Posted on 11/12/2007 2:45:44 AM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
WASHINGTON — Mayor Giuliani's hold on the front-runner's perch in the Republican presidential nomination is eroding, with two new polls showing that Mitt Romney is opening up a widening lead in New Hampshire, site of the first primary.
While Mr. Giuliani has maintained his lead in national polls and in several state surveys, the former Massachusetts governor is now comfortably ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire, two hotly contested early-voting states that have traditionally played a crucial role in determining the Republican nominee.
Mr. Romney opened up a 12-point lead over Mr. Giuliani in New Hampshire, 32% to 20%, in a Boston Globe/University of New Hampshire poll released yesterday. He leads in the state by 11 points in the latest Marist College poll, also released yesterday. Senator McCain of Arizona, who in an appearance yesterday on "Fox News Sunday" guaranteed a Granite State victory, is running third in both surveys.
The polls indicate that Mr. Romney has solidified his advantage and perhaps shifted the dynamic of the Republican race, after several surveys in September suggested Mr. Giuliani had closed the gap in New Hampshire. Mr. Romney has held a consistent double-digit lead since the summer in Iowa, where voters will cast the first presidential ballots in a caucus on January 3.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Excuse me? So Rudy likes the mob but spent a career prosecuting them? I’m not buying that one. I also don’t buy that because they didn’t assassinate Rudy that means he was tied to the mob. Good grief.
YRFC and CRA??? Mitt just waved a dollar bill under their nose and agreed to fund their mailers.
Luca Brazi sleeps with the fishes
:>)
Kerik is mob-connected. We were an inch away from the mob having an in-road into homeland security.
And Rudy didn’t know.
We’ve got incompetence, complicity, or apathy.
All of those disqualify him from the presidency.
When people start practically calling Giuliani a mobster it’s starting to resemble the Daily Kos, DU etc. Not because they’re attacking a Republican but they’re just repeating on rumor, urban legend, outright fabrications etc. I don’t want him as the nominee but linking him to the mob is BS.
He went after all 5. His efforts as US Attorney were to bring down the entire NY mafia commission.
All five familes eventually had their bosses land in jail.
Now Giulliani can't take credit for all those prosectutions, but he certainly got the ball rolling with the commission case, which was an attempt to get all 5 families, though he didn't get them all. I think he got two bosses and a bunch of underbosses and consgiliere, along with a few captains and soldiers who got reduced sentences in exchange for some testimony.
Giulliani's successors in the NY US Attorney's office picked where he left off after he became mayor and entually nabbed practially the entire leadership of the other families, with his full cooperation.
Rudi is the son of a mob goon and enforcer, the kind of guy that broke kneecaps. And his uncle was a full-blown mobster.
Sins of the father are not passed down to the son in this country.
The Mob is still alive and well in NYC. Rudy only eliminated some of the competition.
First of all, the five families don't compete with each other very much. It's bad for business. Their MO is to carve out monopolies for themselves in different racekts and/or geographic locations and then stay off each others' turf. That doesn't always happen; there are occaisonal wars over turf, but they're the exception rather than the rule.
Now the mob is struggling, down but not out. All the families lost their major power players; most are in jail or died in jail from natural causes.
Again, Giulliani can't take credit for all of that, but he certainly got the ball rolling.
And he most certainly can take credit for ending two of their most profitable rackets: the Fulton Fish Market shakedown and garbage collection bid fixing.
Rudy should be indicted, not nominated.
For what? Failure to properly vet a political appointee, while an act of gross negligence, is not a criminal offense.
The mob actually has a rule against whacking honest cops and prosecutors. It brings heat, which is bad for business.
Though like their rule against dealing in drugs, they often don't follow it. There's some indication that a couple of the families did put out a contract on him, but it was obviously never carried out.
The evidence is pretty clear it's incompetence.
I'd seriously doubt complicity; what did he gain from it? As far as I can see, nothing.
And it's not as if Kerik has a lot of pull with the mob. The guy's not even an associate, let alone a made man. He just took bribes from the Gambino family in exchange for helping one of their front companies get approval to do business in New Jersy. While that's bad, and corrupt, it hardly makes him a member of the organization.
I hardly see what Giulliani stands to gain from the Gambino family by appointing as police chief a man who once took bribes from them.
Apathy also strikes me as unlikely, given that he devoted his entire career as a prosecutor to bringing down the mob, and took big political (and possibly personal) risks as mayor to end some of their rackets.
No, the evidence is pretty strong it was lack of competence and possibly worse: nepotism. The fact is, Kerik was his close friend, so he didn't check him out like he should have. This reflects poorly on his judgement and leadership abilities, but it does not indicate any complicity with the mob or even apathy about their activities.
Somebody will want Huck as a running mate. That is almost a sure bet.
It’s called corrupt cronyism.
He he he...are you sure you belong here? You seem so logical...
Looks he’s giving the guy a reach-around, and something else maybe OWWWW!
Huckabee is a bad choice. He may be anti-abortion but he’s all RINO/liberal everywhere else.
“Rudy went after the mob when he was a prosecutor.”
Maybe it was like when the FBI went after Whitey Bulger, except that the FBI was used by Whitey to whack his crime opponents and avoid prison himself by turning in his enemies. Don’t know, just speculating.
Not to worry. A certain radio show host will rehab Rooty with interview after interview.
Followed by Southern Super Tuesday, in which neither Romney nor Rudi have a whisper of a prayer.
Yes, I think that's right. Certainly one of his faults as mayor was cronyism. Kerik was a prime example.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.