Rudy is one nasty mofo.

[AlCzervik]

A must read imo.

January 22, 2008
THE LONG RUN
In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price

By MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER
Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punch without swinging back. As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.

In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program on WABC-AM to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. When the call yielded no results, Mr. Schillaci turned to The Daily News, which then ran a photo of the red light and this front page headline: “GOTCHA!”

That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. What are you going to do, Mr. Schillaci asked, arrest me? He was joking, but the officers were not.

They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter for The Daily News, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy.

Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel.

“Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,” the mayor told reporters at the time. “Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.”

Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown, was briefly hospitalized and later received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. “It really damaged me,” said Mr. Schillaci, now 60, massaging his face with thick hands. “I thought I was doing something good for once, my civic duty and all. Then he steps on me.”

Mr. Giuliani was a pugilist in a city of political brawlers. But far more than his predecessors, historians and politicians say, his toughness edged toward ruthlessnessand became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.

After AIDS activists with Housing Works loudly challenged the mayor, city officials sabotaged the group’s application for a federal housing grant. A caseworker who spoke of missteps in the death of a child was fired. After unidentified city workers complained of pressure to hand contracts to Giuliani-favored organizations, investigators examined not the charges but the identity of the leakers.

“There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’ ” said Marilyn Gelber, who served as environmental commissioner under Mr. Giuliani. “People were marked for destruction for disloyal jokes.”

Mr. Giuliani paid careful attention to the art of political payback. When former Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins spoke publicly of Mr. Giuliani’s foibles, mayoral aides removed their official portraits from the ceremonial Blue Room at City Hall. Mr. Koch, who wrote a book titled “Giuliani: Nasty Man,” shrugs.

lots more at link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/us/politics/22giuliani.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[niyad]

1. I saw that this morning. the guy has ALWAYS given me the creeps.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. No wonder the Republican PTB want him in the race

I've also always contended that he has the goods on some powerful GOP folks, which "earned" him the right to be a candidate. Just hope they don't rig the system to let him win--don't see how they can, because even Republican voters recognize garbage when they see it.

[AlCzervik]

3. his loyalty bs reminds me of the Bushies.

[thoughtcrime1984]

4. He might be even more ruthless than Bush

That's the one person that I absolutely cannot live with as President.

[peaches2003]

7. He'd make Bush look sane

If Rudy were to get elected we would be living in a police state.

[Cassandra]

5. Rudy got sued constantly...

sometimes by other city agencies to whom he refused to give the information to which they were legally entitled, and the taxpayers footed every bill. Sometimes he was sued repeatedly over the same problem.

[bluethruandthru]

6. This is the kind of info that needs to get out to the masses.

I have some disenchanted repub friends who think Rudy is the savior! They see him as being their most electable candidate! They constantly cite how he "cleaned up New York City" and made it a safe place. And they think Democrats will like him because he's pro-choice. They need to know what a creep this guy really is.