Fantastic piece in the NYTimes today about Rudy's radio show he ran when he was mayor. Listening to the mp3's of some of these shows took me back to the late '90s when I was going to school at NYU and the kids in the Dramatic Writing Program would sit around and howl about Rudy's flagrant disrespect for art (he opposed public funding for the Brooklyn Museum's Saatchi & Saatchi show, "Sensation", because it featured, among other things, a portrait of the Madonna made of elephant dung) and for hot dog vendors (he wanted them off the streets). Listen to him berate a caller for being prejudiced against the police (a sophistry that only Rudy could pull off convincingly) and you'll get what I mean.
The thing is, I love Rudy. Here's a guy as rude as direct and as whack-job as the city he governed. He typified the New Yorker attitude that serving it up to you straight was the highest form of respect. The only time you'd catch Rudy in a song and dance is when he'd dress up in drag. The problem is, on a national level, people think the New Yorker attitude isn't respectful, it's rude.
That Rudy's candidacy is being taken seriously by pundits is sort of astounding to me. The truth is, New Yorkers elect politicians the way dudes create fantasy football leagues-- it's all predicated on a "Wouldn't it be neat if...". It's why Hillary chose to run in New York. It's the only state that has the "Why the hell not?" attitude she needed. I think, like Theodore Roosevelt, she has successfully transcended the novelty of her political rise to become a successful statesperson, but Rudy? Fugghedaboutit. Like Junior's Cheesecake, Broadway and 24-hour deli's, Rudy Giuliani could only exist in the rarefied hothouse that is New York. But the man sure is funny.
Labels: politics
