The New York Times endorsed John McCain yesterday, but they spent at least as much time discussing why they weren't going to endorse Mr. Giuliani

Why, as a New York-based paper, are we not backing Rudolph Giuliani? Why not choose the man we endorsed for re-election in 1997 after a first term in which he showed that a dirty, dangerous, supposedly ungovernable city could become clean, safe and orderly? What about the man who stood fast on Sept. 11, when others, including President Bush, went AWOL?

That man is not running for president.

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.

The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.

Mr. Giuliani, naturally, ascribes this to liberal media bias

BRIAN WILLIAMS: How can you defend against that in your home town paper? How have you changed as a man since this portrait?

RUDY GIULIANI: Because I probably never did anything the New York Times suggested I do in eight years as Mayor of New York City. And if I did, I wouldn't be considered a conservative Republican. I changed welfare [audience applause] I changed quality of life. I took on homelessness. I did all the things that they thought make you mean, and I believe show true compassion and true love for people. I moved people from welfare to work. When I did that, when I set up workfare, the New York Times wrote nasty editorials about how mean I was, how cruel I was... So the reality is that I think there is a serious ideological difference. That probably was some of the nicest language they've written about me in the last six months.

The 1997 editorial in which the Times (in a tone not all that different from their later adoring support of Mr. Bush when he in his turn made them feel all cozy and safe) endorsed Mr. Giuliani for re-election

...Ms. Messinger, who has a long and distinguished career in local politics, deserves to be remembered for her previous service to the city rather than for this uninspiring race. But even if she had run a model campaign, it is hard to imagine how she could have made a convincing argument for getting rid of Mr. Giuliani. Despite the many disagreements we have had with the Mayor over the last four years, we endorse his re-election enthusiastically...

New York was ready for a dramatic turnaround when Mr. Giuliani took office, and that need became even more urgent when a new Republican Congress began shutting down the old pipelines of economic support to cities and the poor. A place this big, with so many jealously guarded bits of political turf, does not turn easily. New York, like many cities, favors mayors who bring forceful and at times obsessive leadership. Mr. Giuliani projects that quality...

Mr. Giuliani's combative temperament is a bit like nuclear fission. Harnessed in the right way, it is a tool for progress, drilling through previously impervious bureaucratic and political barriers.

Those harsh partisan bastards.

Anyway, despite the unrelenting hatred and hostility from the Times, a number of people [Ann Althouse, anybody?] thought Giuliani's campaign was a really good idea because it "put New York in play". We love him so much here [for some value of "we"] that a Republican candidate would have a real shot at winning New York's electoral votes, despite the fact that he was running as hard as ever he could across the country on a platform of having schooled us like nosepicking four year olds.

"Rudy puts New York in play, something no other Republican candidate can do," said Giuliani campaign operative Michael McKeon, once a top aide to former GOP Gov. George Pataki. "New York will be a battleground state with Rudy at the top of the ticket."

Giuliani said much the same as he picked up the endorsements of state GOP Chairman Joseph Mondello and more than 50 of the state's 62 county chairmen in Manhattan on Monday.

"My view of this race for president is that the Republican Party should not go into this election, as we have in the past, having to write off New York, Connecticut, New Jersey," he said. "We've got to make this a 50-state election."

That name? Michael McKeon? Hold on to it for a minute.

Now let's go back to '00. Senator McCain was running for President. So was George W. Bush. Our then-governor Pataki, who was essentially an 0verpriced cashmere sockpuppet on Al D'Amato's grubby paw, supported Mr. Bush. So did our State Senate leader, Mr. Bruno, and Senator D'Amato himself. To the shock and amazement of absolutely no-one, the NYSGOP gamed the primaries until the Senator had to go to court to get on the ballot

John McCain may have been able to outlast his tormenters in a Vietnam prisoner of war camp, but that doesn't mean he's equipped to outsmart New York's tortuous ballot access laws.

The Arizona Senator announced Thursday morning that he will file a lawsuit in federal court "in the coming weeks" to have New York's ballot access laws declared unconstitutional because they present an "undue and overwhelming burden" upon presidential candidates. "I went down to the state capitol in New Hampshire," McCain said at New York University news conference, where he was flanked by his lawyers, Burt Neuborne and Richard Emery, who have a history of taking on civil rights cases. "I handed the Secretary of State a check for -- I think it was $500 -- I'm on the ballot in New Hampshire."

Not so in New York, where a Republican presidential candidate is required to collect as many as 890 signatures in each of the state's 31 congressional districts for two separate petitions -- one for delegates and another for the candidate. The rules -- which have often played to the advantage of the candidate with the broadest party support -- require that each petition be filled out meticulously -- if a voter fills in Manhattan instead of New York under county, for example, that form could be invalid. A candidate risks getting knocked off the ballot if there are any errors.

