Today’s sad Rudy Giuliani story will have you asking the question, “Where are the conservatives?”

I mean real conservatives, not these authoritarian posers who call themselves conservative but are anything but.

Anyway, today’s story takes us back from Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Malpractice, attorney for Donald Trump, all the way back to when Giuliani still was “America’s Mayor” in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The New York Post is reporting that, in his forthcoming memoir about 9/11, Republican former New York governor George Pataki reveals that Giuliani approached him, asking Pataki to cancel the then-upcoming mayoral election, so Giuliani could remain in office.

(You know, the same election which ultimately elected a certain rich businessman mayor of New York. That same rich businessman, a certain Mike Bloomberg, today is spending his millions to run for president.)

According to The Post:

Pataki writes that his “mind raced” as he told himself, “Are you really, right now, after a terror attack on our state, our city, asking me to just cancel the entire election? I am a conservative. We respect the law. For God’s sake, you’re a prosecutor! You know the law.”

The irony is that before this brazen request, Pataki had thought about supporting a change to city law to allow Giuliani to run for a third term. But after this bombshell, all bets were off.

Pataki, to his credit, had the reaction to Giuliani’s cockamamie request any honorable and true conservative would and should.

Pataki didn’t give in to Giuliani’s request, and:

When it became clear that Giuliani wouldn’t get his wish, Pataki writes, he arranged a brief meeting at which he admitted, “George, you are right. I don’t think you should cancel the election.”

The real point here isn’t merely to point out another of Giuliani’s many insanities. Rather, it’s to indicate that when Giuliani sought to transgress the norms of democracy, it took a true conservative like George Pataki to serve as an effective guardrail, and that guardrail was successful.

Where are the principled conservatives like Mr. Pataki who today could serve as effective guardrails against the non-conservative, but authoritarian and hyperpartisan impulses of Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell?

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