THE GIULIANI CAMP CONVICTS WITHOUT TRIAL

I didn't bother posting anything about the Rudy Giuliani story that appeared in yesterday's New York Daily News because, like a lot of other people, I didn't see what the big deal was -- the Double Super Secret information in the dossier the News had obtained told us nothing we didn't already know about Rudy (he's trying to raise a lot of money; he wants to hire seasoned GOP campaign veterans; he'll need to overcome questions about his stands on social issues, his personal life, and Bernie Kerik).

But now there's this in the New York Post:

Suspicion ran high yesterday that Rudy Giuliani's lost White House campaign playbook was swiped by aides to Florida's new governor - while the ex-mayor was helping him win election, sources told The Post.

Giuliani's aides were tightlipped about how it disappeared, but said it happened during a private plane ride on the campaign trail for 2006 candidates. They included Florida Gov. Charles Crist.

"During one leg of his campaign travel, all luggage was removed from a private plane and later put back on," said Giuliani's spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel.

"However, one staffer's bag was not returned. After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside.

"Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied," she added, stopping short of saying it was stolen....

Patrick Hynes at Ankle Biting Pundits is right about this:

Yeah, yeah, I work for McCain's PAC, but ... I must say that I don't think Giuliani is helping himself here....

I think after making an accusation like that, Team Rudy had better have some evidence against the private airline that Giuliani ... hired to cart him to and fro....

Yeah -- and against Crist.

This, not a messy divorce or appearances in drag, is what might keep Rudy from the White House. This is Angry, Paranoid Rudy, so well described by Cintra Wilson in Salon a month ago:

Before the planes hit, when he had too much power and not enough to do, Giuliani, like an old soldier who comes home and starts abusing his family in lieu of a real enemy, was pulling a Great Santini on New York, rooting around in our sock drawers with a Maglite, looking for vices to confiscate and sins to punish.

...Rudy sought to remake New York in his own image and likeness, by interpreting things that personally annoyed him as actual crimes.

It's not a question of whether Rudy can control his tendency to lash out at people. He can't. The question is, can he limit his outbursts to people who "deserve" it (Muslims, liberals)?

He can go all the way if he's a paranoid, hate-filled guy with a messiah complex and bad behavior in his past -- that would just make him a combination of Bush and Cheney. But if he freaks out at the wrong person -- an important Republican or someone the voting public genuinely likes -- he's going down.