  Firefighter: Giuliani 'Ran Like A Coward On 9/11'
Filed by David Edwards and Adam Doster
Families of firefighters killed
in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center rallied in Orlando Tuesday in anticipation of the state's upcoming
Republican primary. Unfortunately for Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, the firefighters are not in his corner.
"We want America to know that [the Giuliani campaign] is lying to America and to the American pubic," said Jim Riches,
a deputy chief in the New York Fire Department, "telling all of Florida that the New York City Fire Department backs him,
when that's another lie."
Firefighters and their families vowed to dog the former New York mayor at all of his Florida campaign stops because the
state figures prominently in Giuliani's big-state primary strategy. The protesters think that Giuliani was aware that firefighters
who responded to the World Trade Center attack were carrying defective radios and did not hear the order to evacuate.
"He didn't prepare us before, during, or after," says Riches.
Giuliani has campaigned strongly on his leadership during the attacks on New York, claiming he is the best suited to prevent
an "Islamic terrorist war against us." But the firefighters were quick to question that courage.
"Yeah, the decision he made was, which direction he was going to run," says Riches. "And he ran north, and that's all he
did."
The Giuliani campaign labeled the display a misleading, partisan attack. The former mayor is also emphasizing his ability
to deal with the economy, distancing himself from the 9/11 pitch.
Firefighters Tell Florida Security Moms: Rudy Hired 'Unqualified Yes Men'
Nick Juliano
In a flier that will be landing
in more than 100,000 Florida mailboxes before the state's Republican primary, a firefighters' union accuses foundering candidate
Rudy Giuliani of excercising poor judgement and populating his New York administration with "unqualified yes men," such as
indicted former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
The International Association of Firefighters political arm has long targeted Giuliani, accusing him of building an "urban
legend" around images of himself wandering among the wreckage of Sept. 11, 2001. Their latest salvo comes as the former New
York mayor who once was thought to have a lock on the GOP nomination finds his poll numbers tanking in Florida, a state his
campaign has focused almost exclusively on in recent weeks.
The firefighters' mailer is targeting "security moms" in the sunshine state and will be sent to 128,000 women between the
ages of 40 and 80 before next Tuesday's primary, reports The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder. It says Giuliani is not qualified to
be president because of his poor judgement and penchant for hiring unqualified, possibly corrupt loyalists.
"Instead of hiring a real police chief," it says, "Giuliani appointed his driver, Bernard Kerik. He then asked President
Bush to appoint him as secretary of Homeland Security when Kerik was on the verge of a federal indictment. Giuliani would
rather reward unqualified loyal cronies that real leaders. He can't be trusted with decisions on such important issues."
The Giuliani campaign released an ad Thursday featuring a positive testimonial from the brother of a firefighter who died
on 9/11.
The firefighters' union also relies on testimonials from relatives of 9/11 victims.
"My son was a fire fighter who died on 9/11. I resent Rudy Giuliani using this tragedy for his own political gain." the
mailer quotes FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches saying. "He's a coward who left out city unprepared for a terrorist attack."
Giuliani Firm Made Millions Pushing Data-Mining Program
Revelations about the far-ranging
business entanglements of GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani continue to put the former New York mayor on the hot seat.
The latest : As reported by Time Magazine, Giuliani’s private consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, received a $6.5
million windfall for helping a tech company called Seisint Inc. land government contracts for a massive data-mining program
— a system the firm said could help fight terror by using supercomputers to store “billions of pieces of information
from public records.”
The problem, write Time’s Michael Weiskopf and Massimo Calabresi, is that “the payment of percentages or commissions
to ’solicit or secure’ government contracts is prohibited by federal law and laws of some states.”
An unnamed source at Giuliani Partners told the magazine that the firm had never received commissions, however, labeling
the money instead as “special bonuses” that wouldn’t run afoul of federal law.
“Meanwhile, Seisint’s premier product–MATRIX–had proved controversial,” continues Time. “The
databases it searched contained personal histories of millions of Americans, their relatives, past addresses, property records
and credit ratings. Civil-liberties groups said MATRIX would create detailed data profiles of innocent Americans.”
Madeleine Begun Kane
Rudy acts
like a war-loving crank.
Is his
hawkishness feigned, else he’ll tank
As Republicans
see
That he
doesn’t agree
With most
of the GOP plank?
