He can dodge on abortion, but may get Bern'd on Kerik

This is not the way it was supposed to be for Rudy Giuliani, who was supposed to turn a presidential campaign into just another one of his big-ticket speaking engagements, his Republican audience hanging on every word like he was standing there at Ground Zero all over again.

He was going to win the nomination with one answer, no matter what the question was, whether it was about abortion or Iraq or the price of gasoline:

It does not turn out to be that simple, even when Giuliani reluctantly strays from his theme of having saved New York City almost single-handedly after the planes hit, and starts reminding everybody how before that he single-handedly cleaned up crime in the city. Sometimes you get the idea he is still running for mayor.

At least the Giuliani who ran for mayor seemed to know who he was. This is who: somebody who told you the way things were going to be and then gave you the choice of either getting onboard or getting out of his way.

The Giuliani who runs for President, who still leads in the polls but not for much longer, is different. This Giuliani, the one we saw with all the other Republican candidates last week at the Reagan library, is one who now tries to be all things to all people, who wants to be pro-choice and anti-abortion in the same campaign, sometimes in the same debate.

This Giuliani, when asked about overturning Roe vs. Wade, actually says, "That would be okay."

Then afterward he looks like the biggest phony running for President, from either party, when he acts as if he should get some sort of standing ovation for blowing in the wind this way on abortion. It happens right before looking for another hug from another radio host, Michael Reagan in this case, maybe just to give Sean Hannity the day off.

"This is something that I have thought about a lot - prayed about," Giuliani said to Reagan the other day.

Giuliani is as flexible on matters of faith as he is on everything else these days, the Catholic boy from Brooklyn who has been married three times already. You put his three with the three that the current Mrs. Giuliani has in the books and come up with six, a world's record for any presidential candidate. This in a party that still thinks of itself as the Osmond family.

"I know what the easier answer is [on abortion]," Giuliani says to Michael Reagan, "but for me this is the right answer."

So this was an occasion on the campaign trail, on this subject especially, when you absolutely could not figure what was coming out of either side of Giuliani's mouth. Maybe he can still find a way to run away from being the pro-choice mayor of New York and still run straight into the arms of the religious right.

It will be much tougher for Giuliani to run away from being the mayor of New York who thought a small-timer named Bernard Kerik was not just a hero police commissioner, but somebody who should be running Homeland Security.

Kerik eventually withdrew his name from consideration for Homeland Security because of legal problems involving how a nanny was paid. Of course that was only the beginning of the fun with him. Later it was reported that the married Kerik had used a Battery Park City apartment originally set aside for Ground Zero rescue workers to meet up with Judith Regan, spitfire former publisher to the stars, one of whom was Kerik himself.

Last year Kerik pleaded guilty in New York State court to two misdemeanor charges, admitting that while still head of the cops he took $165,000 worth of renovations on an apartment of his from a contracting company looking to do business with the city, one that allegedly had ties to organized crime. He was fined $221,000.

And, oh by the way, he is currently under federal investigation in matters involving wiretapping, tax evasion and filing false information with the government.

Giuliani has testified that he remembers being briefed on some aspects of Kerik's ties to the contracting company before making him police commissioner. No matter. He liked Kerik well enough then, liked him well enough to go into the security-consulting business with him, still thought he was swell when it was time to enthusiastically endorse him for Homeland Security.

In December of 2004, Giuliani said this to The Associated Press about Kerik: "On Sept. 11, because of God's will or just luck, we had the right person there."

The next day Giuliani said this to the Newhouse News Service: "What you get to know when you work with him is how smart he is ... how effective and sophisticated a manager he is."

You decide what you think is the key word in that one. I go with "sophisticated."

Even after Kerik pulled out of the Homeland Security nomination Giuliani was still saying how bad he felt for everyone "including the country, because Bernie would have been an exceptional Homeland Security chief."

Maybe this was simply Rudy being Rudy here, too stubborn to change his mind about a police commissioner or anything else. Maybe he still didn't know about Kerik. He should have known, because apparently everybody else in town did.

Being pro-choice might not sink Giuliani. Being pro-Kerik, that is another matter altogether.

The "overwhelming story of Bernie Kerik" is a "wonderful story of success, and it's one that New Yorkers can be very very proud of because he's one of us."

--Rudy Giuliani, who recommended Kerik to the White House, commenting on Kerik's nomination to head Homeland Security [New York Post, Dec 4, 2004]

"I am heartbroken, for Bernie, for the President. . . . He was about as qualified as you can be for this job. This doesn't take away from Bernie's heroism, this doesn't take away from his decency."

<blockquote>--Rudy Giuliani commenting on Kerik's withdrawal from nomination to head Homeland Security, [New York Daily News, Dec 12, 2004]

"Well, I think that's something I'll explore, you know, privately with Bernie," Giuliani said.

--Rudy Giuliani indicating he would talk to Kerik about his best man and brother working for an allegedly mob-connected company, [New York Daily News, Dec 13, 2004]

More Anti-Rudy
Conasan is left of left. Put it in file to attack RG in the primaries.

