Giuliani, Seeing Opening, Mulls a Governor Bid

NY Times ^ | August 25, 2009 | DANNY HAKIM

[neverdem]

ALBANY — Nineteen months after ending his disastrous run for the presidency, Rudolph W. Giuliani is clearing a path for a possible race for governor in 2010, believing public anger at an ineffectual Albany and unease over the economy could create ideal conditions for a Republican to reclaim the governor’s mansion.

Mr. Giuliani has told associates that he will decide on a candidacy within 30 to 60 days, as he weighs whether he can be elected statewide and what impact another campaign would have on his business interests.

He is already laying the groundwork. On Friday he traveled to Long Island to encourage the state Republican Party chairman, Joseph N. Mondello, to step aside, a maneuver that party insiders viewed as the former mayor’s most concrete step yet toward a run.

On Monday, Mr. Mondello announced his resignation, and Mr. Giuliani’s lieutenants were working the phones to drum up support for the replacement they prefer, the Niagara County Republican chairman, Henry F. Wojtaszek, a longtime supporter of Mr. Giuliani’s.

Mr. Giuliani’s efforts to sound out party leaders about a candidacy have also intensified. He has crisscrossed the state meeting with local officials; after a motivational speech to a paying audience in Buffalo last Tuesday, he met with local Republican leaders in a private meeting room to talk about the race. In recent weeks, he has also discussed his possible candidacy with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and met in Washington with Representative Peter T. King, a Republican who has...

--snip--

Mr. King suggested Mr. Giuliani would not bother to plunge into the state party fracas unless he was serious about running.

“That’s the worst part of politics,” Mr. King said. “No rational person wants to get involved in one of those fights unless you really have a motive to do it.”

[neverdem]

Cuomo will be weakened after he gets to the top of the ticket. Just look at how much blacks became invested in Obama.

[9YearLurker]

This is where Rudy belongs, it’d be good to see.

[Irish Eyes]

Good news bump...GO RUDY !!!

[neverdem]

Annie Leibovitz, photographer of stars, faces ruin

FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.

[MSF BU]

I would prefer to see him as senator; I hope the GOP finds somebody that has a shot to take the seat.

[9YearLurker]

He could be more useful to us in that role, but he is so much more the executive than the deliberative type that I have a hard time seeing him as such. Same with the too liberal Bloomy.

Not Trump, but some other big name NYer might be good to recruit.

[rdl6989]

bttt

[aposiopetic]

Readers, Counting Commas, Detect a Times Headline

[Liz]

Watching Giuliani navigate politics is like watching a horror film festival.....he's got more sequels than Bela Lugosi. Drive a stake into his political aspirations and he rises from the dead, and climbs out of his coffin to wreak havoc on our political process.

Rooty's got the resilience of Count Dracula and the resume of a calculating conman.

2008 Giuliani spent $64M and got one delegate (that he shared). He lost every primary/caucus, saying he was "saving himself for Fla" (where he came in a distant third). His secrecy about his multiple global businesses also served to sink his candidacy. As mayor, he porked his mistress on the taxpayers' dime then hid the theft in obscure city agencies.

Even more alarming, Giuliani is the lapdog of the Endless War Hopefuls---the (gag) pukeneos w/ multiple trillion-dollar US war budgets dancing in their fool heads.

The Kristol/Podhoretz Crime Family should be deported NOW. They are sucking up to Obama as we type----since the Jan 2008 power shift. The neo-vermin scatter to wherever the Beltway winds are blowing. The neocon traffic under Obama's desk is getting fierce---OTOH, Obama's sex life is improving (/snic). Keep in mind----Obama's closest advisors-----COS Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton----reflect an ironclad, single issue neocon orientation (even though none of these individuals are actually card-carrying neocons).

Among Rudy's huge liabilities is his personal life. Rudy's love life reads like a sordid tale from an X-rated paperback romance novel. Mayor Rudy, while a married man and father of two, got involved with his third and present wife, escorting her publicly, and insisted his lover move into Gracie Mansion while he was still married.

As for party loyalty, forget it. Rudy endorsed a radical liberal Democrat--Mario Cuomo--over Cuomo's Repub opponent--who won.

Most egregiously, Rudy looked the other way when his patronage appointee Russell Harding --Liberal Party's Ray Harding's son, now in jail for government fraud----was stealing from the city's Housing Development Corp. and enjoying kiddie porn and gay vacations with his gay pals on the taxpayers dime.

Rudy would hunt down every gun, of every type, in every household in the USA and melt them down into scrap metal. Rudy doesn't need a gun. Like all rich liberals, he's got armed guards to protect him.

