Rudy Giuliani & Republican Family Values

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

It almost snaps my brain-pan from its moorings to hear Rudy Giuliani come out against gay marriage. . .or try to speak with any authority at all on marriage period--straight or gay.

Rudy Giuliani was curb-stomped in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. . .and yet, he seems to be pondering a comeback. NY Governor David Paterson is extremely vulnerable right now, and Giuliani may well swoop in and attempt to grab the job like a shark circling a wounded dolphin. In Monday's New York Post, Giuliani hinted that, if he did run, same-sex marriage would be a flagship issue.

Paterson introduced a bill that would, if passed, legalize same-sex marriage. In an interview, Giuliani came out very strongly against that idea, and said that it could galvanize New York Republicans in 2010. "This will create a grass-roots movement. This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics," the former New York City mayor told Post reporter Fred Dicker. "I think gay marriage will obviously be an issue for any Republican next year. . ."

He later said that that same-sex marriage "will be something that Republicans don’t have to use -- this is something that will bring a lot of people to the Republican Party because it’s such a basic challenge to what people believe is the way society should be organized."

Of course, an open attack like this will open up the subject of Giuliani's execrable conduct of his own family life. He's working on Marriage No. 3, and is estranged from his children. At least one of them, I remember, didn't even vote for him in the primaries. . .they voted for Obama. As his flame-out for the Republican nomination demonstrated, Giuliani just doesn't get a lot of traction on anything (except possibly "9/11"). He has gay friends. He has been known to dress in drag. One of his gay friends (in fact Rudy lived with two gay men when he was between wives in the 90s), Howard Koeppel, told the New York Post that Giuliani said that if same-sex marriage were to become legal in New York, "he would marry us himself."

It's hard to understand why we are even still talking about this. Rudy Giuliani, who moved his girlfriend into Gracie Mansion while his wife and children were still living there, who married and divorced his own cousin, and turned his back on his children, is just about the last person we should look toward for any wisdom about marriage. Or politics. Or national defense. However, that being said, I welcome Rudy to run for governor or for President again.
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