Rudy Giuliani on CNN

Fundraising Rudy Giuliani style.

Word on Wall Street is that New York fundraisers for Rudy Giuliani are calling senior executives with histories of supporting Republican candidates with demands along these lines: "We need five people from your firm to raise $100,000 for Rudy. Get back to us."

The caller then hangs up, satisfied the instructions were clear and will be followed.

Then there is Giuliani's horrible interview with Larry King.

KING: Let's get to some issues.

A leading industrialist, a friend of mine, said if the United States were a corporation, based on the Iraq War, everyone at the top would be fired.

How would you comment on that? And that -- in other words meaning it ain't going right.

GIULIANI: Yes, but that would have been true -- he would have said the same thing about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln would have been fired. And he might have said the same thing at the Battle of the Bulge and Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Marshall -- all would have been fired. And...

KING: So you're confident this is all going to turn around?

GIULIANI: Oh, no. No.

Rudy defends the handlers of the Iraq war. He compares the Bush administration's management to Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Then he tells King that he has no confidence in the way the war is going.

Hilarity ensues.

KING: Would you agree, Mr. Mayor, if they had to do this all over again, go back years, no one would vote for the Iraq War? A hundred to nothing, probably, in the Senate? No WMD --

GIULIANI: Yes, I guess...

KING: No?

GIULIANI: But I'm not sure that explains to us what's right about us. You know, the idea of taking out Saddam Hussein was one that was premised on the fact that he invaded Kuwait, that he used chemical weapons, that he had billions of dollars at his disposal, which he used to support various parts of this Islamic terrorist movement.

KING: You're not saying you'd do it again?

GIULIANI: I would remove Saddam Hussein again. I just hope we'd do it better and we'd do it in a different way.

If Rudy was a member of Congress and he knew that the WMD evidence was false; he would still vote for the Iraq war. If he was President he would "hope" that his removal of Saddam Hussein didn't turn into as big a fuck up as Bush's.

When in doubt - compare the Bush administration to Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower.

KING: Do you blame Rumsfeld?

GIULIANI: No, I don't blame anybody.

KING: You don't blame any -- somebody's got to...

GIULIANI: No, no, no. You don't do it that way.

KING: Nobody's to blame?

GIULIANI: You don't do it that way. That's why you don't make progress. Just like I don't blame people for not figuring out September 11 before it happened. What I do is, I kind of look at what happened, so you learn for the future.

KING: But there were mistakes.

GIULIANI: Of course there were mistakes. Lincoln made mistakes. Roosevelt made mistakes. Eisenhower made mistakes. The Battle of the Bulge was the biggest intelligence failure in American military history, much bigger than any in Vietnam or now. We didn't know that the Soviets were moving 400,000 or 500,000 troops. We missed it.

Rudy keeps hope alive.

KING: How about the American public is so against it, have they done a bad job in explaining?

GIULIANI: Maybe, maybe, you know. Yes, maybe they didn't do that.

KING: Would you communicate better?

GIULIANI: I don't know. I hope -- I hope I would. I mean, you know, I hope -- I hope that I would learn from the mistakes that were made in this situation.

What's the old saying? Hope is a town. Not a plan.

Rudy manages to not explain what kind of judges he will appoint.

KING: Let's move to some things domestic. You've had some quotes lately that -- that seem contradictory.

I know you're pro-choice, you've always been pro-choice.

GIULIANI: I am.

KING: Yet you'll say you'll appoint judges who are strict constructionists. If that's the case, they're going to vote to overturn "Roe v. Wade," which you don't want.

GIULIANI: I don't know that. You don't know that.

KING: Well, what is strict constructionist?

GIULIANI: Well, OK, there are a lot of ways to explain that. I mean (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

Unintelligible, indeed. There are a lot of ways to explain what a strict constructionist judge is. You just won't hear them from Rudy.

What a way for Rudy to officially announce his candidacy for President.