ANOTHER GIULIANI ASSOCIATE IN TROUBLE. WHAT WOULD THIS GUY'S ADMINISTRATION LOOK LIKE?

If you don't recognize Rudy's posse, click to enlarge

OK, everybody knows about Giuliani's sponsorship of and partnership with crime figure Bernie Kerik, about the cocaine bust-- and hasty resignation-- of his former South Carolina campaign chair Tom Ravenel, about his California co-chairs, the soon-to-be-indicted Jerry Lewis and hypocritical closet queen David Dreier, and about Giuliani's in house child predator priest, Alan Placa. But Giuliani can't seem to ever appoint anyone to anything who doesn't turn out to be a dud-- or worse. His latest embarrassment is a member of his Miami-Dade County Leadership Team, Hialeah City Council member Jose "Pepe" Caragol (R-FL). Caragol, a reactionary Cuban-born GOP hack, is a typical Giuliani supporter, i.e.- a pig.

Caragol is up for re-election and some voters are offended by his campaign slogan:

Si te gusta el sexo oral, vote por Caragol por consejal

It doesn't rhyme in English but the translation is: "If you like oral sex, vote Caragol for council.'' The front-runner for the presidential nomination of the putative "Family Values" party hasn't asked Caragol to step down yet. He's probably been too busy trying to figure out how to spin that "Family Values" claim with his defense of the Bush veto of the States Children's Health Insurance Program.

IF RUDY GIULIANI WALKED INTO A CONSECRATED CATHOLIC CHURCH, WOULD IT SELF-COMBUST?

He refuses to answer. He says his religion is between himself and his priest. I have a horrible feeling Giuliani's talking about his longtime friend and business associate Alan Placa, a suspended priest who molests young boys-- while he isn't working for Rudy. But today Giuliani was out in the Iowa cornfields looking for votes and the good folks out there, aware of his godless policy positions, his multiple marriages, his penchant for dressing like a woman at the drop of a hanky, his foul mouth, his crooked associates, is breathtaking lust for money, and his wild lifestyle, wanted to know if he communes with God... ever.

In Bettendorf, the haughty New Yorker drew the line. He was asked if he's a traditional, practicing Roman Catholic. "That's a personal discussion, and [the clergy or suspended clergy] have a much better sense of how good a Catholic I am or how bad a Catholic I am, and that's a matter of individual conscience. And I don't think there should be a religious test for public office."

When normal Republican voters try to find out if Rudy even goes to church, they just get cold stares or "no comment." Is Rudy Satan's
candidate? Well... what about Romney? Does Satan have two candidates in the race? No one ever said Satan was fair.

Giuliani is alone among the major Republican candidates in favoring abortion rights, a practice that the Catholic Church opposes. Some church officials have suggested that candidates who favor abortion rights should be denied the sacrament of communion.

On a personal level, Giuliani has been married three times, with one annulment and one divorce. Catholics who are divorced and have remarried are not permitted to receive communion.

Nor will his campaign confirm or deny that the real reason he is in Iowa is to perform ritual blood sacrifices and I can't confirm that this is Rudy's voice or not but I do know this, if you want this kind of a president, you can toss a coin between Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney or Jeri Thompson.

MAYBE ROMNEY OR THOMPSON HAS STARTED SENDING THOSE PICTURES OF RUDY IN DRAG AROUND... BUT HIS SUPPORT IS FOLLOWING IN McCAIN'S FOOTSTEPS

The polling tells the story. His goose doesn't look cooked, but certainly plucked, dressed, and in the oven. Time to make the relish. Now we know None of the Above is leading the Republican pack of would-be Bush replacements but this was an incredibly fast collapse first for McCain-- with his imperious pronouncements against the Republican right on immigration and against the Republican center on Iraq-- and then for Giuliani. Giuliani? The front runner? Yeah, that one.

While he has consistently remained ahead in polls of Republican voters, and his campaign is in infinitely better financial shape than McCain's, Giuliani's trend in support is eerily similar to McCain's downward trajectory.

Since early March, Giuliani's support has fallen by an estimated 8 percentage points. McCain's fell by 10 points since January. And the rate of decline has been a bit steeper for Giuliani than for McCain. The saving grace for Giuliani has been that he started his decline from a higher point, around 33%, while McCain's slump started down from 25%.

Giuliani's national slide is also mirrored in the early primary states, as is the case with McCain.

And in the key early states likely to decide who comes in second after None of the Above, Giuliani is getting thumped by Romney in New Hampshire and Iowa and is starting to be displaced by Fred Thompson in Florida and South Carolina. Michael Gerson in this morning's Washington Post says its even worse: Giuliani tries to paint himself as another Reagan; Gerson says he's Nixon.

