Rudy, Judy and New York's Finest

The stories keep on coming. Today's New York Daily News reports that while America's Mayor was attending funerals for the victims of 9/11, city taxpayers were paying for his girlfriend to visit her parents:

In the fall of 2001, city cops chauffeured Rudy Giuliani's then-mistress, Judith Nathan, to her parents' Pennsylvania home 130 miles away on the taxpayers' dime.

And includes this detail:

At the time, it was not uncommon to see Nathan being chauffeured around the city in an undercover Dodge with two detectives, who sometimes even helped to walk her dog.

ABC reports that Giuliani's explanation about why some of the expenses for the security costs of his trysts with her were paid for by obscure city agencies doesn't hold water, according to the current police commissioner:

Giuliani said Thursday the unusual billing practice was not intended to hide anything but instead to speed payment of American Express credit card bills.

But the current New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said today he knew of no problems with the delay of payments before Giuliani was mayor, when Kelly served under Mayor David Dinkins, or since.

And the campaign is showing the strain:

Giuliani's staff made "a concerted effort" to keep reporters from coming near to the candidate, according to ABC News reporter Jan Simmonds.

"At least three Giuliani press staffers loudly instructed the press to stay within their cordoned-off area and were warned not to approach the candidate," Simmonds reports.