Getting to know 'the real Rudy'

Ocala.com ^ | 3-25-07 | DEROY MURDOCK

[SJackson]

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain of Arizona the GOP front-runner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph 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 percent of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with Giuliani, McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, among others. However, 56 percent called these choices satisfactory. This mirrors the 57 percent of conservative Republicans who preferred Giuliani, versus 31 percent for McCain. More broadly, Republicans backed Giuliani by 38 percent to McCain's 24, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's 10, Romney's 8, and 2 percent each for Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and former Arkansas Gov. 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 the lingering grumbling about his candidacy.

Americans vividly remember Giuliani emerging from the ashes of Sept. 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 percent, while chopping homicides 66.6 percent, from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001.

Following national trends, abortions on Giuliani's watch dropped 16.9 percent, while taxpayer-funded Medicaid abortions plunged 23 percent.

Gotham's foster-care population fell 38 percent 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 percent, starting two years before federal welfare reform. Giuliani renamed welfare offices "Job Centers."

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

Giuliani dumped Gotham's 20 percent set-aside and 10 percent 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 percent and saving individual and business taxpayers $9.8 billion.

While inflation averaged 3.9 percent, Giuliani's average spending grew 2.9 percent 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 percent more cops and 12.8 percent more teachers, Giuliani sliced other positions 17.2 percent. Overall, the municipal headcount fell 3.1 percent.

Rudy got this done thanks largely to a management style that he described recently at a $2 million Manhattan fund-raiser: "I'm impatient and single-minded about my goals."

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.

[Ol' Sparky]

And, here is Rudy's record:

Illegal immigration/Immigration

Immigration politics have similarly harmed New York. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the city’s sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to “terrorize people.” Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.

New York conveniently forgot the 1996 federal ban on sanctuary laws until a gang of five Mexicans—four of them illegal—abducted and brutally raped a 42-year-old mother of two near some railroad tracks in Queens. The NYPD had already arrested three of the illegal aliens numerous times for such crimes as assault, attempted robbery, criminal trespass, illegal gun possession, and drug offenses. The department had never notified the INS.

CNN clip:

Announcer: "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."

Rudy Giuliani: "There isn't a mayor or a public official in this country that's more strongly pro immigrant than I am. Including disagreeing with President Clinton when he signed an anti-immigration legislation about two or three years ago."

The New York Immigrant Coalition Press Release, August, 1989:

Rudy would continue to make city services available to all immigrants, regardless of immigration status.

Prohibit city workers from reporting undocumented immigrants to the INS, unless criminal activity is involved….

Make sure that city workers understand what benefits immigrants are entitled to….

Encourage outreach to immigrant communities to encourage their utilization of city services….

Support the use of interpreters and translators in city government

Support bilingual and bicultural education with goals of learning fluent English and maintaining native language skills….

Oppose making English the “official language” of the U.S.

Support adding alienage to protected class under City’s Human rights Law.

Additionally, he has supported Bush's guest worker program.

Guns

CNN clip

Rudy Giuliani: "I'm in favor of gun control"

Meet The Press:

Tim Russert: "How about registration of all handguns?"

Rudy Giuliani: "You know I'm in favor of that. I've been on your show many times."

As mayor of New York City, Rudolph W. Giuliani became the favorite Republican of gun control advocates. He spoke in favor of a licensing system for gun owners that would require trigger locks and firearms training, and he lobbied Congress to outlaw most military-style assault weapons. He was the only Republican mayor to join a lawsuit by dozens of cities against the gun industry, and he complained that Southern states had lax gun laws that fed the illegal weapons trade in the Northeast.

Abortion

s mayor, Rudy Giuliani will uphold a woman's right of choice to have an abortion. Giuliani will fund all city programs which provide abortions to insure that no woman is deprived of her right due to an inability to pay. He will oppose reductions in state funding. He will oppose making abortion illegal. New York Times, August 4, 1989

On Partial Birth Abortion: Mr. Giuliani has said that New York State law should not be changed to outlaw the procedure. New York Times, January 7, 1998

Leaflets distributed by the Giuliani campaign .... said that he opposes restrictions to Federal Medicaid financing for abortions and opposes the Hyde Amendment, which is intended to deny support for that financing. New York Times, June 18, 1993.

"I never called for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade." Rudy Giuliani, New York Newsday, September 1, 1989

From the FEC database: 04/24/1999 Donations

NEW YORK STATE NARAL INC WOMEN'S HEALTH PAC

NARAL donated exclusively to Democrat candidates with one exception----Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani accepted $1,000 from NARAL in 1999.

NARAL gave $250 to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

NARAL gave $1000---4 times as much-----to pro-abortion Giuliani.

The homosexual agenda

Giuliani said homosexuality is "good and normal." quoting Ray Kerrison New York Post, July 7, 1989

According to the New York Times, Giuliani has attended every “gay pride” parade in New York during his eight years as mayor. In 1992, during his first run for mayor, Giuliani took part in a homosexual “pride” parade that included a contingent of pedophile activists marching behind a banner for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love.

