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Today’s New York Times offers anecdotal evidence of how former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani went to extraordinary lengths “to punish anyone, vindictively and aggressively” for criticizing him or his administration.
As mayor, he made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him…“There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’ ” said Marilyn Gelber, who served as environmental commissioner under Mr. Giuliani. “People were marked for destruction for disloyal jokes.”… He cowed many into silence.
Giuliani’s strong dismissal of critical opinion, and emphasis on loyalty is reminiscent of the ways in which President Bush politicized every aspect of the federal government, with devastating consequences. Giuliani should take note: the Bush administration revealed that “potential disaster lurks behind what we had previously assumed to be a grand virtue: loyalty.” Below is a partial list (compiled by fellow ThinkProgress interns and BodyPolitik contributors Ona Keller and Jordan Grossman) “of the White House’s efforts to politicize the federal agencies“:
- Department of Justice: “After the 2004 election, administration officials quietly began drawing up a list of US attorneys to replace. Considerations included their perceived loyalty to Bush and a desire by White House political adviser Karl Rove to increase voter fraud prosecutions, documents and testimony have shown.” [Boston Globe, 5/6/07]
- Interior Department: “A midlevel Interior Department official” received a “phone call from [Vice President Dick] Cheney in 2001, setting in motion a secret move to undermine the science of federal biologists who had said diverting water from the Klamath would violate the Endangered Species Act and devastate two imperiled species of fish.” [The Oregonian, 6/30/07]
- Defense Department: “The Defense Department…has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.” [MSNBC, 9/14/05]
- Office of the Surgeon General: “The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.” [Reuters, 7/10/07]
Like Giuliani, the Bush administration regularly dismissed dissenting opinion (anyone from former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil, to General Eric Shinseki, to the NIE on Iran) and stacked the ranks with ideological loyalists. These moves stifled decision making and landed the United States in an unpopular war and left the American people asking for change. If the New York Times article about Giuliani’s loyalty tests is any indication of how the former mayor will govern as president, Americans can expect more of the same from a Giuliani White House.