We've been here before

Not to be outdone by the buzz surrounding Michael Bloomberg's intentions, Ralph Nader is toying with a presidential run.

Yes, again. And yes, we've gone down this road so often that we'll simply link you to Nader's interview with the Politico's Roger Simon.

The famed consumer advocate does have some sharp words for Hillary Clinton worth noting; he calls her a "political coward." And there's an intriguing tidbit featuring Al Gore.

-- Don Frederick

Photo: Ralph Nader; Credit: Molly Riley/REUTERS

Rudy runs late

Rudy Giuliani must be glad the weekend is fast approaching.

As we noted earlier this week, Tuesday brought a cavalcade of ill tidings for the GOP presidential contender: a Newsday story questioned his motives for quitting the Iraq Study Group last year, his top Iowa advisor decided to leave politicking behind to take a high-level White House post, and the chairman of the Giuliani campaign in South Carolina was busted on cocaine charges.

It's also doubtful that Giuliani was thrilled by the prospect that Michael Bloomberg, who succeeded him as New York mayor, could embark on an independent presidential candidacy. How much oxygen exists in the political universe, after all, for two boys from the Big Apple?

Undeterred, Giuliani hit the trail Wednesday in Des Moines. Unfortunately, he showed up at his main appearance 50 minutes late, and earned a blog scolding from the dean of the Iowa press corps, David Yepsen.

"Giuliani and his campaign need to learn some things about campaigning in Iowa," Yepsen writes. "Like not being tardy. People will give up ten or 15 minutes but an hour? That's a pretty big screw-up."

That said, Yepsen goes on to make a persuasive case that Giuliani's status in the state that kicks off the caucus/primary season is not as dire as some have painted it. And the loss of his key advisor, Yepsen opines, "won't make much difference. The campaign wasn't doing well and can only get better."

-- Don Frederick

The "L" word: Rarely uttered

Search the transcripts of the three Republican presidential debates conducted so far this year, and the noun "conservative" appears repeatedly. As in, from Mitt Romney during the most recent forum: "I know I've got conservative credentials."

Perform the same search for the word "liberal" in the two debates among Democratic White House contenders, and you'll come up with ... zero hits.

The Democratic Party, in general, and its left wing, in particular, may be filled with optimism these days that they're riding the prevailing political tides, but Republicans remain far more comfortable using a terse, succinct term to label their beliefs.

That difference was driven home during this week's "Take Back America" conference in Washington. News accounts routinely referred to it as a gathering of "liberal" activists. But over three days of speeches, panel discussions and confabs, "liberal" --- while perhaps not the word that dare not speak its name --- was hardly heard.

"Hillaryland" explored

"Never have so many women operated at such a high level in one campaign, working with a discipline and a loyalty and a legendary secrecy rarely seen at this level of American politics."

The campaign, of course, is Hillary Clinton's. And the sentence above is drawn from today's Washington Post article that explores the network of female aides and advisors that the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race has wired together over the years.

Some of the women have been the subject of separate pieces before, such as Patti Solis Doyle, the 41-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants who first worked for Clinton in 1991 and now serves as her campaign's chief of staff.

But the Post story provides a useful overview of the group and how it operates, as well as glimpses of some of those who presumably would play a key role in a Clinton administration. Plus, it has details such as these: "They have a personal connection virtually nonexistent among professional male colleagues. Even rarer: the weekly yoga class at the campaign's (Virginia) headquarters)."

-- Don Frederick

Photo: Hillary Clinton; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/AP

Romney drops in on Big Sky Country

The days of summer are long ones way up north in Big Sky Country and there to greet tomorrow's dawn in the state capital so tidily tucked into the Rockies will be GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

"Attracting a top presidential contender is a great thing for Montana," says Jake Eaton, organizer of the annual state Republican Party convention in Helena. He said the former Massachusetts governor's presence "speaks to the growing importance of Western issues on the national stage."

Vice President Dick Cheney from next-door Wyoming and former president George H.W. Bush have campaigned in Montana in recent elections. But normally the fourth largest state with less than a million residents and only three electoral votes is another one of those Western flyover states. Not to mention Montana's June presidential primary being one of the nation's latest, ensuring political irrelevance in such a front-loaded primary season as 2008.

