Comments

  1. says

    Oh crud. Of all the republican nominees, I hated Rudy the least (by a very slim margin.)

    The race has been fun to watch. Will it be Mitt-Huckabee-Paul to the finish line? Who woulda guessed?

  2. Abbie says

    CNN:
    The debate turned personal when a viewer, holding the Bible, asked “Do you believe every word of this book? And I mean specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand.”

    Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said,”Sure I believe the Bible is exactly what it is.”

    Giuliani said he believes the Bible, but not “literally true in every respect.”

    After that, Romney stammered a bit when moderator Anderson Cooper asked him if he believed every word. Video Watch the candidates get personal about the Bible »

    “Yeah, the Bible is the word of God. … I might interpret the word differently than you interpret the word, but I read the Bible and I believe the Bible is the word of God,” Romney said.

    Too bad that most Christians take the Bible as metaphor! (wink, wink)

  3. Michael X says

    See? That’s what Rudy gets. Pat Robertson endorses your bid and then, BOOM, your gov’t financed affair gets leaked. Obviously, god is angry at Pat for not being enough of a bigot to make up for Jerry’s absence.

  4. says

    See? That’s what Rudy gets. Pat Robertson endorses your bid and then, BOOM, your gov’t financed affair gets leaked. Obviously, god is angry at Pat for not being enough of a bigot to make up for Jerry’s absence.

    I’ve had a dream for a number of years. The rumors the other day about Trent Lott and a rentboy nearly sent me over the edge, but I wish that somewhere someone owned and would publish (and I couldn’t look) pictures of the Pats, Robertson and Buchanan, in a fisting session.

  5. tacitus says

    I’m not convinced he’s done for yet. His latest line is that the security detail followed him everywhere, even when he was “off duty”, and that he had nothing to do with how the expenses were settled. (I guess the reasoning being that if he’d have gone to ballgames instead, many of the expenses would still have been incurred.)

    But given that those expense settlements were done through obscure, unrelated accounts, it certainly will take some explaining, and however you look at it, paying for expensive hotel rooms for your bodyguards while you’re off cheating on your wife, isn’t likely to win you many friends among the New York City taxpayers.

    Part of me wishes he still makes it to the nomination, because he is eminently beatable and would not inspire the Republican base to get out and vote for him, but the other part of me believes that no-one that unstable should be allowed anywhere close to the presidency. He’s George W. Bush without the empathy. A dangerous man to put in charge of our already disastrous Middle East foreign policy. War with Iran would be that much closer.

    So, on balance, I hope he dies a death of a thousand paper (accounting) cuts, before we get to Iowa.

  6. AlanWCan says

    It would have been better if he’d gotten the nomination and THEN had this leak.

    You think? The repugs seem pretty well insulated from any effects of scandal. W could blow a goat on the whitehouse lawn dressed as a kipper snorting cocaine from a GI’s jockstap and Faux news would spin it as supporting the troops and the magnetic sticker/SUV crowd would accuse anyone mentioning this as weird of being unamerican/think of the children/support the troops/we believe in god and nothing would change.

  7. bad Jim says

    Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said,”Sure I believe the Bible is exactly what it is.”

    I actually agree with that, although I could say the same thing about The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

  8. Zombie says

    You’d think the sex-phobic misers that pass for the Republican base would be terminally aghast at Guiliani’s shenanigans, but the GOP has become so adept at self-delusion the only reliable prediction one can make is “more crazy”.

  9. Ex Patriot says

    If Rudy goes it should almost be a given for the Democrats, unless the voting public turns completely stupid. Please all people who want to see the republican trash gone get out and vote, I am voting from 5000 miles away and most can almost walk to their polling place

  10. Sigmund says

    from bad Jim:
    “Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said,”Sure I believe the Bible is exactly what it is.”
    I actually agree with that, although I could say the same thing about The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.”
    I’m having a hard time thinking of ANYTHING that isn’t ‘exactly what it is’.

  11. Dunc says

    If Rudy goes it should almost be a given for the Democrats, unless the voting public turns completely stupid.

    Hahahahahahahaha… Oh, mercy! “Turns” completely stupid?

  12. RascoHeldall says

    If Rudy goes it should almost be a given for the Democrats, unless the voting public turns completely stupid.

    Unless?

  13. MBL says

    This implies that Republicans care about sexual impropriety or corruption. They don’t, at least not in their candidates. I’ll be amazed if this affects Giuliani at all, so long as he keeps running as the Designated Fascist in the race.

  14. inkadu says

    This obsession with Giulani’s sex life — is it a return to the scandal-mongering of the Clinton years? Do we really want to go back to a time when people were impeached for making small personal mistakes? Is Washington getting ready for another round of the politics of personal destruction?

