ANOTHER WAY GIULIANI WOULD BE JUST LIKE BUSH: GUILIANI ALWAYS SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH THE WORST PEOPLE HE CAN FIND

Rudy's Team: The F Team

Rudy Giuliani wants to be known as Mr. 9/11-- and he is certainly the person who has most directly cashed in on the tragedy more than anyone else-- but many who have followed his career think his most noticeable trait is to invariably find the worst possible people to associate with. You know about his pick for the Secretary of Homeland Security, long time crony and two-bit criminal Bernie Kerik (an embarrassment even to the Bush Regime which had to toss him overboard-- and back to Giuliani's lobbying firm). And that's the same lobbying firm that shelters another longtime Giuliani crony: child predator priest, Alan Placa. But these two are just the tip of the iceberg. A couple weeks ago the FBI busted Thomas Ravenel, Giuliani's South Carolina campaign manager, for dealing cocaine.

As Time put it "for a candidate promising to track the whereabouts and lawfulness of every non-citizen living in the United States, it can't help his cause when he fails to spot possible crooks on his corporate and campaign letterhead... the failure to look more closely at the rich, hard-partying Ravenel before appointing him to a prominent post in a key primary state could be a sign that Giuliani's operation is too casual for the long haul. 'It's the kind of foul-up that suggests that his campaign team isn't functioning as well as it should,' the G.O.P. source said. 'Presidential campaigns are not the time for amateur hour.'"

And today Giuliani was at the microphone apologizing again. The head of his efforts in the U.S. Senate-- and in the state of Louisiana-- and the only senator to endorse him, was just caught with his pants down. Poor Rudy was reduced to telling the press "some people disappoint you." In his case, he was referring to everyone around him but, like a true Republican, he certainly didn't mean himself and his terrible judgment about people.