<p>This just may be the moment the political world has been waiting for.
The moment when former mayor Rudolph Giuliani – he of the famous temper, the “nasty” streak, the colorful personal life, and a heretofore preternatural ability to overcome a shady past to remain the national GOP frontrunner – either does or does not effectively confront the central critiques of his candidacy.
The story about security billing records from his time as mayor comes out at a terrible time for Giuliani, R-N.Y. Emerging five weeks before Iowa, Giuliani called the story a “hit job” on Thursday, and dispatched one his top operatives, Joe Lhota, to attack the reporter who broke the story.
“This was really done to try to focus on my personal life,” Giuliani said, per ABC’s Jake Tapper and Wonbo Woo. “They were handled openly, honestly, it was the practice that was going on since my first term and the idea was to get the bills paid quickly.”
But Rudy is unlikely to get the benefit of the doubt on anything that veers close to involving his personal life – or his management of New York that constitutes his main rationale for running for president. New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson still doesn’t buy it: “If anyone hoped that no one would notice, they were being foolish,” he told ABC News.
Maybe it’s innocuous – but the burden is on Giuliani’s campaign to prove it.
Aides are going to have to do better than this: “Why it was done this way, I don’t know,” Anthony Carbonetti, Giuliani’s then-chief of staff, told Politico’s Ben Smith, who broke the story on Wednesday. Writes Smith: “Neither [Giuliani] nor his aides have questioned any of the facts reported by Politico.”
“DOESN’T ADD UP!” blares the New York Daily News. Joe Lhota at first said the billing practice predates Giuliani, but had to backtrack when told that Dinkins and Koch aides disputed that.
“I’m going to reverse myself on that,” he said, per David Saltonstall and Michael Saul. “I’m just going to talk about the Giuliani era. . . . I should only talk about what I know about.” (And, sometimes, what he’s learning about on the fly.)
More ‘splainin’ to do: “Neither Mr. Giuliani nor Mr. Lhota explained why the travel expenses for the security detail were spread across the budgets of an array of obscure mayoral offices rather than paid out of a single account in the mayor’s office,” William K. Rashbaum and Russ Buettner write in The New York Times.
And timing is everything: the report broke “hours before Wednesday night’s Republican debate and as his campaign geared up for January’s Iowa caucuses. The reports also arrived as one of his rivals, Mitt Romney, was raising questions about fiscal stewardship of New York City during his two terms as mayor.”
Tapper’s unanswered questions: “Why spread out the expenses among lots of city agencies instead of just one?
Why not tell this to Ben Smith and the Politico when he first called to ask about these records and the city comptroller’s concern about them? Why not share any information with the city comptroller when questions were first asked about this six years ago? Did Bernie Kerik have anything to do with any of this?”
One more question: Would a Giuliani administration pay for the war in Iraq by handing the Department of Education a fi****l of IOUs?
If this is all innocuous, Rudy’s folks missed a chance to make it go away long ago: Per Rashbaum and Buettner, "Thompson said that “auditors working under his predecessor first raised questions about the travel costs during the Giuliani administration. Their requests to the Giuliani administration for details and justification went unanswered.”
ABC’s Richard Esposito tosses in another nugget: “Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.”
Giuliani’s rivals haven’t picked the security expenses story up yet on the trail – but how long will that take in this environment? </p>
<p>secret Hamptons liaisons
The uproar grew Thursday over expenses for Rudy Giuliani’s protection during his trysts with Judith Nathan as his campaign’s initial defense - that its accounting methods were the same as previous mayors’ - unraveled.
Joe Lhota, a deputy mayor in Giuliani’s City Hall, told the Daily News Wednesday night that the administration’s practice of allocating security expenses to small city offices that had nothing to do with mayoral protection has “gone on for years” and “predates Giuliani.”
When told budget officials from the administrations of Ed Koch and David Dinkins said they did no such thing, Lhota caved Thursday, “I’m going to reverse myself on that. I’m just going to talk about the Giuliani era,” Lhota said. “I should only talk about what I know about.”
