Political consultant Ed Rollins thinks the Democrats, rather than any of Giuliani's Republican opponents, are the ones who can really capitalize on it.

Rollins, who has worked on Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign and ran the campaign of a G.O.P. senate candidate against Hillary Clinton last year, told me, “Certainly what Republicans will do with it won’t matter as much as what Democrats will do with it, if he becomes the nominee.”

He added, “Suppose he’s the nominee in March or April. Trial goes on six months from now. Every single day. New York Times, L.A. Times, every single other newspaper is [writing about] Rudy’s Corrupt Cop. It diminishes somewhat, the ‘I was super mayor. I made all these wonderful things happen.’ So I think to a certain extent it’s serious.”