This morning’s NY Times has a classic hit piece written by Michael Powell and Chris Bluettner that excoriates Presidential hopeful (heh!) Rudy Giuiani. It seems Mr Giuliani practiced the Bu$h method of political control while mayor. A vengeful, petty tyrant who uses his underlings to punish anyone who dares speak against his “greatness.” And most surprisingly, he’s a republican!

We learn that he went after a whistleblower complaining about some sort of police department sting at a Bronx Zoo traffic light, and the cops were sent to his house to arrest him on a 13-year old traffic warrant which was thrown out of court. The man won a $290,000 settlement for being treated illegally. A case worker revealed the city had made mistakes in assessing and handling a child’s danger in a domestic manner and the child died as a result. The case worker was fired.

The list goes on and on.

[F]ar more than his predecessors, historians and politicians say, his toughness edged toward ruthlessness and became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.

That’s not toughness; that’s being a bully. An outraged man would consider the very long list of Americans publicly crucified by Mr Bu$h's Renfields.

There’s been a lot of recent commentary in blogtopia (y!sctp) about Mr Giuliani being a “small man in search of a balcony” and other such comparisons with Benito Mussolini, along with some very imaginative (and cruel) photoshopping of the late Mr Mussolini and Mr Giuliani, who, it appears has a political career that could be described as “late.”

Bloggers will be bloggers. There will always be people who will point fingers and keyboards in derision at political figures. That goes with the glamour of being a public figure. If you don’t want to be vulnerable to public scorn pick a trade that doesn’t put you in front of cameras.

The thing that bothers me most about today’s Times article is its applicability.

Where were you clowns six years ago, when a democracy slowly being strangled needed people other than Democrats held up for ridicule?