A Constant Giuliani Lets Go the Reins of an Altered N.Y.

They had lined up around the block to see him, about 300 people on a cold night in Brooklyn, and Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani didn’t disappoint. It was his last town hall meeting before leaving office Tuesday, a chance to say goodbye. And the visit quickly turned into a love fest.

“Rudy, don’t go!” people shouted as he entered the Bay Ridge community hall. The mayor basked in cheers, signing autographs and posing for pictures. But the mood soured when the mother of a policeman rose to ask a question: Why didn’t the city give officers a long overdue pay raise?

Giuliani’s smile faded into a dismissive glare. His jaw tightened, and he berated the woman for even raising the issue: “What you did isn’t right,” he said curtly. “I can’t negotiate a contract with you now. You shouldn’t have done this.”

The woman sat down in stunned silence.

What had happened to the compassionate, heroic man who led New York after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the leader who helped rally a wounded city during its darkest days and inspired the nation?

To veteran observers, there was nothing unusual about Giuliani’s behavior. From the moment he took office in 1994, the mayor has generated headlines--and sparked controversy--by talking sharply to the people with whom he disagrees. Even though his brusque and aggressive leadership style has been muted somewhat by the World Trade Center disaster, he is still the same man who presided over New York’s remarkable comeback in the 1990s while managing to alienate nearly half of the city at one time or another.

“I haven’t changed that much since Sept. 11,” Giuliani, 57, said at a recent news conference. “I’ve always believed that you have to tell people exactly what you’re thinking. If they like it, fine. If they don’t, that’s also OK. I don’t believe in spinning things to the point where I can’t be true to myself.”

As he leaves office, Giuliani is riding a wave of adulation that most politicians never experience. In addition to titles like Time magazine’s Person of the Year and an honorary knighthood from the Queen of England, he’s been serenaded at farewell banquets by entertainers such as Tony Bennett, Bette Midler and Natalie Cole. The once-hostile local press has lavishly praised his empathy and integrity.

When he leaves office at the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, Citizen Rudy faces a potentially dazzling future.

He plans to form a high-powered business consulting firm with some of his mayoral aides. He has signed a reported $3-million, two-book contract with Talk Miramax Books and will publish “Rudy’s Rules,” a guide to management techniques, early next year. The second book will be Giuliani’s memoirs. The mayor also is expected to hit the national and international lecture circuit, likely making $100,000 per speech.

But it is his political future that intrigues most pundits.

Giuliani suffered his only post-Sept. 11 public relations setback when he failed to secure a three-month extension in office, something he said was intended to help his successor adjust to the job. Political opposition from black and Latino leaders doomed that bid, yet few are discounting Giuliani’s ability to bounce back into public life in the near future.

“His first real opportunity might be going after [Democratic Sen. Charles E.] Schumer’s job [in 2004] and then Hillary [Rodham] Clinton’s Senate seat after that,” said former New York Mayor Edward I. Koch.

Although Giuliani pointedly has ruled out running for governor against the incumbent Republican George Pataki, a recent Quinnipiac Poll showed him to be the overwhelming favorite of most New York voters for that post. And the mayor has teasingly refused to rule out the notion of returning to City Hall in four or eight years. But some experts believe he ultimately may seek the White House, given his booming national popularity.

“He could make this kind of a bid if he wants it,” said Thomas Kessner, a history professor at City University of New York and a biographer of former Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. “Rudy has probably built up enough support around the country to consider this. The only question is when.”

There are significant obstacles, to be sure. Giuliani’s brand of Republicanism--pro-gun control, pro-gay rights and pro-abortion rights--might not play well with the party’s more conservative base. There also is an unusual pattern in Gotham politics: Since 1868, when John Hoffman was elected governor, no New York mayor has won higher office after leaving City Hall.

Giuliani’s ability to beat the curse will depend on how shrewdly he keeps himself in the limelight after his term ends, experts say. Joseph Mercurio, a veteran GOP consultant, predicted that the mayor will remain an outspoken and respected voice in local politics long after he leaves office. Others, like Kessner, suggested he may have to step back for several years.

