Pledging Allegiance

Like most of his fraternity brothers, Giuliani was a passionate Democrat through early adulthood. He served as a state Democratic Party committeeman in his early 20s and voted for George McGovern in the 1972 presidential race. But his politics changed dramatically in the 1980s while he served in the Reagan administration as an assistant attorney general. During his emergence as a mob-busting U.S. attorney, he became a registered Republican.

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"We had a lot in common in those days when he voted for McGovern," remembers Jack Loiello, a Giuliani classmate at Bishop Loughlin who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations. "Years later, we went different ways politically. I'll be supporting a Democrat for president, but even so, I think Rudy would be a good president, I really do. I like how he's always remembered his friends. . . . Look, he's stuck with Placa. I think you have to admire that."

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It is Giuliani's often tense relationship with his adult children, Andrew and Caroline Giuliani, that mystifies his old friends and classmates. Though most won't discuss it publicly, their voices betray an ache when they talk about the subject for long.

Giuliani says he loves his children: "There are times when there have been big disagreements. There were times in my own relationship with my father when we argued. Relationships between parents and children go through all different phases, and I think it comes out the right way in the end." He pauses, and mentions a mutual respect and devotion that, he believes, are still there with his children. "As we get past the hurts and grievances, I think we will realize all that."

Still, longtime friends worry about the possible impact of those strains, as well as Giuliani's three marriages, on his presidential bid. And they question how Giuliani, so tightly bound to Harold and Helen Giuliani, could find himself in such a position.

Only his old neighbor and die-hard defender Ray Jacobelli has dared to offer a theory. "I was there when he became mayor," Jacobelli says. "I remember Andrew having fun at his inauguration, goofing around, and Rudy loving every minute of it. Those were good days for all of 'em. But maybe after that Rudy was too busy to be a father. . . . That was different than what Rudy had as a kid. Harold had time for him. Harold was there every second. . . . He was the most important and loyal person ever in Rudy's life. He is why Rudy is what he is."

Jack O'Leary can still see Harold Giuliani in the back yard on that spring day, looking up at his son with misery, guilt, hope. "He was going to be there for Rudy until the end. I think Rudy took that with him."