Giuliani Blog Tracking the likely Presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Poll Alert: American Research Group IA, NV, NH, & Yes… SC!

I have steadfastly refused to publish an American Research Group poll until they included all of the major candidates in their polling. Well, that time has arrived. These results are truly amazing…

American Research Group, 600 Likely Iowa Republican Caucus Goers, Dec 19th-23, 2006:

Rudy Giuliani 29%

John McCain 24%

Newt Gingrich 19%

Chuck Hagel 7%

Mitt Romney 7%

Sam Brownback 1%

Mike Huckabee 1%

George Pataki -

Duncan Hunter -

Tommy Thompson -

Jim Gilmore -

Undecided 12%

Yes, you read that correctly. Rudy Giuliani is up by 5 pts. on John McCain and Mitt Romney is tied with Chuck Hagel (of course, the margin of error is 4 pts.)

American Research Group, 600 Likely Nevada Republican Caucus Goers, Dec. 19th-23, 2006:

Rudy Giuliani 31%

John McCain 25%

Newt Gingrich 22%

Mitt Romney 4%

Sam Brownback -

Jim Gilmore -

Chuck Hagel -

Mike Huckabee -

Duncan Hunter -

George Pataki -

Tommy Thompson -

Undecided 18%

American Research Group, 600 Likely New Hampshire Republican Primary Voters (79% GOP-21% Independent), Dec 19th-23, 2006:

John McCain 29%

Rudy Giuliani 25%

Newt Gingrich 14%

Mitt Romney 9%

Chuck Hagel 2%

George Pataki 2%

Jim Gilmore 1%

Mike Huckabee 1%

Sam Brownback -

Duncan Hunter -

Tommy Thompson -

Undecided 17%

And now for the big one…

American Research Group, 600 Likely South Carolina Republican Primary Voters, Dec.19th-23, 2006:

John McCain 35%

Rudy Giuliani 28%

Newt Gingrich 15%

Mitt Romney 5%

Mike Huckabee 1%

Jim Gilmore -

Chuck Hagel -

Duncan Hunter-

George Pataki -

Tommy Thompson -

Undecided 16%

The margin of error for all of these polls is 4%. So basically we have Rudy ahead of McCain above the margin of error in Iowa and Nevada. Within the margin of error with McCain in New Hampshire, and down by 7% in SC.

This is the 3rd poll of likely Iowa Republican Caucus goers that shows Rudy leading in Iowa.

It is so easy to see how Rudy is going to win the Republican nomination. He comes in 1st or 2nd in Iowa, upsets McCain in NH, and then uses that momentum to take The Palmetto State. Add solid wins in California, New Jersey, and Florida (who are all currently debating moving their primaries up to the front of the pack) and Rudy is your 2008 Republican nominee.

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The Frontman

Call him Rudolph the front-running underdog

The oddest thing about the conventional wisdom may be its almost bulletproof imperviousness to the facts. An excellent example of this phenomenon is Arizona Senator John McCain’s oft-trumpeted status as frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination. Conversely, the cognoscenti titter at former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani as terminally liberal.

“McCain and Sen. [Hillary] Clinton are the ones to beat for their parties’ nominations,” political analyst Craig Crawford recently wrote. “While former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was once thought to be a threat to McCain, his star has faded since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [Massachusetts governor Mitt] Romney now seems to be the early favorite for the anybody-but-McCain vote.”

I appeared on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. on November 22 with Crawford, NR’s Ramesh Ponnuru, and Tulane University professor Marc Lamont Hill. All three crowned McCain the frontrunner. “In fact,” Professor Hill explained, “if Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are the two finalists, so to speak, then McCain should start writing his acceptance speech right now, because there’s no way Giuliani can win this.”

But wait. Apart from the oft-reverberating echoes of what “everybody knows,” what evidence is there that McCain is the frontrunner? Au contraire, countervailing evidence has piled as high as the Grand Canyon is deep.

A new Quinnipiac University survey is just the latest in an almost unanimous array of polls that shows Giuliani, not McCain, heading the GOP’s 2008 parade.

The November 27 “Feeling Thermometer” from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked 1,623 registered voters to rate the warmth of national leaders from 0 –100. “The higher the number, the warmer or more favorable you feel toward that person, the lower the number, the colder or less favorable.”

Among 20 top American leaders, Rudy Giuliani is rated No. 1 with a “temperature” of 64.2. McCain is third at 57.7. Among other key Republicans, Condoleezza Rice is fourth (56.1), Romney 13th (45.9), President George W. Bush 15th (43.8), and Newt Gingrich is 17th (42).

Among Democrats rated in the overall study (whose error margin is +/- 2.4 percent), Illinois senator Barack Obama is second (58.8). Hillary Clinton is 9th (49), and Massachusetts senator John Kerry, with a chilly 39.6, sails in dead last among the 20 pols Quinnipiac discussed with respondents between November 13 and 19.

Giuliani’s standing among the 490 self-identified Republicans Quinnipiac surveyed is even more compelling. Republicans give Giuliani a very comfortable temperature of 71.7. That puts him just behind Rice (72.3) and Bush (72.1), neither of whom is expected to be on the ballot in 2008. Among those who might run, Giuliani is well ahead of McCain (62.2), Gingrich (58.9), and Romney (52.8). (Error margin for this subset: +/- 4.4 percent).

Most fascinating is Giuliani’s performance among self-professed “White evangelicals/Born-again Christians.” Here again, among 439 of the study’s most socially conservative respondents, Giuliani is at the top of the heap. He scores 66.3, ahead of Rice (64.4), Bush (58.1), McCain (57.1), Gingrich (47.8), and Romney (46.4). (Error margin for these respondents: +/- 4.7 percent.)

For further details, please see this chart I compiled.

In other recent surveys, Giuliani also leads the way.

Pollster Scott Rasmussen found Giuliani with 24 percent to 18 for Rice and 17 for McCain in a November 4 – 7 national survey of 1,050 Republicans and 203-GOP-leaning independents. With Rice excluded and her votes reallocated, “Giuliani would top McCain 32 percent to 22 percent,” Rasmussen told me.

The closest McCain gets to Giuliani in a national poll is in Opinion Research Corporation/CNN’s November 17 – 19 survey of 365 Republican adults. McCain earned 30 percent, but, again, Rudy ranked first with 33 percent. Gingrich and Romney tied at 9 percent. (Error margin: +/- 5 percent.)

In Strategic Vision’s selected state-by-state surveys released November 6, Giuliani outpaced McCain by nine points in Georgia, 19 in Florida and Washington State, 22 in New Jersey, and 23 points in Pennsylvania. Romney rose no higher than third in these states.

McCain only can point to Michigan as a state where he tops Giuliani — specifically 33 percent to 25.

The conventional wisdom further argues that Giuliani benefits from his high name ID in the wake of his universally covered and highly appreciated leadership on September 11. But Giuliani is not outshining a state senator here or a second-term House member there. McCain is widely known from coast to coast, as are Gingrich, Bush, and Rice. Giuliani easily outpolls the former speaker of the House of Representatives and the man who was runner-up for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination. Giuliani tops the current secretary of State and the president of the United States in general “warmth” and comes within 0.6 and 0.4 “degrees” of them in popularity among Republicans.

As for his alleged liberalism, Giuliani, to be sure, will face resistance from Republican primary voters who differ with him on abortion, gay marriage, and gun ownership. While Giuliani’s views on these issues eventually may gravitate to the right, he will address his potential critics with an enormous reservoir of goodwill, as Quinnipiac’s numbers show.

Some have speculated that Giuliani’s numbers will fall once GOP voters across America learn that he favors civil unions, is pro-choice, and has called for greater gun regulations. Perhaps.

But his numbers could hold or even rise once Republicans outside Gotham learn that, as mayor, he cut the local tax burden by 19 percent, jettisoned racial and gender preferences for contracting (during his first month as mayor, no less), hunted deadbeat dads and made them pay their child support, implemented charter schools, promoted “vouchers” (always embracing that word), and hosed down seedy, crime-infested areas such as Times Square. It now is safe, literally, for Mary Poppins — a new Disney musical that opened on 42nd Street, where pornographic films unspooled prior to Giuliani’s tenure.

Can you say, “family values?”

Giuliani also can point to a history of fighting militant Islam all the way back to his service on an anti-terrorism task force in the Ford administration.

Giuliani may secure the 2008 Republican nomination and coast to a Reaganesque landslide that November. Or he could go up in flames in the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire that February. Who knows? It’s too early to say.

What we can say today is that Giuliani currently outruns his rivals for the GOP nomination, even if most of the press corps’ eyes are too welded shut to notice (Ryan Sager and Philip Klein are two notable exceptions). With the polls showing him ahead and the conventional wisdom dismissing his prospects, Rudolph W. Giuliani has achieved the impossible: He’s a front-running underdog.

-Deroy Murdock

____________________________________________

This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on November 30th, 2006. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission. Researcher Marco DeSena contributed to this article.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Bill Simon Building a Network of California Conservative Support

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Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (right) attended a 2002 news conference with California GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon.

Robert Novak in the Evans-Novak newsletter is reporting:

California conservative Republican Bill Simon, the party’s nominee for governor in 2002, has begun building a network of support in the Golden State for the prospective presidential campaign of his old boss, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R). Simon, son of the late secretary of the Treasury William Simon, was Republican nominee for governor of California in 2002. He was a prosecutor working for Giuliani, then U.S. attorney in New York City, in 1986-88.

