Giuliani's CV

UNTIL SEPT. 11, 2001, RUDY GIULIANI WAS BEST KNOWN AS A COMBATIVE TWO-TERM MAYOR DETERMINED TO RESTORE CONTROL OF

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a crime-ridden, debt-soaked New York. He posited that the appearance of disorder spawned disorder; that small, overlooked sins begat large, violent ones. And so broken windows in a city neighborhood had to be replaced to send a message to criminals that vigilant citizens lived there. Panhandlers, curbside vendors, graffiti artists, streetwalkers, jaywalkers, dog-walkers without poop scoopers: All received warnings to get their acts together. Giuliani often sounded like Gracie Mansion's Honorable Nag -- but crime dropped.

As a U.S. attorney, he made the perp walks of high-profile white-collar scoundrels and Mafiosi into a kind of art form. And while his manner alienated many liberals and minorities in New York, even critics acknowledge that he possesses an enviable political skill: the ability to project a sunny confidence and steel in times of crisis. His response to Sept. 11 transformed him into America's Mayor and a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination.

That quality is Giuliani's potential ace card in the campaign,

and he has exhibited flashes of it throughout the years that his high school and college classmates have known him. Gene Hart, a fraternity brother, recalls a reunion dinner held at a restaurant in Manhattan around the time that Giuliani, then the U.S. attorney in New York, was prosecuting mob figures.

Giuliani's bodyguards stood watch over a private room while the old fraternity brothers and their spouses dined. Hart's wife, Mary, found herself seated next to Giuliani and told him that she was a little nervous about being seated next to a man in need of protection. As Hart remembers, Giuliani answered casually that there was nothing to worry about: He received death threats all the time and, besides, if an attempt were made on his life, Mary would be okay.

"Rudy said, 'If something happened, Mary, there would be two shots, both fatal, and I think I would probably fall straight forward and not on you,' " Hart recalls. "I thought: He doesn't get shaken. He likes this. He likes everything connected to it. He likes to lead. In his mind, he has to be the leader. He isn't made to be something like vice president. That's never been in his nature."

-- Michael Leahy