Fix Political Hall of Fame: The Case for Rudy Giuliani

With the Yankees back in the World Series and a new New York magazine profile of Hizzoner getting lots of attention, now seems like the right time to debate whether former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) deserves a spot in the Fix Political Hall of Fame.

Giuliani is one of three mayors under consideration. We've made the case for and against the late Richard M. Daley's inclusion in the Hall and we will do the same for former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia soon.

But, this week it's all Rudy, all the time. Today we make the case for Rudy to make the Hall; tomorrow we argue against it.

From Ungovernable to Model Metropolis

It's easy to forget in hindsight but the New York City that Giuliani took over in 1994 was a far different place than he left it in 2001.

Republican strategist David Garth famously referred to serving as the mayor of the Big Apple as the "second toughest job in America" (a line Mayor Michael Bloomberg has borrowed in his bid for a third term next week) and in the early 1990s the job was living up to that billing as crime -- and the lingering echoes of the Crown Heights riots -- made the city feel like it was teetering on the brink of chaos and the city shed more than 300,000 jobs in a three-year period under then Mayor David Dinkins (D).

Giuliani, who ran on his tough-on-crime record as a former U.S. Attorney, immediately instituted a series of policies -- most notably a severe curtailing on strip joints and sex shops with a particular focus on Times Square and his crackdown on squeegee men -- that were aimed at improving morale among the city's residents and its reputation among non New Yorkers.

It worked. Starting in 1995 with Disney's decision to move its productions into a 42nd Street theater, Giuliani's unapologetically intolerant approach to the sex business led to a revival of that area which, as anyone who has been to New York City lately knows, now is a gigantic tourist trap/economic moneymaker.

While some of the city's improvements during Giuliani's eight years in office are rightly attributed to the booming economy under then President Bill Clinton, it's also impossible to ignore the active role Hizzoner played in the city's transformation.

Leadership in Terror

While the bulk of the accomplishments of his time as Mayor were focused on the sort of quality of life issues mentioned above, it was the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 that came to define what Giuliani meant to New York.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Giuliani was a constant presence on local and national television -- reassuring viewers that while New York City had been knocked down it would get up. He soon became known as "America's Mayor", the face not just of a resilient city but of a nation that would not bow before terrorists.

Giuliani, who was term limited out of office just a few months after the attacks, became a coveted speaker on the Republican fundraising circuit and was given a prominent speaking role at the party's 2004 national convention, which was held, for symbolic reasons, in Hizzoner's hometown.

In that speech, Giuliani sounded the defiant tone that Americans (or at least a segment of the country) had grown to love. "It was here in 2001 in the same lower Manhattan that President George W. Bush stood amid the fallen towers of the World Trade Center, and he said to the barbaric terrorists who attacked us, 'They will hear from us,' said Giuliani. "Well -- Well they heard from us."

Giuliani's reputation as a calm-under-fire leader was the foundation of his bid for the 2008 presidential nomination and, it is a testament to the power of Sept. 11 on America's psyche that a pro-choice and pro-gay rights Republican was taken as seriously as Giuliani was during the primary fight.

A Sense of Pride

As New York City began its recovery, Giuliani emerged as a feisty and high profile defender of the city's renaissance.

Giuliani was New York City anthropomorphized -- the gritty underdog who refused to ignore the slings and arrows shot at it from the rest of the country.

In one famous episode, Hizzoner extracted an apology from then House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) who had condemned the city's "culture of waste." Said Giuliani: "The statements that he made are incorrect, inaccurate and stereotype New York in a very unfair way."

Time and again, Giuliani used his rising national profile to change the perception of New York City from crime-ridden hell hole into the most interesting, active and underappreciated city in the world.

"Economists call it confidence. I call it attitude," William McDonough, the then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York told the New York Daily News in 1998. "New York has attitude again -- we feel this is the place, the best city in the world."

That attitude adjustment would not have been possible without Giuliani.