Political Education

The Good is Oft Interred with the Bones: Rudy Giuliani

By James Sheridan

Posted on February 14, 2022

“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” Shakespeare

Many followers of The Sexy Politico are under thirty-five years of age. It may come as a surprise to them that buffoonish Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani was once considered to be a hero.

Crusading Prosecutor

In 1970, at the age of twenty-six, Rudy Giuliani was an assistant U.S. attorney for New York’s Southern District. At the 1974 bribery trial of Rep. Bertram Podell, Giuliani’s cross-examination was so effective that Podell changed his plea to guilty. In 1975 Giuliani served as assistant to Attorney General Harold Tyler in the Ford administration. In 1981, he became Associate Attorney General to Reagan administration AG William French Smith. Then in 1983 Giuliani was appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 1986, Giuliani went after the Mafia’s heroin and cocaine ring in the “Pizza Connection” case. The Mafia had been using New York pizza restaurants as fronts in a 1.6 billion dollar international heroin and cocaine smuggling and sales operation. Mafia family members were convicted and sentenced from between 40 to 100 years in prison.

Giuliani also went after Wall Street’s illegal insider trading and the sales of unsecured junk bonds. Arbitrager Ivan Boesky was convicted of conspiracy to file false documents, was sentenced in prison and fined 100 million dollars. Michael Milken was fined and sent to prison for racketeering, insider trading and securities fraud. Giuliani’s SDNY also secured racketeering convictions against Democratic leader Stanley Freidman and others for bribery. Executives of the defense contractor firm pleaded guilty to illegal payoffs to public officials to secure no-bid contracts. Democratic Congressman Mario Biaggi was convicted of extorting payoffs from Wedtech.

America’s Mayor

Giuliani ran for mayor in 1993, defeating incumbent David Dinkins. He was re-elected in 1997. On 9/11 when the American people needed comforting and leadership the most New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani rose to the occasion.

“Today is obviously one of the most difficult days in the history of the city. The tragedy that we are undergoing right now is something that we’ve had nightmares about. My heart goes out to all the innocent victims of this horrible and vicious act of terrorism. And our focus now has to be to save as many lives as possible.”
Rudy Giuliani

“The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear, ultimately.”
Then New York Mayor Giuliani

In addition to overseeing rescue operations, coordinating city, state, and federal efforts, and the rebuilding of infrastructure, Giuliani mourned the dead and comforted their grieving loved ones. Like President Bush, Giuliani condemned the terrorist attacks while insisting on tolerance and peace toward American Muslims. Giuliani’s leadership helped a devastated nation to cope and heal.

“Look, in a crisis, you have to be optimistic. When I said the spirit of the city would be stronger, I didn’t know that. I just hoped it. There are parts of you that say, Maybe we’re not going to get through this. You don’t listen to them.”
Rudy Giuliani

At a 9/11 prayer service held at Yankee Stadium, Oprah Winfrey introduced Giuliani as “America’s Mayor”.

Legacy

The leadership of Rudy Giuliani as a crime-fighting crusading prosecutor and as the comforting ‘America’s Mayor’ will be overshadowed by his time as the buffoonish court jester to the buffoonish mad king Trump. The good will be interred with the bones.