Giuliani's talent for expressing prosecutor-like righteous anger towards "bad people" -- as well as his well-honed ability to communicate base-pleasing rhetoric towards Islamic extremists -- are underappreciated. I don't think any candidate will be able to compete with his ability to convey a genuine hard-line against Middle Eastern Muslims (see here for one representative maneuver), and that is the issue that -- admittedly with some exceptions -- dominates the Christian conservative agenda more than gay marriage and abortion (concerns which he can and will minimize by promising to appoint more Antonin Scalias and Sam Alitos to the Supreme Court, something he emphasized last night in a highly amicable interview with Sean Hannity).

DOBSON: As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages ... By midafternoon yesterday, a rumor emerged that in fact Mark Foley had been pranked by the House pages. It is the first plausible thing I've heard in seven days...

But in dozens of interviews here in southeastern Virginia, a conservative Christian stronghold that is a battleground in races for the House and Senate, many said the episode only reinforced their reasons to vote for their two Republican incumbents in neck-and-neck re-election fights, Representative Thelma Drake and Senator George Allen.

“This is Foley’s lifestyle,” said Ron Gwaltney, a home builder, as he waited with his family outside a Christian rock concert last Thursday in Norfolk. “He tried to keep it quiet from his family and his voters. He is responsible for what he did. He is paying a price for what he did. I am not sure how much farther it needs to go.”

The Democratic Party is “the party that is tolerant of, maybe more so than Republicans, that lifestyle,” Mr. Gwaltney said, referring to homosexuality.

Most of the evangelical Christians interviewed said that so far they saw Mr. Foley’s behavior as a matter of personal morality, not institutional dysfunction.

All said the question of broader responsibility had quickly devolved into a storm of partisan charges and countercharges. And all insisted the episode would have little impact on their intentions to vote.

As this excellent and comprehensive article documents, Giuliani is an "authoritarian narcissist" -- plagued by an unrestrained prosecutor's mentality -- who loves coercive government power (especially when vested in his hands) and hates dissent above all else. He would make George Bush look like an ardent lover of constitutional liberties. He is probably the absolute worst and most dangerous successor to George Bush under the circumstances, but his political talents and prospects for winning are being severely underestimated.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Exit question: In some U.S. locations, we've seen some fighting between blacks and Latinos. How worrisome is this? Pat Buchanan.

MR. BUCHANAN: Oh, listen, this is a hellish problem. You take LA. The underclass is at war. The black-brown gangs -- when they say Crips and Bloods together, it's got new meaning, John. It is a terrible war, frankly, in South Central and the areas of Los Angeles.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Will the Latinos take over from the blacks the largest caucus in the Congress?

MR. BUCHANAN: John, the Latinos in California outnumber African- Americans something like six to one in California. The African- Americans, like white Americans, are coming back over the mountains.

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You see that as a sweep of the country in how many years?

MR. BUCHANAN: Well, here's the thing. The trouble with the Hispanics is many of them are illegal. The ones who are legal don't register, and the ones who register don't vote.

MS. CLIFT: The Latinos are under --

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, you're worried about the situation, aren't you?

MR. BUCHANAN: Well, I mean, in terms of the social situation in the American Southwest, the country is going to look -- all of our cities are going to look like Los Angeles of the movie "Crash."

[...]

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Are you nervous too?

MR. BLANKLEY: Look, it's not a question of scaring. The Hispanic mayor of Los Angeles, just in the last few days, denied the fact that there was a race war going on in his city, even though the police chief, formerly from New York --

MR. MCLAUGHLIN: What's the point?

MR. BLANKLEY: The point is that at the mayoral level, the state and local level, there's real concern about the violence that's going on, particularly in LA, between Hispanics and black gangs.

MR. PAGE: He is aware of the situation. It's not a race war. But there is a gang war going on. It's like "West Side Story." It's along --

MR. BLANKLEY: It's a gang war polarized by race, and there's no way around that.

MR. PAGE: What's new about that "West Side Story," right? You know, ethnic gangs have been fighting as long as we've had cities. It is a crisis there. It's a neighborhood problem that can spread out and become even more dangerous. I hope the mayor has got his hands on it. But it's not just simply as a consequence of some takeover by Hispanics.

MR. BLANKLEY: Well, the mayor's called for a Marshall Plan of social spending to solve the problem. What he needs is to be a tough mayor like Giuliani was in New York and fight crime wherever he finds it.

"I've always liked strong, macho men, and Rudy — I'm not saying this because he's my husband — is one of the smartest people on the planet," gushed the former Judith Nathan to Harper's Bazaar in editions due out Feb. 20.

"What people don't know is that Rudy's a very, very romantic guy. We love watching 'Sleepless in Seattle.' Can you imagine my big testosterone-factor husband doing that?"

Describing Rudy, a former federal prosecutor, as "the Energizer Bunny with no rechargeable batteries," Judi said, "One of the most remarkable things about my husband, who sleeps three or four hours a night, is his energy level and stamina.