Mark Weiss wrote:

>
> Pray it's not Giuliani, bro.

Rudy had his moment, of course, a version of Warhol's 15 minutes. The
guys fly the planes into the buildings and Rudy is In The House.
Seriously, he was damn near perfect: calm, in command, he let the
Mussolini mask slip just enough so he inspired confidence, not the kind
of rank disgust many people felt for him. I went to a "pre-Opening
Night" at the Metropolitan Opera that was a benefit for families of
victims: it was on 9/25 so the whole thing was very much in our heads.
If you couldn't get a ticket they set up seats outside on the Lincoln
Center plaza with a huge TV screen. It was great. Even my girlfriend
sang The Star Spangled Banner at the top of her lungs, gorgeously,
proving she hadn't wasted the money on voice lessons years before. And
when Rudy stood up inside the theater, everyone--yes, all of
us--cheered. People inside changed "Four more years!" Maybe I was
seeing from the inside how dictators are made. For take away the
terrorists and there was something about Rudy that oozed iron-fisted
slime: Armani jackboots or something, hard to say. Maybe it was his
ill-fitting suits. But as the crisis faded, Rudy reverted to type: his
Mussolini mask came back on. But the best thing that ever happened to
that guy was 9/11. That's terrible but it's true.

The best thing about Rudy was his love of opera. He really was a
passionate opera nut. So am I, and I wouldn't want to live in any city
I was running.

> My feelings are pretty much the same asd yours about Lindsay (born and
> raised in Brooklyn, me), ythe only Republican I ever voted for, just
> before he bolted and became a Republican. Remember him walking in
> shirtsleeves through the night of the harlem riots? Probably the only
> white guy within a couple of miles, and a tall target. That was a
> moment. Years later, after his political collapse, he passed within
> inches of me at some event, and it was astonishing--he was so
> beautiful he should have been Abe Lincoln without the warts. But he
> was just another pretty face.

Yeah, the walk through Harlem was his best moment. One of the great
photo ops, maybe one of the earliest before we knew what to call it. He
may have been grandstanding but he was putting himself at risk.

> This has got to be weird to eavesdrop on in Oz.

There have to be a few whackjob politicians out in Canberra and Sydney
as well:-).

Ken