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Today the Post tells us about the “love notes” between Rudy Giuliani and Bill Clinton that the pair exchanged while Clinton was president and Giuliani was mayor of New York City. The missives were sent after Giuliani supported national legislation that was also backed by Clinton, and boy are they steamy. “You can be proud of your efforts to promote this bill,” cooed Clinton, who send Giuliani a signed photograph. “Thank you for the signing pen,” gushed Giuliani. “I greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness.” It’s practically pornographic! The Post dug up the correspondence after Giuliani hinted that he had flattering letters from Clinton that he might use against Hillary if the race got tight. It was a good, funny piece of investigative work on their part, but we can’t help but wonder why they failed to make the obvious point.
The Clinton-Giuliani notes were sent by the leaders to congratulate one another on the success of H.R. 4296, a ban on assault weapons. Their revelation comes directly on the heels of Giuliani’s address to the National Rifle Association last week, a group that strongly opposed the ban in 1994 when Giuliani helped pass it. The Republican candidate tried to re-create his stance on guns during his NRA appearance; while mayor he did everything he could to limit the flow of guns in the general population, and now he says “law enforcement should focus on enforcing the laws that exist on the books as opposed to passing new extensions of laws.” In its coverage of the “love letters,” the Post notably ignores this obvious, repeated evidence of Giuliani’s gun flip-flop, instead choosing to focus on conjuring up scandal in a set of short thank-you notes. We’re hoping someone else keeps digging into Giuliani’s weapons stance, at least. We can’t wait for him to engage in the really awkward staged hunts and hick rhetoric required of all gun-shy candidates.
Secret Pen Pols [NYP]
Giuliani Tells N.R.A. He Opposes New Gun Limits [NYT]