Simon has been arranging get-acquainted meetings for Giuliani with prominent California conservatives to show them he is not all that liberal and really is a Republican.

Flap has been in contact with some folks that are working with Simon and Giuliani and will report as California campaign events unfold.

Stay tuned………

Cross-Posted from the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

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Goodbye, George

Pataki’s history makes him history

This column is designed to drive the final railroad spike into the coffin of George Elmer Pataki’s presidential ambitions.

The Empire State’s drowsy Republican governor drifts off January 1 after 12 years in office. He departs about 11 years too late. Pataki is less than just a politician of breathtaking mediocrity; his lack of competence, charisma, and character composes a sickening trifecta that actually has led some local Republicans to look with hope at Governor-elect Elliot Spitzer, a busybody liberal Democrat.

As the curtain creaks down on Pataki’s seemingly endless Broadway run, it is vital to this Republic’s health that his threatened national roadshow go nowhere.

Five years after 9/11, the former World Trade Center remains an excruciating chasm. “Al-Canyon” is a dual testament to al Qaeda’s urban-redesign skills and Pataki’s lack thereof. As the man responsible for transforming Ground Zero from a five-story-deep national tear duct into a symbol of American renaissance, this site only now is emerging from the post-September-11 dark ages. Pataki’s indecision and dithering delayed concrete from being poured for the Freedom Tower’s foundation until November 18 — five years and nine weeks after Islamo-fascists demolished the Twin Towers.

Pataki’s Pit perfectly symbolizes a governorship darkened by profligacy, debt, patronage, and influence peddling. This black hole must not be allowed to swallow Iowa, New Hampshire, or any other primary state.

Pataki, nevertheless, was in the Granite State recently when he told Fox News’ Carl Cameron:

Republicans don’t get elected by going on spending binges that result in a growth of government spending that is not sustainable and more than the people want. I think we did get away in Washington from those principles that Republicans believe in — limited government, controlling spending, cutting taxes.
How rich. If only Pataki had heeded himself.

To his credit, Pataki initially cut taxes.

“Among his leading first-term accomplishments were his $3 billion, 25 percent income-tax cut and a substantial cut in the capital gains tax and inheritance tax,” states the Cato Institute’s “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2006.” However, in his second term, Pataki “raised the cigarette tax to $1.50 per pack. He raised taxes on net, by more than $3 billion his final term in office.”

As Pataki’s reign of error ends, New York is No. 50 in the Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index. It also has America’s 50th best individual state-tax burden, and is the 47th-best place to pay unemployment insurance.

Under Pataki, the state budget has soared 79.5 percent — from $63.3 billion in 1994 to $113.6 billion in 2006. Pataki’s 12-year-average annual spending rate is 4.9 percent.

“Pataki’s budgets grew by almost twice as much as inflation,” says Cato Institute fiscal analyst Stephen Slivinski. In Pataki’s third term, this spending pace zoomed to 8.3 percent. In Cato’s latest gubernatorial report card, Pataki’s financial mismanagement earned him a D.

Pataki has borrowed like a pawnshop patron. He has deepened state-funded debt by 61.3 percent — from $31 billion in 1994 to $50 billion today.

Public-health costs are yet another fiasco. Pataki currently stars in local TV commercials in which he encourages people to apply for Child Health Plus (CHP), a state Medicaid program. Such ads, in which Pataki has appeared since 2002, have worked. Even as just-released Census estimates show New York’s population grew just 0.72 percent between July 1, 2002 and July 1, 2006 (from 19,167,600 to 19,306,183), state Medicaid enrollees accelerated 18.3 percent (from 3,568,627 in June 2002 to 4,222,748 in June 2006). Participants in Family Health Plus, another Medicaid subsidy, rocketed from 2,864 in January 2002 to 563,100 last January — a 19,561 percent ascent. Medicaid is swallowing the state budget like a killer whale devouring a walrus. And yet Pataki’s ads stimulate that whale’s appetite.

Pataki has transformed Medicaid from low-income health care into a recipe for middle-class welfare dependency. Former Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo inaugurated CHP in 1992. A family of four in 1998 could make no more than $35,631 for its kids to qualify. Under Pataki, that ceiling has risen 40.3 percent since then, to $50,000 today.

Even worse, recent estimates show that perhaps 40 percent of New York’s $46.6 billion Medicaid budget (up 93.4 percent from $24.1 billion in 1994) funds questionable and fraudulent claims. This $18.6 billion deadweight loss previously has subsidized such worthies as a Brooklyn dentist who, on one day in 2003, charged Medicaid for 991 procedures. Such news makes Pataki yawn.

Greater insistence on Medicaid’s integrity might have made Pataki collide into his pal, Dennis Rivera, a board member of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition and president of United Healthcare Workers East, Local 1199. This 285,000-member union backed Pataki in 2002. In exchange, Pataki gave Rivera’s then-200,000 New York-State-based members a three-year, $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded pay hike. (Local 1199 has 250,000 NYS-based members today, in addition to workers it represents in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.)

Pataki’s pay-to-play apparatus is like an old Automat restaurant: cash in, goodies out. In one egregious example, attorney general Spitzer found that, in 2001, the New York State Canal Corporation gave Richard A. Hutchens information that helped him score a non-competitive bid to construct $21.7 million in housing along the Erie Canal. These rights cost him just $30,000 — a potential 72,233 percent return on investment. As it happens, Hutchens gave Pataki’s campaign $8,000. “Everybody makes a political contribution for a purpose,” Hutchens told investigators.

“George Pataki turned the New York GOP into a machine devoted exclusively to the empowerment and enrichment of his coterie,” the New York Post’s Eric Fettman observed. “There’s nothing left that even resembles a genuine infrastructure capable of recruiting candidates with strong statewide appeal.” As Fettman predicted last February 21, this “leaves the party facing likely statewide disaster.”

November 7 indeed was a disaster for the Empire State GOP. This, however, was no surprise. Terrified of being upstaged by potential candidates with actual talent, Pataki instead has boosted hacks, losers, and also-rans.

In 2004, Pataki’s pick — invisible state assemblyman Howard Mills — vanished anew after winning a state-record-low 24 percent against Democratic senator Charles Schumer. This year, Pataki short-circuited a promising U.S. Senate challenge by conservative Manhattan attorney Ed Cox in favor of Westchester prosecutor Jeanine Pirro. She stumbled, switched races, and then garnered just 40 percent against attorney-general-elect Andrew Cuomo. With Cox on blocks, former Yonkers mayor John Spencer captured 31 percent against Democratic senator Hillary Clinton. Such horribly squandered opportunities have denuded Albany of statewide GOP officials. Beyond Michael Bloomberg, the Big Apple’s nominally Republican mayor, elephants approach extinction here, thanks to Pataki’s pachydermocidal “party-building.”

As former Republican National Committeewoman Georgette Mosbacher told the Post’s Fred Dicker: “Our New York party leaders have tried to be everything to everybody, and what’s now happened to us is that we’ve become nothing to everyone.”

Despite all this, Republicans across America have told me, “Rudy Giuliani’s a big liberal, but at least Pataki’s a conservative.” After dropping my drink, I patiently explain that this inverts reality. While Pataki built government like a carpenter on steroids, Giuliani curbed Gotham’s tax burden by $8 billion or 19 percent; cut real, year-on-year outlays in two of his eight budgets; and, by Cato’s calculations, kept annual average spending at 2.9 percent vs. Pataki’s 5.9 percent his last eight years. (Giuliani maintained outlays below his tenure’s 3.6 percent inflation rate.) Giuliani’s production, not Pataki’s, deserves a coast-to-coast tour.

So far, Pataki cannot impress even his neighbors. According to an October 1 Strategic Vision poll, 50 percent of New Jersey Republicans favor Giuliani for president while only 1 percent want Pataki in the White House. What a humiliating performance for the governor of a contiguous state whose citizens have been bathed for 12 years in commercials and news stories on Pataki, courtesy of New York’s media.

“Pataki is prepared to give the nation what he gave New York: out-of-control spending, corruption, political favoritism, and neglect,” warns Hudson Institute president Herbert London, a veteran Gotham conservative activist. “To suggest that the last 12 years of his leadership were a failure would be a grotesque understatement. Pataki is an anchor around the ship of state, drowning residents in debt and special favors.”

Drowning, indeed. George Elmer Pataki’s presidential dreams merit a pair of cement shoes and a non-stop trip to the bed of the Hudson River.

-Deroy Murdock
____________________
This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on December 22nd, 2006. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission

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Monday, December 25, 2006

Rudy Rising

His 9/11 legacy and 2008 prospects

America’s still-vivid memories of that miserable morning five Septembers ago may be brightened by recollections of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s focused, confident performance on 9/11. The ongoing goodwill his leadership generated may explain why he outpaces his potential rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Recent polls show Giuliani waxing on the right, regardless of any misgivings conservative GOP voters may have with him on abortion, gay rights, or gun control.

  • Among 432 registered Republicans and pro-GOP independents who CNN and Opinion Research Corp. surveyed from August 30 to September 2, 31 percent favored Giuliani for the nomination, while 20 percent backed Sen. John McCain. (Error margin: +/- 5 percent.)
  • Of the 6,926 participants thus far in an ongoing Internet survey for the very conservative FreeRepublic.com, 45.1 percent endorsed Giuliani, 28.3 percent backed Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and only 5.3 percent picked McCain.
  • An August 14–15 Victory Enterprises poll found 30 percent of Iowa Republicans for Giuliani, while 17.3 percent wanted McCain (+/- 4.9 percent). Among these 400 likely caucus voters, 70 percent called themselves pro-life.
  • Strategic Vision’s August polls of Republican voters discovered these results — Washington State: Giuliani 40 percent, McCain 28; Florida: Giuliani 42 percent, McCain 28; Pennsylvania: Giuliani 44 percent, McCain 24 percent.

In a July 31 through August 3 survey of 623 New York state registered voters, the Siena Research Institute saw McCain beat Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York state by 46–42 percent (+/- 3.9 percent). Giuliani, however, would stomp Clinton even harder, 48–42 percent, and capture the Empire State’s 31 electoral votes.

In a world where Islamofascists plot to use baby-formula bottles to blow up tourist-filled jets, GOP voters understand how vital it is to assign someone tough and talented to confront this life-and-death challenge. Giuliani looks like that man.

Giuliani’s formidable stature seems to make liberals nervous. Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, authors of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, have attempted to rain fresh rubble on Rudy. While they praise Giuliani for his on-camera comments that day, they mainly criticize him for what else they believe he should have done then and, indeed, throughout his mayoralty to cope with such a major terrorist attack.

Barrett and Collins are a two-man Hubble Telescope of hindsight. Yes, in retrospect, the Emergency Operations Center might have survived were it not situated at 7 World Trade Center, where it went unused that morning and then collapsed along with the entire building at 5:20 P.M. Besides, as Vincent J. Cannato recalls in his September 3 Washington Post review of this book, Barrett never embraced this “bunker in the sky.” In 2000, he called it “a symbol of Giuliani’s weakness for gadgetry, secrecy, and militarist overkill.”

These authors complain that Giuliani and his top aides kept moving around on September 11. Let’s see: Giuliani’s advisors considered 7 WTC too dangerous, as was the fire department’s impromptu command post at Vesey and West streets. The next stop, a basement at 75 Barclay Street, became uninhabitable after Lower Manhattan choked in dust and smoke. After phoning in a reassuring radio message to New Yorkers from a Houston Street firehouse, Giuliani finally settled in at the Police Academy on East 20th Street in Gramercy Park. Giuliani had little choice but to stay mobile that morning.

Barrett and Collins chide the Office of Emergency Management for not conducting a drill involving a major skyscraper fire. Yes, OEM should have. However, it stayed busy rehearsing for chemical-weapons attacks, securing Times Square’s millennium celebrations (a feared terror target), and guarding against immediate threats, such as a West Nile virus outbreak.

Could New York have prepared for and responded even better to 9/11? Naturally. Still, Giuliani and city employees helped some 15,000 WTC inhabitants flee to safety. While President Bush understandably remained a moving target, Giuliani restored city government, then calmly and firmly reassured Americans and the world that we had endured a serious blow, but bounced back up off the mat.

While Giuliani’s critics try to paint him as someone who first leapt on the antiterror bandwagon on 9/11, he actually has fought Islamofascists since the mid-1970s.

Barrett and Collins blow it big time when they write: “Giuliani had behaved from the outset of his mayoralty as if the 1993 [WTC] bombing had never happened.” In fact, just moments after becoming mayor, Giuliani said in his first inaugural address on January 2, 1994: “Your strength was demonstrated within sight of this place, last year, at the World Trade Center . . . those who work for our city are the most professional and best in the nation.” He praised New Yorkers, in and out of government, for emerging from that terrorist assault, and argued that Gothamites could accomplish great things under pressure.

As mayor, Giuliani had then-PLO leader Yasser Arafat ejected from an October 1995 Lincoln Center concert to which he was not invited. “Maybe we should wake people up to the way this terrorist is being romanticized,” Giuliani said. While a U.S. attorney under President Reagan, Giuliani investigated the 1985 PLO hijacking of the luxury liner Achille Lauro. Four terrorists fired on and wounded ship passengers and fatally shot Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair-bound retired New Yorker who was selected for being Jewish.

As President Gerald Ford’s associate deputy attorney general, Giuliani was a member of the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism. According to a declassified June 10, 1976, State Department memorandum, this panel addressed the “increased danger of major terrorist attacks in the US requiring urgent preventive and preparatory action.” Among other things, this memo reveals that, at a meeting that May 27, “Mr. Giuliani said that it would be important to have the USG [U.S. government] respond to press queries during an IT [international terrorist] incident with a single voice. He suggested that a model plan be worked out.”

As Barrett and Collins aim their lances at Giuliani’s post-9/11 armor, they largely miss what GOP primary voters clearly see: a dedicated and relentless patriot who has been fighting terrorists for 30 years. Facing an unprecedented crisis, Giuliani stayed remarkably cool, maintained order, and helped evacuate the financial district’s dangerous streets. “Just keep going north,” he told those still in Lower Manhattan.

To amplify his enduring post-9/11 reputation, Giuliani should educate Republicans on his Reaganesque tax-reducing, budget-restraining, crime-cutting mayoral record. Somehow, Giuliani also needs to make peace with pro-life and Second Amendment activists. But for now, “America’s Mayor” — previously caricatured as “too liberal for the nomination” — looks like 2008’s Republican to beat.

-Deroy Murdock
______________________________________________________

This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on September 12th, 2006. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Rudy Awakening

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America’s mayor recalls the Reagan assassination attempt.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the attempted assassination of the late president Ronald W. Reagan, and it’s a day former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani remembers vividly.

“The morning of March 30, 1981, the White House had a breakfast with the president for newly appointed” sub-Cabinet officials, Giuliani recalls. He had occupied a Justice Department office for the previous fortnight while awaiting Senate confirmation as Ronald Reagan’s associate attorney general.

“Everyone took a picture with the president,” Giuliani continues. “And then we had breakfast with him . . . He gave us a talk about our role, and the importance of the administration, and the opportunity to change things. That was the whole feeling of the time: that this was an opportunity to make significant change in the way that government was organized and our priorities.”

President Reagan eventually shifted from national affairs to the national pastime.

“I remember the conversation got around to baseball,” Giuliani says. President Reagan shared a few stories about players he admired and reminisced about his days as a 1930s baseball radio announcer. “I must have asked him a question about baseball,” Giuliani says. “I can never remember a conversation about baseball that I haven’t participated in,” he laughs.

That afternoon, Giuliani conferred with presidential adviser Michael Uhlmann in his space in the Old Executive Office Building. “We were putting together a task force to consider proposals for reducing violent crime,” Giuliani remembers. During that meeting, ironically, they suddenly learned that a gunman named John Warnock Hinckley Jr. had emptied his .22 caliber Rohm revolver outside the Washington Hilton Hotel at about 2:25 P.M. One bullet hit President Reagan and burrowed to within an inch of his heart. Hinckley also struck and seriously wounded White House press secretary James Brady, Washington, D.C., police officer Thomas Delahanty, and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.

“It was a tremendous shock,” Giuliani says. “It would have been a shock anyway, but particularly just having seen [Reagan] at breakfast.”

“My secretary came running into my office with the news,” says Uhlmann, now an American-government professor at Claremont Graduate University in southern California. “We were stunned, of course. It took us a couple of seconds to get our acts together.”

Giuliani raced back to his office and huddled with Attorney General William French Smith, FBI Director William Webster, and Justice’s top brass.

“A lot of the next couple of hours were taken up working with the Metropolitan Police Department,” Giuliani says. “The attorney general wanted [Hinckley] in federal custody. Since the attempted assassination—at this point, we didn’t know if the president was going to live or die—or the possible assassination of a president is a federal offense, we wanted him in federal custody. I worked with the FBI to get him transferred to federal custody and found a place in the District to keep him with the U.S. Marshals.”

Where exactly did Giuliani sequester Hinckley?

“I can’t actually remember, and I probably wouldn’t tell you if I could,” he laughs.

More seriously, Giuliani says, “My job was to oversee getting Hinckley in federal custody, and then keeping him safe.” He adds, “I remember several times that day, that picture came into my head: Jack Ruby coming out of a crowd and shooting Lee Harvey Oswald” during another prison transfer. Moving Hinckley—with FBI and U.S. Marshal assistance to “a place that nobody would know about or find—was obviously more tense with that recollection.”

Giuliani soon sought due process for the most reviled man in America.

“We had to get [Hinckley] arraigned within a reasonable period of time,” Giuliani says. “Although this was a crime of worldwide significance, it still had to be treated like any other crime.” Hinckley would face a judge, hear his rights, and could request bail.

Giuliani remembers what Attorney General Smith said of Hinckley: “ ‘We have to demonstrate to people that our system operates. He should be brought out into open court the way any other prisoner is.’ ” “And it also should be shown,” Giuliani adds, “that he hasn’t been mistreated, in case anybody ever tried to make that allegation later—that he had been scarred, beaten, or whatever.”

After closing time, Giuliani dispatched FBI agents and U.S. Marshals to Washington’s E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse. “They emptied it out. They searched it. They checked it for bombs. They secured it,” Giuliani says. Hinckley “arrived for arraignment, if I recall correctly, probably around 10 o’clock at night.”

As U.S. Magistrate Arthur L. Burnett presided, Giuliani sat in open court beside FBI Director Webster and saw Hinckley hear the charges against him, hear his legal rights, and ultimately remain incarcerated.

