Giuliani a tough conservative sell

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/25/07 | Liz Sidoti - ap

[Spiff]

The Real Rudy Giuliani:

• Pro-abortion - He even opposes banning partial birth murder.
• Anti-2nd Amendment - supports gun grabbing legislation including the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban
• Pro-big government - amassed unprecedented debt as Mayor of NYC
• Pro-radical gay agenda
  

  - Attended and marched in every gay pride parade in NYC while mayor (even one in 1992 that included a NAMBLA contingent of pedophile activists)
  - Attends and supports many functions and fund-raisers held by radical gay organizations (even did a cross dressing act at Pride Agenda fund-raiser)
  - Openly opposes Constitutional Amendment to protect tradition marriage which is supported by President Bush and the Republican Party Platform.
  - Supported "domestic partner" and "civil union" bills in City Council while mayor of NYC.
  - Submitted Gay "Domestic-Partner" Rights Bill to City Council giving gay and lesbian couples the same benefits reserved for married couples.
  - Said, "I'm proud of it" when referring to the gay "domestic partner" bill he submitted. Said, "National Republicans can lump it if they don't like this new domestic-partners bill...I think it puts New York City ahead of other places in the country."
  - Has received awards from several radical gay agenda organizations who support gay marriage for his support of their cause. Is considered a "champion" of gay "rights."
  - Lived with a gay "married" couple in Manhattan when he moved out of Gracie Mansion during his second divorce.
  - Said that homosexuality is "good and normal"
  

• Pro-illegal immigration - said no one in New York City is going to assist the federal government with the enforcement of immigration law, sued Feds in 1997 to be able to ignore immigration law, lost in court, vowed to ignore law anyway
• Endorses liberal Democrat candidates over Republicans - endorsed liberal Dem Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki in NY Governor's race
• Ran for NYC Mayor in 1994 on Liberal Party ticket. Appointed Liberal Party State Chair to a Deputy Mayor position. Endorsed 3 times by the Liberal Party for his liberal views.
• Holds many other liberal views
• Republican In Name Only - opposes many major planks of the GOP Platform

Read more about Giuliani's liberal positions here and here.

Some people want Republicans to ignore his liberalism on almost every issue and, as a distraction, they try to pretend that Rudy is fiscally conservative. Again, his record shows that he isn't fiscally conservative either:

According to an article in The Nation from 2002:

It's now apparent that Giuliani purchased the city's good times partially with borrowed money and left his successor, Mike Bloomberg, holding a bag of debt. New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office. This mismanagement of prosperity is a big part of his legacy. Giuliani left the city's finances in a mess...

Here are some things Giuliani did as Mayor that were NOT anywhere near being fiscally conservative:

• New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office.
  
• Added 25,000 government employees patronage hires to the city's payroll after promising to cut the work force.
  
• Giuliani's borrowing practices increased the city's debt burden by 50 percent.
  
• Partly because of Giuliani, New York City is now the biggest debtor in the nation outside of the federal government with $42 billion in loans outstanding.
  

According to the article from The Nation:

During the 1960s Giuliani was a self-described "Robert Kennedy Democrat." He identified with RFK as a liberal Catholic prosecutor. He volunteered for RFK's 1968 presidential campaign while he was a student at NYU Law School. Giuliani also voted for George McGovern in 1972. During the liberal 1960s, he was a liberal.

But in 1975 Giuliani switched his party registration from Democrat to Independent when he got a job in Gerald Ford's Justice Department, according to his mentor Harold "Ace" Tyler.

On December 8, 1980, Giuliani changed his registration from Independent to Republican. This was one month after Ronald Reagan's election, and just as he was applying for a top job in the Justice Department.

So, to sum that up:

• Liberal Democrat until 1975
• Worked as volunteer for Democrat Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.
• Voted for liberal George McGovern.
• Liberal Independent from 1975-1980.
• Did not register as a Republican until 1980 and only AFTER Ronald Reagan was elected and because he was applying for a top job in the administration.

He's a liberal. He's not even in the same building as conservative. He's only a Republican because...and this comes from his own mother, Helen Giuliani:

"He only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't..."

