Posted on 02/23/2007 4:47:17 PM PST by areafiftyone
HH: Welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show, Mayor. Good to have you.
RG: How are you, Hugh?
HH: Im great.
RG: Good to talk to you.
HH: Im great. Mayor, the campaigns off to a pretty early start. Are you surprised to see Senators Clinton and Obama throwing bricks at each other this early?
RG: Im surprised on both scores. I mean, I think it is off to an early start, but you know...and I think everybodys rushing to catch up, and I am surprised that it got so personal so quickly, but I think that was by accident. I dont think it was by their design. Its sort of like a third party who inserted something into that, and I imagine theyre going to quickly get off it. Neither one of them, I think, wants to be in that position.
HH: Do you expect the Republican side to go anywhere like that in a hurry?
RG: I hope not. I hope not (laughing). I hope not, but if it does, I think well get off it right away. Itll end up because its an accident, not because of the desires of Senator McCain or Governor Romney or me, or any of the others. We dont have any desire to be personally engaged with each other. I respect everybody thats in the Republican field, and I respect everybody in the Democratic field.
HH: Let me ask you, Mayor. Youve got a Brooklyn kid, Catholic Italian, youve got a white Mormon Massachusetts guy running. Are the Evangelicals in the south just going to say forget about it for you and Governor Romney?
RG: I think, I think all Republicans, however you want to describe them, from the south, from the north, from the east or west, theyre going to look at all of us, and theyre going to try to figure out which one fits better what we want. And youre never going to find somebody you agree with 100%, or is exactly like you are, and theres nobody like that. So you look at the overall person, therell be a few things you disagree with, hopefully a lot of things you agree with, and the big question is, who do you think can lead the country more effectively? Whos had the experience to do that? And who has the better ideas for the future?
HH: Richard Land, Im sure you saw, he was on record this week saying I dont think Evangelicals will vote for Rudy. I disagree with that, but how do you get past that kind of a block?
RG: Well, I have spent a great deal of time over the last three, four years in various places, talking to many, many people including clergy, who are, who would describe themselves, I think, as Evangelicals, They are. Some of the people working on my campaign are very committed as Evangelical, born again Christians, and I have a great knowledge of religion, and a great respect for it, and I think theres a great deal of commonality. And I find that when we spend time together, or in other words, I talk to groups that would describe themselves as Evangelical Christians, or very committed to religion, that they come away feeling that on most issues, theres agreement. There are some disagreements, but that theres a basic core of looking at the world in very much the same way.
HH: Now the other outsider in this race, Governor Romney, is also getting some Evangelical blowback, because hes a Mormon. What do you make of that issue?
RG: I think that the Governors religion is not an issue in any way in the campaign, and any more than John Kennedy as being a Catholic was an issue, or Senator Lieberman as being Jewish when we ran for vice president. I mean, these things I think were way beyond that, and I dont think itll be an issue. I mean, obviously, by an issue, people will comment on it, but I think the American people have gone way beyond that, and theyre willing what they want to do is look at the person, and what kind of how have you performed in public office, what have you done, have you acted as a fair, impartial person in dealing with people of all different religions or whatever. And if thats the case, those are the issues, not is what is someones religion, but how have they acted.
HH: Now Mayor, my first day at the Department of Justice in 1984 was your last. I joined Bill Smiths staff as a special assistant. You had a farewell party. Id like to go back and do a little biography for people.
RG: That was the longest speech I ever gave (laughing).
HH: Yes, it was, actually. It may still be going on.
RG: (laughing) I remember it. I remember it.
HH: I was in the back of the room saying who is this guy?
RG: Ted Olson and Bob McConnell, and all my old pals keep always tease me about that.
HH: You know, you picked up Ted Olsons endorsement, taking a digression. Thats a big deal. Will he be playing a role in your campaign?
RG: He sure will. I mean, Ted Olson is someone I have first of all, hes a very, very good friend. I mean, hes someone hes been my friend since those days, and weve been through a lot together. Yes, Ted will play a very big role in my campaign, and I mean, if Ted werent my very, very good friend, hed be somebody Id still want to rely on as probably one of the biggest experts on the Constitution in this country, and the person who probably has argued before the Supreme Court more than anybody I know.
HH: He or Judge Starr, one of those two are the two most
RG: He or Ken have probably argued before the Supreme Court more than anyone that I know, and their knowledge of it is remarkable. I mean, its a great asset to anybody.
HH: Will he help you pick judges if you are the president, and youre making Supreme Court selections?
RG: Hed be one of the first people that Id turn to for advice and help and assistance. And I was involved in the Reagan administration in the judge selection process, although that was run by the deputy attorney general, and I was involved in the U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals. But I watched all of it, and I appointed 100 judges myself. And its something I thought of, when I was the Mayor, as one of the most important things that I did.
