Why is Rudy Giuliani the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination?
Do Republicans even know who he is?
Forget the fact the he's pro-choice, gay-friendly, and otherwise socially liberal. Do Republicans know that he had an affair? Aren't they the family values party?
Pop Quiz:
Which is worse?
A) A man has an affair, is found out, apologizes to his wife and family, and tries to rebuild his marriage.
Or…
B) A man has an affair for years, then decides to dump his current wife for his mistress during a press conference.
Which, to you, smacks of moral values?
OK, true, they both have some trust issues to deal with, but Chelsea Clinton still likes her father. Rudy Giuliani's daughter isn't even planning on voting for him.
So want, you say? Why should we care if a man has an affair? What does that have to do with what kind of President he'll be? Well first, if you say that, I hope you were saying that back in 1998. But second, at least Clinton wasn't making U.S. Taxpayers foot the bill for his infidelity.
[Politico:]
As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.
Oops.
But wait, what does that mean? Obscure city agencies could be anything, like, say, the Official City Agency To Get the Mayor Laid. Why is this news?
The expenses first surfaced as Giuliani's two terms as mayor of New York drew to a close in 2001, when a city auditor stumbled across something unusual: $34,000 worth of travel expenses buried in the accounts of the New York City Loft Board.
When the city's fiscal monitor asked for an explanation, Giuliani's aides refused, citing "security," said Jeff Simmons, a spokesman for the city comptroller.
But American Express bills and travel documents obtained by Politico suggest another reason City Hall may have considered the documents sensitive: They detail three summers of visits to Southampton, the Long Island town where Nathan had an apartment.
But he's a Republican, so this can all be filed under "Family Values" right? He was valuing his family by trying to hide his adultery and having New York taxpayers pay for it.
As we toss yet another Giuliani disaster onto the pile, right next to all the glorious Bernie Kerik stories, it's time to take another look at why Rudy Giuliani is the Republican front runner.
Hmmm…..
It's on the tip of my tongue….
His massive Foreign Policy experience… no… that's not it.
How he lines up perfectly with Republican core values… no. That's not right..
Hmm…
OH YEAH! He was Mayor of New York City on 9/11!
How could I forget? Rudy was America's Mayor! Gosh, you'd think he'd mention that a few thousand times on the campaign trail to remind everyone.
Oh wait, he does.
Seriously, if 9/11 doesn't happen, Rudy Giuliani is touring the lecture circuit in the private sector. That's it. All his scandals would have broken by now, stopping any and all Giuliani political designs in their tracks. He'd be done. An afterthought.
But 9/11 DID happen. And Rudy "God Bod" Giuliani was born.
Why was he so special on that day? What did he do? Well, he walked around. He made good speeches. He walked the sister of a fallen 9/11 firefighter down the aisle a few days later.
And of course he didn't let the firefighters continue searching for the bodies of their fallen comrades. He allowed everyone back into Ground Zero when he knew the air was toxic, overruling the City's Department of Environmental Protection. He offered to remain Mayor longer than his term of office because he thought it would help the healing process.
And leading up to 9/11? Well, you've heard about the radios, right? The really bad radios that the New York Fire Department had to use on 9/11 because Giuliani… well, The Huffington Post says it best:
Radios used by the FDNY on 9/11 were the same ones that malfunctioned during the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers. When - eight years later - Giuliani finally purchased new communications equipment for $14 million from Motorola, it was never field-tested. A week later, the equipment was recalled after a firefighter's mayday went un-heard. Giuliani reissued the old batch of radios. And on 9/11 when a police helicopter warned that the North Tower could collapse, more than 120 firefighters remained inside.
By the way, that Motorola contract was no-bid.
Sound Presidential to you? Sound like someone who made sure his first responders were prepared?
And then there's the glorious story of Giuliani's Emergency Command Bunker, which he placed in the only known terrorist target in America, the only place already attacked, the World Trade Center (Building 7). This was despite all the expert advice to locate the command center out in Brooklyn, where it would be safe from any possible attacks and therefore useable during an emergency.
Why did he place it in a complex that known terrorists had vowed to one day destroy? Because he wanted it to be within walking distance of his office.
And let's not even go into how on 9/11, WTC 7 became just the third building in HISTORY to collapse due to a fire. And the FIRST that hadn't been hit by an airplane a few hours earlier. (9/11 Conspiracy Theorists, start your engines!)
Basically, when you look into Rudy Giuliani, really look into his record, America's Mayor begins to look like America's Mistake. So why hasn't anyone done this digging yet?
Easy.
Democrats don't want to expose this stuff yet, because they want Giuliani to get the Republican nomination, and THEN they'll let it out and rip him down.
Republicans don't want to expose this stuff, because Giuliani is the only true moderate they have. All the others, while far more Republican and Conservative, will get crushed by any and all of the Democratic candidates. America is moving back to the center, Giuliani is the only Republican with a prayer of keeping up with them, Remove him, and their standard bearer will be WAY to the right of most America, and he will get creamed in the general election.
So right now, no one WANTS this stuff to come out.
Unfortunately for them, getting John Q Public to pay for your adultery is just too good a story to keep buried.
Maybe now we can stick a fork in Giuliani. He's done.
Rudy Giuliani is no hero. He was a controversial Mayor of a city that was attacked by terrorists.
End of story. End of Myth.
