First term Rudy? Or second term Rudy?
Posted on 04/17/2007 11:21:44 AM PDT by Ol' Sparky
Rudy Giuliani: Lifelong Liberal
By: George J. Marlin
April 16, 2007 06:33 PM EST
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has been barnstorming the nation, claiming the Ronald Reagan mantle. Recent opinion polls suggest his campaign is striking a chord with the GOP's rank and file but indicate most Republicans don't really know where Mr. Giuliani stands on key issues.
Those who do know are glossing over some very striking philosophical flaws -- at least from a truly conservative perspective. Rudy not only supports abortion but also has advocated for partial-birth abortion and government funding of abortion. He favors gun control, gay rights, domestic partnerships and bias-crime laws. And that's just a short list.
As a conservative activist who has observed Giuliani for many years (and who ran against him in the 1993 mayoral election), I can say categorically that he is not now, nor has he ever been, a conservative. In my judgment, his record leaves no doubt that he's a lifelong liberal.
In college, Rudy attacked senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, the 1964 GOP presidential nominee, as an "incompetent, confused and sometimes idiotic man," and he urged Republicans to "find men who will adequately address themselves to the problems of discrimination, of poverty, of education, of public housing and the many more problems that Sen. Goldwater and company throw aside in the name of small laissez-faire government."
Former New York governor Mario Cuomo, a liberal icon, put it this way: "(Giuliani's) basically very pragmatic. And he's progressive. He is not a Neanderthal, a primitive conservative. But look, he's a clever human being. He can shave and draw fine distinctions when he needs to."
Giuliani's first wife, Regina, agreed. She told Giuliani biographer Wayne Barrett that when she and Rudy separated in 1980, she "still considered him to be a liberal Democrat." She also observed that "(Rudy) generally won't do things unless he believes them, ... but he's not a saint, and he will do things that serve his interests."
Rudy first switched from Democrat to Independent, and then to Republican, not because he embraced the tenets of conservatism but in order to move up the U.S. Justice Department ladder.
"He only became a Republican after he began to get all these (Justice Department) jobs," Rudy's mother, Helen Giuliani, told Barrett. "He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't. He still feels very sorry for the poor."
As a candidate for mayor of New York, Giuliani distanced himself from Ronald Reagan and the GOP. During his first mayoral bid, in 1989, The New York Times pointed out that he "noted frequently that he was supported by the liberal wing of the Republican Party and maintained that he never embraced Mr. Reagan's broad conservative agenda." And when conservatives attacked him during that 1993 mayoral campaign, Giuliani said, "Their fear of me is that I'm going to be a beachhead for the establishment of a more progressive form of Republicanism."
On another occasion he told a television host, "I do not look to see what the catechism of conservatism says about how to solve a problem."
And we mustn't forget that when Giuliani endorsed governor Cuomo for reelection to a fourth term in 1994, he did so, he said, because Republican George Pataki had "a very right-wing voting record" and because Pataki proposed an "irresponsible" 25 percent state income tax cut.
Giuliani also seriously considered endorsing Bill Clinton in 1996 and instead backed Republican nominee Bob Dole with very little fanfare.
"Most of Clinton's policies," he said at the time, "are very similar to mine."
Some Republicans and conservatives are now claiming that Rudy has changed and really become more conservative, and they cite as an example his abandonment of his former vehement opposition to school vouchers. But when Rudy Crew, former New York City Public Schools chancellor, asked Giuliani about this policy shift, the mayor said, "Don't worry about it. It's just a political thing, a campaign thing. I'm not going to do anything. Don't take it seriously." This particular rightward shift was simply a ploy to enhance Giuliani's 2000 U.S. Senate candidacy.
Contrary to what we've been hearing and reading, Rudy Giuliani is today what he has always been: a liberal. Conservatives should take stories of his Damascus Road-like conversion with a grain of salt. Rudy, like Hillary, is campaigning for the presidency in order to implement lifelong leftist beliefs.
George J. Marlin's latest book is "Squandered Opportunities: New York's Pataki Years" (St. Augustine's Press, 2006). In 1993, he was the Conservative Party candidate for mayor of New York City.
You’re the idiot—for not knowing Rudy polls well among Independents. No, I’m not an RNC spokesman. I’m just somebody trying to wake some of you sleep-walkers up. There is a real prospect Clinton will return to the WH and the Dems will strengthen their hold on the Congress unless we can win some blue or purple states. You may want to ignore this—but that’s the reality. If you don’t want more Ruth Bader Ginsburgs in the Supreme CT or a foreign policy pleasing to San Francisco, I suggest you ponder these hard political truths. Rudy is ahead in NJ, PA, FL, RI, MI—and polls very well in CA, OH, OR and CT. Think about that.
Yeah boy, I agree. Rudy sure has a whole lot of liberal achievements. Like supporting big government liberalism, gun control, an assault weapons ban, abortion on demand, partial birth abortion, amnesty for illegals, special rights for homos and standing with the environwackos that say, humans are a significant cause of global warming.