HH: Did you have a litmus test for those hundred?
RG: No. No, not a litmus test on a single issue, a philosophical test, meaning what I wanted to know was whats their view of how you interpret the Constitution and laws? Are they do the Constitution and laws exist as the thing from which you have to discern the meaning and the intent? Or are you going to superimpose your own social views? And I want, I like the first kind of judge, who is a judge who looks to the meaning of the Constitution, doesnt try to create it.
HH: A pro-life voter looking at you, knowing that youre pro-choice, but not concerned that presidents really matter so much in that, except as far as judges are concerned, what do you tell them about who youre going to be putting on the federal bench?
RG: Im going to say Id put people like I mean, the best way to do it is to just say I would, I could just have easily have appointed Sam Alito or Chief Justice Roberts as President Bush did, in fact. Id have been pretty proud of myself if I had been smart enough to make that choice if I were the president.
HH: Do you expect justices like Roberts and Alito to come out of a Giuliani administration?
RG: I hope. I mean, that would be my goal. I mean, theyre sort of a very high standard, and so is Justices Scalia and Thomas. That would be the kind of judges I would look for, both in terms of their background and their integrity, but also the intellectual honesty with which they interpret the law.
HH: Now you know, the first President Bush got this big head fake with Justice Souter. Do you think you can get fooled the same way that he did on that one?
RG: All of us make mistakes. I mean, your goal and your intent would be not to, but I learned a long time ago that youre never 100% correct in the decisions you make, and I think that that and with judges, thats even more difficult, because they change their minds. But I was very aware of that when I was appointing judges to the criminal court in New York. And my goal there was more the criminal justice issues. You know, were they going to be tougher on crime, basically. Were they going to interpret some of the massive grants and rights that were given to criminals with an eye toward protecting the victims and protecting society. And I think I did a pretty good job of that. I cant say I was 100%, but I think I did a pretty darn good job of that.
HH: Now I want to go back to the bio stuff. When you left main Justice in 84, you went down to the Southern District of New York, and can you give us a short course, a lot of people dont really know, the mob as it was when you got there, and organized crime as it was when you left?
RG: Well, when I got there, there were organized crime was a major factor in New York. Organized crimes a major factor in the country. It controlled things like the Teamsters Union, and it controlled other areas of industry, like the Fulton Fish Market in New York, the carting industry in New York, some of the other labor unions in New York. So it had it was beyond just being a criminal organization that committed crimes in an unfortunate and effective way. It had infiltrated the legitimate aspects of our society, labor unions, to some extent politics, businesses, the garment industry, and I came at a time that was very fortuitous, in the sense that the FBI had done a great deal of work in gathering information against them, I was the associate attorney general, I knew that work, so when I became U.S. attorney, I think I was able to further it in a way that probably most others couldnt, because of the background I had had in Washington, and my relationships with the FBI. And I would say over that five years, which would be 83-89, we did, we inflicted the kind of damage on organized crime that had never been inflicted before. It wasnt just putting hundreds in jail here, and thousands, helping with thousands of imprisonments in Italy, because we also had a cooperation with the Italian government, it was that the part that I saw as the most significant was the use of the racketeering statue to infiltrate their businesses, and take their money away from them. We basically took them out of the carting industry. We took them out of the garment center. We took them out of the Teamsters Union. I brought a case that put the Teamsters Union in trusteeship, and it was right during the its very interesting to think back on this, it was right during the 1988 presidential primaries, and every presidential candidate, I think everyone, condemned me for doing it, for using the RICO statute, except one, Vice President Bush. He defended me and said I did the right thing. It always made me, Ive always, I was always an admirer of Vice President Bush before that, I became a big admirer of his when he because actually, he was getting the worst of it, because the Teamsters had previously been Republican.
HH: Yeah.
RG: And this case switched them to the Democratic Party
HH: Yeah.
RG: And I felt kind of responsible for it.
HH: Well now, Mayor, when you look at that long, years long effort to go after the mob, and then you look at two things, street gangs, because in L.A., where were talking today, theyre enormous and theyre very, very deep and well-funded, and terrorism, and I mean, the national Republican Party has just discovered theyve been getting money from a guy whose now been indicted on terrorism charges, can the law work against those two organizations the same way they worked against the mob?
RG: It sure can. In fact, one of the thins that I was most encouraged by, right after September 11, when there were things that could really discourage you, and make you feel, you know, how are we going to deal with this, and what are we going to do, and weve never encountered this kind of attack before, the worst attack on our history, weve never dealt with an enemy like this before. Usually, they were concentrated in a particular country, or a particular defined movement, but this is a number of parts of the world, theyre determined to destroy us, theyre determined to kill us. I thought that the Justice Department action in arresting people, and then seizing assets, particularly that second part, seizing assets, was really important, because one of the ways that we can win this war on terror, and destroy these terrorist groups, is not only military, not only political, intelligence, its seizing their assets, getting their money away from them, finding their sources of money and cutting it off. Then, the organization cant really accomplish anything really sophisticated. Its the same thing we did with organized crime. We realized that at one point, that just pursuing them as criminals to put in jail was not good enough, because you put a hundred in jail, and a hundred would take their place with the same $2 billion dollars in assets. You take that $2 billion dollars in assets, and shrink it to a billion, now they had half the organization.
