Rupert?

The rats are really jumping off the ship, folks.

From the Oct 16 New Yorker, "Murdoch's Game" by John Cassidy, breathlessly subheaded, "Will he move left in 2008?"

The success of Fox News Channel, which Murdoch launched in 1996, has secured his reputation as a strident conservative, so it came as a shock to both his right-wing allies and his liberal enemies when, in July, he hosted a fund-raising breakfast for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

...The fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton took place on July 17th, at News Corp.’s midtown tower, which houses the Post and Fox News. Among the News Corp. executives who attended were Roger Ailes, the veteran Republican operative who runs Fox News, and Col Allan, the pugnacious, Australian-born editor of the Post. Clinton spoke for about twenty minutes, and then took questions. The breakfast raised more than sixty thousand dollars for Clinton’s senatorial re-election campaign—neither Ailes nor Allan contributed any money—and it led to speculation that Murdoch was preparing to endorse Hillary in the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Appearing on “The Charlie Rose Show” on July 20th, Murdoch said that an endorsement was “unlikely,” which didn’t exactly reassure conservatives. In August, they became more agitated after Murdoch played host to Bill Clinton and Al Gore at a News Corp. retreat in California. “The nature of the event . . . confirms our suspicion that Murdoch may be moving left as the 2008 U.S. presidential election approaches, and that he may bring his ‘conservative’ news properties with him,” Cliff Kincaid, an editor at Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog group, commented on the organization’s Web site.

Look, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Rupert Murdoch knows which side his crumpets are buttered on. If the Dems are gonna landslide anytime in the next couple, Rupert shall take care of Rupert. This thang with the Clintons, to my mind, is rich New York power lobby types taking care of each other.

But ooh it does sound delish. What happens if Murdoch turns left? (and yes, ma blogger hunnies, the Photoshop possibilities are endless. Be my guest.)

'Course many of us lefties are gagging at the thought that a fundraiser for Hillary is considered "turning left." If that's a left turn, you'd have to be right of east Je...oh, NEVERmind.

But if Murdoch is turning left, and wants cred with the lefties, he's going to have to atone. How, you ask? Oh, ma hunnies, Blue Gal has a list:

1. Show up at my front door each month for the next two years. Roll the cameras. Knock, and when I answer, drop to your knees and beg forgiveness for everything from the dawn of Reagan to the present. Then nicely ask if you may kiss my ass. Leave.

2. The rest of the month you will knock on doors not for Hillary, but for Kucinich and Feingold. Roll the cameras. Agree with everything they say. Then give a big wad of money to Al Franken and tell him to spend it however he wants and to come back to you when he runs out. Match dollar-for-dollar George Soros' contribution to Media Matters, then double that and give it to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. For a start.

3. Tell the Fox on-air "personalities" they require a wardrobe makeover: