[Liz]

Who is going to run Giuliani's exploratory committee?....Bernie Kerik, Russell Harding, Richard Roberts and a list of assorted cons are available from Giuliani's group of yes men.

Giuliani’s gay worship is so extreme, he advocated stripping away the special legal status of traditional marriage. In 1998, he pushed a municipal ordinance that wiped out all distinctions between married and unmarried couples in New York City law, regardless of their gender.

Then-Mayor Rudy gave homosexuals high-paid city jobs including the son of Liberal Party honcho Ray Harding (who endorsed Rudy and gave Rudy the Liberal Party ballot line). Russell Harding stole the city blind, giving himself unauthorized salary raises, stealing electronic equipment, enjoying gay porn, internet child porn, and traveling with gay friends on the taxpayers' dime. When appraised of the ripoff, and that Russell was being prosecuted, Rudy said he "felt bad" for the Harding family.

Rudy never deviated from the liberal drill and dared not uter a discouraging word about the depraved Russel, lest Rudy alienate big buck homosexual and liberal donors and voters.

However, even though he had no legal or official mandate to do so, Rudy never hesitated to use his office to marginalize and demean conservatives and conservative values.

Rudy promoted his ex-driver---Bernie Kerik---for Homeland/Sec Chief. Kerik's nomination flopped b/c of his shady background, an illegal nanny problem, and for using an official post-9/11 pad for extra-marital trysts. Kerik later pleaded guilty to having mob connections.

[kjo]

So, just how is this liberal Democrat going to get the Republican nomination? He's the MSM's fallback position if McCain doesn't get it.

Big media took out George Allen; wow, did they do a number on him.

Conservatives better find a candidate.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

Gun grabber.

[TommyDale]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18106

[Raycpa]

When a man has control over the nuclear weapons and the choice is between an insane senator or a sane ex-mayor the other issues seem to take a back seat.

[TOneocon]

Hey Rudy!!

Look at FreeRepublic Poll on the side bar.

60% against
40% for

IMHO - Don't run and risk fracturing the party...

But do RINO's ever listen??

[alloysteel]

Scary because....

Consider the alternatives. You can't beat a scary someone with someone even more scary. Consider the 1964 Presidential race, when LBJ, a very scary person already, was building his entire legacy on that of JFK. The very thought of how LBJ may have been involved in the actions that catapulted him to the Presidency, and the cavalier attitude when confronted by challenges to that exalted position, is enough to bring doubt to the most trusting of people.

To boost his own standing, LBJ started the campaign of "scary Barry", and topped it all with the little girl picking daisies, who disappeared in the mushroom cloud. This was probably the epitome of negative campaigning, and it was wildly successful.

I was told that if I voted for Barry Goldwater that year, taxes would rise sharply, there would be widespread civil unrest, the war in Viet Nam would expand, and I would probably lose my job.

I voted for Barry anyway, and sure enough, every one of those predictions came true.

[rvoitier]

Liz,

Right now, I'm voting ABC--Anybody But Clinton. Sorry.

The Blue Blood GOP screwed up in '96 when they allowed Dole to ascend to the nomination instead of Lamar Alexander who would've cleaned ol' bill's clock.

Unfortunately, I think the GOP is in the ABC mode as well...at least that's what they'll put before us at all the fundraisers.

[Dark Skies]

Rudy promoted his ex-driver---Bernie Kerik

lol...you might have some credibility if you provided sources for your lies.

Rumor has it that Kerik was Commissioner of NYC Department of Correction before being appointed NYC Police commissioner by Rudy.

Usually folks want to get the truth out about candidates, not just smear their reps.

[maineman]

FORBES 2008

[HelloooClareece]

I saw Rudy take control of NYC after the worst terrorist act in history. I saw him cut crime in NYC by 70%. I saw him turn down millions of dollars from a Saudi on moral grounds after that attack and I heard him say he would elect jurists in the vein of Alito and Roberts.

