Beauty Gives Way to the Beast

Ellis Henican: September 30, 2001

Like all great human struggles, this one pits good against bad. Only this time, good and bad both reside in a single man.

While the good Rudy was publicly devoting himself to the city's recovery from the World Trade Center terror attacks, the bad Rudy was busy somewhere else.

The good Rudy was a sight to behold, springing into action 19 days ago. Consoling the grieving families. Coordinating the rescue efforts. Putting a stoic face on the city's brave response. The good Rudy looked so busy there for a while - answering questions, barking orders at deputy commissioners, giving tours of Ground Zero to visiting politicos - that a lot of people somehow forgot that the bad Rudy existed at all.

Folks all over America were comparing Rudy Giuliani quite favorably to the president of the United States, which is saying something in a country that teetered on the brink of war.

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And who could blame them? The good Rudy was all over the TV, hour after hour, rising to greatness right before a grateful nation's eyes.

Who knew the bad Rudy was out of his cage? Who knew, so soon after this terrible tragedy, the bad Rudy was already out roaming around?

You know the bad Rudy. Anyone who's been paying attention for the past 7 3/4 years is well acquainted with him. He's the one who has thoughtlessly divided the communities of New York. He's the one who shrugged at police brutality. He's the one who treated the First Amendment like a minority opinion that could simply be ignored. He's the one who tortured the Brooklyn Museum. He's the one who wasn't satisfied just to bust up his family. He had to have his lawyer call his wife an unfit mother on Mother's Day.

That Rudy.

He's the one who had only two reactions to the people in his life: They were 100 percent supportive of everything he thought and did, or they were evil traitors to be attacked, ridiculed or discarded, preferably all three at once.

It was never a simple picture. The bad Rudy was never far from the good. He was the shadow that came with the light. And amid the crime reductions, the economic revival, the dramatic taming of New York - all those things the good Rudy took so many bows for - people just learned to live with the bad Rudy, too.

So we probably shouldn't have been surprised in the past 2 1/2 weeks. At the good Rudy's greatest moment of triumph, of course, the bad Rudy would eventually appear.

Oh, the mayor's bad self was quiet for a while. Tiptoeing around. Scheming with his political advisers. Sending his lawyers busily to their Lexis accounts. Beginning to deal with third-party functionaries. Trying to find some end-run around the law.

At first, no one even noticed the bad Rudy was loose.

Only now can we see how busy he's been, and how soon he got busy after the World Trade Center attacks.

The goal of all this activity - hidden at first, public now - was as bold and as brazen as the bad Rudy had ever been. This time, he wanted to stop the calendar.

The calendar said that Rudy Giuliani's term as mayor of New York would be ending at midnight on Dec. 31.

The bad Rudy said, "Not necessarily."

What's been so sad in the past few days, as the bad Rudy has elbowed his way in front of the good, is that a great opportunity is slipping away.

The unity of purpose that has been achieved is being undermined by the mayor's political divisiveness.

His aura of altruism has now been bruised.

His motives, which seemed so pure, are all of a sudden suspect again.

It was unnecessary. It was greedy. It is damaging - to him and to us.

Now, as the city moves toward what should have been an orderly transfer of power, we face the closest thing we've ever seen to an attempted municipal coup.

The official goodbye date is still three months away. The crisis we now are pulling ourselves out of - huge and serious and dreadful though it is - will have occurred 111 days before the new mayor arrives.

Not a long time in the sweep of human history, perhaps. But plenty long enough for the new guy to find his way around.

And all this time, the city is already getting back to something remotely like normal, as this city so brilliantly does.

Strange, but getting back to normal is what the good Rudy was urging all along.

So eloquently.

"Go back to normal," the good Rudy said.

"Come to New York. Go to a play. Spend some money."

That was the good Rudy talking. You'll notice he didn't say anything about the calendar.