One For One

Someone in the comments here mentioned that it was good to have Gail Collins, writing for the the New York Times again, and indeed, it is (alas, behind the wall). This is from her column titled, "Getting One for the Price of One":

This week, Rudy Giuliani is focusing on health issues, attacking Democrats’ plans to get the government more involved in covering the cost of medical care. In a campaign tour of New Hampshire town meetings, he used the word “socialism” so often that it crowded out the old nonterror-related record-holder, “Ronald Reagan.” Other frequently repeated nouns were “choice” (good) and “France” (bad).

....

You may remember a while back that Rudy Giuliani was touting his wife, a nurse, as an important adviser to him on health matters. This was around the time that he told Barbara Walters that he would be “very, very comfortable” having her sitting in on Cabinet meetings and policy discussions about her area of expertise.

So Judith was expected to be part of the New Hampshire health care tour. But her plans seemed to have changed about the time a new Vanity Fair profile emerged, one that makes her sound like a particularly unpleasant combination of Catherine the Great and Britney Spears. The article, by Judy Bachrach, accuses her of everything from demanding a separate airplane seat for her handbag to putting her husband in harm’s way by forcing him to retrieve a bag of health bars from the hotel during a security lockdown.

Oh dear. Catherine the Great and Britney Spears. Is she going to be called upon to do a quick fade-out? Is she going to be angry at Rudy for making her stay in the background? She doesn't sound like a background person to me, and she's not shy about demanding her rights.

Many of the anonymous quotes in the Vanity Fair piece seem to have come from past and present Giuliani employees, who are particularly bitter about Judith’s alleged attempts to elbow out his closest aides and confidants. This is not something you as a voter need to worry about since Giuliani’s closest aides and confidants tend to be extremely expendable hangers-on.

(We will revisit this issue sometime later when we discuss how chauffer-turned-police commissioner Bernard Kerik came to be nominated for chief of Homeland Security.)

Yes, remember that hero of 9/11, Bernie Kerik, who came close to being in charge of Homeland Security? He of the alleged "secret love nest" where he conducted his “passionate liaisons.”

To protect his wife from unnecessary sniping, all Rudy needs to do is say that he was looking at the world through the eyes of love when he seemed to be envisioning her as a future weapons inspector. (“She gives us a lot of advice and a lot of help in areas where she’s got a tremendous amount of expertise — biological and chemical,” he said in 2003.)

Rudy's candidacy seems like one big joke to me, but we elected a joke twice and I'm not laughing. I suppose that I should hope that Rudy becomes the Republican candidate for president, but one never knows. By trickery or through dirty campaign tactics, he might get elected.

Who would have believed that one who actually served in Vietnam, would come to be viewed as a wimp and a liar, rather than the one who disappeared from the Air National Guard and never gave an explanation?

Good to have you writing again, Gail.