Wrong Question

Well, Rudy Giuliani is at it again. This time the controversy is about, while he was still NYC Mayor, whether or not he tried to cover up travel expenses for his NYPD security detail while he traveled to the Hamptons for trysts with his then Girlfriend, now his third wife. Apparently his security detail had to find lodging in Hotels and such, as well as food, and other normal travel expenses, since, as is logical, the Mayor's 24/7 security detail goes everywhere he does. Apparently these expenses have been found to have been paid out of the budgets of multiple City agencies. According to the Giuliani camp, this is perfectly normal, as some budgets have surpluses, and these are routinely used for this kind of expense. Some question this, however, since persons from other Mayoral administrations say they've never seen anything approaching this level of "Creative Accounting."

Rudy's people are quick to say that the former Mayor did nothing inappropriate, so, don't worry all you social Conservatives, they said that sex outside of Marriage is nothing inappropriate, so we have nothing to worry about. To qualify that just a little, most people can forgive this kind of thing, but they won't be able to get past being told that it's not wrong. I suppose, though, that we should cut them some slack and assume that they are talking about the money, so I'll focus there.

Admittedly, I don't know if it is routine to spread expenses around like this or not, but to me, that is not the point. It seems to me that everyone is asking the wrong question. The question shouldn't be about accounting practices, it should be about Character. Let me explain what I mean. It's clear that Rudy is not running on a socially conservative platform, as he has basically told any and all "values voters" to take a hike, that he doesn't need, or apparently want, their votes, which is ok, 'cause he's not likely to get them. He is also not running on the illegal immigration issue, since he is, at least partly, responsible for turning NYC into a sanctuary City, and seems to stand right along with George W. Bush for open borders, and no enforcement. No, he is running primarily on two things, one being national security, which is an oxymoron when looked at next the illegal immigration/open borders attitude, and the other being Financial responsibility.

Yeah, that's right, Giuliani claims to be Fiscally Conservative, someone who would lower taxes and stop the Government from wasting our money. Just look at his record, he always says. Well, OK, Mr. Former Mayor, let's look at that record. Knowing that the security detail would have to go along, incurring truckloads of expenses along the way, he took at least eleven trips to the Hamptons for sex. OK, yeah, that sounds fiscally responsible to me. Honestly, would someone who truly cares about wasteful government spending really haul his security detail all over the place, to the tune of (according to the report I saw) hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money, just so he could have sex?

So the question we should really be asking is this, if Mr. "Fiscally Conservative" Giuliani was willing to play so fast and loose with the money of the NYC taxpayers, how can we trust him as President of the entire Nation?