Australian lawmaker in strip scandal

A drunken night in a New York strip club four years ago by a lawmaker who is trying to become the next prime minister has turned the spotlight on Australian politicians' private lives.

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd predicted he would "take a belting in the opinion polls" after a report in News Corp. newspapers throughout Australia on Sunday about a drunken night he had in the high-priced Manhattan club Scores in 2003.

The 49-year-old former diplomat has denied reports that he was warned by management for touching strippers but added his recollection of the night was hazy because of alcohol.

His companions that night, fellow opposition lawmaker Warren Snowdon and New York Post editor Col Allan, have publicly vouched for his good behavior while in New York as a U.N. observer.

Scores owner Elliot Osher told Australian media this week that Rudd was not ejected and left the club voluntarily soon after realizing what sort of entertainment was being offered.

A poll published in The Australian national newspaper Tuesday showed that Rudd's rating as preferred prime minister was around 48 percent, with Prime Minister John Howard's 39 percent. But news of Rudd's night out did not break until the final day of the poll's three-day survey period.

Labor, which has lost the last four elections, has held a clear lead over the government in opinion polls since Rudd was elected leader in December.

The scandal has inspired the media to ask personal questions of several lawmakers.

Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said in a radio interview that he visited a strip club when he was 20.

"I suspect that there are many Australian men and an increasing number of women who have done so as well," the 49-year-old Nelson said.

Anna Bligh, deputy premier of Queensland state where Rudd lives, told reporters: "I've seen a strip-o-gram in a Chinese restaurant once _ does that count?"

Rudd's older brother, Greg Rudd, has revealed that his Botswana-born wife, Okhola, was a stripper when they met in 2001.

"I never actually told Kevin because I have been conscious of the (career) journey Kevin is on and I've been conscious that there's some things he didn't need to know," Greg Rudd said in Wednesday's edition of The Australian.

Howard has refused to comment.

Kevin Rudd has been actively campaigning to draw the Christian vote away from the government by discussing his Christian faith _ an unusual tactic in Australia, where politics and religion are usually kept separate.

Rudd rejected a newspaper columnist's view that the scandal belies his public image.

"I'm on the record as saying I'm as flawed and failed as the rest of them," Rudd told Nine Network television Sunday.