Failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney's staffers are reportedly trash talking Sarah Palin and trying to lay the ground work for both a Republican party coup and possible Romney 2012 campaign. Watch out, Rudy! [AmericaBlog]

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has erected a new website site, Join Rudy 2012, which leads us to believe he's hoping the next president only makes it one term. Or he just likes the attention.

Wait, Rudy, didn't you drop out of the primary because people didn't like your comedic cross-dressing past? Or was it because you failed miserably in the primaries. We can't keep your storied past straight! Also, how does John McCAin, whom you've endorsed, feel about this? Aren't you essentially saying that, if he does win, he won't do a good enough job to get a second term?

Regardless, good luck with all that…

[Join Rudy 2012 via Political Base]

The Republican attack machine was in rare form in St. Paul last night.

A number of speakers, including former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and veep hopeful Sarah Palin, took to the stage and launched scathing attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Giuliani gave perhaps the most nauseating speech we've seen this electoral season, and mocked Obama's work as a "community organizer," a pursuit Republicans must really loathe, because the crowd went wild with boos and jeers. Palin also seized on Obama's experience in Chicago.

Palin, the Governor of Alaska and former mayor of her home town, Wasilla, told the mostly white-faced crowd:

…Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.
…
I might add that in small towns we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

That line's a reference, of course, to Obama's oft-criticized remarks about "bitter" Americans earlier this year.

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Rudy Giuliani's still playing presidential politics.

Sure, the former New York mayor rescinded his own candidacy, but now he's headed out on the town to raise money for likely nominee, the cadaverous John McCain:

Giuliani will be the "special guest" at a Sheraton New York fundraiser for McCain on May 7 expected to raise $5 million, sources said. Many of Rudy's wealthy presidential supporters have jumped on the Mac bandwagon,

Money's all well and good, but we can't help but wonder how this alliance will play among social conservatives, who hate Giuliani and are on the fence about McCain, who they deem too liberal.

Social conservatives have no sense of fun! Or, really, sense.

The Christian Right in Wisconsin raised a stink last week after hearing that Reedsburgh's Pineview Elementary had encouraged kids to cross-dress as party of a special "Wacky Week," during which the kids dressed in various costumes. Apparently dressing as a member of the opposite sex crossed a line, because radio program Voice of Christian Youth America interrupted its Friday shows for a special announcement decrying Pineview and its "error." Said station manager Jim Schneider:

We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students. Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error.

Pineview principal Tammy Hayes pointed out that parents had been informed of the special day long before the radio hysterics, while administrator Tom Benson justified the school's shenanigans: "The promotion of transgenderism — that was not our purpose. Our purpose was to have a Wacky Week, mixing in a bit of silliness with our reading, writing and arithmetic." Silly Benson, don't you know silliness has no place in the classroom? If we were to let all of our young Americans dress in drag, well, we'd have an entire generation of Rudy Giulianis. And nobody wants that!

By the way, it was the kids who suggested cross-dressing as part of the "wacky week." We're not sure if that's a good or bad thing…

The Republican popped into Weekend Update to explain why his campaign fell apart. No, it wasn't his ill-conceived Florida plan, but the fact that he appeared in a dress when he hosted the show about a decade ago.

The poor, delusional thing…

Hi, readers! Editor Andrew here again. Don't worry, I'm not here to talk about my penis - although it does deserve some more attention, the sweet thing.

I'm employing the first person today to discuss a topic that's closer to my cold, dead heart: politics. This election has already changed the face of America. More and more young people are going out to vote, once disenfranchised groups have been brought into the fold and real potential looms on the horizon. Yes, it's an optimistic time here in the United States. I can't help but wonder, however, if all the emotion and passion will blow up in our national face, particularly on the Democratic side of the ideological divide.

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John McCain won the Florida primary yesterday, but that doesn't mean he's leading the party.

Rudy Giuliani needs a big win in Florida today. Will he get it? Probably not. So, what's next? A John McCain endorsement, hypothesizes MSNBC's Chuck Todd.

Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani - who is apparently still running for president - received a ringing endorsement from The Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Federal Political Action Committee. Their kind words will hopefully remind voters that Giuliani once loved the gays, yet has distanced himself in recent months.

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The Republican presidential candidates best start kissing some gay ass, because their queer constituents don't seem too keen on any of 'em - particularly the social conservatives:

Gay Republicans view the next few weeks as directing their party down one of two fateful roads. As one predicted off the record, picking Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney, who are intensely wooing religious conservatives, would be "the Thelma and Louise moment" that would send the Republican Party off a cliff.

Or as Jim McFarland, an Austin 12-er who is vice president of the gay Log Cabin's Wisconsin chapter and a Giuliani backer, puts it, "The future of the Republican Party depends on who the nominee is. We could see the demise of the Republican Party. If it continues down the road of focusing on motivating fundamentalist Christian voters, that will fail."

We've been saying that for months.

Meanwhile, don't forget the gays have been throwing their green to Giuliani, which is really the only logical place to throw it in the GOP. The supreme Republican queens over at Log Cabin Republican will not endorse a candidate during primary season.

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt won't be voting for Rudy Giuliani come next February. The free speech fighter gets liberal with his surprisingly conservative gay politics over at Vanity Fair.

Apparently Flynt doesn't approve of Giuliani living with gay friends when he left his wife, Donna. Flynt may be hazy on the facts, but his messages comes out loud and clear:

Let me ask you something. As mayor of New York, would you live in an apartment with three gay guys? I’m not gay. I don’t hate gays. But I don’t want to live in an apartment full of them. They’ll bitch and cry and all. That doesn’t bother Giuliani. It doesn’t bother Giuliani to put a dress on to do Saturday Night Live. I don’t trust him. I don’t think he’s electable.

He's not electable, yes, but not because he stayed with two gays friends, nor because he wore a dress. Giuliani's not electable because he is, quite frankly, not believable - a lot like Flynt's comments.

Via Radar's presidential debate exam.

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Our editor spent his dreary, obviously solitary weekend dreaming of Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. He then turned his fantasies into an audio piece for XM radio's P.O.T.U.S.

We've included some statistically updated text after the jump. Audio will follow shortly.

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