McCain Takes Shot at Rudy's Cod

One of the hallmarks of Rudy Giuliani's primary campaign is that he's willing to say just about anything to puff up his image as an uber-manly tough guy. Where Mitt Romney panders on social conservatism, Giuliani panders on uber-masculinity.

This brings us to the issue of codpieces. If Renaissance codpieces are an ideal representation of symbolic manliness, Giuliani's daily put-downs of Hillary, advocating attacks on Iran and standing tall for torture can best be understood as efforts to pump up his political codpiece while also putting his ample "cod" on display.

Last Friday, Giuliani sought to "show a little cod" by claiming that he knew what was at stake in torturing al-Qaeda suspects because he himself had Mafia suspects tortured in New York while he was either a federal attorney or a Mayor.

Intensive questioning works. If I didn't use intensive questioning, there would be a lot of Mafia guys running around New York right now, and crime would be a lot higher in New York than it is.

But last night, John McCain deflated Rudy a little by calling him on the ridiculousness of the comparison between prosecuting Mafia guys in New York and global terrorists.

When someone says waterboarding is similar to harsh interrogation techniques used against the mafia in New York City, they do not have enough experience to lead our military.

Score one hit to Rudy's cod for McCain. Maybe he should do that more often.