Opinion: Rudy Giuliani feels the love

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At a marathon gala in Washington Saturday night, a packed ballroom reveled in the successes of a long list of Italian-Americans.

A three-tiered head table of luminaries that looked out upon the black-tie gathering included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. One of those honored at the banquet was Nancy Pelosi, who as Speaker of the House is second in succession to the presidency. Other honorees included William Novelli, head of the influential AARP, and famed film director Martin Scorese.

Judged by the crowd’s reaction, however, the evening’s favorite was Rudy Giuliani, who already has made history as the first Italian-American to mount a sustained presidential candidacy and hopes to achieve another milestone by moving into the White House in about 15 months.

Not all that much has been made of the precedent-setting nature of Giuliani’s campaign, as we have noted before. But it clearly was on the minds of this audience, which greeted him with loud applause and shouts of approval -- first when he was introduced at the dinner’s start and later when he took the podium to recieve an award for public service.

The event was sponsored by the non-partisan National Italian-American Foundation, and a buoyant Giuliani responded with some non-political -- and frequently humorous -- remarks.

He made a point of mentioning that he came from Brooklyn. Responding to the predictable claps sparked by the comment, he cracked: ‘That’s a cheap applause line anywhere in the world.’

He did not elaborate that when he was seven, his parents relocated him to Long Island. But he did ...

reveal why he does not at least occasionally speak Italian, a language he said he can read and understand.

He recollected that as a young man he visited the home country and, while in Florence, ordered a meal in Italian. His waiter bore with him for a bit, but eventually could not resist some advice. He informed Giuliani: ‘There is no reason for you to ruin my language when I speak your language fluently.’

Since then, Giuliani declared to laughter and a few disappointed ‘ohhhs,’ he dares not utter the native tongue of his immigrant grandparents (on both sides of his family).

He did his part to add to the lore of New York Yankee great Yogi Berra (who, during the introductions of those arrayed at the head table, may have gotten the heartiest welcome).

One of the perks of being mayor of New York, Giuliani related, was getting to know some of the Yankee players he rooted for as a boy. He got to know Berra well enough, he said, to invite him to his wedding (presumably, his third, to current wife Judith). According to Giuliani, at the reception Berra was asked about the size of his family growing up. Replied (in this telling) the Hall of Fame catcher and master of malaprops: ‘I had three brothers, including myself.’

The crowd howled.

Pelosi, who was raised in Baltimore’s ‘Little Italy’ neighborhood and whose father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., and brother, Thomas D’Alesandro III, both served as mayor of the city, also received a public service award. She fondly recalled the tight-knit community of her youth. But, as is her wont, she was more constrained than Giuliani in offering personal reminscences.

She did interject a hint of partisanship, noting that as she was growing up, her family was ‘staunchly Democratic.’ And, we had to wonder if her reference to her ‘husband of 44 years,’ Paul Pelosi, was the slightest of digs at Giuliani’s more checkered marital past.

Amid the prolonged (four-hour) celebration of achievements by Italian-Americans, one historical footnote went unremarked upon.

John Pastore, a Democrat from Rhode Island, in 1950 became the first Italian-American elected to the U.S. Senate. Since then, many have followed in his footsteps. But this year marks the first time that both senators from a single state are of Italian heritage. That occurred after Republican Craig Thomas’ death in June. He was replaced by John Barrasso, who teams with Mike Enzi to comprise this particular state’s Senate delegation.

And that state would be ... Wyoming.

Only in America.

-- Don Frederick