At the National Rifle Association convention in Washington on Friday, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson managed to squeeze off a round at Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and her husband, Bill, the former president. 

Thompson, 65, introduced his wife, Jeri, who is 24 years younger than him, to the crowd of gun-ownership advocates.

“I don’t know, but I think she’d make a much better first lady than Bill Clinton. What do you think?” Thompson said to appaluse. 

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s wife, Judith, also ended up a feature in his appearance at the NRA convention after Thompson.

Giuliani was deep into a discussion of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Consitution when suddenly his cell phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket while standing at the podium.

“Hello dear,” he said, as NRA members chuckled.

“I’m talking to the members of the NRA right now. Would you like to say hello? I love you, and I’ll give you a call as soon as I’m finished, okay? Okay, have a nice trip,” he told her.
 

Photo credit:  Larry Downing

Even though his popularity remains at record lows, U.S. President George W. Bush is not shy about dispensing campaign advice to the Republican hopefuls who want his job. 
 
To beat the Democrats next year in the race for the White House, Bush listed counterterrorism, building a democracy in Iraq and pushing for low taxes as the key issues for members of his party to emphasize.
 
 ”Look, candidates who go out and say that the United States is vulnerable to attack and we’re going to make sure our professionals have the tools necessary to protect us are going to do well,” Bush said at a White House news conference.
  
“Candidates who go out and say that helping these Iraqis realize the benefits of democracy are going to do well,” he added. “Candidates who say we’re not going to raise your taxes will do well.”
 
Bush registered a record-low approval rating in a Reuters/Zogby poll this week, with only 29 percent of Americans giving him a positive grade for his performance.
 
Poll numbers such as these and strong sentiment against the Iraq war have led analysts to predict that Republican presidential candidates will seek to put as much distance between themselves and Bush as they can.
 
Yet none of the major Republican candidates so far has made a dramatic public break with Bush over issues like Iraq.
 
Democrats view the Iraq war as a defining issue for capturing the White House.
 
Bush was pressed on whether he was an asset or liability to Republican candidates.
 
“Strong asset,” Bush replied to laughter in the press briefing room. He has repeatedly said he would avoid being “pundit in chief” during the race for the Republican nomination or if he has a favorite. 
 
Bush also said he did not take to heart recent criticisms from former officials, including former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who portrayed Bush’s economic policies as fiscally reckless in a new memoir.
 
“My feelings are not hurt,” Bush said but he added that he “respectfully” disagreed with Greenspan about his economic record.

– Reporting by Caren Bohan; photos by Larry Downing and Jason Reed

U.S. Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey is making it clear he would demand a U.S. Justice Department free of outside interference if confirmed to replace Alberto Gonzales, putting to rest Democrats’ fears.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who along with others accused Gonzales of politicizing the department, said Mukasey assured him he’d operate differently — and fire anyone who violated his rules.

Leahy quoted Mukasey, from a meeting with him this week, as saying if someone from the outside — including the White House or Congress — called the department to inquire about an investigation, they’d be referred to Mukasey or his deputy.

Leahy said Mukasey told him that he and his deputy may decide to provide the caller no information, and if another member of the department did, “They will be fired.”

“It’s kind of an attitude I like,” Leahy said on Thursday in relating the story to his committee, which will hold confirmation hearings. A date for hearings have not yet been set.
  

Gonzales came under fire, in part, because of charges some Republican lawmakers and possibly the White House tried to pressure resistant federal prosecutors, who were later sacked. 

In embracing Mukasey, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is offering his most effusive praise of a Bush nominee since Harriet Miers, the president’s failed 2005 Supreme Court pick.
    
“We feel that this man has the ability to renovate the Justice Department,” Reid said on Wednesday after a meeting with the retired judge and former federal prosecutor.
   
Reid said he expects him to win Senate approval unless unanticipated problems pop up at his confirmation hearing. In filling Gonzales’ job, some conservatives had favored former Solicitor General Theodore Olson. But Bush picked Mukasey after Reid vowed to block Olson as too partisan. 

