Giuliani's Fight of His Life

The Brunei Times ^ | Feb. 25, 2007 | Paul Harris

[My2Cents]

Giuliani's fight of his life

Paul Harris
MIAMI
25-Feb-07

IN POST 9/11 America, seeing Rudy Giuliani in the flesh can feel like meeting a living saint. That day in early September 2001 is sacrosanct in the national psyche and Giuliani is the holy symbol of American resilience; American defiance; American courage.

As Giuliani walks on to a stage in front of a business crowd in Miami Beach it is impossible not to think back to the fall of the World Trade Center. Not that Giuliani lets his audience forget. He is in Miami to lecture on the principles of leadership. But, inevitably, the events of 9/11 creep regularly into his talk. He tells anecdote after anecdote, reminding the audience that while they watched the horror unfold on TV, he was actually there. "I just started making decisions," he says of the moment he heard the planes had struck.

The steps he took that day have passed into American folklore. He was the clear head who kept his nerve in a moment that defined the era in which we live. Giuliani walked right into the heart of a stricken nation and became America's mayor. Now the march that he began in the ashes of 9/11 might lead him to the White House.

Giuliani has embarked on a remarkable campaign to test the waters for a possible presidential bid. He is touring the country, raising money and hiring staff. When faced with possible Democratic opponents, especially Hillary Clinton, he trounces them. The numbers speak a simple fact: Rudy Giuliani could become the most powerful man in the world.

But at the same time Giuliani faces challenges unique among the presidential candidates. In an age of religious conservatism, will the Republicans really choose a man who is pro-choice on abortion and pro-gay rights? Will the evangelical Christians who supported George Bush support Giuliani?

Giuliani's private life three-times divorced and plagued by scandal makes Bill Clinton's chequered past look almost virginal. Giuliani is a man whose father was an enforcer for organised crime. A man who separated from his first wife when he discovered she was his second cousin. And there's more: scandals, rages and grudges galore.

And yet, though officially he is only "exploring" the idea, most political insiders are betting Giuliani is going for it. The political winds of a world defined by 9/11 are blowing at his back. The signs are good.

Confidence in Guiliani is gaining momentum in the Republican political classes as he crisscrosses the country building up a formidable organisation. Since he left office as Mayor of New York at the end of 2001 he has visited 46 states and campaigned for 170 Republican candidates. He has held his first fundraiser, a swanky US$2,100-a-head Manhattan cocktail party that netted upwards of US$500,000. He has also aggressively courted key officials close to the White House.

Giuliani's nascent campaign is now seen as such a threat to the main players such as early Republican front-runner John McCain or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney that he has already been the victim of dirty tricks. In January a dossier turned up in the pages of the New York Daily News detailing Giuliani's campaign strategy. It laid out fundraising targets, schedules and budgets and speculated openly that Giuliani's personal life and views on social issues could force him to drop out. But the leak backfired. What the documents showed was the sheer scale of Giuliani's vision. It outlined plans to spend more than US$21 million before the end of 2007 and to raise US$100 million for the Republican nomination campaign. It detailed how to attract big-name fundraisers from the cash-rich political heartlands of Washington, California and New York.

The plans spelt out not just how risky Giuliani's campaign could be, but also how ambitious. "The whole race is wide open this time. It is a crowd. You can do well there if you are Rudy Giuliani," says Lee Miringoff, director of the prestigious Marist Institute for Public Opinion.

As Giuliani begins to put those plans into action, one name pops up again and again: Ronald Reagan. Giuliani heaps praise upon America's sunny 80s president. He aims for the same political turf: balancing a tough line on national security with a cheerful outlook on America's prospects.

At a time when American TV screens fill each night with images of carnage from Iraq, Giuliani stands out with his message of optimism. "Reagan understood the power of optimistic leadership," he says in Delaware. "We have to be the party of optimism ... the party that looks to the future."

It's a strangely positive message from a man whose career was forged in disaster and mass murder. It is impossible to underestimate the power of Giuliani's actions in the days immediately after 9/11.

He took snap decisions and organised New York's emergency response. He toured hospitals, took to the airwaves and in the first 16 hours alone paid four visits to Ground Zero's still burning ruins. He even identified the body of a close friend, sparing the dead man's pregnant wife the trauma.

Such personal touches propelled Giuliani into the nation's psyche. But what people really remember is how Giuliani was there, while Bush was not. The President's frozen face in a Florida school room and subsequent escape to Nebraska aboard Air Force One contrasted strongly with Giuliani's hands-on heroics. Giuliani became the man Americans trust. He was lauded internationally. Jacques Chirac called him "Rudy the rock".

