Opinion: Reality (sound) bites

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When I worked in Pittsburgh we had a local politician — since elevated to statewide office — who littered his public and private remarks with the word “frankly” whether or not the comment in question required any frankness on his part. This tic was tiresome and amusing at the same time. My colleagues and I wondered whether he he used the F-word at home. (“Frankly, that was a wonderful meal!”)

Rudy Giuliani has a similar problem. In his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, the former mayor introduced an array of explanations and rationalizations with the phrase, “The reality is…” My “reality” check of the transcript turned up 13 examples including “The reality is, it was a mistake for me to be on the [Iraq Study Group] panel’ and (in response to a question about his protégé and former police commissioner Bernard Kerik, now under indictment) “Now, the reality is I made a mistake. I made a mistake in not vetting him carefully enough.”

Just as a politician who says ‘frankly’ constantly makes you wonder if he’s really being candid, a presidential candidate who is constantly insisting that his opinions are ‘the reality’ insprires suspicions that he’s overcompensating. That, you might say, is the reality.

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy: You need to give “The reality is” a rest. And I say that frankly.