“You look at a person like that and you wonder how something like that could happen,” Giuliani says. “You’re looking at their outer image, right? . . . What could be going on inside this man’s head, that he would attempt to kill President Reagan, or any president for that matter?”

What did that traumatic day teach Giuliani?

“For me personally,” he says, “it was one of those terrible emergencies that I was involved in. And I think it kind of taught me how to handle it. Not just me personally, but watching the other people: the attorney general, how he organized it, the head of the FBI, Bill Webster. And the attorney general, who had been in office at that point two months, handled it brilliantly. He organized all of us. He had us all doing our jobs. We each had our function.”

Giuliani finally went home and, like tens of millions of Americans, hypnotically followed the news. “I probably stayed up all night watching it on television,” Giuliani says. He heard the jokes Reagan told, even while suffering major internal bleeding.

“Honey, I forgot to duck,” he smiled at the First Lady. Before undergoing surgery, the president told his doctors, “Please tell me you’re all Republicans.” Later, Reagan scribbled aides a note: “All in all, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”

“That incident, that could have taken Ronald Reagan from us and therefore deprived us of someone I think will be one of our great presidents,” Giuliani explains, “also was a thing that created in the American mind the affection for him . . . It displayed a man of tremendous courage and an ability to handle anything.”

Does Giuliani call himself a Reaganite?

“Absolutely!” he exclaims. “He had strong beliefs. He knew what those beliefs were. He stuck to them whether they were popular or unpopular. And he did it in a way in which he was civil and nice to everyone. It was a beautiful combination of tremendous commitment to what he believed in, but not anger.”

“Ronald Reagan was a role model for me,” says America’s Mayor. “I consider him a hero.”

-Deroy Murdock

______________________________________________________
This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on March 30th, 2006. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

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Rudy is America's Most Favored 2008 Candidate

From Gallup:

Even though Giuliani is closely matched with McCain among Republicans, he easily outdistances all Republican and Democratic contenders in terms of his overall favorability ratings, according to a review of recent Gallup Poll data.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans have a favorable view of Giuliani. The next-most-positively rated possible contender is Rice, who received a 61% favorable rating in August, when Americans were last asked about her. Edwards, McCain, and Clinton all reside north of the 50% mark, although Clinton's unfavorables are roughly twice those of Edwards and McCain.

Hillary Clinton is clearly the most polarizing candidate -- 86% of Democrats view her favorably, compared with just 13% of Republicans. Democrats do not view Edwards and Obama as positively as they view Clinton, but Republicans view the two more positively than Clinton. A majority of Republicans, Democrats, and independents have favorable opinions of both McCain and Giuliani.


Gallup also shows Rudy and McCain tied at 28% among Republicans in the race for the GOP nomination.

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Friday, December 22, 2006

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Michael Barone - Giuliani is a Front-Runner

giulianidecember1bjpgweb

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani gestures while speaking during the Riga Conference, on the sidelines of a NATO summit, at Blackheads House in Riga, Tuesday Nov. 28, 2006.

Michael Barone (via Hugh Hewitt): Polls for the Republican Nomination

Pollster.com has an interesting summary of the poll standings for the Republican nomination in 2008. It makes the point, largely overlooked by political writers of all stripes, that Rudy Giuliani has been leading John McCain in the large majority of polls, albeit usually by narrow margins. Political writers seem to be assuming that Giuliani can’t win the Republican nomination because of his liberal stands on cultural issues. I have disagreed for some time. Yes, Giuliani’s stands on these issues are a liability in Republican primaries. But they could be trumped by the very strong positive feelings people have had about his performance on and after September 11.

That’s what talk show host and law professor Hugh Hewitt found when he polled an audience of Republican women in Temecula, Calif., back in 2005. Hewitt asked one of the women why she could support Giuliani when he disagreed with her on cultural issues.

“All that won’t matter if we’re attacked,” she said. “Rudy will keep us safe.

The polling evidence suggests she’s not alone. McCain is often described as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. I think it’s more accurate to call him a front-runner and to acknowledge that Giuliani is a front-runner too.

Absolutely.

This is a two man race between Giluiani and McCain. Clearly, Giuliani has the better favorability ratings and has been polling better than McCain against Hillary Clinton, the apparent Democrat nominee.

The GOP Presidential primary season may be long and protracted depending upon the June California Primary - unless it is moved to March. If Giuliani avoids an early GAFFE California and the Republican nomination are his.

UPDATE: Byron York at National Review has a summary of the latest KCCI Poll:

John McCain 27%
Rudy Giuliani 26%
Mitt Romney 9%
Newt Gingrich 7%
Condi Rice 4%
George Pataki 1%
Jeb Bush 1%
George Allen 1%
Sam Brownback 1%

Stay tuned……

giulianidecember19b

Cross-Posted from the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

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Rudy '06

A Giuliani win over Senator Hillary will go far toward a 2008 victory.

A boulder now blocks Rudolph W. Giuliani’s path to the White House: a nagging suspicion among conservatives that he is too liberal for the Republican presidential nomination.

Referring to Giuliani and Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson, for instance, said on the February 11 Hardball: “I will say that, politically, how are they so different?…They are not.”

If Giuliani wants the 2008 GOP nod, he needs to help conservatives across America understand what New Yorkers already know: Giuliani is an anvil-tough, free-market reformer who dramatically limited Gotham’s government.

According to one leading conservative, Team Giuliani suggested that “America’s mayor” make this pitch himself, but the Right rebuffed him.

“Rudy’s people said he would be willing to come and speak, but we said we didn’t think he’d fit into the program,” American Conservative Union chairman David Keene tells me. In mid-February, the ACU held its annual conference in Washington, D.C. The American Right’s entire rainbow was on display, from the traditionalist Family Research Council, to the openly gay Log Cabin Republicans, to Ayn Rand’s aficionados at the Objectivist Center.

“Rudy’s office called and said his normal fee is $100,000, but that he would appear for free.” Keene adds. “I would assume he wanted to come here to boost his conservative credentials, but we didn’t think that would be useful.” (Communications Director Sunny Mindel says Giuliani Partners did not approach the ACU, although a high-level Giuliani associate says he and an ACU official discussed a possible appearance.)

Keene says he and the ACU’s board denied Giuliani a high-profile platform at their convention. Pity, because there is a solid, right-of-center rationale for President Giuliani:

  • Between January 1, 1994 and January 1, 2002, Giuliani famously supervised a 57-percent overall drop in crime and a 65-percent plunge in homicides.
  • Giuliani curbed or killed 23 taxes totaling $8 billion. He slashed Gotham’s top income-tax rate 21 percent and local taxes’ share of personal income 15.9 percent. Giuliani called hiking taxes after September 11 “a dumb, stupid, idiotic, and moronic thing to do.”
  • Giuliani’s spending increases averaged just 2.9 percent annually. His fiscal 1995 and 2002 budgets actually decreased total outlays.
  • While hiring 12 percent more cops and 12.8 percent more teachers, Giuliani sliced manpower 17.2 percent, from 117,494 workers to 97,338.
  • Rather than “perpetuate discrimination,” Giuliani junked Gotham’s 20 percent set-asides for female and minority contractors.
  • Two years before federal welfare reform, Giuliani began shrinking public-assistance rolls from 1,112,490 recipients in 1993 to 462,595 in 2001, a 58.4-percent decrease to 1966 levels. He also renamed welfare offices “Job Centers.” According to Giuliani’s book, Leadership, in fiscal 2001, City Hall placed 151,376 welfare beneficiaries, a 16-fold increase over 1993’s 9,215 assignments under Democrat David Dinkins.
    Foster-care residents dropped from 42,000 to 28,700 between 1996 and 2001, while adoptions zoomed 65 percent to 21,189.
  • Giuliani privatized 69.8 percent of city-owned apartments; sold WNYC-TV, WNYC-FM, WNYC-AM, and Gotham’s share of the U.N. Plaza Hotel; and invited the private Central Park Conservancy to manage Manhattan’s 843-acre rectangular garden.
  • Giuliani advocated school vouchers, launched a Charter School Fund, and scrapped tenure for principals.
  • While many libertarians frowned, Giuliani padlocked porn shops in Times Square, paving the way for smut-free cineplexes and Disney musicals.
  • Giuliani barnstorms for conservative candidates. Last fall, he addressed 38 post-convention Bush-Cheney rallies and stumped for Senator Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.), Senator Mel Martinez (R., Fla.), gubernatorial hopeful Dino Rossi (R., Wash.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Tex.), and Senator John Thune (R., S. D.), the man who toppled Tom Daschle. “We also taped get-out-the-vote phone messages for 20 candidates,” one Giuliani aide recalls. This February, Giuliani spoke at a fundraiser for Senator Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.).
Add Giuliani’s world-famous brand of tenacious, yet touching, leadership (abundant on September 11), and many conservatives remain unmoved. They liken him to a luxury car with plush seats, dynamite speakers, excellent mileage, and three slight problems: No steering wheel, no tires, and no engine.

Giuliani is a pro-choice Republican who is friendlier to gay rights than to gun rights. This is hemlock to most conservatives. He will struggle to attract Republican primary voters without soothing them on these matters.

Giuliani could start by approaching the middle ground on abortion. Rejecting partial-birth abortion (as even Daschle did), promoting parental notification for minors, and advocating adult waiting periods might encourage socio-cons to reconsider Giuliani.

