Good lord. With Iraq, immigration, health care and social security to contend with, is crime really the issue on which the GOP nomination momentarily turns? The peg here, of course, is Mitt’s appointment of a judge who very foolishly paroled a guy who shouldn’t have been paroled, with the predictable results. Captain Ed explains why it’s a silly scandal but it’s easy pickings for the guy who made New York safe again, so a-pickin’ it he shall be. Philip Klein at AmSpec posted about the article in the Boston media to which Rudy refers here back in September; follow the link for a fair treatment of the merits of the argument. As for Mitt, it’s pathetic that he’d be so easily cowed into rolling over on the judge for one admittedly bad decision but he did sort of redeem himself with a solid shot landed to Rudy’s jaw. Exit quotation: “I must admit that of all the people who might attack someone on the basis of an appointment, I thought he would be the last to do so.” Click the image to watch.

Update: “This is now a huge issue for me in the presidential election.”