Rudy's Latest Scandals
Today is Friday, 30 November 2007.
“Sex scandals sell sardines” is one of the oldest rules of capitalist media. Thus it’s no wonder that Anderson Cooper, at the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential candidates “debate”, asked a question about the more minor of the two scandals Rudy Giuliani is confronting.
When Rudy was NYC mayor, he began an adulterous affair with Judy (Nathan), initially concealing it, and then later making it so public as to have her at his side at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. In the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001, Rudy made 11 trips to The Hamptons, where Judy has a condo; 8 were not listed on his public schedule, and may be safely assumed to have been trysts with Judy. (At least one other trip combined fundraising with fun raising.)
By law, the Mayor of the City of New York (the actual legal name of what’s known as “New York City”) must accept 24 hour security, provided by the NYPD. During the Hamptons visits, such items for the security detail as gasoline, lodging, and food were charged to credit cards issued to the Mayor’s office. In every other instance of Rudy’s travels, these charges were then paid from NYPD accounts. Only in the Hamptons case were the charges hidden in the accounts of mayoral agencies, including the Loft Board, an agency dealing with the disabled, and an agency coordinating legal aid for the indigent, incidentally defrauding these agencies of some $500,000.
When auditors discovered these irregularities, the NYPD and mayor’s office refused to explain on grounds of “security” (whether national, mayoral, or sexual was not disclosed). Rudy is now claiming he knew nothing of this, since others did the accounting, and it’s all a “political hit job”.
The impropriety here is not the fact of the security, which is mandated by law. The improprieties are covering-up the purpose of the expenditures, and misappropriating taxpayer monies in furtherance of Rudy and Judy’s adulterous sexual misconduct.
But that’s small potatoes compared with the business relationship, after Rudy left office, of his consulting group, Giuliani Partners, with the al Qaeda-friendly dictatorship of Qatar.
Rather than summarize the article which broke the story, I believe it’s important enough to cite it, and suggest it as necessary reading for every American. The article is written by Wayne Barrett, veteran senior editor of The Village Voice, and author of Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, and co-author of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of 9/11, which investigates Rudy’s conduct before, during, and after the attacks.
Here: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0748,barrett,78478,6.html
(Full disclosure: I know Wayne to say “Hey!” to, having worked on a number of occasions with his wife, an eminent nonprofit executive in NYC.)
Rudy’s conduct with Qatar raises the most serious questions about his ethics and his judgment. In the Rudy/Judy/Hamptons affair, Rudy revealed he was willing and eager to divert taxpayer funds to finance adultery. In the matter of Qatar, Rudy was, for the sake of lucrative consulting contracts, willing and eager to make common cause with a nation whose rulers often act directly against American security interests.
Can a person of such elastic ethics ever be fit to be President?
“Sex scandals sell sardines” is one of the oldest rules of capitalist media. Thus it’s no wonder that Anderson Cooper, at the CNN/YouTube Republican presidential candidates “debate”, asked a question about the more minor of the two scandals Rudy Giuliani is confronting.
When Rudy was NYC mayor, he began an adulterous affair with Judy (Nathan), initially concealing it, and then later making it so public as to have her at his side at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. In the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001, Rudy made 11 trips to The Hamptons, where Judy has a condo; 8 were not listed on his public schedule, and may be safely assumed to have been trysts with Judy. (At least one other trip combined fundraising with fun raising.)
By law, the Mayor of the City of New York (the actual legal name of what’s known as “New York City”) must accept 24 hour security, provided by the NYPD. During the Hamptons visits, such items for the security detail as gasoline, lodging, and food were charged to credit cards issued to the Mayor’s office. In every other instance of Rudy’s travels, these charges were then paid from NYPD accounts. Only in the Hamptons case were the charges hidden in the accounts of mayoral agencies, including the Loft Board, an agency dealing with the disabled, and an agency coordinating legal aid for the indigent, incidentally defrauding these agencies of some $500,000.
When auditors discovered these irregularities, the NYPD and mayor’s office refused to explain on grounds of “security” (whether national, mayoral, or sexual was not disclosed). Rudy is now claiming he knew nothing of this, since others did the accounting, and it’s all a “political hit job”.
The impropriety here is not the fact of the security, which is mandated by law. The improprieties are covering-up the purpose of the expenditures, and misappropriating taxpayer monies in furtherance of Rudy and Judy’s adulterous sexual misconduct.
But that’s small potatoes compared with the business relationship, after Rudy left office, of his consulting group, Giuliani Partners, with the al Qaeda-friendly dictatorship of Qatar.
Rather than summarize the article which broke the story, I believe it’s important enough to cite it, and suggest it as necessary reading for every American. The article is written by Wayne Barrett, veteran senior editor of The Village Voice, and author of Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, and co-author of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of 9/11, which investigates Rudy’s conduct before, during, and after the attacks.
Here: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0748,barrett,78478,6.html
(Full disclosure: I know Wayne to say “Hey!” to, having worked on a number of occasions with his wife, an eminent nonprofit executive in NYC.)
Rudy’s conduct with Qatar raises the most serious questions about his ethics and his judgment. In the Rudy/Judy/Hamptons affair, Rudy revealed he was willing and eager to divert taxpayer funds to finance adultery. In the matter of Qatar, Rudy was, for the sake of lucrative consulting contracts, willing and eager to make common cause with a nation whose rulers often act directly against American security interests.
Can a person of such elastic ethics ever be fit to be President?
posted by HH at 11:31 AM
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