On Gay Domestic Partnership: "I have no objection to the concept of domestic partnership," said Rudy Giuliani on Informed Sources New York T.V. Show (PBS), May, 1992

n Gay-Rights/Gay Rights Bill: Giuliani favors extended civil-rights protection for gays and lesbians. Giuliani urged, by letter, to the New York Senate Majority Leader to pass the state's first ever gay rights bill, but did it privately. "I am writing to convey my support for the current legislation to prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians, and to urge you to allow the bill onto the floor of the Senate for prompt action." ".......It is my belief that we can penalize discrimination [against gays] without creating any potentially objectionable special privileges or preferential treatment." New York Post, June 5, 1993

Global Warming

"I do believe there's global warming, yes. The big question has always been how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention. The overwhelming number of scientists now believe that there is significant human cause." -- Rudolph Giuliani, Feb. 12, 2007.

Taxes

[Giuliani] says ruling out a tax increase is "political pandering." Newsday, August 31, 1989

School Choice

"He doesn't support tuition tax credits and vouchers." Sandra Feldman, President of N.Y.C. Teacher's Union, 1993

[processing please hold]

Fantastic post. But rudy supporters will never see the forest for the trees. They appear to have been blinded by his 'star quality'.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Simple to explain.

He brought down crime. He supports the WOT.

No matter how ideologically similar he is to a liberal, Rudy will by hated by the NYTimes and their ilk simply because he is a Republican.

[Luke21]

Yeah, the place is overrun with liberals these days. If the worst happens and Mr. Liberal Lite is nominated, every one of these scandals and character deficiencies will become household words. The Clintons and the media will pound this guy into powder.

After the next glorious defeat, the Rudybots will then blame us for not following them off their cliff and demand that the party become even more liberal.

Rudy would be a great Democrat, but he's a lousy Republican. He's another Wendell Willkie/Thomas Dewey Republican. And the result will be the same. "Vote for Rudy or you get Hillary" is no different than the 2006 election battle cry, "Vote for us or you get Pelosi." Do these people ever learn anything?

[floozy22]

I agree the NYT's hates republicans as a rule. But below is a quote from a NYT's article from 2/10/07:

In his recent travels, he has directed questions on the issue toward a discussion about judges, saying he would appoint jurists who believe in interpreting, not making, the law: judges, he said, like Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr., who he has said he believed would place limits on Roe v. Wade.

“On the federal judiciary I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am,” he said last week in South Carolina. “I have a very, very strong view that for this country to work, for our freedoms to be protected, judges have to interpret, not invent, the Constitution. “Otherwise you end up, when judges invent the Constitution, with your liberties being hurt. Because legislatures get to make those decisions and the Legislature in South Carolina might make that decision one way and the Legislature in California a different one.”

On the issue of a disputed abortion procedure called “partial-birth abortion” by opponents, he told Mr. Hannity that a ban signed into law by President Bush in 2003, which the Supreme Court is reviewing, should be upheld. And on the issue of parental notification — whether to require minors to obtain permission from either a parent or a judge before an abortion — he said, “I think you have to have a judicial bypass,” meaning a provision that would allow a minor to seek court permission from a judge in lieu of a parent.

We all know he is not a pro-life candidate. But the one area that this matters in a president is in his appointments to SCOTUS. In this, his judicial philosophy is compatible with that of a pro-life cadidate.

[SJackson]

Prohibit city workers from reporting undocumented immigrants to the INS, unless criminal activity is involved

That one has always distubed me.

Criminal activity is involved by definition.

There are numerous professions which would punish that severely. Including the legal profession.

[NapkinUser]

We got a Giuliani thread in progress.

[MamaB]

Thank you for saying that. I have been thinking that for months now. In fact, I told someone that I did not like to come to the site because of that. It is like anti-conservatives are coming out of the woodwork.

[wagglebee]

I'll ask a question I asked the other day that the Rudyites have been unable to sufficiently respond to:

If I referred to an anonymous candidate and I did not give you their party affiliation and gave you the following information:

- They believe in the "right" to abortion, including partial birth abortion.
- They believe in the "right" of homosexuals to have a legal union that resembles marriage.
- They believe in the "right" of illegal aliens to illegally enter and remain in our country.
- They believe government has the "right" to modify the Second Amendment of the Constitution at will to curtail the right to keep and bear arms.

If this was the ONLY information you had, would your conclusion be that this unnamed candidate was a conservative Republican or a liberal Democrat?

[SJackson]

I agree. My only issue with Newt is that the media's past portayal of him (ultra-right-wing...yada yada), would be an issue, and even though he's absolutely brilliant and would be a great president, enough swing voters wouldn't be receptive because of the label. Just a thought. I don't know a lot about Hunter yet, and Thompson surely has a solid record...

