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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

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Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



Rudy refuses to answer NYC questions

Posted: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:50 PM by Mark Murray

From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
OKATIE, SC -- Giuliani refused to take questions here today about allegations that travel expenses were picked up by obscure city offices when he was mayor of New York City.

“We’ve already explained it,” he said, walking past reporters after a town hall meeting.

Giuliani, who is normally friendly to reporters, bristled past them, and campaign staffers were unusually physical in keeping the press away. Several campaign aides told campaign reporters to return to the press area, and some of his security detail manhandled reporters. On other occasions, reporters have been free to video Giuliani as he is shaking hands and signing autographs after events, and he often informally takes questions from reporters.

Giuliani is holding a similar town hall meeting in Boca Raton, FL, but traditionally does not hold a press availability after town halls.

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Comments

The scumbag is bleeding scandal. You can't keep the press dogs from sniffing out your doo doo Rudy!
there is news out there that Giuliani could be another Bill Clinton... the story about Clinton not being totally honest about the war in Iraq is stark... http://enewsreference.wordpress.com/2007/11/30/bill-clinton-and-the-credibility-factor/
I told you all ... it would only be a matter of time before America see's the real Rudy that we herein NY knew all the time before 9-11...the rude nasty bully rudy.
In a bizarre coincidence, this same story broke on Fox in a slightly different lights.  Some of the highlights ...


*Headline: RUDY UNFAIRLY TARGETED BY LIBERAL MEDIA*

OKATIE, SC -- Giuliani refused to take questions here today about allegations that he was the true hero following the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, tough on taxes, tough on crime and a true Patriot-leader when he was mayor of New York City/America.

“We’ve already explained it,” a humble Giuliani said, walking past reporters after a town hall meeting.

Giuliani, is normally friendly to reporters, and dangerous liberal reporters were unusually physical. Several campaign aides asked campaign reporters to return to the press area citing security reasons. On other occasions, biased liberal reporters have been non-violent towards Giuliani as he is shaking hands and signing autographs after events, and he often informally takes questions from reporters.  9-11, it could happen to you.

On a related story, the aide to VP candidate-in-waiting-to-Giuliani Huckabee is reportedly feeling better after a dangerous, biased, liberal reporter angrily/bitterly/and jealously pushed him down following solid Republican debate performances, even with the CNN stacking the odds against them.
"Giuliani, who is normally friendly to reporters..."

Mark Murray should check Rudy's history with the NY press. There was never a more controlling, adversarial  New York mayor than Rudy in New York history. If he's seen a s friendly now, it's only because he's been able to conceal his true nature, which seems to be surfacing.


Van

This guy is about the only one I absolutely cannot stand.
Rudy, It's the Sopranos meets David Vitters.
What's next Rudy... you going to just punch the next reporter who asks you a hard question? Please, this man is an absolute tool and the fact that he's getting traction in this race *gags*
Rudy's probably trying to figure out how to expense the secret service so he can move onto wife #4.
Heh-heh.  When the heat is on, we now see who can't take it.  If Hillary laughs at uncomfortable questions, Julie bristles and has his brownshirts hustle the press out of te way.  His true (lack of) character is now shining through.
That's Pat Robertson's boy! I was wondering when the Great Rude one was resurface, the one with the New York manners. His children and his ex-wife do not speak to him. A New York state comptroller had to resign for providing his wife transportation, but it's OK for the pompous mayor to provide his mistress with tax payer-provided limo service. Where's the outrage from the Republican right wing, who tried to make a scandal out of any move Bill Clinton made? HYPOCRITES!!!
Rudy needs to be asked the following question;
If you are elected President can the American public assume that at some point we will be paying for secret service protection for both the current Mrs. Giuliani (whoever that maybe at the time) and for your current mistress (whoever that maybe at the time)?

www.curlydog.com/blog
Teste is as teste does
The "hey I am great guy" is a phony. All his so called stats are either exagerated or lies. His policy chief did it all, and when he was given credit, Rudy gave him the boot. Crime was already on the decline from the previous mayor. This guy became rich over 911. It is disgusting that he will use 911 to get to the presidency, to start another trillion dollar war with Iran. Firemen and others died because NY was not prepared. American have to be stupid to think he can run the country.
I would vote for Rudy, for president of Iran.
Mr. Giuliani will soon learn that in the final analysis Teflon is strictly reserved for weak-minded, faux-Texan sons of second-rate, blueblood Presidents. Mr. Giuliani asserting he has adequately explained these shady financial shenanigans does not make it so. He'll be a walking mass of scandals by the time he goes down in flames at the first Republican primary. Enjoy the well-deserved ride to ruin, Rudy!
Say what you want about Clinton, but at least he never expensed a blowjob...
The real Rudy is coming out under pressure.
Rudy is a total fraud. I can't believe I was actually considering voting for him because of his "liberal" tendencies.

