From leader to liar: Rudy Giuliani’s fall from grace

For seven years, he was America’s Mayor.

Rudy Giuliani was dying to be President
As he connected with, and managed the aftermath of, the greatest attack ever on America, Rudy Giuliani’s calm, steadfastness, defiance, and hope, made him a beacon not just for New Yorkers, but for Americans, and friends of America around the world.

This laurel wreath was in addition to the accolades he had received as the former prosecutor who reclaimed the city from criminal chaos by the simple principle of enforcing the law, starting at the street level. (Yes, I know the “broken window theory” has been subject to  revisionist history by some academics.) 

He enjoyed universal popularity, making him the most esteemed Republican since Abraham Lincoln, or George H. W. Bush in the aftermath of the 100-hour war that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991’s Operation Desert Storm. He was Time’s Person of the Year in 2001.

Because he had achieved nearly Caesarian acclaim, he began to think he could parlay his popularity into the presidency, and on Feb. 5, 2007, he announced his candidacy.

And he fell victim to his hubris.

He was the early favorite to win the Republican primary, with 44% support, well ahead of John McCain, the eventual nominee, with 20%. Giuliani maintained that lead throughout the year, and raised the most money.

Things were humming until the primary season. Giuliani calculated that as a thrice-divorced “New York City Liberal,” he would have trouble in conservative Iowa and New Hampshire. (Donald J. Trump later proved Christian conservatives could look past any indiscretion as long as you claimed to be pro-life.) 

Giuliani skipped those two states, arrogantly some said, and pinned his hopes on the more moderate Florida, the retirement home of many from the Northeast who adored him.

Giuliani figured he would coast to victory on his 9/11 fame, which became the focus of his resume. Too much so. 

In a memorable — and lucid — statement, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden said of Giuliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11.” (Biden lost to Barack Obama and became his vice president.)

Giuliani finished third and dropped out of the race the next day, and — if I had to pick one moment — that was the beginning of the descent from America’s Mayor to stooge for Donald J. Trump to victim of a Sacha Baron Cohen sting to national disgrace to a self-confessed liar.

As Trump’s lawyer, he was nearly alone in echoing Trump’s lie that he had actually won the 2020 election. Nearly every other member of Trump’s inner circle told him he had lost, fair and square.

When asked for evidence of election fraud, Giuliani reportedly said, “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.”

Giuliani accused two Georgia election workers of vote rigging, which brought them death threats, and then brought them into court, suing Giuliani for defamation.

In a two-page stipulation, Giuliani admitted some of his statements were false — in other words, he lied — but maintained the false statements were protected free speech by the First Amendment.

The First Amendment does not protect lies, or statements made with a willful disregard of the truth. 

We will see what the jury says.

Giuliani’s admission ought to bring some reality to the utter fools who still believe the Big Lie that the election was rigged. Trump’s No. 1 election-denier has just admitted he lied. How long others keeping mouthing the lie?

Rudy Giuliani tricked into a bedroom scene in a Borat movie
Hopefully, the prosecution will not play the scene from “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” otherwise known as the second Borat movie, in which Giuliani is maneuvered into the bedroom by a gushy female TV interviewer, who then begins loosening his clothes. It was a classic honey pot prank that the fearless crime buster fell for.

His law license has been suspended in New York, he may be facing jail, and there are two enduring images of what has become America’s Embarrassment:

One is of Rudy conducting a news conference in front of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which some idiot staffer booked, thinking it was the Four Seasons Hotel. The other  image is of colored sweat running down his face from his dyed hair during a news conference.

Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

America’s Mayor is now a bottom-dwelling farce.