Sex, lies and audio tapes

During a recent TV interview, Rudy Giuliani stated he had not had contact with recently indicted Bernard Kerik in six months or a year.

This about the man who was his NYC police commissioner, good friend and business partner and recommendation which led George W. Bush to nominate Kerik to head Homeland Security.

"We have not communicated in months, at all, at all," Kerik said in a recent interview. "When the last time is, I could not even tell you."

I don’t buy it.

Now, comes Giuliani’s reaction to the $100 millinon lawsuit filed by former HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Lots of spin surrounding the lawsuit, trying to frame it as “sour grapes,” but Regan claims a News Corp executive asked her to lie to federal investigators about her former lover Kerik to protect Giuliani’s run for the presidency.

She also claims she has proof in the form of audio tapes.

News Corp owns Fox News, where two other close Giuliani friends – Roger Ailes and Sean Hannity – hold court. FNC clearly is pushing Giuliani as the odds-on favorite for the Republican nomination.

So, what does Rudy have to say about the lawsuit?

“I don’t respond to the story at all. I don’t know anything about it. Sounds like a gossip column kind of story, rather than a real story. The last thing a presidential candidate needs to do is respond to a gossip column story.”

Well, Rudy, it was real enough to make the front page of every newspaper in the country.

That Rudy hasn’t had any contact with Kerik in a year and had no prior knowledge of Regan’s charges is hardly plausible. And, his responses are hardly “plausible deniability,” if you remember that term from Watergate days.

How ‘bout “non-denial denial?”

As the 2008 presidential race started – the day after Election Day 2006 – I liked Rudy Giuliani. I knew the good and the bad of his own past and was willing to accept him as a capable leader.

Now, I hear my mother’s early lesson about protecting my reputation and “birds of a feather.”

Rudy, don’t lie to the American public. We’ve had enough of that.

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FOR THE RECORD:

THE INDICTMENT

Kerik was indicted Nov. 9 on 16 counts of conspiracy, corruption and tax evasion, including mail fraud, wire fraud, lying to the IRS and lying to the federal government during his vetting for Homeland Security chief. His associates have begun a legal defense fund to help him save his multi-million dollar Franklin Lakes mansion, his Middle East consulting firm and his butt. Kerik has pleaded “not guilty.”

BEST QUOTE

"There were mistakes made with Bernie Kerik," Giuliani said in an AP interview. "But, if I have the same degree of success and failure as president of the United States, this country will be in great shape."

THE ODDS

No sitting or former NYC mayor has achieved higher office since John T. Hoffman, who was mayor from 1866 to 1868, became governor in 1869.

TIMES A-CHANGIN’

Then again, no woman or African-American has achieved the highest office in the land. Now, all three are leading in their respective parties.

Listen. Do you hear Dylan singing “The times they are a’changin’ ”?