RUDY OUT - AT 7:12 P.M. ET:  Fox News is reporting that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will not run for the U.S. Senate next year.

That's too bad.  The seat that's up is currently held by nondescript Kirsten Gillibrand, appointed to fill out the term of Hillary Clinton.  New York is a Democratic state, but polls have shown Rudy beating Gillibrand handily.  I don't know of any other Republican who can.

I suspect that this may end Rudy's political career.  He ran a poor campaign for president in 2008, and is out of the public eye.  He's already declined to run for governor next year.  No one thinks of him as a presidential candidate in 2012.  After a time, his accomplishments as mayor of New York will be forgotten.  No one who has sat in the New York mayor's chair has ever achieved higher office.

It's just speculation, but I wonder if this is Rudy's wife's decision.  An informed source tells me that Rudy has become a bit, well, henpecked.  More vivid language can be used.  It was hoped, recently, that he'd address a rally to oppose the civilian trial of the 9-11 mastermind in New York.  But he didn't show, reportedly because his wife doesn't like him doing things like that on weekends.  Hey, Judy, that's when a lot of that stuff gets done.

So, unless he gets some appointed office, Rudy Giuliani may soon be a name from the past, which is too bad, given his talents.

December 21, 2009