Giuliani Cites Faulty ‘Facts’ From Right-Wing Magazine To Slam ‘Socialized Medicine’
In a new radio ad running in New Hampshire, GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani cites his own experience with prostate
cancer to warn against the dire consequences of government-provided health care, which he terms “socialized medicine”:
I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in
the United States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine.’
Giuliani’s ad is full of misleading right-wing claims that overhype the broken U.S. health care system. A look at
his “facts”:
· Giuliani cites inaccurate statistics. While the rate for men with prostate cancer is slightly
higher in the United States, the five-year survival rate in England is actually 74.4 percent according to the Office of National
Statistics in Britain.
· Giuliani relies on unsourced figures from a right-wing think tank. Giuliani’s campaign
confirmed that it obtained its faulty numbers from an article entitled “The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care”
in the right-wing quarterly magazine City Journal, which is an arm of the conservative Manhattan Institute. As MSNBC notes,
the author of the “Ugly Truth” article provided no sources for his “facts.” The Manhattan Institute
receives funding from multiple pharmaceutical companies.
· Giuliani uses a weak measurement of comparison. Cancer experts note that mortality rates, which
“show the number of people who actually die from the disease,” may be better measurements than five-year survival
rates. Under this comparison, the two countries are even closer: “Age-standardized prostate cancer mortality rates are
15.4 per 100,000 people in the United Kingdom and 12.0 per 100,000 in the United States, according to the American Cancer
Society.”
The right wing consistently touts U.S. health care as the world’s finest. In an Aug. 3 op-ed, Giuliani wrote, “America
has the best medical care in the world.” President Bush has claimed that the United States has “the best health
care system in the world.” But in reality, the U.S. health system “spends a higher portion of its gross domestic
product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance,” notes the World Health
Organization.
Instead of complaining about Britain and bragging about America, Giuliani should turn his attention toward improving the
U.S. health system. According to a CNN poll from May, 64 percent of the public believes the government should provide universal
health care.
UPDATE: As Ezra Klein notes, Giuliani “received his care for prostate cancer while still mayor of
New York, which meant he was probably receiving insurance through the state of New York, utilizing one of those government-regulated
purchasing pools he terms ’socialism.’”
UPDATE II: Greg Sargent points out that The New York Times asked Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Commella whether
the campaign would continue to repeat the faulty statistics and continue to run the ad, Commella replied, “Yes. We will.“
Giuliani Defends, Employs Priest Accused of Molesting Teens
By BRIAN ROSS and AVNI PATEL
Oct.
23, 2007
Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani hired a Catholic priest to work in his consulting firm months after the priest
was accused of sexually molesting two former students and an altar boy and told by the church to stop performing his priestly
duties.
The priest, Monsignor Alan Placa, a longtime friend of Giuliani and the priest who officiated at his second wedding to
Donna Hanover, continues to work at Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and victims' groups,
which have begun to protest at Giuliani campaign events.
"This man did unjust things, and he's being protected and employed and taken care of. It's not a good thing," said one
of the accusers, Richard Tollner, who says Placa molested him repeatedly when he was a student at a Long Island, N.Y. Catholic
boys high school in 1975.
At a campaign appearance in Milwaukee last week, Giuliani continued to defend Placa, who he described to reporters as
a close friend for 39 years.
"I know the man; I know who he is, so I support him," Giuliani said. "We give some of the worst people in our society
the presumption of innocence and benefit of the doubt," he said. "And, of course, I'm going to give that to one of my closest
friends."
The accusations against Placa were made in testimony before a Suffolk County grand jury in 2002.
Tollner, now a mortgage broker in Albany, N.Y., says he was one of three people to testify about Placa.
"This man harmed children. He still could do it. He deserves to be shown for what he was, or is," says Tollner.
Appearing publicly for the first time today on ABC News' "Good Morning America," Tollner says the abuse started when
he and Placa were in the high school making posters for a Right to Life march.
"As he started to explain how these posters should be done, I realized that something was rubbing my body," Tollner said.
"After a minute or two, I realized that he's feeling me, feeling me in my genital area."
The grand jury report concluded that a Priest F, who Tollner says is Placa, abused the boys sexually "again and again
and again."
"Priest F was cautious, but relentless in his pursuit of victims. He fondled boys over their clothes, usually in his
office," the report said.
Click here to see photos of Giuliani and the Priest.
The report concluded that Priest F, and several other priests under investigation from the same Long Island, N.Y. diocese,
could not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.
Several former students from the same high school say they were asked by the "Giuliani organization" to contact ABC News
and vouch for Placa.