He's just like Bush, they're the same kind of candidate... a power-hungry bully without morals and without a conscience who'll tell you whatever he thinks you want to hear to get elected.
hahaha, bye-bye, Rudy.  we hardly knew ye, but it was more than enough.
Rudy,Rudy, Rudy, You never were of republican presidential cloth. Especially if you had to steal nickels and dimes from your own administration to pay for your bimbos and your female costumes.
Before there was Judith Nathan there was Christine Lategano.  Ms. Lategano (now Mrs. Nicholas) was Rudy's press aide during the 1993 camaign and was his press representative after the election.  Donna Hanover forgave him for this, and they went on a second honeymoo of sorts to try to straighten things out.

It was shortly after this that he egan shtuppng Judith Nathan.

I think it is interesting to note that both of Mayor Giuliani's las two wives were previously married to Jewish men.

I often think about the hypocrisy tht Mr. Giuliani exhibited in relation to his Catholic Faith.  He made great sow of taking his children Andrew and Caroline to St. Patrick's and sitting in the front row at mass, even when he was having his relationship with Judith Nathan and actively contemplating how terminate his marriage to Donna hanover.
"Mark Murray should check Rudy's history with the NY press. There was never a more controlling, adversarial  New York mayor than Rudy in New York history." (vanreuter, NY NY)

I don't think Clinton supporters should highlight other candidates' control of the press, press availability, etc., van, especially considering how secretive and dishonest Clinton herself is.
I find it difficult to believe that this fellow is "leading in the polls" among Republicans. Where are these stats coming from??

How does a twice-divorced "pro-abortion Catholic" get the endorsement of Pat Robertson? I feel like I have gone through the looking glass, there is seriously something wrong here.

Can it be true that he was cheating on his ex-wife at taxpayers expense? Did the police officers actually think to submit their expense reports to the "Loft Office?"

If being the mayor of a city that was attacked qualifies one to be president, what about the mayor of Shanksville PA or Arlington VA?

This fellow is very scary. You can literally see him seethe when anyone disagrees with him. The sympathetic rational understanding act simply does not work.
This is TOO Funny. New York media was printing blockbuster after blockbuster about what a third rate crook and serial adulterer Giuliani is and the National media is fluffing him as "America's Mayor". Now they have to say the guy was using taxpayer $$ to bang his trampy girlfriend (now trampy wife) and this reporter won't touch the fact that it ain't "Travel expenses", it's that the scumbag was using City $$ and City policemen to take care of his slut. He also built a Love Shack using City $$'s. He also promoted hoodlum Bernie Kerik to almost be Homeland Security chief cuz Bernie kept Donna H away while Rudy was with Cristyne.

God knows once we lift that rock how much money wew will find out Rudy stole from the city. America's Mayor indeed!
Rudy's record as mayor of NYC is the only thing that matters.  Unless of course you're talking about aspects of his record ad mayor that don't reflect favorably on him.  In which case they're unimportant and shouldn't be discussed.
and now

