During an appearance on Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday, Rudy Giuliani attacked Hillary Clinton and MoveOn.org for their criticism of General Petraeus and suggested that such criticism “should not be allowed” (MP3 audio).

For most of the interview, Giuliani characterized Clinton’s mild statement to Petraeus that “the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief” as some sort of vitriolic personal attack that is unacceptable during wartime. (Rudy, of course, never engages in vitriolic rhetoric.) He also agreed with Hannity that there has been “an orchestrated campaign of slander against a war hero.”

But the interview took a more disturbing turn later, when Giuliani’s rhetoric slid into an explicit attack on free speech (9:30 in the interview):

This is being done purely for political campaign strategy. It’s a calculated political campaign strategy. You should not be allowed to malign someone’s reputation unfairly just because you think it’s good for your campaign.

Does Giuliani — who has a troubling history on free speech issues — really believe that Hillary Clinton and MoveOn.org “should not be allowed” to criticize Petraeus? Voters deserve to know.

Update 9/14 9:24 AM: Giuliani ran an ad attacking Clinton and MoveOn.org in today’s New York Times.