Saint Rudy? No, I never bought it either

The Rudy Giuliani myth-machine will crack this year.

The Sunday Times reports that the firefighters union are out to 'swift boat' Rudy's candicacy for the Republican nomination for the White House. Three cheers, I say.

I always thought he was corrupt, snidey little man, clearly with a mountain-load of skeletons in his closet. But then came 9-11 and he became a hero for...well...er...I have never been sure why exactly.

Kudos to Rudy in that he didn't become an uncontrollable wreck and sat in a corner on that most fateful day in the history of New York. But that seems to be it. What else did he do? Make blindingly obvious statements and doing a press-call every few hours – that seemed to be his only operating procedure.

He certainly didn't treat the World Trade Centre as the crime scene it obviously was, and couldn't get going quick enough on 'cleaning-up' and selling anything still viable to the Chinese. All very strange.

Giuliani is a classic modern politician. No discernable ideology or opinion beyond the bland and politically expedient. Of course, he's a lawyer as well and, while I don't have the instinctive hatred of this generally well-educated group lots of people appear to have, I can't help but notice that recently lots of politicians who have a problem defining the difference between a blatant lie and the truth do seem to be lawyers (step forward Mr Blair). The grey areas that they exploit in their legal careers are not so well-suited when it comes to making public policy.

Anyway, I digress. Guiliani is one of those guys who happens to be in the right place at the right time, as in New York when he famously 'turned the city around' and reduced crime. A similar drop in crime was experienced by most cities in the US at the time, and probably had more to do with Roe vs Wade, demographics, and economics, than it did with policies spouted by Rudy.

9-11 was the greatest moment in Giuliani's life. Since then, he has been touring the world like a conquering hero, dispensing 'security advice' and related hot-air through his own company “Giuliani Partners” and being paid millions of dollars for doing so. This company – quelle surprise – has been accused of being involved in all sorts of dodgy activities.

I wonder how much of his new-found wealth he has passed-along to the victims' families or the city employees such as firefighters and police who have to live with the memories of that day as long as they live. Oh, let's take a wild guess at a big fat zero.

Add the facts that Rudy Giuliani was a draft-dodger during Vietnam, and his family has mafia connections, and what do we have?

A perfect candidate for the White House…