Philip, the Vitter endorsement probably will help Giuliani some,
it's true, but in one sense it is a case of like attracting like.
Just as stories are becoming rampant about how obnoxiously and
outrageously the mayor was known to berate reporters (not that I am
a big defender of the media in general, but we're talking flying
way off the handle here), he gets an endorsement from another
politician prone to totally freakazoid behavior of the same sort. I
once wrote a rather positive notes package about Vitter, only to
have him call me up and go absolutely bonkers on me for nearly 10
solid minutes --we're talking large decibel level here -- because
the notes mentioned that he already had blanketed the state
legislative district for which he was running with high quality
glossy flyers handed out door to door.The problem? Vitter was
furious that I had used the word "glossy," because he said I was
trying to imply that he was a slick politician without substance.
Never mind that nothing else in the notes package hinted at that,
nor that anybody had publicly suggested such a thing during the
race that was just beginning, not that I even believed that myself.
And of course never mind that "glossy" is, obviously a precisely
accurate description of a type of photo paper, which is of course
the way the word was used. I mean, the Vitter eruption came totally
out of left field. But people who know him know that he's wound
about five times more tightly than an old Titleist balata golf
ball. That same characteristic in both Giuliani and in McCain make
them easy targets for Hillary's henchmen to exploit in a general
election campaign with a media biased in Hillary's favor. It is a
very, very good reason why conservatives should not leap on board
too soon for the mayor, even though he does have much to recommend
him. This does not mean that conservatives should write him off,
not at all, but only that there is no need for any early
commitments.