Rudy's vulnerability is his close relationship with Bernard Kerik. Perhaps Rudy ought to tell voters how he plans to use his failed HomeLandSec appointee Bernie Kerik's personal, business and political expertise to help him win public office--Kerik was indicted and prosecuted for lying to the White House---wonder who helped him do that? ---poster laughs uproariously).

Rudy's undisguised worship of liberals surfaced when Rudy appointed two of Liberal Party head Ray Harding's sons to top jobs in his administration.

Disgustingly, Rudy looked the other way when perverted psycho child molester Russell Harding was looting and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars (that we know of) as the NYC Housing Development Corp head. Greedy lowlife perv Harding even gave himself raises and benefits that were not in his pay package.

Harding was caught online enjoying kiddie porn web sites and he took gay vacations on the taxpayers dime, paying for his "buff buddies" trips with tax funds.

When the issue became public, Rudy was still pandering to and fellating liberals, saying " I feel bad for the Harding family." Rudy, as usual, gave conservative Republicans the shaft.

Rudy's only hope.

" P-l-e-a-s-e make me sound conservative."

"My stupid 2008 advisors told me I didn't need those redneck gun nuts and
those dumb pro-life Christian conservatives to make a primary showing."

" They're killing me on FR just b/c I dumped my wife for my mistress, don't talk
to my kids, was honored by NARAL, donated to Planned Parenthood, marched
for gay rights under the NAMBLA banner, appointed gays and pedophiles
to top city jobs, and provided a sanctuary city for illegals."

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Reagan Man]

Nothings changed since Rooty’s failed Presidential bid.
He's still a liberal and he's still a scumbag.

Sadly, some FReepers think Rooty’s possible run for NYS Governor is good news. WOW

Rockefeller Republicanism is alive and well!

[Artemis Webb]

Do you honestly believe a conservative could win a NY Governors race?

Liz weren’t you the head cheerleader on FR for Mitt Romney? I’ll accept your answer because I seem to remember that you were but I don’t have the desire to go back and do the research.

[Reagan Man]

The issue has nothing to do with whether a conservative could win the Governorship of NYS. The issue has to do with principle.

The facts are crystal clear. The only thing worse than a liberal Democrat, is a liberal Republican. Backing the likes of Giuliani, Romney or Schwarzenegger for elected office undermines everything conservatism stands for. If you don't comprehend that by now, you never will.

The goal for conservatives is to advance conservatism, not liberalism.

[Artemis Webb]

I just think we see different means to the same end.

Let’s say you have a liberal Democratic Governor who signs all 10 pieces of legislation that state’s congress sends to his desk.

or

You have a left of center Republican Governor who signs 9 out of 10 pieces of legislation that state’s congress sends to his desk.

I’ll take the latter and call it a victory. Certainly not a big victory, but a victory none the less. I will never take an all or nothing approach to politics. Even Reagan bent on some issues.

[Reagan Man]

Look. Giuliani, Schwarzenegger and Romney have undermined conservatism at every turn. Among other issues, all three are proponents of big government and high taxes to pay for it, abortion rights, gun control and special rights for homos.

Bottom line. I see no difference between a so-called conservative supporting a liberal Republican, or a liberal Democrat.

Btw, Reagan never undermined the conservative agenda. When Reagan negotiated on policy, he usually got most of what he wanted.

[neverdem]

Look. Giuliani, Schwarzenegger and Romney have undermined conservatism at every turn. Among other issues, all three are proponents of big government and high taxes to pay for it, abortion rights, gun control and special rights for homos.

Giuliani has repented on gun control. Remember his speaking to the NRA convention when he got a call from his wife? I don't recall him advocating high taxes. His run for the president in 2008 pushed him to the right. IMHO, he might be the best NY can do for now. Too many liberals move here. Too many conservatives have left.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>Giuliani has repented on gun control.

Yeah right, and Romney is now pro-life. Sorry, I ain't buying either one. Giuliani wants to regulate firearms and still supports gun control. Here's a link to a famous FR thread on the issue: Rudy on gun control: "You've got to REGULATE consistent with the Second Amendment"

GIULIANI: It's not only -- I mean, it's part of the Constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then the restrictions of it have to be reasonable and sensible. You can't just remove that right. You've got to regulate, consistent with the Second Amendment.

>>>>>I don't recall him advocating high taxes.

No need to. NYC was the highest taxed big city in America when I lived there from the 1950`s-1970`s and is still the highest taxed big city in America today. The funding for big government remains in place and Mayor Mike Bloomberg's liberal spending habits are no different than Giuliani's were a decade ago.

Posted the following many times during the 2007 GOP primary season. Surprised you missed it.

