Mayor Waves a Red Flag Over New York’s City Hall

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani raised a ruckus with his raising of the Arkansas state flag over City Hall, a move critics denounced Wednesday as an abuse of power and insulting to blacks.

“It is the most flagrant abuse of mayoral authority I can recall,” former Mayor Edward I. Koch said. “This is a rank political act to help Giuliani. It’s outrageous. It’s despicable.”

The Arkansas flag was raised Tuesday while the Republican mayor was in Little Rock, Ark., seeking campaign donations and tweaking Hillary Rodham Clinton over her non-New York roots.

Giuliani is expected to run for the New York Senate seat that Clinton also is eyeing, and said the flag-raising was nothing more than a gesture of thanks for the hospitality shown him by Arkansans.

Giuliani’s critics said he was playing politics by hoisting the red, white and blue flag on a City Hall pole.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone ordered the flag taken down immediately, citing a law he said gave the council the final word on City Hall flags.

The mayor, citing the same law, ignored him.

Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota insisted that the flag fly as planned and said Vallone showed “a lack of graciousness.” The flag was lowered Wednesday afternoon.

Others were angry about the choice of flag. The Arkansas flag features a star commemorating the state’s membership in the Confederacy.

“Displaying a flag that includes a star commemorating Arkansas’ membership in the Confederacy is an insult to African Americans and those who have struggled in the civil rights movement,” said Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields.

Giuliani denied the move was political, saying he was so moved by the sight of the New York City flag flying at a Little Rock hotel that he wanted the Arkansas flag flown at City Hall.

And Lhota said the mayor’s visit with Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had nothing to do with his possible Senate campaign. Huckabee spokesman Jim Harris agreed.

“At the [governor’s] mansion, they weren’t doing politics,” Harris said. “He was just welcomed to the state like any other visiting dignitary would be. It was nonpolitical.”

However, the mayor’s itinerary in Arkansas, including his visit with Huckabee, was released through his Friends of Giuliani committee, rather than from City Hall.

After their meeting, both Giuliani and Huckabee stood outside the mansion and poked fun at Clinton’s New York “listening tour” and the fact that she may run for office in a state where she has never lived.

Little Rock was the first stop in a two-day Southern fund-raising swing. Giuliani also had stops in New Orleans and the Alabama cities of Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.