Rudy Giuliani – What a Terrible Person

While my general political preferences should be pretty obvious to my readers, I have been careful not to speak pro or con against any candidate. I have especially foresworn dissing on the Republicans because anything I say would be both predictable and redundant of other commentators.

Still, I can’t resist linking to this New York Times article on Rudy Giuliani, In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price . Maybe it’s because I lived in New York for many years, and heard so many stories, or maybe it’s because the stories themselves are so evil. Time after time, Giuliani seemed happy to crush those who opposed him, including not just political opponents but ordinary citizens who got in his way. He seemed to have a veritable thirst not just for power, but for revenge, as well as insatiable urge to humiliate his opponents.

I won’t list any examples, but they’re there in abundance in the article, so check it out for yourself.

Giuliani’s presidential campaign has been DOA since the revelation that he assigned New York City cops to chauffeur his then-mistress (now wife) Judith Nathan to their Hamptons love nest. There were plenty of prior nasty stories – how could there not be, about a guy who annulled his first marriage after 14 years and informed his second wife he was divorcing her via press conference? But apparently “chauffeurgate” – which earned Giuliani the nickname “America’s Playa” – was the last straw.

There are people out there, I know, who see Giuliani as both the strong leader they crave, and the most normal of the Republican lineup. He’s not a patently phony robocandidate, nor a religious zealot, nor a warmonger, nor a friend to racists.

But he is despicable.