Posted on 07/30/2005 5:55:36 AM PDT by Uncledave
With Gipper's game plan, Rudy can win it all
July 30, 2005
BY THOMAS ROESER Advertisement
As I write this I know my fellow social conservatives will get mad: There is no one in either political party who would be a more exciting candidate for president than Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City. I'll tell you his story -- the good and the bad -- and I'll tell you how he can solve his problems with you. And me. Incidentally, as you read, keep in mind the contrast with Mayor Daley.
The good and bad about Rudy is contained in a book, The Prince of the City [Encounter: 2005] by Fred Siegel, a hard-bitten teacher at Cooper Union University. The good: Rudy came into office in 1994 a Republican in a Big Apple that was rotten to the core, steeped with bosses, bagmen and racial arsonists, a hostile "combination of liberal consensus and helplessness [that] made serious policy debate seem irrelevant," and quickly brought in a band of brother prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office. They gave up millions in private law firm salaries for the fun of working and drinking (after hours) with Rudy. Most never left his side until his two terms ran out in 2001.
Giuliani was an eerily compulsive hands-on manager. If you want to understand him, said an associate, remember that as a Yankee fan he's the guy who keeps score and writes down how each out and each run took place. Just as when he read The Godfather he diagrammed how the mob worked, for relaxation he would sketch on a pad how every department worked. He would explain to the public clearly what he wanted to do: cut the size of government, cut taxes to attract jobs "so people can work," consolidate or cut out city departments, introduce competition to delivery of services and work with the governor [Democrat Mario Cuomo] "to get our fair share of revenue."
He insisted on tough police standards, once jumping out of his limo in Times Square to chase a guy he saw grab a woman's purse. He was heedless of civil libertarians. It seemed like he wanted to offend all interest groups and took the heat, forgetting the polls. Crime in 1995 saw 163,428 fewer felonies, with murder dropping 16 percent in 1996. He trumpeted that work is the best social welfare policy, pushing welfare reform, announcing that 23 percent of the welfare recipients in Jersey City were also receiving New York City benefits. He balanced his budget, fought with Al Sharpton against what he called "racial racketeering," and grinned as he took heat from minority communities.
The bad? Giuliani was ego-driven. He got jealous of his police commissioner, who was getting more favorable press than he, fired him and hired another (who was just as tough). Giuliani's personal life fell into tatters: his first marriage annulled, his second wife was a TV anchor who drove him nuts. He spatted with her, kept public company with a divorcee, came down with prostate cancer, married again. His political career was pronounced over. Then came 9/11.
That tragedy redeemed him. When the first plane hit the north tower, Guiliani ran from the Pinnacle Hotel where he was at a breakfast, shouting over his cell phone that command headquarters should move from 7 World Trade Center to Barclay Street a block away. Good thinking: Just as they evacuated, the plane hit the south tower. The debris was so heavy his command center was inundated. With his cell phone deadened, Giuliani's staff thought he was dead as well, but a janitor found him dazed and led him out through a little-known passage in the basement.
Television captured the man at that moment, stumbling down the street in the smoke, his handkerchief to his mouth, directing his city through uncharted territory, ordering all bridges and tunnels shut down. Courage is the most important virtue, said Churchill: It guarantees all others. As Bush retires, he should be supplanted by a man of this valor.
Social conservatives will oppose Giuliani for his pro-abortion views. It's up to Giuliani to help himself with them, and here's how. As governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed the most permissive abortion law in the country. Rudy, can you hear me? If you want this thing -- this presidency -- you gotta change and mean it. Your marriages we can do nothing about. But your social views have to change. They'll say you're an opportunist, but you have heard that before. You can change. And mean it. We're waiting.
Do you have no better retorts than to cast insults at people. You haven't once posted a point that actually has any merit beyond name calling.
Well if you think what I am saying is leftist why not try to get me banned. I offer honest rational advice. You offer religious litmus tests and ultimatly the destruction of the Republican party.
Thanks! No charge for that one! ;-)
You'll have lots of time to regret your foolish inflexibility, behind the barbed wire in Emperor Hillary's Progressive Re-education Happy Fun Holiday Camp For The Children.
-ccm
Yes but I refrain from calling individuals names you don't. I merely attack groups that seek to destroy the Republican party and I don't care which side of the aisle they say they are on. You take your attacks to a personal level.
There is absolutely no difference if the religious right begins to demand religious litmus tests such as those people on this board are demanding for one of the few politicians that can actually win the next election. Why not just start demanding that we put Pat Robertson up for the nomination.
"Do you have no better retorts than to cast insults at people. You haven't once posted a point that actually has any merit beyond name calling."
Awwww....another leftist technique, the victim card. You're the one equating religious conservatives with the taliban.
I'm waiting for you to respond with a refutation to this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1453719/posts?page=143#143
You cant do it because I checkmated you.
"Yes but I refrain from calling individuals names you don't. I merely attack groups that seek to destroy the Republican party and I don't care which side of the aisle they say they are on. You take your attacks to a personal level."
As if calling religious conservatives the American Taliban isn't taking things to a personal level?
YOU are seeking to destroy the republican party by telling the so called "religious right" to SHUT UP (shows your "affinity" for the first amendment).
I didnt see the need to read that post as it is a list of personal insults aimed at me. Why don't you go back, rewrite your post leaving out the insults and maybe I will read and answer it. Otherwise your post deserves nothing but derision.
Check this Sentis guy out:
"Republicans are on the verge of absolute control of this country but the Religious right could ruin it all by acting like the American Taliban at this juncture."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453719/posts?page=122#122
If you read his posts, he repeats the same talking points over and over....is he Dane's brother?
Hahah.....you can't debate facts so you distract by playing the victim card. I'm confident you can handle being called an idiot if you can insult people here by equating them with the Taliban.
Oh there wont be burkas but there will be Blue Laws, forced religious instruction, a limitation of the first amendment, Religion as state law. Those all happened here in the past and those are the things we are fighting against in the Islamic nations. If the religious right can demand that only candidates that meet their criteria are allowed to run for office how is this country going to be any different?
Have you ever been checked out for that healthy sense of paranoia?
you are really boring me you know that?
The irreligious left needs to answer that question. But I doubt most of them have even thought it through. Instead, they've substituted other religions so they can feel as if their life has a purpose.
What victim card? I said you need to act like a grown man, if you are a man, and rewrite your post without personal insult. Otherwise I am not going to respond to what looks like a tantrum.
Me paranoid nope. I am merely giving you some good advice about how to win an election that will absolutly be lost if we demand religious litmus tests.
"Oh there wont be burkas but there will be Blue Laws, forced religious instruction, a limitation of the first amendment, Religion as state law. Those all happened here in the past and those are the things we are fighting against in the Islamic nations. If the religious right can demand that only candidates that meet their criteria are allowed to run for office how is this country going to be any different?"
Once again, a veiled comparison between Christians and the Taliban.
Lay off the weed.......
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