The answer was no. For now. ““At this point I’m focused on being mayor for a second term,’’ Giuliani told NEWSWEEK as he prowled the city in his huge GMC Suburban, with four cellular phones and a brace of aides to relay his commands. ““But you never rule out anything in politics.’’ Someone, he says, needs to teach the nation the lesson he’s learned: the best policy is a nonpartisan, incremental focus on improving ““quality of life.’’ It’s the essence of politics in a postideological age. But can this fanatical Yankees fan go to The Show? If he tries, will he help unify the Republican Party–or help tear it apart? This is a guy who loves Italian opera, pizza and the ““mystical’’ feel of the city at night. Is he ““too New York’’ for America?
Giuliani has a valuable commodity: a record of promises made and kept. A former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, he made ““public safety’’ his focus. ““He said he’d cut crime and did,’’ said Jay Severin, a GOP consultant. Giuliani is part parish priest, part Batman. Within hours of Election Day he was on duty, hosting one of his ““ask the mayor’’ radio shows. He dispatched aides to help a distraught young mom in an Orthodox Jewish area of Brooklyn who was overwhelmed by the birth of triplets and in need of government-assisted child care. The next day he showed up at her flat to monitor the help and cuddle the infants. ““What you’re doing for that woman is a mitzvah,’’ a TV reporter told him off camera, reminding him of the Hebrew word for ““a good work.’’ He used it on the air.
Off the air, Giuliani can be as cold as a fish in the Fulton Market. Aides praise his disciplined mind. ““He listens carefully and asks the right questions,’’ said one. But others privately describe him as a vindictive control freak who demands total loyalty from the ranks and heaps of praise from the rest of the world.
The same chilly intensity now seems to characterize his 13-year marriage to local TV anchor Donna Hanover. The couple have two young children but are described by close friends as workaholics on divergent tracks. ““Two TV shows, a radio show, two movies this year: Donna works harder than I do,’’ Giuliani said. He projects a blasE indifference to stories about his marriage, which have featured unsubstantiated rumors of a mayoral affair. His own polls, he says, show voters don’t care. ““My private life is my private life,’’ he says. Not if he runs for president. Meanwhile, friends want to help patch things up. ““I just hope that he can be happy,’’ said one.
The New York terrain can be tricky as well. The local press–home base for the national media–is in a promotional mood. That could change. Giuliani’s network raised a ton of money to bury Democrat Ruth Messinger last week. But some of the funding sources, Democrats say, were gamey–and will be looked at closely if he runs for higher office. Eventually, he’ll have to deal with the state’s real Republican kingpin, Sen. Al D’Amato, whose ally Gov. George Pataki may get national notions, too. D’Amato and Pataki remember whom Giuliani endorsed in the 1994 gubernatorial race: the Democrat, the then governor Mario Cuomo.
The toughest test for Giuliani would be at the national grass roots. He rides in a Suburban, but he’s a Volvo Republican: tough on crime, in favor of tax cuts, yet supportive of abortion and gay rights and a muted version of affirmative action. With Gov. Christie Whitman’s unimpressive victory in New Jersey last week, Giuliani could inherit the leadership of that faction of the GOP–if he wants it. He seems interested. ““We have to be inclusive, the biggest tent,’’ he said, expressing support for President Clinton’s speech to a major gay organization last weekend. Such views are anathema to most activists who influence the GOP’s nominating process. The Christian Coalition isn’t big in Manhattan but looms large in places like Iowa.
For now, the smart money has Giuliani running for the Senate in 2000 against Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In the meantime, the world is noticing. Even Hollywood. On CBS David Caruso is playing ““Michael Hayes,’’ a U.S. attorney in Manhattan. He’s an intense, blue-collar Roman Catholic, a caring guy in a chilling kind of way. The character, says creator John Romano, is loosely based on Giuliani. The show is doing well. Even in Iowa.