And as John Hawkins put it in an excellent article in Human Events:

Despite all of his charisma and the wonderful leadership he showed after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is not a Reagan Republican. To the contrary, Giuliani is another Christie Todd Whitman, another Arlen Specter, another Olympia Snowe. He's a throwback to the "bad old days" before Reagan, when the GOP was run by moderate Country Club Republicans who considered conservatives to be extremists. Trying to revive that failed strategy again is likely to lead to a Democratic President in 2008 and numerous setbacks for the Republican Party.

[billorites]

I like Rudy too.

I mean that I find him attractive, and friendly and nice.

I'd love to have him over the house.

Or, if he's out of town, his wife de jour can come over for the weekend. But I digress...

If he can win he gets my vote.

As would Mitt and even Darth McCain.

Newt's the guy that I somehow don't trust.

I'm closest philosophically to everything he advocates.

But somehow I just don't trust him for 10 seconds...
He may well be a weasel.

Am I a bad Republican?

[oceanview]

one thing about Rudy that alot of people outside NYC don't realize - the guy is blunt, and especially blunt with the media. this is a mayor who referred to the (gay) NYC public schools chancellor as "precious" at a press conference. expelling arafat from lincoln center (under what authority, I do not know) also comes to mind.

[kinoxi]

I don't really care about those pictures. The sheeple do. It's a campaign killer in my mind. Could you imagine the election commercials?

[BunnySlippers]

Full time job at the Hillary Campaign I see.

[ElPatriota]

It's time to help... There is new MAN in town :)

[Afronaut]

"And there you have it. He is very well liked."

So was Roseanne, for years in fact.

[NormsRevenge]

A fair assessment and no slams on anyone, Thanks!

[FairOpinion]

YOU SAID: "If the choice is those two (Rudy or Hillary)....give me Hillary.

I am saving your post for a time when someone will tell me again that it is not possible that a FReeper would prefer a Democrat, and it is beyond the wildest imagination for any FReeper to actually prefer Hillary.

As I said before NO REAL CONSERVATIVE could possibly prefer Hillary. You must really hate America to wish Hillary upon us. You have NO right to call yourself a conservative.

[onyx]

Me too. I will vote for and support our nominee. Period.

[CTSeditor]

This New Yorker would vote for Rudi

[School of Rational Thought]

Let's see Rudy or Hillary, Rudy or Hillary, Rudy or Hillary -- what a tough choice for a conservative. (/sarc)


Newt

[Cicero]

If Rudy continues to be strongly pro-abortion, it will rule him out for me and many others.

But I agree, he's good in most other ways. And he has a record for honesty, and saying what he means, so if he changes his position on abortion, or makes a commitment to appoint strict constructionist judges and not to reverse Bush's policies on abortions abroad and fetal stem cell research, I will probably take him at his word.

[SierraWasp]

It's no use, Dreagon... We tried to explain that to her in CA when it came to Maria's Conon-Sense The Barbarian husband! She's never gotten it and doesn't seem to ever want to, no matter what!!!

She just LOVES her political hermaphrodite Governor who is just decimating Republicanism in CA while thinking of no one but himself!!! It's really troubling to watch!!!

[FairOpinion]

Newt might just be able to beat Hillary.

After all, he was the one who put together the Republican "Contract with America" and took the House away from the Dems, after they had it for 40 years.

[upsdriver]

Not too tough! Neither!

[NormsRevenge]

Isn't Newt the one who also was working with Hillary on a healthcare reform package for a bit as well?

Not that that is necessarily a bad thing ,, but.. as it never came to fruition.

[Talking_Mouse]

The former mayor's support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control conflict with the hard-line positions of the GOP's right.

He is a gun grabber who thinks it's okey to kill babies in the womb. Even for small government and tough on crime, I don't know if I can support someone who wants to take away my guns AND who can't recognize that abortion is murder.

[BunnySlippers]

While you'd be thrilled with Fatty Cruz Bustamante and his Killer Wife.

No thanks!

[BigSkyFreeper]

Why don't you just leave now while there's still time? I'm sick of folks like you who sit on your hands at every given moment, and call yourselves conservatives.

Anyone who is that lazy and whiny, obviously must be a liberal.