Rudy Giuliani
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Categories: New York Republicans | 2008 Presidential candidates
Rudi Giuliani is an Italian-American candidate for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. He is the former Republican Mayor of New York City who rose to national prominence by targeting squeegee men and other unsightly types through "quality of life" policing. He posed heroically during the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center while Republican President George W. Bush was criss-crossing the country seeking shelter. Giuliani cultivated the myth of his heroism in the aftermath because of his "can do, must do" spirit. But critics point out that Giuliani, like other important Republican decision-makers, failed to heed the warning of the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center. Why for example, were the outdated radios of the New York Fire Department never replaced?
Giuliani was one of the original members of the Iraq Study Group, but he was forced to resign after only two months, because he failed to attend a single meeting. (Source: Talking Points Memo, June 19, 2007).
Another issue likely to dog Giuliani is that although hawkish on Iraq he avoided miltiary service in Vietnam because his boss, federal judge Lloyd McMahon, declared that his law clerk (Giuliani) was an essential civilian employee. (Sources: occupational deferment, Rudy and Romney: Artful dodgers)
During the May 4, 2007 debate among the 10 announced Republican presidential candidates Giuliani and Senator John McCain engaged in rhetorical out-bidding on Iran. Giuliani claimed that attacking Iran would be "very dangerous" but that allowing nuclear arms "in the hands of an irrational person" like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be worse. McCain said that attacking Iran would be a last resort if it went nuclear but that "our intelligence tells us that this is a real threat to the state of Israel, to other states in the region." Source: Tony Czuczka. "Republican Hopefuls Blast Iran, Reject Iraq Pullout." Monsters and Critics. May 4m 2007. News Report (So why didn't McCain name the "other countries in the region?" No votes to be had from mentioning Arab countries? Or was it because Iran poses an even less plausible threat to them than it does to Israel?)
Contents |
2008 Presidential Campaign
- Guiliani's entire 140-page campaign plan was leaked to the press. (Source: Political Wire, Jan. 2, 2007)
- Guiliani said that Presidents have the inherent power to arrest U.S. citizens without any judicial review, but that he would only use this power "infrequently". (Salon.com, by Glenn Greenwald, April 1, 2007).
- The next day, he said that the President could simply ignore Congress, and continue the Iraq war anyway, even if Congress cut off the funding. (National Review, by Rich Lowry, April 3, 2007)
- In Montgomery, AL, Guliani said "A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30," but they were really $3.39 and $2.00 respectively. (Source: Giuliani off on price of milk, bread).
- Giuliani's staff cancelled a planned campaign appearance at an Iowa farm, telling the farm's owners "I’m sorry, you aren’t worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now." (Source: Rudy Campaign Reportedly Snubs Farmer For Not Being Rich; Will Media Cover It? - May 10, 2007)
- Giuliani Press Sec Has Reporters Arrested - yet another example of Rudy's incredibly thin skin.
- Rudy said "If you are not a strict constructionist, I believe you imperil the American democracy because you take the role of a legislator." - Giuliani says some judges hurt democracy
- Giuliani said, "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." (Source: Rudy's Delusions of Grandeur, MyDD.com, Aug. 10, 2007)
- "Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do." - a quote so Orwellian I couldn't make it up. (Source: Rocky Mountain Chronicle, by Josh Johnson).
- Giuliani Continues His Conservative Shift, by Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe, August 13, 2007. A record of Guiliani flop-flops on civil unions and other issues.
Previous Campaigns
- In 2000, Giuliani ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate, but he dropped out after two significant setbacks: He announced at a press conference that he would seek a divorce from his second wife, Donna Hanover, and he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This seat was eventually won by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Dirt
- Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11, Village Voice, Aug. 7. 2007, by Wayne Barrett, He used the city's emergency command center as a love nest with mistress Judi Nathan (see lie #3).
- Giuliani's loyalty to an accused priest, By Alex Koppelman and Joe Strupp, Salon.com, June 22, 2007 - Giuliani employs accused pedophile Alan Placa as one of his closest advisors.
- Giuliani's campaign chairman for South Carolina, Thomas Ravenel, was arrested on cocaine charges.
- Rudy: Record as mayor not a topic for discussion.
- Draft dodger who prosecuted draft dodgers.
- Giuliani didn't help with 9/11.
- May have pretended to be a moderate as mayor
- Kerik connection, The Times Crosses Rubicon; Kerik's Mob Ties in Play in Giuliani Campaign - New York Times, March 30, 2007.
- Two divorces, invited mistress to move into Gracie mansion while his 2nd wife and her kids still lived there.
- Blamed the missing HMX emplosives on the troops.
- Power hungry: after the 9/11 attacks he tried to get city elections delayed so he could stay in office longer.
- Movie: Giuliani Time.
- Pro-Iraq War escalation.
- Said he would appoint "constructionist" wingnut justices.
- In 1994, he endorsed Democrat Mario M. Cuomo for Governor, instead of the Republican nominee, George Pataki.
- Didn't do anything to fix the problem of the FDNY radios that didn't work at the WTC in 1993 and then 2001
- NYPD Police Commissioner says Giuliani wasn't interested in terrorism after the 1993 WTC bombing
References
- Eric Pooley. "Mayor of the Wolrld." Time Person of the Year. Dec. 31-Jan. 7, 2002.
- Wayne Barrett & Dan Collins. Grand Illusion: "The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11. HarperCollins. 2006.
- Robert Polner, ed. "America's Mayor: The Hidden History of Rudy Giuliani's New York", 2005, ISBN 1932360581
Links
External Links
- Rudy Giuliani - Urban Legend - produced by New York city firefighters
- Documentary Film Exposing the Real Politician
- Guiliani Time Review
- Wikipedia: Rudy Giuliani
- Two parts hubris, one part paranoia, by Cintra Wilson, Salon.com, December 5, 2006.
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