Unfortunately, the ethics taint continues as this year included David Vitter’s prostitution problem, Larry Craig’s wide stance, and Ted Stevens’ remodeling job. Gallup’s newest poll shows Republicans hanging onto a meager four-point lead on value issues, but trailing Democrats by thirteen points on the issue of dealing with government corruption.

So, what does this have to do with Rudy Giuliani? Everything.

For many months, Republican primary voters have struggled with Rudy’s presidential run because while he is a strong leader and did some great things in New York City, he is also morally suspect. During those months, moderates and Machiavellian strategist have pled with the Religious Right to overlook Rudy’s social stances and incredibly messy personal life because he is the only Republican who can allegedly win.

As we have learned over the last few weeks, Rudy’s moral relativism didn’t stop at the bedroom either. From the indictment of Bernie Kerik – a key member of Rudy’s inner circle who Rudy promoted from obscurity to Homeland Security nominee – to the revelations that taxpayers footed the bill for Rudy’s mistress to have round-the-clock police protection years before he separated from his wife, including being driven to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, it is clear that Rudy did whatever Rudy wanted to do.

Look, marriages collapse. It is a fact of life. People make mistakes. That is also a fact of life. That being said, it simply is a bridge too far to ask voters to believe that Rudy had no knowledge of a key public official’s and best friend’s sudden ability to afford an expensive apartment and to ignore the use of taxpayer funds to protect his wife and his mistress at the same time and for months on end. That might work in France, but it won’t work in Iowa. Or Ohio. Or New Mexico. In the 2004 election, President George W. Bush won those states with less than one percent, three percent and one percent, respectively. Without those states, Republicans likely cannot win the White House.

Does anyone really believe that the best way for Republicans to regain the trust of voters on values, corruption, and fiscal restraint on the heels of getting routed in the 2006 mid-term election is to nominate the one Republican presidential candidate with the greatest deficit in these areas? Does anyone really believe that once nominated, the left-leaning media and attack groups will not devote millions of dollars to dig into every nook and cranny of Rudy’s New York City days to find more evidence that Kerik, the taxpayer Amex slush fund, and government-funded dalliances weren’t exceptions to the rule, but represented the rule? Come next November, when each voter enters the ballot box to answer the question “whom do I trust,” does anyone really think that a majority of voters in those three pivotal states will push the lever for Rudy over Barack Obama? Don’t bet on it.

The problem with Rudy isn’t that one of his best friends was corrupt or that he cheated on his wife. The problem with Rudy is that these private lapses involved public positions and funds. At a time when Republicans are neck deep in ethical scandals and trying to reclaim the fiscal high ground, the last thing we need is a candidate to head the ticket who perpetuates the Republican taint. With eleven months to go before the 2008 election, Republicans don’t have the time or resources to waste propping up a politically flawed candidate and trying to parse words to show that Rudy and Bill Clinton aren’t two sides of the same coin. As the latter famously said, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Rest assured the voters won’t be fooled again.