Ex-NYC Mayor Koch: Giuliani Acted Improperly, Looks Like A Cover-Up

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani acted improperly and appeared to be covering something up when he charged the cost of his and his girlfriend's security detail to obscure New York City agencies, former mayor Ed Koch told the Huffington Post.

On Wednesday, the Politico reported that in 2001, Giuliani transferred tens of thousands of dollars in security costs to non-related city organizations such as the New York City Loft Board and the Office for People with Disabilities (both of which, ironically, Giuliani once proposed for elimination). The costs were for trips Giuliani made to the Hamptons, presumably to visit his then-mistress Judith Nathan.

"There is something improper about charging costs to a department other than the NYPD," said Koch. "They are the ones who are supposed to pick him up no matter where he is whether or not it's in the city."

Koch, who served as the mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, said that the episode gave off the appearance that Giuliani, who was at the time married to his second wife Donna Hanover, was trying to hide his affair. He also argued that providing Judith Nathan her own personal protection (when she was not a member of the first family) constituted an even more flagrant misuse of taxpayer money.

"I found it strange that his lady friend was given protection," said the long-time New York politico. "That was bizarre. She's not the city's responsibility. Rudy is the city's responsibility. Your wife and his children get protection, and that's understood. But certainly not your lady friend."

Koch, a Democrat, supported Giuliani's campaign for mayor in 1993. But he later soured, writing a series of columns for the New York Daily News in the mid-1990s that criticized Giuliani, as well as a 1999 book titled "Giuliani: Nasty Man." As for Giuliani's current run at the White House, Koch is not a fan.

"I'm just amazed that Giuliani is doing as well as he's doing," said Koch. "He doesn't deserve it."

Describing an anecdote from former NYPD commissioner and Giuliani pal Bernard Kerik's book -- in which Kerik was appointed First Deputy Corrections Commissioner by Giuliani (despite suspect qualifications) and was subsequently greeted, one-by-one, with kisses on the cheek from the mayor's aides -- Koch scoffed at the mafia-like atmosphere of Giuliani's inner circle.

"When I saw that [Kerik story], I said I don't want that happening in the White House," said Koch. "Giuliani is tough on the mafia but he is obsessed by it."

Comments

[Shizzlewhizzle]

Fred Thompson is the next Reagan. Just an amiable old fool. re Clark Clifford.

[RecklessAbandonArteest]

Scandals aside, I still question Rudy winning the election. I can't recall that anyone in history has gone from mayor to president.

When it comes down to voting I don't think the American public will vote such an inexperienced person as president.

[USMC1980]

"Giuliani is tough on the mafia but he is obsessed by it."


It sounds more to me like Giuliani is one of the few Italians who has some secret "hard-on" for the mob, and wants to somehow be like them. Problem is... Rudy ain't a tuff guy, and he never was. Rudy was a fat, weak little kid who got smacked around by REAL Italians and Irishmen back when he was a kid. That same inferiority complex led him to abandon his own democratic beliefs, in order to become a DA in the republican Reagan administration. Then he spent his career putting mob guys in jail, while secretly longing to be like them. This guy is obviously sick and mentally unbalanced. When he isn't busy waxing messianic about his "leadership" as Mayor, he is dressing up as a rockett, or as his mother.

Norman Bates anyone:)

[USMC1980]

Well, Koch was always a good man, (even though he did disgrace himself by supporting the inept and despicable Geogre Bush over the courageous and honorable John Kerry), back in 2004.

Still, he has been redeeming himself latley by supporting Hillary and speaking the truth about the sub-par performance and corruption of Rudy Giuliani.

[alembic54]

gappytoofcondi wrote:

Couldn't his rich girlfriend "Jewdeath" have paid for him for the gas and tolls?

hey schmuck!
what's with the asinine Jewdeath comment?

Mrs. Ghouliani is an Italian Cathoilic. Your anti-semitic comments are just stupid!

[longislandlol]

As a New Yorker, (23 years on the upper Westside,) We knew that Rudy and Ed were opposites- no love lost there-- Ed was and is more transparent than Rudy will ever be.

[erikr17]

Be honest.

We all know this doesn't matter a lick. Seriously, Rudy - or any Republican for that matter - could bathe in blood and the Sean Hannity, Fox News, CNN (now run by Wolf Blitzer and Glenn Beck) would deny it or turn it into some sort of positive.

And, of course, as much as we rant about this; the conservative/mainstream media won't print a lick of it, which means no one but hard core dems and hard core repubes will know about it anyway.

Seriously. Look around. Tell me if you see an article in any of the "neutral" mainstream press (e.g. USA Today, NBC news, etc...)

[BUSHsurvivor]

As a New Yorker, I don't like Rudy and any of his policies. At the same time, Ed Koch has hardly been a democrat over the last couple of years.

[DaphnesDad]

Rudy Guilani is a total phony and is about as qualified to be President of the United States as my dog, Daphne.

And this stuff about his supposed leadership abilities in the aftermath of 9-11 is total baloney. What exactly did he do aside from acting as the chief consoler of the families affected? That hardly is a job qualification for President.

What does Judy Nathan actually see in him?
I've got a new name for him Rudy Guiliani: The Troll of 9-11.

My guess his campaign will soon fizzle out and burn. Or we can only hope.

[Vincero]

now it begins.....make no mistake that for miss koch to turn on rudy this way there is something else going on..what this signals is the beginning of the end for rudy who was not soft on the mob as eddie would have you believe,,,rudy twice making calls to intervene on behalf of Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Mario "Chin" Gigante while he was US attorney. the media with its allies are paving the way for .. Bloomberg to enter the race as the white knight...

[chocago7]

Rupert Murdoch will create some sort of world crisis to divert attention away from this and it will blow away with the wind.

Sorry to say the forces that want Rudy in are greater than the ones that want accountability.

[chronic]

Ex-NYC Mayor Koch: Giuliani Acted Improperly, Looks Like A Cover-Up



Well Trudy Jiuliannie is a criminal republican, right?

[demigod]

This is really fun. How Rudy thought he could get away with this, I don't know. As Deep Throat famously said, follow the money. The other Republican candidates are going to HAVE to violate Ronald Reagan's rule about speaking no evil about other Republicans. Unless they too have something to hide.

[HatingTheGame]

Don't believe it. A whole page of HuffPo, and not a single comment about Rudy's complicity in the whole 911 thing and aftermath.

Maybe truthers are getting tired.

Maybe the real evil doers have already gotten away with the crime of the century (in the first year of the century, no less), and we are just to tired to care anymore.

Sad.

[nikto]

The "horndog" side of Rudy doesn't worry me nearly as much as the "fascist" side.

Horndog=embarrassing

Fascist=Dangerous