KISSING PAT ROBERTSON'S RING: ACTUALLY, IT'S A LONG, SLOW KISS

The Carpetbagger Report and The Plank have the same question: Why does the press consider it unremarkable that presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani just made a pilgrimage to Regent University, which is run by bigoted raving lunatic Pat Robertson?

But this isn't just outreach on Rudy's part. He and Robertson seem to have been pals for years. If you go to the page on the Regent U Web site that reports on the Giuliani speech, you see this:

With his trademark good humor, Dr. Robertson related the story of their shared prior cancer diagnoses, and his hospital-room call from the Mayor to offer words of encouragement.

That was in 2003. (Giuliani's cancer diagnosis came in 2000.) Clearly Giuliani knew four years ago that he was probably going to be running for president, and he was reaching out to a guy he assumed could help him a lot.

And apparently they hit it off. In 2005, Robertson appeared on ABC News and said of Giuliani, "He did a super job running the city of New York and I think he'd make a good president." He added, "Rudy's a very good friend of mine. He's a great guy."

So this was no pilgrimage. It was two old buddies getting back together.