RUDY: STILL A REAL MAN

Atrios this morning on Giuliani:

Even at the time Rudy's [extramarital] activities were downplayed everywhere but the New York press, with suggestions that his affair wasn't really an affair because his battle with prostate cancer made consummating the relationship impossible....

Is that true? I was getting the news here in New York, and we were reading stories like this:

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani had radioactive seeds implanted in his prostate gland early yesterday at Mount Sinai Medical Center....

Many doctors say that radiation seeds may affect sexual function less, but their long-term cure rates are not as well known.

''It's a very complex issue, and the mayor really took his time, and did a lot of research and probably knows more than we do at this point about prostate cancer,'' Dr. Stock said yesterday. ''My feeling is that radiation tends to offer some improvement in potency preservation.''

Mr. Giuliani extensively thanked his City Hall staff by name for their support. He also turned to look at Ms. Nathan, who was standing nearby. ''I want to thank Judith for being here,'' Mr. Giuliani said. ''Thank you.''...

Here in New York, we were certainly led to believe that the reason for Giuliani's choice of this specific treatment was the woman who was always in a tight two-shot with him on the news.

Rudy's attitude, by the way, was somewhat more enlightened than that of his father, as we were learning at roughly the same time from Wayne Barrett:

After more than a year living in Bayside, Harold suffered such severe pain from his prostate cancer that he had trouble walking. He quit Gotham Maintenance. His routine checkups at North Shore hospital became more frequent. Lina remembered Harold telling her about his doctor's warnings. "The doctor, he tell him, 'You have to be operated on,' " she recalled. But when it came to surgery, the proud man was obstinate. "Nobody is going to touch my balls!" Harold declared to Lina one afternoon in the garden.