HH: Right.
RG: If you could shrink it to $500 million, they were starting to disappear. And if you got it below $500 million, they were gone.
HH: And that will work against street gangs, you think?
RG: Itll work against street gangs, itll work against terrorism. It is an enormously powerful and important weapon of law enforcement. Domestically, it can be used against street gangs, and internationally against organized crime against terrorism as well as organized crime.
HH: Last question. I know youre up against another interview, Mayor. Last question. At St. Annes, and at Bishop Laughlin, who dont you want us to talk to in the media?
RG: Oh, you mean people I went to school with?
HH: Yeah. Which teachers do you want us to stay away from?
RG: (laughing) I think maybe the nuns that used to discipline me might be the ones that
HH: Got a particular name?
RG: No, I love em all. They the nuns and the brothers who taught me in school are the reason why I was U.S. attorney, mayor, and have even a chance of running for president of the United States. They were my I mean, my gratitude to them is enormous, even the ones that had to discipline me, of which there were more than a few (laughing).
HH: Rudy Giuliani, always a pleasure.
RG: Thank you.
HH: Look forward to talking to you again soon, Mayor. Take care.
RG: Thank you very much, Hugh.
End of interview.
criminal court judges he appointed - not supreme court or civil court. A Mayor can't appoint those kind of judges.
You think this was bad you should read some of the threads from 1999. Google them and find out how they trashed George Bush at that time! LOL!
thanks for the link. I bookedmarked for future arguments!
Anyway from the article, here are eight of Rudy's appointments.
Judge Richard N. Allman, Judge Ellen M. Coin, Judge Lenora Gerald, Judge Susan K. Knipps, Judge Judith Lieb, Judge Robert M. Stolz, Judge Seth L. Marvin and Judge Michael R. Sonberg,
Thanks! Great work! Now we know! Good job!
LOL! My guy?
Source and cite: Again..
A lot of new FReepers have signed up for the purpose of shoving Giuliani down our throats.
Oh suuuuure! That's their whole goal in life. (/sarcasm)
Unbelieveable!
You want a Republican President who is going to appoint Democrats to the bench?
This is terrible. Which ones?
Thanks.
Most of us have been here for years. You, however, signed up last month. You're the only "invader" I can see at the moment.
Got another one alienated, EVie? Gotta admit, you're dedicated to division.
No, Hugh is a RWWTW. A Republican Who Wants To Win. If Hillary is in the White House you guys get NOTHING! (ie, immigration, abortion and gay marriage on demand) If Rudy is in the White House you guys get SOMETHING! (ie. Continued focus on the WoT, lower taxes, etc) So, what's it going to be? A half a loaf or no loaf at all? "Purity over Victory!" is your battle call and it will only hand over the keys to the Oval Office to the Hildabeast and her ilk.
There's a time for peace, and a time for war. You ought to know that troll.
bump
Goodness gracious that lock was tighter than a drum.
Rudy appointees with bio's.
Bernard J. Fried has been a Criminal Court Judge since 1980, and an Acting Supreme Court Justice in New York County since 1984. After spending two years in Korea as a Fulbright scholar, Judge Fried became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, serving as Chief of the Narcotics Section, Chief of the Appeals Division, Chief of the Criminal Division, and becoming Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney in 1978. Judge Fried has been an adjunct professor in trial advocacy at Brooklyn Law School since 1981. He is a graduate of Alfred University and Brooklyn Law School.
William E. Garnett was appointed Criminal Court Judge in 1991, assigned to Kings and Richmond Counties, and sits as an Acting Supreme Court Justice on a per diem basis. Judge Garnett served as an Assistant District Attorney in Richmond County as Supreme Court Deputy Bureau Chief, Investigations Bureau Chief, and the Supreme Court Bureau Chief. Judge Garnett is a graduate of Fordham University and Brooklyn Law School, and received a LLM from New York University Graduate School of Law.
William I. Mogulescu was appointed a Criminal Court Judge in 1990 and designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice in Bronx County in 1998. Judge Mogulescu was in private practice for 15 years, and has taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law School since 1983 and New York Law School since 1993. Judge Mogulescu is a graduate of Clark University and New York University School of Law.
