ROOKIES MAKE ROOKIE MISTAKES:

Heyyy! Who Stole Rudy’s Black Book From Carry-On?: Giuliani Gang Rabid After Unleashed Secrets Make the Public Domain (Jason Horowitz, 1/8/2007, NY Observer)

The last thing Rudy Giuliani needed was to make a laundry list of the vulnerabilities that threaten to derail his pursuit of the Republican Presidential nomination.

After all, everyone paying close attention to Presidential politics knows about his liberal stance on social issues, his two divorces, his marriage to a former mistress and his nettlesome relationship with Bernard Kerik, a scandal-laden former aide.

But list them is exactly what Mr. Giuliani’s nascent campaign did, complete with bullet points, in a 140-page binder of printed pages, handwritten notes and spreadsheets that outlined in detail his Presidential bid’s secret fund-raising and campaign plans. [...]

[D]espite the Giuliani camp’s indignation, Mr. McCain’s campaign couldn’t resist some mild gloating.

John Weaver, a chief political strategist to Mr. McCain, said that the emergence of the document proved the political wisdom of the adage “Don’t put pen to paper” and, referring to Giuliani Partners, the former Mayor’s consulting company, he added, “I thought it was a security company.”

(According to the Daily News, the Giuliani document also listed Mr. Giuliani’s private-sector business as a potential vulnerability.)

Mr. Weaver called the Giuliani camp’s accusations of theft “ridiculous” and said, “If I were them, I would search in the grassy knoll.”

And Mr. Weaver said that none of the in-house analysis offered in the document was startling to political observers, in and of itself.

“There is nothing in there that is particularly surprising to me other than the nature by which it became public,” said Mr. Weaver.

His current popularity is based entirely on the fact that so few prospective voters are paying any attention.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 3, 2007 9:32 AM