Remember what everyone was talking about seventeen months ago? At the end of 2007, every mainstream journalist and pundit was claiming that the 2008 general election was going to come down to Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. That single fact stands alone as one of the most important statements of the circle-jerk nature of the media today.

Scoot ahead seventeen months to present day, and let‘s see what’s happening with Presidents Clinton and Giuliani. Hillary Clinton’s approval ratings as Secretary of State are skyrocketing, and now people are starting to wonder whatever happened to that dude who married his cousin. Just in time, here’s a little human interest story right out of New York.

When Giuliani was mayor of New York, he famously had a rather disastrous marriage to his second wife Donna Hanover. Donna kicked him out of Gracie Mansion, and Guiliani went to live with two of his closest friends, Howard Koeppel and Mark Hsiao, a nice gay couple who let him sleep in the guest room of their multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment. Back then, Mayor Giuliani was a big fan of homosexuals, and under his mayoral tenure he expanded gay rights and stood up for gay civil unions. The Rudy Giuliani of today isn’t so interested in gay rights, not even bothering to attend the legal Connecticut wedding of his old friends:

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was a last-minute no-show at the wedding of his former roommates — a gay couple — yesterday.

It was a disappointment for Queens car dealer Howard Koeppel and his longtime lover, Mark Hsiao, who tied the knot in a double-ring ceremony before 10 guests in Westport, Conn.

The couple famously let the ex-mayor crash at their luxury $2.37 million three-bedroom Manhattan apartment while he was going through a nasty divorce with Donna Hanover in 2001. Later, Giuliani married the “other woman,” Judith Nathan.

“Rudy and Judith were both invited with a beautiful written invitation by mail,” said Koeppel. “His secretary called Thursday and said he was not able to come to the wedding and wished us all the best.”

Koeppel once quipped that Giuliani was a perfect roommate who “always made his bed” and “called me mother.”

At the time, Giuliani ducked the question about whether living with a gay couple had changed his longstanding opposition to gay marriage.

“I don’t relate to people as white, black, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, gay, lesbian, heterosexual,” the then-mayor told reporters at Gracie Mansion.

Giuliani has stated he has no problem with civil unions but told The Post he’d speak out against gay marriage if he runs for governor. Connecticut in November allowed gays to marry.

[From The New York Post]

Obviously, this isn’t really political hypocrisy because Guiliani has never been a proponent of gay marriage, only civil unions. But to not even attend a wedding held by two of your closest friends? These are the two men who took him in and helped facilitate his affair with his now-wife Judith Nathan. They took care of him and helped him out when he was getting bad press all over the place. Is Rudy not capable of separating the politics from the people?

Here’s Rudy and Judith Giuliani at the premiere of ‘Grey Gardens’ at The Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on April 14th. Images thanks to WENN.com .