We just can’t take it anymore – either this deification of former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani has got to stop or someone needs to explain it to us. Maybe it was the 500th magazine cover; maybe it was seeing his spot during the Super Bowl – but something has driven us over the edge. Faithful readers, tell us if this man is really the second coming of Winston Churchill.
When Time magazine named him their 2001 person of the year, this is what they said: “He is a hero to many, an icon of steadfastness in the midst of chaos. For his surprisingly subtle touch, for his very real tears and for reluctantly taking center stage, Mayor Rudy Guiliani is Time Magazine’s person of the Year.”
Pardon our cynicism, but we have to laugh – “reluctantly taking center stage”? They must be joking – no person runs for Mayor of the world’s media capitol because they don’t want the limelight. And this is the man who prosecuted Michael Milliken in order to get to center stage. The mayor rushed to the site of the attacks precisely because, like all good politicians, he loves being the center of attention.
We have nothing against Mr. Guiliani – in fact, we would have voted for him, if given the chance. He deserves great credit for cleaning up New York City, and making it a much safer and more livable place. As a leader and politician following the terrorist attacks, he did a very good job; he worked hard, was calm and optimistic. But he wasn’t one of the firemen who rushed into a burning building to save lives; unlike Winston Churchill, he did not provide stirring oratory to a city that was under real, constant attack.
Is it really so hard to be your best self when the lights are shining and the whole world is watching? Or is America just so desperate for a hero that, in times of trouble, any leader who has some class and dignity is elevated to sainthood? Or is it because most of America’s media is based in Manhattan, and when the going gets tough their pseudo sophistication instantly melts into hero worship of the most convenient icon? Please use the Rageback to set us straight.
The Rageback process has been fixed. We apologize for the inconvenience.
I do agree that it’s too much, Rudy did step up when he needed to but enough is enough! Stop the insanity!!!!
I would certainly have to agree.
Let me first say this. Nothing could possibly justify the vicious use of private property and innocent lives to do what happened on 9/11. That said, I would have had some respect for Rudy it he had said to the federal government: “Your incredibly stupid foreign policies and adventurism invited this tragedy. Your pathetic ‘protection’ allowed it. Don’t use it as an excuse to give us more of the same.”
That, of course, would have been impossible for Rudy because he is just like most Americans in his worship of political power and salvation.
F*ck him. Kill him!
i am a southerner from tenn. we tend to be less abrasive with our plaudits down here, but, i would like to say something on this point of interest. i recall when the senate race began in new york between rudy and hillary. there was lots of mud slinging and name calling mostly from hillarys camp, but, then rudy comes up too sick to finish the race and they put in the other guy, at a loss for names, but you know who i mean. i extrapolated from that, big word for a southerner, that maybe rudy can’t take the heat, unless of course it comes from a spotlight? i do read a little history , and there is a famous line that f d r is given credit for saying, and that is, “nothing in politics happens that isn’t planned”. i believe that unerringly. what goes on behind the scenes only the suits know. maybe they are grooming rudy for a much larger position. these things take time. let him have his time in the limelight. maybe he will come out sometime in his transvestite mode, you may have caught him in People mag. a while back. he looks good in rouge and fishnets.
Cleaned up new york?
Killed it, more like.
NYC was already the safest large city
in america when rudy took office, and crime
didn’t go down any more there than in any
other major US city as the crack epidemic
burned itself out.
Instead Rudy decided that we shouldn’t enjoy porn,
especially since the city could make bucks by
stealing the buildings and selling them to disney.
Homeless people, of course, weren’t decorative, and need to
be pushed to the outer suburbs so they can
starve instead of panhandling. Push-carts selling
lunch to office workers obviously can’t be allowed,
or jay-walking, or loud music from clubs in
“the city that never sleeps”. And the cross-dressing
had to be the most extreme act of political whoring
for votes I’ve ever witnessed.