This is about what I would expect from Giuliani, his staff, and his supporters.

He can’t really run on the tax cuts, because at the same time he grew the government, ran up some debts, and didn’t complete the full spectrum of "small government" which is what tax cut Republicans want.

He can’t really run on religious issues or as a social conservative… 

He just has the war, and to sell that against declining public opinion, he needs fear and hyperbole and racism/xenophobia.

MvdG – I listened to your blogradio show and loved the part about Rudy and Judicial Watch.

1.  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY):  In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records.  Many suspect these records contain a treasure trove of information related to her role in a number of serious Clinton-era scandals.  Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate (again).  And Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive from justice in 2007.  Hsu pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.5.  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY):  Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons…”  ABC News also reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense.  All of this news came on the heels of the federal indictment on corruption charges of Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts. 6.  Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR):  Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record.  According to The Associated Press:  “[Huckabee’s] career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.”  And what was Governor Huckabee’s response to these ethics allegations?  Rather than cooperating with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

Thanks for the info. Engagement with your enemy(Hungary, USSR and Tito’s Jugoslavia) works better than isolation(NORK and Cuba).

Xel – I like your description of the human body I suppose – funny. 

I think Rudy has a lot to offer, even forgetting his foreign policy stance – He did two what were considered impossible jobs in his time – going after organized crime as a prosecutor and doing a great job at it, and then cleaning up and making NYC work again as a city.  That to me makes me think he is the only person running on both sides that can provide the leadership to make the US government work.  Our bureacracies are out of control. 

Couple that with how we have already seen him act as a leader in crisis, and his firm foreign policy, and I would have to say he is the best in the mix.   However, I think he has enough close encounters with skeletons that the Dems may be able to pick him off (although Hillary & Bill had far more that they have not been held accountable to)

John McCain a close second from leadership under fire and foreign policy, but he has never run anything.  I love the guy and if he is the nominee, I’d support him 110%.    I have been where the bullets fly and seen the two types of leadership styles in action – and you never know what you are going to get until the real – and I mean life & death- pressure is on.  We know how these two react – they go towards the fire and lead – vs. what we can only suspect about the others. 

The rest of the Republicans & Democrats have not much to offer in the key areas.

This is just like the comments Hillary’s surrogates level against Obama.

Sling the mud through a surrogate, then appear appalled when confronted, have the surrogate issue a phony resignation but the stain of the verbage is still in the air.