Rudy ’06

National Review ^ | 3-1-05 | Deroy Murdock

[Aetius]

A Giuliani win over Senator Hillary will go far toward a 2008 victory.

A boulder now blocks Rudolph W. Giuliani's path to the White House: a nagging suspicion among conservatives that he is too liberal for the Republican presidential nomination.

Referring to Giuliani and Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson, for instance, said on the February 11 Hardball: "I will say that, politically, how are they so different?...They are not."

If Giuliani wants the 2008 GOP nod, he needs to help conservatives across America understand what New Yorkers already know: Giuliani is an anvil-tough, free-market reformer who dramatically limited Gotham's government.

According to one leading conservative, Team Giuliani suggested that "America's mayor" make this pitch himself, but the Right rebuffed him.

"Rudy's people said he would be willing to come and speak, but we said we didn't think he'd fit into the program," American Conservative Union chairman David Keene tells me. In mid-February, the ACU held its annual conference in Washington, D.C. The American Right's entire rainbow was on display, from the traditionalist Family Research Council, to the openly gay Log Cabin Republicans, to Ayn Rand's aficionados at the Objectivist Center.

"Rudy's office called and said his normal fee is $100,000, but that he would appear for free." Keene adds. "I would assume he wanted to come here to boost his conservative credentials, but we didn't think that would be useful." (Communications Director Sunny Mindel says Giuliani Partners did not approach the ACU, although a high-level Giuliani associate says he and an ACU official discussed a possible appearance.)

Keene says he and the ACU's board denied Giuliani a high-profile platform at their convention. Pity, because there is a solid, right-of-center rationale for President Giuliani:

Between January 1, 1994 and January 1, 2002, Giuliani famously supervised a 57-percent overall drop in crime and a 65-percent plunge in homicides.

Giuliani curbed or killed 23 taxes totaling $8 billion. He slashed Gotham's top income-tax rate 21 percent and local taxes' share of personal income 15.9 percent. Giuliani called hiking taxes after September 11 "a dumb, stupid, idiotic, and moronic thing to do."

Giuliani's spending increases averaged just 2.9 percent annually. His fiscal 1995 and 2002 budgets actually decreased total outlays.

While hiring 12 percent more cops and 12.8 percent more teachers, Giuliani sliced manpower 17.2 percent, from 117,494 workers to 97,338.

Rather than "perpetuate discrimination," Giuliani junked Gotham's 20 percent set-asides for female and minority contractors.

Two years before federal welfare reform, Giuliani began shrinking public-assistance rolls from 1,112,490 recipients in 1993 to 462,595 in 2001, a 58.4-percent decrease to 1966 levels. He also renamed welfare offices "Job Centers." According to Giuliani's book, Leadership, in fiscal 2001, City Hall placed 151,376 welfare beneficiaries, a 16-fold increase over 1993's 9,215 assignments under Democrat David Dinkins.

Foster-care residents dropped from 42,000 to 28,700 between 1996 and 2001, while adoptions zoomed 65 percent to 21,189.

Giuliani privatized 69.8 percent of city-owned apartments; sold WNYC-TV, WNYC-FM, WNYC-AM, and Gotham's share of the U.N. Plaza Hotel; and invited the private Central Park Conservancy to manage Manhattan's 843-acre rectangular garden.

Giuliani advocated school vouchers, launched a Charter School Fund, and scrapped tenure for principals.

While many libertarians frowned, Giuliani padlocked porn shops in Times Square, paving the way for smut-free cineplexes and Disney musicals.

Giuliani barnstorms for conservative candidates. Last fall, he addressed 38 post-convention Bush-Cheney rallies and stumped for Senator Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.), Senator Mel Martinez (R., Fla.), gubernatorial hopeful Dino Rossi (R., Wash.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Tex.), and Senator John Thune (R., S. D.), the man who toppled Tom Daschle. "We also taped get-out-the-vote phone messages for 20 candidates," one Giuliani aide recalls. This February, Giuliani spoke at a fundraiser for Senator Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.).

Add Giuliani's world-famous brand of tenacious, yet touching, leadership (abundant on September 11), and many conservatives remain unmoved. They liken him to a luxury car with plush seats, dynamite speakers, excellent mileage, and three slight problems: No steering wheel, no tires, and no engine.

