Nasty boy

Would have been fun if the story had broken early enough for it to come up at the Republican debate last night.  I'd have enjoyed hearing Rudy accuse Mitt Romney of being "holier than thou," and Romney coming back with, "I'm not holier than most thous, I'm just holier than lying, cheating, son of a bitch mayors who schtup their mistresses on the People's dime."

Yeah, I know.  As if.

Julia of Sisyphus Shrugged dropped me a note giving me the heads up to Ben Smith's story in the Politico. (I'm always the last to know.)  Smith did good work and maybe the story'll have legs.  Headline on one of the tabloids this morning:  Tryst Fund!  But I'm not as confident as Trapper John that it's going to knock Giuliani out of the race.

The article is damning but it includes no out and out hand caught in the cookie jar moment and no pictures of Judith Nathan in a bathing suit.  There's nothing in it you couldn't have guessed, either, if you already knew about his affair with Nathan.   "Gee, you mean the mayor made the city pay for his gas when he drove out to the Hamptons to cheat on his wife?  I'm shocked!"  It strikes me as something a bald-faced liar like Giuliani can brazen out.   He'll just put it behind the curtain where he's been hiding all his running around on his various wives and mistresses.  Giuliani deals with his nasty sex life by putting it in the past and turning it on anyone who tries to beard him with it.  Sure, he "sinned," but haven't we all?  We're only human, and he's sorry but he's done with all that now and aren't you a sanctimonious jerk for bringing it all up.  If you're really as good a Christian as you claim to be, that is, if you weren't so holier than thou, you'd forgive and forget.

The bad behavior isn't his sins.  It's your self-righteousness.

Which is the out he gives to his supporters and to the Media.  He'll do it with this unless indictments come down in a hurry and warrants are issued.

The Beltway Insiders, including some of the folks Ben Smith works for, want Rudy Giuliani to be the next President.  I'm betting they will let this story die if they can.

Plus, the Media has never enjoyed covering Republican sex scandals.  Straight guy Republican sex scandals, at any rate.

Gay Republicans are fun for a giggle, apparently.

But look at just this last year.  Rudy Giuliani is the front-runner, at least in the eyes of the Beltway Insiders, and as far as they're concerned Rudy and the current Mrs Giuliani may as well have been as happily married as the Romneys and for as many years.  Newt Gingrich seriously considers running for President and not a peep out of the Insiders about his adulteries and divorces.  But sex is still on their minds.  Bill might yet cheat on Hillary, so let's talk about that possibility endlessly!

You can blame this on the Insiders' Republican bias or on their fear of Republican retribution ("No more inside dope for you!") and there's probably some of that in it.  But I think it's also the case that Democrats are just sexier.

The Kennedys, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, these are the kind of handsome, charming, dashing, youthful men that insecure beta males (who are well-represented in the National Press Corps) like to identify with and that women can imagine being swept off their feet by or least imagine feeling a bit tempted by.

But the thought of Rudy Giuliani even just kissing a woman is creepy, it's not an image that's going to sell a lot of newspapers or advertising, and I'll bet if you'd known this post was going to finish up with it you wouldn't have read past the first sentence.

Comments

[Ken Houghton]

"no pictures of Judith Nathan in a bathing suit."

You OWE us for the horror of that image.

[Kit Stolz]

I think Republican voters figure anyone from New York City must be fundamentally corrupt and therefore won't be surprised, shocked, or alarmed by the news that Giuliani had affairs, with all that entails. If they heard the same story about Huckabee; that would be different.

[Geoduck]

"the thought of Rudy Giuliani even just kissing a woman is creepy"

Everything about Rudy Giuliani is creepy. Makes you wonder what his supporters see when they look at him.

[Exiled in New Jersey]

I note that when I open Yahoo or MSN this morning, there is not one mention of this little blip on Caesar's toga, though I was surprised to see MSN doing a story of his use of exaggerated statistics. Of course, they manage to bring H Clinton into the story too.

[nothstine]

>the thought of Rudy Giuliani even just kissing a woman is creepy

Rictus!

bn

['06 Cookie Queen]

Speaking of cookie jars... You must bake! You've got 3 weeks, Lance.