Uh oh, it looks like the neocons have settled on a presidential candidate, and it is (you guessed it) …

“They are officially known as Rudy Giuliani’s senior foreign policy advisory board, but they also could be dubbed something else: Neocons For Rudy.”

That’s David Saltonstall, writing in the New York Daily News, a paper that covers a town where neocons have been known to hang out, especially in that elephant’s graveyard of former Trotskyists-turned-Likudniks known as the Upper West Side. We are further informed that a number of top neocons are “advising” Rudy, chief among them Norman Podhoretz, of whom this is said (by Irwin Stelzer): ““I think Giuliani has a reasonable claim to the neoconservative mantle, and Norman is in the position to put the crown on anyone’s head.”

The piece is good for a few chuckles, such as Stelzer’s evaluation of the neocon label: “I don’t think it is a vote-winner, frankly, because it is largely associated with failure at the moment.” And: “But there’s more to neoconservatism than the war.” Yeah, don’t forget about their utter contempt for civil liberties and the great pride they take in lying—two qualities that should endear them to Giuliani, their perfect standard–bearer.