Giuliani keeps combative style in check By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer

Giuliani keeps combative style in check By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 4 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - As mayor, Rudy Giuliani imposed civility on New York, not on himself.

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"Get off the phone, you crazy nut," Giuliani barked at a caller on his weekly radio show.

"Take some Valium," he retorted to another.

Created by Giuliani after he took office in 1994, the program aired live on WABC every Friday morning from 11-11:45 a.m. and attracted callers seeking advice or complaining about problems from potholes and parking meters to food stamps and finding jobs.

The Brooklyn-born Giuliani clearly relished the opportunity to spar, sometimes chuckling as he questioned the sanity or intelligence of a critic.

"There's something deranged about you," he told a ferret lover, in one particularly memorable exchange. "The excessive concern that you have for ferrets is something you should examine with a therapist. Not with me."

Giuliani seems to be showing a gentler side as a presidential candidate. So far, he has held his temper in check at the mostly scripted events that typify the campaign.

Not that he has changed his ways. A combative personality is firmly rooted in the 64-year-old Giuliani, said Stanley Renshon, a political scientist and psychoanalyst at City University of New York.

"Once the campaign really starts to pick up, the number of questions, hostile comments and commentaries will pick up fairly dramatically," he said. "And that will be the test, as to whether he's really been able to put a clamp on his tendency to go right back at you in a jugular way."

Giuliani showed a flash of this tendency last week, when a reporter in Connecticut asked about criticism of Giuliani's wife in Vanity Fair magazine. Giuliani said families get "castigated and attacked" in presidential campaigns, then chided the questioner.

"And usually, most reporters don't even ask about it. They actually have more dignity than to even ask about it," he said.

President George W. Bush has a similar habit of rebutting criticism by attacking the critic, said Renshon, the author of books on the personalities of Bush and President Clinton. Over time, he said, Bush has managed to restrain that tendency.

Giuliani's advisers insist he isn't any different today.

"There is no organized effort to tone him down. Rudy is Rudy; what you see is what you get," said Tony Carbonetti, a longtime Giuliani adviser.

"He loves the give and take. He had fun with it. He had people call in with legitimate issues, and he had people call in with not-so-legitimate issues. You try to help the ones you think need help, and you kind of laugh off the ones you think don't need help."

When Giuliani bawled out a listener, it was generally someone who had an agenda and a history of run-ins with the mayor or his staff, Carbonetti said.

Giuliani was often unrestrained during his eight years as mayor, especially on his weekly radio show, which drew about 75,000 listeners. He did a monthly show on CBS Radio as well.

Among the exchanges on the weekly show:

_Giuliani reproached the mother of a robbery suspect shot dead by police detectives: "Maybe you should ask yourself some questions about the way he was brought up and the things that happened to him. Trying to displace the responsibility for the criminal acts of your son onto these police officers is really unfair."

_Responding to a caller upset that Giuliani yanked funding for a controversial art exhibit, he said: "Anthony, you are so filled with anger and hatred at me. Take some Valium, Anthony! Anthony, calm down, baby! Take it easy!"

_He unleashed a tirade at an advocate for ferrets' rights, saying, "There is something really, really very sad about you. You need help. You need somebody to help you. I know you feel insulted by that, but I'm being honest with you. This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness."

_When a caller upset about being cut off from food stamps and Medicaid called Giuliani a bad mayor and a criminal, Giuliani said: "There's something that's really wrong with you. ... We'll send you psychiatric help, because you seriously need it." It turned out the caller, John Hynes, had Parkinson's disease.

These exchanges, among his most harsh, occurred after Giuliani came under fire for the police shooting of an unarmed West African immigrant, Amadou Diallo, in February 1999. Giuliani's approval ratings tumbled 20 percent, from 60 percent in November 1998 to 40 percent in April 1999.

Even then, there was more to Giuliani's radio show than diatribes. He dispensed advice about dealing with everything from city bureaucracy to barking dogs.

And he recommended that people try using his own in-your-face tactics.

"I would just walk up to them and say, 'You're a real slob, and you're disrespectful for the rights of other people. Clean up after your dog, dammit,'" he told one caller. "I don't recommend this in all situations. You may walk up to the wrong person, and who knows, you might get a punch in the nose or something like that. But if you feel capable of doing that, this is really something that people have to learn in society."

Giuliani pushed hard to make New York more civil, targeting reckless drivers and cyclists, jaywalkers, litterbugs, hot dog vendors and a host of others. At one point, he distributed wallet cards reminding police officers to say "hello" and "thank you" and use "sir" and "ma'am."

Giuliani has said he doesn't care to analyze his own temperament, arguing that he should be judged on his performance as mayor.

Many analysts maintain that the temperament of a candidate does matter.

"If people begin to doubt their stability under pressure, that could be very damaging," said Duke University political scientist David Rohde.

Giuliani has honed an image of a tough, decisive leader who guided a city devastated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In an Associated Press-Ipsos poll in June, half of the Republicans supporting Giuliani mentioned his leadership qualities, including his ability to handle crises.

Temper can also be a good thing, Renshon said, noting the persuasive skills of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

"If people are aware you're a tough cookie and not a shrinking violet, they're going to be fairly careful in their dealings with you," Renshon said. "If you go right back at them, then people will think carefully about whether they want to cross you. That's a potential plus."