Christopher Ruddy
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2001

Don't get me wrong. Rudy Giuliani behaved admirably on Sept. 11 and has given New Yorkers a sense of confidence in the wake of the worst disaster to hit America in peacetime.

But does he deserve to be named Time's Person of the Year?

Most certainly not.

But the left-dominated media didn't want to bestow the honor on the man who, according to their own litmus test of being the person who most affected the news for the better, is President Bush.

The media were quick to take potshots at the president almost from the moment the terrorists slammed civilian jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

In its treatise on Mayor Giuliani, Time even puts in its digs at Bush.

Time says: "With the President out of sight for most of that day, Giuliani became the voice of America. Every time he spoke, millions of people felt a little better. His words were full of grief and iron, inspiring New York to inspire the nation."

How nice. The president was on Air Force One, running the country, and making sure there was continuity of government in case of a nuclear attack.

But the media don't like that.

They wanted Bush to come, Clinton-like, and do some hugging in New York, hold a press conference, do some more hugging, shed some Clinton-like crocodile tears, and they would have been happy.

Because Bush is a Republican, a conservative one at that, they didn't support him for president and they won't support him as president.

Instead, they have been itching to score points against him.

Remember, just weeks after Sept. 11, all we heard were complaints that Bush had yet to retaliate.

When the bombing started, there was silence. But then complaints grew again.

The dovish liberal pundits were saying this was no way to run a war – we needed a massive invasion of Afghanistan!

But now, as we have seen Bush's plan work and the Taliban crumble in short order, the left-wing media (and I separate them from the many liberals in this country who think Bush has done a great job) can't name George W. Bush as the Person of the Year. By any reasonable standard George W. Bush was the person who most affected the news for the better.

Here was a man who inherited the mess of eight years of Clinton-Gore, eight years that left the nation bereft of an intelligence apparatus that should have prevented 9-11.

When Bush came to office, he surrounded himself with an incredibly strong team.

As a sign of his remarkable leadership, he selected people who were more experienced and more able than he. Clinton didn't do that.

Consider that almost every major player in the Bush administration is presidential timber and openly considered running for the office: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Ashcroft.

It takes a special man to acknowledge that there are better men than he.

Today, America is better off because Bush is a confident man who did just that.

Bush quickly rallied the nation as no other president has in modern times. He motivated a dispirited Pentagon to war.

He could have just as easily taken the Clinton-Gore road with a few cruise missile attacks at camel watering holes.

But he went to war instead. He told the American people it would be a sustained war. It would be a wider war. It would be a war of sacrifice and casualties.

This is Churchillian.

Bush then led the nation in war and sent his secretary of state out to pull together an incredible alliance of nations. Even the Arab and Muslim world – despite great support for bin laden in the Arab streets – supported the U.S. war on the Taliban.

Today, the Taliban are finished and al-Qaeda is in tatters.

And Bush's honor from the left-wing media?

Nowhere to be seen.

[Message to George: Take this to heart. The liberal media will not forget the 2000 election. They hate you. Do not make Dad's mistake and think you can ever win these miscreants over. Do what Reagan did: Confront the media and speak directly to the American people.]

Instead, Time honors Rudy Giuliani. Certainly Giuliani has been a good mayor in good times.

Still, his time as mayor of New York can in no way be compared to the mayoralty of Edward I. Koch.

Koch was elected in 1977 and inherited a city teetering on bankruptcy. The economy was in a recession. The feds told the city "drop dead" and crime skyrocketed as the city fielded just 22,000 cops.

Koch came into office and, remarkably, took on the very constituencies that elected him, including the city's all-powerful unions. That took courage.

He then went on to criticize fellow Democrat President Jimmy Carter, as he extended a welcoming hand to Republican Ronald Reagan. Talk about cojones.

Giuliani has never demonstrated that type of political courage.

He's been a good city administrator who surrounded himself with mediocre aides and yes men. He got away with it because, having inherited a police force of 40,000 and a city on the ascendancy during the biggest economic boom in history – well, of course he succeeded.

But his pettiness and the low-life way he treated his wife in public had hit him hard in the polls. He was a finished man just a few months ago.

I remember bumping into Rudy at the Waldorf this summer.

He was just a shadow of the man I knew and supported when he first ran for mayor in 1993.

After I chatted briefly with him, even the bellhop came over to me to express his disgust with the mayor, wishing him good riddance. He complained about the mayor's arrogance and how he would typically show up at the hotel for various events with more security and sirens than the president of the United States.

All is forgotten now and rightly so. Giuliani has been an inspirational figure in the wake of the terror New York has just been through.

Giuliani says he's been reading a lot of Churchill, a figure he has been compared with. But Giuliani is not so impressed. He told Time that when he thinks about Churchill's wartime words, "I wonder how much of it was bluff."

As any student of Churchill knows, his words were no bluff. They matched his and his nation's resolve. He was not bluffing when he said he would never surrender.

Rudy says he's been reading about Churchill. He needs to read some more. Even in the bleakest days of the Battle of Britain, as a Nazi invasion of Britain appeared imminent, Churchill was ordering planes loaded with mustard gas to be used on the German invasion forces.

Historians know that Churchill was everything Giuliani is not. He hated photo ops. He disliked the press and did little to curry favor with them. But today, historians recognize Churchill's greatness. Perhaps sometime in the future some retrospectives may question why the mayor decided to put the city's emergency operations center at the World Trade Center. When he made the decision a few years back, some warned that was not a good idea, citing the fact that the building had already been a terrorist target.

Giuliani ignored the advice and poured millions into the command center that was never used.

Since 9-11, Giuliani has been a compassionate and supportive figure for the firemen, police and their families. Perhaps some day some may question whether it was wise to have so many firemen and police committed to the World Trade Center that day.

Decisions are made hastily in crisis.

The police and firemen are true heroes and they will never publicly question or complain. Still, every rank-and-file cop and firemen in New York can't forget how Rudy betrayed them after he was elected in 1993.

For eight years he has fought every pay raise, every effort to improve their working conditions. After eight years of Giuliani, they are among the lowest paid civil servants, compared with their counterparts in cities across the Northeast. But they won't complain.

If Time couldn't stomach President Bush, it should have made the cops and firemen who willfully gave their lives on 9-11 the Persons of the Year, as they reflect the greatness of the American people.

But not Rudy.

Time picked Giuliani to needle Bush and the Republicans. Reading their cover story makes that clear.

Giuliani has always gotten pretty good press. The left media like Giuliani because he's not really a Republican. Like John McCain, he makes his way blasting fellow Republicans.

It's a sad testament to Time and the liberal media it represents that in the middle of a war, in the wake of great victories, they can't humble themselves to acknowledge the man of the year, George W. Bush.

*N.B. The term "Lexus Liberal" was coined by Michael Savage.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
George W. Bush
Media Bias
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