Rudy's done.

Written by: Franco Caliz-Aguilar on Nov 28, 2007 6:43 PM EST

While perhaps the best candidate for Democrats to go up against, today marks the end of the Guilliani candidacy. For those of you sleeping under rocks (or coming home from work), the big political news of the day is that Guilliani was charging tax payers for meeting up with his future wife- while being married. Tens of thousands of dollars have been charged in the name of "security" to obscure NYC agencies.

Politico broke the news. Using a Freedom of Information request from New York, we find the Rudy charged tax payers for gas, hotels and other wonderful expenses, all as part of the NYPD security detail.

The first threads were found by auditors, to the tune of about 34,000$ in travel expenses. Their were many other Long Island bills that add up to upwards of 50,000$.

More so than the sheere sleaziness of Rudy here, we see the meltdown of a heavyweight in the Republican nomination.

 

Every primary candidate will come down on Rudy for his "fiscal conservatism" that he has so preached. He'll be portrayed as the Republican version of Bill Clinton. Already I have heard grumblings from my own state of Florida that some of his top fundraisers are considering dropping him. Rudy has mentioned his "mistakes" often through the campaign. These range from Bernard Kerik, to his personal life. But now both have joined and we see that it in fact did hurt his professional career and the public. Republican's will know they cannot run him and hope to win in the general, as the Clinton attacks they used in the past will be used now against their own candidate. Expect the Rudy vote to plunge downwardly, as his sense of "fierce loyalty" as many in the mainstream media claim he holds, is shot down.

His chance in NH will be hurt. He will not move on SC and will be hurt tremendously on Super Tuesday now. Will he be able to continue to raise money at a decent pace? And with a true social conservative in Mike Hukabee (for me the one guy Democrats would truly have trouble beating in the general election) the theme of morality kicks up in the race. The former pastor goes up and picks up a big block of the votes.

Expect the changes to really fly from here on out on the Republican side. Fred Thompson will be a big winner here as well as he now will also benefit from being the only true candidate who's got star quality in that primary.

Down to about 36 days till Iowa.

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