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Giuliani Reinvented
by Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
May 25, 2000"It doesn't mean there's going to be a new Rudy,
I think that's silly."-Giuliani 5/19/2000In much the same way American corporations repackage a product as New and Improved!!! that's been involved in controversy, death or human suffering, Mayor Giuliani's handlers have been doing an impressive job of repackaging him. Keep in mind however-it's only a new package. Inside, the product is as toxic, defective and dangerous as ever.
You have to hand it to the two men behind the new softer, gentler more human Giuliani-they are consummate professionals. It should come as no surprise to find out what these experts in the art of emotional persuasion do for a living when they are not coaching the Mayor in how to act human-they are car salesmen.
While the Mayor continues to get his phony statistics from Bruce Teiltelbaum and Joe Lhota, his ego-stroking from Judi Nathan and his pit bull-like personal protection from Sunny Mindel, it is to two car salesmen-Eliot Cukor and Howard Koeppel-that NYC's 107th Mayor turns when he needs a deeper kind of counseling. With Nixon the tag line was, would you buy a used car from this man? With Giuliani it could be, would you buy the idea of a new Giuliani from a used car salesman? For the media and millions of voters the answer is apparently a tearful, yes!
Gay multi-millionaire Koeppel is a top campaign fundraiser for the Mayor and is his frequent dinner and after-hours companion. While Giuliani is often severely criticized by gay activists for his policies that negatively impact and target their community he receives large contributions from gay Republicans and was the keynote speaker at the Log Cabin Gay Republican convention last year.
Among Cukor's past contributions to the softening of Giuliani's image was the idea for the Mayor to appear on national television and in various press events in drag. This was not merely a half-hour involvement in slipping on a dress and wig for a laugh but a months long coaching effort in walking, talking a and singing like a woman complete with custom-made undergarments. To make his transformation complete, Giuliani did everything but have sex-surgery.
The Mayor's J Edgar Hoover-like performances were so convincing and he took such obvious pleasure in them that it has led some to theorize that Judiani rather than Judi Nathan or Crystine Lategano is the real other woman in the Mayor's life. Some even believe that Giuliani created the adultery issue beginning with the Cristene Lategano allegations as a cover story for something potentially far more damaging to his image as a high profile defender of public morality.
The pink dress was the first of these manipulative efforts to create a kinder, gentler Giuliani and while it got him a lot of media notoriety it did little to stop the accusations of his being a heartless tyrant.. Now, being diagnosed with prostate cancer, the admission (gasp!) that he might have made a public relations mistake by not comforting the families of innocent Black victims of police shootings, finding love on the upper east side and reports by Cukor of seeing the Mayor cry are helping create the illusion that Rudy actually has a heart after all. For those that need the ultimate symbol of Rudy's softer side his press conferences during the past few days have featured two lengthy photographic sessions of Giuliani cuddling adorable puppies, although an awkward Rudy seemed rather anxious that the little doggies might soil his suit.
Not even I ever doubted that Giuliani was human. So are the Kimses, who were just convicted of a brutal murder. That the Mayor has moments of self-doubt and fears of mortality should surprise no one. What person, whether an ex-shoe store clerk like Ms. Lategano or an omnipotent dictator, doesn't?
Many otherwise hard-boiled New Yorkers seem dumbstruck by the Mayor's seeming transformation from arch-demon to instant saint. His recent nationally-televised Town Hall meeting-a small scale knock-off seemingly modeled on Hitler's Nuremberg rallies-and his much anticipated press conference announcing (as I predicted more than two years ago) that he will not run for the US Senate, have conveniently obliterated the man's entire past history in the minds of many.
Giuliani is being meticulously coached by actor-director Cukor for these performances. While Mr. Cukor should receive an Oscar for his directoral work we must acknowledge that his pupil is a naturally-gifted actor.
