Giuliani, Thompson: Tainted New Friends

As America’s Mayor goes South and Fred Thompson comes North looking for support, they are not being too choosy about the company they keep.

This week Giuliani lost his Southern chairman to a sex scandal. Last month saw the departure of his South Carolina chairman Tom Ravenel, indicted for selling cocaine. Filling in is his father, a former Congressman who called the NAACP the "National Association of Retarded People" during a debate over the Confederate flag in 2000.

Meanwhile, Thompson is in Manhattan guided by his New York Chairman, former Sen. Alfonse d’Amato, an ethically challenged public figure whose other job these days is Chairman of the Poker Players Alliance lobbying to overturn a federal ban on internet gambling.

Fonzie arranged a breakfast yesterday for Thompson with Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy, who holds Giuliani responsible for the deaths of his members on 9/11. At an ensuing press conference, Thompson praised Cassidy’s union, saying “They've paid a terrible price. They sacrificed for all of us.”

As the two Republic front runners contest for the nomination, it may be a colorful campaign with no holds barred.