RudyWatch I: On "Venom" and MoveOn
Seeing Rudy Giuliani fulminate against Hillary Clinton and Moveon for "character assassination" and "political venom" this week was like watching Larry Craig denounce homosexuality.
Recall that Giuliani was famously abusive as a U.S. Attorney, ordering some Wall Street traders to be handcuffed in front of their shocked staff, with charges later thrown out. And since he ran his mayoralty based on reverse Lincoln -- with malice toward all and charity toward none -- his words in the Bush-Petraeus context are an unadulterated example of what psychologists call projection or average citizens call hypocrisy. But since he can't run in Republican primaries on such stalwarts as family values or on guns, gays, god and abortion, he has to overplay the war/patriot card.
Venom and assassination? When former Mayor Ed Koch, who endorsed Giuliani for reelection in 1997, titled his biography Giuliani: Nasty Man? Let's see:
- *When a black private security guard Patrick Dorismond was wrongly shot to death by police who implied he was a drug dealer, here's how Giuliani comforted a grieving family: he illegally and selectively released Dorismond's juvenile record and personally attacked him as "no altar boy." (In fact, he had been an alter boy.)
- When Brooklyn City Councilman Steve DiBrienza enacted a bill to limit the number of beds at City homeless shelters, Mayor Giuliani vetoed the measure, and then retaliated by sending an eviction notice to a city building housing a senior-citizen center and non-profit children's center in DiBrienza's district. Here's a guy who would go to that length because I beat him on passing a law that requires smaller-bed shelters,DiBrienza told the New Yorker. "Because we would not blink, he would throw kids, seniors, and the mentally ill out into the street. I mean, could I have written a better script to expose the fact of what he was?"
- When the New York City media reported in 1994 that Giuliani's newly appointed Commissioner for Youth Services had failed to pay his taxes, the Mayor's press secretary called several reporters to assert that the Youth Commissioner of predecessor David Dinkins, Richard Murphy, had engaged in a variety of financial improprieties. The Giuliani commissioner had to resign but the smeared Murphy fought back -- and a year later the city's Department of Investigation dismissed the charges against him as exaggerated and false.
- When it appeared that he would run for and possibly win a U.S.Senate seat in 2000, he pushed to change a 140 year-old rule that my office of Public Advocate was next in line in case of a vacancy because he didn't want a Democrat like me to succeed him. We fought his effort "to change the rules in the middle of the game...for political and personal reasons." He lost 76% to 24% in a public vote.
It's odd to watch the party of Joe McCarthy, Karl Rove and Swift-boaters complain about opponents who allegedly impugn the patriotism of political opponents. But it's particularly humorous to listen to Giuliani complain about MoveOn and Hillary Clinton for their criticisms of Petraeus...or protest those who raise "personal" questions about his wife and children. For when he had to, he would routinely engage in personal search-and-destroy missions against those who stood in his way.
On the venom front, Giuliani urges reporters to make Churchill analogies when he was far closer to a Nixon governing by enemies list.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Did you see the way Rudy's eyes move when he was on CNN last night? Has he always done that? He came across like the psycho he is. I can't believe he would even be nominated but after the last 6 years I won't put anything past the American voting public.
I am a NYC teacher and I remember only too well how mean Rudi was during his tenure towards teachers. He accused us of all sorts of nastiness, dragged out our contract talks for 2-1/2 years, all the while knowing that NY's Taylor law prevented us from going on strike. Teachers loathed him for his evil rants against the hard work we doing every day. I have no respect for this man. He would be another fascist like Bush who wants to have his way all the time without regard for the needs of others.
Thanks for sharing....I already despise the creep but as a retired teacher, even more so.
Hmmm...fire fighters and teachers....both large groups.
Hope you all can get the message out to firefighters and teachers across the country.
Rudy who attended, (hell he led the LGBT parade in DRAG,) then accepted a HOME a gay couple was generous enough to offer during his UGLY PUBLIC Divorce...then stands on stage with Ann Coulter who called Al Gore and John Edwards Fag/FAGGOT, and called Bill Clinton a latent homosexual....Where's my APOLOGY...Rudy?
You call it "Drag", he would call it aDRESSing the problem.
beyond hypocricy
a whole new catagory
G O P-ocricy...to shut down your website saying Rudy wouldn't politicize 9/11, and that VERY night he stands on stage with Ann-spits-on-9/11-widows-Coulter, and convicted Iran Contra criminal Ollie North.
where's my APOLOGY...Rudy?
Mark Green,
Rudy Guiliani spent 9/11 partying with Ann Coulter at a concert. This is a woman who said 9/11 widowers enjoyed their husbands deaths. Why is there no outrage about this? Why aren't Democrats screaming from rooftops about Rudy's hypocricy?
Rudy cleaned up NYC and made it liveable.
doesn't make him presidential material
Rudy was a very divisive Mayor: NYC is a melting pot and he constantly fought with minorities and other groups. Contrast his leadership style with that of Bloomberg, who has been able to build coalitions despite everyone's differing views. Rudy is a bully.
Rudy made NYC into an overpriced, overcrowded version of the Mall of America. Once the nation's cultural center, it is now just another location of a Disney store. The drop off in tourism is proof.
And Mussolini had the trains running on time. Let's run 'em on the same ticket.
Unless you are:
poor
black
homeless
Those things aren't crimes, YET.
Thanks, Mark for appearing on MSNBC. We need more people like you to spread the word. This morning on c-span's wash journal, it was amazing the number of repubs calling denouncing the 'move-on' ad. One lady from Georgia said that Clinton should be charged with treason for questioning Petraus like that, that Clinton showed no respect for the general. It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad because she's part of that 29% that support Bushco and get all their talking points from Rush and company. It's sad and scary...
NICKNAMES FOR RUDY
Rude-a bega
The Rudemeister
Rudy Tunes
Squirt
Giulianimatopeia
G-Boy
Frosty
Toot
Herr Rudenpickle
Ringo
"Ghouliani"
JulieAnnie!
Fooliani
"... famously abusive as a U.S. Attorney, ... with malice toward all and charity toward none ... hypocrisy"
Good heavens, traits like this in a republican? How shocking. (Dammit... there goes the lack-of-eye-rolling problem of written sarcasm again!)
Everyone has to know that the Republicans WILL steal the 2008 election by any and all means. At least when Rudy is president, the country will go to hell in a ball of fire as opposed to a helpless whimper under Democratic rule. All hail King Rudy!!!
If Rudi is elected, we will all live in Guantanamo. I saw him on the telly last night, saying that America will be attacked if it is seen as being weakened. So I guess the installment of G.W. in 2001 made US look weak. oops!
Apparently, you don't have anyone you care about living on the planet.
What? Republicans are hypocrites? I'm shocked!!!!
Guiliani's criticisms of MoveOn and Clinton play to his base. It doesn't matter if they make any sense at all.
I used to think Giuliani was the most vindictive man in the country years ago - until I watched this president in action. GWBush has given Rudy a run for his money on that front. They're cut from the same cloth.
Excellent post Mark...keep it up !
Why anyone would vote for Guiliani--knowing what we now know about George "compasionate conservative" Bush--is beyond belief. Guiliani continues to say "I support the President"; that nauseating comment in itself is reason enuf to vote for someone else.
and lest us not forget Bernie Kerik and GUiliani and their connection...I cant wait for all the dirt to come out
The only venom I have seen has come from Rudy boy.
The moveon.org claims all had backup documentation. Perhaps moveon cherry-picked their sources. Everybody does that to support their point of view.
Then we found out that "General Betray-us" could be traced back to none other than Rush Limbaugh. Lol.
How ironic that Rudy would choose something from Rush Limbaugh and call it "venom". This was actually mild for Rush. He generally has true venom to spew.
It is a mystery to me how this guy can command any serious respect from people.
What a an evident fraud that Giuliani.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
