N.H., Iowa Republicans care more about terror than Rudy Giuliani's trysts

NY Daily News ^ | 12/2/07 | CELESTE KATZ, MICHAEL SAUL

[jimbo123]

Many voters shrugged off the renewed spotlight on Rudy Giuliani's extramarital affair - but one of his campaign officials Saturday warned the issue could "haunt" his presidential bid.

"Anybody who is a mayor or President, they always have security whether it's on personal time or business time," said Sam DeYoung, of Swanzey, N.H. "It seems like they're trying to make a lot of nothing."

Although some political pundits have predicted that Giuliani's messy personal life may cost him, a series of interviews with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa suggests the public has a high tolerance for his marital shenanigans.

The records unearthed last week showed for the first time how the Giuliani administration scattered thousands of dollars in travel and security costs among a slew of little-known city agencies when he began his affair with Judith Nathan - now his third wife - in 1999.

At a town hall meeting in Durham, N.H., Saturday afternoon, voters quizzed Giuliani on issues including terrorism, AIDS and economic development. Afterwards, Giuliani responded with laughter when a reporter asked him if he thought it was appropriate for taxpayers to foot the bill for his Hamptons trysts with Nathan.

"I think everything was done quite appropriately," he said. "All this has been answered. I think all of it was answered four or five years ago."

However, Giuliani's mid-Atlantic regional chairman, former Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich, expressed concern about how the scandal might impact the ex-mayor.

Ehrlich questioned the timing of the story, which hit just weeks before the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. But if it's true Giuliani's then-mistress was ferried around by the NYPD on the taxpayers' tab, "It's clearly inappropriate, clearly wrong, and would certainly hurt the campaign," Erlich said on Maryland radio station WBAL-AM.

"If the substance of the story is true, he's got a lot of explaining to do," Ehrlich said of Giuliani. "It would certainly haunt him."

Amy Underwood, 19, an engineering student at the University of New Hampshire, said last week's bookkeeping scandal won't affect her vote.

"I guess I don't really care so much about that when I look at the progress that was made on New York City under his power," she said.

Judy Romine, 65, of New Virginia, Iowa, who raises horses and goats, was unfazed.

"It's like Bill Clinton all over again, isn't it?" she said, referring to Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. "He's not the first President to have affairs, and, hell's bells, he won't be the last."

So far, Giuliani's GOP rivals have refrained from using the allegations as a political brickbat.

[Drew68]

a series of interviews with voters in New Hampshire and Iowa suggests the public has a high tolerance for his marital shenanigans.

When a large segment of the voting public --Democrat and Republican alike, have engaged in the same marital shenanigans that Rudy has, it is not surprising that they are tolerant.

[counterpunch]

This is true, and it is why Fred Thompson needs to challenge Rudy on terrorism. He needs to present his expert credentials on terrorism, through his chairmanship of the International Security Advisory Board at the State Department.

He needs to say Rudy lacks the knowledge to deal with terrorism, that there is a lot more to know about terrorism than what you could learn on 9/11, and the terrorists have a much more complex agenda than simply not loving New York.

Even if Fred takes some hits from such an exchange, it will still place him as a viable alternative to Rudy for Security Moms, something that so far does not exist in the race.

Fred has a lot of experience he could be using to sell his qualification for the job, but he isn’t. He needs to do more than just say “I’ve been conservative longer than you have.”

[SoConPubbie]

I see the NY Daily News is in full Rudy-Pimp mode today!

[trisham]

We can’t rely on this issue to derail Giuliani. It can be part of the overall case against his candidacy, but it won’t stand alone.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Actually, the MSM is temporarily sweeping this under the rug for Rudy. But it’ll be resurrected come his coronation. (And that’s when I can finally have my Fall free instead of volunteering & working the rounds for the Stupid Party)

[Fishrrman]

I see the NY Daily News is in full Rudy-Pimp mode today!

Shows how much you know about the Daily News.

In New York, the News is a black/Democratic rag, definitely in Hillary's pocket.

- John

[marsh2]

So it is ok to steal money from public funds for inappropriate personal use and hide the evidence in obscure budgets?

[Drew68]

Actually, the MSM is temporarily sweeping this under the rug for Rudy. But it’ll be resurrected come his coronation.

Oh, I don't know about that. There's a certain Democratic candidate who would prefer that extra-marital trysts not become a campaign issue. It would be difficult to use this against Rudy and then go look in the mirror.

