[Gawd, I hope not!!! Bush ought to grab him, quick!]

NYDailyNews

HIRE ASPIRATION: RUDY EYES JOB IN TOP FIRM

By DAVID SEIFMAN

November 17, 2001 -- EXCLUSIVE

MAYOR Giuliani is negotiating a top job with one of the world's largest accounting and management firms, Ernst & Young, The Post has learned.

Sources said the mayor's new position might involve "turning around companies in trouble."

Giuliani is working on a package deal with Ernst & Young that also would allow him to bring along three trusted aides: longtime counsel Denny Young, Chief of Staff Tony Carbonetti and Corporation Counsel Michael Hess, sources said.

One Giuliani ally said the mayor shouldn't have a problem transferring his management skills to the private sector, considering his performance in running the city.

"New York City is the ultimate turnaround," the ally pointed out.

While a lawyer in private practice in the early 1980s, Giuliani was tapped to turnaround a bankrupt Kentucky coal-mining company, and he succeeded.

At Ernst & Young, Giuliani is expected to earn significantly more than his current $195,000 salary, but the terms of the deal could not be learned.

The mayor leaves office after two terms on Dec. 31.

Ernst & Young is one of the world's largest accounting firms. It sold its consulting practice last year and the new company of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has more than 59,000 employees worldwide.

It wasn't clear yesterday which of the two firms Giuliani might be joining.

"It's simmering," said one source of the job deal.

Except for stints at three prominent New York law firms, Giuliani has spent his entire career in government, starting as a law clerk to a federal judge in 1968 and moving up to U.S. attorney in 1983, before capturing City Hall in 1993.

His new gig won't stop Giuliani from continuing to take center stage in the world of Republican politics.

"You want him to be viable. You're not paying him to sit around," said an insider.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis told Roll Call, the Capitol Hill weekly, that he recently spoke with Giuliani about the possibility of aiding House Republicans in next year's midterm elections.

"He's one of the hottest commodities in politics right now," Davis said.

Giuliani's future has been a topic of intense - and sometimes off-the-wall - speculation.

At one point, he was said to be a contender to become commissioner of baseball, although there wasn't any evidence to back that up.

A much more realistic possibility: chairman of the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corporation, the joint city-state agency that will control rebuilding at the World Trade Center site.

No matter what else he does, Giuliani is committed to producing two books for Talk Miramax, which has agreed to pay him up to $3 million up front.

Giuliani could also make big bucks on the lecture circuit, where he's certain to command five- and perhaps even six-figure speaking fees.

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001