As you may have read in Vanity Fair, the Village Voice, The New Yorker, or on this very site right here, Rudy Giuliani was kind of a capricious dick back when he was mayor (and probably before then too, but who cared?). Today the Times joins the season-long pile-on, just as it becomes increasingly likely that America's Mayor won't win a single primary. The best illustrative anecdote appears early: When a chauffeur's call to Giuliani's radio show to complain about a police-rigged red light "yielded no results," the driver took his case to the Daily News. It made the front page, and then the chauffeur was arrested, that morning, and taken to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. Then a police spokesman falsely claimed to the Daily News that the driver had been convicted of sodomy. "Then," the Times writes, "Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel."

After the mayor personally attacked the man to the press, the driver "received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city." Which was pretty par for the course in those heady days—"New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years."

Another good dozen stories of Rudy's petty temper follow. Some of them you may have seen before! Others may be new to you! But Ed Koch, as always, is available for critical quotes, so long as you mention his book about Rudy, which we always enjoy hearing about (the name sounds like a Prince song!).

Enjoy these nostalgic looks back at the 90s while you can, because the rest of the nation is catching JOHN MCCAIN FEVER!

In Matters Big and Small, Crossing Giuliani Had a Price [NYT]