Rudy Riding His Moment

Two reasons are commonly cited for backing Rudy Giuliani for President. The first is fighting the war on terror and the second is his ability to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Plenty of candidates can defeat Hillary Clinton without causing the ideological firefight a Giuliani candidacy would bring on the Republican Party, but the issue of the War deserves to be addressed.

Giuliani's view as most capable to prosecute the war hinges on his conduct on 9/11 and immediately afterwards. I've never been a huge fan of Rudy's, but his performance was nothing short of magnificent. His resolve and courage on that day was inspiring. He handled the disaster and it's aftermath with guts, grit, and grace.

The same could be said of many leaders. Do you remember the Congress standing together singing "God Bless America?" Who could forget President Bush at Ground Zero with the megaphone? Bush throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in Game 3 was a moment that moved New Yorkers and Americans of every partisan stripe. His tough talking rhetoric and quick action into Afghanistan, led to job approval ratings that stood in the 80% range for 5-6 months. Rarely has any President had an era of such popularity.

What happened? When the grieving and the talking were over, Bush had to go and fight the war. In the process, we have killed or captured countless Al Qaeda operatives, but mistakes were made along the way and a price was paid from the battering of the opposition press.

Bush declined. Other politicians who in that moment enjoyed new-found respect for simply leading our country have all come falling back to Earth, but not Rudy. In 5 years, Rudy has not had to make a tough political decision, he has not had a scandal or a controversy as a result of fighting the War on Terror. In the minds of the American people, unlike Bush, our image of Rudy is frozen in time.

The problem becomes after he begins to campaign in his own right. He's no longer an untouchable superstar, but another politician seeking power. When Rudy went out campaigning for Republican Candidates the last few years, no one in the media would bring up his long-forgotten adulterous tryst while serving in Gracie Mansion and his subsequent remarriage without approval from the Catholic Church.

On the campaign trail, it'll become open territory. Of course, what will bring him down to Earth faster than anything else is Rudy himself. The gaffes will come and few people will be thinking of his September 11th performance.

When it's all said and done, what will be left standing before us is a liberal New York politician with just enough common sense to know terrorists who blow up our buildings are evil, but not enough to know that Partial Birth Abortion is wrong. We can and must do better. Rudy Giuliani's supporters are urging us to vote for the myth, but our country must live with the man.

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.