He not Bush was Time's 2001 Man of the Year. America was desperate for a hero and Giuliani provided it.

He has been riding that wave ever since. When he left office he embarked on a business career built around his fame. He toured the world giving speeches about his experience. Hiring him can cost US$100,000 a time. "The 9/11 aura has been something that he has exploited ruthlessly," says Robert Polner, editor of the book America's Mayor: The Hidden History of Rudy Giuliani's New York.

It surrounds him still. When his speech in Miami Beach is over and Giuliani asks for questions, it is not advice on business this audience craves. Or leadership. Or even more 9/11 anecdotes. They want to know what Giuliani would do about Iraq. He takes a measured, optimistic approach.

Democrats and Republicans, he says, should get behind the aim of victory, no matter the previous mistakes. "There is no point in rooting for defeat. More important than what it means for George Bush is what it means for America if we lose in Iraq. Democrats and Republicans have much to disagree about, but we don't disagree about terrorism," he says.

It sounds like a stump speech again. And, in a divided country, it also sounds like a potentially powerful call to the middle ground.

[ElPatriota]

BEWARE!... Social-conservatives, Christian conservatives or moral-conservatives of ANY KIND..

********************* WE NEED TO UNITE IN OUR PURPOSE!!! ************************

THINGS ARE CHANGING!... mostly because of communications (Internet). For instance, the Internet, like a magnifying lens, is allowing me to see everything CLOSER! I knew I was "Republican," but I really did not know how DIFFERENT we were until now... Sometimes I wonder if we social conservatives should be in the same party with the Guliani crowd. I can't believe our core principles are so different from them. Besides social issues, I can relate to the Gun issues, fiscal issues... and a host of other issues but NEVER at the price of SOCIAL ISSUES. Because the moment we become another cespool like the Rats....Let me specific, if we no longer mind having the Republican party full of QUEERS... and ABORTIONISTS... Then what is the point of being Republicans for us social conservatives?

I just never realized that some people's main values are what? "Fiscan-Restrain /s" ?

By the way, I DON'T BUY the argument that Rudy is a CHAMPION OF NATIONAL SECURITY or the MOST FISCAL CONSERVATIVE in the world /s. This is all BS, a SMOKE SCREEN, to "get him through" somehow and bamboozle conservatives into voting for him!

The point is, the Internet also help us social conservatives to get to know ourselves AS A GROUP, and realize that we are SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES FIRST, and Republican second. If the GOP, does not serve us, then we no NO business being in this party.. That is the bottom line. Something to THINK ABOUT... is either that or SELLING OUR PRINCIPLES OUT... So what's it going to be?

Sorry for the English... I am rushing! :)

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

But what people really remember is how Giuliani was there, while Bush was not.

Gunman shoots 7, kills self at Empire State Building

February 24, 1997 (EXACTLY 10 YEARS AGO) Web posted at: 9:00 a.m. EST

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man opened fire Sunday on an observation deck of the Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six before shooting himself in the head, authorities said.

The gunman, a 69-year-old Palestinian, was taken to a hospital where he died more than five hours later, according to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's press office.

The man muttered something about Egypt seconds before he began shooting shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday on the 86th floor observation deck of one of the world's best-known tourist sites, witnesses said.

Ali Abu Kamal used a .380-caliber Beretta handgun that he apparently bought in Florida at the end of January, Giuliani said.

"I heard a loud popping noise," said French tourist Jean-Luec Will, 40. "I thought at first it was a little child playing with fireworks."

Finally sensing danger, Will, 40, his wife and two young sons -- one wearing a red Chicago Bulls cap -- dove to the floor. Other people nearly trampled each other while dashing for exits, said David Robinson, 35, a British tourist who had arrived in the city only two hours earlier.

"Everyone started running," Robinson said. "Everybody was panicked."

On the opposite side of the deck, Gerard Guntner, 43, and George McHenry, 52, both maintenance workers from Jersey City, New Jersey, were shooting video of the view of their home state. Drawn by the commotion, Guntner stumbled across a man with a bullet wound in the head. He instinctively began cradling him.

"He was coughing blood. ... I just said, 'Hang in there,'" Guntner said. Guntner's hands shook as he smoked a cigarette while recounting the experience.

McHenry, meanwhile, videotaped what he described as "five bodies" strewn about the deck -- footage the police later confiscated. "I don't know why I took those pictures, believe me," McHenry said. "I don't know if it did any good or not."

