WonderfulPessimist.com

Israel, currently under the rule of Ehud Olmert, a former Likud party member who helped found the centerist Kadima party, has appointed the first Israeli Muslim to a cabinet level position. Knesset member Raleb Majadele, a member of the Labor Party, is the first Muslim to rise to such a high level in Israel’s democratic government. Of the seven million people living in Israel, about 20 percent - 1.4 million, approximately - are Muslim Arabs.

“The present government is proud to be the first government to give executive representation to the Arab Muslim minority,” said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The appointment is certainly a blow to Palestinian claims that Israel shuts out Muslims from the political process in Israel, let alone the caterwauling that Israel is a terrorist state that mindlessly persecutes Muslims. It’s time for Palestinians to get out of the terror game and into something more promising, like presentation folder printing.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee made it official today, announcing that on Monday he would file papers to formalize his exploratory bid for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Huckabee is the first candidate considered a genuine conservative to enter the race.

Huckabee, a native of Hope, Arkanses, is actually from the town of 11,000, unlike Democrat Bill Clinton, who claimed to be from Hope, but was actually born and raised in Hot Springs. Huckabee gained some national attention for a dramatic weight loss achievement that marked his tenure as governor of Bill Clinton’s home state.

Wonderful Pessimist still has huge reservations about Huckabee’s electability. When your return address labels come from the same state - even the same town - as Bill Clinton, that’s not a way to endear oneself to conservatives. And Huckabee’s name recognition pales in comparison to RINOs like Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney. And Huckabee needs more than weight loss methods to sell his candidacy to the country; he’s running for president, not The Biggest Loser.

But as the only notable conservative in the race - and no, the extremely obscure Sam Brownback doesn’t count - one at least has to consider the viability of Huckabee, or surrender to the inevitability of the GOP falling into RINO hands for the next four to eight years, at least. Dismal.

My oh my, did the Democrats make a mistake in ticking off Joe Lieberman or what? Since winning re-election as an independent after his own Democratic party tried to oust him for not being a pure enough liberal, Sen. Lieberman - his party’s VP candidate only seven years ago - announced on Fox News Sunday that he may throw his support behind a GOP or independent candidate in 2008, and that his support for Democratic candidates for the White House is no longer a lock.

“I’m going to do what most independents and a lot of Democrats and Republicans in America do, which is to take a look at all the candidates and then in the end, regardless of party, decide who I think will be best for the future of our country,” Lieberman said Sunday.

Sounds like Sen. Lieberman should start investing in some new professional business cards; if he continues his centerist drift, he may have to leave the “D” “I” and “R” off his name as a party designation; he’s governing this time around more as an American than as a party loyalist.

Rudolph Giuliani may not have declared his candidacy for a 2008 GOP presidential bid quite yet, but it sounds like he’s getting ready to print up the business cards and the campaign literature. According to a New York Times report, Giuliani was sounding all the right notes in New Hampshire this past weekend.

While Giuliani remains a favorite of many due to his 9-11 leadership of New York City, many are conveniently putting aside his social liberalism while waiting for him to declare his candidacy. Still, he’s talking like someone ready for a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.

“When I say to you that we should reduce taxes to stimulate the economy, I’ll say it to you because I did it and I saw it work,” he said. “When I say we have to bring peace and security as sort of the beginning of anything, whether it’s in Baghdad or in other parts of the world or here at home, I’ll say that to you because I saw that happen in New York, and I made it happen. I did it.”

My take? Giuliani is the best of the RINOs, but I’m still holding out for a true conservative to declare and capture the imagination. Whether it’s Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee or someone yet to surface, the GOP is looking mighty thin on genuine conservatives this time around.