President Giuliani? Its a Good Bet

By now, most people around politics know that former New York Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani would be seeking the nomination for president of the United States.

A recent column by Washington's premiere political pundit, Robert Novak, only underlines the obvious: The question is not If Giuliani runs, but When he openly declares that he is running. Though Novak does not say when, I would speculate that Giuliani will announce by the end of this year.

A recent Gallup Poll asked the question of its participants: Who they would opt for as the Republican front runner in the 2008 presidential election? At the end of day, Gallup had Giuliani at 29%, while Senator John McCain, R-Ariz, came in at 24%.

What's worth noting here is that the battle for the 2008 presidency will be fought by two well-known political figures who both share the non-too-complimentary appellation of "RINO," or "Republican in name only."

Though Giuliani is considered by conservative GOP insiders as too socially liberal to capture the support of the hard-core right of the party, this writer believes otherwise.

Giuliani made his mark in political circles by joining the office of U.S. Attorney, eventually rising to U. S. Executive Attorney. In 1975, Giuliani went on to Washington to eventually become the third-highest ranking member -- Associate Attorney General -- in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department.

Giuliani was then appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he gained national standing by indicting such notables as Bill and Hillary Clinton pal Marc Rich and Mafia crime boss Paul Castellano. Giuliani first became mayor of New York City in 1994 until the close of 2001, and is now the CEO of Giuliani Partners LLC.

The primary contest that will eventually come down between Sen. John McCain and Giuliani will be fought on a number of fronts.

On the basis of name recognition, Giuliani bests John McCain by a considerable degree. Known as "America's Mayor" after the catastrophic events of 9/11, Giuliani was Time magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2001, and since has appeared all around the country, campaigning for GOP local and national candidates across the country.

McCain, though popular, is not as much the household name as Rudy Giuliani is, instead garnering an inordinate amount of attention through the mainstream media. While Giuliani is certainly noticed by the press, McCain is constantly feted by the press. Labeled in some circles as the "media candidate," most notably by radio personality Rush Limbaugh, McCain has become recognized primarily for his willingness to buck his Republican Party, and specifically, President Bush.

It is this distinction that will probably get McCain plenty of air time and space among the liberal press. However, he will pay a price, and the price will be the abandonment of nearly the entire conservative base come the presidential primary.

By contrast, Giuliani, though politically moderate-to-left on some social issues, will be more palatable than McCain to the voters for the simple reason that he is viewed as a man of courage, conviction, and leadership. To many, McCain comes across as the mainstream media has dubbed him -- a "maverick" or "courageous" Republican willing to dare the wrath of the "intractable hard-right of the party" in order to defy the George W. Bush led GOP.

But McCain's positions and past votes within the Senate -- of which Giuliani has none to worry over -- will make it harder for him to claim solid platform-Republican credentials, much less conservative ones. McCain authored the Campaign Finance Reform bill, which to many in the GOP is a travesty against free speech. McCain has consistently voted against nearly all tax reform or tax cut programs proffered by the Bush administration.

McCain has also embraced the president's ill-advised immigration reform plan, or as most call it, "amnesty-lite." Amusingly, you now see McCain shifting his positions on some of these issues -- like the immigration bill -- as the campaign for 2008 draws ever near. But that is what a voting record is for; it never lets the advancement of time or events forget those votes.

Giuliani, though better positioned for lack of a Washington paper trail, has problems of his own. While iron-jawed and conservative on crime, taxes, and national defense, Giuliani has work to do on gay rights, gun control, and a linchpin of the GOP base, abortion.

I believe that Giuliani will modify his position on all these issues. He will do what so many have done before him regarding these issues, and that is to stress the commonality that he shares with the base -- like being against gay marriage—a maybe even reverse on a key issue, like partial-birth abortion.

In all, I think the Republican base will be more forgiving and receptive of a Washington outsider who turned who turned out to be a living icon of strength and purpose after America suffered its most egregious loss of life on American soil since World War II.

McCain, by contrast, has worn out his welcome by his continuous attacks against Bush, and his willingness to relegate his GOP loyalty to a back seat for the sake of a Sunday morning spot on Meet The Press. McCain has done much to cultivate this image.

Giuliani will campaign on the events of 9/11 and showcase his well-documented leadership, the same thing that has sustained Bush through nearly all else in his presidency. McCain will claim that he has stood fast with Bush since 9/11, and so he has.

