Giuliani's Pre-9/11 Record Should Erase Rightest Doubts

Hunan Events ^ | 3/16/07 | Deroy Murdock

[areafiftyone]

The same Beltway experts who declared Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) the GOP frontrunner, even as he under-polled fellow presidential contender Rudolph W. Giuliani, now parrot equally dodgy concepts. When Republicans meet “the real Rudy,” they will abandon New York’s former mayor like cattle fleeing a burning barn. Then, the wobbly Washington wisdom continues, Giuliani’s three marriages, and his less-than-solidly right-wing views on gays, guns, and gametes will torpedo his buoyant presidential hopes.

These seers now detect unhappiness with the GOP aspirants. They cite a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in which 26% of Republican primary voters were dissatisfied with Giuliani, McCain, and former Massachusetts governor Willard Mitt Romney, among others. However, 56% called these choices satisfactory. This mirrors the 57%of conservative Republicans who preferred Giuliani, versus 31% for McCain. More broadly, Republicans backed Giuliani 38% to McCain’s 24, former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s 10, Romney’s 8, and 2% each for Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

But what if voters like Giuliani better upon understanding his pre-9-11 performance? Educating Republicans on his complete mayoral record -- and soon -- may be Giuliani’s best bet for extinguishing lingering grumbling about his candidacy.

I recently visited Baltimore, Charlotte, Richmond, Salem, Oregon; Seattle, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, mainly to deliver speeches sponsored by Young America’s Foundation. I conversed with conservative activists, College Republican leaders, university professors, and think-tank scholars, among others.

These Americans vividly remember Giuliani emerging from the ashes of September 11, like a latter-day Churchill rising from the rubble of the London Blitz. However, these involved and informed citizens knew startlingly little about Giuliani’s other mayoral achievements:

• Through robust policing, Giuliani drove overall crime down 56.1%, while chopping homicides 66.6%, from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001.

• Following national trends, abortions on Giuliani’s watch dropped 16.9%, while taxpayer-funded Medicaid abortions plunged 23%.

• Gotham’s foster-care population fell 38% as Giuliani helped loving families adopt 17,804 boys and girls.

• By fighting fraud and finding work for legitimate beneficiaries, Giuliani cut welfare rolls 58%, starting two years before federal welfare reform. Giuliani renamed welfare offices “Job Centers.”

• Giuliani privatized 23,625 previously confiscated, city-owned dwellings, 78% of supply, benefiting family and individual homeowners and tenants.

• Giuliani dumped Gotham’s 20% set-aside and 10% overbid bonus for minority and female contractors. “The whole idea of quotas to me perpetuates discrimination,” he explained. He initiated this on his 24th day in office, far exceeding any colorblindness legislation Congress even debated during the 12-year “Republican Revolution.”

• Giuliani’s $10 million Charter School Improvement Fund helped 3,286 pupils in 17 new charter schools, up from $0 and zero campuses in 1997. He ended tenure for school principals, so slackers could be sacked. He also stopped social promotion; students needed to complete grade-level work to matriculate.

• Ex-pornography mecca Times Square now welcomes families, tourists, and locals for fully clothed musicals like “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins.”

Beyond these socially conservative victories, Giuliani governed as a Reaganesque supply-sider:

• Giuliani scrapped three taxes and slashed 20 others, lowering Gotham’s tax burden by 17% and saving individual and business taxpayers $9.8 billion.

• While inflation averaged 3.9%, Giuliani’s average spending grew 2.9% annually. If the departed GOP Congress were that fiscally disciplined, the next federal budget would be $2.275 trillion -- $625 billion cheaper than proposed.

• While hiring 12% more cops and 12.8% more teachers, Giuliani sliced other positions 17.2%. Overall, municipal headcount fell 3.1%.

Rudy got this done thanks largely to a management style that he described Wednesday at a $2 million Manhattan fundraiser: “I’m impatient and single-minded about my goals.”

Giuliani’s legacy has earned the endorsements of such screaming liberals as President Bush’s former solicitor general, Ted Olson, Sen. David Vitter (R.-La.), and Rep. Pete Sessions (R.-Tex.) -- both proud owners of 100% ratings from the National Right to Life Committee.

Before Giuliani’s enemies caricature him as a divorce-driven, abortion-peddling, gun-grabbing transvestite, he should familiarize Republicans with his mayoral accomplishments. From Westwood to Washington’s echo chamber, Rudy Giuliani and his supporters should specify how he rescued America’s largest left-wing city through Reaganite social and economic reforms.

---

Mr. Murdock, a New York-based commentator to HUMAN EVENTS, is a columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"Rudy is the only one beating the Dems."

Says you and the LIBERALS.

Again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

But what are you doing to persuade voters of the value of voting for someone further to the Right?

[pissant]

Very few of us hate Rudy. I'm sure he is a fine fellow to go to a Yankees game with. What we HATE is his liberalism, in ALL of its manifestations.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Says you and the LIBERALS.

Again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

and again.

But what are you doing to persuade voters of the value of voting for someone further to the Right?