Agreed. Rudy Giuliani is a good liberal. Has been his entire life and career in politics.
You're a fool.
People like those you are decrying are the ones who volunteer for GOTV efforts.
Oh, and they are not 100 percenters, given the OVERWHELMING support for Fred here on FR.
They are, however, conservatives. And you're pushing a guy from the far left of the party.
I say fine, go take a walk. We’ll make up the loss by appealing to more Independents.
Yeah, sure. Rudy's gonna run left as a pro-war pubbie. That's a good one.
Guys like you always tell the GOP it needs to make a sharp left turn every election.
Reagan showed the likes of you how to win and you still refuse to follow that guideance.
I would venture to say that I have already voted for more Republicans than most people on FR since I have been a reliable Republican voter for longer than I care to say. However, sometime in the '90's, I stopped voting for liberal Republicans like Specter. If there is no 3rd party conservative (which is what I am long before being a Republican) I leave the race blank. To date, Specter and one state legislative race in the 2004 elections are the only two races to fall into that category. I will "take a walk" in the 2008 race for President if there is only a choice between two liberals.
Perhaps you liberals can persuade some illegal alien voter to take my place.
You’re wrong right off the bat. He doesn’t support “big government liberalism.” Check my above post which summarizes his conservative record in NYC.
First term Rudy? Or second term Rudy?
Whatever else Rudy has done, he is morally bankrupt. I will not vote for him under any circumstance.
I cannot tell you anything about the other states you mention, but I can guarantee you that Rudy will NEVER carry PA unless there is NO Democrat opposing him on the ballot.
Shut down FR and then confiscate your guns. You know the rest...
Can you name a SINGLE ONE that appeals to conservatives? (And don't say, 9/11 unless you can specify what he actually did that wouldn't have been done by someone else in his position - liberal or conservative.)
I’m from PA so I understand the Specter dilemma. But you were wrong not to support him. For this reason. The Senate is very closely divided. Much as he might have annoyed us, he gave us the edge in that chamber. By not voting for him, you undermine the Party—and give the power to the enemy. As it was, it was thanks to Specter we got Roberts and Alito past the Judiciary Committee. They wouldn’t have been given the time of day by Leahy. So you may think your purity of motive is principled—but in a democracy the perfect is often the enemy of the good. Sometimes we have to compromise—in order to win the greater victory in the end. We now have Roberts and Alito on the Supreme Ct. Where would they have been if all conservatives thought as you do, refused to vote for Specter, and ended up with a Democrat in charge of the Judiciary Committee? A similar situation faces us right now with Rudy. We need to accept the imperfect in order to achieve the good.
If they Rudy Rooters think that Rudy has a chance with CT, RI and CA, then they are more delusional than I originally thought.
Geeeeee, yathink???
Not to worry, though--as the JulieAnnie apologists keep promising us that he will not do that. /s
“Can you name a SINGLE ONE [achievment] that appeals to conservatives?”
Read my post that gives you a rundown on his career. He’s for school vouchers, for instance. Did you know that? He rejected the arguments for terminating Terri Schiavo’s right to life. Did you know that? He sued the Brooklyn Museum for using public funds to exhibit anti-religious “art”. Did you know that? He’s a tax-cutter, he’s for workfare programs and cutting the welfare rolls, he’s against minority set-asides, he’s against changing job requirements to suit minorities or women. None of this is liberal. You need to be more fair in your judgment of this man—and better informed. I’m a native New Yorker—though I now live in PA. Believe me, he fought the liberal media tooth and nail to achieve what he did.
It's kind of funny how that list of states used to be very large, and now it's shrinking. And almost all of those where he "polls very well" used to be in the "Rudy is ahead" column.
If Giuliani is the GOP nominee, here's my prediction for the 2008 election . . . He's not going to win more than two of those nine states. And he's going to lose at least 2-3 states that Bush won in 2004.
You do the math and tell me how that translates into a GOP victory in 2008.
First, Giuliani is even more liberal than Specter. Secondly, The United States as a whole is far more conservative than Pennslyvania and we don't have to settle for nor need a RINO for a Republican to win a Presidential election.
This state is so f#%&ed up that losing it should be a badge of honor for any candidate with a shred of integrity.
I stopped voting for ALL Democrats on the national level so long ago I can't remember when. Sometime after Specter's election against that woman (Lynn Somebody) from Philly, it occurred to me that voting for a liberal Republican is counter-productive to the conservative cause and I have not voted for him in the last election or the one before.
I'm don't care if I "undermine the Party." The "Party" is not interested in supporting conservative causes. All the $ they collect from conservatives goes to support idiots like Chaffee and assorted fools who then work against conservatives. If the Republican party is not a vehicle to accomplish things that promote conservative causes, I owe no more allegiance to it than I do the Democrat party.
Thus displaying nearly total ignorance of how freedom not only solves problems, but prevents them in the first place. Apparently he thinks coercion is the only way to get things done.
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