As noted yesterday, neither of New York's Rudy Giuliani nor George Pataki are going to be the Republican nominee for President. Essentially they are both running for a VP slot, with the political argument being that they would provide moderating balance to whichever right winger heads the ticket.
from the late great Jack Neufield's book.
With our continuing goal to let the country and the world know the real Rudy Giuliani (and to help opposition research along), today we have excerpts from Wayne Barrett's groundbreaking, pre-9/11 investigative critical biography of that uncovered the details of his growing up and pre-mayoral career, as well as while he was mayor. Barrett has been doing investigative political journalism on the NY scene for over 25 years and is a national treasure. Follow me below...
forget publisher's blurb... this is a very anti-Rudy! book
When the book came out, Barrett published his selected highlights in the Village Voice as part of the promotion. Since this was the authors' own extracts meant to promote the book, and all it has been freely available for six years, and he has a new follow-up book recently, I am blurbing more than the usual below. The first tabloid headlines were the petty mob connections in Giuliani's family, including both his father and uncle. Since Giuiliani had made his name as a mob prosecutor, and since he is Italian-American, this of course was great tabloid fodder (and frankly, the least important).
Chapter 1
1. Disney's confidentiality agreement with the Dinkins and Cuomo administrations in December 1993 barred discussion of the memo of understanding on a 42nd Street theater until Giuliani could announce it as his own deal in February 1994. (Pages 6-7)
2. Major development decisions, a drop in crime, sidewalk cleanliness, and porn shop closures in Times Square occurred either prior to or independent of Giuliani's administration. (6-10)
Chapter 2
3. His father's closest friend, Lou Carbonetti Sr., was a mob-tied Democratic leader with boxing world connections. (27)
4. Rudy's average at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School was 84.8, ranking him 130th out of 378 students in his class. His SAT scores were 569 in verbal and 504 in math, meaning he had a mediocre high school record. (34) His Regents average was 79. (Chapter 3, 50)
Chapter 3
5. His father and Leo D'Avanzo, Rudy's uncle, are involved in a Coney Island shoot-out with a mob competitor. (46-47)
6. Rudy's Manhattan College grades led to his graduation with honors, not magna cum laude as claimed. (49-50)
7. Kathy Livermore, Rudy's college girlfriend, reveals young Rudy's idea of the "perfect" political wife, his pragmatic reasons for becoming a Republican, and his ferocious temper. (51-52)
Chapter 4
8. Giuliani's role in the "Prince of the City" cop corruption cases of the early '70s is disputed (80-82); he made no police prosecutions based on Bob Leuci's information. (82)
9. Rudy's dating ways during his first marriage to his second cousin, Regina Peruggi, are revealed. (84-85)
10. Rudy's hyped cross-examination of Congressman Bert Podell was a career-making stunt; Podell had agreed to plead guilty before the cross started, and the agreement was merely awaiting approval by the Justice Department in Washington. (88-89)
Chapter 5
11. Regina leaves Rudy in 1980 and begins a 12-year relationship with a black professor, who runs her college program. (101-102)
12. Giuliani's appointment as associate attorney general was quietly held up for months because of questions about his handling of an earlier inquiry. (104-105)
13. Strangely, Rudy's family criminal history never surfaces when he assumes top Justice post. (106)
14. Donna Hanover arrives in Miami in 1980 and asks where the lawyers hang out. (110) Property records indicate she's still married to Stanley Hanover. (112)
Chapter 6
15. As associate attorney general, Rudy personally negotiated the interdiction treaty that led to the Coast Guard blockade of Haiti. (116, 122)
16. State Department cables and Giuliani's seven-page memo describe his bow to Duvalier power on trip to Haiti. (117-120)
17. Rudy's testimony in Haiti case is contradicted by people he cited himself, as well as the facts. (120, 121, 127, 128)
18. A Duvalier lobbyist close to Reagan arranged Rudy's visit to Haiti and lays claim to influencing Giuliani policies, including pursuit of anti-Duvalier rebels. (126)
19. Giuliani memo to Reagan claims Cubans can't be released into the community because some of them are homosexuals. (131)
Chapter 7
20. United States Attorney Rudy had reason to know Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Perlmutter was in deep personal trouble but did nothing while the assistant looted the federal evidence vault of cocaine for his personal use. (140-141)
