GIULIANI... IS HE REALLY A REPUBLICAN? YEAH... THEY ALL DRAFT DODGE, JUST LIKE HIM

Giuliani still tops every poll of Republicans when asked who they'd most like to see as their party's candidate for president-- and also of who they think will be their party's nominee. These Republicans don't know (yet) that he's pro-choice, pro-gay (more or less), pro-gun control, pro-immigrant. And they don't know he's a transvestite. And they don't know he's a draft dodger. At least they don't know yet.

As far back as 1993, when he successfully ran for mayor of New York, Giuliani has been dogged by accusations that he pulled strings to avoid the draft. By contrast, McCain has long been feted as a bona fide war hero for his harrowing stint in a Vietnamese prison.

Anyone who dismisses the significance of Vietnam as a potential issue in the 2008 campaign is forgetting how surprisingly potent it proved in 2004, when there was enormous interest in the military records of both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. Four years later, with the nation still at war, Americans likely are to again scrutinize the military records of those who seek the job of commander in chief.

Giuliani, who once said of the Vietnam war, “I disagreed with it,” obtained an occupational deferment in 1969, when he was a law clerk.

His support could really evaporate fast once Romney and McCain start getting the word out.