Giuliani is a pro-choice Republican who is friendlier to gay rights than to gun rights. This is hemlock to most conservatives. He will struggle to attract Republican primary voters without soothing them on these matters.

Giuliani could start by approaching the middle ground on abortion. Rejecting partial-birth abortion (as even Daschle did), promoting parental notification for minors, and advocating adult waiting periods might encourage socio-cons to reconsider Giuliani.

Beyond discussing their issues and attending their events (when invited), Giuliani could earn conservatives' eternal gratitude by driving Ms. Hillary off the national stage.

Extracting Hillary Clinton from the Senate "would change everything," says ACU's David Keene. "That would be a totally different picture. Rudy has a lifetime record on a host of issues that concerns conservatives. That record could be canceled out, and he could become a conservative hero, by taking Hillary out. We do believe in redemption, but you have to pay some penance."

"If Rudy could beat Hillary and bring back the vote we lost in New York — which would help strengthen the president's agenda on judicial nominees and the defense budget — we would be open to giving him a second look," says Bob Bevill, president of New Hampshire Eagle Forum. "However, he would have to convert to being a Red Sox fan."

As America's mayor marches on Washington, his next step should be to snatch the former First Lady's Senate seat in November 2006. Rudy Giuliani's best bet for winning the White House in 2008 is to eliminate the American Right's foe-in-chief two years sooner.

[Aetius]

Rudy's problem is that he truly is a social liberal, and not even a moderate. And really, that in and of itself might be acceptable if not for the judiciary's hijacking of the cultural/social issues through its transparent leftwing activism.

If not for this, then most of the contentious, hot-button issues would be settled by each state, and they wouldn't carry such national weight they do now. If judges showed a bit of respect for original intent, and/or if Congress and the President were willing to stand up to them and just ignore their outrageous decisions, then the role of the President in the culture war would not be so key.

As it is, however, Congress and the President seem eager to roll over for the SCOTUS, therefore great care must be taken to ensure the nomination of Scalias and Thomases, and does anyone think that Giuliani would do that?

I think Giuliani did earn some points with conservatives for his unflagging support of GOP candidates (especially socially conservative ones)over the last two cycles, and he did do a good job as mayor of NYC in handling crime, cutting taxes, and trying to cut govt excess and reform schools.

But I just don't think that's enough to justify putting into office a guy who would most likely be a champion for the Left on social and cultural issues, even if he were to slay the Hillary Dragon.

Just as Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska could never win the Democratic nomination, why should we feel so bad if Giuliani can't win the GOP nod? As I said, if it weren't for bad judges wreaking so much havoc, then it might not matter so much; but since they do, it does.

I'm sure Giuliani would make a fine governor or NY or Senator from NY, but a higher office...I'm not so sure.

[Vigilanteman]

I'd have to agree. I like Rudy, but he has too much baggage. Don't forget he also traded his wife in on a younger model. That never plays well in Peoria.

If Rudy is truly committed to seeking the White House, I'd recommend he slay the Hildebeast then run on the second slot with a mainstream Middle America candidate.

After eight loyal years of service to Ronald Reagan, conservatives were more than happy to award Daddy Bush with the White House. Remember, he had the image of being an eastern elitist before.

Probably the best candidate in terms of electability is Mitt Romney-- successful businessman, savior of the Salt Lake City Olympics, governor of the most hostile liberal state in the union who helped turn Gay marriage into a national issue rather than rolling over for the court, and stong ties to both the reddest of the red states (Massachusetts) and the bluest of the blue states (Utah).

Yeah, I know, I reversed the colors, but I like the map below better than the lamestream media version.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Rudy had best keep His behind in Noo Yawk. Outside of there He is just another arrogant Damn Yankee.
Us Rednecks seem to hold most of the keys to the Kingdom, best You approach Us respectfully. We are the utmost, worst nightmare, in a liberals life.

[Aetius]

The extent to which Romney fought for traditional marriage is to be commended, especially considering the state he governs. However, and I know its naive, but it would have been great to see him declare the actions of his state Sup Court to be an outrageous usurpation of power from the people and legislature, and thus refuse to enforce their ridiculous imposition of gay marriage.

I'm not sure about the state constitution in Mass, but I'm sure that would have made him a target for some sort of Dem-sponsored recall, but it also would have made him an even bigger hero in conservative circles.