Here’s my latest column for The Post. In it, I ask whether a thaw is underway between Rudy Giuliani and the religious right — and whether things were ever so chilly in the first place:

Rudy Giuliani
isn’t speaking this week at CPAC — the Conservative Political Action
Conference, which draws thousands of conservative activists every year
from around the country. But it’s not for lack of an invitation.

If CPAC is the conservative movement’s family reunion, last year
Rudy was the black sheep: He asked to speak — even offered to waive his
speaking fee — but got rebuffed.

"I would assume he wanted to come here to boost his
conservative credentials, but we didn’t think that would be useful,"
David Keene, the head of the American Conservative Union (which runs
CPAC), said at the time.

But this year Keene softened his stance — slightly. "A lot of
people wanted to hear him on the terror question, so we invited him,"
Keene tells me — but taking care to add, "If you ask me if he’s a
viable candidate for anything: no."

But they didn’t make the invitation until just a little over
two weeks ago. "Rudy was very flattered to be invited," says his
spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, but had a prior commitment. Keene says
Giuliani has a standing invitation for 2007

The most interesting thing is the polling data toward the middle of the column.