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."
Too bad you don't appreciate that we "moderate" right of center Republicans are your friends and are attempting to prevent you from driving off a cliff, taking us along, and plunging the US into damaging Democrat control for far into the future.
Rudy dressed in drag is startling...but certainly wouldn’t be enough to change my vote for him, were I so inclined.
The attitude you have towards those of us “yahoos in the stix” ...on the other hand...is one I find distinctly and ironically narrow and, if shared by the candidate you support, will be his undoing.
I know you think the world and all of Rudy, as do many other FReepers. I cannot empasize how much harm you do him by your snobby and condescending attitude.
You've so warped yourself that you believe the Giuliani is a "moderate" right of center candidate. He is a LIBERAL. Nearly everything about him screams LIBERAL. You want "moderate" right of center, that would be someone like Fred Thompson. Being pro-abortion, pro-radical gay agenda, pro-gun confiscation, etc. are extreme positions and are LIBERAL positions. I'm not going to let you or anyone else get away with defining conservativism down to meaninglessness by associating it with some of the most liberal positions possible. The cliff that you and everyone like you are trying to drive us off of would drop our party and our free country to their deaths in a pit of liberalism.
I work with a guy from Brooklyn who isn't amused with FruityRuity's transvestite tendencies either. Perhaps what you meant to say was "all the stupid, unsophisticated yokels outside of Manhattan".
That’s a good 80-90% of us by the way. Maybe you’d feel more comfortable over at DU with liberals—like you. No reason to stay in this “cesspool” if you don’t like it.
Yes. Well said.
Name 10 Republicans to the left of Giuliani.
He is liberal because he is on the left on the Republican spectrum.
Thompson, the new great Conservative hope. Deus ex machina. Out of thin air.
I’ve been on FR a long time. Funny I don’t remember all the postings about Thompson’s great, unique and laudatory successes while he was in office.
You like Thompson? Great. You think he can be elected? Great again. If he is elected, super great.
But I’m not so sure how much you like Thompson. Because if you really liked him you would post article after article to boost his chances. And you would do it in forums where selling him might help, not in the deluded bubble that is FreeRepublic. And you would have your work cut out for you.
But that’s not what you do, is it? Your continuous defamation of Giuliani doesn’t boost Thompson. Not one bit. Its only achievement, if any, will be to damage the one Republican candidate who could win in 2008.
I have a sneaking suspicion that you would be glad to see any Democrat sworn in Jan 2009 rather then see Giuliani of whom George Will was right when he said, “His eight years as mayor of New York were the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years.”
Which makes you and the other zealots, enemies to Republicans and Conservatives and those who care about America.
Yea, they can’t understand perfectly normal(?) male behavior like this....
“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”
Read more at link...
http://www.cwfa.org/printerfriendly.asp?id=318&department=cfi&categoryid=cfreport
Ugh, the truth about Rudy gets more repulsive and sick by the day.
One more reason NOT to vote for this arrogantliberal or listen to his snotty supporters.
How come nobody ever makes a big deal out of Hillary dressing like a man? And she does it pretty much every day.
I only consider supporting Thompson because I've been convinced by the actual moderates in the party that we need a compromise candidate - one who is not too conservative nor too liberal. Giuliani represents the far left liberal side of the party and Hunter and Tancredo represent the far right conservative side of the party. I'm a far right conservative, but for the sake of the party and the election I would be willing to compromise and pick an actual moderate candidate to represent the party.
We have ALWAYS trashed liberals here and Giuliani should certainly be no exception. Promoting the other candidates in the back of the field - or even one who has not announced his candidacy - is almost pointless when the three frontrunning candidates are either liberals or nutcases.
The reason I'm particularly nasty to the pro-liberal posters here on Free Republic is that they are distracting from and disrupting the conservative mission of this website. There's a liberal about to fool the Republican party into nominating him to be their candidate for President and to seal their doom as a viable party. You may be willing to accept that, but I'm not. Free Republic should be on the forefront of exposing liberals - especially those in our own midst - who would destroy conservatism and the Republican Party in their zeal for power at all costs. Those of you who would promote a candidate who is clearly in opposition to the majority of the Party Platform are the enemies to Republicans, conservatives, and those who care about America.
With a few exceptions, I'd say that's a fairly accurate assessment.
Both extremes of the political spectrum tend to be filled with the angry, the bitter, and the humorless.
As one who has been both in the Northeast and the Deep South (I'm in Alabama right now), I can tell you that there are city people who can unclog toilets, run a trout line, shoot and dress a deer and do all the other things country people think they have a monopoly on. As well, there are men living out in the country who can't even bait a fishhook or load a shotgun and spend their entire adult lives curled up on the couch in their air-conditioned mobile home watching TV in the dark.
If Rudy Giuliani's cross-dressing escapades were the worst thing he ever did in public, you might have a point. His own well-documented radical leftist track record on a few key issues disqualify him from any consideration as a presidential candidate, in my opinion.
My biggest concern about these cross-dressing episodes is that they -- in combination with other aspects of his personal life -- paint a picture of a person with some pretty serious psychological baggage.
As a yahoo from the stix (you are just sizzlin' with allegorical content today, huh?), I find Rudy's dressing as a woman on numerous occasions disquieting and not helpful to America's image during a time of war.
I would not vote for him as first choice due to his pro-abortion, pro-gun control and pro-homosexual agenda.
I do find your liberal elitism a bit out of place here. You do know that the the Yahoos in flyover country do make more than significant contributions to America's Armed Forces, not to mention, farmers, construction workers, truck drivers . In other words they allow you to practice your progressive lifestyle in safety and comfort.
Yes it does. Just wait until the MSM starts dropping all these bombs on the voters.
“Gay multi-millionaire Koeppel is a top campaign fundraiser for the Mayor and is his frequent dinner and after-hours companion.”
“Among Cukor’s past contributions to the softening of Giuliani’s image was the idea for the Mayor to appear on national television and in various press events in drag. This was not merely a half-hour involvement in slipping on a dress and wig for a laugh but a months long coaching effort in walking, talking a and singing like a woman complete with custom-made undergarments. To make his transformation complete, Giuliani did everything but have sex-surgery.
The Mayor’s J Edgar Hoover-like performances were so convincing and he took such obvious pleasure in them that it has led some to theorize that Judiani rather
than Judi Nathan or Crystine Lategano is the real other woman in the Mayor’s life.”
Much much more at link
http://bluecollarpolitics.com/lederman/giuliani-525reinventing.html
Actually it was more than once. If Rudy cross-dressed once for sweet charity, it would most assuredly be amusing. But one has to assume he kept doing it because he enjoyed it. This is significant because cross-dressing is very unusual behavior for a presidential candidate.
1) There was an appearance with Julie Andrews at a New York City Dinner
2) There was the SNL appearance.
3) There was the video'ed incident where Rooty dressed in drag, did a comedy skit with Donald Trump (in which Trump buries his face in Rudy's fake bosoms).
4) Rudy even offered to dress in drag for Showtime's Homosexual porn show, "Queer as Folk" (a show which promotes pedophilia)
5) Besides his famous pink gown and Marilyn Monroe wig, Rudy also cross-dressed as a chorus girl, and danced in a chorus line.
With some of the RudyHaters....I wonder if some of them even have a life it seems hating Rudy is all they have.
See post #69 and #77
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