Rudy!

It may have taken about a year too long, but Rudy Giuliani has finally been punted off the national stage. Back to 9/11 profiteering for you, Rudy!

In retrospect, it seems hardly plausible he made it this far (not all that far, considering he never finished higher than third in any primary).

I mean, here's a guy who felt himself so indespensible to New York City, he was prepared to jetison democracy and install himself as some kind of emergency mayoral viceroy in the aftermath of 9/11. This barely worked for Musharraf in Pakistan.

Rudy, sweet, dear Rudy was also the dude who gave the world Bernie Kerik, that mobbed-up puke who turned a downtown apartment for 9/11 workers into his festering lovenest with O.J.'s book enabler, Judith Regan. But he'd certainly make a good head of Homeland Security, right?

Even the New York firefighters attacked poor little Rudy for his supposed shining moment during 9/11. If he didn't put his emergency command center inside the buildings that had already been attacked in 1993, if he had done a damn thing to coordinate the police and fire department radios as had been demanded back then...then who knows. But it's certain lives would have been saved.

Here's a guy who volunteered to serve on the 9/11 Commission charged with investigating the attacks and providing recommendations on how to prevent further attacks. Did he ever attend a meeting? Nah. There were millions to make on the lecture circuit simply talking about 9/11. No time to, you know, actually do something positive about it.

When I lived in New York, I was a Guiliani fan. It didn't bother me that he was a hot-headed bully. Sometimes that's the attitude you need to run a sprawling city. But he always took everything too far. Attacking the Brooklyn Museum for some dung-smeared painting of the Virgin Mary. Attacking the victims of racially-tinged police shootings. Attacking powerless enemies and ferret owners.

Rudy Guiliani is a petty tyrant with a messianic complex. It's fitting the religious kooks of the Republican Party dismissed him. It's sad they likely did so because of his multiple marriages, absentee children and stances on abortion and homosexuality. There are so many legitimate reasons to hate him.

Farewell, Rudy. We hardly knew too little about ye.