The current issue of The Village Voice has a huge story by Wayne Barrett on Rudy Giulian's illegal relationship with the Yankees, a relationship that broke all the NYC government's Conflict of Interest Board's rules for what a public official can and cannot get from a company that does business with the city.
In addition to the free use of box seats and what some might call "pocket money" gifts, Giuliani received four World Series Rings -- something no other mayor of a World Series winning team has ever received. These rings -- engraved with Giuliani's name -- are estimated to be worth $200,000.
It's a long and very worthwhile story. I also recommend you listen to the interview with Wayne Barrett that can be found at the same Village Voice site.
At one point the article details the incredible hypocrisy of how Rudy would berate others for breaking the Conflict of Interests Board's rules:
New York officials are barred from taking a gift of greater than $50 value from anyone doing business with the city, and under Giuliani, that statute was enforced aggressively against others. His administration forced a fire department chief, for example, to retire, forfeit $93,105 in salary, and pay a $6,000 fine for taking Broadway tickets to two shows and a free week in a ski condo from a city vendor. The city's Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) has applied the gift rule to discounts as well, unless the cheaper rate "is available generally to all government employees." When a buildings department deputy commissioner was indicted in 2000 for taking Mets and Rangers tickets, as well as a family trip to Florida, from a vendor, an outraged Giuliani denounced his conduct as "reprehensible," particularly "at high levels in city agencies," and said that such officials had to be "singled out" and "used as examples."
City officials are also required to disclose gifts from anyone but relatives on forms filed with the COIB, something Giuliani did not do with any of the rings. Giuliani certainly used to sound serious about the need for full public disclosure. In 1989, he denounced his mayoral opponent, David Dinkins, for failing to disclose frequent-flier tickets to France given to him by a friend, even though the friend did no business with the city; Giuliani called it an example of "arrogance and disrespect for legal and ethical obligations."
As a life-long New Yorker who lived through Rudy Giuliani's time as mayor, I was astonished by how little regard he had for the basic right of freedom of speech. He once tried to eliminate funding for The Brooklyn Museum because he didn't like a controversial exhibit on display, and he once sued New York Magazine for an ad campaign that read "possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for," a law suit he took all the way to the Supreme Court and -- like all the other First Amendment cases he filed -- lost. He also barred all city agency heads from giving press conferences. Only Giuliani could speak about -- and take credit for -- any good that might be going on in NYC.
Some might call these personality quirks. But now we've crossed into new territory. We can now see how little regard Giuliani has for the basic rule of good government: Graft is Bad.
Do we really want another near "dictator-in-chief" president who believes that everyone should obey the rules but him?