As someone that spent the Guiliani years living in the New York City media market it’s somewhat fascinating to watch the rest of the country learn about what a jerk he is. New Yorkers did have a kind of grudging respect for Guiliani. It was hard to ignore the improvements in the City during his reign. Suburbanites were particularly impressed because they got all the benefits with none of the costs. But it was never clear how many of the improvements were owing to decisions that Guiliani made and how many had to do with the booming economy. For example, Philadelphia enjoyed a similar, if less pronounced, metamorphosis during the reign of Mayor Ed Rendell. And Philly, unlike New York, has slipped back to its old form. We’ve had 318 homocides so far this year. Superficially, it would seem like Rendell was the more effective mayor.
Regardless, whatever Guiliani’s strengths, the overriding sense of New Yorkers, by the end of his second term, was that he was a gigantic creep with absolutely no class.
I’m the first person to give Guiliani huge credit for how he conducted himself in the early hours of 9/11. Yet, more than fifty percent of the credit must go to the administration, which was disturbingly absent that morning and afternoon. When Bush did appear on television, he looked rattled and confused. Guiliani was all we had to reassure us and he stepped into that void.
But it wasn’t long before New Yorkers realized that Guiliani was milking his performance for everything it was worth. He became the Pimp of 9/11. He even tried to get his term as mayor extended for three months so he could lord it over the country more effectively. It was disgusting to see how much he sought to exploit a tragedy that had taken the lives of some of his close friends.
It wasn’t surprising to those that knew Rudy…but it was disappointing. It was of a kind with the discovery that Rudy’s police chief, Bernie Kerik, was a mobbed-up philanderer. Rudy, after all, made his reputation prosecuting the mafia.
Here is Steve Gilliard’s description of the beginning of Guiliani’s second divorce.
By the spring of 2000, there was a new woman in Rudy’s life, Judith Nathan. She had been camoflauged in the mayor’s entourage from the fall of 1999 on. No one knew who she was, at least not obviously. But, as Giulani’s bout with cancer became news, Nathan, who was trained as a nurse, was seen to have been accompanying him to doctor’s meetings. Meanwhile, his wife was left clueless as to her husband’s new infidelity.
As it became clear that he had forsaken his marriage once again for the bed of another woman, Hanover grew disgusted by her husband’s behavior.
Finally, on a rainy late spring day, as the Giuliani senate campaign gained steam, he announced he was leaving his wife. Well, a couple of hours later, Hanover, now seen on the Travel Channel, announced her reaction about the homewrecking strumpets her husband was squiring around. Seems he forgot to tell he wanted a seperation and she found out when we did.
Not quite as bad as Newt Gingrich’s decision to divorce his wife while she was in the cancer ward, but still…
America wanted to love Guiliani. When they get to know him like New Yorkers know him, they’ll just want to take a shower.
