Rudy Fails Miserably On Press The Meet

Tim Russert, I am glad to say was not his pathetic self yesterday while interviewing Rudy Giuliani. He wasn't perfect, but this was definitely a good episode showing the real Rudy to a national audience.

Fresh Evidence For Rudy's "Sex On The City"

It's been more than two weeks since the Rudy bombshell dropped and there has definitely been a toll taken on Giuliani's campaign. His numbers are in the toilet, both in early states and nationally, where he was last tied with Mike Huckabee. In South Carolina, Huckabee is now up seven points on Rudy. All of this is tied to the "Sex on the City" scandal, sixteen days later, we have the Daily News interviewing Nathan's neighbors and finding out even more information.

From The Daily News:

Judith Nathan got taxpayer-funded chauffeur services from the NYPD earlier than previously disclosed - even before her affair with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was revealed, witnesses and sources tell the Daily News.

"It went on for months before the affair was public," said Lee Degenstein, 52, a retired Smith Barney vice president who formerly lived at 200 E. 94th St., Nathan's old building.

"It was going on longer than anybody thought," added Degenstein, who, along with others in the neighborhood, said they often saw Nathan hopping into unmarked NYPD cars in early 2000, before the affair was revealed that May.

Giuliani's aides wouldn't even fight it, they conceded on that point almost instantly. If I was Anthony Carbonetti, I'd be huddled in a corner, just praying that this all goes away. Maybe now they realize that fighting the charges isn't going to help. Many supporters want an explanation from him or just to fess' up to his actions surrounding his trysts with Nathan.

Yet they still claim she got the "protection" because she received threats in 2000. The story doesn't add up though, as residents say they saw her hop into unmarked cars back in 1999. They took her on errands, as neighbors saw plenty of shopping bags from many of NYC's high end stores. With a beau like Giuliani, I'm sure she got all the perks. The question is however, how many of those were funded by NYC taxpayers?

Silly Rudy, Those Trix Are For Kids

As Rudy's poll numbers continue to shrivel on this seventh day of the "Sex on the City" scandal, Rudy pulls an unbelievable move. He apparently has no idea on how to respond to these irrefutable charges (is there any excuse except for "I'm really, really sorry?"). Instead of an apology, he touts a fiscal conservative record that we all now know he does not have.

From The Wall Street Journal:

With economic uncertainty weighing on the minds of many Americans, Congress is preparing to recess after another year of profligate spending, protectionist talk and promises of higher taxes. No wonder some people feel like we're moving in the wrong direction. But I'm optimistic as I look to the future. It's not our country that's moving in the wrong direction -- it's Congress, and Washington's culture of wasteful spending.

Over the last decade, nondefense spending has increased by 65% -- the federal government currently spends $24,000 per household -- while the number of earmarked pork projects rocketed from close to 1,000 ...

LMAO!

Wasteful spending? Really now Rudy, how many shovels are you going to use to dig yourself out of that hole? New Yorkers wastefully (and unwittingly) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to ferry both his ex-wife Donna Hanover and at-the-time mistress Judith Nathan with NYPD security they clearly did not need. Paying cops to walk Judi's dog, if that is fiscal conservatism, then I want my own copy of City Hall's AMEX card. I need to finish shopping for the holidays and what the hell, I guess that would be fiscally conservative in Rudy's eyes.

Oh and by the way, Rudy also wrote about wasteful pork projects...he wouldn't be talking about the pork that was handed to him, now would he?

Who Would You Rather Cheat With?

Kelly And His NYPD Are Running From Rudy

As the "Rudy's Shag Fund" or "Sex on the City" scandal continues to spawn new legs over the weekend and into today, Rudy has remained consistent in his story that whenever he traveled, the city would pick up the tab and that the NYPD would reimburse the costs. It is a complex answer that many are giving odd looks at. These people have included former Mayor Ed Koch, the City Comptroller and now even Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Kelly's refusal to back Giuliani up could spell even worse news for the Presidential contender.

From Newsday:

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tried on Friday to distance the NYPD from the controversy surrounding Rudy Giuliani's travel and security expenses incurred by detectives on mayoral protection detail, saying his department processes paperwork quickly and within guidelines.

Kelly said that during his tenure under former Mayor David Dinkins and now, during Kelly's second term, the NYPD pays all the expenses for the mayoral security detail.

