Ex-Rudy Giuliani aides get key Republican posts

Rudy Giuliani's rapid descent from leader in the national polls among the Republican presidential candidates to virtual non-factor when caucuses and primary voting actually began this year did not provide a political template others will want to follow.

Be that as it may, the Republican National Committee has signed up several survivors from the Giuliani fiasco as it gears up field operations in a number of states for the fall election.

RNC Chairman Mike Duncan today unveiled a list of operatives expected to lead the party's efforts in nine states, and fully five of the appointees were part of the Giuliani campaign.

Charged with helping deliver the "positive message" from presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain and "energizing voters to elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot in November," the Giuliani refugees will be at the helm in Ohio, Arkansas, Colorado, Washington state and Nevada.

Party partisans can only hope that these aides -- especially those assigned to the expected battlegrounds of Ohio, Colorado and Nevada -- did not pick up too many bad habits while working for a presidential campaign that tanked so dramatically.

-- Don Frederick