A red-faced Hall quickly apologized. "I will do my utmost to see that this does not happen again," he told Giuliani.
Another time, when he was highlighted in a book about the nation's top new leaders, but also cited for his hot temper, he grabbed the phone and chewed out the authors.
And yet, there was a humbler version of Rudy Giuliani.
"Such a tragedy reminds us of the need to have faith in our God," he wrote the families of four FBI agents killed when their bureau plane crashed in Ohio. "For whatever comfort it is worth, I will remember you in my prayers."
Those who worked with him at the Justice Department presumed he would live out his days as a government bureaucrat. Starr, now dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law, said Giuliani "never talked about" a future in politics, "never showed he was thinking those things."
Giuliani started out as an assistant federal prosecutor in Manhattan in the 1970s, then served briefly as an associate deputy attorney general under President Ford. His boss was Deputy Atty. Gen. Harold R. "Ace" Tyler, who had mentored him in New York.
When Ford lost to Carter, Tyler and Giuliani returned to New York and private practice.
Four years later, Reagan took the presidency from Carter, and Giuliani wanted to go back to Washington and a top job at Justice.
Some, including Starr, credit Tyler for Giuliani's selection as associate attorney general. "Rudy was not known. But Ace opened the door," Starr said.
Once in the job, Giuliani sometimes seemed to bring problems on himself.
He met privately with a defense lawyer for McDonnell Douglas Corp., even though the company was under criminal investigation on suspicion of paying off Pakistani officials to push through an airplane deal.
The department determined there was "no indication that Mr. Giuliani violated any law, order or standard of conduct," after Giuliani asserted that he was unaware the company was under indictment.
He also freely used official department letterhead to pitch job recommendations for friends, including 92 letters for the husband of one of his aides.
Giuliani reveled in the job, telling friends how "exciting" he found it. Yet when the U.S. attorney post in Manhattan came open, he pounced.
He quickly expressed his interest to Smith, who was puzzled why someone managing the entire apparatus would step down to run a field office.
"But Rudy wanted that vacancy, and he worked it real fast," said Edward C. Schmults, the deputy attorney general and Giuliani's boss.
Giuliani resigned one post to assume the other.
As he packed up his office, he took down paintings of two former Manhattan U.S. attorneys who went on to become U.S. attorneys general.
On the presidential campaign trail today, Giuliani is aiming higher.
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richard.serrano@latimes.com
