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McCain's empty suit surrogate

I'm not quite sure which is more hilarious: the Dana Carvey standup comedy special currently on HBO, or the McCain campaign's resurrection of that renowned Republican loser, Rudy "$50 million, one delegate" Giuliani.

I'm not quite sure which is more hilarious: the Dana Carvey standup comedy special currently on HBO, or the McCain campaign's resurrection of that renowned Republican loser, Rudy "$50 million, one delegate" Giuliani.

Just like the old days, circa December '07, the Rudy missives are again flooding the in-box. The target this time is Barack Obama. According to Rudy, the purported terrorism expert, Obama is just another softy who wants to fight the killers in accordance with "a Sept. 10 mentality." (That line worked for the GOP against John Kerry in 2004, and, since the GOP has so little to work with in 2008, the party has opted to try it again.)

But there's a bit of a problem with McCain trotting out Rudy as a spokesman on terrorism. Check out these remarks, delivered on Sept. 4, 2007:

Despite Rudy's "laudatory" conduct after 9/11, "I don't think it translates, necessarily, into foreign policy or national security expertise. I know of nothing in his background that indicates that he has any experience in it."

Who was that speaker, dismissing Rudy as an empty suit? That would be John McCain.

But surely Rudy himself did not display a "Sept. 10 mentality" prior to the attack, right?

Wrong. The chaos on 9/11 was exacerbated by the Giuliani administration's failure to upgrade its emergency services, particularly its radio communications equipment, despite repeated warnings. Here's a critique, delivered to the 9/11 Commission, at a hearing in New York:

"I think the command and control and communications of this city's public service is a scandal. (The city's emergency response plans were) not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city."

That would be John Lehman, a former Navy secretary...and current advisor to John McCain.

None of this should be surprising, of course. Rudy famously quit the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, where he may have learned something about foreign policy and national security, because he wanted to hit the speaker's circuit, at $200,000 a pop - a decision that was later assailed by a Republican candidate who noted that, in his own case, he had tackled numerous national security challenges "not for profit, but for patriotism." The Republican assailing Rudy was, again, John McCain.

And let's also recall Rudy's own 9/11 Commission testimony, delivered in private four years ago but later leaked to the press (few outlets bothered to report it). Despite Rudy's claims during the campaign that he had been tracking "Islamic terrorism" since the 1970s, it appears that he had a touch of that Sept. 10 mentality after all. He told the commissioners that, even as the al Qaeda threat was growing during the '90s, he never sat for any briefings about bin Laden's organization, and that he consequently knew little about it. He told the commissioners that his lack of preparation was "a mistake."

Yet, even though the McCain people know full well that Rudy has zero credentials, they put him out there anyway.

Hence my reading of the laugh-meter: Rudy trumps Dana Carvey any day.

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This morning, Obama announced that he will become the first nominee in the post-Watergate reform era to reject public financing and instead run a fully privatized autumn campaign - thus breaking a pledge that he tendered in writing last November.

Does this decision suggest a disconnect between promise and performance, between principles and practice? Absolutely. The Republicans are pouncing already.

But will Obama pay a heavy political price for his decision? Not a chance. Most Americans couldn't care less about campaign finance issues, and Democrats just want to win.

I'm saving most of my thoughts on this for a Sunday print column.