The great George M Cohan, the writer of many songs that helped take us through World War l and ll. The words and music to Over There came to him while travelling by train from New Rochelle to New York shortly after the U.S. had declared war against Germany in April 1917.

Re-reading the Ron Paul nuttiness of last nights’ GOP debate has me questioning why Mr. Looney Tunes was ever allowed into the debates in the first place. Was Paul’s inclusion just a rounding up number to get to ten?

MR. GOLER: Congressman, you don’t think that changed with the 9/11 attacks, sir?

REP. PAUL: What changed?

MR. GOLER: The non-interventionist policies.

REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.

We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)

MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?

REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.

MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)

Thank you, Rudy, for your response. It was succinct, tough and emotional. The look on Rudy Guiliani’s face last night reminded me of my own late father-in-law.

C.C. was an easy going man generally, but if someone crossed the line with him, the expression on his face alone would cause them to make a quick retreat.

That Ron Paul is so uninformed that he could throw out the fallacy that we were bombing Iraq for ten years just for the fun of it, takes him into that strange no-mans-land known as Trutherdom. I believe it was actually a UN mandated no-fly zone to protect the Kurds that had our Air Force flying over Iraq and occasionally dropping a bomb because they were fired on.

“They attacked us because we had been over there.”

Ron Paul had some nerve last night trying to hijack the great George M. Cohan song. Where is the Republican National Committee on Paul’s despicable comments? Why aren’t they demanding that he be disinvited to the debates?