Last evening the International Association of Fire Fighters attacked Rudy Giuliani in a 13-minute video on YouTube that is "emotional, scathing and at times factually questionable," writes the New York Times' Marc Santora. The video will be sent to union members on DVD.

The union makes Giuliani culpable for a lack of "suitable equipment allowing firefighters to communicate with one another during the attacks; on the earlier decision to base the city's emergency management office right by the World Trade Center," and a "rapid a shift in the city's focus, from recovering the remains of the dead" to cleaning up Ground Zero.

IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said he's focused on preventing firefighters from being "used" by Giuliani's campaign. Giuliani's campaign issued a rebuttal before the video was released, noting that the IAFF endorsed John Kerry for president and supported Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, CNN's Candy Crowley reports that Fred Thompson is likely to announce his presidential ambitions in August, not July as previously thought, and will skip the Ames, Iowa, straw poll on Aug. 11.

John McCain is still committed to Iowa, state chair Dave Roederer told Iowa Radio's O. Kay Henderson yesterday. "There's always possibilities of anything happening in this business, but I'm quite confident the senator will be participating in the Iowa Caucuses," he said.

The press picks up more fallout from the McCain campaign with greater details about why the campaign fractured and how it will try to pick up the pieces.

The Politico's Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen report that on the issues McCain was being whipsawed between conservative anger over his immigration stance and moderates alienated by his commitment to the Iraq war. At minimum, immigration affected his fundraising as $200,000 events in May and June turned into $75,000 affairs. Worsening the falling income was high spending: the campaign was built to look inevitable, expecting to raise $120 million by this January and employing 150 paid staffers more than six months away from the primaries. Maybe worst of all, no one seemed to be in charge with a "campaign manager, a chief strategist, a senior adviser and a chief executive -- an unwieldy team riven by mistrust and rivalries."

McCain's new options for money seem to go from bad to worse. The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk reports that if McCain accepts public funding, he'll be strictly limited on how much to spend in early states. In New Hampshire he could spend no more than $817,000 (he spent $137,000 there by March) and in Iowa no more than $1.5 million while other candidates are expected to spend north of $7 million. Much of McCain's family wealth is banned from being spent on the presidential campaign because most assets are held solely by his wife.

Yesterday, the Minnesota GOP added to the heft of Feb. 5 by voting to move its caucus to that date -- a move likely to be imitated by the DFL, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Bob Von Sternberg.

Finally, Barack Obama is taking a page from Oprah's book by launching a dozen book clubs in New Hampshire, reports the Chicago Tribune's John McCormick. Participants will gather at meetings to talk about Obama's books and be able to join conference calls with figures from Obama's life, such as the Chicago community organizer who hired him in the 1980s. John Edwards had discussed books online with his supporters but they were written by others.

Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.