Posted on 02/13/2007 1:59:22 PM PST by meg88
Is Giuliani a conservative? He might just be
Last week C-SPAN featured a discussion about Rudolph Giuliani that left me shaking my head. The gist of the guest's message was that Giuliani was a "Rockefeller Republican" who was suddenly transformed into a darling of conservatives after 9/11. Today, Fox News echoed the same theme.
That's quite wrong. Social conservatives have trouble with Giuliani, but by no stretch of the imagination is he a Rockefeller (i.e. liberal) Republican. In fact, in many ways Giuliani is the most conservative of the top three candidates for the Republican nomination. He came by that conservatism in the toughest crucible.
City Journal's Steven Malanga reminds us of the details. When Giuliani was elected mayor, New York City was Exhibit A in failed liberal governance. Crime was out of control. Public spaces were marred by a combination of omnipresent graffiti; so-called "squeegee men" who preyed on motorists; and raving homeless people who took up residence on sidewalks and in building entrances. Public employee unions had shaken down the city government for years. The tax base was eroding. The city government was deeply in debt, and fully one in eight New Yorkers was on welfare.
Giuliani transformed a city whose budget and workforce were larger than those of all but five or six states. He and police chief William Bratton famously cracked down first on quality of life crimes like panhandling and public urination. Teenagers who leaped over the turnstiles at subway entrances were arrested - a departure from the practice under Mayor David Dinkins. Giuliani later quipped that the police under his predecessor had become "highly skilled observers of crime." Those turnstile jumpers turned out to possess a huge number of illegal guns, which were confiscated, and criminals throughout the city discovered that the New York police were breathing down their necks. The number of murders dropped from 1,960 in Dinkins's final year in office to 640 in Giuliani's last year. The overall crime rate dropped 64 percent, to levels not seen since the 1960s.
Giuliani accomplished this in the teeth of a genuinely ferocious assault from liberals, so-called "civil rights" figures like Al Sharpton (with whom Giuliani declined to meet), the New York Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times. Actors and artists protested in the streets, and leading chin pullers in national magazines pronounced themselves troubled by Giuliani's "tactics." He was steadfast - and the greatest beneficiaries were poor New Yorkers who lived in formerly dangerous neighborhoods.
Though he inherited a budget deficit, Giuliani declined to raise taxes on New Yorkers nearly bled white. He closed the budget gap with a combination of spending reductions (what a concept!) and modest tax cuts. Business boomed.
Giuliani attacked another sacred cow when he ended "open admissions" and remedial courses at the City University of New York. He was called lots of names by the usual suspects for this principled move. The result was to revive the university - SAT scores of incoming students rose 168 points.
New York's welfare system was among the most bloated in the nation. Giuliani first culled the ranks for cheats and frauds - eliminating 20 percent of the caseload. The mayor then introduced a workfare requirement - able-bodied adults would be expected to do 20 hours of work in municipal offices in exchange for a welfare check. There were howls from the New York Times. The mayor was undeterred. Giuliani transformed welfare offices from check distribution centers into employment offices, where welfare workers coached clients on how to read the classifieds, how to dress for interviews and how to prepare a resume.
His approach toward the homeless was similar. Those who were able to work were encouraged to do so. Those who rejected an offer of shelter and insisted upon blocking public spaces and harassing passersby were issued summonses. For this Hillary Clinton lectured the mayor that Jesus was a homeless person.
There is no question that Giuliani's position on abortion and gun control will offend many Republicans. But let's be clear, he is no liberal. His conservatism has been tempered in New York City - so it is steely indeed.
Mona Charen writes for Creators Syndicate.
Rudy is not perfect, but he beats by 10 miles, ANYONE on the RAT side. What's not to understand by this?
Wow, even Mona has the hots for old elitist, gun-hating Rudy.
I hope she and the others understand that if he is nominated Hillary will be our next president.
Is Giuliani a conservative? He might just be
Well then he should come out of the closet so we can tell.
Oh my!
Just the opposite. If Newt is nominated, Hillary is President.
If Mona has to ask the question, then he isn't! Ronald Reagan is the yardstick -- if you don't measure up, then you're not a conservative.
The name is 'Giuliani'.
Sigh.
"If Newt is nominated, Hillary is President"
I agree with that statement.
However, way too many of us will never vote for Giuliani. The Republicans better come up with a viable candidate or the Pantsuit will be back in the Whitehouse digging through more FBI files.
Wow, conservative commentators are totally goo goo eyes over Rudy! This is something to behold.
I went through an interesting exercise with another Freeper last week, and based on Rudy Giuliani's well-documented track record on ten different issues I reached the conclusion that he would probably have a rating from the American Conservative Union (ACU) of about 20-25. OK -- so that's not exactly Dennis Kucinich territory . . . but it is so far from "conservative" that the author of this article has really lost a lot of credibility on this one.
Rudy is kryptonite to most of us who have sworn to uphold and defend the constitution. He will split the party worse than the jug-eared old fruitcake Perot.
Both Kristols are firmly in the Rudy camp.
If you judge based on governmental spending, George W. Bush has had the most liberal administration since LBJ.
Everyone has their own issues that have priority, but spending and taxes mean more to me than the social issues. And Guiliani cut taxes and spending in NYC.
How so?
"However, way too many of us will never vote for Giuliani."
The overwhelming majority of you will in the general election when you contemplate Hillary being president.
Those who say otherwise remind me of those who repeatedly insisted on this board that they would vote third party because of slights from the Republicans in Congress on immigration, spending, etc. But when the election actually rolled around no one was talking about actually voting third party.
In most cases, the "third party" threat is something which people say so that they can feel like they are in control of the process.
I will vote for any Republican who is nominated- even (God help us) McCain. The idea of seeing Hillary celebrating on election night can be very motivating.
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