For a while now, I've been convinced that Giuliani would be the Republican candidate. But -- yeesh. Can anyone survive a scandal like this?I mean, not only does he have to explain away the use of taxpayer money to provide police security for his adulterous trysts -- he has to come up with an explanation for the recently-discovered fact that he hid these expenses in the budgets of various tiny city offices, where he hoped no-one would ever see them.
Couric: You have an explanation. Obviously your explanation is quite different than the original report. How do you think this will affect your candidacy? Or the way people perceive you?I don't think this is going to play so well in Alabama.
Giuliani: I think it will show that we do things honestly, honorably, above board...
Next question: If Rudy stumbles, how are the Democrats' chances affected?
Romney may be the stronger candidate -- he's well-spoken and photogenic, and his all-things-to-all-people shtick seems to work with independents. On the other hand, Romney does not have a chance to win New York, as Rudy did.
Hillary might have prevailed in a Rudy-v-Hillary contest in that state, but, as you know, I would prefer for Edwards to win the nomination. Since the Democratic party cannot prevail in the general without New York, a primary-season end to the Giuliani campaign improves the chances of any non-Clinton Democratic nominee. So if you're a Hillary-hater, then -- strategically -- you want Rudy gone now.
(Not that the Hillary-haters could ever allow themselves to think in terms of strategy. They are creatures of the Id. Chess ain't their game.)
From a Democratic standpoint, Huckabee would be the ideal Republican candidate. No-one outside the south could ever warm to the idea of a president named Huckabee. After years of Clinton and Bush, the national love affair with good ol' boys has probably reached its conclusion. That's my one problem with Edwards. But Edwards is not the sort of hillbilly who makes Yankees want to sick up -- and Huckabee is.Don't get angry when you see him garner ridiculously favorable press -- at this point, that's a good thing.
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It would surprise me if Rudy knowingly broke the law in this alleged misuse of public funds. From what I gather, he's only guilty of being privileged enough to have access to such funds and to a staff that will do what he says. The fact that he was fooling around makes it boiling hot, but not necessarily an illegal misuse of the public trust blah blah. Maybe he used much more public money going to ball games. Me, I like baseball, but I love pussy more. I think Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame, and I'm sure Mickey Mantle used more 'performance enhancing' substances than Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Dwight Gooden combined, but didn't lie under oath like Barry and Bill Clinton had to do.
What a world. We have to maintain our small-mindedness to bring down third-rate superstars.
Lookit, if you're a zero-tolerance kind of guy, you have to want Rudy to go down, but you can't pick and choose, can you? Dr. Cyril Wecht (Allegheny County coroner and a major Democrat in PA) is under federal indictment for using his staff to drive him to the airport when he flew to conduct non-official business. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers was nearly charged last December with also violating the public trust for using his staff to pick up his dry-cleaning and do 'babysitting' stuff.
Rudy won't survive this because too many people of all three genders hold dearest their middle-class value of monogamous fidelity.
Some news service editor probably signed off on a reporter's request to investigate Bess Kucinich's tongue stud procedure, to find out if her olman's health insurance paid for the procedure. The news service writes off that entire expense, which our taxes subsidize. As soon as Dennis begins to threaten the 5% threshold, the reporter goes public, Dennis blushes, and more tax-payer money gets spent nominating the reporter for a Pulitzer. If our taxes pay for Conress's Viagra scrips, what's wrong with a one-time tongue-stud expense?
I'm just pissed off because I want Rudy to go down at the ballot box instead of on account of 'perceptions', plus we both come from the same neighborhood, where the much-older Sandy Koufax also comes from, and don't think it doesn't gall and hurt to know that Sandy and his ex-wife used to entertain Laura and George W. at their Maine home.
Let's hope Hillary and her campaign keep out of it, or say nothing small-minded. Her getting Robert Kennedy Jr's endorsement is worth pearls, gold, and diamonds; it puts to rest any notions that she's somewhat 'Republican'; and it means that John Edwards will have to hit a home run harder and farther than anything Mantle, Bonds, or McGwire ever hit.
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