But at the end of the day, the GOP elephant never forgets. The party faithful will find it difficult to elect the maverick senator from Arizona, instead opting for the stalwart and iron-willed mayor from New York, who helped show a nation the way back into the light of a new day when the chaotic and nightmarish darkness of 9/11 threatened to bring America to its knees.

The Quotable Rudolph W. Giuliani

The New York State Liberal Party on Rudy Giuliani:

Some ask, How can the Liberal Party support a candidate who disagrees with the Liberal Party position on so many gut issues? But when the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party's stance on a majority of such issues. He agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion.
--N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement Statement of R. Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989

On the Republican Party:

Mr. Rockefeller represented "a tradition in the Republican Party I've worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition."

--Rudy Giuliani
New York Times
July 9, 1992

What kind of Republican? Is [Giuliani], for instance, a Reagan Republican? [Giuliani] pauses before answering: "I'm a Republican."

--Village Voice
January 24, 1989

On Attending 1996 Republican Convention:

Rudy even expressed his pleasure when he wasn't invited to the Republican National Convention in San Diego. "If I take three or four days off from city business, I want to do it for a substantive purpose. It didn't seem to me any substantive purpose could be served by going to the Republican convention."

--Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani,
Page 459, Wayne Barrett

On Barry Goldwater:

He [Giuliani] described John Kennedy as "great and brilliant." Barry Goldwater was an "incompetent, confused and sometimes idiotic man."

--New York Daily News,
May 13, 1997

On President Bill Clinton:

Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, [Giuliani] told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." The Daily News quoted [Giuliani] as saying that March: "Whether you talk about President Clinton, Senator Dole.... The country would be in very good hands in the hands of any of that group."

Revealing at one point that he was "open" to the idea of endorsing Clinton, he explained: "When I ran for mayor both times, '89 and '93, I promised people that I would be, if not bipartisan, at least open to the possibility of supporting Democrats."

--Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani,
Wayne Barrett, Page 459

Rudy Giuliani's October 1994 Endorsement of Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo:

"From my point of view as the mayor of New York City, the question that I have to ask is, â€˜Who has the best chance in the next four years of successfully fighting for our interest? Who understands them, and who will make the best case for it?' Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It's a matter of choice. My choice is Mario Cuomo."

--Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City
Andrew Kirtzman, Page 133

Reaction to Giuliani Endorsement of Cuomo:

"Once again, Rudolph Giuliani has demonstrated that liberalism is the foundation of his political philosophy. While Giuliani sold a bill of goods to trusting Republicans and Reagan Democrats that he had abandoned his roots as a McGovern Democrat, in his endorsement of Mario Cuomo, Mr. Liberal himself, he has shown his true colors. Giuliani's argument that Cuomo will be better for the city has a hollow ring to it. Perhaps Rudy wants a governor who will sign over a blank check to constantly bail out the city from its fiscal problems. Giuliani knows, as do all New Yorkers, that Cuomo's liberal policies have been an economic disaster for our city and state."

"But Rudy doesn't care. He has proven he will do anything to stop the election of a conservative Republican - but he won't succeed."

--Michael Long, Chairman N.Y.S. Conservative Party Press Statement,
October 25, 1994

"[Quite] frankly, you have to understand the fact that Rudy Giuliani was a McGovern Democrat, he was endorsed by the Liberal Party when he ran for Mayor. In his heart, he's a Democrat. He's paraded all over this country with Bill Clinton and, in fact, he's very comfortable with Mario Cuomo. But what Rudy Giuliani wants is to be bailed out in the city, in the mess he's in, and everybody understands very clearly in politics that they struck a deal, that Mario's going to continue to be the big spender, save Rudy the options of raising taxes by pouring money statewide into the City of New York and bailing it out. Quite frankly, I predict that he will join the Democratic Party."

--Interview with Michael Long, Chairman N.Y.S. Conservative Party,
CNN Crossfire, October 25, 1994

On Gay Domestic-Partner Rights:

National Republicans can lump it if they don't like his new domestic-partners bill, Mayor Giuliani said yesterday.

"I really haven't thought about what the impact is on Republican politics or national politics or Democratic politics," Giuliani said.

