Republican Wackjob of the Day for 10/21/04

Today's winner is Former Waterbury, CT Mayor Philip Giordano.



For those not familiar with this esteemed member of the fine, upstanding, moral Republican party, Philip Giordano was convicted on March 25, 2003 of violating the civil rights of two young girls by sexually abusing them. He was also found guilty of conspiring with a prostitute who is the mother of one of the girls and an aunt of the other. In addition, jurors convicted him on 14 of 15 counts of using an interstate device -- a cell phone -- to arrange the meetings with the girls.



Now, Giordano claims that he didn't abuse his office when he paid to have oral sex with the aforementioned girls (who, by the way, were age 8 and 10 at the time).

Giordano's attorney argued before the 2nd U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Wednesday that the former mayor wasn't using his political power when he paid to have oral sex with the 8- and 10-year-old girls.



If the three-panel appeals court agrees, it could jeopardize Giordano's conviction and 37-year prison sentence.



During an hour-long court hearing Wednesday, Judge Dennis Jacobs said that committing a crime while mayor is not necessarily the same thing as using political office to commit a crime.



Jacobs suggested that Giordano didn't need to use his political power to force the girls into sex.



"Did the children testify that they wouldn't have submitted if he hadn't been the mayor?" Jacobs asked federal prosecutors. "They never said that because it's not true."



Between 2000 and 2001, Giordano paid a crack-addicted prostitute to bring her daughter and niece to City Hall, his home and his law office for oral sex. After each encounter, Giordano told the girls not to talk about it or the woman would go to jail.



Prosecutors said those warnings, plus the fact that Giordano drove a police cruiser and carried a badge, made him an intimidating figure whom the girls were afraid to disobey.



"He watched over them like God," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Jongbloed said. "He ruled the city."

You watch. In twenty years, after he's released, Giordano, who will claim to be a born-again Christian, will run for House of Representatives on a platform of Restoring Morality to America. President George P. Bush will campaign hard for him, calling him "a fine example of what Christian forgiveness can do" and "one of the finest men ever to serve his great city."