Rudy's Iffy Invasion of the Isles

America’s Mayor is campaigning in Great Britain this week, getting the Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom, meeting with Churchill’s granddaughter and being condescended to at 10 Downing Street, where a spokesman stiff-upper-lipped:

"Mayor Giuliani asked to pay a call on the Prime Minister, and given his experience in New York and counter terrorism, the Prime Minister thought it would be a good idea to see him."

Rudy got more enthusiasm from the granddaughter, who called him “Churchill in a baseball cap,” providing his campaign with a link of 9/11 and our national pastime to Dunkirk.

But his hosts may not have thought it cricket as Rudy flew in and started bashing America’s version of the Iron Lady.

“I don’t think,” he said, “Margaret Thatcher would impugn the integrity of a commanding general in a time of war, as Hillary Clinton did, or require an army to give a schedule of their retreat to the enemy, as the Democrats are suggesting.”

If Giuliani is hoping for an endorsement, implied or otherwise from Thatcher, he will be disappointed. She is posing with everybody these days, including Fred Thompson who popped in a few months ago.

Thatcher Tutorial for Thompson

By the end of the day, the foreign-policy credentials of the Republican Party’s hulking White Hope should be in working order.

At a photo-op, Margaret Thatcher will undoubtedly tell Fred Thompson all he needs to know about war and peace--her blitzkreig to retake the Falkland Islands after the invasion by Argentina in 1982 and the triumph a year later by her soulmate, Ronald Reagan, against the forces of evil in Grenada.

As Thompson ponders what he would do about Iran, the Iron Lady will doubtlessly encourage him to act decisively against today’s Wogs just as she and Ronnie did a quarter of a century ago. They always fold after a few days.

Lady Thatcher’s take-no-prisoners style could do wonders for Thompson, who has been criticized for being too easy-going.