The Mayor often expresses his great love for show business and theater. As a Federal prosecutor under Hollywood film legend and GE spokesperson, Ronald Reagan, Rudy pulled off some very accomplished theatrical performances, including the public handcuffing of stock brokers who were later acquitted and a staged drug buy while wearing a tough-guy leather jacket. The question is, are we now seeing a genuine change of heart or just another Giuliani performance in his ever-expanding repertory of costumed roles?
If we closely examine the Mayor's statement at his 5/19/2000 press conference announcing that he will not run for the Senate we can gain many insights about this man's real personality. Possibly the single most outstanding aspect of the speech was its total focus on how much he is loved.
"The reason I'm such a fortunate man is that I have people that love me and I love them and they care for me and I care for them. And that's the greatest support that you can have in life. And I think I'm fortunate because I probably have a few more people like that. Governor Pataki[who is known to despise Giuliani] told me once a long time ago that your real friends are the friends that will love and care about you after you're the mayor, the governor, the senator or the president. And I have some friends like that. And I'm a very fortunate man. So whatever I decide, and I'm going to tell you what I decided, I feel very, very lucky. I'm also very, very fortunate because not only I have very good friends and people that I love and love me, but I have, I have a job as the mayor of New York City, being the mayor of the city that I love very much -- people that I've always had a great deal of connection to and love for."
In the speech there was not a single reference to his wife or children who were publicly humiliated by the Mayor's Jerry Springer-like surprise announcement of his marital breakup on national television. So focused on himself is our new Rudy that he didn't bother to alert his family first.
At least Springer's guests know they are about to hear their loved one tell them a nasty secret. The Mayor's family got to hear about it along with the public on the afternoon news. Most teens are embarrassed by their parents regardless of their behavior but imagine how Rudy's two children must feel about their dad parading about the City with his new girlfriend and breaking up with their mom in such a public way.
At the start of his most important press conference Giuliani received a lengthy standing ovation before announcing that he was dropping out of the Senate race. Television viewers and radio listeners (there were no visuals of the audience or descriptions of who was applauding) might have thought the cynical NY media were applauding Rudy. Not exactly. The room was filled with Giuliani campaign workers, his staff (which numbers in the hundreds) and contributors to his campaign.
These are the same folks who filled the 92nd Street Y the night before for his supposedly open-to-the-public Town Hall meeting and who stood outside in the pouring rain passionately screaming his name like groupies lusting after a rock star.
I have no doubt that these people love Giuliani having spoken with many of them during the past seven years. In every instance within minutes of them telling me off for attacking the Mayor they get around to what it is they like most about him. Without exception it comes down to his crackdowns on people of color-crackdowns with code names like quality of life and Operation Condor.
During the same press conference Giuliani described his recent difficulty in making decisions.
"I thought the decision about treatment would be made like I've made lots of other decisions in my life...And I find myself unable to make, really make the treatment decision yet, even though I've been over and over it. And about the decision to run, I was almost in the same position, not being able to make it, which has never really happened to me. I've always been able to make decisions."Apparently Giuliani had no similar problem deciding to eliminate funding for a program giving uninsured New Yorkers free prostate cancer screening.
Medical decisions are always difficult and making such a decision about such an intimate aspect of one's life in public has to be especially troubling. However, there is no question that under the influence of his two car salesmen advisors Giuliani chose to make these decisions in as public, emotional and protracted a manner as possible, instantly creating a nation-wide sympathy effect that dominated the news, obliterated Hillary Clinton's campaign and silenced just about every single Giuliani critic.
Eliot Cukor suddenly emerged as the Mayor's main spokesperson, appearing almost nightly on television with reports of Rudy crying and emotional descriptions of his supposed bravery, candor and frankness. If Sunny Mindel, the Mayor's tough-as-nails official spokesperson, had made these exact same statements she would have been laughed off the podium by the press. Cukor is a professional actor and director with a talent for expressing feelings. Creating the illusion of emotional intimacy he sold us the new Rudy as he would sell us a car.
Giuliani then described his Senatorial and medical decisions in comparison to the official Mayoral decisions he has to make.
