What was the Rudy purge?
You mean Rudia? Shown here with his constituent, the hair-challenged Donald Trump, at the 2000 New York Inner Circle press dinner?
Sadly, he blew the 2008 primary, allowing Crash McCain to lose to Zero from Chi-town.
Back when rudy guiliani was considering running for President, i think in the 2007 timeframe, FR mangement got it in its craw that those who supported guiliani were not conservative and had no place on FR. There was a thread started in order to ensnare those FReepers who were guiliani supporters. Those who responded favorably about giuliani’s candidacy were zotted. IIRC, not many FReepers were actually zotted and some of those may well have been paid bloggers anyway. But the backlash was profound. A lot of “A list” FReepers left then or shortly thereafter. it left a bad taste in the mouths of many others.