    Who said that? Nobody. Yet. But when they do, you can bet it will be the most scandal-mongering, Clinton-hating, political-person-destroying son-of-a-bitches on the right wing — but that’s only if the milquetoast handwringing liberals of the MSM don’t get there first.

  15. says

    I dunno, doesn’t this just make him seem more human and likeable? A minor sex scandal for Kevin Rudd – admittedly a lot more minor than this, since it was just going to a strip show and having a good time – probably helped his campaign here in Australia. Bob Hawke’s well-known philandering helped boost his popularity as well – it certainly didn’t stop him winning four elections, and just gave his image more of a larrikin edge.

    Maybe Guiliani would do better here than in sexually-uptight America.

  16. Helio says

    Rudy you need to learn from the master Clinton.

    Rudy, say the following, “I did not have sexual relationships with that woman” and “what white dress?” and my favorite, “it depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is”.

  17. Mike Huckabee says

    I believe that every molecule of the steaming pile of dogshit we see on the ground before us is exactly what it is.

  18. Tulse says

    This obsession with Giulani’s sex life — is it a return to the scandal-mongering of the Clinton years?

    This specific issue is not about his sex life, since it was already known he had violated the marriage vows he had made in the sight of God and which no man should tear asunder. This is about abuse of power, trying to underhandedly hide expenses to the taxpayers related to his affair. As usual, it’s not about the act, but about the coverup. Misjudgement in one’s personal life is one thing, but these new accusations, if true, speak to his integrity as a public official, which is a very different matter.

    Clinton may have been cheating on his wife, but he didn’t (as far as I know) recruit the official apparatus of government to hide that fact.

  19. Kseniya says

    We’ve experienced Willard. Be afraid. Horrible governor, and a horrible human.

    Yup, Jeff. I’ll skip the usual rant about the health-care “victory”.

    It was cool when he jumped on his jet-ski and rescued those people whose boat had capsized, though. Remember that? It’s just too bad he never displayed a similarly heroic or selfless concern for the imperiled when it came to his political decisions.

    I realize that a man can change his mind over the course of 11 years, but tell me this flip-flop isn’t largely political:

    “If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will.” – Mitt Romney, in a letter written to the gay Republican Log Cabin Club, during his 1994 senatorial run against Edward M. Kennedy

    Imagine that! An out-of-state Republican running to the left of Ted Kennedy! But now, this:

    “Last year the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck a blow against the family, as I’m sure you know. The court forgot that marriage is first and foremost about nurturing and developing children. Its ruling meant that our society is supposed to be indifferent about whether children have a mother and a father.” – Governor Romney, Boston Globe, March 2, 2005

    Ignoring, for the moment, what a load of crap that statement is, let’s consider where Romney is really coming from. A commenter (“gj“) on Althouse said it best:

    As a citizen of Massachusetts, I’m happy to see Romney run into trouble for his history of insincere pandering. Rather than being a public servant, he has used the state of Massachusetts to forward his own political career.

    Yes, we elected him four years ago. But it wasn’t long before it became clear that his real constituency was outside of Massachusetts, and that his actions were chosen to serve his national image rather than the good of the state.

    I couldn’t agree more.

  20. MyaR says

    Why do y’all think Giuliani has lower approval ratings (or whatever ‘good’ metric they’re using) than Bush in NYC? And it’s not just because Giuliani’s a Republican in a largely Democratic city — Bloomberg’s a Republican, too, but has pretty high approval ratings.

  21. says

    re: 28
    Was going to comment about the third quote and then I realized you’d impeached yourself by putting “what white dress?” in quotes when everybody knows the dress is blue.

    The context of the third quote is overlooked. In that case, the question “is” was regarding the existence of a relationship between Clinton and Lewinsky. You may think it’s a black-and-white matter as to whether a “relationship” exists at any point in time, but Clinton’s comment was entirely appropriate. Politically stupid, but legally appropriate.

  22. MikeM says

    This scandal will blow over.

    I am not impressed at all with any of the GOP hopefuls. There isn’t one I’d vote for. I want to be clear on this: I don’t like McCain at all, but I was pretty impressed with his smackdown regarding waterboarding. That was pretty smart. I bet W didn’t like that response. W could watch someone get waterboarded and ask himself, “Hmmm, are we sure this is torture?” At least McCain has the guts to say, “Dude, that’s torture.”

    I absolutely will not be voting GOP next year. It will not happen. I’m sort of hoping for an Edwards-Obama ticket, because if it’s Clinton, all we’ll hear about for 4-8 years is “Whitewater”, “Rose Law Firm” and, ironically enough, “Monica.”

  23. inkadu says

    Tulse (re: Lewinsky/Clinton vs. Giuliani)

    Misjudgement in one’s personal life is one thing, but these new accusations, if true, speak to his integrity as a public official, which is a very different matter.

