Black Box Report

Are they in, or are they out? And if they're not in yet, should we be paying any attention to them?

Some people think Mayor Bloomberg doth protest too much, that telling Dan Rather "nobody's going to elect me President" is like the Homecoming Queen telling people she's fat, just so they'll tell her how pretty she is. Whatever the case, Mayor Mike is once again saying he won't run in 2008, and there might be cause to believe him:

With the current political winds seeming to indicate that moderates will probably be nominated - and Bloomberg will certainly not run against fellow NY politicians Clinton or Giuliani - it's time to put the Bloomberg idea on the back burner.

With Bloomberg out - for now - the door is now open for another independent candidate to tease the press, 'cuz they like it:

Back in the day, there were quadrennial Sam Nunn for Vice President, or maybe President, columns. I never saw it. Nunn is estimable--his work on nuclear proliferation especially--but so taciturn as to be easily mistaken for a bale of hay. In any case, now he's opened the door to an independent run for President and Ed Kilgore, a former Nunn staffer, has a good evaluation of who Nunn is and what this is about.

My own feeling is that I'll start thinking third party if we wind up with a Gravel-Brownback race. But not before.

Sam Nunn, former Georgia Senator and conservative Democrat is the latest hope of the Unity '08 crowd. Atrios says that's just what we need:

Only Unity08, a crack team of Washington insiders, can save us from Washington insiderism by finding the people who pretty much define "Washington insiders" and getting them to run for president.

Aside from the fact that I find any allusion to any Nader-esque talk about how there are no differences between the two parties to be overly-simplistic drivel, I have to take issue with Nunn on this:

"My own thinking is, it may be a time for the country to say, 'Timeout. The two-party system has served us well, historically, but it's not serving us now.'"

I applaud Nunn's efforts in the arena of curbing nuclear, biological and chemical weaponry. Maybe he's been so hard at work with his non-profit that he's not picked up a newspaper or turned on a TV in the past 6 1/2 years, but it's only been a few months since Democrats finally got control of ANY of the 3 (4 if you count Cheney) brnaches of government. We've essentially been under one-party rule since 2001. I know it shouldn't be surprising to see a Dixiecrat try to cut the legs out of any Democratic progress, but really Sam, stick with the non-proliferation. It's better for everyone.

And then there's our favorite "unofficial" candidate Fred Thompson. The blog News for the Left, who originally broke the Mark Foley scandal, says Fred's been testing the waters a little too long, and possibly breaking Federal Election laws in the process. So they went and filed a complaint with the FEC:

Fred Thompson is breaking the law and it's time somebody did something about it. So, this morning, I filed an FEC Complaint against him. For far too long, he has been ignoring the letter and spirit of Federal Election Law for his own political benefit. It reeks of the same disregard for the law that we have seen from the Bush Administration, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, Tom Delay, and Mark Foley.
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It is my contention that he has violated the 'testing the waters' exemption of election law. He has been presenting himself as a candidate for President, he has been raising large sums of money beyond what would be required to explore a possible candidacy, and he has signed a long term lease on a headquarters for his campaign. He has even spent advertising dollars, which are specifically prohibited by the law.

Ol' Fred has been "testing the waters" long enough to get his Gucci loafers good and ruined. And putting around the Iowa State Fair in a golf cart during prime stumping time certainly looks like official campaigning...But maybe Ol' Fred's not actually intentionally cheating.

He may just be lazy.