When Kerik gets indicted, this pic of Rooty with his buddy, former bodyguard, driver, mobbed-up Police Commissioner, and flopola Homeland/Sec will get a lot of play:
Buddies forever.
Posted on 04/14/2007 10:14:39 AM PDT by Spiff
Giuliani's cross-dressing antics back in spotlight
NEW YORK -- It is difficult to shock New Yorkers, yet Rudy Giuliani teetered close to the line when he sauntered onto a stage wearing a platinum-blond wig, a face full of makeup, dainty white gloves and a frilly pink gown filled out in all the right places.
His appearance at an annual political roast was exactly 10 years ago, and at the time, the idea of the tough-talking mayor in a busty ball gown raised eyebrows but was mostly accepted as a good joke -- adhering to an unwritten rule for the shenanigans that take place at the roast, known as the Inner Circle dinner.
Shortly after winning re-election that year, Giuliani took his feminine side to a national audience. While hosting "Saturday Night Live," he appeared in one skit as a bosomy, gray-haired Italian grandmother in lipstick and a flowered housedress, with stockings pulled halfway up his calves.
Now that Giuliani is running for the Republican presidential nomination, experts and political observers are wondering whether those well-photographed and widely documented performances -- and others -- could damage his campaign. Some say conservatives won't get the joke and will be turned off by what they see as yet another peek at Giuliani's exotic, big-city liberal side.
Political observers say many voters associate a macho demeanor with Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 image as a strong national leader in a time of crisis -- an image that could lose its power if dressed in stockings and dancing the cancan.
Yes, there was another year when he wore fishnets and did high kicks with the Rockettes.
"People think of him as a leader and a tough guy, and he has this image as somebody who tamed the city of New York and made the trains run on time, and seeing him dressed up like a girl would run contrary to all of those things," said political science professor Neal Thigpen of Francis Marion University in South Carolina.
South Carolina has one of the nation's earliest presidential primaries next year, and as the first Southern contest, it could set the stage for the region.
With conservative voters largely dominating presidential primaries, some experts say the footage of Giuliani cavorting about in women's wear could significantly damage his chances there and throughout the South. The images are already showing up on the Internet, including a mock campaign commercial on the popular video-trading site YouTube.
"You get out in more sophisticated places of the country, where they know Giuliani and they like him and they know about some of his antics, it's not going to be any surprise, but down here where they've never seen that kind of thing, it could do him some damage," Thigpen said.
But others say the gender-bending gags won't matter.
In Nevada, another state with an early caucus, Republicans would be unfazed by the image of Giuliani in women's clothing, said Heidi Smith, chairwoman of the Republican Party in Washoe County.
Giuliani impressed Reno citizens in a campaign appearance there last month that included a trip to Costco during which he mingled with shoppers, posing for photographs and signing autographs.
"That meant more than seeing him in drag," Smith said. "If he wants to wear a dress, who cares?"
Giuliani's first drag appearance, in 1997, featured a breathy Marilyn Monroe impression that was followed by various other female alter-egos over the years, including one that shared a scene with Donald Trump, who groped Giuliani and buried his head between the mayoral breasts.
His other Inner Circle characters included a 1950s greaser on a motorcycle, the Lion King and the Beauty's beast.
His most famous appearance from 10 years ago is likely to be remembered this weekend when Mayor Michael Bloomberg gets into costume to dance and sing for the same charity event, as New York mayors have done for decades. David Dinkins once donned full cowboy regalia and entered the ballroom on a horse; Ed Koch wore a suit of glittering gold; and Bloomberg has ridden a mule and pretended to smoke pot.
In 1997, the New York media had fun for a few days with Giuliani's first cross-dressing experiment -- the Village Voice printed a favorable review by real drag queens -- but it didn't appear to hurt him politically.
A poll shortly afterward found his approval rating at an all-time high of 67 percent, and a majority of city voters said they enjoyed the gag. He won re-election later that year.
Perhaps New Yorkers, who are overwhelmingly Democrats by a margin of five to one, appreciated one particular line during the 1997 show, which was a spoof of the musical comedy "Victor/Victoria," in which a woman pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman.
"I already play a Republican playing a Democrat playing a Republican," Giuliani quipped.
For conservatives who already are leery of backing Giuliani because of his support for abortion rights and other positions on social issues, the feminine clothing may also remind them of his support of gays while mayor -- despite the fact that the majority of cross-dressers are not gay.
Still, a poison-pen mailer or e-mail could easily imply a connection, observers say.
"I'm imagining the negative ads -- they could use this as sort of an oblique reference to all of those positions," said Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard.
Southern Baptist Convention official Richard Land said gay issues represent just one area of the problems religious conservatives have with Giuliani.
"There are so many dealbreakers for Giuliani, it's difficult to know where to start," he said.
Throughout his eight years in City Hall, Giuliani supported laws that protected gays against harassment, marched in gay pride parades, welcomed the Olympic-style Gay Games to New York City and, after his second marriage broke up, lived with two friends who happened to be a gay couple.
He does not support gay marriage, but he does not see the need to ban it with a constitutional amendment. And in a 1994 cover story with The Advocate, a national gay magazine, he condemned Pat Buchanan's speech at the Republican National Convention two years earlier during which the failed presidential candidate declared a "cultural war" against homosexuality, radical feminists, abortion rights supporters and other "liberals."
The speech, Giuliani said, "tried to narrow rather than to broaden the Republican Party. There is no reason why the party shouldn't appeal to gays and lesbians in the same way it does to all Americans."
Over the years, Giuliani's relationship with gays has not been exactly cozy -- he was often heckled while marching in the city's annual gay pride parade.
