Giuliani has always enjoyed playing the crime-fighting superhero, but he has, famously, been a cold and merciless crusader--a bane to squeegee pests, jaywalkers, homeless people, welfare moms, police-shooting victims and city-council Democrats.
Despite having started his second (and final) term as mayor with a blizzard of campaigns to rid New York city of, among other things, drugs, jaywalkers, crumbling baseball stadiums and impoliteness, Mr Giuliani looks restless.
His reputation was forged in the refiner's fire of Sept. 11, which burned away the dross of what had been a successful but contentious two terms as New York City's mayor, a guy who reduced crime, yet picked fights with squeegee men and jaywalkers.