The bill he submitted to the City Council would extend the benefits city agencies must grant to gay and lesbian couples.

"I'm proud of it," Giuliani said of the bill. "I think it puts New York City ahead of other places in the country."

--New York Daily News, May 13, 1998

On Gay-Rights\Gay Rights Bill:

Giuliani favors extended civil-rights protection for gays and lesbians. Giuliani urged, by letter, to the New York Senate Majority Leader to pass the state's first ever gay rights bill, but did it privately.

"I am writing to convey my support for the current legislation to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, and to urge you to allow the bill onto the floor of the Senate for prompt action."

"...It is my belief that we can penalize discrimination [against gays] without creating any potentially objectionable special privileges or preferential treatment."

--New York Post, June 5, 1993

Now Rudy Giuliani has jumped on the bandwagon, pressing the state Republican Party to release a gay-rights bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Marching in Sunday's [Gay Pride] parade, he has enlisted in the struggle to destroy the family. What a perfectly abominable springboard to seek high political office.

--Ray Kerrison
New York Post, June 30, 1993

Giuliani said homosexuality is "good and normal."

--Ray Kerrison
New York Post, July 7, 1989

On Gay Domestic Partnership:

"I have no objection to the concept of domestic partnership."

--Rudy Giuliani
Informed Sources
New York T.V. Show (PBS), May, 1992

On Abortion:

Leaflets distributed by the Giuliani campaign .... said that he opposes restrictions to Federal Medicaid financing for abortions and opposes the Hyde Amendment, which is intended to deny support for that financing.

--New York Times, June 18, 1993

"I'd give my daughter the money for it [an abortion]."

"I never called for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade."

--Rudy Giuliani
New York Newsday, September 1, 1989

As mayor, Rudy Giuliani will uphold a woman's right of choice to have an abortion. Giuliani will fund all city programs which provide abortions to insure that no woman is deprived of her right due to an inability to pay. He will oppose reductions in state funding. He will oppose making abortion illegal.

--New York Times, August 4, 1989

On Partial Birth Abortion:

Mr. Giuliani has said that New York State law should not be changed to outlaw the procedure.

-- New York Times, January 7, 1998

On School Choice:

"I wanted to know if he supports tuition tax credits and vouchers, which he doesn't."

--Sandra Feldman,
President of N.Y.C. Teacher's Union, 1993

On Taxes:

[Giuliani] says ruling out a tax increase is "political pandering."

--Newsday, August 31, 1989

Source

Rudy Giuliani: The Knight and ‘The Queen’ 11/28/2001

According to The London Times, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gives kisses before he leaves every morning, but to neither his estranged wife, nor his girlfriend. Instead, says The Times, “Sir Rudy” gives a peck on the cheek to the two homosexual men he’s living with.

“We always get a little kiss, it’s cute,” says wealthy car dealer Howard Koeppel, with whom Giuliani has been sharing an apartment since June. When Giuliani was recently knighted, Koeppel tells The Times that he told “Sir Rudy” to call him “Queen Howard.” Koeppel (63) and his homosexual lover Mark Hsiao (41) have been comforting Giuliani, and trying to make him laugh, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

On the way to a recent fundraising dinner for the pro-homosexual state lobby group, The Empire State Pride Agenda (ESPA), Koeppel ribbed Giuliani by saying that if the ESPA was able to raise $100,000 donation for the homosexual victims of the September 11 attacks, Giuliani should agree to appear on Showtime’s controversial Queer as Folk dressed in drag. Surprisingly, Giuliani agreed.

Marty Algaze of Gay Men’s Health Crisis once summed up Queer as Folk — a show that touts graphic sexual activity as one of its biggest draws — as one that would “shock a lot of people.” Showtime’s Queer as Folk was inspired by the original series in Britain, which featured a storyline in which a 29-year-old man has a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

The propensity to shock people is not new to Giuliani, who likes to dress in women’s clothes as a stage act, and even did so once at a Pride Agenda fund-raiser.

According to the Times, Giuliani has attended every “gay pride” parade in New York during his eight years as mayor. In 1992, during his first run for mayor, Giuliani took part in a homosexual “pride” parade that included a contingent of pedophile activists marching behind a banner for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).

— Ken Ervin

Concerned Women for America
1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 488-7000
Fax: (202) 488-0806
E-mail: mail@cwfa.org

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