Today is the first day of summer, one that promises to be a hot one for Rudy Giuliani. After a swift and seamless rise to the top, America’s Mayor is starting to realize that once you are there, the only other direction is south.
News out this week that could impact Giuliani’s candidacy could have been worse, to be sure, but it is hard to imagine there could have been more of it. Consider that: Rudy didn’t even show up at meetings of the Iraq Study Group to attend paid speeches, and had to quit it after not participating; Rudy’s South Carolina state chairman, Thomas Ravenel, was indicted on charges of cocaine distribution; Rudy’s Iowa state chairman, former Rep. Jim Nussle, is leaving to become President Bush’s director of the Office of Management and Budget; Michael Bloomberg could spend hundreds of millions running as an independent and threaten Rudy’s candidacy with his not-so-disimilar views and appeal to swing and independent voters tired of partisan politics; polls show general support for Rudy is softening; and he is behind former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Mitt Romney in Iowa.
The final bit of bad news requires its own paragraph, and that is that Giuliani’s old friend Bernard Kerik, whose ethical problems sunk his selection by President Bush to head the Homeland Security Department, has cemented their close ties in a way Rudy’s opponents could have only dreamed of. Kerik reportedly told Best Life magazine (what a title!), “I accept the distance created by Giuliani. I understand it, but inside, it’s killing me.”
That had to be the topper for Rudy this week. And for Fred, Mitt, John and now for Michael, too.