In his elections, Nixon appealed to conservatives and the country as a culture warrior who was not a moral or religious conservative. "Permissiveness," he told key aides, "is the key theme," and Nixon pressed that theme against hippie protesters, tenured radicals and liberals who bad-mouthed America. This kind of secular, tough-on-crime, tough-on-communism conservatism gathered a "silent majority" that loved Nixon for the enemies he made.

By this standard, Giuliani is a Nixon Republican. He is perhaps the most publicly secular major candidate of either party-- his conflicts with Roman Catholic teaching make him more reticent on religion than either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. But as a prosecutor and mayor of New York, he won conservative respect for making all the right enemies: the ACLU, advocates of blasphemous art, purveyors of racial politics, Islamist mass murderers, mob bosses and the New York Times editorial page.

On the evidence of the polls, many conservatives are ready for a little cultural combat, and Giuliani looks like a man who knows how to use a knife. He might successfully appeal to blue-collar resentment against liberal elitism and Democratic antiwar overreach, while winning back some pro-choice, suburban female voters.

But the Nixon example is also a warning. His presidency -- from wage and price controls to the nomination of Justice Harry Blackmun-- could hardly be called a conservative success story. As president, Nixon was a talented man without an ideological compass, mainly concerned with the accumulation of power. Giuliani's 1994 endorsement of New York Gov. Mario Cuomo-- the modern hero of Democratic liberalism-- also indicates some loose ideological moorings. And, as with Nixon, Giuliani's combativeness, on occasion, blurs into pettiness.

And what a knack for picking good people to surround himself with! The examples of what a truly terrible judge of character Rudy is never stop coming in. Everyone knows about his close personal ties with organized crime through his partner Bernard Kerik, his ties to the worst elements of the Catholic Church through his tightly held associate, child-molesting priest Alan Placa, his ties to a vast right wing South Carolina cocaine distribution conspiracy through the Ravenel Family, and about his change of heart regarding prostitution, especially when it comes to David Diapers Vitter, his capo for the Confederacy... but his list of co-chairs for his California campaign reads like a list of disasters about to pop: Jerry Lewis, the most corrupt member of Congress in America and under investigation by the FBI joins flamboyant closet queen David Dreier

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.

EVEN WITH GIULIANI PROTECTING A PRIEST-PREDATOR, WILL THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DUMP HIM BECAUSE OF HIS PRO-CHOICE STAND?

Last week we looked at one of Giuliani's closest associates, Alan Placa, another priest who has been a little too close to some of his youngest and most vulnerable male parishioners. But it's starting to look like the Catholic Church may not stand by Giuliani as strongly as he stands by their pervert priests. Today's NY Times say Roman Catholic Church, Inc is frustrated with him.

One American bishop, Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R.I., recently wrote a caustic column for his Catholic newspaper calling Mr. Giuliani’s position “pathetic,” “confusing” and “hypocritical.” Other bishops said that they would not criticize a candidate by name but would not hesitate to declare Mr. Giuliani’s stance contrary to Catholic teaching.

Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark said: “I think he’s being illogical, as are all of those who take the stand that ‘I’m personally opposed to abortion but this is my public responsibility to permit it.’ To violate human life is always and everywhere wrong. In fact, we don’t think it’s a matter of church teaching, but a matter of the way God made the world, and it applies to everyone.”

Not too many people Giuliani, generally believed to be a power-mad dog with no sense of morality whatsoever cares what a bunch of bishops thinks-- except insofar as it hurts his already absurd imagine. "Communion may be a moot point for Mr. Giuliani, who was seen leaving Mass at a church in Washington before the Eucharist. Some church officials said it might be that Mr. Giuliani refrains from taking communion because he had married a third time without receiving a church annulment for his second marriage. A Giuliani spokeswoman, Maria Comella, confirmed that Mr. Giuliani had his first marriage annulled, but not his second."

It is widely expected that the hierarchy of the Church will rally round whatever Republican is their party's candidate. It's one thing to chastise John Kerry for being pro-choice, but when it comes to a Republican, they are likely to grumble but most unlikely to tell parishioners they will go to hell if they vote for him.

And for a putative front runner, there's even worse news: voters prefer non-candidate, lobbyist/actor Fred Thompson-- who though know far less about than the 10 stooges now running for the GOP nod. Of course, it could be worse. He could be poor old John McCain, whose camapign is falling apart and about whom the speculation is when, not if, he will drop out of the race entirely. The speculation is "sweeping Republican circles after a disastrous few weeks" according to London's Sunday Times. "The former presidential front-runner, John McCain, may drop out of the 2008 race by September if his fundraising dries up and his poll ratings continue to drop, according to Republican insiders."

Dan Schnur, McCain’s communications director during the 2000 presidential campaign, said it was “possible” that he could drop out: “There are all sorts of challenges McCain is facing, from fundraising to Fred Thompson and the Iraq war, but the biggest single boulder in his path is the immigration issue.”

