*Over Guiliani, anyway.Actually Paul did quite well in the Iowa Caucuses last night. The 10% of voters who believe in Paul's pastiche of libertarian dogma and paleoconservative theology turned out and gave Paul a 5th place showing.What does it mean for the GOP?To give Paul his due, even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 -- when the emotional response to the assault was at its rawest -- serious scholars had begun hashing over the role played by American policy in the Mideast, particularly long-standing support for Israel, in fueling Islamic extremism and hatred for the U.S. But in the format of a candidate debate -- where rhetorical zingers count far more than lengthy discourse -- Paul's remark amounted to a grooved fast ball down the middle, and the consensus at the time was that Giuliani parked it. As MSNBC's online political note put it at the time, Giuliani may want to "hire out Paul for the campaign trail -- he could be the Washington Generals to Rudy's Globetrotters"...(Read Full Post)