You can either defuse or intensify a scandal within the first 48 hours. For Rudy Giuliani, he’s committing one of the cardinal sins – he’s throwing the book at it, making multiple excuses, none of which pass the smell test.
Somehow CNN managed to shoehorn the question about his government-financed adultery into the YouTube debate, even though the questions were supposed to be all pre-taped. And he stumbled through it:
“First of all, it’s not true,” he said during a GOP debate hours after the story broke. “I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor. They followed me everyplace I went. It was because there were, you know, threats, threats that I don’t generally talk about. Some have become public recently; most of them haven’t.
“And they took care of me, and they put in their records, and they handled them in the way they handled them,” Giuliani said. “I had nothing to do with the handling of their records, and they were handled, as far as I know, perfectly appropriately.”
That’s a nutty answer. If it’s not true, that should be the end of it. But he goes on to say that he had nothing to do with it, that the police put in their own records. If the whole thing is not true, how would he know what the police did? You can’t claim it’s false AND blame someone else. Furthermore, it makes no sense that the NYPD would hide his love trysts in the mayoral budget and not the police budget. That very act means that the mayor’s office had to be involved at some level.
And this is only the most recent answer.
EARLIER THEY TRIED THESE ANSWERS
TRY THIS: “SECURITY.” In 2001 and 2002, when city auditors questioned the expenses, the mayor’s office refused to provide the documents, citing “security.” [Politico.com, 11/28/07]
TRY THIS: “ACCOUNTING.” Speaking with the Politico, which broke the story, “A Giuliani aide…denied that the unorthodox billing practices were aimed at hiding the expenses, citing ‘accounting.’” [Politico.com, 11/28/07]
TRY THIS: “COMMON PRACTICE.” Denying charges to the CBS Evening News, the Giuliani campaign said “this is common practice.” [CBS Evening News, 11/28/07]
TRY THIS “HE DID EVERYTHING APPROPRIATE.” Campaign surrogate Congressman Peter King told ABC: “The mayor did absolutely nothing improper, he did everything appropriate, the NYPD did everything appropriate. And even if you read the story carefully it does not say the mayor billed anyone for anything. But again, Mayor Giuliani and his staff, city hall will give a definitive answer. But I can assure you now that everything was done properly and there is absolutely nothing to it.” ["Political Radar," ABCNews.com, 11/28/07]
TRY THIS: “LEGITIMATE EXPENSES,” “FACT OF LIFE” The evening the story broke, top Giuliani aide Tony Carbonetti told the Associated Press that “these were all legitimate expenses incurred in protecting the mayor, and his police detail covered him wherever he went, 24/7.” He continued to say “You just do what you do and the police go with you. That’s just a fact of life when you’re the mayor of New York.” [Associated Press, 11/28/07]
TRY THIS: WE’LL INVESTIGATE. Carbonetti then told reporters in the same time period “that he has ordered an investigation, and “he does not know why the charges were accounted for” in this way. He continued to say “I first learned the fact of this today,” and while he had “heard about something like this a few days ago” he “was told it was being handled.” ["The Trail," WashingtonPost.com, 11/28/07]
That’s SIX explanations in one day. Actually, seven, because later in the AP story an aide came up with this beaut:
Later, an aide said that for accounting purposes, the expenses appear to have been temporarily allocated to city offices and paid for out of the mayor’s budget but that the police department ultimately picked up the tab and reimbursed the mayor’s office at the end of each year.
Huh? It’s common practice in New York City for extra-budgetary payments hidden from taxpayers?
Probably should be mentioned that the guy in charge of security in this period was Bernie Kerik.
The truth is that the Giuliani camp has no idea how to deal with this one. There’s no unity of message because there’s no proper explanation for hiding exuberant expenses in the most audacious manner:
Admittedly he only charged $10,000 to the people with disabilities fund. Chump change for the shag fund. But the office charged with getting counsel for indigent defendants got stuck with $400,000.
Rudy and Judy aren’t like us little people. But even that high in the stratosphere, half a million dollars covers a lot of shagging.
I’d heard a lot that Rudy’d done a lot to screw poor folks caught up in the criminal justice system but this puts the matter in a whole new light.
So far this story isn’t getting major attention, but I can’t see that continuing, although admittedly I don’t know what it takes for the traditional media to notice things at this point.
7 Responses to “Rudy Booty Kitty: Day 2”
what you meant is you don’t know what it takes for the media to gather its strength and attention and cloud the mayor in smears and scandal to help the faltering clinton campaign, which now trails all republican frontrunners for the white house. perhaps the media, like the rest of the country, want to hear about issues and not another phony scandal created by liberal bloggers who want to scream conspiracy because an elected official had government protection, as mandated by the law. you guys are really pathetic. for a party that idolizes JFK, you don’t seem to mind all the love affairs and taxpayer funded plane trips his girlfriend from chicago would take, or the hotel rooms he would bill the taxpayers for to be with hollywood starlets. rudy had 24 hour government mandated protection, period, end of discussion. and a few thousand dollars in a multi-billion dollar budget is quite small for security for the mayor, he actually saved them some money. stupid liberals and their hypocrisy.
matt, how does Rudy have any credentials on terrorism?
Oh right, he was next to the twin towers when they collapsed.
In that case:
Billy the New York Hot Dog Vendor for President!
“He’s got just as much experience with 9/11 as Rudy, only he was 10 feet closer to the towers when they collapsed!”
um noah he was a member of the justice department and dealt with terrorism on a regualr basis, and has more experience on terrorism and on executive governance then the entire democrat top tier.
hiding? how was it hiding if all you had to do is ask for the paperwork un the freedom of information act and anyone who wanted to could see the records as plain as day. the mayors office credit card payed for the protection, and was completely reimboursed. there simply is no story here. once again, liberals want no part of comparing experience, results, or leadership with america’s mayor, they simply want to smear their way passed him. yet another apology owed by this site and others for another unwarranted personal attack of the mayor and his family.
Something to say?
another non-story generated by liberals attempting to smear the mayor. the mayor has 24 hour protection no matter who is is with or where he goes. protection if is with his girlfriend turned wife, protection if he’s at a yankee game with his son, protection at city hall, protection out to lunch with his deputies. this is like saying clinton many whitehouse encounters with lewinsky was on tax payer dime because the secret serive was outside the office. once again, the liberal MSM cannot combat rudy on substance, on terrorism, on iraq or the economy, so they instead engage in attempting to smear him. sad that liberals have hit such rock bottom.
Left by matt
November 29, 2007 at 3:07pm