WASHINGTON - It's been a particularly brutal stretch for Rudy Giuliani.
From new revelations about security costs for visiting his then-mistress to criticism that he continually exaggerates his record as former New York mayor, Giuliani is taking a beating on the campaign trail that could put a dent in his lead.
As the front-runner in national polls of the Republican presidential nomination race, he's accustomed to knocks from rivals who target him when they're not taking potshots at Democrat Hillary Clinton.
And there have always been big weaknesses to exploit.
Giuliani's support for abortion, gay rights and gun control is a tough sell among many in his party.
His personal life has been tabloid fodder for years.
It's hard to forget the very public spat with wife number 2 when they were estranged but both still living in Gracie Mansion. Their argument over whether Judith Nathan, now Giuliani's third wife, could visit the mayor's residence made it to the courts.
His estrangement from his kids continues to raise eyebrows, especially when his teenage daughter Caroline is supporting Barack Obama, a Clinton rival.
It's the far less decorous side of the man who was knighted by the Queen for his leadership after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in 2001, the guy Time magazine pronounced "mayor of the world,'' capable of "superhuman courage'' when they named him person of the year.
And it all came flooding back this week with a story on Politico.com that thousands of dollars in security costs for Giuliani's visits to the Hamptons for extramarital trysts with Nathan were paid by obscure city agencies.
Worse yet, the story broke a few hours before a Republican debate Wednesday.
Turns out the New York City comptroller's office raised red flags in 2002 about his security and travel spending after Giuliani had left office.
The comptroller wanted to know why the expenses were charged to places like the city's loft board.
The story left a lot of people wondering whether the candidate had something to hide.
For his part, Giuliani called it a "debate day dirty trick'' and a five-year-old story.
"I had 24-hour security for the eight years that I was mayor,'' he said during the debate. "They followed me everyplace I went. It was because there were, you know, threats, threats that I don't generally talk about.''
All the money for his security was eventually reimbursed to those agencies by the police board, he said in an interview Thursday with CBS. City Hall sometimes paid first because the police were slow in coughing up the money for officers on the mayor's detail.
Giuliani's affair with Nathan while he was married to his second wife became common knowledge.
But having it raised so prominently again, with new suggestions about the improper use of public money, provokes questions about his judgment and honesty that have already been building on the campaign trail.
And the timing, just weeks before the first state nomination votes in Iowa on Jan. 3, couldn't be worse.
Giuliani, while leading in national polls, is trailing in the early voting states that can make or break a presidential candidate.
"It reinforces his biggest problem'' analyst Larry Sabato told CBS, "which is (not) just his liberal positions on social issues, but also the fact that he's had a very messy private life.''
News organizations have also been compiling and investigating many of the claims made by Giuliani, who trades heavily on his role in the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks and often cites statistics about his mayoralty record.
The New York Times, in a front-page story Friday, reviewed many of them. Giuliani, for instance, has said he reduced spending by seven per cent in New York, the only city in the United States that has cut crime every year since 1994.
Turns out spending went up an average of 3.7 per cent for most of Giuliani's two terms and Chicago's record on reducing crime is as good as New York's.
"The mayor likes detail,'' said spokesman Maria Comella, "and uses it frequently on the campaign trail in ways the other candidates don't.''
"And at the end of the day, he is making points that are true.''
This week's spate of bad news for Giuliani wasn't the only trouble he's had lately.
In November, his former city police commissioner Bernard Kerik was indicted on 16 federal charges, including taking bribes from a contractor accused of mob links.
Kerik, who had once been Giuliani's driver, was nominated by President George W. Bush to become the Homeland Security secretary but he withdrew before the charges became public.
The debacle has also raised more broad questions about Giuliani's judgment and associations, with one blogger calling Kerik "a poster child as to why Giuliani shouldn't be president.''
"I have pointed out that I think I made a mistake of not checking him out more carefully,'' Giuliani has said. "I think the overwhelming record is a record of great success.''