"There was absolutely not a hint of rumor of a speculation or a whisper, in four years, or in decades after of any sexual
predatoriness on the part of Rev. Placa," wrote Matthew Hogan in an e-mail to ABCNews.com.
Hogan says he recalls that Placa did give "special attention" to his former schoolmate Richard Tollner and remembers
seeing Tollner in Placa's office "laughing, on opposite sides of a desk with Mr. Tollner happily animated sitting up on the
couch talking."
But Hogan says the school area where Tollner says he was molested "was CONSTANTLY trafficked even on off days and hours."
"I will gladly help take apart in public anything that seriously overlooks the above. I'll be watching The Blotter like
a hawk," Hogan wrote.
In addition to the allegations that Priest F was personally involved in the sexual abuse, the grand jury also said that
Priest F became instrumental in a church policy that used "deception and intimidation" to keep the church scandal quiet.
Click here to see photos of Giuliani and the Priest.
Placa served as a lawyer for the diocese in dealing with allegations of abuse against other priests and, according to
the grand jury report, claimed he had saved the church hundreds of thousands of dollars in his handling of possible litigation.
Lawyers for alleged victims say Placa would often conduct interviews, in his priest garb, without making it clear he
was the church lawyer.
"He was a wolf in sheep's clothing," said Melanie Little, a lawyer for several alleged victims of sexual abuse by other
priests in the diocese.
"He was more concerned with protecting the priests, protecting the reputation of the diocese and protecting the church
coffers than he was protecting the children," said Little.
Since going to work for Giuliani Partners, the former mayor and the priest have continued to be close.
Placa accompanied Giuliani and his wife Judith on a trip to Rome earlier this year.
Through a spokeswoman at Giuliani Partners, Sunny Mindel, Placa declined requests to comment on the allegations to ABCNews.com.
Mindel also declined to specify what Placa does for the firm or how much he is paid.
"Mr. Giuliani can do what he wants with his money, but he has to pay the price for people like myself who disagree with
employing known child molesters," Tollner said.
While no longer allowed to perform priestly duties or appear in public as a priest, Placa continues to maintain a residence
at a church rectory in Great Neck on New York's Long Island.
According to New York property records, Placa also co-owns, with another priest, a waterfront apartment in lower Manhattan
in Battery Park City, valued at more than $500,000.
Giuliani points to tax cuts, welfare record to woo conservatives
William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers
October 05, 2007
WASHINGTON — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered pointed
jabs at his Republican opponents Friday and sharp body blows to the top three Democratic presidential candidates, claiming
that he's the only person running for president who has lowered taxes and reduced welfare rolls.
Speaking to a convention of fiscal conservatives, Giuliani claimed
their mantle as his own.
"A lot of people are going to come here, and they're going to be talking
about tax cuts and spending cuts and economic results," Giuliani said. "But I point out to you that I'm the one who has the
record of results from doing each and every one of those things, not once, not twice, but in many cases eight, nine, 10, 12
times against very, very big odds."
Giuliani said he cut or eliminated taxes 23 times during his eight
years as New York's mayor. Research by FactCheck.org using data supplied by the nonpartisan New York City Independent Budget
Office shows that Giuliani can take credit for a majority of the 23 cuts he touts, but he also takes credit for eight cuts
that were initiatives from state lawmakers in Albany.
Giuliani didn't criticize any specific Republican opponent while touting
himself as the party's top fiscal conservative candidate. But his remarks appeared to be aimed at former Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney, who, like Giuliani, is courting Republican voters by campaigning on a fiscally conservative record.
Romney attacked Giuliani's social and fiscal conservative credentials
on Thursday in Manchester, N.H. He took Giuliani to task for once opposing a presidential line-item veto and for supporting
a commuter tax when he was mayor.
Giuliani told American Prosperity Foundation conventioneers Friday
that his fiscal conservatism is unquestionable.
"Rhetoric's important. Ideas are important. The most important things
are results," he said.
Giuliani also mocked three leading Democratic presidential candidates:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.
Giuliani said all three of them would raise taxes if they won the presidency,
and he offered a once unlikely model as a sharp contrast:
"Even France is considering tax cuts under (President Nicholas) Sarkozy,"
he said. "Even France!"
Giuliani used another foreign comparison to blast Clinton's proposed
$110-billion-a-year health care plan.
"And when our medicine becomes socialized under Hillary Clinton, just
where are the Canadians going to go for their health care?" he said. "We at least know that (filmmaker) Michael Moore will
be OK. He'll go to Cuba."
