Candidates flock to Iowa; front-runners eschew outhouse race

WASHINGTON -- If it's August, it must be Iowa. And sure enough, that's where most of the presidential candidates are spending much of their time these days. And no place has been more popular with them than the Iowa State Fair, where the candidates have been almost tripping over each other.

Even Fred Thompson, not an official candidate, took some time out from his busy noncampaign schedule to do some noncampaigning Friday at the fair.

On Wednesday, the two presidential front-runners, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani, arrived at the fair with great fanfare only two hours apart. The two New Yorkers did their best to shed their city slicker images while there: Clinton flipped pork patties, and Giuliani munched on a pork chop on a stick.

Neither, however, took part in one of the more popular events -- the Iowa State Fair Outhouse Race.

SWIMMING IN MUDDY WATER

Two weeks ago, John Edwards took aim at Clinton for accepting campaign donations from federal lobbyists. Last week, he took aim at Barack Obama, suggesting to reporters at the Iowa State Fair that even though the Illinois senator does not accept donations from federal lobbyists, he is a little too cozy with state lobbyists.

Obama, in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, was asked about that. And he acknowledged that he swims in "the same muddy water" that corrupts Washington but vowed to reform the system.

Said Obama: "I have a bunch of friends who were state lobbyists. The fact of the matter is, I played poker with them, so I don't think that lobbyists are evil. I just think they've got an agenda, and you got to be clear about that and not pretend that they don't."

THE OTHER THOMPSON CALLS IT QUITS

Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson had hoped to finish second in the Iowa Straw Poll, but he finished a very distant sixth. So last Sunday, he ended his candidacy for the GOP nomination.

No word on whether Thompson still gets to do his scheduled appearance on The Daily Show on Monday.

GOP IMMIGRATION FIGHT ESCALATES

Throughout last week, Giuliani and rival Mitt Romney battled each other over illegal immigration. Each accused the other of being sympathetic to giving undocumented residents sanctuary from federal immigration laws.

Romney started the fight Monday during a campaign stop at the U.S.-Mexico boarder in San Ysidro, Calif., by criticizing "cities that call themselves a zone for protection," a phrase once used by Giuliani.

Romney implied that New York, under Giuliani, became a magnet for illegal immigrants because city officials refused to strictly enforce federal deportation laws. He vowed to cut off federal funds to any city that offers sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

On Thursday, a Giuliani surrogate, New York Congressman Peter King, accused Romney of failing to act against sanctuary cities in his state when he was governor of Massachusetts. "When the immigration issue came before him, he simply ignored it," King said of Romney.

RUDY AND GROUND ZERO

A linchpin of Giuliani's presidential campaign is his stewardship of New York City in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But recently, he has angered some of the ground zero rescue and recovery workers by likening his experience to theirs.

Among other things, Giuliani had declared in one campaign appearance that he had been in the ruins of the World Trade Center towers "as often, if not more" than the cleanup workers.

Turns out, not so much, according to The New York Times. In an article Friday, the newspaper calculates that Giuliani was at ground zero a total of 29 hours from Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. Most of the cleanup workers averaged 400 hours, according to the Times.

THE COMING WEEK

TODAY: The Democratic presidential candidates hold a debate in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by ABC News.

WEDNESDAY: Obama appears on The Daily Show for the first time since becoming a presidential candidate.

STARTING THURSDAY: GOP presidential hopefuls will be appearing at the four-day Midwest Republican Leadership conference in Indianapolis.