A Vindictive GIuliani Should Not Be President

By Raanan Geberer
Originally Published in Brooklyn Eagle

“You are devoting your life to weasels! You must be mentally sick!” So said then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on his radio show to a caller who had protested the city’s decision to prohibit people to keep ferrets as house pets.
Another time, when a different caller complained that the mayor had appointed too many employees of “white-shoe law firms” to important positions, Giuliani replied, “Let me give you another point of view other than the Marxist class concept you are using.” (This columnist doesn’t believe “Marxist” is a dirty word, by the way, but that’s another story).
Much of the country as a whole is familiar with Giuliani only as the Hero of 9/11, the Time Magazine man of the year from 2001. Although there has been controversy about Giuliani’s role in responding to the 9/11 disaster, we’ll leave that alone – for the time being. Instead, we’ll examine the pre-9/11 Rudy Giuliani, meaning the Giuliani whom New Yorkers knew for most of his tenure as mayor.
And when we look at the statements he made above, and other actions of his, we’ll leave no doubt that he would be a terrible president.
Yes, Giuliani was a very good federal prosecutor, successfully taking on the Mafia and other gangsters. And yes, Giuliani was dedicated to fighting crime once he became mayor. Yes, the murder rate kept falling throughout his mayoralty. But, as Joe Conason pointed out in Salon magazine http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/11/16/giuliani_kerik/, crime in the city started to fall three years before Rudy took office, and indeed went on a downswing nationally, not only in New York. And also, look what happened to the guy who was actually responsible for many of these anti-crime strategies: Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Giuliani basically forced Bratton out of office, and at least one report said that one of the reasons is that Bratton, in his press releases, didn’t give the mayor the credit for these innovations and didn’t always start off his speeches with praise for the mayor.
Now, let’s look at the community gardens issue. Reportedly because some protesters at his second inauguration held up signs saying “Save the Community Gardens,” shortly afterward Giuliani announced a policy of selling off the city’s several hundred city-owned community gardens, which were basically empty lots where the city had allowed community groups to establish green spaces. He maintained that the city needed the spots for housing, but when critics countered that there were hundreds of other empty lots that could be used for development, he remained adamant. It took Bette Midler and her well-heeled organization to buy up about half of the gardens and save them for the neighbors’ enjoyment.
And what about then-Councilman Steve DiBrienza? Steve angered Giuliani by voting against an administration-sponsored bill on homeless shelters. So, in return, Giuliani tried to evict several non-profit agencies – including one serving the mentally ill and another for toddlers and their parents – from a city-owned building in DiBrienza’s district. The attempted failed, but the incident bore out the picture of a petty, vindictive man.
Finally, let’s not forget Giuliani’s much-remarked-upon insensitivity toward minorities. When he became mayor, he beefed up the NYPD Street Crime Unit and gave them wide powers. Many police abuses followed. When Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, was killed by an undercover police officer during a drug sting outside a Manhattan bar, what did the Giuliani administration do? They released Dorimond’s arrest record.
And last but not least, if Giuliani was so pro-police, why did he constantly fight against giving them raises?
Giuliani as president would be a disaster. He very well might respond to another 9/11 by declaring martial law, and might deliberately pick fights with rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea with disastrous results.
Once upon a time, there was another mayor who was also known for his sarcasm, his fondness for wealthy real estate developers and his insensitivity toward minorities. His name was Ed Koch. And even Koch, when he wrote a book about Giuliani, called it “Nasty Man.”
That in itself would tell you something.