NYT: Fox News chief allegedly told employee to lie

Bashing Fox News is cheap and easy sport for some on the left. But a report in today's New York Times looks like something different. After reviewing affidavits, the paper reports that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes allegedly encouraged Judith Regan to lie to investigators about an affair she had to protect the presidential aspirations of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican. Ailes is allegedly caught on tape telling Regan to obfuscate. From the Times:

After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation, had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before.
The investigators had been vetting Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who had been nominated to become secretary of Homeland Security and who had had an affair with Ms. Regan.

-snip-

That complaint said that News Corporation executives “were well aware that Regan had a personal relationship with Kerik.” 
“In fact,” the complaint said, “a senior executive* in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”

-snip-

Mr. Kerik, was sent to prison last year after pleading guilty to federal charges including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

 *The "senior executive" referred to here is Ailes.

Overshadowing Giuliani

John Edwards is a smart man. By choosing today to leave the Democratic primary, he steals the news cycle away from Rudy Giuliani (who's also dropping out today) and, by extension, from the triumphant McCain campaign and the rest of the Republican field.

And he will make his announcement in New Orleans to remind anyone who forgot the reason they should think twice about voting for another Republican president.

Now comes the hard part for John. Does he endorse Hillary Clinton and all but clinch her victory on Feb. 5? Or take the leap to endorse Barack Obama, the man South Carolina Democrats chose to be the next president? Perhaps he'll wait until after Super Tuesday to decide.

The news is a godsend to the Obama campaign, which badly needed a dynamic shift in the field to shake up "decided" voters and which might well benefit from white males who find Hillary uncool.

All is in flux, as God wants it to be.

It's over, Rudy (live blogging the end)*, **, ***, ****

Rudy Giuliani is in the process of exiting a race he never really entered. The question is whether he will endorse John McCain.

*Oh, wait, he's not leaving. Or is he? He "ran a campaign." That isn't present tense. Get to it! We've already had enough of waiting around for you.

**"Less lawsuits." Jesus. We have to suffer improper grammar along with this insufferable lecture? Make a decision already.

***"Finally..." Finally, indeed. Here it comes... ticktock, ticktock... Nope, not yet. Still telling us what America should be about. You had your chance, Mr. Giuliani, during the campaign you decided not to run.

****MSNBC has switched to someone relevant: Mitt Romney, who finished second in Florida. Freedom and opportunity were in the air when he was growing up, he tells us. This is the same man who told us his he saw his dad walk alongside MLK at a time when freedom and opportunity were a little more rare... We have new competition, he says, from "countries like Asia and India." He sounds like he's reading from a memo on how to sound conservative in 10 easy steps.

I declare this live blogging experiment a failure, as Giuliani seems intent on sticking around just long enough to negotiate a favorable exit and endorsement with the McCain camp.

Old people still vote

McCain and Clinton rack up second wins today, providing both with real momentum at a time when voters are getting antsy for clarity.

I'd guess Edwards and Thompson will be shown the door. Romney will keep on fighting, having taken a win in Nevada. Giuliani looks like a long shot and Obama and Huckabee are on the ropes.

The AARP generation is asserting its will.

Two states down... and how many to go?

We've already had two state primaries and we still don't know who the nominees are? Jesus. I mean, seriously, what the fuck!?

Somehow a protracted (meaning more than one week) campaign has everyone all twitchy. Be thankful. Easy choices are usually bad ones. Let's give it an American Idol lifespan.

That being said, I think we can write off Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson on the right. Fred Thompson makes the Crypt Keeper look young, and Huckabee's embrace of a flat tax proves his politics are more on the fringe than I'd suspected.

John Edwards is probably finished, too; but he has some things to prove yet before he goes away. Too bad, I'd like for him to have made a bigger impact.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Dems then, and Mitt "the Mormon" Romney and John "I can't believe I'm still alive" McCain for the Reps. I'm taking odds, but only a fool would bet big at this point.

The Dem bench is deeper and more attractive, I believe. Republicans I've talked to would be willing to vote for Obama, but no one voting for Obama is going to seriously consider voting for a Republican.

Clinton might be hated, but I still think she's more viable than McCain.

And I guess there's still a Rudy Giuliani bid out there. Like a vampire, he's waiting for the right time to strike. I think his strategy is as crazy as he is.

I'll try to post more regularly but I work for a living now.

Giuliani for president (the final stretch)

As he leaves Iowa to embark on his Southern strategy, the mediasphere has Rudy Giuliani saying yes to hillbilly heroin, no to Muslims, and to please remember 9/11.