How Rudy Guiliani declared himself a virtual saint for his masterly activities surrounding 9/11?  This was the fluff but there is a brutal reality that is now emerging.

Go to therealrudy.org and observe that other side.  Robert Greenwald has a film that includes comments by New York firefighters and family members of 9/11 victims.

The picture that emerges concerning then Mayor Rudy Guiliani is anything but flattering, vastly different from the image he currently touts on the campaign trail and in debates with competitors for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

It was revealed when the terrorist attacks of 1993 occurred that the radios used by firefighters on the scene were deficient, resulting in unnecessary deaths.  So why was this tragic deficiency not corrected by the time of the 9/11 Twin Tower tragedies?

One of Karl Rove's toughest assignments was to juggle the elements of the so-called Bush Republican coalition by catering to the religious right at election time. Operatives needed to walk this potentially fatal minefield softly.  

While seeking not to upset the vital religious right constituency, other more moderate conservative types needed to be kept within the Republican fold.  Their support also needed to be retained to stand any chance of triumphing on the national scene.

A student of history, Rove certainly correlated this challenge alongside that perennially faced by his idol Richard Nixon when he sought the presidency.  As the saying then went, Nixon would "fly right for money and fly left for votes."

This was the game Nixon needed to successfully play given the existence at that time of a more progressive Eastern Republican wing that had to be placated alongside more conservative element in the Midwest and west, along with the then opening opportunities in the south.

Ron Paul caused a stir in the latest Republican presidential debate in Durham, New Hampshire on Wednesday, September 5, delivering a warning to his rivals that to voice support for the calamitous Iraq War policies of Dick Cheney and George Bush risked a calamitous defeat for Republicans in the 2008 election.

Given the venue in which such a dire warning was delivered, it was virtually certain that a strong response would be forthcoming.  It came from Mike Huckabee and seemed  appropriate considering where the Arkansas governor stands in the Republican field.

Huckabee is attempting to demonstrate that he deserves the support of the red meat rightists who diet regularly on Fox News and diatribes by drug-addicted Rush Limbaugh while Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney backpedal and work overtime to re-define themselves after having to adopt what the hard right deemed heresies they embraced to voters in New York City and Massachusetts to get elected.  

Guiliani and Romney are therefore compelled to make the case that they surely had not previously pandered to Eastern voters, but have since seen the true light and embraced principles that would prevent Pat Robertson from gagging, a good first step to displaying legitimacy with the party's stalwart rightist base.

The diary below was originally posted on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Anyone have the feeling John McCain's political star is declining but nobody has caught on yet? Certainly not the mainstream media or the Republican Party establishment. So I thought I would have some satirical fun and take a peak between his ears.

This is my time. I'll be damned if that crew of chickenhawks in the White House is going to screw it up for me. If I had my way, 4 million troops would land in Iraq tomorrow. What's the big deal? Bunch of sissies in that White House!

I'm older than dirt and nobody is going to stop me. Who else in the Republican Party can pander to conservative nuts but still appeal to the vital center of bipartisanship?