Posted on 03/07/2007 1:00:20 PM PST by garv
Forget about whether Rudy Giuliani is too moderate to win over the conservatives who dominate the nomination process in the Republican Party. The real story is whether the opera buff's nascent presidential bid will be crushed under the weight of the Pucciniesque life of the 107th mayor of New York.
We all know about the first wife who was his second cousin, the second wife who found out she was being divorced while watching television and the third wife who was barred by court order from the mayor's residence or from meeting Giuliani's children, Andrew and Caroline, there before the divorce was final.
Now come the public comments from Andrew that he won't be stumping for pops in Iowa, New Hampshire or anywhere else. Not only did he say "I have problems with my father," but he also added, "There's obviously a little problem that exists between me and his wife."
If past is prologue, the younger Giuliani's phone must have crackled with Rudy rage once his comments came to light. See, when Giuliani was mayor, he brooked no criticism - no matter how minor, no matter how constructive. Having been on the receiving end of one of Giuliani's withering verbal assaults, I know of what I speak.
The phone rang around 9 a.m. on Jan. 7, 1999. It was Giuliani's personal assistant, Beth Patrone. "Please hold for the mayor." He had never called me before. His skin-peeling tirades against reporters, politicians, community leaders, perceived enemies and those deemed too weak to fight City Hall were legendary. Now it was my turn.
Giuliani was spitting fire over my column in that morning's New York Daily News, in which I likened his second term to the sitcom "Seinfeld." The thesis was summed up in the first paragraph: "The show has been reincarnated as Mayor Giuliani's second term, which has turned into a term about nothing."
"Jonathan," he said.
"Good morning, Mr. Mayor," I said, "How ..."
For the next 10 minutes, Giuliani ripped me apart, calling my column "intellectually dishonest," among other things. He hung up when he couldn't find a favorable editorial that I'd written on his State of the City speech the previous year. But he called back, spouting off the headline and launching into another 10-minute monologue.
I tell this story because it points to other aspects of hizzoner's personality that were more troublesome.
Giuliani could be vindictive. He had no qualms about using government to settle a score. When the City Council overrode his veto of a bill to change the operations of homeless shelters in December 1998, Giuliani sought to evict five community service programs, including one that served 500 mentally ill people, in the district of the bill's chief sponsor, and to replace them with a homeless shelter.
What's more, he released a list of sites for other shelters that would be housed in the districts of council members who voted in favor of the override. (He backed down two months later, after much public outrage.)
Rather than take the high road earlier that year, Giuliani erupted when the Rev. Calvin O. Butts, a prominent Harlem minister who had endorsed Giuliani for reelection, said, "I don't believe he likes black people." In fact, Giuliani put a lockdown on city funding for projects affiliated with the politically connected cleric.
But it was his reaction to racially charged incidents involving the police that highlighted Giuliani's other affliction: tone-deafness.
Amadou Diallo was reaching for his wallet when undercover police officers gunned him down in a hail of 41 bullets in the vestibule of his apartment building in 1999. New Yorkers of all colors and political stripes trouped to police headquarters to be arrested in protest of not only the officers' actions but also of Giuliani's inability to grasp why everyone was appalled by what happened.
The visionary mayor who brought law and order to the ungovernable city and who became the face of a bloodied but unbowed nation on Sept. 11, 2001, was a difficult mayor. Many wonder whether the trauma of that day has mellowed Giuliani. We'll soon know. There's nothing like the stress of a presidential campaign to find out for sure.
Jonathan Capehart is a member of the Washington Post's editorial page staff.
Fred Siegel's book reminded me of something I'd forgotten from the Dinkins years: all the cars with the NO RADIO and RADIO ALREADY STOLEN signs in the windows. Some said NO RADIO, NOTHING IN TRUNK. The guys replacing the car windows and trunk locks were having a bonanza but the rest of us were feeling more than a little demoralized and victimized.
Duncan Hunter is not a factor. He never will be. He fired his staff in South Carolina already, and he doesn't even register in the polls among fellow Californians.
Maybe if he'd won the MegaMillions jackpot last night, he'd have a remote chance to buy some name publicity. Candidates who haven't even decided to run in the race are doing ten times better than him.
This forum is going to kid itself that there is some perfect candidate who will emerge and contend. I don't even think Hunter is close to perfect, but I don't have to worry about it since he's going nowhere.
I'd say there's about an 80% chance Rudy will win the GOP nomination, and maybe as much as a 75% chance that he's a lock to be the next President.
How this forum comes to grips with that, and how much bloodshed and anger there will be about that, remains to be seen.
I love that Rudy takes his critics on instead of letting them continue to lie with impunity and having that lie fester in the American consciousness for years and years until eventually it becomes a sort of truth. It's one of the reasons I adore the guy; he doesn't back down to anybody.
Well stated. Bump
That high, huh? No wonder his haters are so vociferous and worried.
Remember the Keyes Illinois campaign...times twenty.
Many of the same players with some n00bs thrown in or maybe retreads...lol.
Thank you miss marmelstein. It's nice to think back to when Rudy was mayor!
Rush was saying that it isn't part of the conservative mindset to fight for power, that a conservative wants less government and government power, not more. The last bunch of Republicans that got elected forgot what they were sent to Washington to do and got caught up in the power of money. Rush said that fighting for that power, both of money and politics is what the left is all about, so it's a natural fit for them.
It's unfortunate that Republicans are mostly afraid to get down and dirty when defending themselves, though. I'm not saying that we should go as low as the Clintons, the ends don't always justify the means. I just want someone who will give it as good as he gets, so that the left knows that if they make crazy accusations the President will answer those accusations directly and publicly.
tick tick tick tick... I'm waiting... They have been doing it for quite a while now - I don't see any torture on his face.
Why stop a winning streak when you're hot. Yesterday buchanan and Keyes...tomorrow the world!
Fortunately no one has ever invented a little blue pill for political impotence.
LOL! It'd be a best seller here.
We sure don't want this scumbag with his finger on the button. He's really not much of a man, as men go.
What a POS.
Oh, they're incredibly worried. I guess I don't blame them. Not many here wouldn't say, "It would be better if he had a better record on pro-life issues, guns, and had stayed married to an attractive high school sweetheart."
Yeah, I wish a lot of things. There is still plenty of time to try to pin him down on the issues. Clamping down on New York is not the same job as leading America.
But you can only play the hand you are dealt. I don't see what will stop Rudy. This forum has already tried posting a million photos of him in a dress, but since he already did it on national television, we're not really going to shock the nation.
Plus, we have no Plan B. Or if we're calling Duncan Hunter "Plan B" then we're not really willing to think this through.
A wildcard could be Fred Thompson. He doesn't have forever to make up his mind. Rudy is solidifying the perception that he's the overwhelming frontrunner. Of course, Fred isn't pure enough for a lot of the folks at this forum, either.
" Nasty, brutish and short "
Enough about Hillary.
VOTAGRA...when you're candidate needs a little assist to get up in the polls.
You know, I have been interested in Rudy's "tough on crime" stuff. I made a graph, and it CLEARLY shows a substantial drop in crime well before Rudy came into office. Rudy managed to ride an inverted wave of the decreasing crime rate started druing the previous administration.
Interesting stuff.
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