Born Freeh

Ron Paul has Michael Scheuer, and now Rudy Giuliani has Louis Freeh.

Louis Freeh, Democrat Bill Clinton's FBI director, is going over to the other side in a big way today - endorsing Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, the Daily News has learned.

… it is Freeh's get-tough approach to crime and terrorism - he has long advocated expanding U.S. intelligence gathering around the globe - that will likely take center stage at today's planned endorsement.

It's a message that certainly fits with Giuliani's recent rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail, where he often argues that Democrats want to go back to playing "defense" on terrorism, while Republicans understand the importance of playing "offense."

Prediction: The endorsement will be sold as a no-downsides boost for Rudy's national security cred (like it is here) and there won't be much assessment of Freeh's record. For example, does he still think the 9/11 Commission Report whitewashed info about Muhammad Atta? Does his botch-up of the Wen Ho Lee investigation factor into his "get-tough" image? Does Rudy think that Carnivore was a good idea?

Actually, we can probably intuit the answer to that last question.