On Their Side: Why So Many Righties are Rooting for Rudy

NY Post ^ | 2/27/2007 | John Podhoretz

[Uncledave]

February 27, 2007 -- IT is nearly impossible for the chattering classes - on all sides of the political divide - to comprehend the heat being generated by Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid.

The fallback explanation is just to say "9/11" and be done with it. After all, how else can you explain a man with Giuliani's supposedly liberal social views possibly rise as high as he has - besting John McCain among Republicans by as many as 22 points in one poll?

Many on the right profess amazement at the lead he's opened up among Republican primary voters, considering his pro-choice views and sloppy personal life.

Meanwhile, writers on the left express disbelief at the notion that a pro-choice Republican candidate might be able to win the GOP nomination. According to the best Leftist analyst of American politics, Michael Tomasky, abortion is simply "too fundamental an issue for most Republican caucus goers and primary voters (even in California, with its likely Feb. 5 primary) to work around."

There's a perfectly simple answer to the Rudy paradox. When Republican voters look at Rudy Giuliani, they know one key fact about him: They know he's no liberal.

They may not exactly know why yet, but they know it.

And they're right.

{snip}

But more than any other candidate in the race, Rudy Giuliani is a liberal-slayer. When he rejects liberal orthodoxy, which he does often, he doesn't just oppose it. He goes to war with it - total, unconditional war.

{snip}

He spent his political career chewing up liberal orthodoxy and spitting it out - and I think that somehow, in some way, voters in Oklahoma and Kansas get that about him even without knowing the specifics.

[Corin Stormhands]

[DKNY]

Rudy ping!

[dirtboy]

Will you likewise vote for Rudy in the general election?

I haven't decided if I could or not. Both he and McCain have some very serious issues with their personality that, IMO, make them completely unsuitable to be president - McCain has his notorious temper, and Rudy has his notorious tendency to disregard laws and Constitutional constraints he finds inconvenient.

I have seen a fair number of people who support Rudy say they could not support McCain. And Rudy apparently tosses aside party loyalty when it suits him - he endorsed Cuomo over Pataki in 1994. I guess I'll just have to drive off that bridge when I get to it.

[DKNY]

Hey you are quick!...LOL

[william clark]

... Giuliani's supposedly liberal social views...

??????

Okay, argue all you want about issue priorities and such, but this statement is flat-out denial.

[Alberta's Child]

John Podhoretz thoroughly discredited himself last summer when he suggested that Giuliani-Lieberman would be an ideal Republican ticket in 2008.

Hooking up a Democratic U.S. Senator with a lifetime ACU rating of 12 with a "Republican" former big-city mayor whose lifetime ACU rating (if they gave them for mayors) would be around 20-25 is such an idiotic idea that I found myself wondering who this moron Podhoretz was.

Turns out these left-wing, big-government globalists in politics and their lackeys in Rupert Murdoch's media empire are all the same.

[Alberta's Child]

Don't be disappointed. Podhoretz is a lot like Rudy Giuliani in one key respect . . . New York is one of the only places in America where they'd be considered "conservative" in any sense of the word.

And Rudy Giuliani is no "libertarian," either.

[smith288]

Anyone but McCain!



Woe is the Republican Party.

[presidio9]

Why do you say that Giuliani is not a libertarian?

[RetiredArmy]

Nobody in this house is rooting for the abortion approving, homosexual marriage loving, gun hating liberal marxist in RINO outfits.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

His "tendency to disregard laws and Constitutional constraints he finds inconvenient" is enough to keep me from supporting him.

[Uncledave]

Rudy has his notorious tendency to disregard laws and Constitutional constraints he finds inconvenient.

Even taking this statement at face value, we could indict just about every elected official in DC, most especially Bush and his absent veto pen, in these terms.

Consider immigration, campaign finance, unconstitutional fed agencies, trade restrictions, subsidies, affirmative action, on and on.

Of course I want to pull the fed toward a more constitutional basis. But between Rudy and Hillary, the choice is a no-brainer.

Like I said, I'll vote for whomever our side nominates, and hope you will as well.

[dirtboy]

Even taking this statement at face value, we could indict just about every elected official in DC, most especially Bush and his absent veto pen, in these terms.

Like all things, there are degrees of such actions.

Taking guns away from law-abiding citizens crosses a certain threshhold for usurpation that approaches tyrannical tendencies. Blithely making your official documents inaccessible to the public in defiance of state law approaches Clintonian tendencies.

Neither are traits I want in a president. If the GOP's approach to a usurping, tyrannical and above the law Hillary is to nominate a slightly less usurping, tyrannical and above the law Rudy, we're still stuck with a usurping, tyrannical and above the law president.

[Uncledave]

Fair enough. And I respect those who are campaigning for their GOP nominee. That's what primaries are about. But again, if your choice comes to Rudy or Hillary, I do hope you'll select Rudy. The alternative is just too gruesome.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

whomever our side nominates

Just who's side are you on???

I vote for my right to defend myself and defend the BORDERS of this country...

Things that are the Contitutional duty of the government to preserve. Hitlery and Giussolini are no different.

[arthurus]

So he is going to take the guns away and make America safe for abortion and Creative-Marriage, bring 70 jillion more illegals and perhaps replace English with Spanish as the language that immigrants will be expected to show some familiarity with? I will grant that he is a Republican. He is not a Conservative or Christian. Philosophically he is a crime-fighting Democrat, nothing more. But that crime-fighting trait will not translate so well to the nation from a City, especially as it will surely include a drive against citizen gun ownership and a renewed fight against abortion protesters and "homophobes." And he will have Democrat congresses for so long as he serves. At least, with Mrs. Bill we get a Republican and, for a little while, conservative Congress in 2010. And Strict Constructionist judges? How useful is that from a man who believes Abortion is in the Constitution?

[B4Ranch]

Giuliani/Clinton/Dem vs. GOP Platform Comparison
Issue	Giuliani	Clinton	Dem Platform	GOP Platform
Abortion on Demand	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Partial Birth Abortion	SupportsOpposed NY ban	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Roe v. Wade	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Taxpayer Funded Abortions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Embryonic Stem Cell Research	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Federal Marriage Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Defined at state level	Supports
Gay Domestic Partnership/ Civil Unions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Openly Gay Military	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Defense of Marriage Act	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Amnesty for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Special Path to Citizenship for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Tough Penalties for Employers of Illegal Aliens	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Sanctuary Cities/ Ignoring Immigration Law	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Protecting 2nd Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Supports bans	Supports
Confiscating Guns	Supports Confiscated as mayor. Even bragged.	Supports	Supports Supports bans	Opposes
'Assault' Weapons Ban	Supports	Supports	Supports
Frivolous Lawsuits Against Gun Makers	Supports Filed One Himself	Supports		Opposes
Gun Registration/Licenses	Supports	Supports		Opposes
War in Afghanistan	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports	Supports
War in Iraq	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports Weak support	Supports
Patriot Act	Supports	Supports Voted for it 2001 & 2006	Opposes	Supports

[Alberta's Child]

Let's try to look at this a little differently . . .

Why do you say that Giuliani IS a libertarian?

[arthurus]

Yeah, I kind of think so about Mr. Giuliani, too.