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The Campaign Blogging Continues… Over at the Bintel Blog

The Forward’s campaign blogging is moving over to our Bintel Blog.

The John and Joe Show: Lieberman Campaigns for McCain, But Says He’s Not Interested in No. 2 Spot

John McCain and Joe Lieberman have been keeping close company since the Connecticut senator crossed the aisle to endorse his Republican Senate colleague’s presidential bid. Lieberman has been campaigning for McCain in New Hampshire, and today the bipartisan pair have a co-bylined opinion article in The Wall Street Journal arguing that the U.S. military surge in Iraq has worked and praising the leadership of General David Petraeus.

Despite some speculation about a possible McCain-Lieberman ticket, the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee told Reuters he wasn’t interested in being McCain’s running mate. “”Oh yeah. I got that bug out of my system,” he said.

N.Y. Sun: Obama’s Stance on Israel Should Be Welcomed, Not Attacked

The decidedly right-wing New York Sun — a fervent defender of Israel that’s hawkish on the Mideast and bearish on prospects for peace with the Palestinians — is defending Barack Obama from Republican charges that he’s weak when it comes to supporting Israel.

The Sun’s editorialist writes:

New York Republicans, according to an article in the New York Post yesterday, are preparing to attack Senator Obama for his supposed lack of support for Israel. “Obama’s commitment to Israel is open to question, and that would help us with Jews,” the Post quotes a “prominent New York Republican” as saying. We’re no shills for Mr. Obama, but these Republicans haven’t checked their facts. At least by our lights, Mr. Obama’s commitment to Israel, as he has articulated it so far in his campaign, is quite moving and a tribute to the broad, bipartisan support that the Jewish state has in America.

Read the full editorial here.

Hat tip: JTA

Reading Ron Paul’s Old Newsletters: ’93 WTC Bombing a Mossad ‘Set-Up’?

The New Republic’s James Kirchik reads the political newsletters that Ron Paul was busy putting out in the decades before he became a national political figure. In the future presidential candidate’s newsletters Kirchik finds crazy conspiracy theories, hostility to blacks in general (and Martin Luther King Jr. in particular), anti-gay remarks and some unkind words about Israel:

Kirchick writes:

…The newsletters display an obsession with Israel; no other country is mentioned more often in the editions I saw, or with more vitriol. A 1987 issue of Paul’s Investment Letter called Israel “an aggressive, national socialist state,” and a 1990 newsletter discussed the “tens of thousands of well-placed friends of Israel in all countries who are willing to wok [sic] for the Mossad in their area of expertise.” Of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a newsletter said, “Whether it was a setup by the Israeli Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little.”

While the authorship of the individual newsletter articles is not always clear, Kirchik argues:

…whoever actually wrote them, the newsletters I saw all had one thing in common: They were published under a banner containing Paul’s name, and the articles (except for one special edition of a newsletter that contained the byline of another writer) seem designed to create the impression that they were written by him–and reflected his views.

Hat tip: NJDC blog.

UPDATE: Ron Paul’s campaign issued the following statement:

In response to an article published by The New Republic, Ron Paul issued the following statement:

“The quotations in The New Republic article are not mine and do not represent what I believe or have ever believed. I have never uttered such words and denounce such small-minded thoughts.

“In fact, I have always agreed with Martin Luther King, Jr. that we should only be concerned with the content of a person’s character, not the color of their skin. As I stated on the floor of the U.S. House on April 20, 1999: ‘I rise in great respect for the courage and high ideals of Rosa Parks who stood steadfastly for the rights of individuals against unjust laws and oppressive governmental policies.’

“This story is old news and has been rehashed for over a decade. It’s once again being resurrected for obvious political reasons on the day of the New Hampshire primary.

“When I was out of Congress and practicing medicine full-time, a newsletter was published under my name that I did not edit. Several writers contributed to the product. For over a decade, I have publicly taken moral responsibility for not paying closer attention to what went out under my name.”

Larry David Thinks Obama Would Make a Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good President

Barack Obama has a surly nebbish stumping in the Dartmouth College dorms for him — “Seinfeld” co-creator and star of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David.

“Haven’t we had enough with Bushes and Clintons and Bushes,” David told students. “The country needs a shower, a good, long, hot shower. That’s what Obama is, a hot shower. So fresh you can smell him, delicious.”

According to The Dartmouth, David “avoided serious responses to students’ questions on policy issues.” Instead, he left that task to his celebrity co-campaigners, Arianna Huffington and his agent, Ari Emanuel. (Emanuel, like David, provided the inspiration for an HBO series character, super-agent Ari Gold on “Entourage,” and is also the brother of Democratic political powerbroker, Rep. Rahm Emanuel — who is in the now-dicey position of being a Clinton loyalist in Chicago.)

While shying from the serious issues, David was in top form when asked which “Seinfeld” character would make the best president.

“Newman,” David answered. “Because every time he would give a press conference and walk up to the podium, everyone would say, ‘Hello Newman.’”

Hat tip: Politico’s Ben Smith.

UPDATE: Arianna Huffington has a nice account of David’s appearance here. He actually gave a pretty substantive response to a student who asked about Obama’s preparation for the presidency.