What's the Matter with Rudy?

 

You've gotta wonder about Rudy Giuliani. You really do! I met the man once. It was at the north east corner of Madison Avenue 86th Street. At the time no alarm bells went off in my mind regarding his personal, psychological condition - as if any could. It was a brief hello on my part and a "Good to see you, pal" on his. Of course, I was not his "pal", nor was he mine. I had never seen him before and I haven't seen him since. We were two ships passing in the night - although it was around midday. My knowledge of the man comprises solely from what I read in the papers or watch on YouTube. But I've got to tell you that my history as a Rudy watcher goes back nearly forty years, which is an awfully long time by any measurement, and I must force myself to acknowledge the fact that old Rudy has lost more-than-a-few marbles in the last ten years or so. I'm imagining this. You're not imagining it either.

 

I first got wind of the fact that poor old Rudy might not be all there early on when I read a brief, biographical sketch on his life, and found out that his first wife was his second cousin. That little gem of wisdom raised a bit of a red flag with me. Maybe, I rationalized, if they had not known each other previously and had met and fell in love, that might be acceptable. But according to what I've been able to come up with, the two had known each other since childhood. But who was I to judge? If they made each other happy it was no concern of mine....except that they didn't make each other happy at all. The union ended after fourteen years. It was the first of Rudy's three marriages.

 

The last eighteen years have been an unending train-wreck of bad choices for Rudy Giuliani. Of course the truth could be said of me, too; less the pot be caught calling the kettle "black". But at least all of my bad choices were made out of the glare of the media spotlight. We all make mistakes and his mistakes are a little more visible. But on the day the man threw in his lot with the likes of Donald Trump, I knew that his lack of judgment might be pathological. That was also the moment I knew and predicted that Trump would eventually bring Giuliani down - as he eventually does to everybody unfortunate enough to come into his orbit. It is a sick fact about Trump that most of the American people, I think, have yet to fully understand: everything and everybody he touches eventually turns to shit.

His day of reckoning is sooner than he imagines. The chickens will be coming home with a vengeance. We'll just leave it at that for now. tick...tock...

Street cred?

Rudy's appearances of the talking head circuit have been something indeed to behold. This is not the Rudolph Giuliani of yore that I remember so well from the days when he was the head attorney from the Southern. District of New York, or the Associate Attorney General for the first two years of the Reagan presidency. He was always sort of goofy, no doubt; like the time he and former senator Al D'Amato dressed undercover to make a drug bust. The "hip" clothes they chose to wear on this occasion were positively laughable. but goofiness aside, Rudy was usually a lucid and thoughtful sort of guy - a rarity for any Republican politician. But in recent years he seems to have become totally unglued. He's sort of like Donald Trump in that respect. Although it's been obvious to everyone paying attention from day one that The Donald was dumber than dog-shit, there was never any serious proof that he was stone-cold crazy. Things change.

And now it would seem that Giuliani is within days of being indicted for crimes committed at the direction of Trump. These sure are interesting times.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED READING:

Orson Welles
By Barbara Leaming

I first read this biography of Orson over thirty years ago. I couldn't put it down then. Upon rereading it this week I couldn't put it down still.