He can overcome it, it's not just the left wing media, Newt get's criticized here plenty for his Rudyesque marital indescretions. Of course he might not enter, Thompson might not, and if that's the case it's going to be Rudy.

[panaxanax]

"This obsession with homosexuals......what are you so worried about?

I never mentioned homosexuals, you did. Re-read my post if in doubt. Your answer, however, can be found in my question to you. You don't have kids or grandkids, do you?

What the hell is a "pragmatic conservative"? Is that what Rudybots are calling themselves these days?

[Coldwater Creek]

Dream on!!!

[narses]

Duplicate - see http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1801586/posts

[jammer]

What the hell is a "pragmatic conservative"?

Good question. It is the same as a "compassionate conservative", i.e., NOT conservative.

[Sun]

"If I referred to an anonymous candidate and I did not give you their party affiliation and gave you the following information:

- They believe in the "right" to abortion, including partial birth abortion.
- They believe in the "right" of homosexuals to have a legal union that resembles marriage.
- They believe in the "right" of illegal aliens to illegally enter and remain in our country.
- They believe government has the "right" to modify the Second Amendment of the Constitution at will to curtail the right to keep and bear arms.

If this was the ONLY information you had, would your conclusion be that this unnamed candidate was a conservative Republican or a liberal Democrat?"

Excellent question!

[wagglebee]

The Rudyites still haven't devised an answer to it.

[neocon1984]

IMO, the main issue with Rudy is his judicial philosophy. He needs to convince Republicans that he will appoint jurists like Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. That's where most of the social issues (that divide him from the base) are decided. If we have a strict constructionist SCOTUS, Rudy's liberal views on some social issues are less relevant.

Does anyone think that Hillary or Obama will appoint anyone to the SCOTUS who is not to the left of Kennedy, if not Breyer? We will definitely get another Ginsburg or Stevens.

[neocon1984]

Have you bothered reading the posts on this thread? Maybe I replied to the wrong post, but the general obsession is clear.

I am not worried about my kids and future grandkids being seduced into homosexuality. There is an antidote to the glorification of homosexuality in the media. It's called parenting. If you are insecure about your own sexuality, it's likely to be transmitted to your kids.

[Calpernia]

As I have been posting, over and over, Rudy belongs to Stonewall. One of the political activist groups of Stonewall is the Radical Faeries

A second wind of activism came in 1979 when Hay [Harry Hay/Stonewall Rebellion/NAMBLA] founded, with Don Kilhefner, a spiritual movement known as the Radical Faeries. This pagan-inspired group continues internationally based on the principle that the consciousness of gays differs from that of heterosexuals. Hay believed that this different way of seeing constituted the greatest contribution gays made to society, and was indeed the reason for their continued presence throughout history.<<<

From their website:

radicalfaeries.net

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The Radical Faeries have made threats to Alito and judges like Alito. So why should we believe Rudy would appoint judges like the ones his political group threatens?

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Radical Faeries threated Alito too:

January 31, 2006

ALITO'S CONFIRMATION

Well, it looks like the Senate voted down Kerry's proposed filibuster, so Alito will likelily be confirmed and become a jewel in the tarnished crown of King George at his Mis-Stake of the Union address today. It looks that way, but I tell you there is still hope! It did feel awfully good to phone Chuck Schumer's office and hear that he was supporting the filibuster--Hillary's line was busy. I intend to email both to thank them--there is probably a lot of pressure on them to not be viewed as a few far-left kooks. Who knows, maybe they have struck some secret deal on "The Hill" which trades Alito's confirmation for Bush's impeachment.

But until the second Alito is confirmed, there are certain unorthodox methods of getting things done outside of the legal system. We have our own secret deals and it's time to pull together and go into overdrive!



WITCHES AND RADICAL FAERIES: I know it's short notice, but see what you can do.

DC PROSTITUTES: Have your cellphone cameras ready to snap Alito the moment he disrobes. We'll make his wife cry, alright.

TAXI AND LIMOUSINE DRIVERS OF DC: Be prepared to lose your job to ensure that Alito is late for each appointment. If you can take a detour and "break down" so that he misses or is late for his actual confirmation, it's a touchdown. And with the press you'd get you could probably start your own DEMOCRATS ONLY car service in the capitol.

DC HAIRDRESSERS: Could you "mess up" on his next appointment and send him to court with a bright new color, patchwork bleach job or mohawk? International press would pick up on the humiliation.

DC TAILORS/ROBE CLEANERS: Have lice and scabies specimens on hand.

FOOD SERVICE WORKERS: I would hate for anyone to get food poisoning and miss work, but....

Radical Faeries threated Alito too:

[panaxanax]

"Have you bothered reading the posts on this thread? Maybe I replied to the wrong post....

Yes, I did. Did you? You seem to be the one having a problem responding to the wrong people. LOL