No.
Here's the thing about Rudy. He's not a RINO in the Lincoln Chafee or Chuck Hagel sense. In a difficult environment hostile to change & entrenched in big government liberalism, Rudy took on the status-quo. He cut taxes, cut welfare rolls, limited city government, etc. To do this in NYC, and to show strong leadership after 9/11 (telling Arafat and the Saudi Prince to go to Hell, something that even Bush never did) is why conservatives are willing to give Rudy a pass on his social liberal past.
In what sense is Chuck Hagel a "RINO?"
In a difficult environment hostile to change & entrenched in big government liberalism, Rudy took on the status-quo. He cut taxes, cut welfare rolls, limited city government, etc. To do this in NYC, and to show strong leadership after 9/11 (telling Arafat and the Saudi Prince to go to Hell, something that even Bush never did) is why conservatives are willing to give Rudy a pass on his social liberal past.
1. New York City government was much bigger the day Rudy Giuliani left office than it had been on the day he entered office.
2. Rudy Giuliani adamantly opposed the 1996 Federal welfare reform legislation -- even to the point of filing suit in Federal court to have it overturned. This basically put him -- bizarre though it may seem - to the LEFT of Bill Clinton on this issue.
3. It didn't take any political courage to have Yassir Arafat escorted out of Lincoln Center, and to tell a Saudi prince to shove his $10 million up his @ss when New York City was already set to receive several billion in Federal assistance after 9/11.