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."
Oh baloney.
You all want to make slight insinuations, but you don’t have the guts to actually print what you all are thinking.
How sad that you all have to resort to this.
Argue with his politics, but don’t make veiled insinuations about his sexuality unless you all mean it.
Is it any wonder that guys like Buchanan or Keyes can’t get elected dog catcher in this country? Its because of his kooky followers and their childish tactics.
See posts 150, 155, and 159.
This is exactly the childish behavior that I refer to.
And the comments made about GW are just like these - totally lacking in merit or honor.
If one has issues with someone - fine. It’s a free country. But if one wants to enjoy credibility outside the fringe, then one might try posting in an adult manner.
That’s my point.
Of course, being that it’s a free country, one is certainly free to act like a HS sophomore, or surround themselves with only like-minded folks, turning their backs on all who dare diagree, including friends and family.
But what a lonely and bitter existence that must be.
Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger was born 7th January, 1936 in Toledo, Ohio. (Interestingly the actor Jamie Farr, whom Klinger resembles, was also born in Toledo, 18 months previously).
Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a winner.
Prepare now to be insulted, in “true conservative” fashion.
And the whole christian love thing as well. Kooks can never see just how kooky they are.
Sad, but true.
Thanks for the Klinger info. :)
As one who has never voted for Buchanan or Keyes, nor sat out any election in protest, nor made any insinuations about Rudy’s actual gender preferences, I will say that Rudy’s apparent clowning around with these subjects creates an ideal (evil) context for the advancement of Cultural Marxism. Desensitizing, familiarity, experimentation. acceptance as normal.
Nowhere have I heard of any diligent efforts by Rudy to prosecute NAMBLA members or the adult molesters whose female victims visited Planned Parenthood. I’m not aware of him pushing really hard about the death penalty in NY. Prison is more of a time-out than a cure, and a costly one at that.
I am sick and tired of having Christianity insulted daily on a conservative site.
It is uncalled for, and shows the character of the people that feel the need to abuse.
It isn’t going to help the vote for the person you are supporting, so it is nothing other than offensive and crude.
Well, I’m sick and tired of the cowardly way posters on a conservative site make stupid sexuality insinuations about Guiliani because they can’t stick to actual debate and have to resort to bushleague tactics.
Its a free country however, and this conservative can say whatever the hell he wants about those that proclaim their christianity on one hand, and act completely the opposite on the other hand.
If you can’t handle that, too freaking bad.
Aw, you spoiled their whinefest - don't you understand pointing out blatant hypocracy can take all the fun out of occupying the moral high ground?
You people that support Rudy are obvious in your liberalism. You think you know Christian values, but you know nothing, just like your candidate.
If anyone is mean and abusive and elitist, you are.
Like good liberals, you cry and whine a lot when people disagree with you, but your character betrays you every time.
If you don’t like that, too freaking bad.
I’m not completely convince on who I support, I’m a big Steve Forbes supporter, and Steve is for Rudy.
I love it when a freeper runs out of ideas, that is when they call you a “liberal”
LOL
Get a new act, like actually behaving as good as you think you are.
No, Rudy is a liberal, and you must be one too. With Rudy we don’t run out of information.
His liberalism is well documented.
If you haven’t noticed, Steve Forbes isn’t running this time.
Your basis for your selection is purely pathetic.
Blah blah blah, lose an argument, call someone a liberal.
Yawn......
I know Forbes ain’t running, but he supports Rudy, so do many others I like.
Do you think that whoever your candidate of choice is would approve of you and the other posters here making insinuations about Rudy’s sexuality? Or would you just conveniently ignore ignore it?
“... well-photographed and widely documented performances — and others —”
How many others?
I don’t believe it was I who was worried about Rudy’s sexuality.
His behavior brings that kind of comment on. I, however, have said he is not a transvestite and have not said he is a homosexual.
I didn’t even fail to vote in 2006. I did not hate Foley.
Does it bother you more than me?
“I know Forbes ain’t running, but he supports Rudy, so do many others I like.”
http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2007/04/giuliani-on-flat-tax-just-kidding.html#comments
Giuliani on Flat Tax: Just Kidding
FILE UNDER: Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani, fresh off winning the endorsement of Steve Forbes, now says he was just kidding when he said he thought the flat tax was a good idea.
“I didn’t favor it, I said something academic,” Giuliani said at a press conference in Florida on Saturday, in response to a reporter asking him why he had switched from opposing a flat tax to favoring it. “What I said was,
and it was not a joke, but it was half-jocular, was if we didn’t have an income tax...what would I favor?
“First I would favor no tax,” he said laughing and turning to his wife Judith, who duly smiled back. “That would be my first position. My second position would probably be a flat tax.”
But, he said, the tax “would probably not be feasible.”
Someone should tell Forbes.
—Jason Horowitz
thats gotta hurt!
Kinda makes you wonder what Forbes is thinking now.
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