Posted on 11/22/2006 11:30:13 AM PST by Sabramerican
.......On Nov. 15, Mr. Giuliani met in Manhattan with supporters who could form the core of a national fund-raising effort, including Thomas O. Hicks, the owner of the Texas Rangers; Mel M. Immergut, the chairman of the New York law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; and William E. Simon Jr., an investor who ran for governor of California in 2002.
Mr. Giuliani crisscrossed the country this year, visiting 25 states to campaign with or raise money for Republican candidates, according to his political action committee, Solutions America. But political analysts say his liberal views on social issues like abortion and gay rights could be a liability in a Republican primary.
“Everyone I’ve talked to keeps dismissing him for one reason or another: that he’s from New York, that he’s moderate, that he’s wrong on one social issue or another,” said Frank I. Luntz, a Republican pollster who worked for Mr. Giuliani in his 1993 and 1997 mayoral campaigns. “They don’t know Rudy Giuliani, and they don’t understand the electorate. The public is demanding intelligent leadership and is far more focused on personal attributes of the candidates than on specific policy issues.”
Mr. Luntz said he believed that the midterm elections, which cost Republicans control of Congress, would lead party members to consider an unorthodox candidate like Mr. Giuliani.
“There’s a great fear among the G.O.P. — and it’s a legitimate fear — that they could end up losing everything,” he said. “In times of genuine crisis, leadership matters a heck of a lot more than anything else.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
<< Giuliani Files to Explore Run for President >>
Not as a Republican, I pray and trust.
(OR: Quit runnin', Rudi or you'll just fail tired!)
Nominate Rudy the liberal for Prez and that will happen. If the GOP powerbrokers, AKA. "the money men", throw money at Giuliani like they did with GWBush in 1999, they'ed be sending the GOP to another election loss.
He can file all he wants, I won't vote for him.
I absolutely despise the way candidates are chosen in this country anymore, from the top down rather than the bottom up. I don't believe that is the way it was meant to be.
Rudy declares run for President!!
Now the only question is who will the Repubilcans run?
It's going to be fun watching Rudy, Edwards, and Hitlery going at it on the other side.
I would rather loose the POTUS, House and Senate than to have a RINO party in charge.
The RINO's caused this '06 defeat......by acting like liberal democrats....the electorate couldnt decide which Dimocrat party to vote for and the swing voters settled it.....
better to regroup as conservatives than to alow the RINO wing to win.
Disappointed in Bill Simon.
They should just merge the two parties and let us start our own. hehe
Oh, right. Giuliani is a real picture of personal probity. ROFL...
Luntz is a dunce.
Personal attributes? If you want a character guy you go for Romney. If character doesn't matter you go for Rudy. Just ask Bernie Kerik and Donna Hanover.
I can see the media loving a Rudy run, if it happens, the soap opera value will be unprecedented.
The Real Rudy Giuliani:
From Human Events:
Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance
As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:
"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.
I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...
Donahue: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.
Giuliani: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it."
Worse yet, Giuliani even supports partial birth abortion:
"I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights,Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing," he responded." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999
It's bad enough that Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices. Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas, who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?
Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.
An Anti-Second Amendment Candidate
In the last couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.
Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.
Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun control nominee?
Soft on Gay Marriage
Other than tax cuts, the biggest domestic issue of the 2004 election was President Bush's support of a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani has taken a "Kerryesque" position on gay marriage.
Although Rudy, like John Kerry, has said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman, he also supports civil unions, "marched in gay-pride parades" ...dressed up in drag on national television for a skit on Saturday Night Live (and moved in with a) wealthy gay couple" after his divorce. He also very vocally opposed running on a gay marriage amendment:
His thoughts on the gay-marriage amendment? "I don't think you should run a campaign on this issue," he told the Daily News earlier this month. "I think it would be a mistake for anybody to run a campaign on it -- the Democrats, the president, or anybody else."
Here's more from the New York Daily News:
"Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday against President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.
The former mayor, who Vice President Cheney joked the other night is after his job, vigorously defended the President on his post-9/11 leadership but made clear he disagrees with Bush's proposal to rewrite the Constitution to outlaw gays and lesbians from tying the knot.
"I don't think it's ripe for decision at this point," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I certainly wouldn't support [a ban] at this time," added Giuliani..."
Although Rudy may grudgingly say he doesn't support gay marriage (and it would be political suicide for him to do otherwise), where he really stands on the issue is an open question.
Pro-Illegal Immigration
As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:
"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's."
That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:
"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law."
If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.
READ FULL STORY HERE
RAVE REVIEWS:
that has to be the most detailed list of reasons not to support Rudy in 2008 that I have ever read. -padre35
thankyou! -right-wingin_It
He could have done the country a great service by removing Hillary from the Senate. He can 'spare us' his efforts now.
Rudy supporting him durning the primany in 02. I think he has work with Rudy.
Every pro-abort that has tried to win the GOP nomination for President since Ford has gone down to crushing defeat. I would say it is Luntz the Dunce who doesn't understand the electorate. Or worse, he does but he's lying for personal gain.
And, the more folks know about Giuliani, the less they like him.
Is Rudi a fiscal conservative? He must have some kind of track-record on that.
LOL...Romney has covered the road on key conservative issues. He's a fraud, not a "character guy."
He's probably no better than Bush in that regard...and since that's been one of Bush's weak points, tax cuts aside...
Is Romney idealogically pure? No. Not by a long shot.
Is Romney flexible in his policy positions? Yes.
Is he squeaky clean? Yes.
Is he a competent manager with a long history of achievement? Yes.
Those two above are what I interpret to mean by personal characterists.
The first two are policy/politics questions, and open questions at that...
".... Frank I. Luntz, a Republican pollster who worked for Mr. Giuliani in his 1993 and 1997 mayoral campaigns."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.