I forgot to mention it but Tuesday was a very bad day to be Rudy Giuliani. There have been a lot of days in the last few years when you were very fortunate to not to be Rudy Giuliani and I'm sure there are more to come. But Tuesday was an especially bad day to be Rudy Giuliani.
I've probably said this here before but I do not understand — and I do not expect to ever understand — how someone can reach a moment when he's widely respected for courage and heroism…and then become a figure who is loathed and ridiculed and losing it all and at least somewhat likely to wind up in prison.
In a way, it's like rich 'n' famous people — and we've all seen them — who have $40 million and wind up declaring bankruptcy and perhaps losing their homes. It's not like one day, you have $40 million and the next day, you're broke; not unless you went out and bet the $40 mil on the Mets. Someone who has $40 and loses it all one day goes from 40 to 39 and a few weeks later to 38 and a month or three later to 37 and so on until it's all gone. Don't you at one point think, "Hey, I've gone from $40 million to $20 million…I think I'm doing something wrong here"? Don't you suddenly feel some need to change course?
When I've discussed this in the past, I get a lot of folks telling me, "Rudy was always like this." Okay, maybe. But there was a moment when he at least had the image as a hero and a person to be admired. I guess that didn't mean anything to the guy.