Beyond discussing their issues and attending their events (when invited), Giuliani could earn conservatives’ eternal gratitude by driving Ms. Hillary off the national stage.

Extracting Hillary Clinton from the Senate “would change everything,” says ACU’s David Keene. “That would be a totally different picture. Rudy has a lifetime record on a host of issues that concerns conservatives. That record could be canceled out, and he could become a conservative hero, by taking Hillary out. We do believe in redemption, but you have to pay some penance.”

“If Rudy could beat Hillary and bring back the vote we lost in New York — which would help strengthen the president’s agenda on judicial nominees and the defense budget — we would be open to giving him a second look,” says Bob Bevill, president of New Hampshire Eagle Forum. “However, he would have to convert to being a Red Sox fan.”

As America’s mayor marches on Washington, his next step should be to snatch the former First Lady’s Senate seat in November 2006. Rudy Giuliani’s best bet for winning the White House in 2008 is to eliminate the American Right’s foe-in-chief two years sooner.

-Deroy Murdock
__________________________________________________
This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on March 1st, 2005. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Jonah For Rudy

I knew he'd come around!

Money quote:

"But Giuliani was considered a raging right-winger as mayor. No doubt this had a lot to do with the fact that the city's political center is so far to the left. But there was a lot more to Giuliani's philosophy. When I grew up in New York in the 1970s and 1980s, the job of mayor was, essentially, to manage the city's decline. Crime was not only seen as permanent, some on the left even tried to rationalize it as part of the city's charm.

By the time Giuliani arrived, social chaos was seen as the natural order of things. Giuliani heroically challenged these assumptions on almost all fronts. He and his first police commissioner, William J. Bratton (now chief of the LAPD), refused to accept that mere containment was the best that crime fighters could hope for.

By now, many are familiar with the story of Giuliani's quality-of-life campaign against turnstile jumpers, welfare cheats, squeegee men, graffiti artists and porn shops. But what is forgotten is that Giuliani was reviled for all these efforts by the New York Times, the entertainment industry and the intellectual left -- whose numbers are so great in the Big Apple that they actually constitute a voting bloc -- and that every day he leaped back into the breach."

Read the whole thing.

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore

Rasmussen: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) continues to hold a narrow lead over Senator Hillary Clinton (D) and former Vice President Al Gore (D) in early Election 2008 polling.

Giuliani leads Clinton 47% to 43% in the latest poll. That’s very similar to the 48% to 43% lead he enjoyed in late November. When matched against Gore, Giuliani now leads 46% to 43%. In November, he also enjoyed a three-point lead over the Democrats’ Election 2000 candidate.

Against either Democrat, Giuliani leads among men but trails among women. The two Democrats lead among voters under 30, but trail among other age groups.

Gore is now viewed favorably by 50% of Americans and unfavorably by 49%. That’s a bit better than in earlier surveys. For Clinton, the numbers are now 48% favorable and 50% unfavorable, a bit weaker than the last time we checked.

Neither Democrat comes close to Giuliani on the favorability scale. The man sometimes known as “America’s Mayor” is viewed favorably by seven out of ten Americans (71%).

Rudy leads in the Republican primary election polls as well.

So, onto New Hampshire for Mayor Giuliani:

New York Post: GIULIANI WILL HIT ROAD FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE

Rudy Giuliani will pay a visit to first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire at the end of next month, part of his initial foray as he mulls a run for the White House in 2008, officials told The Post.

The former mayor will address the New Hampshire Republican Party’s annual meeting in Manchester on Jan. 27. State party Executive Director Andy Leach said several hundred people attend the yearly event, making it a broad early platform within the party.

Full speed ahead for the Mayor’s campaign. After a successful fund-raising effort this week in New York, Giuliani is off to convert the cash into organization and votes.

Stay tuned……

Cross-Posted from the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

Previous:

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Join Rudy 2008 Web Site Is Gold

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani the Un-Nominated?

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani to Be Keynote Speaker at California Republican Party Convention

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads McCain and Hillary Clinton in 2008 Presidential Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads in Latest Fox News Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: California’s Model for 2008

The Rudy Giuliani Files



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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

In Denial?

The MSM that is, over who is the true Republican frontrunner. Charles Franklin over at Pollster has the breakdown:

One notable result stands out. Former New York City Mayor Rudolf Giuliani continues to hold a small but reliable lead over Arizona Senator John McCain. Of 39 polls with both names in the list of candidates, Giuliani leads McCain in 30 with four more ties. McCain leads in only 5 polls.

That doesn't seem to me to be the message I've been getting from the media, so I did a little research. I searched Lexis/Nexis for "McCain" and "frontrunner" in the same paragraph, but "Giuliani" NOT in the paragraph. I then did the opposite. And finally for both mentioned in the same paragraph with "frontrunner". The results don't seem to reflect the polls. Using "American Newspapers" as a broad sample of papers, and 5/1/2006-12/19/2006 as the date range, I found:

McCain, frontrunner, NOT Giuliani: 270 articles
Giuliani, frontrunner, NOT McCain: 28 articles
Both with frontrunner: 76 articles

So I was relieved to find that my impression of media coverage as MUCH more favorable to McCain was not just a delusion. It also appears at strong odds with the polling data. Giuliani leads McCain by an average of 3 points in the 39 polls. Not a huge lead, but a very consistent one.

Much of the reporting seems to downplay Giuliani's chances of winning the Republican nomination, but given the negative opinion of McCain among many conservative Republicans, I wouldn't assume McCain can win easily either.


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Rudy's Legacy

A model for the Right

After Argentina’s imploding economy swallowed his violin shop, Jorge Dominguez lamented his country’s woeful political leadership. As he recently told the Wall Street Journal: “We need Giuliani.”

Since 9-11, Rudy Giuliani has wowed observers from Broadway to Buenos Aires. His 12-31 departure will be a major loss both for New York and the American Right. While other politicians deliver more conservative speeches or sponsor more libertarian legislation, Giuliani is unparalleled in actually making free-market ideas stand up and stroll down the street.

True, many on the Right criticize him for favoring strict local gun controls and abortion rights, although he inherited the former and rarely discusses the latter. Some conservatives also scold him for marching with Log Cabin Republicans in the annual Gay Pride parade, although this appears neither to have boosted divorces nor reduced live births.

But social conservatives should applaud Giuliani’s emphasis on individual responsibility and accountability rather than excuses. This paradigm shift yielded his greatest triumph: a 57 percent plunge in overall crime and 65 percent reduction in homicide since he arrived on January 1, 1994.

Under Giuliani, New York’s public-assistance rolls shrank 53.4 percent, from 1,112,490 in 1993 to 518,823 today. While most of these individuals now work, others disappeared after Giuliani cracked down on welfare fraud.

In January 1994, Giuliani junked a 20 percent set-aside for minority- and women-owned businesses. This policy also let them win city business while overbidding white competitors by 10 percent.

“How we could pay 10 percent more for anything seemed incomprehensible to me,” he once told the Manhattan Institute. Giuliani replaced rules that would “perpetuate discrimination,” with “an ethnic, race, religious, gender and sexual-orientation neutral program in city procurement.” New York now explains application procedures to new contractors and subdivides large contracts to help neophytes compete.

Giuliani’s executive order, coincidentally sustained in a court case that week, did more for colorblindness than Republicans even have attempted while controlling Congress and the White House.

Fiscally speaking, Giuliani slashed or killed 23 different taxes and lowered the personal income tax rate 21 percent. His budgets held average annual spending increases to just 2.9 percent (versus 3.7 percent in Washington, largely under a GOP Congress). In fiscal year 1995 and his FY 2002 forecast, nominal outlays actually decreased. That out-Reagans Reagan.

While Giuliani hired 12 percent more cops and 12.8 percent more teachers, municipal employment otherwise fell 17.2 percent from 117,494 to 97,338.

Giuliani stopped City Hall from stockpiling tax-foreclosed properties. His “Building Blocks!” program cut city-owned apartments by 70 percent, from 44,000 units in 1994 to 13,278 today. Continued sales to neighborhood entrepreneurs and private tenants soon will extract city government completely from the distressed housing business.

Giuliani aggressively has privatized city assets and functions. As he explains, “the issue of privatization of certain public services is not about public versus private, but rather about monopoly versus competition.”

He revitalized Off-Track Betting (a municipal bookie operation that actually lost $5.3 million under mayor David Dinkins) then sold it last August for $260 million. He divested WNYC-TV for $207 million in 1996.

Giuliani also privatized Central Park. Since 1998, the Central Park Conservancy has managed Manhattan’s 843-acre rectangular wonderland. Strangely, this private group has not commenced logging. Central Park is now immaculately manicured at lower cost to taxpayers.

Giuliani achieved this and more as a Republican in a liberal bastion whose city council is 45-6 Democrat. Long before terrorists attacked, Giuliani was as intrepid, relentless and tough as he has been since 9-11. Rather than tremble before his opponents, as too many do on the Right, Giuliani cajoled, confronted and ridiculed them into submission.

Giuliani also promoted his agenda through innumerable media appearances and his weekly call-in radio show. Unlike so many Beltway Republicans, he does not expect to generate positive headlines by shivering beneath his desk.

In practice, Giuliani is as good as it gets on the Right. President Bush, whose domestic gentility charms Democrats yet invites their mischief, should borrow Giuliani’s bottle of S.O.B. pills.

