The Mayor Giuliani Spectator / Cuomophilia
Scully, Matthew
THE MAYOR GIULIANI SPECTATOR VII Cuomophilia by Matthew Scully F or as long as I can remember, no Republican mission has seemed to me more urgent, vital, or praiseworthy than to remove Mario M....
...We'll have you back another time...
...Schooled by the Christian brothers, "each man, their friends say, has something of an altar boy's sense of moral obligation in the face of a fallen world...
...Throughout all my professional wanderings, he has remained a sort of beacon...
...Leaving aside the improbability that Lincoln ever told anyone to "read Gettysburg," there is something about the governor only slightly less distasteful in his finer moments, as when he reportedly declined a Supreme Court post "for the good of New York...
...If you'll just wait a little longer . . ." Of course...
...A reporter asked Cuomo an abortion question, to which the governor replied as he turned away, "Read Notre Dame"—a reference to the hallowed site of his exposition on the matter a few years earlier...
...But I can pinpoint another moment, too...
...Testing my theory about Giuliani, I had sent two speeches by Vice President Quayle laying more or less all blame for all the city's maladies with Mario Cuomo, two by a pro-life Democratic governor examining "Notre Dame" and its author, Mario Cuomo, and to round out the portfolio three or four articles with various Cuomophobic reflections...
...preferable, though, to settling into a new office weeks later when the phone rings and someone barks, "Scully, have you finished that Cuomo endorsement yet...
...Just then something passed me...
...T he first round of interviews bore out the truth that when you seem vaguely uninterested in something, often that's when people are most intent on giving it to you...
...Thrilled at the discovery, I asked at one point to leave, running out to buy a disposable camera so as to photograph the portrait, like some tourist getting his once-in-a-lifetime gander of City Hall...
...The staff read these, 'I was told, in the spare hours of a flight to Atlanta, where the Mayor was to address the national conference of Planned Parenthood...
...That," said the chief of staff, whom I had come to like, "was our Mayor...
...Sure...
...It was in this not very healthy state of mind that I found myself a few weeks ago at New York City Hall...
...You sit right here...
...1711 94 The American Spectator December 1994...
...Having not too long ago moved from New York City, I checked my first impulse: to say why sure, I'd be delighted to leave Matthew Scully was a speechwriter for Vice President Dan Quayle...
...Security police flew from their seats and then disappeared...
...On whatever matter he can be heard arguing, rationalizing, orating, agonizing—let me be on the other side...
...The Mayor will be with you in a moment...
...There had been a call the week before...
...We want to move quickly on this thing...
...Anticipating a candidate's first logical question, he added, "You have to live in one of the five boroughs...
...In the main lobby I'd spotted a portrait of my own grandfather, who was president of the Board of Aldermen in 1919, right up there between Al Smith and LaGuardia...
...Would I be interested in submitting to an interview for the job of chief speechwriter for Mayor Giuliani...
...Francis" address to weepy delegates at the 1984 Democratic Convention...
...Time passed, and I reflected on the strange fate that had brought me here to help finish off Mario...
...I didn't follow how it all played out, but the sight confirmed a general impression of Giuliani I'd worked out on the train: his support for the crime bill and chumminess with Clinton, his waffle on abortion, his marching in gay pride parades—these were genuflections, compromises without which he would not today be an otherwise fine mayor undoing the Cuomo legacy...
...Something bigger than a lousy $400 bucks was unfolding here...
...This "Cuomophobia," as a friend calls it, began with his stirring "St...
...That's why we had you back...
...Better still, they were legal-aid lawyers, furious because the Mayor had responded to their strike (underpaid) by threatening to fire the lot of them...
...Arriving, I had to hack through an angry mob in front of City Hall—a good sign...
...It's all just a formality anyway, right, so why should I mind...
...Ofcourse...
...The Mayor is still tied up...
...THE MAYOR GIULIANI SPECTATOR VII Cuomophilia by Matthew Scully F or as long as I can remember, no Republican mission has seemed to me more urgent, vital, or praiseworthy than to remove Mario M. Cuomo from any position of public responsibility whatever...
...t was all a little disorienting...
...The return trip would also be unreimbursed, which gnawed at me a little, but doubtless was to be taken as a further sign of our impending partnership...
...This is a very touching thought, offering hope that when those vital funds Mario has promised the city arrive, someone will remember the small matter of $400...
...If now he is opposed by the sorriest of Republicans, still I say: Spare no man or resource from the effort...
...Virginia for Manhattan, but was at the moment leaning toward a more tempting offer from the mayor of Calcutta...
...It turns out mayor and governor share, as the New York Times was to put it, a "mutual appreciation of the burdens of governing...
...Another hour...
...More calmly, I just said, "Sure...
...Anxious staffers huddled in a corner of the room...
...Can you come back to meet the Mayor...
...Had they, I asked on the second visit, read the speeches I sent by Fed-Ex...
Vol. 27 • December 1994 • No. 12