"You know, I, I thought, I thought of it as a budget, I know it sounds silly, but I thought of it like a budget decision or a -- or a legal decision, or a -- and the reality is that I can't make the final decision about the treatment if I'm not sure what the right approach is yet. I'm getting there. And I realized that under either approach, that there are risks that I can't be, substantial risks...nobody can tell you in percentages, you know, what the side effects are going to be."
In other words, making snap decisions that will dramatically affect the lives of eight million New Yorkers-like sending an army of police to break-up a non-violent demonstration by NYC's gay activists in memory of Matthew Shepard, spraying the City with organophosphate nerve gas, ordering the arrests of homeless people or cutting funding for hospitals, libraries and schools-gives Rudy no problem, but when deciding something really important like his own health or love life, he is racked with indecision.
What a great leader. Can we imagine Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill or John Kennedy telling the people something like that and being applauded for it?
Finally, Giuliani made the latest in a seven-year-long series of patently false promises to change policies which have consistently and systematically attacked the poor, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, cabbies, immigrants, vendors, artists, community gardeners and unions.
"I think that, I think that one of the things that I can do is to overcome that barrier and figure out how I've placed it there and what I have to do to overcome it...It means that I'm going to try and reach out to more people to try to help more people and try to, you know, when you look at the way in which people feel about what's happened in New York City, most people feel it's been very positive. Most people feel it's been very useful, very helpful. Some people feel that it hasn't been. This isn't -- I'm just not capable of doing it as a racial, ethnic, religious thing, divisions. But I'll do it based on people. There are people in all different groups that feel that way. Maybe more in one group than another, but there are people in all different groups and the way we group people that feel that they've been left out or they haven't had a chance. That's the way I have to do it. I have -- the only way I'm going to be able to do this is honestly and based on me. And I think there's too much group identification in our society and too little human identification. So I'm going to have to find a way to do it based on -- I'm the mayor of New York City. Every New Yorker is entitled to me trying to help them and that's the basis on which I'm going to help them. Not in this kind of group and subgroup analysis."
Even in the midst of his statement promising to reach out to his previous victims, Mayor Giuliani admits that he can't deal with people who are different from him, those in the "groups"he refers to. Anyone who has studied the origins of his policies in the CIA-initiated racially-obsessed Manhattan Institute knows these were not mistakes or misunderstandings but were carefully planned and executed to have exactly these effects.
If like me, you doubt the Mayor's sincerity-if not his sanity-the question remains-what is he up to?
I believe the explanation is that Giuliani's advisors have anticipated an entirely new role for him-a role that goes beyond traditional politics. Being a mere Senator or Mayor is too constricting a position for Giuliani.
The Mayor's car salesmen/advisors understand that in the new millennium a giant-sized personality far more than issues is what's important. Giuliani sees prostate cancer, dropping out of the Senate campaign and even the breakup of his latest marriage as stepping stones to his new tabloid future.
"I think somehow something good is going to come out of this, really good for me, for the people around me and maybe for the people of the city."
The "good", as I've been warning the media since 1998 when a bitter ex-Giuliani aide told me about it, is that the Mayor expects to be appointed US Attorney General by GW Bush. Giuliani was the number three official in the Justice Department under Reagan/Bush. As the new Attorney General he would be in a position to bring his Manhattan Institute/Eugenics-style police state to the entire nation. Expect to receive your personal ID number while submitting to a mandatory DNA test and body-cavity search.
Giuliani never had the least intention to run for the Senate. The campaign was a brilliant public relations and fundraising stunt. Rudy milked it for all it was worth and got out at the top of his game after raising more money than any Senate candidate in American history. Most of that money was contributed by people with far right views contacted by using mailing lists compiled by such luminaries as Jesse Helms, Oliver North, George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchannan.
Now the Mayor's critics are confronted with an almost hysterical level of Giuliani support and sympathy. Are we all obliged to feel sorry for the Mayor, regardless of his past actions, now that he has cancer?
