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The pair have transformed from bitter competitors in last year's Senate race to sharing an embrace after the attacks.
©New York Times
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 23, 2001
NEW YORK -- Of all the unusual political marriages that have resulted from the terrorist attack on America, few are as intriguing as the one between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani.
The two were bitter rivals for several months last year during the race for the U.S. Senate. One highlight included the mayor's hopping to Arkansas for a few hours to denounce Clinton on what he, not so subtly, pointed out was her true home turf. Giuliani eventually dropped out of the race when he learned he had prostate cancer, but the animosity between them remained. Jump to the day after two hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, and the two former rivals were sharing a private hug.
Since then, the mayor and the senator from New York have developed a visibly cordial, if not downright warm, relationship, working closely together openly and behind the scenes on things like securing $20-billion from Congress for New York's recovery, comforting stricken families and figuring out how to get the most out of federal agencies assisting in disaster relief. While on their many walking tours of the devastated site, the mayor is often right next to Clinton, at times consulting with her in whispers and, in light moments, elbowing her with a little joke.
While the new relationship is in many ways an outgrowth of having to look out for New York state's best interests, it also appears to mark Clinton's full transition from a former first lady who happened to hold a Senate seat to true federal legislator, with all the rolled-up sleeves that the position entails.
According to several people who have participated in meetings and conference calls between the senator's office and the mayor's, Clinton has carefully guided the Giuliani administration on how agreements are forged between Congress and the White House, gently leaned on certain senators to sign off on federal aid and taken on chores like holding the hands of counselors for families, usually out of the way of a camera.
And Clinton, who just a few months ago shied away from reporters and often interacted with the media more as the wife of the former president than an elected official, now gets on the phone with reporters, and blends in with lawmakers like the junior senator she always insisted she was comfortable being -- while critics lambasted her as a carpetbagger in search of a stepping stone to loftier roles.
"Mrs. Clinton has been extraordinarily diplomatic, delicate and insightful," said Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota, who six months ago would probably have chosen other adjectives. "And I for one will never forget Senator Clinton and Mayor Giuliani sharing a warm hug. I think there has just been an enormous amount of bonding that has resulted from this tragedy."
Giuliani was not available for comment.
But the New York Times cited once close aide to the mayor as saying that it was a pleasure to work with Clinton.
For her part, Clinton describes her relationship with the mayor in ways that would have been unimaginable a year ago, saying that it is one of the positive things to have come out of this tumultuous and tragic period.
"We've just been working closely together in every way you can imagine," she said Friday afternoon during an interview with reporters at her Senate office in Washington. "His extraordinary strength in this crisis is something that most of us would have expected. His determination and courage and resolve are certainly well known.
"But what also has come through is a level of compassion and sensitivity to the human suffering that has touched everyone," she added.