Keith was visibly upset after the GOP ran their 9/11 "tribute" ad during last week's convention. Tonight, that outrage manifested itself in yet another scathing Special Comment aimed at John McCain and the rest of the 9/11 exploiting GOPers.

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This is supposed to be a day of remembrance. Remembrance of the attack, remembrance of the national unity which followed it.

Most important of all, remembrance of the dead.

But 9/11 has become…... a brand name. A Republican campaign slogan. Propaganda of the lowest form.

9/11 has become… 9/11, with a trademark logo.

FLASHBACK: Keith's 2006 Special Comment from Ground Zero.

Full transcript below the fold:

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  At last week's convention, both Sarah Palin and Rudy 9iu11ani went out of there way to demean Barack Obama's record of community organizing -- indeed, they seemed to mock the very idea of grassroots movements aimed at uprooting the status quo. Today on ABC's This Week, Obama responded forcefully.

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"It's curious to me that they would mock that, when I, at least, think that that's exactly what young people should be doing.

"I worked with churches, who were dealing with steel plants that had closed in their neighborhoods, to set up job training programs for the unemployed and after-school programs for youth, and to try to deal with asbestos in homes with poor people -- community service work -- which John McCain has been talking about, putting country first and extolling the virtues of national service. I would think that's what we want all our young people to do. I would think that that's an area where Democrats and Republicans would agree." 

On Face the Nation this morning, Senator McCain was asked what he has against community organizing. 

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Heather writes:

When McCain is asked about Rudy and Sarah Barracuda mocking Obama being a community organizer, his excuse is that it was just her responding to them saying something about her being a mayor of a small town but of course he doesn't think it's a negative to be a community organizer. If he really thinks that, didn't he even have any control over his own convention?

Apparently not.

  In the most biting of satire, Stephen laughs along with Rudy Giuliani as he disparages Barack Obama's historic campaign, and agrees with Sarah Plain that Barack Obama is a nobody who's only popular for giving great speeches (or in her case, a single speech.)

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Palin: What exactly is our opponent's plan?

Colbert: Exactly! We know nothing about Barack Obama. Only that he can give a great speech... and that is not enough. By the way, Governor Palin, great speech last night.

What a shame. I was really looking forward to all those gratuitous 9/11 references.

Republicans revamped their convention plans for a second day, dropping former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as keynote speaker Tuesday night while trying to determine President Bush's role in the political pageantry celebrating John McCain's candidacy for president.

In Giuliani's speaking slot were former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, one of McCain's rivals for the Republican nomination, and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000 and now a McCain supporter. Republicans say the two will talk about McCain's life and their friendship with him.

In other convention-related news, President Bush will address his fellow Republicans tonight. Jon Perr takes a look back at Bush's (broken) promises to the nation from eight years ago at his own convention.

  Notorious cross-dresser and miserable failure of a Presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, has been chosen to give the keynote speech in Minneapolis-St. Paul on Sept. 2. For a good idea of what 9iu11ani will say, see: here.

[Newsday]

UPDATE: It looks like Rudy's first gig as GOP keynote speaker, a conference call with the press today, didn't go so well. Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that McCain goons cut the line of Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporter Ron Kampeas after he began pressing 9Iu11ani on some of his shady business dealings.

Rudy Giuliani's appearance on a McCain conference call got off to a rocky start when Ron Kampeas, the Washington, D.C. of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, compared an Obama advisor's trip to Syria -- the subject of the call -- to Giuliani's and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann's paid work on behalf of Georgia (in Scheunemann's case) and Venezuela's Citgo and the Saudi government (in the case of Giuliani's law firm).

"You're making an issue of him taking a hotel room?" Kampeas asked -- and then dropped off the call mid-sentence.

"I think they cut me off," he said in an email just now.

Scheunemann noted that his lobbying contract, unlike Obama advisor Daniel Kurtzer's trip to Syria, was publicly disclosed and not "covert." Giuliani said that Citgo, which is owned by the Venezuelan government, is an "American company."

"I never represented Saudi Arabia," he said.

The Associated Press reported that Bracewell & Giuliani, a Texas-based energy firm, has represented Saudi Arabia.

  About a month ago, as the debate over coastal drilling began in earnest, Dick Cheney pushed the rhetorical envelope a bit, telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that "oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government ... Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply. Yet Congress has said ... no to drilling off Florida."

