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in the general. Namely, scandal upon scandal followed by pictures of the mayor in drag. Something that will surely not inspire followers of Rudy.

Oz

Read my most recent story, "What is Thompson's path?" on First Cut Politics

I just sit back and enjoy the show. :o)

This is the kind of post that I got pretty well shouted down for at the time I suggested Joe Lieberman for director of Homeland Security back when the department was established. At the time, Streiff told me that we didn't want to "go over to the dark side" to pick someone to lead HoSec, and IIRC he endorsed Bernie Kerik.

Then the scandals all hit the major newspapers and everyone beat a hasty retreat.

Fact is that Rudy isn't going to emerge from New York City and arrive at the Presidency without the entire concentrated might of his enemies in New York throwing everything they have at him. The same thing is true for Mitt Romney coming out of Massachusetts.

I think if we accept the fact that Rudy is unelectable because of these scandals, and that Mitt Romney is also unelectable because he was governor of Massachusetts, we should just make an unwritten rule, right here and now:

No Republican can come out of the Northeast and win the Presidency.

That seems to be the way things are shaping up.

BTW I would say that Rudy Giuliani vigorously discounts your assertion that he "tried to hide the expenditures."

All of this is one reason that for a long time I've thought that John McCain is going to prevail as our nominee, and that he will in turn lose the general to Hillary Clinton: the Republican Party has become factionalized and it doesn't really like any of its front-runners. Heck, if you look closely it doesn't even like it's second-tier candidates.

I think we have a strong field, but that people who are dead-set against any of our candidates and want to echo Democrat talking points against them are going to guarantee that we lose in 2008. It's sad. It looks more and more each day like the Republicans are going to fly themselves into the ground, and that means 4 or possibly even 8 years of President Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Eventually if this party wants to win it's going to have to find the will to forgive its top tier candidates for their past indescretions. To the extent we're willing to do that, we still have a chance. Based on the comments I've seen on RedState in the past few weeks, I'm not counting on it.

Even "Perky" Katie Couric, official charter-member of the VLWC and world renown Tart, had to admit that the facts simply don't support the premise.

(Snip...)

Katie Couric: We were talking earlier, Mayor Giuliani, about the scrutiny that you have to endure when you run for public office, so much scrutiny that it really turns a lot of people off from participating in the process and throwing their hat in the ring. You experienced this recently where all of the papers today, I couldn’t help but notice, are focused on your security detail, which you dealt with last night during the debate. But I am just curious, are you completely comfortable with the way it was handled and the way the billing was handled for example?

Rudy Giuliani: I was very comfortable with it and really upset that it was put out two hours before a debate with the suggestion that certain agencies were asked to bear the cost of my security. When you had a chance to look at it, it took about 3 to 4 hours to go through all of the records. The story turns out to be a totally false story. This practice was going on in my first term as mayor. It didn’t just happen in my second term as mayor. The police department paid for all of these expenses. But since the police department would sometimes be slow in payment. City Hall would pay it first, then the police department would reimburse every single penny of it. And now we’ve been able to confirm that. So this was really, I know what this was. This story is five years old. It came out two hours before a debate. It’s a typical political hit job with only half the story told … not that second part told … that every single penny was reimbursed … that all of this was public. All of this was discoverable. It was not done in a way that nobody could see it. But it was a typical - this particular case - it was sort of a debate day dirty trick.

Couric: But according to accounts, the bills were spread across, as you’re saying, several government agencies - from the NYC loft board to the office for people with disabilities. And one former New York budget director said today there’s no good reason to do this except to have nobody know about it …

Giuliani: He’s just wrong. And that’s probably a political opponent. The fact is, that by doing it that way, it was more discoverable. Had it been paid by the police department, it never would have been discovered because their records are security records and they can’t be discovered. The reality is: All those agencies that you’re talking about, all of it was fully reimbursed within that year. They’re all in the mayor’s office. This was a way of expediting payment. All of it on the record, all of it discoverable, all of it going on for five or six years. And perfectly appropriate and three budget directors have asserted that but of course the press doesn’t cover that.

[Couric: Those three former budget directors have basically explained it according to the way you’re explaining it to me today.]

Giuliani: Every single penny repaid. And the first version of the story does not make that clear.

Couric: Having said that, Mayor Giuliani, the report was on a political Web site. It wasn’t planted by your opposition and the records were gotten by a Freedom of Information Act so the notion of it somehow being a political "hit job," do you really believe that?

Giuliani: It comes out two hours before a debate when the story is five years old - so do I believe that? Of course I believe that. Do I know who did it? No, I don’t know who did it. Plenty of time for the story to come out but to wait until 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon of the day of the debate - and it was very, very artfully done because there’s a very good explanation for this … which is it took 24 hours to go find the people who did it who explained that every single penny was reimbursed. All of this was on the record. None of it was against other practices that were used in situations like this, but it took 24 hours to get that explanation so they’ll be more like this.

(Snip...)

(emphasis added)

The substance and timing suggest a great deal of experience with the politics of personal destruction.

Addendum: Mayor Giuliani's "round-the-clock" security detail was not assigned without reason, but I will grant you that Bernie Kerik's appointment as Police Commissioner showed a lapse in judgment on Mayor Giuliani's part.

***

“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan

A few hundred thou doesn't seem like enough money to provide around the clock police protection and escort for somebody for any length of time. Do you have an actual source for this?
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

A source involved with the mayor's operations at the time tells CBS 2 HD that Nathan took flagrant advantage of that police car and driver.

The source says Nathan forced police to chauffeur her friends and family around the city -- even when she wasn't in the car.

If true this is comparable or worse than what Alan Hevesi did a few years ago. He barely missed being prosecuted after agreeing to pay a fine for chauffering his wife with State employees.

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/rudy.giuliani.judith.2.599809.html