More on Government Funded Trysts: It's A Crime

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 03:19:35 PM EST
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Via Atrios:

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.

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.

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More on Government Funded Trysts: It's A Crime | 22 comments (22 topical)

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Language dude (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by Big Tent Democrat on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 03:43:45 PM EST

No cursing.

And yes I remember all too well.

: doh (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by taylormattd on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 03:46:12 PM EST

darn it. That's the second time I've done that. I'll remember. My apologies.

Yup. But this time (5.00 / 2) (#4)
by scribe on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 03:51:24 PM EST

it's real.

Won't go anywhere (5.00 / 1) (#8)
by gerard on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 05:07:26 PM EST

When will we learn that Republican scandals never mean a thing? The conservative machine is too good at deflecting accountability and making Dems look like a bunch of whiners. I've given up. I've lost the energy to care.

Funny... (1.00 / 0) (#12)
by jarober on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 08:11:02 PM EST

I didn't mention "troopergate". I said "sex scandal".

With Clinton - like Giuliani - you kind of need a scorecard to keep track of the messes

Did I miss allegations Bill Clinton (5.00 / 0) (#13)
by oculus on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 08:18:38 PM EST

miss-used federal government resources for his personal purposes?


: You did not. Although (none / 0) (#18)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 02:00:41 PM EST

your comment does beg the question of whether White House interns are characterised as federal government resources.

Government funded trysts! (none / 0) (#5)
by Jgarza on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 04:18:40 PM EST

that's the best headline ever!
Who knew the city of New York was subsidize Rudy's sex life?

Oxen, being gored (none / 0) (#6)
by jarober on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 04:44:53 PM EST

Amazing how MoveOn.org was created by lefties in response to a Democratic sex scandal. Now, given a Republican scandal, they're "shocked, shocked" - in exactly the same fashion as the inspector in "Casablanca".

The irony is thick enough to cut with a knife, not to mention the hypocrisy.

: lol (4.66 / 3) (#7)
by taylormattd on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 04:54:10 PM EST

So many problems with your statement, where to begin.
(1) The alleged 'troopergate scandal' about Bill Clinton was false;
(2) I'll feel sorry for you people as soon as the entire allegedly 'liberal' media stops loudly and reflexively repeating every lie whispered in their ears by Republican operatives;
(3) Move-on was formed after the largest and most expensive witch-hunt in the history of the nation.
The irony here is that people on the right won't be issuing bloodthirsty calls demanding a special prosecutor investigate Guiliani.

Could get interesting; if DA declines (none / 0) (#9)
by oculus on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 06:34:19 PM EST

declines prosecution, Spitzer is next up.

actually (none / 0) (#10)
by taylormattd on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 07:17:50 PM EST

looks like it might not be illegal.

Or at least the same law that sunk Hevesi (Public Officers Law sec. 74) doesn't sink Guiliani, because it applies only to officers or employees of a "state agency", not local municipalities.


Hope there is a state or city criminal statute (none / 0) (#11)
by oculus on Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 07:32:25 PM EST

applicable to this conduct by an elected officer of a municipality.


i don't believe you have to be an elected (none / 0) (#15)
by cpinva on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:45:44 AM EST

official. any public employee, who converts gov't property (property includes cash or any other tangible or intangible goods/services) to personal use, without proper authorization, is guilty of misappropriation, a criminal offense, in pretty much every jurisdiction in the country.

the major difference, with respect to scorecard keeping, between clinton and giuliani, is that, with one exception, the "scandals" of the clinton administration were made up, by the republicans, their supporters and the MSM, those of giuliani aren't.

after over 40 million spent on independent counsels, the only thing they could come up with was that clinton lied about having sex, with a woman not his wife. that's it.

jarober, i'm afraid, is a "fools for scandal" kinda guy.


: More to the point - Rudy Cue Ball could still (none / 0) (#17)
by scribe on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:50:43 PM EST

be liable for his conflicts of interests violations.
Go read this long article (it's all worth reading!), also by Barrett and in the Village Voice, about more of Rudy's corruption.
The short version:
NYC has something called the Conflicts of Interests Board (COIB) which deals with alleged and actual conflicts of interest city officials might have regarding their dealings with city contractors/entities doing business with the City.
Chief among the rules is "no gifts worth more than $50 from entities/people doing business with the City".
Rudy vigorously enforced this while Mayor, saying those who violated it had to be made examples of.
Rudy received four World Series rings (96, 98, 99, 2000) from the Yankees. He has worn them while on the campaign trail.
No one not associated with/working for the Yankees other than Rudy got a ring.
No mayor in any other WS champion city got a ring from their team.
Each ring is worth a lot more than $50.
The City owns Yankee Stadium, and was engaged in extended negotiations with the City toward the building of the new Yankee Stadium while Rudy was Mayor. They do business.
There is no apparent statute of limitations on COIB matters; as a part of Kerik's state court guilty plea, he paid a COIB fine for things that went on re the apartment renovations.
Draw your own conclusions.

FYI: mcjoan linked to this (none / 0) (#14)
by oculus on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 01:12:47 AM EST

post on FP of DK.

Never forget: IOKIYAR! (none / 0) (#16)
by Molly Bloom on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:03:30 AM EST

ok molly, i'll bite. (none / 0) (#19)
by cpinva on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 08:22:07 PM EST

what the heck does that stand for?


: IOKIYAR (none / 0) (#21)
by squeaky on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 10:32:02 PM EST

This

: It's Ok If You Are A Republican! (none / 0) (#23)
by Molly Bloom on Mon Dec 03, 2007 at 09:04:11 AM EST

It is from a Paul Krugman editorial. I no longer remember which one. It is has been adopted by Democrats and Progressives to describe Republicans behaving like.... well Republicans.
(Ok, behaving hypocritically)

Make Rudy's day (none / 0) (#20)
by diogenes on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 09:58:51 PM EST

If a liberal DA indicts him for "accepting World Series Rings", Rudy will claim that he is the victim of an absurd witchhunt, and by extension that all the other sex accusations are absurd. Only Kool-Aid drinkers would not allow the mayor of the world series-winning city to get a ring, law or no law, and outside the web people know this.

: Disagree. (none / 0) (#22)
by oculus on Fri Nov 30, 2007 at 11:33:11 PM EST

San Diego city council and mayor used to have a free box at Qualcomm Steium until the press looked into the matter; now, althought the box is reserved for the city, which owns the stadium, everyone who enters the box has to sign in and all are charged.