Rudy's Goons

One of the lessons that Americans should take away from the failed Bush presidency should be that the people a candidate surrounds himself with are frequently just as important as the candidate himself. Right now Rudy Giuliani is failing that test big time -- what with all of the coke-dealing state campaign chairmen, national tragedy exploiters, and Norman Podhoretz. Now it's out that it was Rudy's guy who was behind the effort to split California's electoral votes:

A close friend and major fundraiser of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has identified himself as the mystery financer of the proposed California initiative to apportion the state's 55 electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all.

He is New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. He said he provided the $175,000 to initially finance the petition drive to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot. But as The Times' Dan Morain revealed in an exclusive story on this website last night, the drive has foundered on internal disputes and lack of further financing.

This is no small matter. Rudy is clearly the guy the White House wants to win the GOP nomination and voters should really understand what their getting themselves into by giving Hizzoner a look.