Poll: Giuliani leads the GOP pack (& more on conservative endorsements Olson and Vitter)

CNN ^ | March 12, 2007 | CNN

[FairOpinion]

Giuliani is the preferred candidate for 34 percent of likely Republican voters, according to the poll. Giuliani has a double-digit lead over his nearest rival, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is the choice candidate for 18 percent of potential Republican voters.

Conservative endorsements

In a move to attract conservatives skeptical of his position on social issues such as gun control, abortion rights and same-sex civil unions, Giuliani's campaign Monday announced endorsements from Sen. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, and former Solicitor General Ted Olson.

"Obviously, I disagree with Rudy on some significant social issues, and these are very important to me and to many people I represent," said Vitter, a vocal opponent of abortion, gay marriage and gun control.

"But after numerous personal meetings with the mayor, it's very clear to me that he's not running for president to advance any liberal social agenda," he said.

Olson, who served with Giuliani in the Reagan Justice Department, said he believes the former mayor "will appoint the kind of judges that we expect in this country -- people that respect the rule of law and the role of judges and who interpret the laws and interpret the Constitution, instead of judges who want to make policy."

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

That's weak. Not quite as weak as running from an August debate because MoveOn said so, but weak nonetheless.

Of course, Rudy has everything to lose and nothing to gain from a debate this early. Same for McCain. If Romney roughs him up in NH, he could fall to #3 and whatever money he's getting now would effectively dry up.

[narses]

You claim:

You ignore the fact that Rudy is a conservative on fiscal,...

Here is the article linked above:

Giuliani set to appoint chief of staff's mother to $142,700-a-year Housing Authority post

In 1989, New York City mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani said, "there will be no patronage in this administration. Not under this mayor's nose."

As "America's Mayor" prepares to leave office after eight years, government sources tell PoliticsNY.com that Giuliani is getting ready to sign the paperwork to give Joanna Aniello, the mother of Anthony Carbonetti, the mayor's chief of staff, a $142,700-a-year appointment to the New York City Housing Authority's board of directors. Aniello is said to be the mayor's replacement for Kalman Finkel, who was forced to resign after being fined by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board for ethical violations. Aniello's term on the Housing Authority board will expire on April 30, 2003.

Like her chief of staff son, Aniello brings only a high school diploma to her high paying municipal position. Since 1994, Aniello has won at least four promotions at the Housing Authority. During the Giuliani administration, Aniello has seen her municipal salary rise about $120,000. Before Giuliani became mayor, Aniello was a low-level associate housing specialist at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Mayor Giuliani has given the Carbonetti family lots of presents during his administration. In addition to the $100,000-plus salary increases given to Anthony Carbonetti and Joanna Aniello during the Giuliani administration, the chief of staff's brother, Joseph Carbonetti, also landed a city government job. And Aniello's former husband, Lou Carbonetti, was head of the mayor's Community Assistance Unit before being forced to resign over unpaid taxes and possessing multiple driver's licenses.

So much for campaign promises. (12/27)

So much for 'fiscal' conservative.

[My GOP]

I KNOW you KNOW nothing!!!

[narses]

Substitute contributed for caused and then maybe you'll get it. Or not.

[My GOP]

Pro-growth tax-cutter
Rudy Giuliani has proven, both during his tenure as mayor of New York and through his subsequent rhetoric, that he is a pro-growth Republican in the mold of Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and Newt Gingrich. As mayor, Giuliani cut city taxes by more than eight billion dollars, reducing the tax burden on New Yorkers by 22%. Giuliani’s low-tax views remain intact. As Race42008.com noted, Rudy’s recent visit to Minnesota included an emphasis on achieving economic growth via low taxes and less regulation on the economy.

Giuliani cut the commercial-rent tax; he cut sales taxes, including taxes on clothing; he cut the marriage penalty on taxpaying couples; he cut taxes on commercial rents everywhere outside of Manhattan’s major business districts; and he cut various taxes on small businesses and self-employed New Yorkers. He cut NYC's hotel tax from 6% to 5%. Consequently, hotel tax revenues increased from $135 million in Fiscal Year 1995 to $239 million in FY 2001.

"The thing that probably disturbs me the most when I read the New York Times editorials, they've kind of turned around the whole idea of cutting taxes, and they make tax increases morally courageous," Giuliani said. "I have no idea what is courageous about raising taxes. I understand it's courageous to run into a fire and take somebody out, but I can't figure out what's courageous about raising taxes. I don't understand why you would think that in an economy that's essentially a private economy, it makes more sense and is more efficient for the government to confiscate more of that money."

Giuliani made these remarks to the Manhattan Institute, an influential think tank well regarded by conservatives and libertarians alike. He credits the organization and its quarterly magazine, City Journal, with inspiring many of his reforms.

Giuliani's tax record matches his rhetoric. He cut or eliminated 23 levies totaling $8 billion. He slashed municipal tax revenues' share of personal income by 18.9 percent and the top local income-tax rate by 21 percent. Asked after September 11 if he would hike taxes, Giuliani was refreshingly blunt, calling that "a dumb, stupid, idiotic, and moronic thing to do…."

Rudy Giuliani characterized his economic philosophy this way: “City government should not and cannot create jobs through government planning. The best it can do, and what it has a responsibility to do, is to deal with its own finances first, to create a solid budgetary foundation that allows businesses to move the economy forward on the strength of their energy and ideas. After all, businesses are and have always been the backbone of New York City.”



Government reformer
Conservatives who liked Newt’s welfare reform and President Bush’s attempt at entitlement reform have an ally in Rudy. Giuliani launched a welfare revolution, removing illegal recipients, cutting the rolls by 20% the first year alone and dropping the welfare rolls by 600,000 over the course of his plan. He launched a work requirement program for the remaining welfare recipients. The New York Times called his program “slavery.”

