Rudy, We Hardly Want Ye

Published: Investor's Business Daily, June 22 2011

A long time ago, in a Gotham far, far away, Rudolph W. Giuliani was a public servant without peer and an incorruptible crime fighter. But that was before he morphed into the man who would be Churchill.

Seeking to capitalize on his newfound fame following 9/11, Rudy launched a bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination that ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own political ineptitude.

Yet America's Mayor has recently resurfaced — Nosferatu-like — to consider another run for the Rose Garden. To paraphrase Fiorello La Guardia, such a mistake would be a beaut.

Nearly a decade after al-Qaida's horrific attack, Rudy's raison d'etre has vanished. President Obama terminated Osama bin Laden with extreme prejudice — thanks to the astute intelligence operation spearheaded by CIA Director (and soon-to-be Secretary of Defense) Leon Panetta.

Hizzoner is the mastermind who situated a $15.1 million emergency command post —with its 6,000-gallon tank of diesel fuel — at 7 World Trade Center. As for the evacuation plan, 9/11 commissioner John Lehman once described it as "not worthy of the Boy Scouts."

The same might be said of Rudy's puerile grasp of economics. Can Giuliani even distinguish supply-sider Jude Wanniski from John Maynard Keynes?

And what of the former mayor's Manichaean worldview? His volatile temperament led to mean-spirited confrontations with the city council and the schools chancellor.

Imagine the diplomatic rows that would ensue if a President Giuliani attempted to broker a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Rudy also suffers from Godfather Tourette's syndrome. He kicked off his 2008 campaign by aping Vito Corleone, something columnist Peggy Noonan found distasteful and utterly unpresidential. Indeed, Giuliani delights in depicting the scions of Italy as vulgar criminal Neanderthals a la Tony Soprano & Co.

One can almost envision Hizzoner tapping Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, to be his running mate.

Rather than lauding his Italian heritage's seminal role in the formation of our republic, Giuliani traffics in vile stereotypes. Cicero, Caesar Augustus, Cesare Beccaria and Filippo Mazzei matter little to him. Nor do Medal of Honor winner Salvatore Giunta, World War II hero Louis Zamperini or Ferdinand Pecora, the reform-minded attorney whose investigations helped establish the Securities and Exchange Commission.

New Yorkers yearning for a favorite son in the White House must await 2016 and Andrew Cuomo, an innovative governor with fire-in-the-belly gravitas.

Rudolph Giuliani should stick to being Sean Hannity's Fox News sidekick.

Rosario A. Iaconis, Chairman, The Italic Institute of America, Mineola, NY, US