A top ally to Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani yesterday blasted Fred Thompson for attacking the former mayor – and New York City – before even declaring his candidacy for president.
“Run or keep your mouth shut!” snarled Guy Molinari, New York co-chairman for the Giuliani presidential campaign.
“If you want to bash people, jump into the pool. We’re waiting for you,” Molinari added.
Giuliani’s adviser called Thompson out of bounds for penning a column on his blog blasting New York City’s gun-control laws under Giuliani and his successor, Mayor Bloomberg.
“He’s not just attacking Rudy. He’s attacking every resident of New York City,” Molinari charged.
Even before the column controversy, a liberal blogger had filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing Thompson of violating campaign-finance laws for electioneering before filing papers for his candidacy.
“I have a serious problem with this guy. Is he running? Is he not running? Now he’s going into attack mode even though he’s not an announced candidate,” said Molinari, a former congressman and Staten Island borough president.
Thompson – who had criticized Giuliani, Bloomberg and Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein for going after out-of-state gun dealers – laughed off Molinari’s tirade.
“I am tempted to say that was a good ‘shot across our bow,’ ” a Thompson spokesman said yesterday, “but I’m afraid that same federal judge might go after those of us who manufacture out-of-state gun metaphors.”
On his blog, Thompson wrote, “There are a lot of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don’t fall in that category We need federalism to protect states from a big bully in New York City.”
Giuliani rival Mitt Romney also has ratcheted up his bashing of New York as a “sanctuary city” in recent weeks for providing services to illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s campaign attacked both Thompson and Romney.
“I don’t recall Sen. Thompson and Gov. Romney blasting New York City when the GOP held its convention there three years ago. Leave it to this pair: They don’t just flip-flop on issues, now they flip-flop on cities, too,” Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff said.
churt@nypost.com