Was there really a time, long ago and far away, when you were admired, even loved, not only by New Yorkers, but by the whole country?
Do you remember those bad old days when New York City was a mess of graffitied walls and subways, trashy sidewalks, streets rife with crime petty and grievous and all sorts of other civic infractions and urban blights, and who could forget what a den of iniquity and ugliness Times Square was back then?
Times Square today.
Because that’s what you are now, Rudy. You are an absolute villain. You are in league with Donald Trump, who is also an absolute villain, and now the two of you slither about intertwined, generating a slime trail of corruption that is damaging not only our American democracy but now, and perhaps even worse, the far more fragile fledgling democracy of Ukraine.
This Ukraine thing is bad. Really bad. Donald Trump is now on the road to impeachment for his proposition of a self-serving quid pro quo in a telephone call,
It was also apparently your idea to have Trump pressure President Zelensky to produce scandal on Joe Biden’s son, who was at one time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.
And then, Rudy, there are your two criminal business associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who have been charged with fraud in an arcane scheme that involved funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars through a bogus company to a former Texan Congressman, Pete Sessions, in exchange for Sessions pressuring the Trump administration to fire the American Ambassador to Ukraine,
It’s most recently come to light that with the full patronage of the President of the United States, you, Rudy Giuliani, have been running a shadow State Department, playing your own game of underground chess with our America ambassadors and emissaries to profit not your country, but yourself and your benefactor Donald Trump.
But imagine, Rudy, if instead of slinking down the sleazy garden path to shame and ignominy, which is surely your ultimate destination, you’d chosen a different path after your honorable tour of service as Mayor of New York.
What if, instead of falling prey to greedy ambition, setting your sights on the highest possible pinnacle of power, you’d instead pursued a more noble ambition commensurate with the good work you did as Mayor of New York City?
How many cities across this country could have benefitted – could still benefit - from your talent and toughness in cleaning up cities and solving urban problems?
What if, instead of setting your sights on becoming President or - as you’ve become – surrogate President of the United States, you had established a non-profit to assist mayors of cities in crisis with their urban problems?
Quite frankly, some of your tough-love techniques could be the salvation of a city like Portland, Oregon, where law, order and civility have eroded under good intentions and administrative cluelessness.
Or if not as an advisor to beleaguered cities, there are any other number of honorable pursuits in which you could have found your stride.
But instead you’ll probably end up in prison in your ripe old age and your name will go down in history as synonymous with muck.
Sigh. Ah, Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. What happened to you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani
https://www.businessinsider.com/mick-mulvaney-confirms-trump-held-ukraine-aid-for-investigation-2019-10
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/768662050/how-former-ambassador-marie-yovanovitch-became-a-target-in-ukrainehttps://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/768662050/how-former-ambassador-marie-yovanovitch-became-a-target-in-ukraine