Do those who feel so sorry for Giuliani now ever ask themselves why they felt nothing for the homeless families Giuliani ordered arrested or threatened with losing their children for refusing to submit to his workfare program? Were they equally sympathetic about the ill who were diverted from nearby hospitals so the Mayor's campaign contributor's ambulance service could take them to a distant hospital and rack up a nice bill? Were there tears for those adults made sickened by being directly sprayed by Malathion or the children who were rushed to emergency rooms with sudden rashes and attacks of asthma after exposure to the Mayor's favorite pesticides?
Do those who love Giuliani feel anything for the people who spent years cultivating a community garden only to see it bulldozed in the middle of the night or for the immigrant artists whose paintings were destroyed by the NYPD? Was there compassion in their hearts for the thousands falsely arrested who spent a day or two lying on the disease-ridden floor of the Tombs or for the hundreds of thousands illegally stopped, searched and terrorized by the NYPD? Were they agonizing over those who lost their jobs for exposing corruption in the Giuliani administration or who were transferred for daring to legitimately inspect shoddily-constructed building sites owned by Giuliani's contributors which later collapsed and killed workers? Did they grieve for the unarmed, innocent black men shot to death by police officers while trying to meet the Mayor's statistically-driven false arrest quota, or for those victims' children or families?
Despite all of that I have to admit that even I sometimes feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani. Being human there must be a nauseating feeling in the Mayor's gut whenever he contemplates the harm he has done to his wife, to his children and to millions of New Yorkers.
While people can usually be fooled by creative packaging, there is a level of reality where such deceptions lose their value. Allegedly a devout Catholic, Giuliani must believe in heaven and hell. If he's so self-deluded as to think he's going to heaven as a reward for all his "good work"that's probably the best reason of all to feel sorry for Rudy Giuliani.
Newsday 5/7/2000
Friend in Time of Need
Cuker helps the mayor cope with difficult days.With the mayor's newly diagnosed prostate cancer complicating his U.S. Senate aspirations, and amid equally sudden reports that he has had a close 10-month relationship with an Upper East Side woman, it is Cuker-actor, cigar-bar owner and exotic-car dealer-whom Giuliani has turned to for emotional support more than anyone else
A courtier-like figure, Cuker, 56, has known the mayor for two decades, first turning to Giuliani for legal advice after meeting him socially...In recent years, Cuker, whose only formal job in the administration is a seat on the Mayor's Film and Theater Board, has often been a faithful personal adviser to the tightly wrapped mayor, exhorting Giuliani to examine his need for control and show more of what Cuker calls his private warmth and magnanimity...Some dismiss him as a flatterer and self-promoter. But few minimize his importance as the mayor approaches such big decisions, personally and professionally, and with his marriage to Donna Hanover evidently strained. Cuker has so much of the mayor's trust, he was able to convince him to deliver the 1998 State of the City address in a roaming way, Oprah-style, and to wear a tight, sequined dress for the 1997 charity show by the Inner Circle, a group of current and former political reporters."New York Times, 1/3/99
A former Democrat whose father was once a leader in the Kings Highway Democratic Club, Mr. Koeppel is a self-described take-no-prisoners businessman. He and Mr. Giuliani met in 1988, the year before Mr. Giuliani lost his first mayoral bid. Mr. Koeppel was drawn to Mr. Giuliani's anti-crime platform, he said, because automobile break-ins and thefts were cutting into sales at his three car dealerships on Northern Boulevard. Can Howard Koeppel, a Queens Car Dealer,
Give Giuliani a Lift to the Senate?
