Yes, Rudy Giuliani Is a Conservative

City Journal ^ | Jan.25, '07 | Steven Malanga

[T.L.Sink]

Personally, I prefer Tancredo although I admire "America's Mayor," and this article sheds some light on Rudy's little known conservative and courageous accomplishments.

[Cincinnatus.45-70]

Can't we just all get along? Here's something we can all agree on: "Rudy would make a GREAT candidate!"

It's just that some of us here think he would make a great Republican candidate, and some of us think he would bring back the Scoop Jackson wing of the 'Rats as a great Dem candidate!

[Pietro]

"Conservative doesn't necessarily mean Religious Conservative."

I would suggest that there is a movement afoot to drive a wedge between social and economic conservatives. This effort will be detrimental to to both halves of the party and the only measurable result will be the election of liberals.

[mrsmith]

"However, you supporters seem to think you will have millions of wishy washy moderates and leftists voting for Rudy with you, so it doesn't matter how we vote, right? "

Isn't that the craziest thing?
Rudy and his staff certainly know he can't win on his liberal record- and must be planning to renounce it. Yet his kook supporters here hysterically insist he can- or that it doesn't exist!

He has time to renounce and modify his past views however, so he can't be ruled out. He should get started soon though...

It's his lack of the experience with legislatures and the military such as governors have that worry me.
OTOH he has good name recognition and high favorables.

[Howlin]

Whow cares? I have no need to qualify those who are conservative or how conservative they are. I could care less who is most conservative, who is less conservative or who is just a little conservative. What I care about is my country. What I care about is defeating Islamic Fascism. What I care about is defeating Shillary.

That's one of the best posts I've seen on FR in months. We should all take your advice.

[Fierce Allegiance]

Evenin, kid.

[nopardons]

The Dems did the front loading, along with some states, who wanted the limelight. It certainly does shut down the process; however, since Hillary has been running for president, FOR years and is such a bad candidate, she needs to shut out everyone running against her.

[Peach]

The Hoover Institute, at which Reagan is an honorary fellow, thinks that Rudy is terrific and good for the Republican party:

Since taking office Giuliani has cut the crime rate in half, the murder rate by 70 percent. True, the crime rate has fallen in other cities during the same period. But it has fallen further in New York, making the city, according to FBI statistics, the safest city of more than one million inhabitants in the country. Giuliani has enacted more than $2.3 billion in tax reductions, cutting the personal income tax, the commercial rent tax, the hotel occupancy tax, and the sales tax on clothing. Giuliani has reduced New York City’s welfare rolls by half a million, a number so big that if all the people the mayor has moved off welfare established a city of their own, it would be the twenty-seventh biggest in the nation. Since Giuliani took office, New York City has created 325,000 new jobs and seen its unemployment rate drop by almost half.

If tangible accomplishments represent the measure of a politician, then Giuliani may be the most effective politician in the nation. Yet Giuliani himself is proudest of something that cannot be seen or quantified. It is the way New Yorkers think about their city.

"New Yorkers used to assume several things about the city," Giuliani said after the radio show. He slouched in an armchair across from his desk, his legs stretched out, his arms behind his head. "They assumed that it had to be dangerous, that it had to be dirty, that we were a welfare capital and we would have to stay that way, and that the city was unmanageable. That thinking is gone now."

Raised a Democrat, Giuliani explained, he became a Republican for three reasons. The first was the expansion of the welfare state. "I recognized that the alignment of the parties was changing during the 1970s, and I did not agree with the dependency philosophy that the Democratic Party was embracing, particularly in New York City. It seemed to me that the whole concept of entitlement was very, very, very destructive."

The second reason was foreign policy. "I thought that the Democratic Party, at least as represented by George McGovern and his kind of thinking, did not have an appropriate appreciation of how strong America has to be to preserve freedom and democracy," Giuliani said. "The idea that we should demilitarize, that we should underfund the military–they just didn’t recognize how dangerous the world is.

Illustration by Taylor Jones for the Hoover Digest.
"The other thing I started to feel," Giuliani said, explaining his third reason for joining the GOP, "was that the lack of political competition was killing cities. I could see that this decrepit Democratic Party, which was all that existed in cities, was able to count on everybody’s votes and not have to do anything for voters in return."

http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3491481.html

[My GOP]

Good evening to you too.

[narses]

Giuliani/Clinton/GOP Platform Comparison
Issue	Giuliani	Clinton	GOP Platform
Abortion on Demand	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Partial Birth Abortion	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Roe v. Wade	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Taxpayer Funded Abortions	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Embryonic Stem Cell Research	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Gay Marriage	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Gay Civil Unions	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Openly Gay Military	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Defense of Marriage Act	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Amnesty for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Special Path to Citizenship for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Tough Penalties for Employers of Illegal Aliens	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Sanctuary Cities/ Ignoring Immigration Law	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Protecting 2nd Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Confiscating Guns	Supports	Supports	Opposes
'Assault' Weapons Ban	Supports	Supports
Frivolous Lawsuits Against Gun Makers	Supports Filed One Himself	Supports	Opposes
Gun Registration/Licenses	Supports	Supports	Opposes
War in Afghanistan	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports
War in Iraq	Supports

[JimFreedom]

You left out homo-loving. At least get your insults squared away. Thanks.

[nopardons]

Yes.

[narses]

Pro-Illegal Immigration

As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:

"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's."

That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:

"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law."

If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF GIULIANI'S LEFT-WING POLITICAL POSITIONS

[Howlin]

Your presence here on this particular thread, and vigorous defense of Mr Pro Gay/Pro Abortion/Anti-gun/cheat-on-the-wife is clearly support.

Find ANY post on this forum where I have supported or even HINTED at supporting Rudy. And be sure and find one where I "vigorously defended" Rudy.

Or be known as the liar you apparently are.

Tick tock...we're all waiting.

[JimFreedom]

Indeed!

[Spiff]

We've all seen them. In the BIKER BAR, Spiff!

I posted a link. Please, show me where I trash Free Republic 24/7. Or admit your lie and apologize. I'll wait.

[Blackirish]

since Hillary has been running for president, FOR years and is such a bad candidate, she needs to shut out everyone running against her.

---

Hillary would do almost anything for Rudy's favorables.

[Peach]

I would suggest that there is a movement afoot to drive a wedge between social and economic conservatives. This effort will be detrimental to to both halves of the party and the only measurable result will be the election of liberals.

Absolutely, and it's been going on for a while now and nowhere more noticeable than here at FR and the last election.

Social conservatives think they own the party and are putting party before country.

[Fierce Allegiance]

You are now engaging in intellectual dishonesty.