"All I can speak to is the process we use in this administration," he said. "Detectives assigned to the mayor's security detail file all of their expenses through the department and they're reimbursed through the department.

Of course, Kelly wasn't on the payroll during Rudy's tenure, just during Dinkins' Administration and now currently with Bloomberg. That doesn't mean much to another high ranking police official though. The unnamed source said that the NYPD was never slow to pay for Rudy's security detail expenses. The message is clear, do not blame the Police Department for playing around with the city's budget. It isn't their fault, it has to be someone that wanted those expenses to go through illusory channels.

Now Americans Are Getting A Taste Of The Real Rudy

Whenever I talk to friends or even just people on the street about Rudy, they are always astonished that he is the national front runner. We all know he was our Mayor on September 11th, 2001, but that doesn't diminish his record and his persona to anyone that lived under his Mayoralty. He was a political brute who fired people that crossed him and made life miserable for those that got in his way.

When he started down the road of Presidential campaigning, he became a different man, I dare say even nice. Now that his "Shag Fund" is dominating much of the news since Wednesday, the Rudy that we know is about to show himself to the rest of the country. He already started with reporters yesterday. No one is going to like him after a few weeks, especially as this story continues...and his ego feels people's reactions to it.

From MSNBC:

OKATIE, SC -- Giuliani refused to take questions here today about allegations that travel expenses were picked up by obscure city offices when he was mayor of New York City.

“We’ve already explained it,” he said, walking past reporters after a town hall meeting.

Giuliani, who is normally friendly to reporters, bristled past them, and campaign staffers were unusually physical in keeping the press away. Several campaign aides told campaign reporters to return to the press area, and some of his security detail manhandled reporters. On other occasions, reporters have been free to video Giuliani as he is shaking hands and signing autographs after events, and he often informally takes questions from reporters.

Manhandling reporters? That isn't the way most politicians like to deal with the press. Being nice to the media and having a chummy relationship is what usually gets reporters to write nice stories, or at least to be fair. Ignoring their questions will definitely not help either, but this isn't any ol' politician, this is Rudy Giuliani. Perhaps these national political journalists haven't seen this side of Mr. 9/11, but we already know about him all too well.

Friday Linkage

Tis' the last day in November, and I hear that December is going to start off with a cold snap here in the city. Of course that does not mean that there's a lot of action going on, here's a few links to show you why.

• Californians and concerned citizens may not be able to talk directly to Dianne Feinstein about the upcoming FISA vote that may give her the chance to let the TeleCom companies off the hook, but you can certainly tell her buddy Art Torres to make the point for you.

• The GOP debate on Wednesday was like any debate hosted by CNN (it was crap) but there was one question from a military man that really shook Republicans to their anti-GLBT core.

• With Rudy's "Shag Fund" debacle in full gear, Dood Abides has rewritten "New York, New York" to fit the ex-Mayor to a tee.

• Hey guess what, Broadway is up and running again, as if it had never stopped...for 19 days. What came out of the strike again? Seems like the producers got their way...and the stagehands got some spare change thrown their way.

• While there is a Grinch on Broadway, that isn't stopping NYC's M.T.A. from playing the character as well.

Blaming Anonymous BookKeepers Won't Cut It

As the story about how Rudy covered up expenses to see his then mistress Judith gets juicier, his defense is getting more and more nasty by the moment. Giuliani and his aides are trashing Politico author Ben Smith for his article (even though they haven't refuted anything in it yet and declined to talk to Smith before the article was published) and even trotted out Bernie Kerik to come to his aid.

Meanwhile, the evidence piling up against the ex-Mayor continues at a furious pace. William Thompson, the City Comptroller gave an interview which decimated Rudy's claims of ignorance. Thompson says the Giuliani's Administration "stonewalled" him when he inquired about the odd numbers in the city agencies' budgets.

When Rudy's aides tried to answer the real question here, that is why those obscure agencies paid for Rudy's security detail to the Hamptons, Anthony Carbonetti said, "It was a bookkeeping exercise, why it was done this way, I don't know."

An exercise? Like jumping jacks and push-ups type of exercise? Maybe it was more along the lines of a criminal exercise, not like robbery or extortion exercises, but definitely a fraudulent exercise.