The bias of the book authors is more to the point. As I told Congressman Billybob, Barrett (one co-author) has been savaging Giuliani in print for years. I would not expect him to give a balanced account. Still, even if this is only one side of the story, the detailed attack is one that Giuliani supporters will have to answer.
Now let me turn it around. Everybody stop firing at Henican and Barrett for a moment. Answer me this: What basis is there for considering Rudy Giuliani a particularly effective leader against terrorism? He happened to be Mayor on 9/11. He performed well on television that day. Anything else? Even if you reject the attacks on his performance, can you point to anything substantive that would be in his favor? He'll need to be able to point to something when people start bringing up his adultery and his general rejection of social conservatism.
When this happened, he didn't run away, unlike John F. Kerry (seen beating feet down the steps of the capitol as fast as he could go.)
Since we've really had only one 'fighting-president'(the others favored the Jean Francois Kerry approach) and all Dems and more than a few Republicans are wilting in the face of Islamo-fascism... Giuliani's rhetoric stands above the pack. His refusal of the Saudi Prince's bribe is a perfect example.
I'm not a Giuliani backer... but I would rate him higher than ANY Dem in understanding what we face in radical Islam.
Fighting Crime
Under Rudy Giuliani’s leadership as Mayor of the nation’s largest city, murders fell by 64% and overall crime – including rapes, assaults, burglary and auto-thefts – fell by an average 57%. According to the FBI, New York was transformed from the crime capital of the country into the Safest Large City in America, while becoming the global model for excellence in law enforcement. Rudy Giuliani believes that “Public safety is a fundamental civil right…when you reduce crime, you restore people’s freedom.”
Cutting Taxes
Rudy Giuliani cut more taxes than any Mayor in New York City history, reducing or eliminating 23 city taxes that saved individuals and businesses more than $8 billion and reduced New Yorkers’ overall tax-burden by 22%. By the end of Giuliani’s term in office, New Yorkers enjoyed their lowest tax burden in three decades, along with 427,600 new private sector jobs, the strongest seven-year gain on record.
Fiscal Responsibility
Rudy Giuliani inherited a $2.3 billion dollar budget deficit and turned it into a multi-billion dollar surplus, while cutting taxes and delivering 8 consecutive balanced budgets. He cut the number of full-time city workers by 19%, excluding teachers and police officers, while slowing the growth of government spending to below the rate of inflation.
Welfare Reform
When Rudy Giuliani took office, more than one out of every seven New Yorkers was on welfare, reflecting intergenerational dependency and a weakening of the work ethic. Under his leadership, the City cut welfare rolls by 60% to the lowest number since 1966, eliminating fraud and abuse while turning welfare offices into Job Centers. Rudy Giuliani believes: “At the core of our approach to welfare reform is the basic concept of a social contract—that for every right there is a duty, for every benefit an obligation.”
Education
Rudy Giuliani worked to reform the nation’s largest public school system, with 1.1 million schoolchildren. He increased school funding from $8 billion to $12 billion, hiring more than 13,000 new teachers, bringing computers into classrooms and libraries, permanently restoring arts education, and offering targeted programs to improve literacy and student proficiency in science. At the same time, he insisted on reforms such as an end to social promotion, abolished principal tenure, and created the nation’s first and most generous Charter School Fund. Rudy Giuliani believes that every parent should have “the ability to send their child to the school of their choice, be it public, private, or parochial.”
Quality of Life
When Rudy Giuliani took office, 59% percent of New Yorkers said they would leave the city the next day if they could, according to a CNN/Time poll. Drawing upon the “Broken Windows” theory of policing, the City cracked down on quality of life crimes such as aggressive panhandling, grafitti, and drug dealing, transforming places like Times Square into safe destinations for theatergoers and sightseers. The City launched an aggressive initiative against drunk drivers, and implemented a ban on sex shops within 500 feet of residential neighborhoods, churches, and schools. In addition, Mayor Giuliani acquired 2,038 acres of new parkland – the most in more than 50 years.
Children’s Services
Acting on his belief that “One of the most important responsibilities of government is to protect children from harm,” Mayor Giuliani worked to create the city’s first independent child welfare agency, reducing the foster care population by promoting a record number of adoptions, and doubling child support collections by cracking down on deadbeat dads. Implementing a program called HealthStat—designed to identify children eligible for health insurance — the Giuliani administration enrolled more than 150,000 adults and children in Medicaid and Child Health Plus.
You forgot one thing.
He gave back a check to that Saudi Prince!!
How could you overlook that?
sarc/
For one thing, I particularly liked that Guiliani told that Arab prince to take his $10 million and shove it. How many politicians would do something like that?
"What basis is there for considering Rudy Giuliani a particularly effective leader against terrorism?"
Rudy has been supporting Bush 100% on the war against Islamic fascism. I haven't seen ANY nitpicking to gain favor from the drive-by media, unlike what I've seen from McCain, Hagel, and others.
Also, look at how Rudy has treated Yasser Arafat, or the Saudi Royal that sent him the check. Rudy understands what terrorism is and hasn't compromised his position on this, even in the face of criticism from the Clintons, the NYT and so forth.