Rudy's Brain

The most enduring lesson that Karl Rove taught the American people during his term as George W. Bush's top adviser was to always find out who the candidate's brain is before you elect him or her. For instance, if voters had fully understood that the swaggering, brush-cutting cowboy they elected was under the total sway of a dumpy balding guy with glasses who dropped out of college and believed William McKinley was America's greatest president, they might have thought twice.

Had voters been more attentive, they'd have noticed that this pudgy little man was always at Bush's side, whispering in his ear the same way Nancy Reagan used to do for husband Ronald ("We're doing everything we can!").

Rightfully, this kind of political cheating should be barred under Federal Election Commission rules. OK, that may be too severe. Outlawing such advisers might unrealistically narrow the field, leaving us with the zany likes of Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, who clearly gets no advice from anyone. But what's needed is some pre-election disclosure of influence peddlers.

Right now, with the race for the White House well underway and a score of candidates vying for nomination, we have an opportunity to take a careful look at those who are positioned beside the candidates' ears. The tutorial begins with a look at Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani's chief whisperer, a man named Anthony V. Carbonetti.

You ask: "Who?" And that is exactly the point. The essence of a good candidate whisperer is to stay in the background, at least until after an election. Carbonetti, 38, is the guy with the beefy build, dark hair, usually wearing a gray suit, standing slightly to the right of America's mayor.

Giuliani observers will argue that he needs no one else's brain because his own is so well-developed. But even Rudy's admirers will admit that Carbonetti, whose greatest passions are aroused at a casino blackjack table, is a major influence on the man who may someday soon be deciding whether to take out Tehran with a tactical strike. We thus ignore him at our peril.

Like Rove, Carbonetti has been with his man since the beginning, helping to guide the former federal prosecutor's first successful run for office. Before that, Carbonetti had not been especially busy. At 24, he had dropped out of Boston University and was working as a bartender at the Cityside tavern on Commonwealth Avenue, serving drinks to former school pals. This résumé immediately qualified him to serve as deputy field director of Giuliani's 1993 campaign. It helped that his father, Lou, was a boyhood friend of the candidate's. Even more helpful, Rudy's dad and Lou's dad were tight buddies from the old neighborhood.

When he won City Hall, Giuliani installed his young aide in a little office with the title of "Director of Appointments." Actually, Tony Carbonetti was mostly engaged in disappointments, since his chief task was to smoke out Democrats with city jobs and fire them. He spent his days on the phone, ending careers as fast as he could dial.

The Carbonetti clan's own municipal fortunes were on the rise. Giuliani named Carbonetti's father as the $90,000-a-year director of his community assistance unit. He promoted Carbonetti's mother, JoAnna Aniello, to ever-higher posts at the city's Housing Authority, ultimately giving her a $162,000-a-year commissionership on his way out the door as mayor.

All went swimmingly until it was revealed in the newspapers that Lou Carbonetti had failed to list $150,000 in debts from a failed business on his financial disclosure forms. Curiously, he also held two different drivers' licenses, one of them suspended. The senior Carbonetti had to quit city government, but the mayor found his old friend a new $80,000-a-year post running a Brooklyn development organization. Unfortunately, this job also went off the tracks when Lou Carbonetti pleaded guilty to felony charges for lying to city investigators about his profitable dealings with the group's vendors.

Tony Carbonetti was also forgetful in disclosing his finances, and he was found to have neglected to list $11,000 in defaulted loans from his abbreviated student days. Giuliani's top deputies, all ex-law-enforcement officials, said this didn't matter because they knew all about the old loans anyway.

What mattered was that Tony Carbonetti, as his boss would say, was very, very good at what he did. He moved steadily up the ranks, becoming the mayor's chief of staff in 1999. He proved himself by his delicate handling of such tasks as parades for the Yankees, the big Garth Brooks concert in Central Park, and the Princess Di memorial service. He also took care of it when Nancy Sinatra demanded a statue of her father in Times Square ("Dear Tony," her gushing handwritten notes read).

When he needed a break from these onerous chores, Carbonetti went gambling. He had learned his lesson and was careful to list his winnings on his financial forms. There was Bally's Hotel, $5,000; TropWorld, $20,000, Trump Plaza slots, $5,000; and much more, indicating enormous betting expertise. He also took a trip to Las Vegas with another City Hall aide who owed his job to his father's mayoral ties. Russell Harding later pleaded guilty to stealing $400,000 from the taxpayers for junkets including the Las Vegas jaunt. City and federal investigators were especially curious about Carbonetti's involvement, but no charges were brought.

It wasn't all fun and games, however. In the spring of 2001, the mayor called on his faithful aide to handle one more firing—that of his wife.

Giuliani was in the process of separating from Donna Hanover, his spouse of 16 years, who was still living in the mayoral residence at Gracie Mansion with their two children. For some reason, she had strenuously objected when Giuliani brought his new girlfriend to the mansion. Despite the estrangement, she said, she was still the city's First Lady and thus entitled to a certain level of respect.

Carbonetti was now dispatched to handle this most delicate of situations. His solution has been enshrined in the city's Municipal Archives, where is found this memorable memo he sent to the mayor's wife on May 22, 2001:

"In light of the quite public parting of the ways between Donna Hanover and the Mayor, it is obviously disingenuous and inappropriate for Donna Hanover to continue to act as First Lady or in any other way as a representative of the Mayor." Making sure there were no misunderstandings, he continued: "Donna Hanover will no longer serve as First Lady, and my office will designate spokespersons, as appropriate, to act on behalf of the Mayor."

It was this type of forceful action that Rudy Giuliani must have been thinking of when he wrote these words in his book Leadership: "Looking back, I believe that the skill I developed better than any other was surrounding myself with great people."

