifts gone awry. Liposuction disasters galore. The poster child of Awful Plastic Surgery is a socialite named Jocelyn Wildenstein -- a once decent-looking woman whose insecurities fed a three-decade-long addiction that turned her into a world-famous, face-scrambled freak.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is the Jocelyn Wildenstein of politics. ...