Belgian businessman Stef Nys, 36, recalled hearing a final shot and turning in time to see the gunman slumping to the floor, his dentures out of his mouth.

Witnesses said the gunman shouted, "Are you from Egypt?" during the shooting, according to law enforcement sources. Police said they did not know whether it was said in an effort to spare or identify potential victims.

His passport said he was from Ramallah, on the West Bank, and entered the United States on Christmas Eve, Giuliani said.

The other dead man was a 27-year-old Danish musician visiting the Empire State Building with an American friend from Connecticut, Matthew Gross, 27, who was also wounded, according to Giuliani.

The others wounded included a French couple from Verdun, whose 16-year-old daughter escaped injury; a 30-year-old Swiss man; an Argentinian man, 52; and a man from the Bronx. One of the wounded men was shot in the head, while others were less seriously hurt.

Two children were hurt when they were knocked from parents' arms and four women suffered minor injuries in the rush to the exit.

Nys said he had gone to the Empire State Building "to try to relax myself a little bit." He left a shaken man.

"I've never seen so much blood in my life," he said. top of Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is one of the world's most admired skyscrapers. The 102-story skyscraper opened in 1931 and reigned for decades as the world's tallest until 1972.

Building officials planned to review security procedures, though a spokesman defended the building's lack of metal detectors or bag searches and called its security "superb."

Leona Helmsley, whose real estate company manages the Empire State Building, said the firm would pay for families of victims to be flown to New York.

"We will do everything possible to lighten their burden during this terrible time," Helmsley said through Rubenstein.

[EternalVigilance]

IN POST 9/11 America, seeing Rudy Giuliani in the flesh can feel like meeting a living saint.

Wow. St. Rudy.

The patron saint of NARAL.

[EternalVigilance]

If I remember right, Giuliani's response to that terror attack was to call for more national gun control.

[claudiustg]

Hi! I'm Jim Zumbo and I'd like to say a few words for Rudi Giuliani. Rudi doesn't want to take all your guns, just the bad ones that make you look like a terrorist zealot... So, put aside your silly fanaticism for the 2nd Amendment and vote for someone that can win even if it makes you physically ill! Thank you! /s

[Eagles Talon IV]

"If the GOP, does not serve us, then we have no NO business being in this party.. That is the bottom line. Something to THINK ABOUT... is either that or SELLING OUR PRINCIPLES OUT... So what's it going to be?"

Hey!! Way cool 'ElPatriota'! Just think, you can be standing by the side of your decapitated family members or perhaps watching the aftermath of a car bomb detonated by a school or hospital and all the while console yourself with the thought "I stood by my principles"

"By the way, I DON'T BUY the argument that Rudy is a CHAMPION OF NATIONAL SECURITY or the MOST FISCAL CONSERVATIVE in the world /s"

I don't know about him being the most fiscal conservative in the world but he is on the record as a tax cutter in NYC. As for him NOT being a champion of national security, perhaps you can gives us some evidence of your claim?

[Eagles Talon IV]

He was treated for prostate cancer in 2000 and to to the best of my knowledge is 100% cured.

[claudiustg]

---Abandon your principles and vote for Giuliani or your family will be decapitated.---

A little long for a bumper sticker, but very catchy and motivational!

[Eagles Talon IV]

How about this:

Don't lose your head-Vote for Giulliani

[ElPatriota]

Fine, I am glad you made your points. They may be all true for you, but not for me, sorry. My mission is expose Rudy, because I consider him an ENEMY of values conservatives... The TROJAN HORSE.

You know, this is all a selling job by the Guliani people... Just a sale job, and we simply have counteract that push. :)

Isn't a coincidence, that only Lefties are the so called LEADING candidates on the GOP now?... Isn't a coincidence that no one PAYS ATTENTION to the conservative candidates? Don't you find that a little be suspicious? :)

[madprof98]

I particularly enjoyed the phrase 'uncompromising purists', apt description.

Of course, this refers to the few remaining posters on this forum who still believe in the principles on which it is founded:

We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism, feminism, homosexualism, racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc.

Ridiculous crackpots, aren't they?

[claudiustg]

How about this?

2nd Amendment? Fugetaboudit. Vote for Giuliani!

[Blake#1]

The Republican base needs to look in the Business World for a possible nominee in 2008. A Christian, Capitalist, Tried and True, Loyal American would fit the bill!

[Cobra64]

I agree with most of what you say, except gun control.

To me, that is part of the mixture in homeland security in our neighborhoods.

My four hot-button priorities are:

- Killing our enemies in the ME

- Strong Military: let them do their jobs: killing enemy and blow up things.

