The Full Rudy

Jack Newfield
February 2003     ISBN: 1560254823

Rudolph Guiliani is "America's mayor." He is remembered for cutting crime, taking charge when the twin towers fell and displaying leadership when others were overwhelmed. Named Time magazine's "Person of the Year," knighted by Her Majesty the Queen, he now charges $100,000 a speech and is a fixture on the Republican fundraising circuit.

But while Rudy wants to be President, veteran New York journalist Jack Newfield--who has known him for more than twenty years and has had many private conversations with him--sounds the alarm in The Full Rudy, a classic muckraking foray into Rudy's dark places, claiming he is "a C-plus mayor...who has become an A-plus myth." Newfield talks to those who know him best, revealing a portrait of an intolerant, authoritarian leader whose immense strengths are canceled out by "immense weaknesses of temperament, opportunism and intolerance."

As a close friend and advisor to Rudy tells Newfield, "Rudy just has to prove every day that he has the biggest dick in the city, that it's his way or the highway."

"Read this book. This is the truth."
--Rev. Al Sharpton

"[Newfield] begins the book with: 'Rudy Giuliani was a C-plus mayor of New York who has become an A-plus myth in the world.' The almost 200 pages that follow are sure to warm the hearts of any political consultants who may have to run candidates against Mr. Giuliani in the future. Not that Mr. Newfield is ever mean, or gratuitous. It's just that chapter after chapter--with titles 'Education,' 'Race,' and 'The Opportunist'--the battles that Giuliani would rather have people forget are revisited, and Mr. Newfield writes about many issues the former mayor didn't even bother to include in his own recent book.... This small book packs a wallop, and reminds us that Mayor Rudy was far more interesting than Saint Rudy."

--NY Sun

"Jack Newfield's new quick-hitter does throw a few jabs at the larger-than-life Rudy.... Newfield takes us back to a recent time, before everything changed, when the phrase 'Giuliani-esque' meant to act as a petty tyrant rather than as a healer. It seems that politicians, at least, have second (and third) acts in American lives.... Giuliani could run against Bloomberg in 2005, calling him too liberal on matters of taxes and race. And he could run for president in 2008, by which time the Republicans will need to expand their base beyond the Christian right. Whatever Rudy decides to do, he will be dangerous. Those who doubt this should read Newfield's book."
--NY Press

"[The Full Rudy] illustrates facets of Giuliani that many New Yorkers may have forgotten and the rest of America might want to know about."
--Publishers Weekly

"If you're interested in reliving the public career of former New York City mayor and post-9/11 hero Rudy Giuliani, you have options. You could watch this made-for-cable movie starring James Woods, who recently told a newspaper reporter that 'I fought tooth and nail to portray (Giuliani) as the genuine hero that I unequivocally believe him to be.' Or, in about the same amount of time, you could read Jack Newfield's new book, The Full Rudy, recounting how Giuliani, in his two terms as mayor, stretched racial relations to the breaking point; sowed chaos in the city's schools and police department; and turned his back on everything and everyone he once seemed to hold dear. I went with the book. I enjoyed it."

--Aaron Barnhart, the Kansas City Star

"If you're one of those people who think Rudy Giuliani is a true hero...prepare to be proven dead WRONG!"

--Portland Mercury