Rupert Murdoch's Plan for '08

Is there more to the trashing of Mrs. Giuliani than meets the eye? The media baron who helped give us Iraq may be gift-wrapping our next President.

Long an ally of Rudy Giuliani, Rupert Murdoch now seems disaffected. His New York Post is leading the sliming of the former mayor’s wife but, in itself, that may only mean Murdoch’s minions are more devoted to sleaze than politics. But lately they have been at it with a vengeance, ridiculing Mrs. Giuliani’s talk at a fund-raiser, tracking down her hitherto unknown first husband and headlining her as “a pup killer.”

Put this together with Murdoch’s musings revealed in the rival New York Daily News (of all places) that his fellow billionaire Mike Bloomberg would be “the most efficient President” because “he attracts good people” and that “Giuliani is a one-man show” and what do we have?

One billionaire getting ready to back another as a third-party candidate: Bloomberg would be unlikely to sully himself in an open alliance, but “fair and balanced” Fox News, along with Murdoch’s other media outlets, would be doing what they always do, obeying their master’s voice.

As the least conspiratorial-minded journalist ever, who even believes Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, I find all this credible because there are no limits to Murdoch’s ruthlessness, greed and lust for power. At 76, he’s bought everything in sight but, even though he has George Bush on a long-term lease, Murdoch has never made a deal to merge with the White House.