Clinton's plan would rely on existing private health insurers and employer-based
plans, but would create a government-run alternative for those who prefer it.
For more on Giuliani's record as a tax cutter:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/giulianis_tax_puffery.html
Firefighters Challenge Giuliani Image They Blast Him Over Handling Of
Sept. 11
By Joelle Farrell
Monitor staff
Six years ago today, Americans saw the World Trade Center collapse, the
image searing itself into the minds of those who watched the events unfold on television. Before the government revealed the
attackers' identities or officials guessed at a casualty count, before anyone could determine if the attacks were over, New
York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was on camera, covered in dust and reassuring a terrified city and a stunned nation.
The moment made Giuliani an icon - "America's Mayor" - a portrait of steady leadership
in the face of chaos. Giuliani continues to benefit from the spotlight 9/11 offered him, and he remains the top Republican
presidential contender in most national polls.
But in recent months, Giuliani critics have sought to puncture what they deem the
myth of his 9/11 legacy. Families of 9/11 victims have decried Giuliani's appearance at a 9/11 memorial service today. A book
released this year faults Giuliani for inadequate preparation that the authors say left New York City more vulnerable to confusion
in an attack.
And this summer, the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents
281,000 firefighters nationwide, produced a video that blames Giuliani for the deaths of more than 100 firefighters on Sept.
11, 2001. The union says because Giuliani did not replace radios known to be defective since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,
firefighters didn't hear evacuation orders before the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.
If Giuliani wants to win the presidency, he'll have to do it despite dogged opposition
from some New York City firefighters and the nation's largest firefighters union. The IAFF posted the video to deter its members
from supporting Giuliani - many firefighters had received calls from the campaign asking for help, IAFF President Harold Schaitberger
said.
The union may have more attacks planned for Giuliani.
"He has created this myth;
he has created this whole alleged legacy on the back of this horrific event," Schaitberger said. "We will not be shy in going
after Mr. Giuliani."
So far, the video hasn't affected Giuliani's poll numbers, but it also hasn't helped
his reputation with the tight-knit community of firefighters. If the New York City firefighters don't like Giuliani, that
means something to firefighters everywhere, said Cory Clark, president of the Concord firefighters' union.
"We have some of our own members right here in Concord who were sent down there
on 9/11," Clark said. "So it doesn't take long for word of those types of actions to get around."
'His own personal tragedy'
Giuliani's critics say he takes too much credit for the aftermath of 9/11. "He's
cashing in on 9/11 like it's his own personal tragedy," Jimmy Riches, a deputy fire chief whose firefighter son was killed
at ground zero, told the Associated Press. "It's a photo op on a campaign swing for him."
Giuliani himself admitted that he misspoke at a campaign stop in Cincinnati last
month when talking about 9/11 and the toxic dust that has sickened many first responders who worked at ground zero.
"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers," Giuliani
had said. "I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense,
I'm one of them."
In an interview the following day, Giuliani said he "could have said it better."
"I wasn't trying to suggest a competition of any kind, which is the way it came
across," he said. "You know, what I was saying was, 'I'm there with you.' Gosh almighty, I was there often enough, even though
they were there, people there more and people there less, but I was there often enough so that every health consequence that
people have suffered, I could also be suffering."
Schaitberger called Giuliani's comments "self-absorbed and delusionary."
Charlie Arlinghaus, a former Republican Party executive director who is now president
of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, said he understands why Giuliani's mentions of 9/11 at campaign stops can
"grate" on firefighters.
"The people who went into the building were firefighters and policemen, not politicians,"
he said.
Giuliani earned the respect of many on 9/11, but he should be careful not to overplay
his hand, Arlinghaus said.
"9/11 is why he's ahead in the national polls - he's the one guy everybody knows,"
he said. "He has to walk a line that takes an appropriate level of credit for his own role, but not too much."
Hard feelings
In July, the nation's largest firefighters union posted a video online that lambastes
Giuliani for his actions on and after 9/11.
The 13-minute film, called Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend, is reminiscent of the ads
used by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to attack the Vietnam War record of 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John
Kerry. Like the Swift Boat group, the IAFF is hitting Giuliani where he is perceived to be strong, hoping to shake the very
foundation of his campaign. The information included in the video paints a negative picture of Giuliani by selective use of
facts.
The film rebukes Giuliani for building his command center at the World Trade Center
when it had already been targeted once by terrorists. On Sept. 11, 2001, Giuliani couldn't direct from his "bunker," and had
to set up a makeshift center elsewhere in the city.
