Politico editor: It looks like someone helped Rudy 'cover his tracks' during affair 
During Wednesday evening's Republican debate, GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani flatly denied a new report that as mayor of New York he had obscured security expenses during the beginning of an extra-marital affair -- but his explanation leaves a lot to be desired, according to the editor-in-chief of the publication that broke the story.
Appearing on the CBS Early Show, Politico's John Harris was asked if Giuliani's answer about the potential scandal was "enough to make it go away."
"Well, for people who are interested in the details of the story that Ben Smith broke on Politico yesterday, no it's not," he said. "Because the question wasn't whether he had security...the question is why was he hiding security expenses for his relationship, at that time still an extra-marital affair with Judith Nathan, why was he hiding them in obscure city agencies?"
First reported on on Wednesday, the original Politico story cites documents acquired through a New York Freedom of Information Law proving Giuliani "billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses." The story also asserts that "mayoral costs had nothing to do with the functions of the little-known city offices that defrayed [Giuliani's] tabs, including agencies responsible for regulating loft apartments, aiding the disabled and providing lawyers for indigent defendants."
In Wednesday evening's debate, Giuliani called the story "not true" only hours after it was first published on Politico's website. "I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor. They followed me everyplace I went," he added. "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..." Last month, the New York Post reported that New York mafia leaders had been close to "sanctioning a hit" on Giuliani in the 1980's, when he was working as a federal prosecutor targeting the mob. Many mafia experts, however, doubt that a serious threat against the mayor's life ever existed.
But Harris said that it appeared the bills were designed to help obfuscate the mayor's activities.
"Look, he's responsible as the Mayor of New York," said the editor. "Somebody was clearly trying to help him cover his tracks is the way it looks." Harris also said suggested it would remind voters of the former mayor's rocky relationship history.
"It's obviously, I'd say, a reminder that Giuliani's personal life, let's face it, is not The Brady Bunch," he said. "But people know that. He doesn't want that reminder...he's got to compete well in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he's not in the lead and then try to get the race nationally, where he is in the lead."
This video is from CBS's Early Show, broadcast on November 29, 2007.
| 
del.icio.us .gif)
