Hizzoner the Mayor

There is a long history of New York city mayors appearing in court as witnesses. This past week Mayor Bloomberg was a witness in a campaign money issue. While some were expecting fireworks from the usually arrogant and impatient city leader, it was said that he was terse and low keyed and somewhat forgetful of events considering he is a micro-manager. Some years ago when Mayor John Lindsay was on the stand the court had trouble with his middle name V-l-i-e-t - certainly a strange name for a WASP.
Mayor Ed Koch appeared on the stand several times, once being interrogated by Rudy Giuliani who handled him with kid gloves as Koch the extrovert was very popular and left the courtroom through the well shaking hands on the way out. The colorful Jimmy Walker was mayor from 1926-1932 - before and after the 1929 crash - he had been a song writer and played on stage before the footlights but got caught up in corruption and was forced to resign. But on the witness stand he loved to spar with his questioners. They were all colorful characters and good copy for the news media.
tjs
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