He's EXACTLY the kind of President I want.and no amount of "gay friend this" or "homosexual employee" that will change my mind. No matter how bad the MSM, or you evidently, wants me to dwell on it.

[RetiredArmy]

If it is McScream, the Beast or HomoLuvRudi, then this trooper is NOT VOTING for any of them. You have to draw that line in the sand on your personal convictions in life. Voting for any of these three in my opinion is wrong and stupid. I will either vote for another candidate or not vote at all, and that is saying something since I have voted in every election that I have ever been eligible to vote in since becoming a legal voter as an adult.

[buck61]

We have reached a mile stone in America.

people with the conservative agenda are going to vote their wallet.
We are rapidly loosing our Christian values when it comes to voting for candidates.
Giuliani does not have the values of the conservative below the mason Dixon line but when he is put up against Hillery most republicans will support him. It will all come back to the past add-edge in the recent election, HOLD YOUR NOSE AND VOTE.
I for one will not hold my nose the next time I vote. If we can't get a candidate who supports my values I can't persuade myself to give that candidate or party my vote. And, yea I know the response I will receive for this statement so don't waste your time and mine writing to me.

God has taught us to serve one God and, that God is Jehovah.
If you are a Christian you know very well what I am talking about. You don't serve him by electing people who allow an unborn child to be pulled from the womb by cutting it into pieces and sucking its brains out from its scull.
You don't vote for people who support men marrying men and women lying with with women.
Anyone with any reading skills can find many places in the scripture that teaches against these type of life styles.

Yet there are many who say they are Christians who will support people like Giuliani because he is using the GOP for his platform in deceiving Christians.

[ZULU]

2008 is the line in the sand for the Republican Party as a viable political entitiy.

The Bush Administration and its associate leadership in the House and Senate failed to deliver on many key elements in the conservative agenda of the Republican political base and on others only under pressure from the conservative base.

A Giuliani or McCane nomination would be the end of it.

Neither of these individuals reflect the social values so important to the Republican political base or to the majority of independent Americans.

Giuliani WAS a terrible mayor for New York. Only 9-1-1 saved his reputation.

He's pro-gay, pro-illegal alien, pro-abortion, anti-gun and an insufferable egotist. Just being from the northeast would have made him suspect to middle America, but combined with these other failings, he would be a political catastrophy.

[Combat_Liberalism]

Rudi's liberal views on abortion, gays, and guns--which I oppose--will not stop me from voting for him if that is what it takes to keep the Hildabeast and Slick Willy from moving back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. I can't think of a stronger advocate for fighting and winning the war against militant Islam than Rudi. If Rudi is top man I sleep well at night. I believe he has enough political smarts to not try to force his liberal social views on the party or the nation while he is president. I also question how much some of his liberal social views are heartfelt. How else but with liberal social positions is a GOPer to be elected in NYC? Name another Republican who has without faltering supported our President and other GOP candidates the way Rudi has? You haven't seen Rudi hitting the president so as to suck up to the liberal media the way McCain has. I am a conservative Republican but that does not mean I believe in forgoing power to stand on principle. Those who follow the purist path are inviting a solid Democrat congress and presidency in 2008.

[KenmcG414]

Yeah!! Like Hillary & McCain aren't scary???

[montag813]

**** Giuliani was a terrible mayor, and has spent all his days promoting himself. Manhattan

I think this idiot is from Manhattan Beach, California, because Giuliani was an indisputably fantastic mayor. I agree he has been a shameless self-promoter since then, as is every politician. But to say he was a "terrible mayor" is just stupidity.

[paudio]

I am a social conservative, but I think it's time for us to set our priority right.

We like to criticize liberals for choosing 'high culture' over fighting against Islamofacists because we think that path may lead to our demise. But, apparently we do similar thing. What's the point of pushing for getting a "Christian" president if it results in Hillary (or any other Dim) presidency, which is more likely to surrender to international pressure including pressures from Islamic countries?

