was left staggering off his throne. - the raiders, the hostile takeovers. - once one of wall street's mightiest, ivan boesky appeared for sentencing, in the judge's words, humiliated, vilified, and cut down to size. - and all of that was entwined with what was a deeply corrupt system. - you find for me in the law where the united states congress has distinguished multibillion-dollar financial firms from other institutions, and you show me where that is. - rudy created the character of himself as a working-class, seam straight, streetwise new yorker who wasn't gonna take all the bullshit from these elites. rudy knew that he was igniting a populist revolt against this class of people. it is like the american narrative of the little guy who stands up and turns things over, a little guy who can finally hand back to the people who have humiliated him or disappointed him. that's the american thing, you know?