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Temper, thin skin may hurt candidate
By Hillary Nelson,
Monitor columnist
Concord Monitor Online
February 25. 2007 10:00AM
Dan Habib / Monitor file photo
Former NY mayor Rudy Giuliani in October. |
The ferret fiasco
Although Giuliani may hope that his progressive social beliefs will win him a big cross-over vote from registered Democrats, revelations about his high-handed, autocratic mayoral style will certainly scare off lovers of free speech, freedom of the press and civil liberties.
Rudy's dislike of the press was notorious, earning him a reputation for "ridiculously thin skin and a mile-wide mean streak." He had a dreadful relationship with the black community, exacerbated by his stubborn support for the NYPD in the wake of police scandals involving the beating and sodomizing of a male prisoner and the shooting deaths of several unarmed men.
And then Giuliani became obsessed with seemingly minor issues in a way that seemed almost pathological. His attempt to cut funding for a Brooklyn art museum after it showed artwork he deemed offensive is perhaps the best known such incident.
But much more telling, I think, was his dust-up with the ferret lovers of New York City. In May 2001, the city council of New York considered doing away with a 1959 ban on owning ferrets. Giuliani was having none of it, calling ferrets wild animals like tigers. The ban remained in place.
When David Guthartz of New York Ferrets' Rights Advocacy called Giuliani's weekly radio program to press again for the rights of pet owners, the mayor went ballistic.
"There's something deranged about you," he told Guthartz. "The excessive concern that you have for ferrets is something you should examine with a therapist, not with me."
When the caller objected to the mayor's characterization, he was cut off.
Giuliani then began a three minute rant - a lifetime on radio - that reveals more about his own emotional issues than the caller's (you can listen to the entire segment at thislife.org, episode 146, 12/10/99). He comes across as an angry, rude man, disgusted by the very idea of ferrets, and revealingly conversant in the kind of psychobabble that people pick up in the therapist's office.
It's one of the funniest pieces of radio I've ever heard. Or rather, it would be funny if it weren't real. And if the man who made it weren't leading the early polls for the presidential nomination.
[Note: I have switched the top and bottom sections of this article, as the section above pertains to the nature of this site.]
Have you ever noticed how really macho guys will dress in drag at the drop of a hat? Try inviting a football team to a Halloween party and you'll see what I mean. I don't know why this is so, but it is. Which is why the video of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani that's burning up You Tube, in which America's Mayor dresses in swishy silk, red lipstick and a blond wig, doesn't seem entirely out of character.
Recorded for a press roast in 2000, the video also features a lascivious Donald Trump (playing himself) fondling Hizzoner's (Herroner's?) pneumatic breasts.
Creepy, yes. Misogynistic, yes. Embarrassing, you bet. But not necessarily out of character for a man who'd spent most of his career being a professional tough guy. And not out of character for a lame-duck mayor, unpopular with much of his constituency, who believed that his political career was at an end. Who, a year before his reputation would be resurrected in the wake of 9/11, had no idea that he'd ever be running for president.
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center changed Giuliani's fortunes in the space of a few days. His relentless on-camera stoicism in the first hours after the Trade Center collapsed - when our president looked like a deer caught in the headlights and the vice president was nowhere to be seen - calmed a terrified nation.
When several days later Oprah Winfrey dubbed Giuliani "America's Mayor," even Giulani's critics, and there were many, couldn't argue with the honorific. He was even named Time's Person of the Year.
Since then, based on that one horrible day in his long political career, Giuliani has built a multimillion-dollar consulting company. He commands astronomical fees for speaking engagements. And he's announced he's running for president. In fact, recent polling data (realclearpolitics.com) show Giuliani with a nearly 15 percent average lead over his closest competitor, John McCain.
But now that he's taken such a commanding lead, Giuliani is going to face scrutiny of his career before 9/11 and since. And frankly, his turn as a drag queen is going to be the least of his worries.
Giuliani is a problematic candidate for the Christian conservative wing of the Republican Party. He started his political career as a Democrat and still maintains liberal positions on abortion, gay rights and gun control. And then, Rudy isn't exactly a family values poster boy. He's been married three times. When he decided to leave his second wife and two children for his girlfriend, he held a press conference to announce it - without bothering to let his wife know about his plans.
(Monitor columnist Hillary Nelson is from Canterbury.)
------ End of article
By HILLARY NELSON |
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