Back in the fog of war in Vietnam, LBJ super suckup Jack Valenti let the world know how he felt. “I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently, because Lyndon Johnson is my President,” he intoned. “Fighting Jack,” as Art Buchwald was quick to dub Valenti, was a tough act to follow, but since records are made to be broken, now comes Rudolph Giuliani. In prime time at the 2004 Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden, the former New York City Mayor confessed to having burbled to his police commissioner Bernard Kerik: “Bernie, thank God George Bush is our President.” That sweet nothing ought to give Rudy a chokehold on the Fighting Jack Valenti Memorial Cup for Stakhanovite Sycophancy. Later, Rudy in effect copped the cup when he anointed the POTUS as America’s Churchill.

On MSNBC, a skeptical Chris Matthews grilled Giuliani about that Thank God George Bush mantra. But since Rudy stuck to his story, there might have been method to his out-of-character YesManShip. If so, keep a weather eye out for an October Surprise. As a potent come-on to Reagan Democrats in battleground states, the feckless Tom Ridge could be axed at Homeland Security in favor of the man people have come to know and love as “America’s Mayor.” Keep glued.