According to this Fox News story, Giuliani went after Romney at a meeting with Fox News staffers yesterday. Giuliani focused on Romney's "attorney test." According to the report, Giuliani suggested Romney should have covered his mouth after saying that he would check with his attorneys before using deadly force without congressional approval. Giuliani went on: "I can't imagine John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis ... saying 'I will check with lawyers." Meanwhile, campaigning elsewhere, Romney said that this was a "phony issue," and added that if any candidate was an expert in litigation and overlawyering, it was Giuliani. I've spent most of this campaign waiting to see how hizzoner responds when faced with a direct attack by one of his Republican rivals. The reason is that Giuliani may have declined to respond to attacks in an effort to demonstrate his alliance with conservatives, only to expose himself to further attacks that would place his alliance with right-wingers in even greater jeopardy. That hasn't happened. Last week Romney attacked the mayor on economic issues, and Giuliani more or less trounced Romney - politically speaking - in Tuesday's CNBC debate over the line-item veto. And now Giuliani ups the ante, forcing Romney to go on defense. Whatever you think of the mayor, you have to recognize that he is a major political talent. The question, as always, is whether he will be able to withstand hundreds of well-produced opposition documents like this - especially when those opposition documents focus not only on his alleged past differences with fiscal conservatives, but also his contemporary differences with judicial conservatives.