Rudy's Speech and the Ghost of Bernie Kerik

ST. PAUL—Rudy Giuliani will finally deliver his keynote address tonight, marking his most high profile role in electoral politics since his own ill-fated presidential run.

The Giuliani campaign was done in by a variety of factors, not least among them a flawed strategy that put all its eggs in a Florida basket, an ability to assuage conservative concerns about his liberal positions on social issues, his unorthodox personal history, as well as this and this and this and this.

But the real death-blow to Giuliani’s campaign was arguably his association with Bernie Kerik, who Giuliani vouched for to be Secretary of Homeland Security, and who was later indicted on corruption charges.

It was a big deal at the time, and the history is recent enough to raise the question of whether making Giuliani a point man on security at the convention won't invite some of the same criticism that undermined his campaign.

Prominent Republicans I talked to here are confident that it won't be an issue.

“He’s not running tomorrow night—he is just giving a speech,” said Newt Gingrich on Monday afternoon. “He is a moderate Republican who is pro-choice, who is probably the best articulator of the importance of national security in a campaign that believes national security is the most important issue.”

Charlie Black, a close adviser to John McCain, said on Tuesday that Giuliani was chosen to give the keynote because “Rudy Giuliani is a national hero in this country. He is not only a great friend of John McCain he is one of John McCain’s strongest advocates anywhere, and he will, whatever his message will capture the imagination of the American people.”

Asked if he was worried about Kerik and the wealth of attendant negative story lines, Black said, “He’s just making a speech. Nobody cares about that. He’s not running for anything he’s just making a speech. Go look at any poll that you want and he is still very popular and highly respected by the American people.”

Sitting on the convention floor on Monday, Giuliani delegates Anthony Ribustello of the Bronx and Philip Ragusa of Queens said Giuliani couldn’t have known about Kerik’s problems.

“Did President Bush know that there were no weapons of mass destruction? You can’t be everywhere all the time,” said Ribustello, who added that he thought Giuliani himself would make a good homeland security secretary.

“Yeah,” chimed in Ragusa. “What, are you going to be in everybody’s bedroom?”