[flashbunny]

"And let me repeat: Conservatives who are attacking Rudy unwittingly are helping the Dems and smoothing the way for a Hillary or Obama presidency, because Rudy is the only one beating the Dems."


How politically ignorant are you? Or do you actually have a clue and are acting ignorant to bolster rudy?

Either way, it's not a good trait.

[flashbunny]

Sean and deroy are doing their best to "pimp my rino" and polish turds this year.

They can spin all they want, but rudy's own record and statements are the things they fear the most.

[Charles Martel]

"You post the SAME things on ANY thread, so it's totally irrelevant what the article actually says.

Stop being so hypocritical."

Oh, this is rich. Pot, meet kettle.

[pissant]

It IS not Rudy versus Hillary. Neither of them have won jack squat. Both are going to have to FIGHT for the nomination. Fine and dandy, its how the system works.

But for you to sit here and expect that on a very conservative website, that those very conservative members are going to just get on board with Rudy instead of work to dump him, is irrational

[Jaxter]

Not counting his pro-gay, pro-abortion and pro-illegal alien views, his being anti-gun is enough for me to not even consider voting for him. Pro-law enforcement? As far as I'm concerned I'll protect myself because I know the police won't. The can either show up after the fact and investigate crimes against me and my family or haul away the dead perp from my house. I'd prefer the latter.

Rudy will never get my vote. If it comes down to bringing the war on terror home or giving up my guns, I say bring the war on. I'm sick of seeing all the burden of this war on our military families' backs anyway.

[Alberta's Child]

This article would fall under Points #1 and #3 in the FR post linked below:

A Message to Rudy Giuliani and His Supporters

That is -- A) present completely misleading arguments about a candidate's track record (the comments about abortion and Times Square in particular); and B) take a candidate who is an unabashed liberal on 80% of the issues (and a radical left-wing zealot on many of them) and pretend he is conservative by focusing only on the other 20%.

[CharlesWayneCT]

If the same article is posted, and it's not locked and pointed to the old article, I think EVERYBODY posts the same stuff to the article, because the same thoughts apply.

Although I hope that my responses the second time reflect a maturation of my thinking based on reading the comments in the first thread.

It's a politically charged atmosphere, and a person who doesn't want Rudy elected can't leave a pro-rudy article unanswered if it is reposted, because people passing by might read the newer version and get one side only of the story, or worse might know about the previous discussion and think the pro-rudy side convinced the anti-rudy side and there is no more opposition.

Seriously, you think it's a good thing to open 3 threads on the same article over a period of two days?

You know, it was a little hard for me to find some articles from yesterday, because there were so many articles posted multiple times. It really doesn't help anybody trying to seriously discuss the race to have these articles multiplying on any candidate, on either side.

[LtdGovt]

Do you really think that Edwards or Obama will be better than Hillary. The Democrats will either nominate Hillary or someone WORSE!

[LtdGovt]

Please... you're (once again) pulling percentages out of your thin air.

[pissant]

Bingo. It's one thing to say: "Well, Rudy certainly does have some liberal positions, but he should be a good CIC, so I'll vote for him if he wins"

It is quite another to latch onto him as THE best man and actively attempt to discourage the GOP from sticking to its platform.

[Alberta's Child]

No, I'm not. We've been through this before.

I was "pulling percentages out of the air" when I suggested that Rudy Giuliani was a conservative on no more than 15% of the issues.

The 20% has some validity to it. If you go back through his public record and tally his positions on any number of issues, you'll probably find that he'd garner an ACU rating of no more than 20-25 if he had been a member of Congress.

[mkjessup]

Why have the same discussion today we had yesterday?

Because the RudyBots think that by hammering FR with repetitive articles all saying the same thing that they can somehow stampede everyone into endorsing their candidate.

It has been established that Deroy Murdock is in the tank for Rudy.

There is nothing further to discuss about it.

[Xenophon450]

You got that right...

"most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine."

Rudy G.

[ctdonath2]

How about blaming the pro-Rudy crowd for pushing a candidate the base finds intolerable?

Is Hillary so unstoppable that the only viable candidate is Hillary Lite?

[pissant]

I do not think Hillary will win the nominataion. It will be either Richards or Obama or Algore. Hillary is positively the worst public speaker and debater I've ever seen in my life.

That's not the point. The point is that anyone seeking the nomination is going to have to fight for it, and nothing is settled 11 months from the primaries. The other point is that for you to show such contempt for conservatives, on a conservative website, who do not want a mostly liberal GOP nominee, tells me you are either stupid (which I do not believe) or you are simply a liberal republican who wants to fight to move the party in that direction.

This notion that only Rudy can win, therefore we must support Rudy is utter nonsense. ALL the dems are weak sisters, especially Hillary.

[LtdGovt]

You didn't name the issues, so I have no way of verifying what you tell me. Does it go like this?

War on Terror
Limited Government
Abortion in the third week
Abortion in the fourth week
.
.
.
Abortion in the 20th week
Embryonic stem cell research
Etc., etc.