Bush should return the favor by naming Giuliani director of Central Intelligence. Alternatively, Giuliani should rescue his state by challenging its 40-watt governor, George Pataki, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. In either case, as Rudy rides off into the skyline, Republicans, conservatives, and libertarians should learn this lesson from his example: If their ideas can make it here, they can make it anywhere.

-Deroy Murdock

________________________________________________
This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on December 21th, 2001. It is reprinted here with the author’s consent.

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Rudy rakes in $800K at fundraiser

That's the scoop from the New York Sun.

"Hundreds of donors turned out for a Midtown presidential fund-raiser for Mayor Giuliani last night in what he called "a good start"to his exploration of a campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Officially, Mr. Giuliani's camp said it was pleased with the showing for the former mayor's first fund-raiser since he formed a presidential exploratory committee last month. The $2,100-a-head benefit was closed to the press, but supporters put the number of attendees at more than 400, which could yield more than $800,000 in seed money for Mr. Giuliani's committee.
Mr. Giuliani spoke for about 20 minutes at the event, attendees said, touching on lessons that he had learned as mayor and saying the nation had to stay "on the offensive" fighting terrorists in Iraq and around the world.

Addressing reporters afterward, Mr. Giuliani had nothing but praise for one of his chief rivals for the Republican nomination, Senator McCain of Arizona, calling him "a fine man," "a good friend," and "a hero."

But in a sign of the growing battle between the two men, Mr. McCain picked the day of Mr. Giuliani's first fund-raiser to release a list of 57 prominent donors in the tristate region who have committed to his all-but-announced campaign, sending a signal to Mr. Giuliani on his home turf. The list includes Secretary of State Kissinger, the former chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, John Whitehead, and Edward Cox. Mr. Giuliani expressed little concern about Mr. McCain's move last night.

" John McCain is doing the same thing I'm doing. He's exploring running for president," he said. "I can understand why people would support him, and we'll have a large number of people who support us, and then we'll figure out who has the better chance."

Mr. Giuliani also lauded Governor Romney of Massachusetts, noting that he and Mr. McCain were "probably the two most prominent" Republican hopefuls. One man he omitted was his former New York colleague, Governor Pataki, who has traveled extensively across the country to explore a presidential bid but has barely registered in most polls. Mr. Giuliani will decide formally on a presidential run "sometime next year," he said, and he plans to travel to key states in the coming months. His exploratory committee yesterday unveiled its Web site, joinrudy2008.com, which features a photo of the former mayor, hands clasped, next to an early campaign slogan, "Proven Leadership."

Among the attendees of last night's fund-raiser at the Marriott Marquis were several longtime supporters of Mr. Giuliani and members of his administration, including a former fire and police commissioner, Howard Safir. The co-founder of Home Depot, Kenneth Langone, hosted the event."
The Rudy detractors who have been claiming that Rudy is getting too late of a start are being proven wrong every day. And the only reason it has ever seemed that way is that McCain and Romney got ridiculously early starts on the rest of the field, albeit for different reasons. Romney knew the number of times that a non-heir-apparent governor of a mid-sized state has won the GOP presidential nod in the last few decades. As such, he realized that if he were going to have any chance at the nomination, he'd basically have to start running just as soon as he was seated as governor in the Bay State. McCain, on the other hand, realized that if he were going to become the GOP crown prince who almost always wins the nomination, he would have to create a sense of inevitably early and often. Hence the sense that Rudy, Newt, Huckabee, and others were all getting a late start. And while the actions of McCain and Romney did to some extent force the other candidates to begin moving earlier as they scooped up the talent and endorsements, the thing that guys like Rudy and Newt have going for them is that they're already household names within the GOP. This allowed them to wait until the ink was dry on the midterms before jumping in, while most people are already writing Huckabee and Brownback off more than a year before the first votes are cast in Iowa.

Make no mistake; Rudy is running, and he will be nothing less than supremely formidable.

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Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Join Rudy





Because the GOP, and America, need Rudy now.


More than ever.

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani the Un-Nominated?

A recent poll of Republicans gave former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani an early lead for the presidential nomination over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

Washington Post: Giuliani’s Primary Hurdle

Polls Aside, Skeptics Say GOP Won’t Nominate a Social Liberal for President

His national poll numbers are a dream, he’s a major box office draw on the Republican Party circuit, and he goes by the shorthand title “America’s Mayor.” All of which has former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani convinced he just might become America’s president in 2008.

He is showing the early signs of a serious candidacy: Giuliani’s presidential exploratory committee throws its first major fundraiser in a hotel near Times Square on Tuesday evening, and he recently hired the political director of the Republican National Committee during 2006. A Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week found that Republicans give Giuliani an early lead over Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who is far ahead of the former mayor in organizing a national campaign.

And here comes the BUT - MONKEY.

But, Rudy cannot be nominated by the GOP?

BALLOCKS or BULL

Mayor Giuliani may be the ONLY GOP candidate that can beat likely Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton. And the Democrats know it.

But, back to the GOP primary season.

Despite that lead, conservative party strategists and activists in key primary states are skeptical and warn that the socially liberal Republican faces a difficult campaign. They question whether a Republican who has had one marriage end in annulment and another in divorce, and favors abortion rights, gun control and immigrant rights, has much retail appeal in the evangelical and deeply conservative reaches of the GOP.

“If the Republican Party wants to send the social conservatives home for good, all they have to do is nominate Rudy Giuliani,” said Rick Scarborough, a Southern Baptist minister and president of Vision America. “It’s an insult to the pro-Christian agenda. . . . He’s going to spend a lot of money finding he can’t get out of the Republican primaries.”

The Pro-Life Christians and Evangelicals are an important GOP constituency. However, social issues near and dear to their hearts will NOT be in play for 2008. National security, foreign policy and competency in administering the federal government will rule the 2008 election season.

Flap asks the Christian Right about where they were in the 2006 California Governor’s race?

Answer: NOT voting for Far-Left Democrat Phil Angelides. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a socially moderate Republican won this race easily.

The same will apply to the race between Giuliani and Hillary.

The Christian right will NOT support Hillary Clinton, a far left ideologue.

The GOP knows that the red state/blue state dichotomy does not portend well for the future GOP. California MUST be competitive. There are just too many people and electoral votes to abandon. Giuliani is the ONLY GOP candidate that can beat Hillary in California.

And what about John McCain?

Flap knows the 2008 Presidential race will be a hard campaign to beat Hillary Clinton and most probably the Barack Obama ticket. Flap, hereby, invokes the GOP Eleventh commandment, so aptly promulgated by President Ronald Reagan: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican.”

Flap will contrast the issues and promote Flap’s candidate for President, Rudy Giuliani, but will from this point forward refrain from trash-talking Senator John McCain or Governor Mitt Romney.

Giuliani, 62, presents an unusual figure in recent political history. His coolness after the Sept. 11 attacks, and his eloquence about that loss, rendered him that rare mayor who could step onto the national political stage. He has a core of socially liberal positions — he also supports domestic partnerships for same-sex couples, although not marriage — but wraps it in a hide as tough as any conservative Republican.

He’s a crime fighter and a tax and welfare cutter. He campaigned for George W. Bush in 2000 and staked out unyielding positions on Iraq — he said recently that withdrawing soon from Iraq “would be a terrible mistake.” He also disputed the recent findings of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission of elder statesmen, that concluded that untangling the Israeli-Palestinian knot is central to achieving a broader Middle East peace.

Can “America’s Mayor”: be nominated by the GOP?

You bet

Let the campaign begin……

Cross-Posted from the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani to Be Keynote Speaker at California Republican Party Convention

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads McCain and Hillary Clinton in 2008 Presidential Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads in Latest Fox News Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: California’s Model for 2008

The Rudy Giuliani Files



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Monday, December 18, 2006

Governor Giuliani

The Empire State needs him

New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's confident leadership since the September 11 Massacre is the stuff of legend. Giuliani's local job approval rating stands at 79 percent, according to an October 9 Quinnipiac University poll. With a face nearly as famous as Lady Liberty's, Giuliani recently walked through Times Square literally to the applause of New Yorkers and tourists alike.

It pains Gothamites to realize Giuliani will not be in City Hall after New Year's Eve. As arguably the most effective and imaginative public servant in America, Giuliani deserves a higher office in which to devote his enormous talents to his fellow citizens. President Bush could be instrumental in keeping Giuliani on stage in an even bigger part. The Empire State needs a governor with Giuliani's energy, laser focus on fiscal matters, and enthusiasm for tax reduction.

Before terrorists turned his life and city upside down, Giuliani discussed his supply-side record at a September 5 Manhattan Institute press conference. While Giuliani is know worldwide for slashing crime, he has chopped taxes, too.

"This is a reversal in philosophy of very recent origin," Giuliani said. Between the 1970s and his first inaugural on January 1, 1994, he said local taxes had been hiked 20 different times. On his watch, 23 different taxes have been cut or eliminated.

