Why isn't anyone paying attention to this?

So asked (rhetorically) Byron York today on The Corner.
And he's right---given all the hubbub over it not long ago, people should pay attention.
So let's do so here. The issue? Well, remember all the hoo-hah about Rudy Giuliani supposedly, as mayor, using secretive budgetary practices to hide the fact that he had a girlfriend? Turns out it likely isn't true:

The headlines have dogged Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign for weeks. "Security costs for trysts draw attention," said one. The articles questioned whether, as mayor, Mr. Giuliani tried to hide his visits to Judith Nathan in the Hamptons by burying the associated security costs in the budgets of obscure mayoral agencies like the Loft Board.The answer is not likely, according to a review of the city records originally cited as the basis for the assertion.All eight of Mr. Giuliani's trips to the Hamptons in 1999 and 2000, including the period when his relationship was a secret, were charged to his own mayoral expense account, according to the records.After his affair became public, the mayor's office in 2001 did charge several trips to the Hamptons to the Assigned Counsel Plan, which was designed to coordinate legal efforts for the poor.But the total cost of those trips, $2,474, represents less than 1 percent of the $281,338 in travel expenses that was charged to the obscure agencies.

Protecting John Doe, terrorist tipster

Hmmm. I'm surprised Democrats have been so resistant to this: "After nearly a week of intense, behind-the-scenes wrangling, congressional negotiators late Tuesday agreed to include in the pending Sept. 11 security bill sweeping liability protections for citizens who report to authorities suspicious activity they fear might be linked to terrorism. The "John Doe Protections" provision is meant to address the so-called "Flying Imams" case wherein six Muslim clerics in March sued passengers aboard a U.S. Airways flight because the passengers reported them to authorities, leading to their detention. The clerics were later cleared but their lawsuit, many lawmakers feared, would discourage future vigilance among the flying public.
The Sept. 11 security bill is a top Democratic priority and Republicans fought hard to include the passenger immunity protection, creating common cause with Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the conference committee that is knitting together the House and Senate bills." I found this info here. i see Rudy Giuliani meanwhile had no hesitation in endorsing this provision.

Poll rolling...

Occasioned by coming across this via Daily Kos---a few Democrats sneer and jeer that Rudy Giuliani is supposedly tanking. I fear they're confused, as usual. At worst, Giuliani is holding steady---indeed, he's trending up in South Carolina, he's holding fairly steady right now nationally and leading in Florida, and he still has a clear lead in California.

If that's tanking, Senator Obama would like to similarly tank. I think some of our Democrat friends in the blogosphere are simply "seeing" what they'd like to see.

Rudy bows in the conservative direction...

...And Captain's Quarters likes it.