[roses of sharon]

Yes, with the divorce rate so high for human beings, our future candidates will have to be robots, lol!

Good premise for a sci-fi flick.

[The Wizard]

It amazes me how folks here at Freerepublic just don’t get it with Rudy....he is the man, he is the right guy at the right time and everyone here will be singing his praises 6 months after he is President, I guarentee it, if we should be so blessed that he wins.

[Verginius Rufus]

"I think everything was done quite appropriately."

That is, apart from the fact that he and Judith Nathan were having an affair while he was stil married to someone else. But I'm nitpicking.

[TitansAFC]

-—”It amazes me how folks here at Freerepublic just don’t get it with Rudy....he is the man, he is the right guy at the right time and everyone here will be singing his praises 6 months after he is President, I guarentee it, if we should be so blessed that he wins.”-—

What makes him the right guy at the right time? And what, exactly, has Rudy911 done that atones for his very lengthy list of liberalism? (Hint: the answer is “nothing”).

I guarantee you that everyone here at FR would be cursing the very name of Rudy911 after 6 months of a Rudy911 regime. Also, the SoCon and GunCon exodus would be massive, and likely unrepairable. If we go by his actual record, we have a crime-fighting Liberal with a shaky Fiscal record in Rudy911, and a history of working against Republican candidates for key offices. A judicial Liberal with an extensive list of appointing liberal judges, habitually filing junk lawsuits, and using the full power of the government against Conservative progress in fighting for Illegal Immigration restrictions, Welfare reform, School Choice, the repeal of the Commuter Tax, Life Issues, and Second Amendment Rights. And a man who spent nearly all of his life protesting US wars, and doing everything he could to avoid serving his country when needed.

I would say that there is a better chance that you are - literally, not figuratively - severely mentally retarded than that Rudy911 would reign in such a way that Conservative would be “singing his praises” in six short months as Overlord. Nothing in his history, worldview, or the way the man has conducted his life gives ANY indication that he would be ANYTHING other than a nightmare for Conservatives, a description he has been proud to wear for the entirety of his life until running for the GOP nod.

We get it with Rudy911 - the problem is that folks like you are too busy creating a fictional Rudy911 in your own minds to face the reality that he’s nothing close, has never been anything close, and will never be anything close to a friend to Conservatives. He has always been, and always will be, a remorseless and relentless enemy of Social and Gun Conservatives.

Plus, he wouldn’t win. Folks like me would be working our butts off making a third party candidate as effective as possible. We’re going to need a Conservative Party to support if the GOP leaves us to become the Grand New Party. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let Rudy911 win the Presidency without giving my last ounce of blood to stop him.

[EternalVigilance]

It amazes me how folks here at Freerepublic just don’t get it with Rudy....he is the man, he is the right guy at the right time and everyone here will be singing his praises 6 months after he is President, I guarentee it, if we should be so blessed that he wins.

I'm sure the orderly will up your dose if you just tell him about the problems you're experiencing...

[narses]

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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

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES (November 14, 2006)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm pro- choice. I'm pro-gay rights.

KING: Giuliani supports a woman's right to an abortion, and back in 1999, he opposed a federal ban on late-term abortions.

GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.

KING: Immigration could be another presidential landmine. 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.

JEFFREY: He took the side of illegal immigrants in New York City against the Republican Congress.

KING: Giuliani opposes same-sex marriage but as mayor, he supported civil unions and extending health and other benefits to gay couples. He also supported the assault weapons ban and other gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association.

GIULIANI: I'm in favor of gun control. I'm pro-choice.

Republican Big-Wigs Support Pro-Abortion Event in NY

Pro-abortion Governor George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also supports unrestricted abortion, are co-chairs of the 2000 Choice Award Presentation to be held on May 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The event is sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, a group that is campaigning for the removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform.


http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503010743.asp

While he was the “Republican Mayor” of New York City he appointed more than 60 men and women to the Civil, Criminal, and Family Court benchs. In all of those judicial appointment only two were Republican.

All of his other judical appointments were either registered Liberals or registered Democrats. As the “Republican Mayor” he had appointment power over more than 70 full commissioners in more than 50 City agencies, yet at no time during his administration did REPUBLICANS account for more than 10% of those appointments.

He even appointed Chuck Schumers wife as the City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner.


________________________________________________________________
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9054.html

“And even as we grieve for those who lost their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, we may be able to find some sort of meaning in this tragedy by using it as a catalyst to revive national gun control efforts.”
Rudolph Giuliani

At the first Republican debate in May, Giuliani was alone among the GOP candidates in offering a less-than-robust affirmation when asked whether it would be a good day if the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling.

