POLITICS WATCH : Jumping the Fence

In a year of destructive partisan politics, it is refreshing to see Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Republican mayor of New York City, drop a political bombshell by endorsing his state’s Democratic governor, Mario M. Cuomo, for reelection.

We are not naive enough to think Giuliani did so entirely out of altruism. He openly dislikes the Republican candidate, a state senator from Upstate New York who Giuliani fears would undermine the city’s efforts to close a $1-billion budget gap. And Giuliani is a bitter rival of the GOP candidate’s mentor, U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato. Still, the mayor’s willingness to risk his political future by crossing party boundaries in a Fiorello La Guardia-like gesture is a striking example for gridlock-bound Washington and Sacramento.

There is recent precedent for such an action. Both Giuliani and his fellow big-city Republican mayor, Richard Riordan of Los Angeles, backed President Clinton in helping pass the crime bill despite partisan opposition from Republicans in Congress. And two top Republicans, Jack Kemp and William Bennett, came out against California’s Proposition 187 despite the fact Gov. Pete Wilson is campaigning for it.

All this highlights the gulf in modern politics between private thought and public behavior. Kemp and Bennett could have kept their counsel; Giuliani could have voted for Cuomo and expediently remained silent. “That’s one of the reasons why people are so turned off about politics today,” Giuliani said, adding, “Because we don’t act like we’re real people.”