Asked this month about his theatrical past, Giuliani told Fox News that it shows voters another side of him.
"I think what they'll find out about me is I enjoy having fun. I mean, I really enjoy those Inner Circles. I made them fun, and I enjoyed them," he said. "And so you're going to get a couple of things people can interpret different ways, I guess."
I didn't see your stupid belief because I only skim the garbage that you post. All I see is "blah blah blah conservatism is bad. blah blah blah liberal candidate is good. blah blah blah less conservatism, more liberalism blah blah blah."
Criticism of conservatives? I remember when FReepers would counter the liberal line at every turn. Now I hear people like you and the other Rudytards parroting the very same liberal lines, mantras, and arguments about conservatives that the liberals have always used. "You conservatives are too angry, implacable, intolerant, bigoted, unwilling to compromise, fanatical, overzealous, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah conservatism bad, liberalism good."
The very fact that you're here stating that conservatism is a failed set of values and that more liberalism is better - to water down conservatism with a bunch of liberal Koolaid - means that you're on the wrong website. Whether you've always held these liberal views or that you've rationalized them and adopted them for the sake of political expediency is irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that you're trying to convince FReepers to adopt a more liberal mindset and become more tolerant of failed liberal values. More liberalism...less conservatism. And you're doing it for just one stupid liberal candidate. Giuliani is NOT the savior of anything except for liberal, Rockefeller republicanism that was rejected decades ago by Reagan Republicanism. And there's no reason that FReepers should have ANYTHING to do with the liberal garbage you and people like you are trying to sell here.
I am part of the “anti-Rudy crowd” and I do not think these will hurt him. I think they will show one of his few positive traits - a sense of humor.
Maybe it is you who has bad judgment?
Well, well, well. You’ve pretty much revealed yourself for who you are with that comment. And yet, here you are, a liberal, playing among us stupid, humorless prigs. Life must be pretty boring for you liberals to have to spend your time dissing conservatives here. Why don’t you go hang out with your intelligent, humorous liberal friends over at DU? It seems you have a lot more in common with them.
The website you're posting on is part of your so-called "minority" too.
Why can't you guys just start up a RudyRepublic.com website. We're CONSERVATIVES here. Do you even know what conservative means? Are you even allowed to use the computer? ROFL
No, J. Edger Hoover had serious psychological baggage. Rudy has a sense of humor and is very secure in his manhood.
Go Rudy!
Following in the steps of the haters, I see. LOL.
That is precisely the same language that liberals used to condemn FReepers for attacking Bill Clinton. You've been rationalizing your support of the most liberal Republican presidential candidate for so long that you've morphed into a liberal and are parroting their thoughts and statements.
Post #101 well said
I know I hit a nerve when all you got is to call me a “liberal”
It’s amazing that you’ve been a member of FR for a long time and yet you seem to know very little about it’s mission. Maybe this will help...
____________________________________________________________________________
I’ve already stated that FR will probably become even more conservative than it already is, through attrition if nothing else. Besides continuing to champion the defense of America, FR just might become the “Conservative Conscience of the Republican Party,” ie, we may become a real thorn in the side of moderate/liberal Republicanism. Someone has to try defend the party from completely tossing out traditional American conservatism. Might as well be us.
How many times must I say FR is a conservative site? We do not support abortionism, homosexualism, feminisim, environmentalism, gun control, liberalism, socialism, etc, etc, etc. When I say I suspect we will become even more conservative than we already are, possibly via attrition if nothing else, what do you think I’m referring to? When FR starts pushing hard and I mean hard against abortion, gay marriage, homosexual education forced on our school children, pandering to illegal aliens, gun control, McCaine-Feingold type usurpation, global warming, etc, etc, even if supported or advanced by the GOP, then I fully suspect certain types of moderate/liberal Republican supporters are probably going to be a little uncomfortable here. We will be fighting for traditional American conservatism no matter who we have to fight against and I’m afraid that’s going to piss off some folks.
And I’ll borrow a slogan used by the NFRA that I realy like:
“We are the ‘Republican’ Wing of the Republcan Party!”
~Jim Robinson~
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Now, who’s disgusting who?
Thank you.
Slick Willy's life is an open book. Maybe the one bent left can do a roadshow with the gun grabber in a skirt who claims a rightward tilt.
"A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply to swell its numbers.I do not believe I have proposed anything that is contrary to what has been considered Republican principle. It is at the same time the very basis of conservatism. It is time to reassert that principle and raise it to full view. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way."
-- Ronald Reagan, March 1, 1975
I’m a pro-life, 2nd Amendment conservative who believes that ex-cons who have committed violent crimes SHOULD NOT have their guns rights restored, and I’m a conservative who believes that Marriage is for one man and one woman but gay taxpaying citizens also should be protected with equal rights under the law in the form of civil unions. You see, Conservative Republicans come in all forms. Some are more tolerant of our fellow human beings than others. I think Jesus would approve.
Your tagline reminds me of...Rudy.
OK, you say you are a conservative, let’s pretend for a moment that’s true. Now answer this, why does a conservative vote for a liberal?
When Kerik gets indicted, this pic of Rooty with his buddy, former bodyguard, driver, mobbed-up Police Commissioner, and flopola Homeland/Sec will get a lot of play:
Buddies forever.
Gee, That will really go over well in the heartland./sarc.
Does Rudy dress in drag a lot?
I honestly thought it was a one time SNL thing that everybody is all up-in-arms about.
You are right Liz. Rudy has been given a pass so far. The media is waiting for the “stoopid Repulicans” to cast their vote for a liberal Rudy.
After that, they know its a sure shoot for Hillary.
Don’t settle for a liberal. It will be the undoing of the Republican Party.
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