The Miers’ nomination was withdrawn after conservatives complained she was not conservative enough — and after Reid offered effusive praise for Bush’s selection of his then White House counsel. 

– Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; photo by Kevin Lamarque
        

Rev. Jesse Jackson, known for his past verbal miscues, was fighting back after a South Carolina newspaper quoted him as criticizing Democratic hopeful Sen. Barack Obama for a lukewarm reaction to the arrest of six black juveniles involved in a racial fight in Louisiana.
 
 
The civil rights leader and past presidential candidate has endorsed the African-American Obama for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
 
 
Jackson was quoted by The State newspaper in South Carolina on Wednesday in an interview as saying Obama was “acting like he’s white” in his response to the situation in Louisiana. Jackson later told the newspaper he did not recall making such a statement.
 
 
A racial fight broke out at a high school in the rural Louisiana town of Jena last December, after nooses were hung from a tree (harking back to lynchings) where white students typically gathered and black students had sought school permission to do so as well.
 
 
Three white students were suspended by the school for the incident and after a brawl six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder by a local prosecutor for the fight.
 
 
Obama issued his own press release on Sept. 13 calling the hanging of nooses “a tragedy” and said that it “shows we still have a lot of work to do as a nation to heal our racial tensions.” His campaign declined to comment on Jackson’s remark.
 
 
Jackson on Wednesday reiterated his support for Obama and touting his qualifications for the White House in a statement provided by the Obama campaign.
 
 
“I commend Sen. Obama for speaking out and demanding fairness on this defining issue,” he said. “Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed.”

– Photo credit: John Gress; Obama and Jackson meet during January breakfast in Chicago.

Lest anyone think Republicans secretly harbor hopes for a U.S. government shutdown when the annual budget money runs out on Sept. 30, Rep. Adam Putnam has a word of advice.

“It’s like breakdancing around nitroglycerin. You’re just not sure who it’s going to go off on,” the Florida Republican said. The usually quiet, straight-laced, red-headed conservative admitted he has tried the hip hop style of dancing, but said he’s never done it near explosives.

Congress has yet to enact any of the dozen spending bills that will keep the bureaucracy running past Sept. 30 as President George W. Bush and Democrats fight over how much to spend on domestic programs. 

Putnam suggested an all out showdown that forces a government shutdown is not likely to play well with the public already disgusted with its political leaders.

“Eleven percent versus 29 percent is not exactly clash of the titans,” he said, referring to the Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday showing that Congress is even more disliked than the president.

Democrats also are loathe to force a government shutdown. House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat, said it’s not good politics.

Harking back to the 1980s, Spratt said, “Reagan used to say, ‘What if we shut down government and find out nobody misses it.?’ Republicans would titter-tatter and laugh. Then, by golly, they shut down government and nobody was laughing.”

–Reporting by Donna Smith and Richard Cowan

–Photo credit: Max Morse; Actor Jamie Kennedy breakdances at a Los Angeles party.

Voters wondering about the accuracy of statements made by presidential candidates now have at least three places online where they can go for help deciphering the truth.

Republican Fred Thompson, caught stretching the truth about American war dead, won four Pinocchios from washingtonpost.com, which debuted its fact-checker Wednesday at www.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker. (T he maximum Pinocchios on the scale is four while completely truthful statements receive the Washington Post’s “prized Geppetto checkmark”.)
 
 
The Post’s effort joins www.politifact.com, a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, and www.factcheck.org, run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. 
  
 
Politifact’s Truth-O-Meter gave Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton mostly good grades for statements made in unveiling her health plan, but said her financial projections were “optimistic” and gave them a “half true.” 

Factcheck.org skewered Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson for claiming U.S. elementary and secondary students were once No. 1 in the world in math and science but are now 29th. “None of that is true,” factcheck.org said.
   

Our political team reports this morning on our latest Reuters/Zogby poll that shows the 2008 presidential race right now looks to be all about New York. 

Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, and New York City’s former Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani are leading their races four months before the first presidential primaries. His lead is narrow over newcomer candidate Fred Thompson while she has a double-digit lead over rival Sen. Barack Obama.

But don’t forget, it is still too early for many voters to be engaged. Our survey found that about 20 percent of likely voters in both parties have not made up their minds on which candidate to support.

Read the full poll details from correspondent John Whitesides here.

And see our video report from correspondent Jon Decker with his interview of pollster John Zogby below: 

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is hitting the radio airwaves on Wednesday by vowing to pursue a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, as he tries to burnish his credentials with conservative Republican voters.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor pushes for the “Federal Marriage Amendment” in an ad to run across the battleground state of Iowa and slams a recent decision in one county there that would permit same-sex marriage. 

“The court ruling in Iowa is just another example of an activist judge trying to find things in the Constitution that aren’t there. As Republicans, we must oppose discrimination and defend traditional marriage: one man, one woman,” Romney said in the spot. 

The ad run comes on the heels of the leading Republican candidates skipping a debate in Florida on Monday sponsored by the conservative faithful. Several second-tier presidential hopefuls attended, including Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas who criticized Romney’s absence.

“The only values Romney has consistently cared about are in his stock portfolio,” said Rob Wasinger, Brownback’s campaign manager, referring to Romney’s past work as a private equity banker.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said Romney had a scheduling conflict and “it’s difficult to be in all the places you hope to be,” adding pointedly, “Nasty (news) releases haven’t yielded much success for the campaigns that are sending them out.”

By highlighting his opposition to same-sex marriage Romney is trying to convince conservatives he is their man for the 2008 presidential nomination. He rejects charges he has flip-flopped on the issue, saying he always opposed both gay marriage and civil unions.
  

Republican candidate Fred Thompson, a late entry into the presidential race, will face his rivals for the first time in a debate in about three weeks.

Many in the Washington pundit set are curious as to how Thompson will do in a free-for-all debate, given his difficulty in answering some questions during his first days on the campaign trail. 

For instance, in South Carolina, Thompson said Osama bin Laden, subject of an ongoing U.S. manhunt in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, was “more symbolism than anything else.”

Thompson announced his candidacy two weeks ago on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” sidestepping a Republican Party debate in New Hamsphire that night. 

The Thompson campaign says Thompson’s first debate will be Oct. 9 in Dearborn, Michigan, a CNBC/MSNBC/Wall Street Journal event.

It says he will also participate in an Oct. 21 debate in Orlando, Florida. 

The next Republican debate is scheduled for Sept. 27 in Baltimore, but that event could be in doubt as some of the main candidates appeared to be backing out of it.

 – Photo credit: John Gress

Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho returned to the Senate on Tuesday to a mob of reporters trying — without much luck — to corner him in the U.S. Capitol for a question or two, a week after he began trying to withdraw his disorderly conduct guilty plea in an airport men’s room sex sting.

He cast two votes just before lunch, including one to approve extending a program that offers financial aid to District of Columbia students who want to go to college in neighboring Maryland or Virginia. 

Sen. Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, said Craig attended the weekly Republican policy lunch and “He simply again said he was sorry for the trouble he had caused his colleagues” but did not talk about his resignation.

Craig last month assured his constituents that he was not gay and that he was not in the Minneapolis airport men’s room soliciting sex. Forget the Mall of America as the tourist attraction of the Twin Cities, this airport loo has become quite the new hotspot, Pioneer Press.

Atop the list of questions for the lawmaker from us in the media if we can find him in the Capitol: Will he be able to clear his name by Sept. 30 to avoid resigning? (He made that the deadline for clearing his name.) Does he feel railroaded into stepping down by his fellow Republicans?  And will he accept the support of the American Civil Liberties Union which argues that the police airport sting was likely unconstitutional?

Our question is, should he really resign?

–reporting by Richard Cowan, Thomas Ferraro and Jeremy Pelofsky; Photo credits: Brian Losness and Eric Miller