California Conservatives may not be great in number but they do have a lot of money. That must be why former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani — a flaming liberal on social issues like abortion and gay rights — is planning to speak at the state Republican convention in February.
An article yesterday in the San Franciso Chronicle about Giuliani’s upcoming visit gave this glowing account of his resume:
Giuliani, called “America’s mayor” after his formidable performance in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, already has established a camaraderie with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — a Republican in the same moderate, bipartisan mold who also supports gay rights, abortion rights and stem cell research.
“Formidable?” I guess I was watching another channel when Rudy was being formidable. All I saw from him after the 9/11 attacks was a mayor doing his job.
We are disaster prone here in California but when our elected officials do their jobs efficiently in the aftermath of an earthquake, a riot or a brushfire, we don’t make them into saints — hell, sometimes we don’t even reelect them.
My theory is that Rudy was deified by the national media, which happens to be headquartered in his hometown, because, as individuals whose city had been attacked, they were scared and needed a leader. They were smart enough to know that Pres. Bush was play-acting at leadership that day he climbed on the rubble of the World Trade Center and shouted bumpersticker slogans at firefighters — and Giuliani was at least competent to lead.
As fouled up as New York City can be, its residents do not live with the constant presence of looming disaster, like those of us who live in areas prone to hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes. I have a theory that, goddess forbid, if the attacks had happened in Miami, Witchita or San Francisco, there would have been less soul searching before everybody rolled up their sleeves, cleaned up the mess and got back to their routines.
And there is no way the mayors of any of those cities would be dubbed “America’s Mayor” just for showing up and doing their jobs. As that sage orator, Rev. Al Sharpton, put it, describing Giuliani’s leadership after the attacks:
“You didn’t bring us together, our pain brought us together and our decency brought us together. We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor.”
Having lived in New York City long enough to vote against Giuliani the first time he ran for mayor, in 1989, I can tell you what the national media based in New York won’t: Rudy is a jerk. Up until the attacks, as the Republican mayor of a city whose elected officials and bureaucracy was dominated 99 to 1 by Democrats, his M.O. for governance was to be even more abrasive than is the city’s harsh norm.
He is harsh in his personal life too. For a prime example, you need look no further than Mayor Giuliani’s treatment of his second wife, Donna Hanover, who knew he was having an affarir but learned that he had separated from her when he announced it at a news conference.
Giuliani has snookered the national media — witness the glowing thumbnail of his bio from the liberal San Franciso paper — and, as our current president has proved, a pol can go a long way if he can keep the media supine before him.
But Rudy, whose grandparents were immigrants and who grew up in Brooklyn, is not an aristocrat like Bush. The Kool Kids in the capitol will give wide sway to their aristocratic betters, but are apt to turn on politicians who, like themselves, have liberal leannings and have risen from humble roots. Just ask Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter.
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