“We’re heading into rough economic times, and Rudy needs to distance himself from all this,” Kessner said. “But given his history, I think he’ll know how to keep himself in the public eye--and in a positive way.”

As speculation mounts and the clock runs out on Giuliani’s mayoralty, New Yorkers might have understood if he’d chosen to simply coast through his last days in office. But he has kept up a whirlwind of activity, pursuing last-minute plans to build new baseball stadiums for the Yankees and Mets, plus other projects.

More important, he has refused to sugarcoat his comments or political style--whether he’s warning New York City residents about the threat of future terrorist attacks or dressing down the mother of a police officer.

“People make the mistake of saying there’s one Rudy who we knew before Sept. 11 and another afterward,” said Fred Siegel, a New York City historian and political observer. “They tend to forget that his oversized personality works well in some situations and not so well in others. By and large, he’s had a profound impact on the way this city does business.”

A Republican reformer, Giuliani led a more aggressive brand of law enforcement and presided over a 62% drop in violent crime since 1993. He slashed welfare rolls, promoted the restoration of Times Square as a tourist site and cut taxes to spur growth in all five of the city’s boroughs.

Although history may remember him chiefly for his actions after Sept. 11, Giuliani had laid claim to an impressive political legacy long before: He was the mayor who showed that New York indeed was governable.

Yet there were low points that tarnished his achievements. He defended controversial “stop and frisk” programs that angered Latinos and blacks. To this day, many blame him for such racially tinged incidents as the killing of West African immigrant Amadou Diallo, an unarmed street peddler who was shot 41 times by four white officers.

“The question we’re going to ask about Rudy is whether the last three months, when he acted so magnificently, can cancel out the last 7 1/2 years, when he bullied so many people,” said Koch. “You can’t just sweep this under the rug.”

The police salary issue is a good example. Although Giuliani long has praised the New York Police Department for its role in cutting crime, his administration has been at loggerheads for several years with officers over the size of a proposed pay raise. Privately, many rank-and-file officers are bitter that the mayor has not been more of an ally on salary matters.

For now, however, Giuliani’s legacy seems golden. He is enjoying a greater burst of popularity as he leaves office than any other American politician in recent memory, experts say. Former Presidents Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt were memorialized by a grateful nation, but they were no longer living when the tributes poured in, political historian Robert Dallek noted. While former President Reagan was praised when he stepped down, he also was dogged by the continuing shadow of the Iran-Contra affair.

“What Rudy is enjoying right now is a highly unusual situation in our political history,” Dallek said. “There’s a surge boosting him, a national outpouring of affection. Nobody has experienced this to such a degree.”

It’s been a dramatic turnaround for a man who began this year as a lame-duck mayor, foundering in a sea of personal problems. His bitterly contested divorce from Donna Hanover was playing out on the front pages, and he seemed exhausted by his battle with prostate cancer. All indications are that he has beaten the disease.

Sept. 11 changed everything. Giuliani was energized by the crisis, and suddenly he was everywhere--providing leadership that, initially at least, seemed to surpass that of President Bush. Some even compared him to Winston Churchill during the bombing of London. Overnight, the mayor became an international celebrity and his private life became irrelevant.

These days, Giuliani’s impromptu appearances on the sidewalks of New York spark excited, emotional reactions from residents and tourists alike. When he and girlfriend Judith Nathan shopped for gifts recently on Manhattan’s swank 57th Street, people mobbed them as if they were movie stars.

Giuliani will administer the oath of office at midnight in Times Square to his successor, media mogul and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and then transition to private life. As his tenure ends, there’s a distinct sense that he has become the city’s unofficial father, helping people recover from disaster and preparing them to face an uncertain future. Many still can’t believe he’s leaving.

He made his last appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” two weeks ago and engaged in a telling exchange with “Weekend Update” hosts Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon. The three sang “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” as the audience broke into emotional cheers for the departing mayor.

“Let me get this straight: You really have to go?” asked Fey. Giuliani smiled paternally and said: “Yes, I do. And you can’t come with me.”