Turning a couple of red and blue states green

Boy, you better not toss an aluminum can into the wastebasket at next summer's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"It will be the greenest convention we've ever had," convention CEO Leah Daughtry tells the Rocky Mountain News. "We want to incorporate green principles into everything we do." The Democrats are working with the Coalition for Environmentally Friendly Conventions, which will also help the Republicans.

The Denver convention plans a wide range of environmentally-friendly measures to ease the impact of thousands of visitors to the five-day candidate-naming contest, Aug. 24-28. Bring your cuff clips because many will be expected to ride bicycles from downtown hotels to the Pepsi Center. Or take hybrid vans and taxis.

As you get off your plane on arrival, you'll be able to purchase carbon offsets to help repair the damage that your plane's jet engines just did to the atmosphere. You'll be asked to take shorter showers and use the same towel more than one day. The goal is a paperless convention with everything going by email, so be sure to bring your rechargers.

Wind turbines and solar panels may go up around the Pepsi Center.

Do you feel a wind blowing in Iowa?

There's a new Iowa poll out by Mason-Dixon Polling. 400 Democratic and 400 Republican likely caucus-goers. With a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5%.

Mitt Romney, who's spent millions on advertising there already, still leads the GOP pack with 25%. Fred Thompson, who has yet to declare, is second at 17%. Rudy Giuliani, who returned to Iowa today for the first time in over a month, is third at 15%. You'll never guess who's fourth--Mike Huckabee at 7%.

Then, wait for it, comes Sam Brownback and one-time frontrunner John McCain now tied for fifth with 6% each.

On the Democratic side another surprise. John Edwards, who had been leading in Iowa, now trails Hillary Clinton slightly, 21-22. Barack Obama is third with 18%, followed by Bill Richardson at 6% and Joe Biden at 4%.

--Andrew Malcolm

Photo: Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee; Credit: Danny Johnston/AP

Romney still in the crosshairs

Some gaffes die hard. Like John Edwards' $400 haircut. And, at least in the eyes of Field & Stream, Mitt Romney's bid to establish his street cred with their readers.

Romney, as you'll recall, touted himself back in early April as "a hunter pretty much my whole life." Well, not really; he quickly clarified that he sometimes shot rabbits as a kid, but that was about it. The Boston Globe noted that in the four states he's lived in, he never took out a hunting license.

In its latest issue, Field & Stream zings Romney over his exaggeration in its "Heroes & Villains" column. He may, however, have some hope of repairing the wound; he earns the label "villain," but with a question mark.

-- Don Frederick

He showed respect for this thing of hers

The phone rang late Saturday night in Johnny Sack's home. The caller wanted a sitdown the next morning at a diner in Mt. Kisco, N.Y.

But this was no mob hit. Johnny had already died of lung cancer in prison. And the actor who played him on The Sopranos, Vince Curatola, is just fine, thank you. The caller wanted him to play a cameo in a Hillary Clinton campaign video that spoofed the long-running HBO gangster show to announce her new theme song.

Curatola, a Republican who voted twice for Bill Clinton, was only too happy to oblige. And for no fee, just a roundtrip car ride. Curatola told the N.Y. Post, "I like a lot about her. Guts, first of all. A lot of guts, a lot of staying power." But no endorsement just yet. Curatola, who's on the board of the Hackensack University Medical Center, tells the Washington Post, "If I see her platform leaning more and more toward a national health care plan, I would be very interested in her for president."

As described in yesterday's Top of the Ticket item, in the video Curatola is sitting at the diner counter malevolently eyeing Bill and Hillary in their booth. "I have a great time staring them down," says the actor, "which they know did not come from my heart. It was only my acting."

Absences explained

Where are Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd, we couldn't help but wonder as we watched most of the Democratic presidential candidates troop before major gatherings of union members and liberal activists Tuesday and today in Washington.

Dodd's absence from the conference of progressive groups was especially puzzling --- more so than his Senate colleagues, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he's pushed for an aggressive congressional stance in pushing for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

And Biden's appearance at the conference likely would have been worth watching --- although he's offered a detailed plan aimed at extricating the U.S. from Iraq, he broke with Dodd, Clinton and Obama and voted for the latest emergency war spending bill, rather than continue a stalemate on the issue with President Bush over the withdrawal issue.

The answer to the Dodd and Biden no-shows, as it turns out, was pretty prosiac. They were invited to each event but sent their regrets, citing scheduling conflicts.

-- Don Frederick