It’s Friday night and Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is due to attend a fundraiser at a private home in Salt Lake City. The house is gorgeous, up on a hill. There’s a long driveway leading up to the home. We, the still photographers, reporters, and TV crews, are all waiting in the middle of the cul de sac where the private driveway begins. Also present are some local GOP organizers and a PR guy who works for Rudy.

Rudy’s PR guy explains to us that we won’t be allowed into the party, but not to worry, Rudy will stop and talk to us before he goes in. He points out a spot at the end of the driveway where Rudy will talk. It’s a weed patch with a large boulder. Sitting on the boulder is a bronze sculpture of a little boy looking off into the distance. A little creepy.

One of the photographers suggests a better spot for Rudy to talk, slightly down the driveway where an amazing view of the snow-covered mountains will be the background. It’s a great idea and all agree. The other still photographers and I make plans to, once Rudy shows up, claim the best spots to capture that scenic backdrop. Far too often the TV cameras crowd around the subject and we are left circling the horde. Not this time.

While we’re standing around waiting there’s a lot of time to talk. One of the local GOP guys jokingly refers to us journalists as rubbish and garbage. He jokes about Rudy’s car running over us. As you can tell, he’s a funny guy. He’s holding a copy of Jackie Mason’s book “Schmucks.” He says, “I heard about it on Sean Hannity,” and he shows us the table of contents, explaining how each chapter is about a different schmuck in the world: Bill Clinton, Barbara Streisand, etc. (If you don’t know who Jackie Mason is, go rent Caddyshack 2, where Jackie Mason plays the Rodney Dangerfield character and Dan Akroyd plays the Bill Murray character (who shoots an arrow into his own ass). Are you kidding me? You’ve seen it, too?)

There’s another guy waiting for Rudy. A fan. He’s holding a blue sharpie pen and a copy of Rudy’s book, “Leadership.” The weird thing is, the book is a library book. We ask him if he’s going to have Rudy Giuliani sign a library book and he gets offended. He uncaps his pen and crosses out the words, “Salt Lake City Public Library,” which are rubber-stamped on the book. He says, “It’s not a library book! I bought this used!”

Finally Rudy shows up. Rudy’s PR guy yells to him, “Right over here, sir!” I start to move back toward the sprinkler he’s going to stand by in front of those beautiful mountains. But then I notice that Rudy’s stopping right in the middle of the street. The TV cameras have converged and surrounded him. And now, instead of our lovely snow-covered mountains behind Rudy, the background of the shot is an ugly white TV satellite truck.

He graciously answers questions for a long time. One of the photographers says, “He seems like a straight shooter.” After that Rudy poses for photos with a few onlookers.

He breaks away from the crowd and the fan hands him the library book. Rudy looks at it and chuckles, saying something like, “What the…?” It’s so obviously a library book. Then Rudy says, “Well, okay, I guess I’ll sign it.” He does.

Rudy Giuliani then walks up the long driveway. He looks out at the view and says, “Wow, look at those mountains. What a beautiful view!” I look at the photographer who suggested the mountains as a background and all we can do is laugh.

This post first appeared here.