Free Republic

The debate dominatrix knows how to rattle Obambi. Mistress Hillary started disciplining her fellow senator last winter. She has continued to flick the whip in debates. She had to do it again in Vegas, this time using her voice, gaze and body language to such punishing effect that Obama looked as if he had been brought to heel. Other guys, like Rudy, wouldn’t even be looking for a chance to greet Hillary, as Obama always does. Other guys, like Rudy, wouldn’t care if she iced them. But she can tell that Obama does care, ...that he responds to the sort...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani assured a conservative legal group Friday that if elected president he would appoint federal judges who adhere to their principles. He also praised a judge who declared the capital city's gun ban unconstitutional and ridiculed efforts to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, Giuliani spelled out a conservative legal agenda in which he cited Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as models for the judges he would appoint to the federal...

A new Gallup poll of the national Republican race shows Rudy Giuliani's support slipping to its lowest level since before he entered the race. The survey of self-identified Republicans and Republican leaners has Giuliani leading the GOP contest with 28 percent – down from 34 percent in the Gallup survey taken two weeks ago. Fred Thompson is second with 19 percent, John McCain is third with 13 percent, Mitt Romney is fourth with 12 percent, and Mike Huckabee is fifth with ten percent. Giuliani's support reached its highest point in Gallup polls, 49 percent, in March. In the months since,...

GOP Hopeful's Mayoral Appointments At Odds With Pledge To Appoint Conservative Jurists. Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani has been winning over some conservative Republicans by promising to appoint judges in the mold of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and others who might seem likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Judges he named as New York mayor, however, could never be mistaken for Scalia. Giuliani's promise has helped overcome his abortion rights support as an issue for conservative voters. After all, the next president can do little about abortion except to name judges who interpret...

**** Kerik is a stench in the nostrils of all those in law enforcement Let the trial begin. NAMES REDACTED Nanuet **** Kerik has seriously undermined Giuliani's bid for president.....and made President Bush look foolish for nominating him for the Homeland Security post.......appears a complete career turnaround - from cop to inmate is just around the bend. Farmingdale **** Kerik needs to start talking honestly regarding the widespread corruption in and around New York politics, the courts and the legal system. Manhattan **** Guiliani is stuck with Kerik. Bring him on. Silver Spring, Md.

New York Governor Spitzer's back-down on drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants just cements illegal immigration as the Great Elite Back-Down Issue. It was noticed years ago that the gap between elite opinion and public opinion on immigration issues is extraordinarily wide, as these gaps go. Some of this is naked self-interest: wealthy business types liking cheap, docile labor forces, rich folk of all stripes appreciating cheap & meek domestic servants. Some part arises from the guilty conscience that rich people always have, even in the U.S.A., known that all wealth and success is to some degree a product of dumb...

<p>It's a big day for political TV ads, and in the case of Fred Thompson, he's got great timing. On the same day Rudy Giuliani releases his first TV ad, and the day Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-N.Y.) decides to withdraw his plan to give illegal immigrants access to driver's licenses, the former Tennessee senator releases a 30-second spot called, "No Amnesty." It starts airing across Iowa today.</p>

When the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Fred Thompson for president this week, their news conference was less announcement than cri de coeur — not just from this group but from the whole social conservative movement. No one could miss the irony in the choice of Thompson or in the justifications offered for that choice by NRLC executive director David O'Steen. Here was the nation's largest and best known anti-abortion organization embracing a candidate who had just told NBC's Tim Russert that he did not support the Human Life Amendment — the centerpiece of the NRLC legislative agenda for...

Judith Regan, former book publisher, says a senior News Corporation executive encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. The lawsuit asserts that the executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him NYC police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post. --SNIP-- “Defendants were well aware that Regan had a personal relationship with Kerik,” the complaint says. “.....a senior News Corporation executive told Regan that he believed she...

By Christopher Cook Let's face it folks, the country is in a weird mood right now. The left's incessant, squalling permatantrumâ„¢ has made people unhappy, jittery, and willing to consider hating whoever and whatever the left hates. That means the GOP. So, how does this anti-GOP mood play out in 2008?It may all depend on one thing: Michael Bloomberg. There were some rumors a while back that he might make a third party run for the presidency, and in my view, that would likely spell doom for the GOP. Here's how:He's an independent, which means he could capitalize on the...

The most cynical group currently operating on the American political stage, the National Right to Life Committee has endorsed the most cynical man to seek the presidency in recent memory, Fred Thompson, for the Republican nomination. It is a perfect match, although not one that can be said to have been "made in Heaven." After all, what brings the National Right to Life Committee and Fred Thompson together is the fact that both the interest group and the candidate have sold their souls to the highest bidder. National Right to Life gave its blessing to Thompson despite the fact that...

