Giuliani’s camp says it’s all nonsense but there sure do seem to be a lot of rumors flying around lately. Especially now that the KSM trial’s given him a chance to get back on TV and work his 9/11 mojo.

Head to head with Gillibrand, he leads — by 14 points. Dude, I think this is happening.

A source familiar with Giuliani’s thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010 to fill out the remaining two years of Hillary Clinton’s term.

If elected, the source said, he could use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012 – rather than run for re-election to the Senate.

Um, no he couldn’t. A RINO like Rudy stands even less of a chance in the primaries now, after McCain’s flameout and the tea-party backlash to less-than-true conservatives, than he did last year. But as a senator? Hmmmm:

54% of registered voters statewide would vote for Giuliani compared with 40% who would support Gillibrand. Even one-third of Democrats report they would back the Republican challenger, and Giuliani runs competitively against Gillibrand in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City.

Gaining the nomination for U.S. Senate does not appear to pose a problem either. By nearly a three to one margin, Giuliani would be the Republicans’ pick when matched up against former New York State Governor George Pataki. If the Republican primary were held today, he would receive 71% of the vote to Pataki’s 24%.

This is actually the perfect follow-up post to Instapunk’s brass-knuckle treatment of a certain Chamberlain-esque RINO candy-ass who shall remain nameless. The springboard for that whole dust-up was CNN’s poll finding that 51 percent of Republicans would rather nominate someone who agrees with them on all major issues — even if he stands a poor chance of winning the general election — than a candidate they don’t always agree with but who can beat the local Democrat. That’s Giuliani to a T. I’m going to poll this one. Generic “true conservative” whom Gillibrand is all but certain to beat or the dastardly squish known as America’s Mayor?