Though, she was referring to his searing 15-minute flute solo at the Jazz Hut last week. He killed.

(I didn't read it Choire!!)

DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? YOU CAN SPARE 25 MINUTES.

@Choire: Too busy with ad things!!!

Yawn.

I almost beat Sonic 2 with Knuckles!! Rudy can wait!!

This article provides the clearest evidence yet that, if elected president, Giuliani intends to launch a full-scale, preemptive nuclear strike against Squeegee.

It is indeed brutal and accurate. Which is why Ms. Kolbert's car got booted and papered with summonses.

@Atelier: As one of my final acts here, your commenter page now reads "Atelier's ability to comment is not enabled." BYE.

When will the CliffsNotes for this come out?

@Atelier: Yes, nothing to see here. Except everything, of course.

I'm guessing Rudy's camp is not feeling warm and fuzzy towards New Yorker right about now...

I'm in favor of whatever it takes to bring down a man who let Donald Trump feel his fake boobs.

@Ha Ha Sound: But seriously, I want him to go down. His platform is basically "New Yorkers are all retards, and I saved them from themselves" and "I now oppose everything I pretended to stand for during the time when I saved those retarded New Yorkers from themselves."

@Ha Ha Sound: I thought his platform was "9/11".

I'm still waiting for Donna Hanover & the kids to write their piece. That will be the one to read.

@Choire: Just when I think you can't possibly get any more wonderful...

Oh! I already can't handle the separation anxiety!

Wow. His way of dealing with things is very similar to how I dealt with things as a five-year-old. "No! I won't play with Billy! I don't like him!"

That gruesome old crank will never make it past the primary. Kolbert's kinda harsh but she doesn't even mention incest, ferrets, living with gays, his crazy expensive private militia, flipping on abortions or the fact that Hildog already beat him into submission in an election. Rudy's just got too much in his closet.

Thank you for everything Mr. Sicha,
That was totally center-of-the-universy along with being Manhattan-Media-news-and-gossipy.
If you ever go with Choire Select, I'm ponying up the $49.

Best line:

Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, who served as commissioner of the city's Human Resources Administration under Giuliani, has described the dynamic among the Mayor's top aides-the so-called "yes-Rudy's"-this way:

"If Rudy would say, 'Let's kill twelve-year-olds,' there would be a deep silence in the room and then somebody would say, 'That's brilliant! ' And then somebody else would say, 'Have you thought of thirteen-year-olds, too?' "

look folks, whether you like rudy or despise him, just think of the way large media like the new yorker and the new york times have abandoned all pretenses of objectivity to go after this guy, hammer and tongs; is that really healthy? it may make you feel good to see it happening, but look at the bigger picture here; remember the maine!

I somehow doubt that many people who vote in Republican primaries read the New Yorker (or take it's advice on voting if they do read it).

@larrydarrell: Huh? Objectively, Rudy is a terrible leader. Putting squeegemen in jail, aside, it's been proven you know, by FACTS, that he's a scumbag, dirty, dirty, politician authoritarian asshole. How, per se, is it not objective to report on what he's done?

Sometimes the things that come out of Giuliani's mouth are the most brilliantly convoluted semantic horrors. He's the embodiment of scaly, slithering modernity. Check this out:

"There are some people who believe that this country is declining," he went on. "There are some people who believe that we're going in the wrong direction. Well, you know something? They're wrong! And we can make them wrong, by making the right choices. By making the right choices about our leadership. Because this is about leadership."

In this one statement, he's managed to criticize those impatriotic bastids that hate America ("they're wrong"), while reinforcing the fact that they're actually completely right, and demanding change ("and we can make them wrong").

Simultaneously, he begins his statement by edging the crowd towards the decline of their entire society and way of life ("country is declining"), and bracketing the other end of the paragraph with a paean to leadership.

In the middle, of course, is the call to action where those who are wrong about the decline of society are right, but wrong; while those who are right, are wrong, but can be made right by voting in the right people.

It's crazy! Rhetorically, the man is a terrorist.

@Choire: I did read it babe, but I am in such a dismal mood that its hard to get upset at the prospect of one more psycho in the White House.

@SinisterRouge: i did not realize that; thanks for setting the record straight.

Was that a hit piece or a catalogue of laudable accomplishments? It's sad, but there may be more people in America that read it as a "he's definitley ready" resume than as criticism. And another thing, I'm gettin' real, real tired of Oprah poppin' up in each of these narratives (Bush, Giuliani, now Obama). America's mayor, my ass. She's a media deity that overdue for a serious beatdown. Any day now. Any day.

Excellent read, as is Maggie's brother's piece in Vanity Fair.

@Choire:
Also, awesome.

@PimpMyCouch: [serious] Are you referring to Rudy or Choire?

@DorothyMantooth: I know, I know! @Choire: Choire, I have enjoyed (that's not really the right word, but it'll have to do) your forthright editorial voice. I'm still plowing through the article, but I had to stop to thank you for your fine writing and editing here, before you're out of here. Best wishes to you for whatever the future holds, sir!

I hope Gawker's lumpen-sincerity-o-meter is not working today, because if it is, I'll be executed for sure. Now I have to go read the rest of the piece and compose my femiladyism-applauding farewell to Ms. Emily.

@AndSheSaid:
So I must assume that he was OK with letting 13 year olds terrorize the city?

@Greasy Thumb Guzik:
I mean to write:
So I must assume that he was OK with letting 11 year olds terrorize the city?
Sorry, I started early on the New Years celebration.

Thanks Choire. This story just proves yet again what we New Yorkers already knew - Rudy's private life is actually the least objectionable thing about him.

@Lycosidae: ...your forthright and rigorous editorial voice. (Now I'm just getting all maudlin.)

@Choire: heee. And regarding my comments on that other post you signed off with earlier today--nevermind. This is great, and I thank you, wish you the very best and will miss you. I will also take this opportunity to bid everyone else here adieu, as Gawker's on my 2008 list of things to avoid. It was great, and I hope to meet you all (pace NTJ) in some other vitual entity (as long as Denton isn't pulling in money for page hits).
xo
NB: Hippity, you will always be my one true love.

@irishbreakfast:
Choire, thanks for the link, but as a New Yorker under the Rudy Regime, I wasn't going to vote for him anyway. Good luck.

irishbreakfast: Something bad happened to Gawker. I used to be an addict, but somehow I stopped checking in. Maybe it was the revolving door on the edit desk, or the disappearance of some of my favorite commenters. I think the latter got it before I did, but it's time to move on.

Not before saying, why did Denton keep losing all those talented people?

Also, your name makes me hungry. I'm having an Irish breakfast in a few hours. Starting New Year's resolutions on Jan 1 is stupid.

choire, great post and article. thanks for everything. your intelligent voice will be missed.