How else to explain the impulse that led Mr. Giuliani to give Mr. Koeppel a tango lesson one day in Gracie Mansion? The moment is memorialized in a picture on Mr. Koeppel's office wall. Or that night in September 1996 when the Mayor gleefully took Mr. Koeppel up on his suggestion that Mr. Giuliani drive the 100 miles back to Gracie Mansion from a Southampton fund-raiser in a 1935 red Ford street hot rod, valued at $30,000.Queens Tribune
As Rudy Giuliani tries to keep the explosive police brutality scandal in Brooklyn from burning his fingers during an election season, sources high in the City's civil service note that Queens auto magnate and long-time "Friend of Rudy" Howard Koeppel has taken the lead in telling Hizzoner how to manage the scandal. Rudy's Alter Ego
Of late, Koeppel has been a senior advisor on many municipal matters usually telling Rudy to keep his eyes on the dollar and "run it like a business." In the wake of the torture scandal, Koeppel urged the Mayor to: 1. Tone down the negotiations with the police union and certainly not approve a raise until after the election and 2. Get the cops to go easy on the "zero tolerance"policy toward quality-of-life crimes... especially in the immigrant communities for a while.Village Voice 9/8/99
Rudy's Free Ride
After Rudolph Giuliani addressed the Log Cabin Republicans' convention last month, a press release from the clubs hailed the mayor for his "sweeping"domestic-partner ordinance. Here is a classic case of turning peanuts into pearls...How pro-gay is Giuliani?...If you brunch with the big boys, he's on your side— up to a point— but if you're a person of color or a person with AIDS, chances are your quality of life has declined during Giuliani Time.
The mayor presides over a police force that has been the subject of numerous complaints from the Anti-Violence Project regarding gay people (especially blacks and Latinos) harassed by cops for hanging out. Hundreds of activists have been jailed in demonstrations like last year's Matthew Shepard political funeral, when police violently broke up a march through Midtown. At last year's Pride parade, hecklers were arrested after the mayor burst unbidden into a black gay contingent.
Then there was the demo at last month's Log Cabin convention, when police stood by while hotel guards beat protesters and dragged them out of the building.
Giuliani has significantly cut funding for AIDS programs, trying (unsuccessfully) to kill the Department of AIDS Services and eliminating city money for the nonprofit agency Housing Works, which had protested the cuts...He gay-baited former schools chancellor Ray Cortines, calling him "precious,"and even had a Treasury agent attached to the U.S. Attorney's office investigate Ed Koch's sex life, when Giuliani was preparing to run against Koch in 1989. Giuliani is a master of covering his tracks. But in this case, he's being aided by gay conservatives. No politician ever had a better beard."
Newsday 3/2/2000
Safir Makes Efforts
To Reach OutPolice Commissioner Howard Safir, who says the changes he made following the Amadou Diallo shooting last year have gone largely unnoticed, embarked yesterday on a series of meetings with community leaders
Safir met in his office yesterday with a group of advisers, including backers of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, limousine magnate William Fugazy and Queens car dealer Howard Koeppel
According to Koeppel, the consensus was the Diallo shooting was a mistake, and the commissioner needed to get out and talk to people.NY Times 5/23/2000
After Race, Mayor Finds
Renewed Joy in His WorkHe was boasting, once again, about New York City's war on graffiti and street litter. He proclaimed -- somewhat belatedly -- May as Pet Adoption Month. And by yesterday evening, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was out on Gracie Mansion's front lawn, holding a party for the city's theater community, complete with a performance by a star of "The Lion King."
NY Post 5/23
Rudy Has A Kiss For Woman
Donna Says Ruined MarriageAccused mayoral marriage-wrecker Cristyne Lategano-Nicholas got a friendly kiss from Mayor Giuliani yesterday at their first public meeting since his wife bitterly accused the pair of having a fling.
"I feel pretty good today," Giuliani said at a later event, where he nuzzled puppies and kittens to promote pet adoption.
Lategano-Nicholas sat with Giuliani at the Manhattan breakfast, just 12 drama-packed days after first lady Donna Hanover revealed their "close relationship" was a big reason her marriage crumbled.
At his daily press conference, Giuliani cuddled furry critters for the second time in two weeks - and brushed off questions about the Senate race and his GOP substitute, Rep. Rick Lazio.Daily News 5/24/2000
The Mayor and Those PSA Tests
by Michael Daley
The new Rudy is not so new that he has restored funding to provide the uninsured with the same prostate cancer test that quite possibly saved his life. The old Rudy cut a $750,000 program that offers screening for prostate, breast and ovarian cancer from the $37.3 billion budget he presented April 18. This was a week after he had a PSA test and eight days before he learned he had prostate cancer.