21. Rudy seeks annulment of his marriage to Regina on misleading grounds, "offends" Regina. Motive for annulment is political, anticipated by Rudy's former girlfriend Livermore. (143-145)
Chapter 8
22. Rudy's indictment of Ed Meese's friend Robert Wallach was opposed by the independent counsel in undisclosed memos. He rushed the indictment so he could make a decision about entering a possible Senate race over the Christmas holidays in 1987. (168-169)
23. Giuliani killed the publication of annual reports at the Southern District, but a statistical comparison of his tenure with other federal districts and with his predecessor identifies a host of shortcomings.(173-174)
Chapter 9
24. Ed Koch's 1987 stroke came in the midst of mounting pressures over a combined press/U.S. attorney probe of a city contract awarded to Richard Nathan, a purported lover of his. (175-181) Jack McAvoy, a Washington attorney, verifies that Nathan was summoned from California by close
Giuliani aides and questioned about Koch's sex life. (178-180)
25. Koch aide Herb Rickman, a witness in the Bess Myerson trial, says that Giuliani's office repeatedly asked him about Koch's sex life. (183-184)
26. Koch aide Larry Kieves says he was brought in as a potential Myerson witness and also questioned about the mayor's sex life. (184) These three new sources confirm Nathan's comments to the Voice in 1993, and are backed
up by diary entries in a federal agent's logs and interviews with the agent, another investigator, and several other individuals.
Chapter 11
27. A tabloid smear of Giuliani linking him to a Nazi slogan while U.S. attorney was encouraged by Al D'Amato, who was doing anything he could to damage his fellow Republican (204-207). The U.S. attorney's office
accelerated a probe of D'Amato during the 1989 campaign. (214)
Chapter 12
28. The Reverend Al Sharpton was a back-channel source of negative information on David Dinkins to Giuliani's 1989 campaign. (226)
29. The Giuliani campaign leaked damaging and often unfair information on Dinkins's aides. (226-227) The same SDNY agent who probed Koch's sex life looked into an alleged Dinkins girlfriend. (228-229)
30. The Giuliani campaign was given love letters written to Dinkins by several women. The letters had apparently been taken from Dinkins's office by his former secretary. (229-231) The campaign tried to plant stories about
the letters, but no newspaper would print one. (231-234, 236)
Chapter 13
31. Lawyer Rudy put in so few billable hours at Anderson, Kill that partners in the firm pushed for his departure. (242-243)
32. Giuliani played a key role in commuting the sentence of a convicted INS agent guilty of gross violations of Dominican civil rights, siding with political allies against his own SDNY associates. (257-259) The FBI found
that the "new evidence" Giuliani cited to obtain commutation was false. (258)
33. A study of Rudy's "vulnerabilities" that was commissioned by his 1993 campaign condemned his behavior at the 1992 cop riot, calling him "The Human Scream Machine." (262)
Chapter 14
34. David Dinkins questions Mario Cuomo's actions on Crown Heights and Staten Island secession, which aided Giuliani's 1993 campaign. (275-278)
35. The vulnerability study referred to Rudy's "raucous social life" during his marriage to Regina, adding that the annulment and marriage raised "questions about a weirdness factor" afflicting Giuliani's "personal life." Rudy ordered the study destroyed. (283) The study also reviewed Rudy's "arrogance," "ruthlessness," and "reputation for overzealousness." (283-284)
Chapter 15
36. While Rudy's rush to defend the cops involved in the first police killing of his administration got favorable press, no one noticed years later when the city agreed to pay $318,000 to the family. (291)
37. As U.S. attorney, Giuliani relayed highly negative information on Cuomo to the FBI. (303-304)
Chapter 16
38. Ex-Human Resources Administration commissioner Lilliam Paoli says Giuliani special adviser Tony Coles opposed job or language training for welfare recipients, with Coles asking about language training: "What in? Swahili?" (320-321) Paoli was dumped as HRA commissioner because City Hall
didn't think she had "the stomach to do draconian things" they thought were necessary. (321)
Chapter 17
39. Factors other than policing account for the decline in auto theft and the theft of auto parts, as well as a variety of other index crimes. (355-364)
40. Burglary data has been artificially lowered by NYPD practices. (359-361) Assault data has also been lowered by downgrading. (362-363)
41. Police commander challenges Giuliani's squeegee claims. (365) Giuliani's subway graffiti claims are also spurious. (365-366)
