And yet, here Douthat is, arguing that Rudy Giuliani (!) might be just the candidate to capitalize on the Democrats “tendency toward political corruption.” Right. Maybe he can get Bernie Kerik to be his running mate.

More Douthat: “The president is pushing a California-style climate-change bill at a time when businesses (and people) are fleeing the Golden State in droves.”

Really? The Census Bureau estimates that California's population grew by 8.5 percent from 2000 to 2008 -- a faster rate of growth than the nation as a whole. Douthat didn't just make up his assertion that people “are fleeing the Golden State in droves,” did he?