There is, after all, a limit on when he’ll take a call from Judith

Rudolph Giuliani tells the AP:

And quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other.

Sometimes if I’m in the middle of a very, very sensitive meeting, I don’t take the call right then; I wait. But I thought it would be kind of nice if I took it at that point, and I’d done that before in engagements, and I didn’t realize it would create any kind of controversy.

So, if Giuliani is in the middle of a meeting, or, for that matter, a speech, he’ll interrupt it to take a cell phone call from his wife. And if he’s in the middle of a sensitive meeting or speech, he’ll interrupt it to take a call from his wife. And if he’s in the middle of a very sensitive meeting or speech, he’ll interrupt it to take a call from his wife. But if it’s a very, very sensitive meeting or speech, then Judith will just have to wait. It’s reassuring to know that Giuliani has such a finely honed sense of how to balance his public and private life.

Note also in the same interview, in which Giuliani talks about his view of religion, how often he uses the expression, “very, very”:

“I’m guided very, very often about, `Don’t judge others, lest you be judged,’” Giuliani told CBN interviewer David Brody.

“I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college,” he said. “It’s an area I know really, really well academically…. [I]t’s a very, very important part of my life,” he said.

Another public figure who constantly says “very, very” is Newt Gingrich. It strikes me as a sign of inner emptiness. They really have nothing to say that comes from within themselves, so they try to puff it up by adding the words “very, very” to whatever banal emotion they’re conveying. “I’m very, very excited to be running for president.” Such eloquence.

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Paul K. writes:

Also, I note that Giuliani is very, very often guided by, “Don’t judge others, lest you be judged.” I understand that’s the very, very favorite Bible quote among libertines.

Sam H. writes:

I love your Giuliani stuff! It’s a bit rich for Giuliani to reference the Pericope Adulterae. After all: the story in the Gospel of John famously ends with Jesus commanding the adultress to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Giuliani must have missed that part of the Gospel during his very, very intensive theological studies.

LA writes:

Giuliani said:

“But I thought it would be kind of nice if I took it at that point, and I’d done that before in engagements, and I didn’t realize it would create any kind of controversy.”

Note that while Giuliani expresses some surprise that his phone conversation created controversy, he still doesn’t realize or admit that the conversation was inappropriate. He acknowledges that other people didn’t like it, but he himself still doesn’t feel there was anything wrong it it. And he maintains this attitude, even after there has been such a controversy over the incident, and even after earlier criticism had been raised about his excessive accommodationism to his wife.

Bottom line: Giuliani is so self-centered that he still thinks that there’s nothing inherently wrong with interrupting a presidential campaign speech to have a phone conversation with his wife.

Paul K. writes:

An obscure word which may come into common use during the Giuliani campaign is “uxorious”: foolishly fond of or submissive to your wife.

LA replies:

I was looking for a word and couldn’t find it, so I said “accommodationism.” Uxorious is good, but I don’t think it captures the over-the-top quality I was looking for that we have in Giuliani’s case. Maybe better would be “in thrall.”

John B. writes:

The chronic use of “very, very” brings to mind an aphorism of Nietzsche’s: “All poets and writers who are in love with the superlative want more than they are capable of.” Recall, too, the Presidency of Bill Clinton, to whom everything was profound. “I shall repair to the profound White House kitchen to get a profound sandwich.”

A reader writes:

Yes, the very very and really really stuff is funny. It just occurred to me, maybe they’re making a public display to counter that hint in the Vanity Fair article that his eyeballs may already be straying toward newer pastures?

LA replies:

That seems a plausible theory. The Vanity Fair allegations, made in a high-profile magazine and article, were shockingly upfront—he’s losing interest in Judith and looking elsewhere. Showing him as so loyally tied to her that he disses his own audiences may be a way of countering that impression.

Even though I admired the job he did as mayor of New York, I came to the view at some point in his mayorlty that this was a soulless man. But now his soullessness is being acted out on a national and international stage.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 28, 2007 04:11 PM | Send