Hey, I'm thinking of switching to an all-curling blog. Here's a taste:
What was U.S. Skip Pete Fenson thinking? The clear play in the tenth end was to take out the Italian stone in the four-foot and set up a guard on the American shot rock! We had last rock, for crying out loud! So much for this bonspiel.
Pretty good, huh? Now all I need is a fucking clue what the hell I'm talking about. Oh, well, back to politics. Actually, I have the same problem there, but it doesn't bother me in the least.
Today's candidate Wiki-purloin is Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City. Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani III was born on May 28th, 1944 in Brooklyn, NY. His father was Harold Angelo Giuliani and his mother was Helen C. D'Avanzo, both children of Italian immigrants. He was raised in Garden City South on Long Island and attended Manhattan College before graduating from New York University School of Law magna cum laude in 1968. Also in that year he married his first wife Regina Peruggi, and clerked for a US District Court judge after graduation. His marriage to Peruggi was annulled by the Catholic Church in 1982.
Giuliani has been a registered Democrat, Independent, and Republican. No word on whether the Green Party is next, but I wouldn't bet on it. Giuliani became an Assistant US Attorney in 1970, and moved on to the Justice Department in 1975 as Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General. He became the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1983, where he prosecuted Michael Douglas' "Greed is good" inspirations Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken for various insider trading charges. Giuliani also went after organized crime and drug dealers during his tenure.
Giuliani ran for Mayor of New York in 1989, losing to David Dinkins in a very close race. He faced off against Dinkins again in 1993, this time winning by a few percentage points. He was re-elected almost by affirmation in 1997, and was forced to give up his post due to term limits after the 2001 election. During Giuliani's eight years in office, crime rates in the city significantly decreased, although it is impossible to determine what effect his administration had on these results. Giuliani pursued a strategy of aggressively cracking down on minor offenses such as jaywalking and littering with the idea that this would send a signal that order would be maintained. He also helped clean up Times Square, removing adult establishments and encouraging family-oriented chain restaurants and other mass media entities to move in. His tactics raised criticism from minority groups who felt unfairly targeted by what they felt was out-of-control, thuggish police behavior. In 1999, for example, unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo was shot 19 times and killed by police for reaching into his jacket when they came to his apartment to question him. This followed a 1997 case in which Haitian immigrant Abner Louima was viciously sodomized with a mop handle by cops after a disturbance outside a nightclub.
Giuliani formed an exploratory committee to run for the New York State Senate seat ultimately won by Hillary Clinton. He dropped out of the race due to prostate cancer and due to the discovery of his extra-marital affair with Judith Nathan, a former pharmaceutical sales representative whom he later married. At one point during his separation and divorce from his first wife, Donna Hanover, Hanover was still living in Gracie Mansion, and Giuliani was living in the apartment of his gay friend Howard Koeppel and Koeppel's partner, Mark Hsiao.
The Mayor's rise to national prominence, of course, took place following the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani was almost universally praised for his leadership on the day of the attacks and the days and weeks that followed, and was even named Time's Person Of The Year for 2001. He requested, and was given, an unprecedented 3-month extension on his term, which finally ended in April of 2002.
After his mayoralty, Giuliani entered private business, starting the security consulting firm Giuliani Partners. One of the partners was former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, whom Giuliani recommended to replace Tom Ridge as Secretary of Homeland Security. Unfortunately for Giuliani, it was discovered, among several other revelations, that Kerik had been taking advantage of a city-owned apartment near the World Trade Center site, which had been set up as a haven for stressed out relief workers, to engage in romantic trysts with his mistress, publisher Judith Regan. Giuliani has since joined the Houston-based law firm Bracewell & Giuliani (formerly Bracewell & Patterson) while still running his original consulting firm.
Campaign finance records (that can be found on the web anyway) aren't very helpful for Giuliani, since he has never run for national office. His 1997 mayoral run records don't show any obvious corporate benefactors, although Koeppel, a car dealer, and Invemed Associates, a law firm led by Kenneth Langone, a Home Depot board member, appear to be large fund raisers. His association with Bracewell, which defends several energy clients, would suggest that he is looking to become friendly with George W. Bush's circle of contributors.
Giuliani's second marriage, to former WPIX news anchor Hanover, produced his only children, son Andrew and daughter Caroline. Andrew, age 7 at the time, made himself infamous and fodder for parody by Saturday Night Live's Chris Farley by climbing all over his father during Giuliani's first inaugural address. Andrew is now 18 and dating Olympic Gold Medal skater Sarah Hughes.
Baggage, baggage, baggage. Rudy has it in spades. He's being named a front runner for 2008, but I don't see it. Once the press and his GOP opponents get done untangling his extra-marital affairs, his moderate social politics including a pro-choice stance on abortion and generally pro-gay leanings, the whole Bernie Kerik mess, Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo, and the fact that he comes from New York, I can't imagine the Republican Party giving him the top of the ticket. No way, no how. Now, the Green Party, that's another story.
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