I've been listening to this tale of adultery and intrigue, and wondering if I'm the only one who doesn't care where Rudy lifted his plow... and also figuring that yeah, wherever he went, he was fully entitled to a security detail. Staunch Democrat that I am, I fail to see the big deal here.

But the other thing? Geez Louise. I've been shocked at just how little attention has been paid to it, although knowing how much more important sex is than anything else in American politics, I really shouldn't be.

The bottom line? I don't care who Rudy Giuliani gets in bed with. Unless it's al Qaeda.

It's unfair to characterize Qatar as a "terrorist haven." It is a moderate, even progressive, nation especially when compared to its neighbor, Saudi Arabia, and other nearby Muslim countries. While there are certainly hard-line conservative religious members of the government, as well as terrible working conditions and social inequities in the country, there are also those within the royal family working to modernize Qatar.

To take one example, the Education City project is unlike any of its kind in the Arab world: male and female students from 25 Muslim countries, learning side-by-side, receive instruction from top US institutions--Texas A&M, Cornell, Georgetown, VCU, Carnegie Mellon, and soon Northwestern--in engineering, medicine, political science, visual arts, business and journalism, respectively. Their classes are taught in English, typically by American professors. No female is required to cover her head. This project is not the brainchild of any American school or government, but rather the work of Sheikha Mozah, the Emir's wife. This project is already having a huge positive impact in the Muslim world. It is a disservice to the progressive members of Qatari society and the Qatari royal family to paint them all as Al Qaida-harboring Taliban clones.

It looks like Guiliani has been up to some dirty tricks for quite some time now, both while serving as mayor of NYC and as "America's Mayor" after 9/11. His seemingly many misdeeds, whatever they may be, whichever foreign government officials they concern, need to be investigated and exposed. But don't slander an entire nation in your rush to bring down Rudy. Qatar is no more a harborer of terrorists than is France, which allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to stay there for four months shortly before the 1979 revolution in Iran. Qatar is no Afghanistan, it is no Syria, it is no Iran. The US needs friends like Qatar in the middle east.

I expect this kind of simplistic argument from FoxNews, but I expect much more from Salon.

And while I agree that it is guilt by association, the real story is the "War of Terror" candidate has the close ties to the guy that warned KSM (and let him get away). Also, the fact that he was at that conference with Amenimwearingazootsuitijad, Hamas, etc. and trying to hide gave a funny image of the "Terror" candidate hiding under the tables.

I think both stories work together to advance the narrative that Giuliani is a "do as I say, not as I do" guy who looks out for number one and to hell with everyone else. He'll do whatever it takes to get away with whatever shady deal he's working on, and if he has to hide expense reports for security or withhold a client list so voters can't find out who he's in bed with.

I've never been to Qatar, though by reputation it's trying to become more progressive. However, if you have a government that is still basically an absolute monarchy--as most of the states on the Arabian Peninsula have--then it's a huge problem if a member of the ruling family and member of the cabinet is in bed with Al-Qaida. And it's an even bigger problem if a serious candidate for president is doing business with that person.