It has been a common Republican talking point, but it's patently false -- the Chinese are not drilling off Cuba's coasts. The day after Cheney made the bogus claim, the V.P.'s office acknowledged that he was mistaken.

And yet, for some reason, high-profile Republicans can't stop repeating the claim that's already been debunked. Maybe conservatives have decided that they can't win a debate on energy policy on the merits, so misleading people about communists stealing our oil is the better strategy. Here's failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani talking to CNN's resident right-winger, Glenn Beck, Wednesday night:

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Giuliani: "You look at Cuba. Cuba is going to allow China to drill for oil within 80 miles of Florida. And Florida had a 300-mile limit. So in essence, we have China drilling for American oil."

Maybe it's my imagination, but it almost seems as if high-profile Republicans have been repeating the false claim more now that it has been debunked.

Looks like even Senator Norm Coleman is getting in on the fun.

TPM has been keeping track of all the examples, and there are some real doozies in there. Some Republicans have altered the myth a little -- I think Giuliani is the first to suggest that the Cubans and the Chinese are taking our oil -- but they're all repeating a charge that isn't remotely true. Either they don't know what they're talking about, or they know the claim is false and repeat it anyway. At this point, it's hard to know which is the case.

 AEI’s David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter and top aide to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, has an item in The New Republic this week about John McCain and the possible impact of his running mate. It’s Frum’s conclusion, though, that’s noteworthy. (via Yglesias)

I have my own personal nomination for vice president for McCain. It’s Rudy Giuliani, precisely because he shares the vision of a practical, reforming, war-winning Republican Party that inspires John McCain, plus the stronger-than-usual grounds for hoping that he might be the rare candidate who can make a difference in an essential state — in this case, New Jersey.

But, my personal preferences aside, I hope, Senator, that you will make your choice with this consideration in mind: This choice may prove to be your most important legacy to your party and your country. Your nominee probably won’t help your candidacy–but he or she may secure your vision or else destroy your reputation. Sports talk about the veepstakes is good, entertaining political fun. But a party in as much trouble as the GOP in 2008 has little time for fun.

Oh, I don’t know, David, if McCain picked Giuliani for the ticket it would enormous fun.

In fact, just to extend the entertaininment factor a bit, I’ll add some fuel to the baseless speculation and note that once the McCain campaign secured the nomination and took over the RNC, the committee hired Victory 2008 directors, many of whom are “veterans of the Giuliani presidential campaign, and before that, veterans of the 2006 RNC field operation run by Mike DuHaime, formerly the Giuliani campaign manager.”

Clear evidence of a Giuliani role in the presidential campaign? Well, no, but a guy can dream.

Keep in mind, there was ample talk of a McCain-Giuliani ticket earlier this year.

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At the risk of sounding rude, I found this report from Marc Ambinder rather amusing.

The Republican National Committee has hired many of its Victory 2008 directors. These are the folks who will be in charge of spending the many of millions of dollars that the party doles out for GOTV efforts. Many of them are young — very young — are veterans of the Giuliani presidential campaign, and before that, veterans of the 2006 RNC field operation run by Mike DuHaime, formerly the Giuliani campaign manager.

Yes, right, Giuliani. I remember him.

He’s the one who spent tens of millions of dollars to compete in eight Republicans presidential contests earlier this year, losing all of them by wide margins, and who quit the race without so much as a single delegate.

He’s the one who only managed to break double digits in only one primary, and who lost by 21 points in his most competitive contest.

It’s his team that has been hired by the RNC for its get-out-the-vote efforts.

Thank goodness.

UPDATE: (Nicole) It appears that the RNC is pretty happy with the number of "friends" it has on Facebook. Their thinking apparently is that it bodes well for the November election, as they for the first time have more than the DNC.  I've heard rumors they're shopping that story to some friendly reporters. If you'd like to make them look ridiculous, you can join the Democratic Party's Facebook group here.  

Rudy is back looking to cash in big time for his stunning defeat in the Republican primary by asking for a cool 100K in speaking fees and Mary K. Ham of Townhall makes like a Stepford Republican and follows Limbaugh's lead by voting for Hillary.

