Soros Giuliani smackdown: 'I never liked him, incidentally...'

In an unexpected digression from a discussion of George Orwell on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show last month, the financier George Soros offered his harsh, personal assessment of Rudy in response to a question about Giuliani's attacks linking him to MoveOn.org.

"I would ascribe this to an Orwellian technique of transference. He transfers his own motives of vicious personal attack on me – tranfers it to me," Soros said. "I never liked him, incidentally, and I think that he today represents the worst continuation of this 'war on terror' false metaphor – he’s got all the same advisors who advised us to invade Iraq now advising him."

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella responded:

"Leave it George Soros to attack an American hero and think the backlash is all about him. It just goes to show you how out of touch the interests of MoveOn.org are with the rest of the America."

A couple of footnotes: Soros said he wasn't involved in MoveOn's "General Betrayus" attack, though he backed MoveOn in 2004.

And one thing Soros and Rudy seem to agree on is a 1996 speech in which, according to text available on the web, Rudy pledged to work with Soros and others on behalf of immigrants. Soros told Lehrer he had no memory of the alliance or the speech; a Giuliani aide said the speech itself, unlike the prepared text online, apparently didn't mention Soros.