Joining the ranks of Trotskyites for John McCain, we have Mitt Romney for Rudy Giuliani. Rudy's put out a new ad in Florida, interrupting naps across the state with faux-momentous music over a slew of quotes from various conservatives (Norquist, Forbes, Will) about Rudy's reputation as a fiscally conservative tax-cutter. It closes with a quote from... well, you'll have to watch.

Needless to say, Mittens for America is none too happy about this move, as the quote was, predictably, taken somewhat out of context. Commenting in an interview after a Michigan debate, Romney said:

The line-item veto is the best tool the president has to reign in excessive spending, and Mayor Giuliani has a great record of cutting taxes and cutting spending, although, according to the Mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, that followed him, he said that he left excessive deficits for him. But he’s cut spending, he cut taxes, I cut spending, I cut taxes. But the real difference between us is that when it came to the line-item veto, I’m in favor of it.

Personally, I think the line-item veto is pretty awesome, since it can be used (and has been, in my home state) to make legislation absolutely unrecognizable, through the technique of amending budget numbers from "$250,000,000" to "$2" or striking out little words like "not." Sadly for the creative writers among us, though, after two years of Bill Clinton enjoying that particular power, the line-item veto was ruled unconstitutional - in a case brought by the City of New York under the authority of none other than Mayor Rudy Giuliani. So there you have it, kids: Mittens is for the line-item veto, but also for Rudy, who's against the line-item veto, or at any rate was against the line-item veto back in the late 90's, but by Romney standards that by no means equates to opposing it now. (No word yet on how left-handed leprechauns feel about the line-item veto.) I fully expect his hair to explode early next week.