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In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had Price (Rudy Hits Low and Hard)
The New York Times ^ | January 22, 2008 | MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER

Posted on 01/22/2008 6:05:07 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o

Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a boxer who never takes a punch without swinging back. As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.

In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program on WABC-AM to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. ...That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. What are you going to do, Mr. Schillaci asked, arrest me? He was joking, but the officers were not.

They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant....A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter for The Daily News, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy.

Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel.

“Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,” the mayor told reporters at the time. “Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.”

Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown, was briefly hospitalized and later received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. “It really damaged me,” said Mr. Schillaci, now 60, massaging his face with thick hands. “I thought I was doing something good for once, my civic duty and all. Then he steps on me.”

Mr. Giuliani was a pugilist in a city of political brawlers. But far more than his predecessors, historians and politicians say, his toughness edged toward ruthlessnessand became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.

[There's lots more...]

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: autocrat; elections; giuliani; giulianitruthfile; mafia; revenge; rudyisamutt; whistleblowers
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To: jmc813
you don't believe in equal protection under the law

Neither you nor I know the facts of the case. However, you are choosing to believe all that the NYT prints in this column.

I don't believe either the Times nor gay activists just because they're talking.

61 posted on 01/22/2008 11:09:49 AM PST by what's up
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To: tear gas
tried to cram Rudy down the throats of conservatives

My feeling is that they're trying it with McCain and Romney as well.

However, my point still stands. The LIBERAL elitists hate Rudy. They don't mind either Romney or McCain.

62 posted on 01/22/2008 11:11:28 AM PST by what's up
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To: roses of sharon

I do believe you should have kept reading.... particularly my clarification to one other person who misread my statement and my meaning.


63 posted on 01/22/2008 11:12:36 AM PST by awakened (Remember -- There are no dead atheists.)
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To: what's up
And Madame Hitlery, the other "hometown" girl? Where's the screeds against her?

why would there be a screed against their own party hopeful? sorry, but i just don't find NYtimes invective against him sufficient to propel Rudy aheadall equally distasteful.

64 posted on 01/22/2008 11:17:12 AM PST by xsmommy
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To: what's up
And Madame Hitlery, the other "hometown" girl? Where's the screeds against her?

why would there be a screed against their own party hopeful? sorry, but i just don't find NYtimes invective against him sufficient to propel Rudy ahead. they are all equally distasteful.

don't know how that got screwed up on the prior post, but fixed it : )

65 posted on 01/22/2008 11:18:07 AM PST by xsmommy
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To: Mrs. Don-o

I see that the New York Times interviewed everyone who claimed to have a nervous breakdown because of Giuliani. (Ever notice how leftists are so emotionally fragile?)

It’s nice how they then went and interviewed various officials in the Giuliani administration for their side of the story. Oh, wait, they didn’t do that.


66 posted on 01/22/2008 11:19:04 AM PST by Our man in washington
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To: jmc813
So basically, you don't believe in equal protection under the law. That's kinda one of the tenets of conservatism.
 
Free speech is to be protected -- though not funded by the public when in conflict w/community values (see NEA v. Finley.) 
 
 

67 posted on 01/22/2008 11:19:10 AM PST by littlehouse36 (Why be Europe?)
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To: what's up
Just 20 years ago, all four daily New York newspapers—--The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, and Newsday—-- endorsed Giuliani over Messinger. I don't think they hate Giuliani for being conservative (because he isn't.) They just hate him for being a Republican.

But why are we worrying about Giuliani anyhow? I think he's toast. Unless his buddy Pat Robertson can pull him out of his slump!

68 posted on 01/22/2008 11:19:33 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Just for the record.)
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To: what's up
Are you recommending that we let liberals influence how we vote? Should you let liberals call the shots for you?

Who cares what liberals think?

It is the elitist pukes in the Republican party that I listed who tried to impose Rudy on the party. Even this weekend I heard Steve Forbes touting his favorite pervert for president. These people need a good political beating and they're getting one right now.

69 posted on 01/22/2008 11:19:41 AM PST by tear gas (Because of the 22nd Amendment, we are losing President. Bush. Can we afford to lose him now?)
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To: xsmommy
i just don't find NYtimes invective against him sufficient to propel Rudy

I'm not sure what you're saying. Sufficient to propel him where?

