Good Washington Post piece on Giuliani
The Washington Post has a pretty good piece up about Giuliani. We’re trying to keep track of what’s going on with the possible New York state candidates for president and frankly, the Hillary campaign bores me, so it’s just Rudy and Pataki. Ha ha! Just kidding about Pataki.
I plead guilty to having an unnatural fixation with Giuliani (along with the US Attorney scandal and Stephen Minarik). But anyway, this one is pretty interesting:
For the past few years, Giuliani’s old constituents in New York have marveled as a man once described as a human hand grenade by a New York Times columnist has been transformed into a revered, almost saintly figure. These days, as conservatives struggle over whether to embrace Giuliani, the only discussion is whether he’s too liberal.
Saintly? Liberal? The words have almost no relevance to the mayor who once ruled over Gotham. Giuliani is an enormously gifted man, with extraordinary accomplishments to his credit. He’s also a highly idiosyncratic figure prone to unusual, sometimes self-destructive acts. As the presidential race moves into a more serious phase, it may be best to put aside the cliches about America’s Mayor for a while. If voters are going to elect Rudy Giuliani president, there are a few things they’d better know.
(snip)
It’s not altogether surprising that such a brazen figure would have a stormy private life, but by any measure Giuliani’s personal behavior was over the top. He allowed an extramarital affair to explode into public view in the middle of his Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2000 (which he dropped out of). With a “War of the Roses” storyline emerging from Gracie Mansion, Giuliani’s instinct for political offense kicked in and he convened a news conference to announce that he was separating from his wife — before he’d even told her. He flaunted his romance with Judith Nathan in front of photographers while his divorce lawyer savaged his wife, Donna Hanover, as a limelight-infatuated opportunist. Hanover vented her rage publicly at the time, and six years later, on the cusp of Giuliani’s presidential run, their son, Andrew, has done the same (albeit in more diplomatic language) by announcing his refusal to campaign for his father.
(snip)
Would his instinct for dividing politicians into friends and enemies plunge the White House into a Nixon-era bunker mentality? Or would his confrontational style usher in a refreshing era of Truman-style bluntness?
Finally, has Giuliani’s penchant for drama diminished, or would he careen in the White House from one tabloid-style controversy to the next?
These are questions that should be asked of and about Rudy Giuliani, at least as persistently as the ones he’s fielding about abortion and same-sex marriage. If the past is any guide, a Giuliani White House would be dominated by his outsize personality. The public had better figure out now whether that would be a good thing.
Next time: we’ll explore the Republican party’s strange obsession with Teddy Roosevelt and how Rudy fits into it.
Related posts:
you may want to take a look at my blog reflectivepundit, where I just posted on the Washington Post op-ed piece and then some.
[...] exudes a strange fascination for Rudy here, here, here and here. Which, if anyone’s been paying attention they would have noticed that, it persists [...]