January 22, 2008
Gov. Spitzer's Got Nothing on Steamroller Giuliani
Governor Spitzer may have identified himself as a steamroller in his attempts to accomplish certain executive tasks, but he's got nothing on the former federal prosecutor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. The NY Times has a colorful profile of the the former Mayor as a man who used his offices as bludgeons, crushing anyone who crossed him.
When a chauffeur called into the Mayor's weekly radio show in 1997, saying that the cops had established a sting operation near the Bronx Zoo, police came days later to arrest him and mentioning charges of sodomy. “Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,” the mayor told reporters at the time. “Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.” It eventually ended in a nearly $300,000 settlement with the city for police harassment, but Schilalaci suffered a nervous breakdown.
After public disputes with former Mayors, Giuliani had portraits of Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins removed from the walls of City Hall. Even Koch, who is historically portrayed as one of the most good-natured of politicians, recently wrote a book about Giuliani titled "Nasty Man." Koch jokes (kind of) that Giuliani was ready to throw his portrait onto a bonfire, along with the First Amendment to the Constitution.
And in a bit of procedural nastiness, Mayor Giuliani formed a Charter Revision Committee in 1999 to prevent then-Public Advocate Mark Green from succeeding him as Mayor if he was elected to the U.S. Senate. (A bout with cancer caused Giuliani to bow out of that race.) The candidate's now banking on a political remission in the Florida primary – a state with a high population of retired New Yorkers – to salvage his sputtering presidential campaign; senior citizens in the Sunshine State had better vote Rudy or suffer the consequences – we're pretty sure sodomy's illegal there, too.
Speaking of sodomy, what are your memories of the Giuliani administration?
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This predates his election, but I think one of the most telling episodes of his career was when he was an Assistant AG in the Reagan administration and he testified (under oath) that there was "no real political opression" in Haiti under President-for-life Boby Doc Duvalier, and therefore there was no danger to Haitian refugees being forced to return there.
I can spend days typing up memories of his administration. I wouldn't know where to begin.
Funny that there is very little acclaim for what good he has done, yet there are volumes of negative coverage on this controversial political figure. Must be a good reason.
Just remember. It is ALWAYS about Rudy. Heck, he even titled his imploding Florida campaign to call the state his own.
He might not be presidential material, but the amount of Rudy-bashing here doesn't mesh with his re-election as mayor.
"Speaking of sodomy..."
I can't top that. Nice work, Dave.
The NYT profile jibed with my memories of Giuliani. After a respectable start "cleaning up the streets" early in his administration (with lots of help from Bratton, et al), Giuliani turned into a petty dictator that harbored personal grudges against anyone that he deemed his enemy.
I won't repeat what the NYT article describes, but will add that it seemed as if he had nothing better to do than to wage turf wars against various groups to no particular end.
On Sept. 11, he did a respectable job of not cowering under a desk, but then he took all that goodwill and chucked out the window when he started making a stink about not getting the fuck out at the end of his term.
I wish I could take credit for that Tim, but I have to hand that to either Jens Carlson or Chung, who improve my work on a daily basis.
I won't say that I hate Giuliani, but this Times article reminded me of why I didn't like him so much. He was a tin-pot petty dictator with a vindictive streak. In spite of the many improvements that happened to NYC under his watch, he still managed to be unlikable. He was a steady and reliable hand after 9/11, but that's all I can really say positive about him.
Speaking as someone who almost feels bad for Nixon as a guy who was forced into wrongdoing through peronsal demons, Giuliani would make Nixon look like Ned Flanders in office.
I would comment but I am afraid Rudy might find me!
I remember the Rudy reign making it possible for NYers to walk around without looking over their shoulder.
Thank you Rudy. You did what Kock and Dickins couldn't.
guiliani sucks, but how the heck do you make a journalistic leap from a decade old traffic violation to sodomy? did i miss something?
ok, apparently i did. nevermind lol.
This was the lowest point of NYC under Giuliani: An innocent, unarmed man was shot in the street and the administration decided to spit on the body before it got cold.
it was the beginning of the end of NYC as we know it when he came into office. Bloomberg continued that trend.
It was a current traffic violation that in the 1990s dredged up a decades-old sodomy charge, which was likely illegal to mention in the first place. It's an example of how far Giuliani would go to screw people who crossed or criticized him.
Sodomites? Yeah Rudy's hired a few.
""I remember the Rudy reign making it possible for NYers to walk around without looking over their shoulder.""
Sorry, but that was a national trend that was certainly not unique to NY, and definitely not something Rudy should take any real credit for.
Bring back the Giuliani/Kerik wheatpaste!!
gothamist.com/2007/09/11/giuliani_shores.php
Goodbye to Rudy Tooty and his Judy Rudy Tooty