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Only in GOP politics can a man run the worst campaign in the history of the US and count on republicans to shell out the big bucks to hear him utter one phrase over and over again.

UPDATE: I guess Rudy needs the money.

“We are deeper in the hole than I thought we would be,” wrote John Gross, the campaign’s treasurer, in an e-mail message to several senior campaign aides obtained by the Times. 

You've probably heard the buzz on Giuliani's solitary fifty-million-dollar delegate. It turns out that for the amount Mister 9/11 spent on each one of the votes he received in the primaries, he could have bought two bottles of Chanel Number Five purse spray....

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Via MSNBC:

Rudy Giuliani, who sought to make the leap from New York mayor to the White House, dropped out of the Republican presidential campaign on Wednesday and endorsed front-runner John McCain for the nomination.

Giuliani made the announcement at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library a day after suffering a debilitating defeat in Tuesday's Florida primary.

With McCain at his side, Giuliani said the nation needed "someone who can be trusted in times of crisis." Read more...

After receiving Rudy's endorsement, Senator McCain invokes...you guessed it, 9/11. $50,000,000 just doesn't buy what it used to, does it Mr. Mayor? All that cash earned him exactly 1 delegate and he got smoked by Ron Paul in the process. He ran a horrible campaign and despite the best efforts of the media, he DID try to compete in the earlier primaries -- but the more people heard him speak, the less they liked him. I'm sure he'll land on his feet, he may just earn a few thousand less $$ for his "Hero of 9/11" lectures now. By the way, Rudy has attacked McCain as recently as Monday, and he probably should have removed all the McCain smears from his website before he endorsed him.

Here's a brief clip of McCain's victory speech in Florida where he talks about 9iu11ani in the past tense...

McCain: And I want to thank my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani---who invested his heart and soul in this primary and who conducted himself with all the qualities with the exceptional American leader he truly is. Thank You Rudy. Thank You Rudy---for all you've added to this race and for being an inspiration to me and millions of Americans.

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Yea John, he ran a wonderful campaign. So good in fact that it might be the worst campaign in the history of modern politics. By not participating in the process except on FOX---he handed you Florida and New Hampshire and the lead heading into the debate tomorrow night. Bravo! Update: And how ridiculous do all the networks and pundits look over their poll driven pimping of Rudy early on in the process?

Update: What do you know. NBC confirms that Rudy will endorse McCain at the Reagan library tomorrow.

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Matt Ortega is asking you to hang on, Rudy.

...in the most (I can't tell anymore) boring GOP debate so far. He's in third place and does nothing to help himself. Another fine strategic play for his camp. MSNBC tried to say that the Republicans were using this debate to introduce themselves there. Ummm, I believe Floridians have computers, watch TV, buy newspapers and read our blogs. Did the candidates actually think that Fl. is so uncivilized that they knew nothing about any of them until this debate?

And they own the war. All the candidates except Ron Paul embraced Bush and his war. Most Americans still disapprove of the war and want us out of Iraq.

Update: Chris Cillizza pretty much agrees:

Two polls released in the last 24 hours showed the two men in a statistical dead heat with Giuliani and Huckabee battling for third place.

That Giuliani was unwilling to take any direct shots at his opponents seems to signal that either his campaign knows something the pollsters don't or that he is content to make his policy points and let the chips fall where they may -- even if that means a third-place finish, which would badly hamstring his chances at the nomination.

The New York Times ran a fantastic front page article yesterday entitled "In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price" that goes into great detail about Giuliani's tenure as mayor and his frightening authoritarian streak. Would you believe St. Rudy of 9/11 had a man who complained about a questionable speed trap arrested on a 13 year old traffic-ticket warrant after he went to The Daily News with the story? That really shouldn't surprise you at this point, but I did learn a lot about this frankly terrifying candidate I didn't know.

Orangutan's comment from the other day (in which he quotes a 1994 Giuliani speech on crime) pretty much says it all:

“Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”

Paging Mr.Orwell. Mr.Orwell. In my humble opinion, Rudy Giuliani is by far the most extremist and dangerous of the Republican candidates that could succeed George W. Bush.

Former NYC mayor Ed Koch wrote a book some years back titled "Giuliani: Nasty Man" that chronicles all the extremism to come out of City Hall during the 1990's. Truly scary stuff.