We like to say that WoT is a war for our survival: to protect our life-style, civilization, etc. And we look down upon liberals for complaining about 'human rights violation'. The way I see it, we are doing the same thing: we are complaining about 'life of the babies', 'gay marriage', etc.. at the expense of our own (and/or the future generation's) lives.

[LimberJim]

Who is going to run Giuliani's exploratory committee?....Bernie Kerik, Russell Harding, Richard Roberts and a list of assorted cons are available from Giuliani's group of yes men.

There was an article up on FR the other day about Giuliani's exploratory committee members...T. Boone Pickens, Tom Hicks, the former heads of the South Carolina and Texas GOPs. Don't see Kerik or Harding or Richard Roberts anywhere on the list.

[metalurgist]

Deconstructing Giuliani By Tom Bevan

It seems clear Rudy Giuliani is going to run for president. What isn't clear is whether he has any chance of winning the Republican nomination. Some, like RCP's own Ryan Sager, have been pointing to early horse race polls and other anecdotal evidence, assiduously trying to deconstruct the conventional wisdom that says Giuliani's positions on social issues will doom him with conservative base voters. That debate, however, isn't likely to be settled any time soon, and the truth of the matter is that it's Giuliani's position on other issues that may end up disqualifying him with many Republicans.

Set aside for the moment Rudy's well-known liberal views on "God, gays, and guns" and the messy details of his personal life. Let's look at how he stacks up against his most direct rival, Senator John McCain, on three of the most important issues to Republican primary voters.

Immigration

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.

The First Amendment

Many conservatives despise McCain for his leading role in passing campaign-finance reform, which they see as an abomination of the First Amendment. But Giuliani is an ardent supporter of campaign finance reform as well. As he was contemplating a run for the Senate in 2000, Giuliani told Wolf Blitzer that he was a "very, very strong supporter of Campaign Finance Reform," adding that he'd been "a very strong supporter of McCain-Feingold for a long, long time now."

Rudy's support for McCain-Feingold is only part of the reason free speech lawyer Floyd Abrams once characterized Giuliani as "deeply contemptuous of the First Amendment." For example, in 1997, Giuliani went to court to try and force New York Magazine to take down an ad campaign appearing on city buses that ribbed him by proclaiming that the magazine was "probably the only good thing in New York that Rudy hasn't taken credit for." Rudy's court challenge against the magazine failed.

In 1999, Giuliani made headlines by trying to cut off public funding for the Brooklyn Museum of Art after an exhibit featured a portrait of the Virgin Mary decorated with elephant dung. Giuliani was again rebuffed in court on First Amendment grounds, but he subsequently formed a "decency commission" to issue a set of recommended standards for local museums that receive city money.

Incidentally, while this last example may be the sort of free speech impingement that scores points with religious conservatives, it nevertheless points out a pattern of behavior that makes it very hard to argue that Rudy somehow has a greater reverence for the First Amendment than McCain. It should also make pure free speech libertarians like Sager blush with embarrassment for constantly deriding McCain over First Amendment issues while heaping unqualified praise on Giuliani.

Judges

Conservatives often cite McCain's leadership role in the Gang of 14 as one of the reasons they find him objectionable. Indeed, nominating solidly conservative judges is among one of the most dearly held values of conservative Republicans. We can only speculate as to how Giuliani would have voted were he in the Senate, or whom he would nominate as president. But he's given no indication that he would be any better than McCain on the issue of judges, and you could argue quite convincingly that Giuliani's background and ideological make up would lead him to be much less stringent (and therefore in the eyes of conservatives, much worse) in appointing strict conservative judges to the bench.

Likewise, on the issues of controlling government spending or the War in Iraq and the Global War on Terror, conservatives would be hard pressed to come up with a line of reasoning that Giuliani would somehow be superior to McCain. Only on tax policy, where McCain originally sided with Senate Democrats in opposing the Bush tax cuts (he's since reversed himself to vote in support of making them permanent) could one stretch to make the argument that Rudy is more in line with the Republican base than McCain.