  • Since Giuliani's arrival, the local personal income tax rate has fallen from 4.46 percent to 3.54 percent — a 21 percent decline in the tax burden.
  • City tax revenue as a share of personal income has declined from 8.9 percent in 1992 to 7.3 percent today. That number has not been so low since before 1970.
  • The hotel occupancy tax dropped from 21.25 percent to 13.25 percent. "That was confiscatory," Giuliani said of the old tax rate. Local politicians "didn't realize that they were driving away $1 billion in convention business per year." As supply-siders predicted, the lower tax generated higher revenue. In 1995, the year the tax plunged, it produced $135 million in receipts. Last year, while picking less from each visitor's pocket, the lower tax yielded revenues of $219 million.
These and other tax cuts helped create 481,000 private-sector jobs during the Giuliani years. Of course, safer streets and — until last year — a booming national economy and thriving stock market also kept the local employment picture rosy. Still, Giuliani said, "I would attribute 30 to 40 percent of the increase in jobs to the reduction in taxes." Sounding like Jack Kemp on the Hudson, Giuliani added: "If the economy needs a jobs program, reduce taxes to create jobs for poor people."

With New York now reeling fiscally as well as physically and emotionally, Giuliani unveiled a revised budget on October 9 to reflect the city's grim, new economic environment. He cut the budget across-the-board 15 percent, except for a 2.5 percent reduction in the police and fire departments and government school system. These savings would offset an expected $1 billion tax revenue shortfall. "You can find $1 billion in a $39 billion budget without affecting a single blessed thing," Giuliani said. He also refused to postpone or pare any of his $17.56 billion in tax reductions scheduled through 2005, calling such a move "a dumb, stupid, idiotic and moronic thing to do."

Compare Giuliani's thrift to Washington, D.C. where Congress has greeted the War on Terror with an obscene spending spree. Atop $40 billion in legitimate expenditures to recover from last month's attack and defend against future assaults, federal education outlays appear set to grow 17 percent next year alone. While the House voted October 5 to boost farm spending $170 billion through 2011, Senator Harry Reid (D., Nevada) wants some $9 billion for a magnetic-levitation train to link Anaheim, California and Las Vegas. At last, Mickey Mouse will be united with Siegfried and Roy.

Albany is a sleepy, corrupt, free-spending patronage mill. Despite his good ink since September 11, Governor George Pataki has done precious little to reverse this. He normally is as invisible and non-confrontational as a diplomat. Fittingly, President Bush could do New Yorkers a huge favor by appointing Pataki United States ambassador to wherever he wants. Giuliani would trounce the unknown then-acting governor Mary Donohue in a Republican primary and very likely would win the governor's mansion in November 2002. That would be a fitting reward for his outstanding tenure as New York's greatest mayor yet.

-Deroy Murdock

_______________________________________________
This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on October 12th, 2001. It is reprinted here with the author’s consent.

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani to Be Keynote Speaker at California Republican Party Convention

San Francisco Chronicle: Giuliani is wooing California’s conservatives for possible ‘08 bid

He’s scheduled to be keynote speaker for state GOP convention

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a moderate Republican and possible presidential candidate, is working to strengthen his hand in California by scheduling a high-profile appearance and quietly gathering support from some of the state’s staunchest conservatives.

State GOP board members were informed by party officials last week that Giuliani is scheduled to be the keynote speaker for the state Republican Party convention in February in Sacramento, sources said.

That appearance will catapult what was expected to be a fairly routine GOP gathering into a national event — and is almost certain to ramp up the increasingly active parade of presidential hopefuls of both parties coming to California to court donors in a state viewed as the wealthiest source of campaign cash.

Giuliani, called “America’s mayor” after his formidable performance in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, already has established a camaraderie with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — a Republican in the same moderate, bipartisan mold who also supports gay rights, abortion rights and stem cell research.


The fact that Mayor Giuliani is the KEYNOTE speaker at the California GOP organization meeting in Sacramento means that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed onto the Giuliani presidental campaign.

The Governator may not overtly endorse Giuliani over Senator John McCain but this event clearly shows the Governor’s hand.

Moreover, the Giuliani campaign has been courting other California conservative activists, like Bill Simon for fundraising

Simon has been a longtime friend of Giuliani, and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York under Giuliani, who was then the U.S. attorney.

Simon was on Wall Street and at breakfast with Giuliani on Sept. 11, 2001, when two planes hit the World Trade Center at the start of a terrorist attack that killed about 3,000 people.

Simon — who was traveling Friday and could not be reached for comment — has been tapped to help Giuliani with fundraising in California, GOP sources said.

and….. Steve Frank for liason to conservative grassroots organizations like the California Republican Assembly (CRA) and evangelicals:

Frank, a former consultant to Simon and a conservative who publishes the California Political News & Views newsletter, and has been a harsh critic of Schwarzenegger on the right — but he confirmed last week that he also will be supporting Giuliani’s effort.

Frank said the former New York mayor is in the best position to take the White House in 2008 against a roster of potential Democratic challengers who include New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and even Al Gore, the Democrats’ 2000 presidential nominee.

While conservatives may have differences with Giuliani on social policies, Frank said, “I have no differences with a guy who, as mayor, cut or eliminated 23 different taxes, and dramatically cut crime in New York. … Like Ronald Reagan, agree or disagree, he will look you in the eye and say, ‘This is where I stand.’ There’s a trust factor.'’

Now, will the California Legislature change the California election primary from June to March? The Governator certainly has incentive to sign such a bill to help Giuliani.

But several Giuliani supporters are eyeing a front-loaded primary calendar that could have big states like Florida and New Jersey - where social issues are not so weighty and security is a major concern - vote earlier, a move that is seen as beneficial to him.

If states like Jersey - where a move is afoot to move the primary to early February 2008 - and Florida hold their votes earlier, it could diminish the impact of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, both of which are dominated by social conservatives. McCain, who won New Hampshire in the 2000 election, is leading polls there.

But, where do the Democrats who control the California Assembly and Senate by large electoral margins weigh into GOP politics?

To help Hillary Clinton?

Doubtful

To help ease term limits with a concomitant redistricting proposal?

Very possible

Stay tuned…….

Cross-Posted from the FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

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Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads McCain and Hillary Clinton in 2008 Presidential Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads in Latest Fox News Poll

Rudy Giuliani Watch: California’s Model for 2008

The Rudy Giuliani Files



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Sunday, December 17, 2006

Barnes: Rudy beats McCain among conservatives

Over at Race42008, Woodrow Eisenhower discusses the commentary of prominent Beltway conservative Fred Barnes on the dynamics of a Rudy/McCain race for the GOP presidential nomination. Says Woody:

Seems like there’s some slight, slight movement within the Beltway towards recognizing just how serious a Rudy Giuliani presidential candidacy is, though the common wisdom still prevails for the most part. While discussing Mitt Romney’s minor fall-out in recent days over the resurgence of questioning over the validity of his flip-flops on abortion and gay marriage, Fred Barnes, co-host of the FOX News political talk show “Beltway Boys,” stated that while Romney is trying to move to the right to appeal to conservative voters, those voters, he predicted, would never really “warm up” to John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. Surprisingly, however, he added: “Though [conservative voters] have a better chance with [warming up to] Giuliani, I think.”

It’s not much, but it is a new thread of concession that’s seeping its way through the Beltway’s political veins. Rudy Giuliani’s astral positives amongst voters, his massive acceptability as a presidential nominee for Republicans, and his continually leading spot in the polls, is something the mainstream media cannot choose to sweep under the rug for much longer.
Barnes' statement echoes the sentiments of Republican voters in every scientific poll on the subject, who select Rudy over McCain each time.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Ready for Rudy

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On Tuesday, Giuliani Blog proudly announced the addition of the Deroy Murdock Archive, which contains selected articles by Mr. Murdock, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and Contributing Editor with National Review Online.

We are honored to feature Mr. Murdock’s, “Ready for Rudy”, perhaps the most essential article yet written on the Reaganite record and presidential potential of Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Please follow the link to read this seminal analysis.

Ready for Rudy

_______________________________________________________
This article originally was the cover story of the September 2006 issue of The American Spectator. It is reprinted here with the author’s consent.

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Romney: Failure to launch?

The ABC/Washington Post poll that The Bij reports on below contains a lot of good news for Giuliani, and not just the fact that he's the top choice of GOP voters, at 34% to McCain's 26%.

To me the most significant is that Mitt Romney scored only 5% support among GOP voters (1,005 adults in the sample, but I didn't see a party breakdown). I have always considered Romney the biggest threat to a Giuliani nomination.

Sure, McCain is the media frontrunner and a solid second place in polls, but he has a "50% problem". Whether its his age, his habit of thumbing his nose at Republican policies or his status as a Beltway insider, I think McCain can never put together enough support to get the GOP nomination. (This poll found McCain's favorability rating is also dropping with independents.)

But back to Romney: this is a guy who has been working hard, attracting money and staff. He's a Beltway outsider and plays well as a blue state governor. He's had one wife and apparently treated her well; he's from a respected political family and has been a successful businessman. But it's not happening for him. All he's got to show is a three-point margin on Pataki?

OK, caveats: this is just one poll, it's early, and name recognition plays a big part.

But how long does Romney bash his head against the wall? Another bad data point: 35% of those polled said they would be less likely to vote for a Mormon.

More good news for Giuliani is Gingrich's 12% showing in third place. What is the message here? I'm not sure, but it says to me that Giuliani's one unvarnishable weak spot -- he's a bad husband -- is not a top issue for GOP voters. This issue is not a winner for McCain or Gingrich, much less Mrs. Clinton.

Is Gingrich's momentum a worry? No, he's electorally radioactive and Republicans generally do an OK job of nominating someone who can win.