And even if a Republican presidential candidate survives the challenges, the ballot for GOP contenders lists the names of delegates in larger print than the actual presidential candidate -- making it difficult for voters to determine who they're electing.

"We go out in the cold weather, we get the signatures, we survive the challenges and then you have this terrible, terrible process where people don't know who they're voting for," says Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari, the McCain campaign's New York chairman."* It shouldn't be that way."...

A victory in the courts may be McCain's only chance to steal some of New York's 101 delegates to the Republican National Convention -- the third largest delegation in the nation -- from front-runner George W. Bush.

although it didn't play all that well nationally

In a desperate move not to hand John McCain another campaign weapon, George W Bush's advisers have urged the pro-Bush Republican hierarchy in New York state to abandon their increasingly ruthless attempt to keep the Arizona senator off the ballot in the crucial March 7 New York primary.

Until now, the Bush campaign had conspicuously refused to condemn efforts by the Republican party's state machine, headed by Governor George Pataki, to contest Mr McCain's right to be on the ballot in almost half the state's 31 congressional districts.

New York's primary ballot rules are among the most arcane in the US, requiring candidates to raise thousands of signatures on nominating petitions for each separate district several weeks before election day. This favours machine-backed candidates who have the foot-soldiers to collect the signatures and the lawyers to validate them.

The New York state Republican committee, controlled by Mr Pataki who would like to be Mr Bush's running-mate, has challenged 12 of Mr McCain's petitions on the grounds that they contain names of unregistered voters, non-Republicans and people who do not live in the right districts.

Mr McCain has counter-challenged, though he was unable to find a Republican party election lawyer to act for him. Judge Edward Korman is expected to rule on the case shortly.

The attempt to bar Mr McCain has attracted widespread bad publicity for the Bush camp.

The New York Republican congressman Peter King has complained that New York state and Iran are the only places in the world where governments decide whether their opponents can stand for election, while Mr McCain led a march to the local Russian consulate to congratulate them on having a more democratic election system than New York state.

so they eventually gave up

Republicans appear ready to bury the hatchet in New York over the state's March 7 primary.

Gov. George Pataki**-- the state's top Republican and a supporter of Texas Gov. George W. Bush -- says he "will take the appropriate steps to ensure" that Sen. John McCain will appear on presidential primary ballots throughout the state, a spokesman for the governor told CNN.

Bush told CNN, "It is the right decision. I welcome it."

The move is a victory for McCain, who is currently blocked from appearing as a Republican candidate in 12 of New York's 31 congressional districts after petition challenges by New York GOP officials.

Pataki spokesman Mike McKeon*** told CNN: "Governor Pataki believes Senator McCain should be on the ballot. He believes this should be a campaign of issues and ideas, not technicalities. And he's confident Governor Bush will win that campaign."

and now?

Sen. John McCain swooped into Rudy Giuliani territory yesterday to announce an endorsement from Alfonse D'Amato, the influential former New York senator, in a hotel in midtown Manhattan.

"I think he is our best chance to win the White House," said D'Amato, when asked why he chose McCain over Giuliani, a native son.

"My support for him is not because there's somebody else in the wings that I may have differences with -- even though that may be true," added D'Amato.

although it also is not because Al is a big fan of Senator McCain

Mr. D’Amato had earlier endorsed Fred D. Thompson, but he switched to Mr. McCain, who is leading nationally in polls and gaining in New York, shortly before Mr. Thompson withdrew from the presidential race on Tuesday.

Mr. D’Amato has not had a close relationship with Mr. McCain. When Mr. D’Amato was in the Senate, people close to him said he was not fond of Mr. McCain’s signature causes, reining in campaign spending and pork barrel projects, two areas in which Mr. D’Amato excelled. But Mr. D’Amato has long had a difficult relationship with Mr. Giuliani, who angered him in 1994 when Mr. Giuliani endorsed Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat, for governor. Mr. D’Amato supported Mr. Pataki that year.

So, give it up for the nice pundits. New York is so wide open for Republicans this year that John McCain got on the ballot without suing, and he owes it all to Rudy Giuliani.

Schadenfreude isn't pretty, is it. Well, hell, it's Friday.

You have plans?

*ironically, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rudy Giuliani

**and D'Amato owned Pataki. He only made him the Governor to piss Giuliani off (long story). D'Amato and Giuliani, although they once shared a blissful honeymoon buying crack dressed like the cast of Grease, later fell out over, um, heritage issues

***See? I told you to remember that name. The cast never changes.