Posted on 10/01/2007 11:35:56 AM PDT by seanmerc
Facing more questions this morning about the move of leading social conservatives to back a third party candidate should he get the nomination, Rudy's camp blasted out a document this morning touting the former mayor's "conservative revolution" in New York. The memo details Giulani's accomplishments on taxes, spending and crime.
Communications Director Katie Levinson offered a quote at the top, clearly directed at Fred Thompson.
“Rudy Giuliani wasn’t just watching a revolution take place, he led a Republican revolution in New York City. It really comes down to the difference between saying and doing. Rudy isn’t just reading a political script — he has the record of results to back it up. He cut taxes 23 times, got people off the welfare rolls, cut the bureaucracy, dramatically reduced crime and made New York City safe for families.”
Thompson is planning to highlight his membership in the Republican Revolution Class of '94 on the trail this week in Iowa, with the not-so-subtle contrast being about what Rudy and Mitt were doing that year (endorsing Mario Cuomo and running as a moderate against Ted Kennedy, respectively).
But the jab at Fred aside, what is fascinating and, for the long run, more important is the last line in Levinson's statement — that Rudy made the Big Apple safe again to both live in and visit.
Along with electability in the general, it's this contention on which Team Rudy is largely hooking their hopes.
The case is this: You may not like my soap opera of my personal life or my social liberalism, but looking at what happened in New York, you can't call me a squish.
Giuliani knows he'll never win over conservative elites like those who plotted against him out in Utah this weekend. They have everything to lose should he get the nomination.
Rather, he wants to get after the more reachable rank-and-file. These are the folks who have qualms over his marital history and support of abortion rights, but who still see him as America's Mayor and the guy who cleaned up the Big Apple.
The former image is burnished every time he talks about the Terrorists' War Against Us, but the latter is just as crucial to picking off enough conservative voters to win the nomination.
And, really, it's the only argument he can make. He has been married three times, he is "pro-abortion." To respond to those issues is to play on his opponents' turf.
So instead, he'll change the subject to what he did to improve the quality of life for real families who wanted to live in New York without being berated by squeegee men or for real families who wanted their kid to take that class trip to the big city without being exposed to peep shows in Times Square.
A cultural conservative he's not, but he's not simply a cultural liberal, either. After all, would a secular lefty really have spoken out against anti-religious artwork?
Reinforcing this sort of outer borough ethos, of course, is Rudy's persona.
He hardly fits the image of a silk-stocking liberal Republican. Though his stances on abortion and gays may be Greenwich, he looks and sounds Staten Island.
As Fred Siegel wrote in his largely positive assessment of Rudy's tenure as mayor, "Prince of the City," Giuliani is an "immoderate centrist." His politics, in other words, may be rounded off in some areas, but everything else about him has sharp edges.
Oh, and did he mention he can beat Hillary?
Sorry...typo in title. Meant to say “claims he led CONSERVATIVE revolution in NYC.” My mistake.
Phony conservative...........
The great conservative revolution that brought us the great conservative BLOOMBERG! /s
The great conservative revolution that brought us the great conservative Hillary!..............
I was willing to listen when Rudy first declared, until he made it crystal clear that he wasn’t even going to pretend to be conservative.
Now he’s starting to pretend. He must be getting pretty desperate. Sorry, the time for repenting of his earlier views is long past.
Well, he is right that he was more conservative than Dinkins or Koch, certainly. It’s just that it’s not such a difficult fete to be more conservative than those guys.
He had his moments, though. I remember when he caught holy hell for defending cops after some of them committed police brutality, for instance. You certainly would not see that in LA, Cincinnatti, or a lot of other places, including Bloomberg’s NY.
Had to mention the Hildebeast, didn’t you?
How many Republicans were on the city council when you started?
How many were still there when you left office?
Rudy G was all about Rudy G. This is why he never groomed a successor, and fired anyone who took attention away from him (see William Bratton).
If a third party Conservative runs, then we might as well not even have the election and just hand over the keys to the WH to Queen Shrillary. Because a third party candidate will have no chance of winning.
It will be 1992 all over again.
But of course! She is the chameleon of politics! Changes her spots to suit the crowd! Today she’s a liberal, tomorrow she’s a conservative! She has no definite shape or form, much like a gaseous bag of hot air!...............
He should’ve been grooming Herman Badillo. At least Badillo was a genuine convert to the cause.
This from the guy who sought and recieved the endorsement of the Liberal Party of NYC.
Kinda the textbook definition of “Liberal” ain’t it?
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Guess what, Rudy? America isn't the "Big Apple".
And keep your hands off my guns.
Huh? Did I just wake up out of a coma and miss something?
If a third party Conservative runs, then we might as well not even have the election and just hand over the keys to the WH to Queen Shrillary. Because a third party candidate will have no chance of winning. It will be 1992 all over again.
My sentiments exactly. A conservative third party vote is a vote for the witch.
I couldn’t recall how many Republicans were on the Council, somewhere between 3-5, IIRC. I went to check, and it’s a paltry 3 (Gallagher in the 30th, which I’m not sure where that is; Oddo & Ignizio on S.I.), with 36 rodents and 1 “Working Families.” It looked like we had a 4th one a few years ago before Sen. Marty Golden vacated his seat in the Bay Ridge-Bensonhurst area, but that went to the rodents.
Gallagher represents western Queens (Maspeth/Ridgewood/Middle Village), aka Serf Maltese’s stomping grounds.
There were five. Golden’s district is gone, and we lost Charles Millard on the Upper East Side when he vacated said seat to run for the Assembly in ‘94.
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