Rudy: It's On….

…well, maybe, exploring his options, yada yada. But the official exploratory committee for Giuliani for Prez 08 has been formed.

Giuliani joins Duncan Hunter as the only GOP presidential candidate to officially launch such a committee.

Tim Cavanaugh assessed the Rudy legend for us back in our November 2005 issue. An excerpt worth contemplating:

Giuliani's success, particularly his broad definition of "quality of life" issues and offenses, poses a serious utilitarian challenge to civil libertarians. In describing Giuliani's early campaign against squeegee men and his later efforts against turnstile jumpers, public urinators, and other petty lawbreakers, Siegel notes that a large percentage of these people also had outstanding warrants for much more serious crimes–that in fact a great portion of the city's rapid drop in violent crime rates came from tougher enforcement aimed at these sorts of minor offenses. A similar argument is already shaping up over the NYPD's new bag-searching policy in the subway, whose defenders are almost certainly keeping track of the number of serious criminals (not just potheads) apprehended as a by-product of the searches. Those of us who don't want random police searches to become a constant feature of American life had better be prepared to respond to that challenge.

Cavanaugh also notes that Rudy was not unique in his fabled turning around of a tough town; San Diego and Jersey City saw similar crime downturns–indeed, the nation as a whole, during the years 1994-2001 that Rudy reigned saw violent crime rates fall by more than half, from 51.2 to 24.7 victimizations per 1,000 people, and I'm pretty sure as nifty as Rudy may be, he wasn't responsible.