The NYT, which also did a little fact-checking today, reported:

 Quote:
Asked if Mr. Giuliani would continue to repeat the statistic, and if the advertisement would continue to run, [Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani] responded by e-mail: “Yes. We will.”


Of course they will.

One likes to think there are certain political norms. If a campaign is going to run an ad, first they make sure that it’s at least close to the truth. If a candidate and his or her team try and get away with a lie, and get caught, they pull the ad and replace it with something else. The campaign takes some heat for trying to sucker the public, but the story eventually fades.

Except those norms aren’t real at all. Giuliani and his campaign lied. They know they lied. They know they got caught lying. Are they going to backpedal? Not even a little.

Why? Because the Giuliani gang assumes they’ll get away with it. Paul Krugman challenged political reporters covering the campaigns to take this as seriously as, say, haircuts and cackles. But therein lies the point: Giuliani and his team are pretty confident that’ll never happen.

Now, it’s fair to say that several news outlets — ABC, WaPo, NYT, among others — have published reports noting that Giuliani’s claim is wrong. And that’s good — as a first step. But now that the campaign has pledged to keep running a bogus claim anyway, the obvious thing for the media to do is start following up. That might include, say, asking Giuliani about it while he’s campaigning. Maybe mentioning it on shows like Hardball. Perhaps noting that this seems to be part of a pattern with Giuliani, who has trouble with the truth.

In other words, make the fact that Giuliani got caught lying a campaign issue, like Edwards’ hair or Clinton’s laugh, only with substance this time.

I know, I know, it’s unlikely. But a guy can dream….