The farther you get from New York, the better the reputation of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. So it was a surprise to many Americans when Mayor 9/11's presidential campaign failed so spectacularly. Not so to most New Yorkers, who knew that the World Trade Center disaster saved Rudy's career, which had fallen into a giant sinkhole of nastiness, pettiness and recrimination.
Any New Yorker who had forgotten Giuliani's track record got a rude awakening last week, when he emerged to endorse incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In his short speech, Giuliani quickly reminded New Yorkers why he was so reviled by so many during his eight year tenure at City Hall.
Addressing an orthodox Jewish group in Brooklyn, the Republican former mayor warned that failure to re-elect Bloomberg to a third term could be perilous to their safety. He reminded them that it was not that long ago that the city was dominated by “the fear of going out at night and walking the streets.” Giuliani never said explicitly who he was talking when he warned against the "wrong political leadership"regaining power. He never mentioned the name of William Thompson, the African-American city comptroller who is Bloomberg's main challenger. In case the sledgehammer wasn't enough, Giuliani added, “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” "This city could very easily be taken back in a very different direction — it could very easily be taken back to the way it was with the wrong political leadership.”
It didn't take a Kremlinologist to know what the former mayor was falling back on one of his favorite tactics - race baiting. His eight years in office were marked by open hostility to New York minority communities, especially African-Americans. Any one could get a whiff of an old odor that has not permeated New York during the last eight years. That smell, of racial tension and recrimination, was a hallmark of Giuliani's administration. He was openly contemptuous of black elected officials, declaring that there was no point in meeting with them since they weren't likely to agree with him.
Giuliani's administration was marked by one racial incident after another. From the killings of Eleanor Bumpers and Amadou Diallo to the sodomization of Abner Louima in a police station, Giuliani's instinct was to side with the police. When an innocent Haitian-American student Patrick Dorismond, shoved away an undercover cop who tried to sell him drugs in Times Square, he ended up dead. Giuliani had Dorismond's juvenile record leaked to the media. For many non-white New Yorkers, the police was an occupying force, above the law and fiercely defended as always in the right by the mayor.
While Bloomberg has largely defused racial tensions in New York, his administration is hardly any more inclusive than Giuliani's. But by avoiding unnecessary racial confrontation, he has been able to escape any serious scrutiny of his senior staff. As a recent New York magazine article pointed out, the mayor, through generous wage increases and largess with his own private money, has been able to marginalize not just minorities, but also other constituencies that have traditionally played a role in shaping policy in New York. Unions, civic groups, even corporations, have been silenced by Bloomberg's generosity or threats of retaliation.
Bloomberg's bottomless purse has already assured him of re-election despite the distaste for his strong-arm tactics in overturning term limits. He has spent $85 million so far, to less than $2 million by his opponent. In the New York Times last weekend, columnist Bob Herbert wondered why the mayor felt the need to bring on Giuliani and then allow his nasty message to go unchallenged.
Bloomberg's all-out blitz reflects his approach to business. He takes no chances and he want s to overwhelm the opposition. Most polls show his leading by double digits. But the mayor wants no November surprise. So he's willing to bring back New York's nasty past to close the deal. It tells us something about Bloomberg too, but he may also have unwittingly done us an important service. With Giuliani making noises about running for governor of New York, we're reminded of the unpleasant odor he brought to the city. It's not likely to make things smell any better in Albany.
