New York Label May Not Fit All in Giuliani Run

NY Times ^ | March 8, 2007 | ADAM NAGOURNEY

[neverdem]

WASHINGTON, March 7 — When Republicans say they are skeptical that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, can survive their party’s presidential nominating process, they usually point to his record of support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control.

But there may be a less obvious hurdle that Mr. Giuliani has to overcome: Whether he is too much of a New Yorker for the rest of the country.

Americans like New York City, as officials in both parties are quick to say. Most find it vibrant, entertaining and an object of sympathy and pride since the terrorist attacks five and a half years ago that made Mr. Giuliani the national contender he is today.

But the city, with all its tumult and rough edges, is not for everyone. And few people embody all the complicated facets of New York City as much as Mr. Giuliani.

He is swaggering, brash and opinionated and loves to stick his thumb in the eye of conventional political norms. Those traits won him some acclaim in New York, not to mention a lot of tabloid headlines. But he can also be temperamental, controlling, capricious, volatile and, in the words of Edward I. Koch, a former Democratic mayor who supported Mr. Giuliani in his successful bid for a second term, “mean-spirited.”

New Yorkers who elected him twice as their mayor tend to view what others might call rudeness as an endearing trait. But beyond conservative unease with his positions on social issues, two of the biggest questions about Mr. Giuliani’s presidential campaign are whether the same qualities that made him iconic in New York will play as well in the rest of the country, and whether voters elsewhere will exhibit the same tolerance as New Yorkers did toward the more colorful aspects...

[Spiff]

Saw you photo of Giulian with Howard Koeppel. Who is Howard Koeppel? Read on...

Giuliani: The Knight and 'The Queen'
11/28/2001
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/318/CFI/cfreport/index.htm

According to The London Times, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gives kisses before he leaves every morning, but to neither his estranged wife, nor his girlfriend. Instead, says The Times, "Sir Rudy" gives a peck on the cheek to the two homosexual men he's living with.

"We always get a little kiss, it's cute," says wealthy car dealer Howard Koeppel, with whom Giuliani has been sharing an apartment since June. When Giuliani was recently knighted, Koeppel tells The Times that he told "Sir Rudy" to call him "Queen Howard." Koeppel (63) and his homosexual lover Mark Hsiao (41) have been comforting Giuliani, and trying to make him laugh, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

On the way to a recent fundraising dinner for the pro-homosexual state lobby group, The Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), Koeppel ribbed Giuliani by saying that if the ESPA was able to raise $100,000 donation for the homosexual victims of the September 11 attacks, Giuliani should agree to appear on Showtime's controversial Queer as Folk dressed in drag. Surprisingly, Giuliani agreed.

Marty Algaze of Gay Men's Health Crisis once summed up Queer as Folk — a show that touts graphic sexual activity as one of its biggest draws — as one that would "shock a lot of people." Showtime's Queer as Folk was inspired by the original series in Britain, which featured a storyline in which a 29-year-old man has a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

The propensity to shock people is not new to Giuliani, who likes to dress in women's clothes as a stage act, and even did so once at a Pride Agenda fund- raiser.

According to the Times, Giuliani has attended every "gay pride" parade in New York during his eight years as mayor. In 1992, during his first run for mayor, Giuliani took part in a homosexual "pride" parade that included a contingent of pedophile activists marching behind a banner for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association). — Ken Ervin

[Liz]

Keep in mind when Andrew Giuliani outed Rudy as a miserable father with a possessive, domineering third wife......a demanding shrew who orders Rudy to stay away from his kids.......America spoke loud and clear.

88% of those polled said they had a problem with Rudy not attending his son's graduation.

Now that's a poll with political punch (not A Julie Annie faked-up, manufactured poll).

[Liz]

Giuliani's Hamptons House

The (gag) newlyweds---his third, her ??? second.