As mayor, Giuliani reformed welfare in New York with the same tenacity as the class of ‘94 in Congress. A President Giuliani means a conservative reformer who will fight for market-based revisions to our age-old bureaucratic messes in Washington.


Fiscal conservative
As mayor, Rudy Giuliani cut the New York City government payroll by 19%, eliminating unnecessary civil servants from the public dole. Can anyone remember the last time a Republican president was able to send lazy federal workers packing? While hiring 12 percent more police officers and 12.8 percent more teachers, Giuliani sliced municipal manpower elsewhere by 17.2 percent, from 117,494 workers in 1993 to 97,338 in 2001. Inheriting a multi-billion dollar deficit, Rudy turned it into a surplus, delivering eight consecutive balanced budgets.

Giuliani's expenditure growth averaged 2.9 percent annually, while local inflation between January 1994 and December 2001 averaged 3.6 percent. His fiscal 1995 budget decreased outlays by 1.6 percent, while his post-9/11 fiscal 2002 plan lowered appropriations by 2.6 percent.

“[Giuliani] is positively Reaganite on taxes, spending, public order, quality of life, welfare reform, school choice, racial preferences, privatization, shrinking bureaucracy, Americanization of immigrants, fatherhood, moving foster kids into adoptive families, pulverizing Islamo-fascism, and maintaining peace through strength.” – DeRoy Murdock, (“Mean Mr. Giuliani’ Would Bring Toughness to Washington,” HUMAN EVENTS http://www.humaneve nts.com/article. php?id=19495 )

"...When you talk about issues related to fiscal conservatism, which are important to Rudy, I don't know anybody in the public arena who has cut taxes 23 times as Rudy did when he was mayor of New York; who has shrunk the size of government, which he did when he was mayor of New York; reduced the welfare rolls by over 50 percent, which he did when he was mayor of New York. And that's not going into reducing crime by 65% and many other things that he did while mayor in a situation that, before he became mayor, was widely regarded as the second toughest job in American politics, and was widely regarded as an ungovernable situation." -- Bill Simon, GOP candidate for California governor in 2002. (http://www.ocblog. net/ocblog/ 2007/02/i_ watched_rudys. html )

"On every major issue, [Giuliani] is a solidly conservative and extraordinarily adept executive... " -- Michael Reagan ("The GOP Should Dump It's Litmus Test," FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE, Feb. 16, 2007 http://www.frontpag emag.com/ Articles/ ReadArticle. asp?ID=26986 )

[HitmanLV]

It was YOU who said that the command center 'destroyed' WTC 7, not me. I was just trying to make sense of your words, best I could, that's all.

[TitansAFC]

Listen, my Liberal friend:

What you do is very bad: you propagate lies - things you know are untrue - in order to promote a Liberal as the GOP standard-bearer.

I know it's not fun getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar, but I do not apologize for busting you.

Face it, beyond all your words and sanctimony, the simple truth is: you know that you're lying, and we know that you're lying. The fact that you persist with everybody knowing this speaks volumes about what Rudophiles will stoop to to end what they see as the threat of Conservatism.

[narses]

Explain the appointment in post 122. Can you?

[My GOP]

See Post 126.

[My GOP]

Those quotes I used are actual quotes and you know it. My analysis is also correct. We have nothing more to say to one another.

[PhiKapMom]

It was going to be hosted by CNN!

Both McCain and Rudy said they would make the Reagan Library the first debate and accepted Nancy Reagan's invite.

Since the Dems wouldn't do a Fox debate why would the GOP candidates do one for CNN in NH. CNN has done nothing but trash Republicans so why give them a chance at hosting a debate. CNN has never been fair.

[narses]

My GOP says "To begin with, Rudy is AGAINST gay marriage."

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

My GOP says "Rudy is not the abortion on demand liberal people make him out to be."

Opening Remarks to the N.A.R.A.L. "Champions of Choice" Lunch

(Archives of Rudolph W. Giuliani, 107th Mayor) ^ | The Yale Club, Thursday, April 5th, 2001

My GOP says "I'll admit his past gun stances are bothersome but ..."

Tuesday, June 20, 2000
MAYOR GIULIANI AND SPEAKER VALLONE ANNOUNCE CITY LAWSUIT AGAINST GUN INDUSTRY

[narses]

Sorry, post 126 does NOT address the question. Can you?

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for the link!

[aligncare]

"But after numerous personal meetings with the mayor, it's very clear to me that he's not running for president to advance any liberal social agenda," he said

Sen. David Vitter said exactly what I have been thinking about Mr. Giuliani and his bid for president.

I saw him as mayor of NYC, and the only political ideology he was interested in pushing was the ideology of responsive conservative government.

The slander against him on Free Republic is mostly a caricature and mischaracterization of him for political purposes.

[My GOP]

My quotes are more recent. And of course you have a habit of taking quotes out of context and not telling the whole story as you did with the judges he appointed as Mayor by not explaining that the Mayor chooses from 3 nominees chosen by a NY Judicial Commission run by Democrats.

[El Laton Caliente]

We've been though it, but Rudy can put Hillary in the Whitehouse.

He has the best chance of splitting the vote of any candidate.

Brownback can poll 41% to 46% against Hillary, so you Rudybots are just looking for a liberal since any Republican has a more than decent chance at CRUSHING Hillary…

[My GOP]

Post 126 proves Rudy is a fiscal conservative. That was our original argument.

[narses]

So Rudy flip-flops a lot? Sure and ask both of his ex-wives, they'll agree. And you want that as President? LOL.

[Senator Goldwater]

Ted Olson is on board.

Warm up the bandwagon.