Giuliani: Authoritarian Narcissist. Do we need ANOTHER one of those in the WH?

[NYCGirl]

GREAT article about the REAL Rudy in today's Salon. Absolutely worth reading!

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/05/giuliani/

On 9/11, all Americans were frightened children, and in a moment of mythic personal heroism, Mayor Giuliani filled the gaping leadership void. The president looked like a petrified chimp; Cheney was spirited to an underground bunker. Only Giuliani could pull himself together sufficiently to get on TV in the midst of the wreckage and show America that a grown-up was still breathing. On that terrible day our reptile brains looked at Rudy Giuliani and said, "We're OK now. Daddy's home."

And we forgot, some for a moment, some permanently, that Daddy was psycho.

The attack on the twin towers blew a hole in downtown Manhattan and in our collective memory. Osama bin Laden and company did a better P.R. job for Giuliani than spin ghouls Hill & Knowlton ever did for Dick Nixon. He made everyone but the most grouchy and resentful New Yorkers forget that before planes crashed into the World Trade Center, Rudy was a hyper-authoritarian narcissist with a lust for overkill verging on the sociopathic.

And now, at a time when the machinations of another hubristic bully have brought an unprecedented expansion of the powers of the presidency, "America's Mayor" may be our next chief executive. He is neck and neck with John McCain when Americans are asked their preference for the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It is alarming to think that the murky dealings and totalitarian tendencies that have marred the current administration could flourish even more under another control-junkie Republican. It is even more frightening to think what a commander in chief who already has a violent record of abusing authority could do with the unrestrained might of a geopolitical superpower. Given Giuliani's historic willingness to take Spanish Inquisition-style action against threats both real and imaginary, is anyone in doubt that it is every American's duty to keep Rudolph Giuliani as far from the White House as possible?

[NYCGirl]

1. Kick

[CrispyQ]

2. Thank you.

Printed & copied & am going to send to a right winger I know who "will only go to the polls in '08 if Giuliani runs." Not that I have much confidence that this will change their mind, being a right winger & all.

:eyes:

[July]

3. No, we don't.

And thanks for the reminder.

I think most of America doesn't yet know what those of us in the Metro NY area learned about Rudy when he was NYC's mayor. I'll give him a couple of points for showing up on 9/11 (which everyone in NY did, by the way, along with a whole bunch of people from outside of NY), but his history is not pretty. We'll have to tell them about it, no?

[NYCGirl]

4. Giuliani did only what a good mayor would do on 9/11 — and for that he's been

canonized by the people who know him least.

[oasis]

5. Rudy won't be able to shake off the "Bernie Kerik" taint.(n/)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. not to mention....

Not to mention the serial marriages.

The judge in his divorce from wife #2, Donna Hanover, told him that he could not have his girlfriend, wife #3, Judith somebody or other, living in Gracie Mansion at the same time that Donna and the kids were. Boo--fucking--hoo.

[Ignacio Upton]

7. Not only that

His first marriage was to his cousin (it wasn't first cousin though, but still, marrying your cousin is is freakin' gross!)