Wayne Barrett on his Rudy Giuliani book

(CNN) – Readers get a glimpse of the public life and political career of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in, "Rudy," an investigative biography authored by Wayne Barrett. The book discloses details of the mayor’s colorful family history, and his political achievements and downfalls from the time he was assistant U.S. Attorney to his recent withdrawal from the U.S. Senate election.

Wayne Barrett is the senior editor of the Village Voice, covering New York City and state politics. He is the author of "Trump: The Deals and Downfall," and co-author of "City for Sale."

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Wayne Barrett, and welcome.

Wayne Barrett: Thanks for having me, and hello to the audience.

Chat Moderator: Why did you decide to tell the story of Rudy Giuliani, and why at this time?

Wayne Barrett: Well, he is a large figure on my beat, and I cover politics in New York City and the state. I met him back in 1979, and I've covered him wearing several different hats: U.S. attorney, as a candidate for mayor twice, as mayor, and as a private attorney. I thought I knew him well. I thought he was the perfect fit for a biography.

I wrote the proposal to do this book and market it in 1998, after he won re-election in 1997, but publishers were not interested; they didn't think he was a national figure at that point. Then he spent 1998 traveling around the country. He went to over 20 states.

And then, the Hillary race suddenly appeared, and so several of the publishers that I had approached unsuccessfully a year earlier, came back to me in 1999, and were interested. So, I got a contract to do the book sometime in the spring of 1999, and spent a year reporting and writing it.

Question from Jeff-CNN: Was there anything you discovered that impressed you about Rudy Giuliani?

Wayne Barrett: Well, not on the reporting trail for the book because I was covering him for over 20 years. When he was a U.S. attorney, I was impressed at his integrity and his perseverance. I wrote a book in 1989, with Jack Newfield, called "City for Sale, " and Rudy was the hero of that book because of his prosecutions of municipal corruption here in the city.

As mayor I covered him and have always been impressed with his work habits, his ability to identify and resolve emergencies and other problems in New York City, like the sanitation problems. I cite in the book that his administration has certainly made the city cleaner, both due to sound management of the sanitation department and a very smart labor contract with the Sanit Union, the sanitation workers. These are just some of the things that over the years have impressed me about Rudy.

Chat Moderator: How do you think history will treat Giuliani 's tenure as New York City mayor?

Wayne Barrett: Well, historians are going to have a hard time writing about it as a successful administration because of the mayor's race record. The profoundly poisonous relationship between his administration and the black community has undercut any other successes he can legitimately lay claim to.

This is the whitest mayoral administration in modern history, and it has reversed a 50-year trend of gradual increase in percentage of black workers or employees in the city work force.

The percentages of blacks at all levels, from the highest to the lowest, has declined consistently during the Giuliani years. This record, combined with his welfare policies, his pronouncements on pivotal cases of police brutality, and his hostility to the homeless, makes him a mayor for only some of the people. I think that historians would have to look at a mayor who has divided the city, as he has, in a negative light.

Question from Jeff-CNN: Who was a more effective mayor for New York City? Rudy Giuliani or David Dinkins?

Wayne Barrett: Well, the single great achievement in the city during both of these administrations was crime reduction. I wrote a chapter in this book called, "These Statistics are a Crime," and that chapter raises grave questions about the manipulation of these numbers, these crime statistics, during the Giuliani era. It also raises questions about whether any mayor is responsible for significant elements in the crime reduction.

So, in answering the question, "Who was the more effective mayor," the questioner has to deal with this dilemma:

Crime declined for the final 36 consecutive months of the Dinkins administration. This little known fact, rarely reported by the press, managed to conceal a 16 percent decline in the seven FBI index crimes before Giuliani ever became mayor. On the other hand, under Giuliani, crime has declined at a far faster rate than under Dinkins, and has reached 30-35 year lows.

So the question is, who should get more credit? Should it be the mayor under whom a decade long, rising crime trend was reversed, or the mayor under whom crime declined faster and deeper? It seems to me that you can answer the question in either direction, and I think that in measuring both administrations, crime has been the standard that voters in the city have been most likely to apply.

Chat Moderator: What has the reaction to the book been? Does the public think it's a fair portrayal? Does Rudy Giuliani think it is?

Wayne Barrett: The press had responded to the book in New York City with eight front-page stories. It has attracted a tremendous media response. I've been on every local television station at least twice, and that is just in the metropolitan area.

So, I think the book in the metro area at least, has resonated with many of the public perceptions of this ever-changing man. If I had written the book two years ago, or even one year ago, it might not have resonated to the degree that it seems to have today.

Mayor Giuliani's reaction is to say that he is not going to read it. He has responded to some of the specifics of the book. For example, former Mayor Ed Koch revealed that Mayor Giuliani called him about a chapter in the book that reveals that Giuliani, as U.S. attorney, investigated Koch's sex life. This investigation occurred in preparation for a 1989 Giuliani run for the mayoralty.

Koch says that Giuliani confirmed that such an investigation occurred, but claimed that he tried to stop it when he learned that investigators in his office were conducting it. In addition, Giuliani has responded to the revelations in the book about his father's criminal past, as well as the criminality of his uncle and cousin.

The mayor has urged that his father's secrets be allowed to die with him since his father died 19 years ago. He has pointedly affirmed that his uncle and cousin died some years ago but refused to discuss their mob-connected careers.

Chat Moderator: Do you have any final thoughts to share with us?

Wayne Barrett: The book is the only full-length, full-life biography of Rudy Giuliani. It explores in a mixed --both negatives and positives-- and fair way, his entire public life. It reaches some rather harsh conclusions about his willingness to deceive or grossly exaggerate what is a record of some achievement.

And, since Rudy Giuliani is the prototype of the "new urban" politics, the book also examines important policy areas, like welfare and homelessness, that are major issues in many cities around the country.

Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today.

Wayne Barrett: Thanks, and good bye. I appreciate it!