Posted on 02/14/2007 2:19:51 AM PST by ajolympian2004
Conservative Republicans will make a huge mistake if they fail to treat Rudy Giuliani as a serious option for the 2008 presidential nomination. The former New York mayor may have a liberal record on abortion and gay rights - actually, there's no "may" about it - and his messy personal life includes three marriages, but his record as mayor was at times Reaganesque in its willingness to battle an entrenched liberal establishment along a host of fronts. Those who have forgotten his record, or only followed it after 9/11, should read Steven Malanga's article "Yes, Rudy Giuliani is a Conservative" in the winter issue of City Journal (online at city-journal.org). It recounts his groundbreaking initiatives on crime, welfare and dependency, his relentless attempts to reform the public school system (his failure there persuaded him to embrace vouchers), his disdain for social engineering, and his understanding of how high taxes suffocate an entrepreneurial culture.
Giuliani also appreciated the critical role that intact families play in maintaining a healthy society with well-adjusted children, even if his own behavior did not always bear this out.
But if you really want evidence of Giuliani's credentials as a credible Republican candidate, you need to know only this single fact: In the 1990s, the political left in New York despised him. They demonized him without pause, while peddling hysteria about the calamitous effects his supposedly mean-spirited policies would usher in (but didn't).
Put it this way: Even if Giuliani is unacceptable to the social conservatives who dominate the GOP's base, they ought to give the man his due. No candidate so far in the running has jousted more with their own enemies, and none boasts more victories to his credit, either.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
I hope so. Right now, this front loading process concerns me. Rudy has quite a blitzkreig going on and has a boatload of mone already.
Yup. And he says he'll appoint judges in the mold of Roberts and Alito, but he also likes Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And he thinks Roe vs Wade is settled law. [by the way, when did the congress enact this law?]
Did I mention that this constitutional scholar likes McCaine-Feingold?
Odd how Rudy fans try to claim it's a one-issue disagreement. Giulianin is SOOOOO wrong for America for MANY reasons.
Do you really think the dims will hold Congress in '08?
If that happens, it is 100% on the Stupid Party. I will never vote for Rudy if he is in the General; but I will find a third party - there will be one that principled conservatives can vote for.
bttt
Makes one go, Hmmmmmm.
IMHO, the only declared conservative in the race thus far is Duncan Hunter.
Flame away if that will make you feel better.
Rudy keeps having these "Come to Jesus" moments (temporary blackouts he will never remember if by some fluke he ever gets near our WH).
Now, we expect candidates to retool their positions. However, we will not accept candidates lying about their positions.
Keep in mind that this calculated, craven individual has the presidential bug. He has lately discovered he cannot make a showing without social conservatives.
Ergo, his handlers are reluctantly forced to fine-tune his statements for maximum appeal. (Their ultimate plan is to toss social conservatives off the Repub Party flotilla).
I doubt he was misquoted. I'll take CNS News over ABC News any day.
Worth repeating.
Or and especially over CBS News. :)
I am not saying - don't vote your conscience. The best time to do that is in the primaries, and certainly we should work to get conservatives to run. But in Nov '08, I will vote R, because dims will get us all killed, after they have taxed us to oblivion.
If he takes your guns, you could end up dead anyway.
Oh really? That's why the Liberal Party of New York endorsed him both times he ran for mayor:
By the way...To repay the Liberal Party's kindness in putting him over the top and getting him elected, Giuliani named the Liberal Party Chairwoman Fran Reiter as Deputy Mayor. He also appointed Russell Harding, the son of Giuliani's close friend Raymond Harding who also chaired the Liberal Party and was one of Giuliani's closest campaign advisers, to be the City Housing Director. Russell Harding had to leave office upon being arrested by federal law enforcement and charged with conspiracy, fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, receiving child pornography, and possesing child pornography. He was using his official credit card to pay for personal items including a car, 'Sopranos' and 'Sex in the City' DVDs, a trip to Vegas and a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. He later pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 5 years in prison and forced to repay $367,000 he embezzled from the New York City.The New York State Liberal Party on Rudy Giuliani:
Some ask, How can the Liberal Party support a candidate who disagrees with the Liberal Party position on so many gut issues? But 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 R. Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989
Now, as for Malanga's contention that Giuliani was such a fiscal conservative that all of his social liberalism, draft dodging, and serial adultery are irrelevant, there's the fact that he wasn't all that fiscally conservative either.
Rudy is no fiscal conservative. He's a big government Republican. Rudy got taxes cut $2.0 billion. But that only offset the $1.8 billion tax increase Mayor Dinkins signed off on a few years earlier. A modest $200 million tax cut. Rudy also froze the 12.5% surcharge on high income earners, but he didn't eliminate the surcharge. Nor did Rudy abolish the city income tax structure. Rudy also left NY City saddled with a projected, pre-9/11 deficit of $2.0 billion and a $42 billion debt. Second largest behind the federal government. Rudy also added 15,000 new teachers to the city employment rolls, helping to increase the membership of two of America's largest liberal oraganizations. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Rudy also took all those savings from the cuts in welfare costs and applied them to other city welfare programs. Really no savings whatsoever. The scope of city services wasn't reduced. In addition, Rudy almost doubled the costs of contractual outsourcing from $3.0 billion to $5.8 billion. He dded 25,000 government employees patronage hires to the city's payroll after promising to cut the work force. And his borrowing practices increased the city's debt burden by 50 percent.
Republicans can and MUST do better than this. We're just scratching the surface on Giuliani's negatives and they go very, very deep. The myth that sprung up around him on 9/11 is not enough to cover for his liberal positions and his personal baggage.
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