Not AT: In London, Giuliani Is Honorary Knight but Bona Fide Hero

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

I wanna share this one from the New York Times. I'm betting, and hoping

that Rudy Giuliani will some day be the President of the USA .. :-)

 

Y'all keep smiling, Butch http://www.AV-AT.com

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The New York Times

February 14, 2002

 

In London, Giuliani Is Honorary Knight but Bona Fide Hero

 

By SARAH LYALL

 

LONDON, Feb. 13 — They wanted to hear about his crime-slashing

techniques. They wanted to know if they could still call him Mr. Mayor

(sure, he said). As Rudolph W. Giuliani swept through here today like an

Olympic medalist on a prolonged victory lap, the people he met seemed

simply to want to bask in the heady glow of his undeniable celebrity.

 

" I lived in New York for 10 years, and I think he's fabulous, " said a

woman in red, passing by the room in the House of Commons where Mr.

Giuliani was sharing a few law-and-order tips with the British home

secretary. " Would you tell him that Caroline sends him a big kiss? "

 

It was a busy day for the former mayor, packed with appearances at

banquets, meetings with politicians brimming with compliments,

spontaneous encounters with applauding pedestrians, and a few touristic

side trips. But the undeniable high point took place in the morning,

when Mr. Giuliani put on a smart suit and an American-flag lapel pin and

traveled to Buckingham Palace to receive an honorary knighthood from

Queen Elizabeth herself.

 

Because he is not British, Mr. Giuliani is not entitled to be called Sir

Rudy, at least not officially (no one is monitoring what he does after

hours among friends). Nor did he have to kneel down before the queen

today while having his shoulders tapped with her ceremonial sword, as

proper knights do. But he may use the initials K.B.E. — for Knight of

the British Empire — after his name, if he so chooses. And he spent the

day wearing his new fancy medal around his neck.

 

" I have been through many, many medal ceremonies, " Mr. Giuliani said in

a brief interview after meeting the queen. He said she had impressed him

with her practiced ability to speak with apparent interest to each of

several dozen people who received honors. " These are much, much better

run, to

tell you the truth. They're very well organized, and everyone gets some

time with the queen. "

 

He said he told her " that I believe I spoke for all the people of New

York and America in thanking her for the tremendous support to the

people of New York City during our time of crisis. "

 

It was a message he repeated throughout the day, whether he was at a

meal with business executives; on a guided tour of the Cabinet War

Rooms, the underground compound where Winston Churchill presided over

the British government in the dark days of World War II; or at a

fund-raising auction for the Twin Towers Fund. His schedule includes

more of the same until he leaves this weekend to receive an award in

Germany.

 

At each stop today, he discussed how the attacks on New York had

instantly invited comparisons with London during the blitz, when the

city had persevered despite being pummeled with bombs daily for more

than a year.

Mr. Giuliani, who said he happened to be reading a biography of Winston

Churchill just before Sept. 11, said that after the attack he thought,

" We can do it because the people of London did it. "

 

Mr. Giuliani, who traveled from New York on the Concorde with an

entourage of about 20, was joined by Bernard B. Kerik, former police

commissioner, and Thomas Von Essen, the former fire commissioner. They

were made honorary C.B.E.'s, or commanders of the British Empire.

 

After a lunch with several hundred American and British executives, Mr.

Giuliani and his companion, Judith Nathan, in a black Harrods hat that

she said he had chosen, sped off to the House of Commons. There he had

the uncharacteristic experience of sitting in a legislature in which,

according to the rules, he was not allowed to say anything, and no one

was allowed to mention that he was in the room.

 

But Mr. Giuliani's starry presence, even in a balcony well removed from

the cut and thrust of the debate, provided the leader of the

Conservative opposition, Iain Duncan Smith, with a fine opportunity to

rib Prime Minister Tony Blair by comparing London's crime rate

unfavorably to New York's (London's is increasing).

 

Mr. Blair — who mispronounced the former mayor's name (as " GWEE-liani)

in Parliament — met with him at No. 10 Downing Street later in the

afternoon, referring to him, more successfully, as Rudy. The two

discussed crime prevention and, meeting with reporters, basked in mutual

admiration.

 

At every step, Mr. Giuliani drew crowds of admirers, who waited in the

gloom and the rain and finally the dark to catch a glimpse of a man many

regard as a genuine international star. Part of this has to do with real

admiration, and part, some said, with the fact that Mr. Giuliani more or

less took up residence, by television, in the world's living rooms after

Sept. 11.

 

" We saw an awful lot of him being very sympathetic and doing an awful

lot of press conferences, " said Denise Williams, 47, who was watching

the scene outside Buckingham Palace.

 

Many said they were pleased with his new public persona, after a steady

diet of news reports here about his complicated romantic life.

 

" That's all gone by the wayside, and no one talks about that anymore, "

said Deirdre Sheehan, a financial broker, who was bidding for

photographs at the fund-raiser for the Twin Towers Fund last night (six

pre-Sept. 11 photographs of New York by Mr. Giuliani, three of them of

the World Trade

Center, raised a total of about $36,000).

 

As he fed off the ubiquitous admiration, Mr. Giuliani by the end of the

day was sounding increasingly like an on-message candidate in friendly

territory. But he stressed that he had no plans to seek, for example,

the presidency. " I'm not running for anything right now, " he said. " I'm

walking. " And with that he rushed off to the next event.