Lovebirds Rudy and Judi at the recent Pepsi 400 in Daytona

Palm Beach Post writer Frank Cerabino contrasted the sexploits of two politicians and found the one involving Rudolph Guiliani not getting nearly enough play.

Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) continues to dig deeper holes for himself — now requiring some of that mining equipment going unused in Utah and China. First he demonstrated that getting arrested in a public bathroom for offering $20 for homosexual sex isn’t the worse mistake a politician make. One of Allen’s many defenses for the bust was that he was afraid of the undercover officer he solicited because the man was black.

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio piled on, criticizing Allen for injecting “a very disturbing element to an already troubling incident.” Rubio stripped him of his legislative committee posts.

Allen promptly put his foot in his mouth again by likening the actions of Rubio, who is the first Cuban-American leader of the House, to Fidel Castro’s.

“That’s a Cuba thing, something Fidel Castro does,” Allen said, before claiming to be greatly misunderstood.

I’m not sure if you have to live in Florida to understand how egregious it is to compare any Cuban-American politician with Castro. If so, then just take my word that it’s a) never been done and b) very, very bad.

But the sex story that actually matters, Cerabino says, is Rudy’s.

Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice has written about the lavish emergency command center that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fashioned in one of the former World Trade Center buildings.

“Giuliani’s office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fair hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced,” Barrett wrote. “He had his own elevator.”

After the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, some officials had suggested that the city’s emergency command center be built in Brooklyn. But Giuliani wanted it within walking distance of city hall in Manhattan. The World Trade Center command center, which was destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, has since been constructed at the Brooklyn site Giuliani rejected.

…if there’s even a smidgen of consideration in the tragic placement of New York City’s emergency command center at ground zero because of its convenience as a cozy private love nest for a mayor-turned-presidential candidate and his mistress-turned-third-wife, then I think it deserves far more attention than the amusing fate of an inconsequential Florida legislator.