The Blog

Rudy vs. Fred, Cont.

2:59 PM, Oct 23, 2007 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI
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Today Team Rudy attacked Fred's record on immigration. Jim Geraghty notes some sloppy opposition research from the Giuliani campaign. Here's Geraghty:

[Reader] Jeff notes that on the four votes cited by Giuliani, the percent of Republican Senators who voted the same way as Thompson were 96 percent, 62 percent, 98 percent, and 87 percent, for an average of 86 percent. So if Thompson was insufficiently conservative or tough on these votes, then vast swaths of the Republican caucus were, too.

Then a Campaign Spot reader in Texas (who isn't Governor Rick Perry) notes that on Thompson's missed vote, 'the cloture vote passed 91-0. Thompson's presence wouldn't have made one bit of difference ... Bottom line - if this is the best Guiliani has, he's got nothing. And I say that as a Guiliani fan ...

Last week, Giuliani unloaded some pre-debate opposition research on Thompson's record on tort reform. I thought Giuliani put this information to good use during the debate - it allowed him to pivot from his own deviations from the movement conservative agenda to Thompson's weaknesses - but, overall, a candidate's opposition to federal tort reform is not going to make or break his candidacy. And now we have an unpersuasive Giuliani attack on Thompson's immigration record.

More by Matthew Continetti

This suggests a few things: Team Rudy may be overconfident in its ability to dismiss challenges from other candidates. (Neither McCain nor Thompson is Romney.) Or Team Rudy may be worrying that the laid-back gentleman from Lawrenceburg is seriously threatening the hard-chargin' former mayor's southern support. Or both things may be true.