    Sounds like more classic liberal nuance.

    Seriously, where have you been the past 8 years? Do you own a TV? Do you ever read Time magazine? Those are all good points you made, but only to sane paeople. As far as the mainstream media is concerned, it’s exactly the kind of argument they’d expect from a rabid deragned unserious liberal partisan blinded by a Bush derangement syndrome.

    Enjoy the campaign.

  24. Sengkelat says

    This incident will blow over. Giuliani had police bodyguards, which is not completely unreasonable for a prominent elected official. Bodyguards costs money. When Giuliani travels, his protection travels. They have to stay somewhere. That also costs money.
    So what exactly is the scandal here? I’ll admit it’s weird that it was billed to obscure city departments, but it’s not as if actual malfeasance is evidenced.

    Don’t get me wrong, though, Giuliani will never get my vote; I just want a real campaign-ending scandal for him.

  25. says

    Does anybody else remember that woman singing in that viral video from a few months back, “I want Rudy Giuli-on-me. . .” Man, that cracks me up.

  26. inkadu says

    Sengkelat:

    Yes, Giulani COULD have affairs, I guess, and pay for his body guard staff to stay at the hotel, and it would be “legitimate” in the sense that he’s the mayor and if he wants to go to a hotel, he pays for his room, and the city pays for his bodyguard’s rooms.

    BUT Giulani chose to hide the bill among various city departments — which means that various city departments had less money to do what they were charged to do by the people of New York City. “… including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants.” [from Editor&Publisher via Dailykos] Giuliani took money earmarked for helping disabled people, and used it to hide his shenanigans. Then he tried to cover it up by claiming some BS secrecy.

    That’s abuse of power, plain ‘n’ simple. He’d be a fantastic successor to Bush. I can see why he’s on his way to winning the Republican nomination.

  27. Mooser says

    The debate turned personal when a viewer, holding the Bible, asked “Do you believe every word of this book?

    When the hell is somebody going to ask Romney if he belives every word of “The Book of Mormon” or “The Pearl of Great Price” and whether he belives either of these books are true revelations of God’s word, equal to the Bible in being jam-packed with spiritual goodness.

    I would also like to know the exact content of any oaths Romney has made when he was initiated into the different levels of the Mormon cult. These oaths, I am almost sure, will conflict with the oath of the Presidency, and Mr Romney is, of course a man of his word.

    Of course, if any other Mormon would be so kinf as to enlighten us on the content of these oaths, and any other “secret” information possesed by Mormons, that would be alright, too.

    Religions don’t have secrets, (although they may have certain aspects which are obscure to outsiders) cults have secrets. Mormonism is a cult.
    Religion ask you to promise to obey your conscience, as informed by their particular morals. Cults swear you to obedience to superiors in the cult, and your conscience takes a back seat. Mormonism is a cult, not a religion.
    And if it is a religion, it’s balderdash by even the most generous standards.

  28. Mooser says

    Matt Heath, can you give us a link to that free money? I’ll cut-n-paste, if you can’t embed.

  29. Rey Fox says

    Another thing that this thread has demonstrated is that Giuliani will never get elected President because his name is too hard to spell.

  30. Matthew says

    Giuliani answered the question “Do you believe in the Holy Bible?” with “I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive, I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical, I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context…”

    So when those men were writing the Bible, they thought “Hey, interpret this the way they will in over 2000 years, not the way we think now.”

    Huckabee then says that there are parts that are “obviously allegorical” and, about the parts he doesn’t understand, “I’m not supposed to”

    So why teach what you don’t understand? This isn’t even a political question. Sometimes being an American is so frustrating.

  31. Azkyroth says

    This obsession with Giulani’s sex life — is it a return to the scandal-mongering of the Clinton years? Do we really want to go back to a time when people were impeached for making small personal mistakes? Is Washington getting ready for another round of the politics of personal destruction?

    No. But to the best of my knowledge, Clinton didn’t pay for expenses incurred in committing his affairs with taxpayer money, and he wasn’t a candidate from a party that has made pseudo-puritanism roughly half of its platform. Slight difference here.

  32. Jim Thomerson says

    I caught a minute of Huckabee on O’Reiley (just surfing past, you know). Huckabee made a comment to the effect he was more comfortable with an honest atheist than with a Christian who was not living a Christian life.

    So far as private vs public morality, read up on Alexander Hamilton.

  33. slpage says

    We have to remember – these are republicans.

    For them, such antics are reason for impeaching – hell, jailing – a democrat, but they forgive their fellow republicans.

    Funny how that works….

  34. says

    Don’t hold your breath. If he was going to be brought down by any scandal, it would have happened by now. Besides, he’s on record as saying that he loves the bible. What more do you want out of a Presidential candidate anyway?