As we all know by now, our good friend Rudy misused his security detail. Providing himself with free trips to the Hamptons to meet his mistress and said mistress with a free taxi service. Throughout the day, I've been wondering how and when the GOP would step up and spin this scandal.
It seemed blame was going to be placed with the NYPD.
The mayor's campaign maintains nothing improper occurred by having security accompany Giuliani to the Hamptons or anywhere else he was traveling. However, senior campaign aides told FOX News late Wednesday that former Giuliani Deputy Mayor Joe Lohta is investigating why the New York Police Department billed a variety of city agencies for the charges that it incurred and is working with current administration of Michael Bloomberg for further details.
And how did that investigation pay off? Our good friends at Fox News have the answer:
Joe Lhota, a former city budget director, ex-deputy mayor and a Giuliani campaign adviser, told the AP on Thursday that the practice of billing obscure city offices was not to conceal anything but was for convenience to the officers on the detail, who would otherwise have to wait weeks to be reimbursed by the Police Department. The city offices were reimbursed by the department at the end of the fiscal year, he said.
Oh I see, so it was for the convenience of the officers? It seems if Giuliani had really been concerned with inconveniencing his security detail, he wouldn't have been dragging them up to the Hamptons in the first place.
To be fair to Fox News, they did cite an alternative point of view on the issue:
Ed Koch, who is supporting Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the presidential race, said Thursday that rerouting expenditures was highly unusual.
"Hiding the expenses by having agencies other than the Police Department carry them is not warranted — I don't understand why he did that," Koch said.
These articles are fairly tame by comparison to what we can expect from Giuliani & co. in the near future once they're focus groups come back on which lie is the most believable. But I thought it pertinent to point out this early attempt to reset the tone on the issue (that is, to call it a non-issue). Thereby disarming the docile Democrats.
If anything, we should know by now that the ability of the GOP to spin is incredible. Certainly well beyond their ability to govern. Rest assured, if this had been about Bill Clinton, or any Democrat, doing the exact same thing it would be everywhere. Clinton would receive nothing BUT questions about it. Further, any answer he gave would be broken apart, meticulously analyzed, and ultimately condemned. The Republican Attack Dogs would pounce on him like a fresh cut of meat, salivating over every tender morsel. They would ensure that the public savored every moment of humiliation as they force fed us constant coverage, allusion, and repetition. Without a doubt, it would be a motif and the number one GOP talking point for the 2008 elections.
Turning the focus back on our camp, we find the Democrats with a giant slab of juicy GOP Scandal, a food all too common these days, and again I watch and wonder where are our attack dogs in the MSM? Where are our balls? Every time a new scandal breaks, my mind can't help but wander to the Rugby Scene from Monty Python's: The Meaning of Life. It feels the same every time. Painful.
It's absurd that the Democrats let this happen when the facts are on our side. Hell, even the NRSC seems to be on our side in making a video that is virtually a parody of itself. But with all of this weaponry laid out before the Democrats, and more ammunition being brought in day after day by new GOP scandals and blunders, the Democrats still stand by and let our country fall to Spinville. To further the war analogy, the GOP attacks with a wet branch, and the Democrats, armed with Lightsabers and protected by recent history, flinch.