On May 8, as Giuliani wrestled with his medical options and political future, a City Council budget hearing examined his cancer screening cut. Health Committee Chairman Victor Robles asked Health Commissioner Neal Cohen how a relatively paltry budget savings in a time of surplus could justify denying those of limited means the same chance for life that the PSA test had extended to the mayor.
Safir also had been tipped off by a PSA test. "I'm lucky they caught it early," Safir said.
Giuliani voiced his own appreciation for the test to the whole nation May 18, when he appeared at an MSNBC town hall meeting. Andrea Mitchell began by asking what he had learned about prostate cancer that would be helpful to others.
"The first thing I would suggest is that [men] make sure they get PSA tests when they reach 40, 45, 50 years old ... so that if, in fact, they do have indications of it, they can deal with it at the earliest possible stage," Giuliani said. "That's really the best thing you can do for it."
"As of this moment, that money is still out," Robles said.
Daily News 5/24/2000
B'klyn Courts Bursting
After Cop CrackdownThe anti-crime initiative Operation Condor has increased the Brooklyn Criminal Courts' caseload by a whopping 83.4%, more than double the rate of the other four boroughs, legal experts said yesterday. By the end of last month, pending cases in Brooklyn had soared to 10,470, from 5,694 a year ago, according to Office of Court Administration figures. The contrast is most striking with Manhattan, where the caseload was nearly flat, up a mere .8%. The Queens caseload was up 40.6%, Staten Island's was up 25.1%, and the Bronx's was up 22.8%.
Daily News 3/26/2000
Condor Concern: Focus on Quotas
By Michele Mcphee And John Marzulli
The massive NYPD drug operation linked to the Patrick Dorismond shooting has resulted in 11,293 arrests — but is getting little respect from the thousands of cops paid overtime to enforce it. Daily News interviews with cops participating in Operation Condor show that many feel the arrests — overwhelmingly for misdemeanors — are doing little to make the streets safer, although they acknowledge being pleased with the extra cash.
Cops expressed a wide range of concerns — from pressure to make busts to a lack of follow-through for bigger investigations — as the NYPD released a breakdown of busts so far in the $24.3 million operation...Making misdemeanor "quality of life"arrests has been a hallmark in the city's historic drop in crime in the past decade. But many cops interviewed by The News said they feel Operation Condor is too focused on making a lot of arrests quickly, even if the arrests are for minor offenses.
"We lock these guys up, and it's a revolving door. The perps are back on the street before we finish the paperwork," one cop said. "But if we don't make the arrest numbers, we get our heads blown off by the bosses at the end of the month. There is this unspoken quota we all have to meet."
[The Giuliani quotes in this essay that are not otherwise cited are from the NY Times transcript of the Mayor's 5/19/2000 press conference]
To a Directory of Mr.Lederman's Essays
Robert Lederman is an artist, writer and activist and is also the President of the street artist advocacy group, A.R.T.I.S.T.
Click here for an archive of A.R.T.I.S.T. related news articles on the Freedom Forum websiteHis essays and Op-Eds have appeared in hundreds of alternative publications as well as the Daily News, Penthouse, Africa Sun Times, Street News and The Shadow.
Lederman was falsely arrested 41 times for his anti-Giuliani activities and was never convicted of any of the charges. As a result of the arrests, he's won four Federal lawsuits and overturned three laws.
He is best known for having created hundreds of paintings of Mayor Giuliani as a Hitler like dictator which were carried in demonstrations throughout the eight years of the Giuliani administration. Images of his paintings and articles about his arrests and lawsuits have appeared on all of the major television networks hundreds of times as well as frequently appearing in the NY Times, Daily News, NY Post, Newsday, Newsweek, People, The Washington Post, LA Times and NY Magazine.Robert Lederman,
President of A.R.T.I.S.T.
(Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics)
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
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