From the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (Edmund J. McMahon):

"Even with the tax cuts of the last several years, New York remains by far the most heavily taxed big city in the country."

TAXES: From 1996-2001 Giuliani and the City Council agreed to reduce marginal city income taxes by some $2.0-billion, an effort that offset the $1.8-billion tax increase put in place by Mayor Dinkins a few years earlier. So in reality, individual city income taxes were actually cut by a modest $200-million. Giuliani made no effort to make permanent changes to the city income tax code that would roll back decades old tax rates and even fought efforts to abolish the 12.5% tax surcharge on higher income workers. The primary reason Rudy and the City Council agreed to cut business taxes, was to make NYCity more appealing to companies thinking about locating/relocating to the Big Apple. A smart move, however, when Rudy left office he left NYCity straddled with some of the highest income, sales, property and general corporation taxes in the entire nation.

GOVERNMENT SPENDING: Spending under Rudy`s reign as Mayor went up 35.6%, compared to the inflation rate of 22.2%. Rudy left NYCity with a projected, pre-9/11 deficit of $2.0 billion and an increased debt total topping $42-billion. Second largest debt after the federal government. Giuliani also added 15,000 new teachers to the city employment rolls. Increasing the membership of two major liberal organizations, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

"The scope of government was not reduced at all. The mayor abandoned his most visible initiative in this sphere—the proposed sale of the city hospital system—after a struggle with the unions and defeats in the courts. He did cut costs in social services; even before the new federal welfare reforms took effect in 1997, the city had begun to significantly reduce caseloads. But money saved on social services has only helped to subsidize big increases in other categories. Today the array of social services sponsored and partially funded by the city—from day care to virtually guaranteed housing—is as wide as ever.

"In the final analysis, Mayor Giuliani sought to make the city deliver services more efficiently—not to make the city deliver fewer services. Gains in efficiency were offset, however, by a spike in the costs of outsourced contracts (see point 2 below). Thus, in two areas where inroads might have been made, the city instead failed to reduce spending."

"1. Personnel Increases. In 1995–96, the city entered into a series of collective bargaining agreements with its public-employee unions. In addition to granting pay increases that ended up roughly equaling inflation, the city promised not to lay off any workers for the life of the contracts. These agreements were expected to add $2.2 billion to the budget by fiscal 2001. But that estimate didn’t reckon with renewed growth in the number of city employees. After dipping in Giuliani’s first two years, the full-time headcount rose from 235,069, in June 1996 to over 253,000 by November 2000. Thanks largely to this growth in the workforce, the total increase in personnel service costs since 1995 has been $4 billion.

2. "Outsourced Services. The failure to shrink the scope of city government made it all the more imperative that Mayor Giuliani vastly increase its efficiency. In the attempt to increase productivity, the mayor farmed out some city services to private contractors. But as the number of outsourced contracts doubled under Giuliani, contractual expenses also nearly doubled—from $3 billion to $5.8 billion. While it may be argued that the city saved money by outsourcing these services, the net savings turned out to be marginal at best. In practice, outsourcing proved to be more of a bargaining chip in negotiations with unions than a serious means of pruning expenses."

Hard evidence that Rudy Giuliani was NO fiscal conservative. Another run-of-the-mill NYCity liberal.

>>>>>His run for the president in 2008 pushed him to the right.

A fallacy of the first order.

[neverdem]

"His run for the president in 2008 pushed him to the right."

A fallacy of the first order.

You can think what you want. He said what he said. I was never a Giuliani fan. He was too much of a statist gun grabber. I had three chances to vote for him, four if I had wanted to vote for him absentee. I'm not sure if I voted for him against Dinkins. Maybe I never did. I almost only voted on the Conservative line. If Giulinani had the Liberal line in 1989, I probably didn't vote for him then either. I might next year. I don't see anyone better yet. BTW, Peter King isn't much of a 2nd Amendment fan either. Ditto Pataki.

[Reagan Man]

>>>>>>You can think what you want.

Giuliani's liberal record speaks for itself.

[Victoria Delsoul]

I think that’s a good fit for Rudy and NY would be lucky to have him as its Governor.  He is a good leader and right now, NY is hurting for good leadership.  I know some folks around here are very critical of him, but he’s one of the few Republicans who has a shot at winning a statewide race in NY these days.

[MSF BU]

How about Pete King for senator; like D’Amato, he’s from LI and might have a shot.

[9YearLurker]

Peter King is better than Republicans have a right to hope for from NY. But you’re correct, he might have a shot.

This would be his year—by both opponent and mood of the electorate—that he’d have a chance, if he ever would.