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Matt Lewis suggests that Giuliani is blaming bloggers for his bad news week, but in my view Lewis completely misinterprets what Giuliani actually said.

As evidence for his charge, Lewis cites this bit from a Roger Simon article:

Has it crossed your mind that this may be an extremely rough primary in 2008? I asked him.

"It has, and it will be," Giuliani replied. But he also said he did not think the attacks would come directly from other Republican presidential candidates.

"I think more of this comes from the atmosphere in the blogging atmosphere, in the instant news atmosphere, and the minute analysis atmosphere," he said.

(Emphasis Lewis's.)

To me it's pretty clear that Rudy is just acknowledging the simple fact that it will be a rough primary, and that the presence of blogs will make it especially so. I think everybody would pretty much agree on this point. I'm not sure why Lewis interprets this statement as Rudy attacking blogs, and then follows up with an explaination of why, "Debate and argument are healthy for Democracy." Giuliani didn't say anything about stifling debate, in fact, if you read the rest of the article, he's quite candid about the fact that "(Voters) can know everything about me. They will find out everything about me."

And:

Giuliani also said being attacked was nothing new to him.

"This went on every day when I was mayor of New York," he said. "So you get used to it. And you learn where you put it."

Lewis ends his post by saying, "Politics is tough. Get a helmet!"

Criticize Giuliani all you want, but let's be clear on one thing. Giuliani is a man who prosecuted the mob amid constant death threats and who has for over 20 years been under the glare of the New York media spotlight. Whatever his faults, I don't really see Rudy quaking in his boots over what bloggers have to say. Bloggers may be tough, but not quite in the same way as the Gambino family.