The embarrassing backtrack comes as Giuliani rushed to network airwaves to defend himself against allegations his administration deliberately attempted to conceal the taxpayer cost of his NYPD protection while he engaged in secret Hamptons liaisons with Nathan, his then-mistress and current wife. </p>
<p>I’m a NY’er who lived through the Guiliani era, and had a family member (FDNY) perish on 9/11. I’ve been patiently waiting for the rest of America to wake up and learn about the “real” Guiliani.How he can be the party frontrunner is beyond me.He’s mean,plain and simple.Hope the Republicans wake up before he’s their nominated candidate.</p>
<p>“I’m a NY’er who lived through the Guiliani era, and had a family member (FDNY) perish on 9/11. I’ve been patiently waiting for the rest of America to wake up and learn about the “real” Guiliani.How he can be the party frontrunner is beyond me.He’s mean,plain and simple.Hope the Republicans wake up before he’s their nominated candidate”</p>
<p>I’m a New Yorker and a republican and I think he’s mean as well. There is a place for that in some instances, perhaps against Hillary because she certainly can’t run as a paragon of virtue. But I don’t like it and didn’t vote for him the second time (which is saying something for a Staten Islander) Do you remember, Cathy, when this story broke five years ago? It was quite the big thing, then, and I had assumed that it was such nationally. Didn’t realize that it wasn’t.</p>
<p>Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.</p>
<p>“She used the PD as her personal taxi service,” said one former city official who worked for Giuliani.</p>
<p>tommybill, I’m with you. The facts will show the real Giuliani. </p>
<p>We all know that as the prcess continues, more past stuff will come to light – not just about Giuliani, but about all the candidates. </p>
<p>If Giuliani becomes the Republican nominee, I think stuff will come out about him that, had we known, would have meant he would never have been appointed a prosecurtor and he certainly never would have been elected mayor of NY.</p>
<p>While I am a wholehearted Democrat and generally don’t agree with Republican principles, I do believe that many of the Republican candidates are “principled” people – men like Romney and Huckabee. I think they believe what they say and that their beliefs are sincere (again, even though I don’t agree with them). Therefore I do respect those men.</p>
<p>However, Cathymee is right: Giuliani is mean and petty, and what he did to Donna Hanover was disgraceful. His arrogance is appalling.</p>
<p>Hi cathymee,
My husband was a NYC firefighter, working on 9/11 - I thought he had died that day, as well. As it turns out, because Giuliani allowed the firefighters and other rescue workers to clean up without proper protection, believing Christine Todd Whitman’s EPA report, which was shown to have been whitewashed by the administration (which I am sure Giuliani knew) my husband is now disabled and can’t work.
They are all responsible for this.</p>
<p>“cathymee,
My husband was a NYC firefighter, working on 9/11 - I thought he had died that day, as well. As it turns out, because Giuliani allowed the firefighters and other rescue workers to clean up without proper protection, believing Christine Todd Whitman’s EPA report, which was shown to have been whitewashed by the administration (which I am sure Giuliani knew) my husband is now disabled and can’t work.
They are all responsible for this.”</p>
<p>My husband was a first responder as well, in the pit until January 1, 2002. He is, of course, on the registry and has had some health issues but is not disabled. He saw something very different. Firefighters so overcome with grief that they couldn’t possibly have been kept out of the pit. They weren’t going to wait for equipment and there was no way short of force to stop them. For the first two weeks, there was still a great deal of hope that someone would be taken out alive. I respect your POV adigal, but I don’t share all of it. There is plenty of blame for Whitman, plenty for the top brass at FDNY, some for Guiliani, and yes, some for the actual first resonders. Most, however, goes to the terrorists who created this situation. Everyone else was a human being trying to do their best under unthinkable conditions with outcomes that no one could have foreseen. Do you remember how long the City would erupt into chaos because of an abandoned package or a fire, or the plane crash a month later? All first responders who are or become ill (including my husband) should be taken care of appropriately, compassionately and generously, but some of us just aren’t into the blame the republicans thing. If that makes you feel better and eases your pain and anger, more power to you.</p>
<p>Bernard B. Kerik, who was Mr. Giulianis police commissioner when some of the charges were billed, said in an interview yesterday that the security details travel expenses would normally come out of the Police Departments budget.
There would be no need for anyone to conceal his details travel expenses, said Mr. Kerik, who was indicted earlier this month on unrelated federal tax fraud and corruption charges. And I think Its ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the mayor or his staff attempted to do so.
Read More: </p>
<p>Many people share the view that Hillary can’t run as a paragon of virtue.</p>
<p>It just so happens that Guiliani can’t either. The Guiliani news is just much more timely as far as public reaction and this election. Kudos to the Clinton campaign. Fortunately there are many voters who don’t forget some of the old news too. </p>
<p>I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that Giuliani’s situation is similar to Hevesi’s:</p>
<p>“State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi today quit his post and pleaded guilty to a single felony charge after arranging a deal with prosecutors that will spare him prison time. … His decision to step down came as Albany prosecutors were preparing to ask a grand jury to indict him on charges of defrauding the government and on other felonies stemming from his use of state employees as chauffeurs and aides to his wife, a law enforcement official said, charges that could have yielded a prison sentence had he been convicted.”</p>
<p>“It just so happens that Guiliani can’t either. The Guiliani news is just much more timely as far as public reaction. Kudos to the Clinton campaign.”</p>
<p>I think the timing is perfect for the republican party. Better this happened now than on Halloween. If people are skittish about Giuliani (as I am), then he shouldn’t be the nominee. Let’s get him out of the way and find a nominee who actually does have more moral authority than Hillary.</p>
<p>“I’m not a lawyer, but it seems to me that Giuliani’s situation is similar to Hevesi’s:”</p>
<p>The difference is that if the allegations about Rudy are true, then he was hiding a completely legitimate expense (his security) because he didn’t want anyone to know where he was, but Hevesi wrongfully used public funds. Had Rudy been in the Hamptons with his wife or even with his girlfriend and been up front about it, there would be no issue because mayoral security is a legitimate expense. Which doesn’t make sneaking around any less sleazy, but it’s not a misappropriation of public money.</p>
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