Free Republic

Questions remain about whether former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will follow through with a 2008 White House bid, but as he ramps up his Manhattan-based campaign, Hizzoner will also be getting a little help from some friends in Washington. GOP Reps. Peter King, N.Y., Vito Fossella, N.Y., and Pete Sessions, Texas, will head Hizzoner's Capitol Hill outreach efforts. King represents a Long Island district and Fossella holds a Staten Island-based seat. Both represent the kind of ethnically diverse, middle-class suburbs filled with voters who Giuliani backers think would warm to the former mayor's bid. The two have been allies of Giuliani...

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani on Thursday dismissed his liberal social views--including support for gay rights--his divorces, and his former aide’s imbroglio as irrelevant to a presidential bid. Asked about a leaked political strategy memo that cited such issues as potentially insurmountable obstacles to a campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Giuliani said, "That is not going to be the issue." "I sure have strengths and weaknesses," Giuliani said on ABC’s Good Morning America. "I think that sort of puts me in the same category as just about everybody else that’s running. Are my strengths greater or my...

CNN) -- If the results of a recent poll pan out, voters will see two big names from the Big Apple on the ballot in November 2008. Those names are Sen. Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican. The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday indicated Clinton and Giuliani were the early favorites to win their respective party's nomination. But those polled said they believe the former first lady would have a smoother path to the nomination than her GOP counterpart. Conducted December 9-11, the telephone poll asked 393 registered voters who described themselves as...