Following up on an item from yesterday, Ben Smith had a blockbuster when he reported, “As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records.”
Given the explosive nature of the controversy, CNN’s Anderson Cooper brought up the subject during last night’s debate, the only non-YouTube question of the night.
MR. COOPER: Since we’re on fiscal matters, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask this question, since it did just break a couple hours ago. This is to Mayor Giuliani.
Politico broke a story a few hours ago questioning your accounting of taxpayer dollars as mayor. They say that as mayor — the report says you took trips to the Hamptons and expensed the cost of your police detail to obscure city offices. One, is that true? And if so, was it appropriate?
MR. GIULIANI: First of all, it’s not true. I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor. They followed me every place 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 it in their records, and they handled them in the way they handled them. I had nothing to do with the handling of their records. And they were handled, as far as I know, perfectly appropriately.
As explanations for a well-documented scandal go, Giuliani sounded as if he were passing the buck. It’s not so much a denial as a “don’t-blame-me” defense. Or, as Josh Marshall put it, “Rudy isn’t denying anything. He’s just saying he’s not responsible.”
Given that we’re talking about a controversy dealing with adultery, financial irregularities, misuse of official city resources, and an attempt to conceal the mayor’s conduct, and there’s a lengthy paper trail to bolster the veracity of the story, Giuliani may have to come up with something a little more compelling.
Josh, who has already labeled this the “Shag Fund” controversy, fleshes out the nuances of the former mayor’s rationalization.
He says the security detail went with me everywhere, i.e., they had to come when I went to visit Judy too. And I can’t be responsible for where they billed the expense to. So Rudy’s argument is that in the city he runs, actually in the office of the mayor, someone else was hiding these charges to shield the affair. But not him and he didn’t know about it.
A few points on this. Rudy seems to be leaving a pretty big door open to suggest that if these funds weren’t handled in a normal way it was the cops who did it not him. I’ve been told though that Bernie Kerik took a hands-on supervisory role running Rudy’s security detail all through his administration. When he was over at Corrections and when he was Police Commissioner. Bernie and Rudy are sort of bird’s of a feather on this sort of thing. So I’d say you want to give Bernie Kerik a pretty close look on this whole thing.
If not Kerik, what about the NYPD? He’s saying whatever happened was their doing. Can we talk to them and see what they say?
As for traditional news outlets, the New York Daily News picked up on the story with a big front-page piece today.
Rudy Giuliani faced new questions Wednesday about his illicit affair with Judi Nathan after records emerged suggesting the tab for cops guarding their Hamptons love nest was buried in obscure City Hall accounts.
The rest of the print media has been much slower. The NYT hasn’t mentioned the scandal at all, the WaPo, while it had plenty of room for a ridiculous story about Obama’s non-existent Muslim background, gave the story three sentences, buried deep in a story about last night’s debate.
Also, one of Giuliani’s predecessors is weighing in with some damaging criticism.
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.
On a variety of occasions, I’ve seen Republican scandals that I thought would be a huge deal but ended up fizzling, so I’m probably not the ideal judge. That said, the “Shag Fund” controversy looks like it should effectively finish Giuliani’s campaign.
The “markets” seem to agree — take a look at the steep over-night fall in the future’s market. If I had money on this, I’d do the same thing.