[dirtboy]

With Giuliani supporters gone, we have missed a precious opportunity to hone persuasive argument skills.

There are still some Giuliani supporters around - the main Rudy thread poster areafiftyone is still here.

However, the folks who sought to trash Fred in order to try and make Rudy look better largely have been shown the door.

We didn't need flocks of Clinton supporters here on FR to post the pro-Clinton dreck in the media back in 1999. Likewise, we don't need two-faced Rudy supporters to have the pro-Rudy pap posted here as well.

After all, the Rudy supporters were down to about ten or so talking points, and it was getting really old knocking them down time and time and time again.

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

I was not aware that people were trashing Fred Thompson in order to make Rudy look better. Unfortunately, I have seen Fred Thompson criticized in an effort to promote Alan Keyes in this thread. I didn't particularly like it, but it stands for what it is--a FReeper expressing his opinion.

With the Rudy supporters whittled down to ten or so talking points--that is progress. I still favor intelligent persuasion to sociopathic bug zappers invoking God.

[T'wit]

For my two cents, Rudy is only a surface issue, a peg to hang deeper disputes on. The war was going on before Giuliani was on the radar. The war was going on before the 2006 elections. Where I saw it most closely was in Terri threads, which had nothing to do with electoral politics. Same little clique of ill-behaved disruptors. Same ideological hazing, same anti-conservative bias, same name-calling, same grumpiness, same lack of humor. When, recently, discussions did touch politics, the disruptors always sided with Michael Schiavo, Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee. In GOP races they sided with the more liberal candidate, deploying the same arguments we hear now for Giuliani.

All of this disruption is an insult to mainstream Freepers and an impediment to the success of Free Republic. I am not sorry to see it go.