Finally, the poll measured Giuliani as by far the politician with the best favorability across party lines: 67%, way ahead of Hillary Clinton at 56% and McCain at 50%. What was I just saying about electability?

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Poll Watch - NBC News/WSJ & ABC News/Washington Post Polls

Rudy’s in command in both polls:

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R). Dec. 8-11, 2006. Asked of Republicans, and non-Republicans who said they would vote in a Republican presidential primary (from a total sample of 1,006 adults nationwide). .

“Let me mention some people who might seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008. If the next Republican primary for president were being held today, for which one of the following candidates would you vote?” If unsure: “Well, which way do you lean?”

Rudy Giuliani 34

John McCain 29

Newt Gingrich 10

Mitt Romney 8

Sam Brownback 2

Mike Huckabee 2

George Pataki 1

Tommy Thompson 1

Other (vol.) 2 None (vol.) 3 Unsure 8

ABC News/Washington Post Poll. Dec. 7-11, 2006. N=1,005 adults nationwide. Fieldwork by TNS. Results below are based on leaned Republicans. .

“If the 2008 Republican presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, and the candidates were [see below], for whom would you vote?” Names rotated .

Rudy Giuliani 34

John McCain 26

Newt Gingrich 12

Mitt Romney 5

George Pataki 3

Tommy Thompson 2

Sam Brownback 1

Duncan Hunter 1

Chuck Hagel -

Mike Huckabee -

Tom Tancredo -

None of these (vol.) 6

Unsure 9

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Giluiani's Finest Hour

The mayor's emergence

This may be Rudy Giuliani’s finest hour.

From the ashes of the World Trade Center, the mayor of the City of New York has emerged as the embodiment of grace under pressure. His emergence was literal. As debris cascaded from the Twin Towers, Giuliani and several of his top advisers were stuck in a downtown command center where they had been leading the city’s initial emergency response efforts.

“We were trapped in the building for maybe 10 or 15 minutes trying to get out different exits,” Giuliani told reporters. He and his team eventually escaped through the basement of 75 Barclay Street in lower Manhattan.

After wandering through dust- and rubble-filled streets for 10 blocks, Giuliani’s crew found a firehouse with functioning communications gear. Since then he has been on the spot and on camera around the clock, providing the world a reassuring if stern symbol of New York City’s resilience.

Since this disaster began, Giuliani’s tone has been pitch perfect. He denounced the savages behind these attacks with a controlled anger that somehow has escaped the ever-genial President Bush, even in these extraordinary circumstances.

“We will strive now to save as many people as possible and to send a message that the city of New York — and the United States of America — is much stronger than any group of barbaric terrorists,” Giuliani said early on. He added: “I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country and the rest of the world that terrorism can’t stop us.”

Giuliani’s presence at numerous press conferences — usually accompanied by New York Governor George Pataki and Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik — continues to show New Yorkers and Americans alike that someone is firmly in control here despite the smoke and sirens that fill the air.Giuliani also repeatedly has answered reporters’ questions and endeavored to replace rumor and speculation with facts and information.

Finally, the mayor has acted as a low-key cheerleader for New York amid this madness. He has urged residents to return to their normal lives to foil the scoundrels who thought they could sink Gotham’s spirits.

“Show your confidence,” Giuliani said. “Show you’re not afraid. Go to restaurants. Go shopping,” he urged citizens.

Asked if he expected the World Trade Center to be rebuilt, Giuliani predicted that “the skyline will be whole again. But more important,” he added, “the people of New York will be whole again. We’re a very strong people.”

Rudy Giuliani remains a one-man night light amid so much darkness. His performance this week makes it even harder to accept the fact that New Year’s Eve will be this model public servant’s last day on the job.

-Deroy Murdock
_____________________________________________________

This article originally appeared in The National Review Online on September 14th, 2001. It is reprinted here with the author’s consent.

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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Rudy Announces Big Addition

Via The Fix:

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) has hired Republican National Committee political director Mike DuHaime to lead his exploratory effort for president.

The news of DuHaime's hiring comes just six days before a Giuliani fundraiser in New York City designed to serve as the kickoff for the "testing the waters" phase of his presidential bid. It also signals a willingness by Giuliani to reach outside of his close-knit (and long serving) circle of advisers for staff talent -- a necessity if he hopes to run a credible race for national office.

Prior to his post at the RNC, DuHaime served as northeastern regional political director for President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign. In the 2002 cycle, DuHaime was the executive director of the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

DuHaime "is a great talent," said Tony Carbonetti, a senior Giuliani adviser. As for future staff hires, "we intend on being competitive throughout the country" and the DuHaime move is a "first step towards that," Carbonetti said.

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What a Difference a New Mayor Makes, Even in New York City

NEW YORK - Thanks to an election pitch perceived as idea-free, many here expected Republican Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to be a diet David Dinkins: an unimaginative apparatchik who would manage Gotham's descent into oblivion - perhaps with more verve than his ponderous predecessor. As Mr. Giuliani was sworn in on New Year's Day, New York City braced itself for four more years of George Bush-style governance in lieu of leadership.

What a difference a month makes.

In a series of bold and creative moves, Mayor Giuliani has drop kicked the status quo straight into the Hudson River. He has introduced plans to slash spending, cut taxes, eliminate city agencies and tackle welfare fraud. He even has challenged the sacred nostra that guide the city's politics of race and sex. He has done this with an energetic sense of confidence and resolve. Mr. Giuliani has emerged as New York's Great Right Hope.

"The rules of the game have changed," Mr. Giuliani warned reporters just days before unveiling his budget plan on Feb. 2. "The usual yelling and screaming about this program and that program isn't going to stop me." And how. In the most radical act of what some are calling "The Rudy Revolution," the Mayor's $31.2 billion fiscal 1995 budget (smaller only than those of the federal government, California, and New York State) actually is $516 million lower than this year's - the first time in 15 years that the budget has gone down, not up, from year to year.

To remove New York from "the course of disaster," Mr. Giuliani plans to close a $2.26 billion deficit by, among other things, slicing public payrolls by 15,026 positions through buyouts. Several city hospitals are to be privatized, and paramedic and sanitation services will be open to competition. Giuliani envisions "a permanent down-sizing in city government."

He also plans to cut welfare fraud by $88 million by finger-printing recipients to keep hem from collecting multiple checks. Some minority City Council members complain that this "stigmatizes" welfare recipients. But others say the savings might mean larger checks for legitimate beneficiaries.

William Bratton, Mr. Giuliani's new Police Commissioner, is combining several functions of the NYPD, Transit Police and Housing Police, now three separate forces. This merger will redeploy 800 to 900 cops from desk jobs to street patrol with no need for new hires. Eventually, this will save money, too.

Citing the need to attract and keep business here, Mr. Giuliani has proposed over $1.5 billion in tax cuts through 1998 including reductions in the 22 percent hotel room tax (this levy, Earth's highest on occupancy, has cost 6,000 hotel jobs since 1989), the commercial rent tax, and elimination of sales taxes on clothing purchases under $100. Come 1996, the 12.5 percent income-tax surcharge also will vanish.

Spurning the burgeoning notion of racial and sexual entitlements, the Mayor pulled the plug on a Dinkins-era program that allowed minority-and women-owned firms to win city contracts even while exceeding the lowest bids by up to 10 percent. Mr. Giuliani says, for now, he will keep the goal of steering 20 percent of city business to minority/female companies. However, he says his objective is to create "an ethnic, race, religious, gender and sexual-orientation-neutral program" in procurement. Similarly, Mr. Giuliani shut the Balkan-style offices of African-American/Caribbean Affairs, Asian Affairs, European-American Affairs, Jewish Community Affairs, Latino Affairs, and Lesbian & Gay Community Affairs.

Mr. Giuliani has put racial arsonist Al Sharpton in his place, something few politicians have dared to do. On Jan. 9, a group of black Muslims assaulted seven cops and disarmed another as they answered a phony robbery report at a Harlem mosque. Al Sharpton demanded to see the Mayor - perhaps to accuse the injured officers of police brutality. Mr. Giuliani said that Mr. Sharpton played no role in the melee or its aftermath and thus had no more right to his time than any other citizen. Mr. Sharpton fled with his tail between his legs for the first time in recent memory.

Mr. Giuliani's tenure "is a terrific development," says Lawrence Kudlow, chief economist at Bear Stearns and a prominent free-marketeer. "Almost everything he's done since his inauguration has been correct. Giuliani had his right blinker on and turned right."

Adds conservative New York Post columnist Fred Siegel, "The reasoning behind the budget cut challenges assumptions that have reigned here for more than half a century."

But while the right is grinning, the liberal-Democratic machine acts as if a concussion grenade has gone off. "The mayor still thinks he's a prosecutor," complains Carl Haynes, a local union boss. Having enjoyed a decades-long hammerlock on this town, the empire surely will strike back.

The virtually one-party City Council (44 of whose 51 members are Democrats) must approve Mr. Giuliani's budget. Once the initial shock of his proposals has worn off, the usual horde of unions, radical activists, and hangers-on will encircle City Hall and scream for jobs, "social justice" and billions of dollars in goodies. The biggest test of Rudy Giuliani's leadership will be whether he allows these shrill mobs to drown out the quieter sound of the millions of New Yorkers who simply want to go to work each morning and return home in peace.

-Deroy Murdock

__________________________________________________________

This article originally appeared in The Washington Times on February 10th, 1994. It is reprinted here with the author's consent.

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