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American Morning

Rudy Guliani to Leave Office Soon

Aired December 17, 2001 - 08:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Well Jack Cafferty is back. Did you get your eight hours of sleep every night, and rest up on ...

JACK CAFFERTY: Well I didn't go anywhere. The best part of being on vacation is you have this luxury of any time during the day or night you feel tired, you lie down and go to sleep. I took a lot of naps, did a lot of - yeah its nice.

ZAHN: No, cruises for Jack Cafferty (ph), just a little bit of sleep.

CAFFERTY: I also had a conversation with our agent last week.

ZAHN: You (INAUDIBLE)?

CAFFERTY: You and I have the same agent ...

ZAHN: OK.

CAFFERTY: Mr. Whoopie. And 25 years I've been paying this guy, right? So I got him on the phone, and he said, I had an idea. When you're on with Paula Zahn, they should retitle the show, "Beauty and the Beast". That's what he said.

(LAUGHTER)

CAFFERTY: That's what our guy said. And we all know who he was talking about. I mean which role for each person.

ZAHN: I don't know, that could be heavily debated this morning though. So Rudi Giuliani counting the hours until he leaves power here as mayor of New York City. I think - didn't he find a new gig over the weekend.

CAFFERTY: Apparently he did.

ZAHN: Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: We'd like to send you off with a little play that we wrote. Tina will be playing the role of New York City. And I will be playing the role of you.

(LAUGHTER)

MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI (R), NEW YORK: That doesn't look like me.

UNKNOWN: It's a comb over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: (LAUGHTER) He loved it; he played right along with it.

CAFFERTY: There was a time during his first term earlier in his administration, he would have not have been amused at that. But he his sense of humor is improving.

ZAHN: But look how he's grown; I mean he doesn't think anything of putting a dress on on "Saturday Night Live". Remember the scene where he played an opera singer once? He has a great sense of humor.

CAFFERTY: Yeah, he's gotten much better about jokes aimed at him.

ZAHN: So you get that this morning, but what don't you get this morning?

CAFFERTY: Well, I don't know - yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio there was a football game between the Cleveland Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Now we're not talking top of the marquee here in the NFL. Apparently, late in the game there was a questionable call, and these mutants in the stands started throwing plastic bottles at the officials, at the players. Some of them apparently were filled with beer. Look at this, there was a glass bottle.

ZAHN: Man ...

CAFFERTY: Now that's disgusting enough; then this morning we get over the wires, The reaction of some of the officials of the team. The Browns President says he likes the fact that his fans care.

ZAHN: Hello.

CAFFERTY: I mean you're got to have a single-digit IQ to make a statement like that. And the team owner ...

ZAHN: Look at the field, Jack, how could they (INAUDIBLE) that ...

CAFFERTY: I wander how they feel if the team's president or the owner's child had been on the sidelines got hit in the eye with one of those beer bottles.

ZAHN: Well yeah.

CAFFERTY: The team owner, Al Lerner (ph) excused the rowdiness, saying, "While it wasn't pleasant; it wasn't World War III." My guess is they are going to have to retract those statements. A number of years ago here in New York at a Giants game, something happened. Jacksonville by the way won the game, eventually. So there is some poetic justice. But here in New York a few years ago, the fans - they got exorcised about something on the field - began throwing snowballs. Well law enforcement authorities went through the tape of the game and managed to identify a lot of the people who were doing this. And they were hauled into court. They were arrested, issued summonses ...

ZAHN: Wait a minute, what are the charge when you throw a snowball?

CAFFERTY: I don't know, endangering somebody's - you know - but they revoked their season tickets. Some of them had to pay a fine, as I recall. My understanding is though in Cleveland, if they can find out the people who did this, the punishment will be a little different. They will be required to attend all the Cleveland Browns football games for the rest of their lives.

ZAHN: Punishment enough, right.

CAFFERTY: Yeah, so - but that's just terrible.

ZAHN: I would have made them clean up that field last night. That's just disgusting.

CAFFERTY: That's terrible. On a much more pleasant note, my candidate for Man of the Year, Rummy - Donald Rumsfeld - he apparently paid a surprise visit to American troops in Afghanistan over the weekend. And at one point, he couldn't contain himself and he burst into song. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUMSFELD: Where's Timothy Murphy? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Timothy. Happy birthday to you.

UNKNOWN: Hey, hey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Nice voice.

CAFFERTY: Who'd a thunk it.

ZAHN: Very nice voice.

CAFFERTY: And they raised the American flag over the embassy in Kabul for the first time since, I think, 1989. So its all beginning to turn out the way we wanted.

ZAHN: So one wonders just how much traction your idea of putting Rumsy on the cover will have. The Osama bin Laden cover may still happen.

CAFFERTY: Yeah, its been decided, I would think by now. Because doesn't the issue come out next week?

ZAHN: Yes, so all those e-letters - those e-mail ...

CAFFERTY: E-mail.

ZAHN: E-mail, thank you.

CAFFERTY: Yeah, that's all right.

ZAHN: Mail letters and e-mail, maybe they didn't stop that from happening after all.

CAFFERTY: Apparently Jeannie Moos (ph) did a piece on this too, and people on the streets - they were more outspoken then even I. I mean, they were just saying, oh the guy's a jerk. How could you possibly think of something like that; yada, yada, yada, yada. So, we'll see. My hunch is they won't do it.

ZAHN: Glad to have you back.

CAFFERTY: Thank you.

ZAHN: See you tomorrow morning.

CAFFERTY: It's good to be back. I'm staying -- you don't (INAUDIBLE) ...

ZAHN: Yeah, you got some business (INAUDIBLE). OK, don't move, stay right there.

CAFFERTY: I'll be right here.

ZAHN: All right, straight ahead, sound off. If President Bush gets his wish, Congress could give the nation a new economic stimulus package for Christmas. But will it be too little too late? That debate when we come back.

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