Racing toward a pair of local fund-raisers -- and the presidential campaign's second-quarter fund-raising deadline -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani grabbed a quick breakfast of pizza and fontinella cheese in the upstairs dining room of Sunseri Brothers.

	VWH Campbell, Post-Gazette Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who's running for president, samples the pizza yesterday at Sunseri's second-floor dining room in the Strip District. Click photo for larger image.

The choreographed Strip District photo opportunity was part of Mr. Giuliani's first visit to the Pittsburgh region since launching his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. With businessmen Jimmy and Nino Sunseri as his tour guides yesterday, the former mayor picked up some pasta and peppers before heading out onto Penn Avenue for a brief walking tour.

As though on cue, 10-month-old Ava Clever of Squirrel Hill happened by in the arms of her mother, Lisa, giving the Republican an opportunity for the classic politicians' pose of kissing a baby. Later in the day, Mr. Giuliani was scheduled to appear at closed fund-raising events in Peters and at the Duquesne Club, Downtown.

In a brief news conference, Mr. Giuliani defended remarks earlier in the week in which he said that the Clinton administration had failed to learn the lesson of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He insisted that he hadn't been casting blame on the former president, but he was happy to use the issue to criticize the current Democratic presidential candidates.

"If you look at my remarks, I say completely that we shouldn't blame prior administrations. I don't think it's fair to blame people before Sept. 11 ... once Sept. 11 happened, now all the things that we should have done became apparent. It isn't fair to say they had been apparent at the time, but now that we look back, we shouldn't repeat the same mistakes we made in the 1990s."

Mr. Giuliani also said he was not deterred in his support for the current war policy by a statement by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Tuesday, in which the veteran Republican expressed doubt about the Bush administration's surge strategy in Iraq. The New Yorker said he remained confident in the judgment and performance of the American commander in Baghdad, Gen. David Petraeus, and would back the administration strategy so long as the commanders in the field remained behind it.

"So what that says to me is that we ought to have the patience to wait at least until September for Gen. Petraeus to come back and tell us what he thinks ... It seems to me we have a general that we all trust, we all respect ... he'd be the guy I'd look to more than I would the politicians."

Mr. Giuliani was last in the city nearly a year ago, taking in the All-Star game while campaigning for former Sen. Rick Santorum. His greater attention to the early primary and caucus states along with a recent spate of negative publicity for the former mayor, hasn't done apparent damage to his popularity in Pennsylvania. A significant part of Mr. Giuliani's appeal rests on the perception of him as an icon of 9/11.

His campaign was buffeted earlier in the week by a Newsday story saying that he had been asked to leave the Iraq Study Group after repeatedly missing its session on days when he had fund-raising engagements. The Giuliani campaign dismissed the report, saying that he left the panel because, anticipating his presidential candidacy, he did not want to politicize its findings.

According to a survey of the state issued by Quinnipiac University yesterday, he maintains the lead he has held consistently over the balance of the big GOP candidates. The university's latest poll showed the former mayor with the support of 29 percent of the registered Republicans surveyed. His closest rivals in the state were Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.