Posted on 08/30/2006 5:10:30 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Those are idiots. There are large numbers of idiots here too.
Another day another poll "shoving" Guiliani down our innocent throats. Yawn.
Reagan was unique in that he had decades of tv time to prepare people to like him. This was what disarmed his critics and people could not bring themselves to hate the man who had spent Sunday nights in our living rooms introducing good tv shows. Or who had brought us Death Valley Days tales of good vs evil. His politics were not that different from many conservatives and he was no fanatic but knew when he had to compromise to get the job done. Reagan whould be a huge fan of the President as is his widow.
I agree. My point was Reagan's name recognition, enormous likeability and appeal to moderates and even democrats were the reason he was elected.
The Real Rudy Giuliani:
Read more about Giuliani's liberal positions here and here.
- Pro-abortion - He even opposes banning partial birth murder.
- Anti-2nd Amendment - supports gun grabbing legislation including the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban
- Pro-big government - amassed unprecedented debt as Mayor of NYC
- Pro-radical gay agenda
- Supports gay marriage
- Attended every gay pride parade in NYC while mayor (even one in 1992 that included a NAMBLA contingent of pedophile activists)
- Has received many awards from radical gay groups
- Attends and supports many functions and fund-raisers held by radical gay organizations (even did a cross dressing act at Pride Agenda fund-raiser)- Pro-illegal immigration - said no one in New York City is going to assist the federal government with the enforcement of immigration law, sued Feds in 1997 to be able to ignore immigration law, lost in court, vowed to ignore law anyway
- Endorses liberal Democrat candidates over Republicans - endorsed liberal Dem Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki in NY Governor's race
- Ran for NYC Mayor in 1994 on Liberal Party ticket. Appointed Liberal Party State Chair to a Deputy Mayor position. Endorsed 3 times by the Liberal Party for his liberal views.
- Holds many other liberal views
- Republican In Name Only - opposes many major planks of the GOP Platform
Some people want Republicans to ignore his liberalism on almost every issue and, as a distraction, they try to pretend that Rudy is fiscally conservative. Again, his record shows that he isn't fiscally conservative either:
According to an article in The Nation from 2002:
It's now apparent that Giuliani purchased the city's good times partially with borrowed money and left his successor, Mike Bloomberg, holding a bag of debt. New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office. This mismanagement of prosperity is a big part of his legacy. Giuliani left the city's finances in a mess...Here are some things Giuliani did as Mayor that were NOT anywhere near being fiscally conservative:
- New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office.
- Added 25,000 government employees patronage hires to the city's payroll after promising to cut the work force.
- Giuliani's borrowing practices increased the city's debt burden by 50 percent.
- Partly because of Giuliani, New York City is now the biggest debtor in the nation outside of the federal government with $42 billion in loans outstanding.
According to the article from The Nation:
During the 1960s Giuliani was a self-described "Robert Kennedy Democrat." He identified with RFK as a liberal Catholic prosecutor. He volunteered for RFK's 1968 presidential campaign while he was a student at NYU Law School. Giuliani also voted for George McGovern in 1972. During the liberal 1960s, he was a liberal.So, to sum that up:But in 1975 Giuliani switched his party registration from Democrat to Independent when he got a job in Gerald Ford's Justice Department, according to his mentor Harold "Ace" Tyler.
On December 8, 1980, Giuliani changed his registration from Independent to Republican. This was one month after Ronald Reagan's election, and just as he was applying for a top job in the Justice Department.
He's a liberal. He's not even in the same building as conservative. He's only a Republican because...and this comes from his own mother, Helen Giuliani:
- Liberal Democrat until 1975
- Worked as volunteer for Democrat Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.
- Voted for liberal George McGovern.
- Liberal Independent from 1975-1980.
- Did not register as a Republican until 1980 and only AFTER Ronald Reagan was elected and because he was applying for a top job in the administration.
"He only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't..."And as John Hawkins put it in an excellent article in Human Events:
Despite all of his charisma and the wonderful leadership he showed after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is not a Reagan Republican. To the contrary, Giuliani is another Christie Todd Whitman, another Arlen Specter, another Olympia Snowe. He's a throwback to the "bad old days" before Reagan, when the GOP was run by moderate Country Club Republicans who considered conservatives to be extremists. Trying to revive that failed strategy again is likely to lead to a Democratic President in 2008 and numerous setbacks for the Republican Party.
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