By my count, since Saturday the Romney campaign has released 11 emails that directly attack or counterattack statements Rudy Giuliani has made. During that same time, I count three emails the Giuliani campaign has released that attack or counterattack statements Mitt Romney has made. Absent from this count, of course, is the scathing attack on Romney unleashed by Giuliani himself in an interview in today's Politico.It's only a matter of time before the invective gets televised, as Romney looks increasingly beatable in Iowa and Rudy shifts focus to the early primaries.
Hugh had Romney on his show yesterday:
HH: Okay, this judge issue, Mitt Romney, is it going to plague you in New Hampshire, is it going to hurt you in Iowa?
MR: You know, there’ll be an attempt by some to suggest that all of the judges that someone appoints or votes for are somehow, that their decisions are somehow your responsibility. I just don’t think that’s the case. If you select somebody who is a known liberal, and they do liberal things, why, that’s maybe a different matter. But you have people in the United States Senate that voted for Ruth Bader Ginsberg that would certainly not want to be responsible for all of her decisions. And I don’t think it rises to that kind of level. And frankly, it was Mayor Giuliani who tried to do that.He'll have the Mayor on today. Fireworks!
And of all the people who might have raised a question of judgment on selecting someone, Mayor Giuliani was not the one to do it, given the fact that he nominated someone to be the secretary of Homeland Security, who he knew was under investigation, and who has since pled guilty to crimes, and is under federal indictment on sixteen other potential crimes.
Meanwhile, the McCain campaign hopes for Romney's and Rudy's quarrel to become a murder-suicide to clear the way for the Senator. Well, there is a precedent.