WOW -- Giuliani is either a fraud, or else this supposed law and order former prosecuter is too clueless about the corruption of his many cronies to serve in any public capacity.

Below are the kinds of great people Giuliani with whom surrounds himself: He appointed high school dropout and former driver Bernard Kerik to NYC Police Commissioner and pushed him for Homeland Security Chief. Kerik turned out to be corrupt and reportedly mob-connected. Giuliani later testified that he had been briefed on Kerik's lawbreaking -- yet he pushed him for the top anti-terrorism post in the country, and then went into business with him.

For NYC Chancellor of Education, Giuliani pushed Leon Goldstein, who later was forced to withdraw his candidacy in disgrace because of allegations that he lied about his qualifications.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DB1539F93BA1575AC0A963958260

In 1995, Giuliani pushed Leonard Piccoli to an executive director job in NYC's public hospitals organization, despite the fact that Piccoli had reportedly been forced to resign from the same job in 1985 due to alleged substantial contracts and ethics violations.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DC1739F93AA25756C0A963958260

One of Giuliani's closest political allies in NYC, Guy Velella, pled guilty to and served time for taking bribes in return for awarding government contracts.

''I endorsed him, I support him, I've worked with him, I know what a good job he's done for New York City and for the Bronx,'' Mr. Giuliani said. The mayor said he thought the disclosures about the criminal investigation would not seriously damage the senator.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3DF1639F930A35752C1A9669C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0420,robbins,53585,5.html

Giuliani's Probation Commissioner Raul Russi, and Deputy Probation Commissioner Louis Gelormino, later were dismissed from their jobs under Bloomberg reportedly because of their involvement in Velella's early release from jail.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10914FA355F0C708DDDA90994DC404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e

After Ray Harding, head of NYC's Liberal Party, endorsed Giuliani, Giuliani appointed his son Russell Harding to head NYC's Housing Development Corporation -- even though Russell Harding was reported to be a college dropout with no experience in housing or finance (Giuliani chose a second son, Robert, as NYC's budget director, and later promoted him to deputy mayor). Russell Harding later pled guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands in public funds, and to possessing child pornography.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0512,robbins2,62314,5.html

The Russell case touched another of Giuliani's top appointees. Giuliani appointed Richard Roberts (son-in-law of Vernon Jordan) as NYC Housing Commissioner, and Chairman of the Health and Hospitals Corporation; Roberts was later convicted of perjury related to a $38,000 SUV Russell Harding bought him with city funds.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0436,robbins2,56554,5.html

Giuliani appointed his lifelong friend, Louis Carbonetti, Commissioner of NYC's Community Assistance Unit. Carbonetti resigned after news came out that he had allegedly failed to disclose more than $100,000 in business debts and back taxes and reportedly held two driver's licenses with slightly different names at the same time. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to perjury. Carbonetti's son, Anthony Carbonetti, was Giuliani's chief of staff and is now a senior political adviser to his campaign.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ny-lijani255229113may25,0,729089.story?coll=ny-lipolitics-headlines

Giuliani's friend Alan Placa was hired on at Giuliani Partners after Placa, a Long Island Priest, was barred from active ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse and reports of using his role as a spiritual adviser to gain information from victims to strengthen the diocese's legal position.

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=19106

When Giuliani promoted Kerik to Police Commissioner, he appointed William J. Fraser to replace him as Correction Commissioner. Fraser resigned in 2002 amid reports that he had paid Correction employees to work on his home, and had allegedly pushed them to work on Pataki's reelection campaign.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60A13F73C5C0C748EDDA80994DA404482

Anthony Serra, a Giuliani campaign volunteer and high-ranking official in Giuliani's Dept. of Correction (in charge of all the jails on Riker's Island), resigned after being charged with stealing city property and ordering correction officers to renovate his home.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40913FB395B0C728DDDAC0894DB404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fR%2fRikers%20Island%20Prison%20Complex

In 1994, Giuliani appointed Anthony Schembri to Correction Commissioner. Shembri resigned a year later after charges that he used a workday to make a paid speech in Atlantic City, had the city regularly pay overtime and tolls for department drivers on errands to Rye, N.Y., where he had been Police Commissioner, and allegedly broke the law by never establishing a residence in the City. Shcembri went on to head Florida's troubled Juvenile Justice Dept.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E0D71630F937A15752C1A962958260

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/05/13/Citrus/Colleagues__friends_h.shtml

Giuliani hired former Corrections Dept. Chief of Staff John Picciano at Giuliani Partners. Picciano, a close friend of Kerik's, was accused of assaulting his girlfriend and threatening her with his gun in 1998. But he was never arrested. According to Terrence Skinner, a retired corrections supervisor, "{Kerik} told me that I should basically pretend it never happened." Picciano left Giuliani Partners one day after Kerik abruptly resigned.

http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=19361&siteSection=1

Giuliani appointed Michael Carey, a son of former Gov. Hugh L. Carey, to head NYC's Economic Development Corp. According to a "scathing" audit covering the last 18 months of Giuliani's administration and the first six months of Bloomberg's, the organization was used as a "little bank account for the mayor's office" -- reportedly paying for mayoral aides' cars, lavish parties and out-of-town trips. For example, the audit states that it paid more than $11K for Carey's going-away party, and $7K for the going-away-party of Catherine Giuliani, the organization's chief of staff. The audit states that the organization also bought at least 11 cars for the mayor's office during Giuliani's administration.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E2DC143FF933A25753C1A9659C8B63

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/premium/0286/0286-8873007.html

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Candidate whisperer: The ex-bartender who's got the ear of the GOP's top contender

Rudy's Brain