Back in the mid-1980s when Rudy Giuliani was a federal prosecutor, he apparently escaped the wrath of New York’s big five Mafia crime families — but just barely.   
 
The New York Post, quoting FBI documents, reported on Thursday the mob bosses decided by a 3-to-2 margin not to try to whack Giuliani who later became the city’s mayor and now is a presidential hopeful.
 
But before cooler heads prevailed, at least two of the dons argued fervently that the mob-busting U.S. attorney should sleep with the fishes, the Post reported.
 
The news came out during the New York trial of former FBI supervisor Lindley DeVecchio, accused of orchestrating four gangland murders.
 
The Giuliani campaign was quick to crow about the revelation, putting out an email to reporters saying it was evidence of Giuliani’s “tough on crime attitude.”

And tough-guy Rudy shrugged off the revelations, speaking to Mike Gallaher’s talk radio show. He said threats on his life went with the territory as a federal prosecutor.

“The one that really embarrassed me, Mike, was when I was first U.S. attorney, they put out a contract to kill me for $800,000. After 5 years of being U.S. attorney, they put out another contract to kill me, another group, for only $400,000,” he said. 

However, it is unclear whether this new development will take the heat off Giuliani, a New York Yankees fan, for saying this week he would root for the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
 
“I will be rooting for the Red Sox because I am an American League fan,” he told reporters on Tuesday in New Hampshire, where the Red Sox are popular.
 
Could he be pandering to the Red Sox faithful in the early voting state of New Hampshire? The Democratic National Committee thinks so.
 
“Memo to Rudy: Your Red Sox pandering can’t fool NH voters,” the DNC said in an email.