Fred Thompson is the Republican most likely to beat abortion-rights supporter Rudy Giuliani, the National Right to Life Committee said Tuesday, announcing its endorsement of the former Tennessee senator for president. "While there are various polls, and some are up-and-down, the overwhelming consensus has been that he is best-positioned to top pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination," the group's executive director, David N. O'Steen, said at a news conference. ...By emphasizing Thompson's political potential _ he ranks second behind former New York Mayor Giuliani in national Republican polls _ the anti-abortion group played down its own differences with...

On Monday evening, officials at the National Right to Life Committee agreed to take some written questions from National Review Online regarding their pending endorsement of Fred Thompson for president. I just received the answers from Darla St. Martin, NRLC’s co-executive director. They are posted below in their entirety. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Why Fred? Darla St. Martin: National Right to Life endorsed Fred Thompson based on three factors: his commitments on life issues, his record on life issues and his ability to win. Lopez: Did you hear what he had to say on Meet the Press the other day? He...

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- At a campaign event Monday, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson rejected the idea of allowing illegal immigrants to earn U.S. citizenship through military service. Anna Castaner, an Indianola resident, posed the question to Thompson during an event inside a coffee shop. Thompson drew applause from the crowd when he said he wouldn't support it. "They need to go back and abide by the law," Thompson said. The former U.S. senator from Tennessee said the country could have "enforcement by attrition." He called for securing the American border and stopping so-called sanctuary cities from blocking the enforcement of...

April 11, 2005 MEXICO CITY Giuliani spent a day-and-a-half in January 2003 touring Mexico City's danger and tourist zones, protected by a motorcade of a dozen bulletproof SUV's, 400 officers, and a helicopter. He was mobbed and cheered a Giuliani aide told The NY Sun. Two years later, the cheering has stopped. In January 2005, Mexico City police chief told local reporters, "I am no fan of Giuliani." Monica Rojas, then-deputy director of the statistics department of the Mexico City police department said "The ideas and the concepts they conveyed to us, but they never explained how to achieve them."...

Rudy Giuliani stakes his presidential bid on his record of cutting crime - but the union representing NYC's 30,000 police officers won't support him. " NYC PBA could never support Rudy Giuliani for any elected office," PBA President Patrick Lynch told The Post. Lynch also claimed that "Rudy Giuliani has no real credentials as a terrorism fighter."

There is an old hymn written by Fanny Crosby, sung at generations of camp meetings, which exclaims: "Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet, and Priest, and King!" Since the emergence of evangelicalism as a cultural force in the 1950s, three approaches to politics, represented by three personalities, have emerged. They are the prophet, the priest and the kingmaker. The prophet has been psychologist James Dobson, who dispenses child-rearing advice on the radio from his Colorado ministry, Focus on the Family. On family issues, Dobson's counsel is moderate and broadly appealing. On politics, his tone sharpens. He rails against compromise on social-conservative...

When Giuliani walked out of City Hall six years ago, he had $2M in the bank.....Then came book deals, speaking tours and partnership at a powerful Washington lobbying house. None would prove more lucrative than the small consulting firm Giuliani and his most trusted aides founded in 2002 in an angular glass tower at 5 Times Square. Since 2002, Giuliani Partners has formed several subsidiaries--Giuliani Capital Advisors - an investment since sold - Giuliani Compliance Japan and security companies called Giuliani-Kerik and Giuliani Security & Safety........ By the time Giuliani declared for president last spring, his firm grossed an estimated...

EXCERPT William J. Bratton, former NYC police commissioner under Mayor Giuliani endorsed Gov Spitzer's plan to license illegals. Chief Bratton was NYC police commissioner from 1994-96, during the first term of Mayor Giuliani, but the two men famously feuded, with Giuliani resentful that Mr. Bratton — a pioneer of the city’s Compstat program — was getting credit for the city’s reduction in crime. In March 2007, Giuliani began trying to mend fences with Bratton and met privately; afterward, Mr. Bratton said he “enjoyed” the tête-à-tête. In May 2007, the two men met in Los Angeles. In a statement released by...

In September, I posted another vanity (linked below) in which I observed that the historical trends in this election favored Fred Thompson. Since then, his RCP average has dropped from about 22% to 16-17%. In the more volatile Rasmussen daily tracking poll, he has also dropped to 16%, about a 10 point drop from his post announcement high. In light of the above poll numbers, is it time for me to issue a mea culpa? No. This is not at all inconsistent with the hypothesis of my previous post. Neither of the successful insurgent candidates in modern times, Reagan or...