One veteran Republican consultant put the odds of McCain remaining in the race beyond the autumn at 3-1 against. “He’ll be gone by September,” predicted Tom Edmonds, who is not affiliated with any campaign.

“The wheels are coming off his wagon and it’s hard to see how he can recover. He won’t be able to pay all the good talent he has hired and they’ll want to drift away from a loser.”

UPDATE: ON THE BRIGHT SIDE...

The most despised of all GOP harridans has denounced Giuliani, snarkily attacking his transvestitism and the fact that one of his wives was a dramatic performer. And her pick: the bribetaking Republicrook from the San Diego suburbs.

RUDY GIULIANI AND SUSAN COLLINS EACH HAS A VERY TOXIC FRIEND

Last night the American senator who has done the most to undermine any chance of ending the Iraq occupation-- and who most participated with Bush and Cheney in creating the atmosphere to allow the public to be deceived into supporting the war against Iraq, Joe Lieberman-- threw a fundraising party for Susan Collins. Lieberman is one of the worst corporate whores in the history of the Congress. Lobbyists all know if you'll pay him enough, you can own him. Last night he supplied the K-Y while they lined up to get to know his pay Collins.

Many bloggers decided to alert the public of the Lieberman/Collins/K Street love triangle, and, at the same time, urge concerned Americans to stand up to Lieberman by contributing campaign funds to progressive Democratic Congressman Tom Allen, who is taking on Collins next year. So far Blue America has seen over 100 new donors from Crooks & Liars, Firedoglake and DownWithTyranny kick in $5,709. Although many donors have given $5 and $10, the average contribution has been $35.30.

Tom noticed too. Jane and John and I just got a great thank you letter from him to the whole Blue America community:

I want to thank communities of Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, and Crooks and Liars for your efforts and support over the last week. I am astounded by the blogosphere's effort to counter Joe Lieberman's fundraiser for Susan Collins. The response from the netroots community in the last few weeks shows the incredible power of small donors to make a big difference. Such activism sends a strong message that we must end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home. Unfortunately, my opponent and Joe Lieberman have consistently voted to support the President's failed policies on Iraq.

Again, I thank you. I cannot do this without you-– and I look forward to working with you to end the war and beat Susan Collins!

Tom

Please consider even a small contribution to Tom's campaign. This is the time to rid the Senate of rubber stamps like Collins and getting strong anti-occupation senators like Tom elected. And let's let Lieberman know what we think of treachery. Click here to donate. Of course, Susan Collins isn't the only Republican with sleazy, unsavory friends and supporters.

Rudy Giuliani has a lot of sleazy friends. He's made tens of millions of dollars capitalizing on and exploiting 9/11. In fact he was so busy raking in the dough that he never attended an Iraq Study Group meeting (and was eventually kicked off the panel). Some of his closest associates are mobsters and crooked exploitation artists. Forget his best bud/Mafia connection Bernie Kerik for a minute and go to a more recent Giuliani associate: the director of his South Carolina presidential campaign. South Carolina is HUGE for the GOP field and you'd think Giuliani would pick someone he trusts to handle the state for him, right? I mean he's supposed to be a leaders and an even better version than Bush of a potential CEO president.

Well, Giuliani's South Carolina, the state's Treasurer was just indicted on federal drug charges. But Giuliani has a far more potentially hazardous pal he may have to start explaining. Today Salon published the story of
Giuliani's child molesting priest friend, Alan Placa. Placa is one of Giuliani's tightest cronies and, like lots of other crooked players-- Kerik is the most famous example-- works at Giuliani's suspicious and notoriously unscrupulous lobbying firm, Giuliani Partners. Placa, like many Roman Catholic priests and mentally deranged Republican closet cases, is a serial groper of young boys. He also helped the Church cover up for other priestly child molesters, like 60 of them.

Placa and Giuliani are extremely close. Placa conspired with Rudy on his multiple marriages, divorces, annulments, incest cases, transvestitism, etc. and Rudy has consistently protected Placa from charges that he was having sex with underage boys. Giuliani runs with a bad crowd, a very, very bad crowd. I doubt decent Republican family values voters in South Carolina and Iowa are aware that Giuliani's priest bud felt his role as God's spokesman was to cover up rapes and molestations in churches and on camping trips and even in the homes of minors that priests could gain access to easily from trusting parents. Placa would transfer his fellow molesters from parish to parish to keep them out of the hands of the police. I wonder what cabinet position Rudy has in store for him.

Sometimes you really do have to make a judgment about someone you want to feel you can trust. Looking at the friends they have chosen to stay close to may tell you a great deal about them. Susan Collins picked Joe Lieberman, one of the most disliked and untrustworthy and duplicitous members of the Senate, someone more bloodthirsty than anyone in government outside of Cheney. And Rudy picked a child molester.