"It would be OK," Giuliani said. "It would be OK to repeal it."

But, he added: "It would be OK also if a strict constructionist viewed it as precedent" and kept the law intact.

[narses]

Rudy Guiliani has marched in lockstep with liberals on affirmative action, gay rights, gay marriage, gun control, school prayer, tuition tax credits, liberal immigration policies, and he's reinforced it, time and time again. Just about everytime Rudy opens his mouth, offensive liberal words come pouring out. As Mayor, Rudy put liberals in high-paid city jobs, an indication what a Rudy WH would look like. Here then is Rudy in his own words:

--The New York State Liberal Party on its endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for Mayor: "When the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party's stance on a majority of such issues. He agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion." N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement Statement of Candidate Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989

--On the Republican Party: "Mr. Rockefeller represented 'a tradition in the Republican Party' I've worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition." Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times July 9, 1992

--Village Voice Interview with Guiliani: He was asked: "What kind of Republican Is [Giuliani]? A Reagan Republican?" Giuliani pauses before answering: "I'm a Republican." Village Voice January 24, 1989

--On Attending 1996 Republican Convention: Rudy expressed his pleasure when he wasn't invited to the Republican National Convention in San Diego. "If I take three or four days off from city business, I want to do it for a substantive purpose. It didn't seem to me any substantive purpose could be served by going to the Republican convention." said Rudy. Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Page 459, by Wayne Barrett

--On Barry Goldwater: Giuliani described John Kennedy as "great and brilliant. Barry Goldwater as an "incompetent, confused and sometimes idiotic man." New York Daily News, May 13, 1997

--On President Bill Clinton: Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, Giuliani told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett.

--The Daily News quoted Giuliani as saying March 1996: "Whether you talk about President Clinon, Senator Dole.... The country would be in very good hands in the hands of any of that group." An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett.

[narses]

The Real Rudy Giuliani:

From Human Events:

Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance

As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:

"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.

I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...

Donahue: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.

Giuliani: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it."

Worse yet, Giuliani even supports partial birth abortion:

"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." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999

It's bad enough that Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices. Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas, who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?

Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.

An Anti-Second Amendment Candidate

In the last couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.

Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.

Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun control nominee?

[narses]

Soft on Gay Marriage

Other than tax cuts, the biggest domestic issue of the 2004 election was President Bush's support of a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani has taken a "Kerryesque" position on gay marriage.

Although Rudy, like John Kerry, has said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman, he also supports civil unions, "marched in gay-pride parades" ...dressed up in drag on national television for a skit on Saturday Night Live (and moved in with a) wealthy gay couple" after his divorce. He also very vocally opposed running on a gay marriage amendment:

His thoughts on the gay-marriage amendment? "I don't think you should run a campaign on this issue," he told the Daily News earlier this month. "I think it would be a mistake for anybody to run a campaign on it -- the Democrats, the president, or anybody else."

Here's more from the New York Daily News:

"Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday against President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.

The former mayor, who Vice President Cheney joked the other night is after his job, vigorously defended the President on his post-9/11 leadership but made clear he disagrees with Bush's proposal to rewrite the Constitution to outlaw gays and lesbians from tying the knot.

"I don't think it's ripe for decision at this point," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"I certainly wouldn't support [a ban] at this time," added Giuliani..."

Although Rudy may grudgingly say he doesn't support gay marriage (and it would be political suicide for him to do otherwise), where he really stands on the issue is an open question.

[narses]

Pro-Illegal Immigration

As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:

"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's."

That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:

"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law."

If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE OF GIULIANI'S LEFT-WING POLITICAL POSITIONS

[TitansAFC]

-—”Yes, with the divorce rate so high for human beings, our future candidates will have to be robots, lol!
Good premise for a sci-fi flick.”-—

Hmmm......

Romney - not a cheater
Fred - not a cheater
Huckabee - not a cheater
Tancredo - not a cheater
Hunter - not a cheater
Bush - not a cheater
Dole - not a cheater
Keyes - not a cheater
Bush Sr. - not a cheater

Oh yeah.....we “perfectionist” Values Voters will have only robots to choose from if we rule out serial adulterers.

The problem isn’t Rudy’s Liberalism or his depraved public and personal life - it’s our Puritanism.

Heck, leave it to you folks and our future candidates will actually be registered Democrats.