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At what's believed to be the world's largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn't good.

A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.

Addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition, Giuliani described Obama's offer, during a presidential debate in July, to meet as president with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.

"Then he went on to explain that Ronald Reagan negotiated with the communists," Giuliani said, pausing and sighing. "I say this most respectfully: You're not Ronald Reagan, you know?"

The audience in a downtown Washington hotel laughed and clapped.

Rudy went on to describe Reagan diplomacy:

"Here's what Ronald Reagan did before he negotiated with communists," the former New York mayor continued. "First he called them the evil empire. Then he took missiles, intermediate-range missiles ... and he put them in European cities, and he pointed the missiles at Russian cities with names on them.

"Then he said, in a very nice way, 'Let's negotiate.'"

The Obama camp slapped back by sticking Rudy for taking money to represent Citgo, an American subsidiary of Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan oil company.

Unfortunately, for James Penn, 25, of Mobile, Ala., he picked the home of a feisty 81-year-old woman who almost took him out with her trusty handgun when she discovered the homeless man in her laundry room.

Ethel Sanders said she heard noises in the laundry room and, with gun in hand, went to investigate. She shot Penn, who was standing in his underwear, after he came at her.

Sanders then fell to the ground and dropped the gun, which Penn picked up and pointed at her while he retrieved his clothes from the washer. He fled the scene, but was caught later at a nearby community center.

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday won the endorsement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, despite their differences on abortion rights.

Perry, an abortion opponent, said his biggest concern had been Giuliani's support for abortion rights but that he was satisfied Giuliani would appoint judges who view the issue conservatively.

"The one (issue) that I wanted to hear him give me an answer and look me right in my eyes was that issue of who can I expect, what type of individual can I expect on the Supreme Court," Perry said at a news conference with Giuliani.

"He clearly said ... you can look for people like Scalia and Roberts and Alito. Let me tell you, I can live with that," Perry said, referring to conservative Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Perry said when he buys a pickup truck, he doesn't rule it out simply because it has one option he doesn't like.

"Well, I'm a Republican mayor, but I"m really not. I'm the mayor of New York City. I ran as a Republican, I ran as a Liberal — which really confuses all kinds of people — and I ran as an Independent, as part of the Independent Party, which actually is now the party that's supporting Ross Perot. So I ran a fusion candidacy, like my predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia. So I'm not the most partisan of Republicans."

City and town clerks said turnout is likely to be a few points higher than it was for the Sept. 4 primaries, when only 18 percent of the district's voters cast their ballots the day after Labor Day.

In raw numbers, that means it should be higher than the combined 70,000 who turned out for last month's party primaries, though it may not hit 100,000. By comparison, more than 216,000 residents from the district voted in last year's general election, which included statewide races for governor and other general officers.

Democrat Niki Tsongas, the other headliner in the race, employed a slightly less frenetic pace, visiting several senior centers and holding an ice cream social as she sought to claim for herself the House seat once held by her late husband and 1992 presidential contender, Paul Tsongas.

"Tomorrow’s it," Niki Tsongas, 61, told several silver-haired listeners at the Dracut senior center. "Tomorrow’s decision day."

Yet while Ogonowski flitted about looking for support, planning 40 rapid-fire stops on Monday, Tsongas continued to pound away on her opponent for refusing to state how he would vote — if elected — on a presidential override scheduled for Thursday.

But he has also added a theme that could help GOP hopefuls next year, particularly those competing for open seats: a relentless chorus of complaints about the competency of Congress and the culture of Washington in general. 

“This election is clearly a referendum on our Congress - it’s not working for us,” Ogonowski said in an interview last week. “I’ve been asking every single group I meet in front of, ‘Anyone here like the job Congress is doing?’ I have yet to have a person in the Fifth District tell me they like it.” 

As of Sept. 26, Tsongas had raised $1.93 million, compared with $434,000 for Ogonowski.