RUDY THE GREAT. Yeah, it's worth taking seriously the giant autocratic streak in Giuliani. I remember, back in the heady days of 2003, that many of my Pandagon commenters used to laugh at my suggestion that there'd be an election in 2004. Bush, they said, would just declare martial law and make himself an effective dictator. He didn't do that, but given a terrorist attack, Rudy Giuliani is much more the type who would (after 9/11, of course, he tried to change the city charter to extend his term as mayor). That's not a likely outcome, but one lens through which to evaluate presidential hopefuls is how they respond in extreme circumstances, and Giuliani's history and well-establiashed tendencies scare me a bit. By the way, for a very good Giuliani parody, folks should check out Calvin Trillin's Tepper Isn't Going Out. It's a fun, light read that smartly conveys Giuliani's weird mixture of eccentric autocrat and conscientious technocrat. --Ezra Klein
