Rudy Giuliani's scandal sheet is a mile long and as vivid as technicolor. But one adjective has been absent from all of Rudy's scandals - illegal.
Until now.
Atrios writes:
Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. "She used the PD as her personal taxi service," said one former city official who worked for Giuliani.
Big Tent Democrat pounces:
There oughta be a law! Oh wait, there is one:
[NY State Comptroller Alan Hevesi's] decision to step down came as Albany prosecutors were preparing to ask a grand jury to indict him on charges of defrauding the government and on other felonies stemming from his use of state employees as chauffeurs and aides to his wife, a law enforcement official said, charges that could have yielded a prison sentence had he been convicted.
Sounds like Rudy committed a felony to me.
For those who live in the other 49 states, New York's political scene was consumed for months with vicious attacks on Hevesi, a progressive Democrat with a long career of honorable public service. Republicans threatened impeachment, prosecutors prepared indictments, and the New York Times and other newspapers wrote endless editorials demanding Hevesi's resignation, which he ultimately tendered.
It is unthinkable that the New York media would apply a different standard to Giuliani than to Hevesi.
Put a fork in Rudy - he's done.
Update 1: Former Mayor Ed Koch hates Giuliani, and suggests Rudy may have committed another crime by assigning police protection to Judi:
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani acted improperly and appeared to be covering something up when he charged the cost of his and his girlfriend's security detail to obscure New York City agencies, former mayor Ed Koch told the Huffington Post.
. . . "There is something improper about charging costs to a department other than the NYPD," said Koch. "They are the ones who are supposed to pick him up no matter where he is whether or not it's in the city."
Koch, who served as the mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, said that the episode gave off the appearance that Giuliani, who was at the time married to his second wife Donna Hanover, was trying to hide his affair. He also suggested that Judith Nathan received her own personal protection, which would have been, according to Koch, a flagrant misuse of taxpayer money.
"I found it strange that his lady friend was given protection," said the long-time New York politico. "That was bizarre. She's not the city's responsibility. Rudy is the city's responsibility. Your wife and his children get protection, and that's understood. But certainly not your lady friend."
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