Per Shakespeare’s Sister, the news that Rudy Giuliani is considered a front-runner for the Republican 2008 Presidential nomination.
Rudy is a great man when he has great things to do. But it’s like he has ADD. The minute Great Things™ aren’t attracting his attention, he goes after whatever’s nearest.
Probably the best thing he ever did was “Don’t Block the Box” (but then, the best thing Ed Koch ever did was “Don’t Even Think About Parking Here!” — New Yorkers take our traffic problems seriously). Rudy cleaned up New York in a big way, but then when the big work was done, he started going after street vendors (whom We the NY People love) and street artists, and people who parody him, and Mark Green. Why? Just ’cause. He didn’t have anything better to do.
And when he’d alienated everyone who ever looked cross-eyed at him he didn’t just cheat on his wife, he did so publically, humiliating her to the nth degree by finally declaring his engagement to his mistress in a press conference, which is how his wife found out.
Then 9/11 happened and while America longed for a hero that failed to emerge from Washington, Giuliani behaved in a truly heroic fashion, compassionate, kind, brave, and tireless. He was everywhere with everyone. And although this is not well known, he very nearly died; he was in #7 just minutes before it collapsed.
He declined to run for mayor again in order to run for Senate (where he’d have surely beaten Hillary), then withdrew from that race because of his prostate cancer.
He could have left his mayoralty with dignity. Instead he tried to get the law in New York changed retroactively, for no other reason than to take a petty swipe at longtime enemy Mark Green. He left a bad taste in our mouths with that one, and proved that though he is capable of greatness when the moment demands it, in repose he is petty, vindictive, and dishonest.
I’ll always give him credit for how he handled 9/11…but apart from that, my impression has always been that he is one mean sonofabitch.