Article on Giuliani

From the NEW REPUBLIC


At a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, last month, local resident Bob Roughsedge introduced Rudy Giuliani as "the next mayor of the United States." No one tittered or spoke up. Afterward, Roughsedge wasn't even aware of the slip, and Giuliani, who is usually quick to correct, did not seem aware of it either. Maybe that's because Giuliani is actually running to be mayor of the United States.


Giuliani is selling himself to voters on the basis of his service as New York's mayor. He is arguing that he has the kind of administrative experience that would prepare him to be president. "I've had a great deal of experience," Giuliani says. "I think it's the kind of experience that helps to prepare president, if there's any experience that does." He also claims that he was an exceptionally successful mayor. "I took a city that was the crime capital of America, and I left a city that was the safest in America," he declares. And he is saying that his approach to governing the Big Apple is readily applicable to the national and international problems a president would face: "The things that I did as mayor of New York City, during very difficult times in New York City--not all of them, but many of them--are transferable to what America needs now, and that's why I'm asking people to vote for me."


Clearly, many Americans already buy the argument that Giuliani's tenure in New York has equipped him to be a successful president, as he leads the GOP field in nationwide polls. But, for those who remain unconvinced, there are two questions worth pondering. The first is whether Giuliani's tenure at City Hall was the unmitigated success he claims it to be, or whether he made significant missteps as mayor that he could also make as president. The second, and perhaps more important, question is how Giuliani's behavior as mayor--and his underlying philosophy of government--would translate to his conduct in the White House. To answer that question requires understanding Giuliani's particular view of liberty and authority.

By the time Giuliani took office as mayor in 1994, he had already enjoyed a spectacular career as a U.S. attorney, becoming the scourge of the Mafia and Wall Street inside-traders, including Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. In addition, he had already acquired a philosophy of government and a way of dealing with subordinates that would mark his eight years as mayor. He picked up some of this approach in his years as a prosecutor, but most of his core beliefs can be traced to his childhood in New York and to his enrollment for 16 years in Catholic schools. Much of what struck liberal New Yorkers as odd about Giuliani becomes readily understandable when seen in this light.


Giuliani was born in 1944 and grew up as part of a large Italian-American extended family in Brooklyn. His grandmother lived with him and his parents, Harold and Helen D'Avanzo Giuliani. His mother's brother, who was married to his father's sister, lived downstairs, and other relatives lived nearby. Family members worked for each other, loaned each other money, and sometimes even married each other. (Rudy would marry his second cousin Regina Peruggi in 1968.) The bonds of family carried over to old friends. The son of Harold Giuliani's childhood friend Louis Carbonetti would end up working for Rudy's mayoral campaigns, and his grandson would work in the Giuliani administration.


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http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=77ee1fa2-4331-41dd-9129-90b0fa0213ed

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