Rudy's Phone Con

We are not among those who believe that Rudy Giuliani's taking that phone call from his wife while in mid-speech before the National Rifle Association last week was a staged event meant to humanize him.

Rather, we believe it was a staged event meant to shift media coverage of his appearance away from the rampant hypocrisy behind the former Mayor's remarks and his conversion from staunch gun-control advocate a decade ago to just another panderer to the power of the NRA. Like any good con man, Rudy understands the value of a distraction when you're trying to fleece your mark.

Mr. Giuliani has sought to disown his prior position on tightening gun-registration laws, which led him to join President Clinton in backing Federal legislation on the matter and to bring a lawsuit against unscrupulous gun dealers whose shady transactions had helped bring havoc to the city's streets. He now contends that these were merely positions he advocated as part of an effort to get crime under control in the city, and that he believes individual states have the right to determine the extent to which gun sales are regulated.

This bit of nonsense obscures the fact that the reason Mr. Giuliani back then - and Mayor Bloomberg more recently - brought lawsuits against gun manufacturers and dealers was that more than a few southern states had sieves for gun laws, making it easy for criminals to purchase weapons there and then ship them north.

A guy who changes positions that radically to curry favor with his audience does not inspire much confidence as a leader.

Published reports indicated that Mr. Giuliani didn't make that many converts among the NRA members, most of whom back other candidates with long records of opposition to gun control. He might have gotten more credit from his listeners if he expressed what we believe are his honest feelings: that his gun-control efforts were aimed at the firearms commonly used to commit crimes, not those used for hunting, and that anyone who truly cares about law and order should understand the positions he took even if they disagree with them.