Inside the Beltway

No postcards

Under the headline “Bygones,” we’d written earlier that Jan Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which oversees the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, was on hand this week at the Hanoi Press Club in Vietnam to accept the Medal for Peace and Friendship Among Nations.

Now we’re told that Mr. Scruggs and his former platoon sergeant, Jimmy Mosconis, will be taking a side trip tomorrow with enormous personal significance: The pair will be visiting the Vietnamese village of Xuan Loc, where each was wounded while serving with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade.

Healing Rudy

If there’s anything amusing about the popular Web site Catholics Against Rudy, it’s the fact that it was designed by Patrick Carver, “a staunch, pro-life Southern Baptist” — albeit one who believes “in the cause.”

The creator of the site is Steve Dillard, a lawyer and former judicial clerk who readers might recall once ran the Southern Appeal blog.

“The purpose of this Web site is to empower faithful Catholics at the local level to educate their fellow parishioners about RudyGiuliani’s abysmal record on non-negotiable ‘culture of life’ issues (e.g., abortion, embryonic stem cell research) and traditional marriage,” says Mr. Dillard, who points out that the former New York mayor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate’s “policy positions are in direct contravention to fundamental Church teachings.”

Mr. Giuliani, for his part, has ducked most questions pertaining to whether he is a “practicing Catholic.”

“My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests,” Mr. Giuliani replied recently when stumping for votes in Iowa. He added rather flippantly: “I believe in God. … I pray and ask him for help. I pray like a lawyer. I try to make a deal — get me out of this jam, and I’ll start going back to church.”

Truth be told, Mr. Giuliani came close to entering the priesthood after graduating from Catholic high school in 1961, but he confessed that “girls” had caught his eye. One was his own second cousin, Regina Peruggi, whom he married and ultimately divorced.

As far as Mr. Dillard is concerned, it’s not too late for Mr. Giuliani to repent.

“Indeed, we would encourage all Catholics to pray for Mayor Giuliani on a daily basis; specifically, that he will confess the error of his ways, fully embrace the teachings of the Catholic Church, and return to full communion with the Church,” he writes on his Web site, www.CatholicsAgainstRudy.com.

Sweet emotion?

That’s Washington best-selling author Ronald Kessler interviewing New York best-selling author — former New York Times Magazine editor in chief Edward Klein— about his new biography, “Katie: The Real Story.”

As in network news anchor Katie Couric, who may not be “America’s sweetheart” after all.

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