Ruth Pickholz has been a Criminal Court Judge, New York County, since 1991. She previously served as supervising attorney in the Legal Aid Society, senior examining attorney in the City's Department of Investigation, coordinator of the Arson Strike Force, Counsel to the Criminal Justice Coordinator, Acting Criminal Justice Coordinator, and Counsel to then Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Milton Mollen. Judge Pickholz is a graduate of Hunter College and Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Rosalyn H. Richter has been a Criminal Court Judge since 1990, an Acting Supreme Court Justice since 1997, and Supervising Judge in the Bronx County, Criminal Court since 1998. She was previously the Executive Director, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, and an Administrative Law Judge in the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings. Judge Richter is a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College and received a JD from Brooklyn Law School.
Charles H. Solomon was appointed a Criminal Court Judge in February of 1986, designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice since 1989, and served as Supervising Judge, New York City Arraignment Parts, and Supervising Judge, New York County Criminal Court. Formerly an Assistant District Attorney in New York County and Deputy Chief of a Trial Bureau, Judge Solomon also was in private practice. Judge Solomon is a graduate of State University of New York at Stony Brook and Brooklyn Law School.
Robert H. Straus was first appointed as a Criminal Court Judge in 1987, and designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice in Bronx County in 1994. Judge Straus was an attorney in private practice before becoming a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society and later an Assistant District Attorney in Nassau and Kings County. He also served as a United States Administrative Law Judge. Judge Straus received a BA from Franklin and Marshal College and New York University School of Law. He also received an MA from Hofstra University.
Joan Sudolnik has been a Criminal Court Judge since 1980, and an Acting Supreme Court Justice in New York County since 1988. Judge Sudolnik previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York County, became Chief of the Major Felony Program, and in 1977 the Administrative Assistant District Attorney. Judge Sudolnik is a graduate of Kent State University and New York University School of Law.
Patricia Anne Williams was appointed a Criminal Court Judge in 1986, and designated an Acting Supreme Court Justice in 1989 in Bronx County. Judge Williams was formerly an associate at Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher in New York City and an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Judge Williams received a BA from Cornell University, a JD from Yale Law School, and received an MA from Columbia University.
Richard Allman was appointed a Civil Court Judge in June of 1999. Prior to joining the Bench, Judge Allman was Law Secretary to New York State Court of Claims Judge Phylis Skloot Bamberger, and served as an appellate Attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York County. Judge Allman is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and Pace University School of Law.
Ellen M. Coin was appointed a Civil Court Judge and assigned to criminal court in New York County in 1998. Formerly an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County, she also served as a Special Attorney in the Department of Justice assigned to the Organized Crime Strike Force in the Eastern District of New York, and was a partner in a Manhattan law firm. Judge Coin is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and New York University School of Law.
Jerome M. Kay was first appointed a Criminal Court Judge in 1974 and then a civil court judge in 1996, and has served as Acting and Deputy Supervising Judge and Judge-in-Charge in Kings County. Prior to his appointment, Judge Kay was an Assistant to the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein, then reporter for the Advisory Committee on Practice and Procedure of the New York State Temporary Commission on the Courts, and in 1965, was appointed a Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Judge Kay is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University Law School.
Jeffrey D. Lebowitz was appointed a Civil Court Judge in 1993 and is currently assigned to Queens County Criminal Court. Judge Lebowitz previously served as Law Secretary to Supreme Court Justice Philip J. Chetta. He also held positions as an instructor in legal writing at the Long Island School of Paralegal Studies and an arbitrator in Small Claims Court. Judge Lebowitz is a graduate of State University of New York at Binghamton and Hofstra University School of Law.
Judith Lieb was appointed to Civil Court bench in July of 1999 in Bronx County. She began as a Law Clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit Judge Betty B. Fletcher in Seattle, became an associate in a private law firm, and then served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Judge Lieb is a graduate of Michigan Law School and Yale University.
Robert M. Stolz was appointed Civil Court Judge in 1995, and assigned to New York County Criminal Court. He was in private practice before joining the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York where he became Chief of the Frauds Section. Judge Stolz is a graduate of Columbia College and Fordham University Law School.
Paula J. Hepner was first appointed a Family Court Judge in Kings County in 1990. She previously held positions at the Protection and Advocacy System for Developmental Disabilities, Advocates for Children of New York, Inc., the Public Education Association, and the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York. In 1985, she served as a supervisory attorney at the Human Resources Administration's Office of Legal Affairs. Judge Hepner is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and Hofstra University School of Law.
Helen C. Sturm served as an Assistant District Attorney in New York County, becoming Deputy Bureau Chief and Bureau Chief of the Juvenile Crime Unit. While at the District Attorney's Office, Ms. Sturm also served on the Mayor's Task Force to Combat Juvenile Crime. In 1983, she left New York and became an Assistant Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General in New Mexico, and an associate in a law firm in Santa Fe before rejoining the District Attorney's Office in New York County as a Senior Supervising Attorney. Ms. Sturm is a graduate of Hofstra University and Brooklyn Law School.
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