Just hours before Mitt Romney takes the stage at the values voter conference in DC, Rudy Giuliani's campaign released a "research briefing" titled, "Mitt & Hillary Sing From the Same Song Sheet," which uses past quotes from Romney and Clinton to demonstrate their "identical stances" on a host of issues including abortion, Roe v. Wade, the morning after pill, the NRA and Gun Control, and "the path to citizenship for illegal aliens."

Needless to say, this a brazen act of political opportunism, given that you could easily make an equally long and illustrious list of quotes on the same subjects showing Rudy in agreement with Hillary.

But this is Rudy Giuliani the political pugilist, and in many ways his New York "you-talkin'-to-me, pal?" attitude is part of his brand and a characteristic that attracts Republicans to him in the first place.

Clearly, Rudy's attitude is, "so what if someone could make the same list about me?" The calculation, of course, is that a restating of Giuliani's liberal positions on core conservative issues hurts him less than an indictment of flip-flopping on those same issues hurts Mitt Romney. We shall see.