the true Rudy surfaces

heh...
Judith Nathan should be answering questions about using the police department as her own taxicab.We already know how Rudy lies---big time hero,cut crime,blah,blah,blah----when I was the mayor------------more blah blah blah blah blah.
The bastard has NOT explained this issue to the satisfaction of tax paying New Yorkers like myself, who never knew we were paying the freight for him to "boink" Judy Nathan while he was still married to poor Donna Hanover.
"Rappin' Rudy 'G' The Gigolo of The G.O.P.".....do we really want THIS jerk in The White House.
No, I don't think so.
Jerry/Corpus Christi, what do you think of all of these Liberals picking on your boy. Your silence is quite revealing and truly appreciated. I cannot believe that you are speechless about this. Spin it and get back to us.
Maybe the public is finally waking up to this joker termed "America's Mayor" and really see that this guys is nothing but a fascist Mussolini of a different era.
Press, please keep the pressure on Rotten Rudy as he will imploded like all the sycophants at his side have i.e. Bernie K and that sick priest that the church through out because he could not control himself around kids, and shamefully was able to beat the rap because the statue limitations ran out. Better yet, the limitations will start running out on Rotten Rudy......
Bye, Bye Rudy. It was only a matter of time until you showed your true colors. We don't need another lying scumbag in the Oval Office. Eight years of the current lying scumbag is quite enough....so....Bye, Bye Rudy. Your chance came---and is about to dissapear. You are done...chump! Good Riddance!
What did Kerik know and when? That is the question (free from Hamlet).
The even more important real questions that need to be asked, of this and the other officialdom that are using 9-11 for personal and political gain, are about those numerous ommissions, lies and contradictions in the official story of the event of 9-11.  Rudy should be investigated, to put it in prosecutorial terms, at least as an accomplice after the fact (was any Mayoral assistance provided for removing evidence from the crime scene?? -- i.e., why and how was all the steel removed from the WTC site immediately, and not chemically tested for the explosives that evidently were used to pulversie the structures?)
This looks like a train wreck........You can't hide this kind of thing in a Presidential race. Too many people are motivated to sniff it out.
Hey, JR in NY!  Americans were stupid enough to let our current idiot run this country for eight years.  That just encourages Rude Rudy to believe we would do it for him.
Remember this when you hear GOP politicians rant about "how we need more welfare reform" and "how we need to cut taxes."  
Ah, Nosferatu-Guiliani, your days are numbered. They are tracking you down, you playboy of the 9/11 world, and they will find you, and put a giant stake in your angry dreams of power......
Rudy was tested, in real time, in an incredible crisis, as bodies were falling from buildings, and he rose to it amazingly. We all saw it, but many have evidently forgotten his performance under most extreme pressure. Others talk about what they would do; Rudy let his actions speak. What comes to mind is the first line of Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If":
"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, and blaming it on you."...
Just another pompous,strutting,immoral Mussolini want-a- be.Maybe he will attack Ethiopia to show what a real man he is.Dark comedy at its best.
Evidence he is a fascist.  He is one of the September Criminals.  Ask him WHO told him "the buildings are coming down", and why, mister, why this inside info was not shared with responders in buildings ? ? ?
RUDY SHTUPS JUDY: THE MOVIE

Scene 1: The Hamptons: Rudy Shtups Judi

Scene 2: World Trade Center Hideaway: Judi Shtups Rudy

Scene 3: Rudy Shtups the Taxpayers

Staring: Bernard Kerik as Rudy
Father Placa as Judi
And a cast of thousands at taxpayer expense!

Rudy's a dead man walkin'.


"some of his security detail manhandled reporters"

The UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE "manhandled" working journalists on behalf of a candidate who wanted to avoid a difficult question? Seriously? Why is that not a scandal in and of itself?

Or were these security people from a private firm? (And if so, what's the deal with that?)
Well, Well. The truth of this arrogant, corrupt, dirtbag...comes out.

A man who is so scared of answering tuff questions that he has to have his bodyguards rough up reporters. This fraud is a joke of a candidate. It is going to be great seeing Rudy supporters like Brian Willaims and Chris Matthews, cry their little eyes out, when Hillary Clinton "P-Slaps" this loser next year....if he even makes it out of the primaries, which is doubtful.
If would seem reasonable to me that reporters would be justified to no longer bothering to cover Rudy Moody at campaign events, or anything current, and just investigate and report on the many opportunities presented by his real past, not the created version.
Pat it was you here in New York as you say that elected Clintons wife as senator.  Did you forget Bill s pardons to dozens of terrosists and drug dealers while Hillary was stealing the whitehouse furniture, whats wrong with you people?  Stupidity i guess, cant you see all the tv ads now, what an easy victory for the repubs.
The press did an outstanding job smoking out Rudy.  However, his foreign policy advisor is Podhoretz.  Podhoretz is a NeoCon who wishes to bomb Iran yesterday.  Like Podhoretz, his NeoCon buddies need to be flushed out of other '08 campaigns. Only the press can and must do that.  These ideologues are much too dangerous, along with their radical AIPAC supporters, to be left to their own designs.  The press must, for the benefit of America-at-large, keep after these people.  They will not just "go away".  
How much manhandling will it take for the press to step up and do its job?  The man almost certainly misappropriated public funds and city employees (cops for chrissakes!) to aid and abet his adultery --- and he did his best to cover his tracks accounting-wise.

He's a bad person, start asking hard questions.
Rudy is a grade-A fraud.  As a president, he will be a criminal of the highest order.  He's Hugo Chavez with a comb over....
They manhandled reporters?

Pardon me for asking, but isn't that assault, and a crime?


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