April 12, 2007
Rudy Giuliani’s Dubious Leadership
By Joe Conason

Before Rudolph W. Giuliani started to run for president, he specialized in writing books and delivering inspirational lectures on the topic of “leadership,” which is the theme for his campaign. He is telling America that in a time of war and terror, he is the leader we need. And he seems to be saying that the determination of “the leader” matters more than where the leader wants to take us or whether he knows where he is going.

If that sounds like the same primitive mind-set behind our current disaster, then consider yourself forewarned. Giuliani is a fervent admirer of George W. Bush — whose election he considers a result of “divine guidance” — and a dauntless supporter of the war in Iraq, which resulted from exactly the kind of leadership he advocates. Despite that highly unpopular position, the former New York City mayor leads the Republican presidential field in many polls.

Much of the Giuliani appeal is based on his admirable performance in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He has profited personally and politically from the real leadership he provided then. But his ambitions demand a dispassionate examination of his ideas and his record.

Giuliani’s fundamental argument is that 9/11 endowed him with special qualifications for the job he is seeking. “What they say in Washington is not going to affect the fact that there are terrorists around the world that are planning to come here and kill us,” he told voters in Iowa. “It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president.”

What exactly does he mean? If he is suggesting that he should be trusted to make critical judgments about national security and foreign policy, there is plenty of contrary evidence.

During the months and years leading up to 9/11 — as reporters Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins proved in “Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11,” their superb book debunking much of the “America’s Mayor” mythology — he made decisions as mayor that would later prove disastrous.

Against the advice of real experts, he stubbornly insisted on placing his immensely expensive emergency command center in a World Trade Center building, although terrorists had struck there already and were determined to do so again. The command center went down with the rest of Ground Zero, leaving the mayor and his aides to wander downtown as the buildings fell.

Their frantic efforts to cope with the disaster were lethally hindered by faulty communications equipment purchased by the Giuliani administration — also against the advice of experts who knew better. Such fateful errors are more troubling when viewed against the backdrop of political and financial influences that probably distorted the decision-making process.

Yet while Giuliani is often wrong, he is never uncertain. That same attitude prevailed in his promotion of the dubious Bernard Kerik to police commissioner. By the time Giuliani appointed him to head the New York Police Department in 2000, evidence of Kerik’s ties with a mob-connected construction company had emerged in a background investigation. Kerik had obtained jobs for his brother and his best friend with that company, and interceded with city authorities on the firm’s behalf. Moreover, federal prosecutors had indicted Kerik’s friend, Lawrence Ray, along with a reputed Gambino crime-family figure.

In testimony before a Bronx grand jury investigating Kerik last year, Giuliani didn’t deny that he had been briefed on those issues before promoting his former bodyguard to the office of police commissioner. But he insisted that he didn’t remember that briefing — and noted that his investigators had “cleared” Kerik.

No doubt Giuliani’s dim recall allowed him to enthusiastically recommend Kerik to President Bush as a suitable candidate for secretary of Homeland Security in late 2004. That ruinous choice was averted only because New York newspapers published timely exposes of Kerik’s embarrassing past. Giuliani now says he “assumed responsibility” for the “mistake” of recommending his old friend and business partner.

There is a persistent flaw in Giuliani that makes such errors inevitable. He promoted Kerik because he preferred the loyal sycophant to William Bratton, the smart, independent and competent police commissioner whom he had fired. He ignored the threat of terrorism until it was too late, and arrogantly rejected the advice of those who knew more than he did.

Over the past six years, this brand of leadership has become all too familiar. We don’t need it anymore. In fact, we never did.

Page Printed from: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/04/rudy_giulianis_dubious_leaders.html at April 26, 2007 - 09:49:03 AM CDT

Aside from the Kerik issue, Rudy will likely be subject to some really serious revelations about his traditional connections to the Mob, before his run is over, largely from Democrats:

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Interestingly, Giuliani had a 'Vulnerability Study' prepared for his 1993 Mayor's race. The results were so telling that he had the report destroyed-- sensitive information included reports of his "raucous social life" during his first marriage as well as his relations to members of the mob. Giuliani staff were also concerned about the "weirdness factor"-- perhaps most directly due to his marriage to his first cousin (further reading in Barrett's Rudy! An Investigative Biography).

JUST A SMALL SAMPLING of his connections to mafia organizations, corrupt deals, appointments of criminal and defamed friends and other scandals follow below. A few hours of research will reveal a great more information-- more than is necessary for this article.:

FATHER AND UNCLE CONVICTED FOR MOB CRIMES

Giuliani's father was a convicted hold-up man who served time in an upstate prison and was later employed as an enforcer for a Mafia loan shark operation. When the book was first released Giuliani denied and later admitted it was true. According to the book, a number of his other relatives were also in the Mafia besides the uncles who were firemen and police officers that he proudly refers to in public speeches.

PRIMARY RESOURCE: Rudy! An Investigative Biography by Wayne Barrett

http://www.jonesreport.com/articles/060407_giuliani_mobster.html

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(((((STOP RUDY PING)))))