70 posted on 01/22/2008 11:20:50 AM PST by what's up
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To: ontap

Get the smelling salts, the mayor played hardball. Giuliani took over a city entrenched with democrat trash. Before Rudy, nobody rocked the boat and everybody got a piece of the pie. Dems were backslapping and yucking it up on the taxpayer’s dime while NYC went down the toilet.

Along came Rudy! He demanded loyalty or he’d do everything he could to make your life miserable or, better yet, get rid of you. Cross him, screw around or play cutesy and Rudy Giuliani would come after you with a ten ton hammer. The NYT collected quotes from disgruntled people who stood in the mayor’s way.

This is what Bush should have done with the Clintonistas. It’s what Rudy Giuliani will do if elected president. You want change? Just read this article and smile.

But instead the base leans towards McCain and Huck, oh well, we get what we ask for.


71 posted on 01/22/2008 11:21:02 AM PST by roses of sharon
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To: Our man in washington
New York Times interviewed everyone who claimed to have a nervous breakdown because of Giuliani.

LOL. And isn't it funny how many FReepers here are believing the NYT?

72 posted on 01/22/2008 11:22:07 AM PST by what's up
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To: what's up

oh,sorry, part of the botched posting. i said i do not find NYTimes invective against Rudy to be sufficient to propel him ahead of McCain and Huckabee on the desirability scale. they are all three equally distasteful. Rudy’s bargeload of personal baggage will sink him, Huck’s religiosity will sink him [the MSM will make him out to be Jimmy Swaggart were he the nominee], and McCain will have a meltdown if he is seriously challenged and lose his mind out in public somewhere. They cannot prevail in the general.


73 posted on 01/22/2008 11:23:59 AM PST by xsmommy
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To: roses of sharon
Along came Rudy! He demanded loyalty or he’d do everything he could to make your life miserable or, better yet, get rid of you.

That warms the cockles of my heart too, Josef.

74 posted on 01/22/2008 11:24:35 AM PST by jmc813 (Don't screw this up, vote for Thompson.)
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To: tear gas
Are you recommending that we let liberals influence how we vote?

My main point is that the mother-ship of liberal news is fawning over McCain (and has been for some time) and railing against Rudy.

They want McCain and have wanted him all along. Regardless of whether Giuliani gets the Repub nod, they NTY does NOT want Rudy as nominee.

75 posted on 01/22/2008 11:28:12 AM PST by what's up
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To: Our man in washington
"It’s nice how they then went and interviewed various officials in the Giuliani administration for their side of the story. Oh, wait, they didn’t do that."

I understand you point here, and yet I do wonder whether Giuliani himself is on speaking terms with former officials of the Giuliani administration.

But I'm willing to be persuaded. Whom would you suggest?

76 posted on 01/22/2008 11:29:37 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o (Just for the record.)
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To: xsmommy
i do not find NYTimes invective against Rudy to be sufficient to propel him ahead of McCain and Huckabee on the desirability scale

Rudy has been proposing cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% for some time.

McCain and Romney just recently started saying the same thing.

The NYT doesn't like such proposals. They know that Rudy is the one of the 3 who is much more likely to originate and execute such ideas. My suspicion is that this is why the NYT is after Rudy.

77 posted on 01/22/2008 11:33:37 AM PST by what's up
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To: what's up
NTY does NOT want Rudy as nominee.

They probably don't want Charles Manson as nominee, either. That means nothing. Hardly anyone (except for degenerate poofs like Steve Forbes) wants Rudy as nominee. That's what the polls are telling you.

The Republicans who have tried to push Rudy on this party need to be viewed and treated as maggots. They wanted to turn this party into a cesspool. As far as I'm concerned, guys like Steve Forbes can burn in hell with Rudy.

78 posted on 01/22/2008 11:35:19 AM PST by tear gas (Because of the 22nd Amendment, we are losing President. Bush. Can we afford to lose him now?)
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To: what's up

and in the unlikely event Rudy becomes the nominee, he will have provided the NYTimes and the rest of the MSM with sufficient ammo to take him out. his appalling personal life and shady business dealings.


79 posted on 01/22/2008 11:37:42 AM PST by xsmommy
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To: xsmommy
he will have provided the NYTimes and the rest of the MSM with sufficient ammo

Oh, they have ammo vs. McCain and Romney too, never fear.

They just don't want to unload it this early. They want one of them to get the nomination first.

Giuliani they are not willing to allow to get that far. I believe they think him more dangerous.

80 posted on 01/22/2008 11:41:44 AM PST by what's up
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