Chapter 18
42. While Giuliani blasted administrative bloat at the Board of Ed, fire department managers skyrocketed by 120 percent, police by 79 percent, and the law department by an incredible 943 percent. Citywide, administrators
and managers increased by 46 percent. (371)
43. Rudy courted labor leader Charlie Hughes, who admits to making an illegal contribution to Rudy's campaign (374), and who got two major contract concessions. (374-375)
44. Giuliani talked to Chancellor Rudy Crew in their many cigar-and-Scotch get-togethers about his great-man theories of history. Giuliani also told Crew about his father's physical exploits, celebrating the "bravado." (378-379)
45. At the mansion 20 times or so for late evening chats, Crew never saw Donna. With Giuliani outside the mansion another 30 times, he never observed any cell-phone or other contacts with Donna. He and Giuliani talked to each other about their marital problems. (380)
46. Giuliani asks Crew to cooperate with scholarship program for Catholic schools, saying Crew had "no idea" what the church "does for me." (383)
47. Crew goes to war when he learns Giuliani is lobbying Board of Ed members to approve funding for voucher experiment, concludes that Giuliani is "perverse." (386-387) Crew describes Giuliani's "predator/prey" tactics and
"roomful of henchmen." (388)
48. Giuliani drops bomb on Crew while he is at his first wife's funeral and Crew's aides learn that Giuliani "henchmen" are whispering to the press about the disarray of Crew's marriage. (390)
49. Giuliani and Crew have dramatic, one-on-one meeting in mayor's office, with Giuliani reaching out to hug Crew. (391-392) Crew concludes that Giuliani "doesn't understand issues of race and class." Crew talks about Giuliani's "powerful pathology" and "anger." (392-393)
Chapter 19
50. Rudy waited for press aide Cristyne Lategano to finish the 1994 marathon (406), and scowled at Lategano's embrace of supposed beau John Miller in December 1994. (407) Miller is told not to talk to Lategano. (407)
51. Lenny Alcivar, organizing Cristyne's 30th birthday party, is instructed by Giuliani not to invite her ex-beaus. (408-409)
52. Lategano adopted many of Rudy's habits and they shared bunny faces. (410) She was with him so often, her apartment "didn't look lived in." Lategano began to look more like a companion than a press aide at evening events. (410)
53. Cristyne was barred from Donna events (412) and interaction with the children. (413) Cristyne stayed away from the mansion or in the den during receptions. (413)
54. Donna changed her name from Giuliani to Hanover on tax returns and her family stopped giving to Giuliani's campaign committee. (414) She took such control over any news about the family that questions about Goalie, the dog,
are only supposed to be handled by her office. (Chapter 20, 419)
Chapter 20
55. Rudy's many visits to restaurants around Lategano's apartment end (420). Cristyne's appears alone at May 1999 Giuliani fundraiser, and leaves without talking to the mayor. (421-422)
56. Bruce Nathan says his ex-wife, Judi, who is Rudy's new girlfriend, stopped working in 1979, when they got married in North Carolina, and basically didn't work until near the end of their marriage in 1991. He says she did "Junior Leaguey things." (431)
57. Bruce Nathan claimed in divorce papers that Judi called him "a rich little Kike, Jewish boy" and "Jew Boy." (431)
58. The Rudy/Judi stroll on Mother's Day weekend-with press tipped off beforehand-was a direct slap at Donna, who used to love long strolls with Rudy. (440)
59. Giuliani appears annually as the cochair of the annual major fundraiser at Regina Peruggi's small Manhattan college, and major donors to Rudy have begun giving to her college. (441)
60. Rudy told campaign aides that John Lindsay had a mistress in the building he and Regina lived in during the early '70s. (441)
61. Rudy Crew says Giuliani once told him that D'Amato urged him to run statewide because "there's a lot of action out there," meaning available women. (441-442)
Chapter 21
62. Former first deputy mayor Peter Powers's business relationship with Howard Rubenstein is explored, as is Rubenstein's clout with the Giuliani administration. (450-451)
63. Rudy's tax returns reveal an average annual donation of $200 to the Catholic church he's identified as his family parish, and usher says he's rarely there. (460-461)
Tommorrow: More on how Rudy botched NYC security prior to 9-11 and has been profiting on his phony reputation ever since. Meanhwhile the actual hero NYC workers who worked on the pile are dying of lung disease... including his one token black senior city hall official (the guy from his administration who actually spent time there).