Rudy Giuliani hit on ethics, as all eyes are back on his personal life

Yesterday's YouTube debate attracted 4.5 million viewers on CNN, which is the record for any debate held on cable television. The Las Vegas debate Democrats held two weeks ago got a little more than 4 million viewers. So there is good reason to believe that a significant portion of Republican primary voters either watched the debate or will hear about it -- and that is probably good news for Mike Huckabee who the media collectively annointed the winner of the debate.

The focus of the Republican race today was on Rudy Giuliani, who scrambled to explain yesterday's Politico story that documented that he has "billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons." Many of the receipts and documents that were billed to the city concerned travels to Southhampton where Judith Nathan had an apartment, and they reveal numerous Long Island visits throughout the summers of 99, 00 and 01.

Asked about this during the debate yesterday, Giuliani simply said it was "not true" without specifying what exactly he was denying -- and he justified this with "security" costs. The issue, however, does not appear to be Giuliani's use of funds, but that they were billed to obscure agencies instead around the city like the Office for People with Disabilities ($10,054), the Procurement Policy Board ($29.757) adn the Assigned Counsel Administrative Office ($400,000).

This has the potential to be disastrous for Giuliani. First, there are the obvious reasons that would hurt any candidate -- personal use of government funds never looks good on a resume. But Giuliani is particularly vulnerable to such stories because the last thing he wants is Republican voters to be reminded his rocky personal life a month from the start of voting. He has admirably managed to calm qualms about his divorces and his estrangement from his children, all issues that people predicted would not sit well at all with primary voters. But he certainly could be vulnerable if more attention is devoted to his personal life -- just as Romney would hate if a story broke that involved his being a Mormon.

As is expected, the New York tabloids pounced on the story, with the New York Post article's headline reading "Rudy's Hidden Love-Nest $$, Billed City 500G+ For Trips to Judi's."

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign got some good news. In the heels of yesterday's debate in which Romney sought to present himself as the most conservative of the major candidates, he was endorsed today by David Keene. , the president of the American Conserative union. Keene emphasized that the conservative movement should unite behind Romney -- certainly the message that Romney has been insisting on for months and that has been undermined recently by Huckabee's surge.

Update: Giuliani went on CBS tonight to talk to Katie Couric about these allegations. He denied any wrongdoing and called this a "dirty trick." Full transcript and video here.