A Prima Donna?

John Fund notes the disturbingly rude habit Rudy Giuliani has developed of taking phone calls from his wife in the middle of public events.

There's no other way to describe it . . . the behavior is just downright weird. Is Rudy so smitten by his wife that he simply can't wait until a more appropriate moment to speak to her? Even worse, is she such a difficult woman that he dreads the blowback that would result if he simply didn't answer the phone?

Neither prospect is a pleasant one. What's more, an acquaintance of mine who lives and works in Manhattan -- at an establishment that Mrs. Giuliani patronizes -- has reported that she is uniformly disliked by the staff there because of her high-handedness and pretensions.

There's no doubt this is a problem for the Giuliani campaign. One can't turn a not-so-nice woman into a lovely one, but steps can be taken to limit her exposure. The question is how big a problem her influence is (or could be) for the candidate -- and perhaps later, for the President.