I like the title of the new anti-Giuliani website put up by the International Union of Fire-fighters: Rudy Giuliani, Urban Legend. Here is Rudy going around the country, posturing as “America’s Mayor” and milking the 9/11 terrorist attacks for all they’re worth—and now we have the New York City fire-fighters puncturing his hot-air balloon with facts: facts, for one, about how he botched the procurement of workable radios, a failure that led to the deaths of some 130 fire-fighters in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

It’s a living demonstration of the principle that bad policy, as Ron Paul pointed out to him during the South Carolina GOP debates, leads to bad consequences. It’s called “blowback”—and it’s blowing up in Rudy’s face. A more deserved come-uppance has rarely been seen.