'Senator Hick' makes NY sick

The New York Daily News unloads on Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley after the Iowa Republican cited Rudy Giuliani's "New York personality" as one reason he didn't catch on in the caucus campaign:

An Iowa senator is blaming the Big Apple's "lifestyle" and "personality" for Rudy Giuliani's failure to win over Middle America.

Iowa's Chuck Grassley, a dour, 74-year-old Corn Belt Republican, said Wednesday that Giuliani's spectacular flameout stemmed from "that New York personality."

And New Yorkers are responding with plenty of personality and a couple of choice words: Shtick it!

"The New York lifestyle hasn't gone over [in] some places. It seemed like the more people got acquainted with him, the less they liked him," he said.

Not content to leave it there, the Big Apple-baiting butthead from Butler County said that unlike Las Vegas, "Things you do in New York don't stay in New York."

Hey, I never get to use `butthead' in my columns. Read the rest here.

Rudy lost because, in the eyes of many GOP activists, in Iowa and elsewhere, he's not a real Republican. It's really that simple. He thinks abortion is a personal decision, that guns should be controlled and that gays and lesbians shouldn't be marginalized. All his pledges of allegiance to Justice Scalia couldn't make that go away.

His New York personality had little to do with it. But the positions he had to take to win public office in New York that sank him.