Rudy Going National?

"...he'd easily find his place in DC -- teaching Newt a few new (York) tricks about REAL meanness."

by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

"The Dem's sacrificial lamb,
Ruth Messinger, is
an earnest and honest pol..."
November 3rd, 1997 -- LOS ANGELES -- The Doc is sitting in his hotel room with a friend's laptop (his ol' Thinkpad has decided to go on strike) watching a rerun of today's White House press briefing by Mike McCurry. Lately, these trips have been hell, but this one has been going fine -- comfortable flight, nice accommodations, productive meetings. Everyone here has a laptop, and it's no big thing to snag a loaner for a few minutes.

The only downside to this particular trip is that The Doc won't be able to vote against New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tomorrow. So he'll just have to warn you about this hooligan before he becomes a national problem.

He's a shoo-in to win a second term -- his popularity is implausibly high, especially if you take a careful look at the man's temperament, attitude and policies. Add to that the fact that the once-powerful New York Democratic Party has fallen on hard times and suffers from an unforgivable power vacuum and you have the formula for a landslide. The Dem's sacrificial lamb, Ruth Messinger, is an earnest and honest pol who shows genuine care for people and the sorry state of affairs in New York City who worked her way up from teacher to politician to Chairperson of the City Council. And she doesn't have the chance of a ski vacation in Hell. She's too darned nice to be Mayor -- but won't lose by the over 20 percent that some media outlets predict; for the gamblers in my readership, I'd peg the percentage spread at no more than 13.

New Yorkers have been seeing
Rudy's logo on television for
months -- what's he really
running for?
Rudy, on the other hand, is a hypocrite. His campaign started with a negative and dishonest attack commercial -- one which would elicit an ear-to-ear good ol' boy grin from Lee Atwater -- which took a Messinger quote from the neo-brownshirt New York Post completely out of context to paint Messinger as being weak on "adult" businesses. He takes credit for the drop in New York City crime -- but would never admit that the successful strategy and campaign were developed and implemented by his gentlemanly predecessor David Dinkins, and that the definition of some crimes, for example assault, have been changed to tighten and narrow the official standard, thus "reducing" some crime levels. He crows about the "economic comeback" of the city -- but you'll never hear him mention that Fun City has the highest unemployment and most sluggish total job growth of the 10 largest cities in the US. And he makes exaggerated claims about improvements of the "quality of life", pimping the newly redeveloped Times Square district as tarted-up evidence of a turnaround -- and not saying a word about reduced air quality, the deplorable and continuing decay of the poorest neighborhoods, the 20% fare increase and precipitous service cutbacks which have hobbled the subway system which even the most affluent New Yorkers rely on. And he's made no promises about finishing out his term.

Rudy's not-so-secret squeeze?
Christyne "La-La" Latigano
He's also got an ugly hairpiece and a personality to match. And his nastiness has come back to bite him in the ass, in the form of a nasty article in the pseudosophisticate rag Vanity Fair which repeats unsubstantiated rumors that Rudy is having an affair with his head press flak Christyne Latigano. I don't care about the sordid details of Rudy's private life -- the guy is like the Energizer Bunny, and I don't see where he has time for an affair -- and the real message of the article is that Rudy's often open contempt for the press corps and some of his specific shots (including outright hostily aimed at and blackballing of some reporters) has actually gotten to some of the extremely thick-skinned City Hall press corps.

His contempt for the press is only surpassed by the contempt he has for New Yorkers who are not part of his "constituency". Like people who want nothing more than civilian oversight of the police force -- fuhgedaboudit! It's Giuliani time, and he's done everything in his power to kill a Civilian Review Board, despite a strong endorsement from the City Council. He's cut public school capital funding by nearly $4 BILLION. He's openly insulted the poor, welcoming "The prospect of less aid" under the Gingrich Contract On America welfare cuts, and not much later telling the press it would be "a good thing" if the poor would just leave the city. Rudy on welfare cuts and an exodus of the poor: "That's not an unspoken part of our strategy. That is our strategy." And one of his aides in The Post: "'The poor will eventually figure it out that it's a lot easier to be homeless where it's warm." He smugly reneged on a promise to strengthen city ethics rules and policy, saying shortly after his election that a stricter code "gets in the way of running an efficient government." Who needs integrity when you've got Rudy? He promised to "stop patronage" -- and turned Gracie Mansion into patronage central. To top it all off, the Giuliani campaign was hit with $243, 000 in fines by the city's Campaign Finance Board, out-"performing" most DC pols!

Rudy needs bucks to
get to Washington...
By now it's no secret that Rudy has national aspirations. He's courted two key New York State GOPers with whom he has openly feuded during his first term: Governor George Pataki -- who looks like a sad-sack slimmed down Tom Arnold -- and Senator Alphonse "Pothole" D'Amato, one of the most corrupt politicians currently in the beltway. In fact, evidence has recently emerged that Senator Al was "less than candid" about direct involvement of a senior figure at rogue brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont in D'Amato's overnight $37, 000 stock windfall -- which should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Il Potholio's tainted ethics record.

But I digress.

It looks as if Rudy is putting out serious feelers to run against the professorial Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an old-school, compassionate liberal, in the next US Senate race. He's also exploring the possibility of a presidential run in the year 2000. He knows that New York has taken enough of a turn to the right that he has a real shot at the Senate, but will still need to bank on a successful "fusion" campaign -- despite the fact that what works in New York City may not play in the Catskills. Despite the fact that New York City mayors have a long-running record of failing to parley local office into a state or beltway career, I suspect he'd actually have a real shot at Moynihan's seat.

Will Rudy mentor Newt?
And he'd easily find his place in DC -- teaching Newt a few new (York) tricks about REAL meanness.

'Nuff said.

Dave "Doctor" Gonzo