To summarize, as a matter of policy on major issue after major issue, Giuliani has all the same drawbacks with conservative voters that John McCain has, in addition to carrying the baggage of problematic liberal views on abortion, gay rights, and the Second Amendment. On paper, then, it's hard to see any compelling reason for conservatives to vote for Rudy over John McCain, though they'll be confronted with a laundry list of reasons to vote against him.

In the end, Giuliani's appeal boils down to two things - both of which it should be said are significant and not to be underestimated. The first is that he is strikingly charismatic and flat out likeable. Where McCain often rubs conservatives the wrong way with a sanctimonious, holier-than-thou attitude, Giuliani comes across as a very attractive, approachable, down-to-earth personality. In the contest of who you'd rather have a beer with, Giuliani would win in a landslide over McCain - and the rest of the GOP field.

Giuliani's other major asset is that he doesn't have a voting record. The contrast between Giuliani and McCain is a classic example of why Senators have trouble becoming president. McCain has been forced to go on record, make choices and take leadership positions on the most significant and contentious issues of the day. Giuliani, on the other hand, has been able to fly more or less under the radar on those same issues, taking positions very similar - if not identical - to McCain without bearing anywhere near the same level of scrutiny or anger from conservatives. That won't last forever.

For nearly five years Giuliani has enjoyed near mythical status as the embodiment of American leadership and courage in response to September 11. Giuliani's star is etched in the country's psyche as deeply as any in modern history, and it will carry him a long way down the path to becoming president - but not all the way.

Eventually Giuliani will have to climb down off the pedestal we've placed him on, go to Rotary Club meetings in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, shake hands and tell conservative Republican voters what he stands for beyond just being a symbol of resolve in the midst of a national crisis that happened half a decade ago. We'll have to wait and see whether Rudy can convince conservatives that he shares enough of their values and philosophy to win their votes. At this early stage, all I can say is that it's going to be a lot tougher than some people think.

Tom Bevan is the co-founder and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics. Email: mailto:%20tom@realclearpolitics.com

Rudy, liberal, petty tyrant, anti-first amendment and very much like insane McCain.

[Condor51]

Rudy's Exploratory Committee

One of the many problems I have with Rudy is his outright disdain for the Second Amendment. Yet astonishingly I'll see Gun Owning Freepers say "That's not a problem as the POTUS doesn't write the laws." Well, exuuuuuuuuse me but they do, i.e: "Bush's Tax Cuts", "Bush's Medicare Drug Plan", "Bush's No Child Left Behind Act" and last but certainly not least .. "Clinton's Welfare To Work Program". These all started out as 'policy' that became law. So yes, in effect the POTUS DOES write the law.

Then we have the POTUS and Treaties. Right now the U.N. has more than a few "Anti-Gun Treaties" waiting for some Liberal U.S. anti-gun POTUS to sign them - which would be approved in a heart beat by the new Rat Congress.

Then we have the matter of E.O's. These little 'laws' set Federal policy on an issue - like if the 2A is a 'personal right' or 'state right' and then basing Federal arrests and prosecutions accordingly.

While Dubya is WRONG on Illegals and screwed the pooch with the Church Lady and spent like a drunken sailor, on the Second Amendment he's been 100% for our rights.

One of his first acts back in Jan of 01 was to send a rep to the U.N. and tell them in no uncertain terms - hands off the Second Amendment, the US will NOT sign any of those anti-gun treaties. Then when John Ashcroft was confirmed his first act as AG was to issue an official DOJ policy statement that the 2nd Amendment was a "Personal" Right. This put a monkey wrench in a few Klintoon-Reno instigated trials that were still ongoing.

Rudy would be worse than Klintoon. He'd do everything in his power, by hook or by crook, to confiscate every gun he and his AG could lay their hands on.

My rant is now OFF. Except for two final words for Rudy.... (no not those)...

Molon labe!