New Yorkers know Rudy Giuliani. And to a certain extent, they're astounded that Rudy is doing as well as he is (as others have noted):

Stephen DiBrienza, a former New York City Councilman, captured it best in a New Yorker magazine piece this summer about Giuliani: "All the things that a lot of New Yorkers, myself included, hate about this guy are the things that are actually fueling his campaign."

They know he's a hypocrite when it comes to his real record, which includes budget sleight of hand, expansion of SCHIP (while he runs against it now), and 9/11 mistakes that cost lives, such as screwing up the radios that the firemen used as well as putting the emergency command center in WT7 (once attacked already) despite the advice of his emergency managers. Why did he do that? Because it was convenient for Rudy to walk there from City Hall. Here's Niall Stanage from July '07:

When it comes to one-sentence takedowns of pompous politicians, columnist Jimmy Breslin's famous description of Rudy Giuliani is perfect: "A small man in search of a balcony." Those eight words precisely capture Giuliani's noxious blend of authoritarianism, egotism and vainglory. New Yorkers have long been familiar with his unpleasant traits. But the rest of the US is taking longer to see the reality behind the mask of "America's mayor."... It is one thing to hear arguments as to why Giuliani may have made bad choices. It is quite another to hear Rosaleen Tallon, the sister of a fire fighter murdered on 9/11, say with real loathing of Giuliani: "Whenever I hear him talk, I want to scream out to the world and say, 'God, he is so full of it."

Also convenient for Rudy, of course, was using obscure city agencies to hide that he was having a love tryst with Judith Nathan on the taxpayer's dime. And what's not surprising to New Yorkers is Rudy lashing out at The Politico, calling it a 'hit job' by the reporter who got the scoop on Rudy's hiding of the costs.

We know that Rudy. You can hear him in this Oliver Willis archive attacking a ferret owner for disagreeing with him. You can see it in this description by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden of Rudy's vindictiveness.

Bob Herbert (column, April 27) ably demonstrates how Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani uses his budget ax to punish his critics inside government. The fiscal gouging that the office of Alan G. Hevesi, the city comptroller, received in the executive budget is just one example of how the mayor has tried to harm public officials who disagree with him. The mayor also cut city financing to the Brooklyn borough president's office by $300,000. Of New York City's five borough presidents, I am the only one to suffer such a financing decrease, which punishes the 2.5 million people of Brooklyn. Mr. Giuliani's maneuvering came only after I opposed both his ill-advised waste-transfer station plans for our city's garbage and his efforts to use public parkland for private sports teams without required community review. HOWARD GOLDEN

Borough President

Brooklyn, April 27, 2000

Does Rudy's denial end the story? No way. From TPM:

ABC's got a further run-down on the latest on the Shag Fund. One nice detail. They had a conversation with NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson, the first guy to stumble across Rudy's book keeping shenanigans. In response to Rudy's claims that the whole thing was business as usual -- "handled openly, honestly" -- Thompson told ABC: "That's not the way that we operate these days, and it would not be the preferred way of doing business. In the end, it's a very convoluted way of getting things done. If anyone hoped that no one would notice, they were being foolish."

From Ben Smith at The Politico:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his senior aides Thursday blamed anonymous bookkeepers for his administration's practice of billing the travel expenses for his personal security detail to obscure city agencies. But a top aide was unable to say why Giuliani’s administration and his successor's rebuffed questions from the city's top fiscal watchdog in 2001 and 2002. City Comptroller William Thompson said Thursday his auditors were "stonewalled" by the Giuliani administration when they inquired about the unusual billing procedures, which he called "disturbing."

More from Politico (via E&P):

Politico editor-in-chief John F. Harris said in a statement: "This was a fair and carefully reported story. We gave the Giuliani campaign ample opportunity to dispute the story or comment on our reporting before publishing and they did not do so. Since the story ran, we have not heard from the campaign disputing any substantive aspect of the story."

And, of course, (via TPM) it turns out that Rudy was providing Judi with taxpayer protection even as he cut back protection for his estranged wife Donna Hanover. (There's even a report from ABC that the NYPD was used as a taxi service).

This, combined with Politico's story, reveals just how expensive Rudy's extramarital trysts really were to New Yorkers -- and adds plausibility to the Politico's suggestion that tax money funded Rudy's visits to see Judi in the Hamptons.

That's the real Rudy we know: an arrogant, self-centered man who is not above using anything and everything around him for his personal convenience. The funny thing is, he's running on character as his main vehicle to get to the White House. He'd never get there on the votes of New Yorkers:

Michael Bloomberg is not only a better mayor of New York than Rudy Giuliani - he'd make a better President, too. That's the result of a Daily News poll released today that asked the voters who know best - New Yorkers - which man belongs in the White House. City voters overwhelmingly chose Mayor Mike over America's Mayor as their pick for President, 46% to 29%.

No endorsement of Bloomberg is implied; what the poll shows is what New Yorkers really think of Rudy. What it will take for the rest of the country to catch on will be the question to ask over the next month, but I can't help but think that his reaction to the Politico story will be an eye opener for many of them. After all, there's no way he can refrain from being himself.