Giuliani's Pre-9/11 Record Should Erase Rightest Doubts

Hunan Events ^ | 3/16/07 | Deroy Murdock

[areafiftyone]

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) the GOP frontrunner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph W. Giuliani, now parrot equally dodgy concepts. When Republicans meet “the real Rudy,” they will abandon New York’s former mayor like cattle fleeing a burning barn. Then, the wobbly Washington wisdom continues, Giuliani’s three marriages, and his less-than-solidly right-wing views on gays, guns, and gametes will torpedo his buoyant presidential hopes.

These seers now detect unhappiness with the GOP aspirants. They cite a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which 26% of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with Giuliani, McCain, and former Massachusetts governor Willard Mitt Romney, among others. However, 56% called these choices satisfactory. This mirrors the 57%of conservative Republicans who preferred Giuliani, versus 31% for McCain. More broadly, Republicans backed Giuliani 38% to McCain’s 24, former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s 10, Romney’s 8, and 2% each for Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

But what if voters like Giuliani better upon understanding his pre-9-11 performance? Educating Republicans on his complete mayoral record -- and soon -- may be Giuliani’s best bet for extinguishing lingering grumbling about his candidacy.

I recently visited Baltimore, Charlotte, Richmond, Salem, Oregon; Seattle, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, mainly to deliver speeches sponsored by Young America’s Foundation. I conversed with conservative activists, College Republican leaders, university professors, and think-tank scholars, among others.

These Americans vividly remember Giuliani emerging from the ashes of September 11, like a latter-day Churchill rising from the rubble of the London Blitz. However, these involved and informed citizens knew startlingly little about Giuliani’s other mayoral achievements:

• Through robust policing, Giuliani drove overall crime down 56.1%, while chopping homicides 66.6%, from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001.

• Following national trends, abortions on Giuliani’s watch dropped 16.9%, while taxpayer-funded Medicaid abortions plunged 23%.

• Gotham’s foster-care population fell 38% as Giuliani helped loving families adopt 17,804 boys and girls.

• By fighting fraud and finding work for legitimate beneficiaries, Giuliani cut welfare rolls 58%, starting two years before federal welfare reform. Giuliani renamed welfare offices “Job Centers.”

• Giuliani privatized 23,625 previously confiscated, city-owned dwellings, 78% of supply, benefiting family and individual homeowners and tenants.

• Giuliani dumped Gotham’s 20% set-aside and 10% overbid bonus for minority and female contractors. “The whole idea of quotas to me perpetuates discrimination,” he explained. He initiated this on his 24th day in office, far exceeding any colorblindness legislation Congress even debated during the 12-year “Republican Revolution.”

• Giuliani’s $10 million Charter School Improvement Fund helped 3,286 pupils in 17 new charter schools, up from $0 and zero campuses in 1997. He ended tenure for school principals, so slackers could be sacked. He also stopped social promotion; students needed to complete grade-level work to matriculate.

• Ex-pornography mecca Times Square now welcomes families, tourists, and locals for fully clothed musicals like “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins.”

Beyond these socially conservative victories, Giuliani governed as a Reaganesque supply-sider:

• Giuliani scrapped three taxes and slashed 20 others, lowering Gotham’s tax burden by 17% and saving individual and business taxpayers $9.8 billion.

• While inflation averaged 3.9%, Giuliani’s average spending grew 2.9% annually. If the departed GOP Congress were that fiscally disciplined, the next federal budget would be $2.275 trillion -- $625 billion cheaper than proposed.

• While hiring 12% more cops and 12.8% more teachers, Giuliani sliced other positions 17.2%. Overall, municipal headcount fell 3.1%.

Rudy got this done thanks largely to a management style that he described Wednesday at a $2 million Manhattan fundraiser: “I’m impatient and single-minded about my goals.”

Giuliani’s legacy has earned the endorsements of such screaming liberals as President Bush’s former solicitor general, Ted Olson, Sen. David Vitter (R.-La.), and Rep. Pete Sessions (R.-Tex.) -- both proud owners of 100% ratings from the National Right to Life Committee.

Before Giuliani’s enemies caricature him as a divorce-driven, abortion-peddling, gun-grabbing transvestite, he should familiarize Republicans with his mayoral accomplishments. From Westwood to Washington’s echo chamber, Rudy Giuliani and his supporters should specify how he rescued America’s largest left-wing city through Reaganite social and economic reforms.

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Mr. Murdock, a New York-based commentator to HUMAN EVENTS, is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

[Alberta's Child]

Maybe. But keep in mind that -- as with this thread -- I had HIM pick the issues.

I would also point out that abortion and gay rights are absolutely not "irrelevant issues" when you are dealing with someone like Rudy Giuliani whose view of the issues involve the totalitarian use of government resources to force others -- i.e., people, businesses, etc. -- to comply with his openly stated position on the issues.

[FreeInWV]

"You were claiming that he contributed to Santorum's defeat, now back it up."

I quoted the article. You can look it up yourself. Here is a better summary of how Tim Gill's consortium of gay donors works:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200703/tim-gill

[massadvj]

Just as a hypothetical, I wonder if you might answer a situational ethics question for me:

If it were true that a pro-life conservative cannot win the presidency, and if one were offered up he would certainly lose to Hillary Clinton a la Goldwater 64; and if were also true that if Giuliani were elected, over the next four years there would be one million fewer abortions in this country than if Hillary Clinton were president (by virtue of the fact that Hillary would use the federal budget to reward her friends in the abortion industrial complex); then wouldn't it be better to support Giuliani and save the million lives?

[showme_the_Glory]

Just as a hypothetical,... If it were true... and if one were offered up....and if were also true....that if Giuliani were elected....

Sorry, too many if's for me. You've worn me down with your rhetoric. Rudy's still a liberal, abortion supporter, gun grabber, illegal immigrant facilitator. You love him, that's great. You seem very intelligent so I doubt you deserve what you're asking for.

[massadvj]

Thanks, I think. And good luck. I am all in favor of putting Giuliani's blemishes on the table and having a full vetting of everything as early as possible. So what you are doing could be constructive if it doesn't get too vitriolic.

Also, I sincerely hope a realistic conservative alternative emerges.

[showme_the_Glory]

Also, I sincerely hope a realistic conservative alternative emerges.

One has emerged. Problem is so called conservatives are busy supporting RINO libs.

[Ragnar54]

Most, if not all, of the listed accomplishments occurred before 2000 (when Rudy quit the race against Hillary). At that time, Hillary had never held an elected office. Now she has 6 years of experience as a US Senator.

What has Rudy done since 2000 that will give him the edge over the opponent he could not beat in 2000? Yes, he was mayor at the time of 9/11. But most people think of the NYPD and NYFD as the heroes of 9/11; having been president on 9/11 is not helping W at this point. What will happen when the Clinton smear machine starts targeting Rudy again? Will he quit again?

[Alberta's Child]

Your point might be valid with regard to Afghanistan, and perhaps even in terms of our relationship to Pakistan -- but not with regard to Iraq.

Since this administration had every intention of invading Iraq long before 9/11, its relationship to some nebulous "war on terror" has never really been objectively established at all.

[Conservative til I die]

The Giuliani campaign in a nutshell.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

If the illegals protesting in the streets carrying signs glorifying Osama Bin Laden wasn't enough of a clue for you...

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. He does have an impressive record, and I wasn't aware of a lot of it.