WITH all the stories and personal crises Mayor Giuliani has had to contend with in the past several weeks, why would the recent Newsweek story about his plans to abandon his Senate race and seek the most extensive therapy for his prostate cancer continue to upset him?
According to one of his best pals, it wasn’t the story itself that upset him, it was the source behind the story. The fact that the mag went with the story indicates a very credible, very big leak within his very small circle of trusted friends.
Rudy also feels the source leaked deliberate misinformation. The mayor maintains he had not yet decided to drop out when the story hit, and that he still hasn’t made a decision on his treatment.
This, mind you, is according to another source who swears this info is 100 percent pure and uncut. What will get cut is the Newsweek source – as soon as he/she/it is discovered.
Not that anyone’s admitting he’s a suspect, but Elliot Cuker, the mayor’s cigar-bar buddy who introduced him to Judi Nathan, apparently no longer has total access.
And then there’s Cristyne Lategano, who’s always suspected of everything because she’s made enemies with several Giuliani advisers. The question really is, what trusted pal had something to gain by dropping a Brooklyn-sized bomb on a guy at a low point?
Felonious stupidity
IT was an incredibly bad week for the politically incorrect.
The state Senate passed a hate-crimes bill raising any “B” felony (first-degree assault, robbery, burglary, manslaughter, rape, attempted murder, second-degree kidnapping) to an “A” felony if the crime is deemed also a bias crime. So, if you viciously assault someone, be sure not to yell a racial, sexist or ageist slur, such as “You fat old bag!” A first-time “B” felony gets from 5 to 25 years. Add the bias angle to it, and it could be life, according to former prosecutor Stephen Malito.
Also on the un-PC front: Blockhead John Rocker knows how bad it is to be a bigot. He was thrown out of Major League Baseball for political incorrectness, and threatening a reporter. (Yeah, yeah, he was in a slump.)
At the same time, linebacker Ray Lewis, who was charged in a double-murder case, cut a deal to rat out his co-defendants, and is allowed back into the NFL. That must be because he didn’t hurl any racial slurs, religious epithets, gender-biased remarks, ageist smears, weight-related cracks or homophobic slang during the melee that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two men. If he had, he’d probably be on Death Row, not in a locker room.
‘Out’ of their minds
AS mind-numbing as the Rocker/Lewis debacles was Talk/Miramax’s decision to kill John Connolly’s book on Ken Starr and his staff because it outed some of the special prosecutor’s special prosecutors as gay. These are the very guys who crawled around President Clinton’s sex life as though infidelity is a federal offense instead of just plain old offensive.
So let me get this straight (no pun intended): It is OK for Ken Starr’s sex police to spend $40 million of our tax dollars to out the president for being incredibly heterosexual (in excruciating detail), but it’s not OK for a book about the sex habits of those same sneaky snoopers to reveal anything about their sex lives. Isn’t that biased?
You’ve got e-mail
FROM phillou: “Linda, I love you. I always read your column and think it is so refreshing and funny. Of course I don’t love you in the biblical sense. My boyfriend wouldn’t appreciate it. Love, Phillip.”
Dear Phillip: Neither would mine.
FROM Rene.Gonzalez to Dr. Laura: “Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s law. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them. Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations around us. A friend claims this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians? Can you clarify?”
Coney baloney
ON Friday The New York Times dissed Coney Island by implying that if the government restores the place, they’d be throwing good money after bad. And The Times should know – they even went on a walking tour!
Yeah? Well, let me weigh in here. Ever since the glorious summer I grew tall enough (54 inches) to be allowed to ride the Cyclone, I’ve never missed a year. Boyfriends were judged by their ability to withstand undeniably the greatest coaster on earth.
Screaming was acceptable, losing it was not, while enduring every one of the terrifying nine drops, and every inch of the 3,000 feet of track on the 136-mph ride. But maybe Coney’s never been fun and I just didn’t know it because I’ve never taken the walking tour. I didn’t know I needed a guide to find Nathan’s. It’s easy: When you get off the Cyclone, make a left, and go one block past the second Freak Show.
* Battle of freak shows: Page 9.