The more people learn about Giuliani the more they dislike him.

One distasteful incident I'm surprised hasn't gotten more play was Giuliani's power grab in Sept 2001. Just two and half weeks after 9/11 Giuliani was using his new popularity to blackmail the city into letting him stay on for three more months as mayor.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDC1F3AF93BA1575AC0A9679C8B63

He said if the candidates running to replace him didn't agree to a thee month extension of Rudy's term, he would run again (which he couldn't do because of the term limits law, he had supported) on the Conservative ticket. He also threatened that all his experienced department heads who have about 5 months experience with cleaning up ground zero by the time of the normal January transition of power would quite en masse and would not help the new administration.

Giuliani wanted to get three more months of patronage to control the billions of dollars in contracts involved in cleaning up 9/11.

It was as disgusting as anything else Rudy did as mayor.

If Rudy ever becomes President of the U.S.A. God help us. I honestly believe America will meltdown and be paralyze to respond to any threats to our country. Rudy only care about Rudy! PERIOD! No other candidate do I despise more than Count Guiliani.

Gee, I wonder how giving him exponentially more power would affect him?

Still no new info on who has the keys to the coin boxes of the vending machines in the visitor's room at Rikers?

One thing I don't understand about the coverage of Rudy and other politicians (usually mayors, I guess) is the claim that "clime dropped sharply under their watch."

Sure, climb dropped in NYC (don't recall specific history), but the question isn't how much crime dropped in NYC alone. Rather, the question is, how did the trend in crime in NYC compare to the national trend?

There was a big drop in crime (in the 1990s, IIRC) nationally, which no one really completely understands (one leading explanation is that the crack epidemic burned itself out; there's also other ones, like Levitt's "Roe v Wade" explanation). Any consideration of the drop in a particular city should "regress out" national trends. Which AFAICT is never done by people who trumpet Giuliani's role in the matter.

Rudy is tanking - for good reason. This is great news! Huckabee has also tanked - for good reason.

We have dodged two bullets; a vindictive control freak and a religious fruitcak. The next step is to elect a democratic president and a 60/40 congress.

Then we can make progress in righting the wrongs of Bush and everyone who facilitated Bush's disastrous illegitimate presidency.

There are a few facts that the NY Times story doesn't get right. That 1998 City Hall event wasn't a demonstration, it was an event in support of World AIDS Day. Guiliani had turned City Hall in NYC -- a place formerly open and accessible to the people of the city into a fortress. When the courts stopped him from completely blocking out the public, he allowed us World AIDS Day participants to enter City Hall plaza only after passing through an airport-style metal detector and then being further checked by police using hand wand metal detectors. Then and only then were we allowed into a metal corrall in City Hall Plaza only to be confronted by armed sharpshooters on the roof in case any of us clearly unarmed people would have decided to storm the building.

It seems that many leaders gravitate toward autocracy if unopposed by a balancing governmental body. In Chicago, we have a mayor who sends excavators out in the middle of the night to destroy an airport, a governor Blagojevich whose nickname is Hugojevich, after Hugo Chavez, who decided on his own to give senior citizens free rides on the perennially cash-strapped public transit system, without even running it by the head of the transit agency. Blago does things in spite of having no support even from his own party.
In Washington, we have a president who has no use for democracy if it interferes with his agenda.
Rudy would be worse than Bush.

Narcissism on parade.

And here I thought Bush was the king bee narcissist. Rudy just may have him beat. Scary.

As far as Blago goes, the Governor's Amendment was approved by both the IL House & Senate. It only affects those 65 & older. Any of his sins pale in comparison to Guillani & Daley.

“There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’

Rudy have any brothers?

NOT ANY MORE. Rudy = abscum.

Well, no wonder the GOP is moving away from Rudy.

He's manifestly fascist, in the Il Duce mold. And therefore, liberal. And therefore anathema.

On the bright side, at least we'll be spared hours-long tedious speeches from the balcony over Piazza del'Populo.

No one is looking forward to toasting Il Douche's demise more than I, yet I prefer to wait until the outcome of the Florida primary is certain before I drink from my bottle of vintage Schadenfraude.

There are just enough New York sunbirds living in Florida, and a large, nearly-dead audience of Faux News watchers, to make me hold my glee in check just a little. Not to mention Rush Limbaugh lives in Palm Beach. Polls be damned! Let's just say I'm feeling a little hinkey on this one.

You IDIOTS!! If Giuliani loses then the terrorists WIN!!!

Alguien wrote on January 22, 2008 6:22 PM:
"I'd LOVE to see Rudy over-inflated ego (probably more hypertrophic than ever for having won the nomination) deflate abruptly after losing MISERABLY the general election. It would be like his private 9/11."

What makes you think he would lose?
It's scary to contemplate, but if Rudy won the Rethug nomination, the media would be going on overdrive about how "America's mayor" loves the flag and smiling children and puppies, while Edwards/Clinton/Obama is out to destroy America and hand it over to the trial lawyers/angry feminists/islamofascists.

Don't take the chance, I say.

Anonymous wrote: The problem is, of course, that Bloomberg is just as bad in this regard -- didn't undo the travesty and followed Rudy's footsteps in corralling protesters against the war in 2003 and at the Republican convention in 2004.

I wonder which presidential candidate, when elected, will have the courage and integrity to "undo the travesty" that Bush has bestowed on us. It will be very hard to 'give up' power but the right president will do just that.

Let's make a correction to an earlier comment: if Rudy WINS, the terrorists WIN--because Rudy, just like Bush & Cheney, is a TERRORIST. And we the people of NYC know Rudy to be a TERRORIST with his fascist, sexist, and racist policies, and the pattern of unlawful retaliation, corruption, and coverups he sets forth within. Crime going down under his watch--a total myth, because more crime was commited by HIM and HIS HENCHMEN, consisting of rogue NYPD cops. Don't even allow him to win the GOP nomination--stop him now! And not only ensure his non-victory, but also see to it that he's brought to justice for all the crimes he's committed as federal prosecutor, as mayor, and beyond that. There's a new word for Rudy to learn and face--KARMA!!