- Enforce laws against illegal immigrants: mules for dirty bombs and other sordid tools of terrorism on our Homeland

- Defend Second Amendment: So we can shoot Abdul and gang members when they start roaming our streets.

If we are not safe as a sovereign nation, all other issues don't matter.

Gay rights, trans fats, obesity, global warming, global cooling, sun spots, endangered red ants in TX, underweight alligators in FL, and all the other crap don't mean anything if our schools, homes, office buildings, infrastructure, etc. are BLOWN UP. I roll my eyes when people can't look at, and understand basic, simple, fundamental priorities.

For example, If a pregnant mother is blown up by an IED on Main St., then abortion is not an issue; the mother and fetus are dead.

I'm presenting my argument in a high level conceptual manner. If some folks don't get it and want to nit-pick, flame away.

BTW, I think Hunter and Gingrich are two guys that embrace my priorities recipe. In terms of what capacity each can be contribute, I'm still noodling on that. Regardless, I think those two guys need to be at the very top of the top of the hierarchy.

[narses]

Pro-Illegal Immigration

As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:

"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's."

That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:

"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law."

If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF GIULIANI'S LEFT-WING POLITICAL POSITIONSWhile he was the “Republican Mayor” of New York City he appointed more than 60 men and women to the Civil, Criminal, and Family Court benchs. In all of those judicial appointment only two were Republican.

All of his other judical appointments were either registered Liberals or registered Democrats. As the “Republican Mayor” he had appointment power over more than 70 full commissioners in more than 50 City agencies, yet at no time during his administration did REPUBLICANS account for more than 10% of those appointments.

He even appointed Chuck Schumers wife as the City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner.


________________________________________________________________
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9054.html

“And even as we grieve for those who lost their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, we may be able to find some sort of meaning in this tragedy by using it as a catalyst to revive national gun control efforts.”
Rudolph Giuliani

[narses]

I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights, Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing,” he responded. Source: CNN.com, “Inside Politics” Dec 2, 1999 http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Rudy_Giuliani_Abortion.htm

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES (November 14, 2006)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm pro- choice. I'm pro-gay rights.

KING: Giuliani supports a woman's right to an abortion, and back in 1999, he opposed a federal ban on late-term abortions.

GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.

KING: Immigration could be another presidential landmine. Back in 1996, Mayor Giuliani went to federal court to challenge new federal laws requiring the city to inform the federal government about illegal immigrants.

JEFFREY: He took the side of illegal immigrants in New York City against the Republican Congress.

KING: Giuliani opposes same-sex marriage but as mayor, he supported civil unions and extending health and other benefits to gay couples. He also supported the assault weapons ban and other gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association.

GIULIANI: I'm in favor of gun control. I'm pro-choice.

Republican Big-Wigs Support Pro-Abortion Event in NY

Pro-abortion Governor George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also supports unrestricted abortion, are co-chairs of the 2000 Choice Award Presentation to be held on May 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The event is sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, a group that is campaigning for the removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform.


http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503010743.asp

[narses]

Good stuff!

[Lancey Howard]

But, inevitably, the events of 9/11 creep regularly into his talk. He tells anecdote after anecdote, reminding the audience that while they watched the horror unfold on TV, he was actually there. "I just started making decisions," he says of the moment he heard the planes had struck.

The steps he took that day have passed into American folklore. He was the clear head who kept his nerve in a moment that defined the era in which we live. Giuliani walked right into the heart of a stricken nation and became America's mayor.

Now, compare and contrast with New Orleans' Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin, and Louisiana's Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco.

.Somehow (yeah, thanks to the scumbag "mainstream" socialist newsrooms) New Orleans' Katrina crisis was "mismanaged" by Bush and the (Republican) federal government. In fact, to listen to the Democrats and their shills in the scumbag "mainstream" socialist newsrooms, Katrina was the federal government's FAULT.

Compare and contrast Giuliani with the Democrats.

[Reagan Man]

Yes indeed. Many conservatives have strayed off the rightwing reservation, selling out their principles and integrity in the name of political expediency and in support of the liberal Rudy Giuliani. That is their prerogative. I say its sad and pathetic.

This conservative hasn't strayed and with no intention of doing so. I'm locked and loaded and ready for bear!

[narses]

Indeed. Look at his decision to put the City Command Post inside the WTC - that's right, INSIDE target Number ONE. Then there was his decision to attend Mass after the attack, with his Mistress - leaving his Wife at home. Blech. Gun grabbers make me sick. So do NARAL candidates.