The film also says Giuliani did not upgrade firefighters' radios, which it says
could have saved lives on 9/11. Officials had known at least since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that the radios were
defective. The IAFF contends that 121 firefighters died when the North Tower collapsed on 9/11 because they could not hear
evacuation calls.
A commission formed by President Bush to investigate the response to 9/11 found
that radio malfunctions, while a contributing factor, were not the sole or primary reason that the firefighters were killed.
Firefighters also accuse Giuliani of treating the bodies of fallen firefighters
"like garbage" because he restrained firefighters from searching through the rubble at ground zero two months after the attack.
Giuliani said he had to limit the search because the debris was unsafe.
Firefighters protested the order, which led to a scuffle between firefighters and
the police securing the site. The police arrested 18 firefighters, including union officials.
Giuliani eventually compromised with the firefighters, allowing up to 50 of them
to work at the scene after he had limited the number to 24.
But for many firefighters, the bad blood between them and Giuliani was sealed.
Giuliani's campaign responded immediately to the video, issuing a press release
to counter the IAFF's arguments and dismissing the video as a partisan smear. The IAFF has endorsed Democrats in the past
three presidential elections. This year, the union has endorsed Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.
But the rank-and-file union for New York City firefighters, which campaigned actively
for President Bush in 2004, collaborated with the IAFF on the video. The union represents 9,000 New York City firefighters.
And the 2,500 members of New York City's fire officers union also helped with the video.
Despite its incomplete picture of Giuliani, the video resonates with firefighters,
some of whom chafe every year when Giuliani makes headlines on Sept. 11.
"I choose not to desecrate the memories of the Americans and the 343 firefighters
who paid the ultimate sacrifice that day by sharing the stage with the failed policies and politics of one mayor and his administration,"
said David Lang, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire. "Sept. 11 should be reserved for the true heroes
of our nation."
Clark said he made up his mind about Giuliani soon after 9/11.
"I will not support him in any way shape or form," he said. "I do sincerely hope
that he does not get elected."
Diversifying his candidacy
Sept. 11 is among Giuliani's talking points, but he's also sought to diversify
his candidacy. In New Hampshire, he often talks taxes, and he announced his health care policy in Bedford.
In last week's Republican debate at the University of New Hampshire, Giuliani said,
"I'm not running on what I did on Sept. 11," citing his record of cutting crime and lowering taxes. "I'm running on the fact
that I was mayor of the largest city in the country."
Several political analysts consulted for this story agreed that Giuliani has more
than his 9/11 experience to show to voters.
They differ on whether attacks on Giuliani's 9/11 record will continue and if they
could hurt him in an election.
"I think that has absolutely zero traction with the average voter," said Wayne
Lesperance, associate political science professor at New England College in Henniker. "At the end of the day, it's going to
be very hard to damage the image he has earned, the reputation of the one who was there."
Ernesto Sagas, a political science professor at Southern New Hampshire University,
said it's too late to tarnish Giuliani's 9/11 image.
"Politics is pretty much about symbols," he said. "The image is cemented there."
Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New
Hampshire, said any candidate who contests Giuliani's claim to 9/11 is unlikely to do so directly.
"They'll want to be careful about playing politics with Sept. 11," Scala said.
"Voters don't tend to reward the source of the negative advertising."
Scala believes that if the IAFF's accusations were going to damage Giuliani's campaign,
it would have happened already. Scala expects that future political attacks will focus on Giuliani's support for abortion
rights, restrictions on gun ownership and rights for gay couples.
"His social views don't align with many conservatives in the party," Scala said.
"That would be, I think, the first thing to go after."
Del Ali, whose Research 2000 firm conducts polls for the Monitor, said the 9/11
questions may reappear in the general election if Giuliani wins the Republican nomination. "If it gets to a general, I don't
think it's something he's going to escape," Ali said. "That's what really launched his candidacy."
Ali says his polls show a general dissatisfaction with Republican candidates, which
leads him to believe that Giuliani, a moderate, is the Republican Party's "best shot at keeping the White House."
Still, Ali thinks Giuliani has the toughest balancing act in trying to claim the
conservative base of the Republican Party in the primary but to keep the support of independent and swing voters in a general
election. In a general election, Ali said, he needs to make sure he appeals to voters on pocketbook issues. If voters know
him only for 9/11, attacks on his 9/11 performance could prove damaging, he said.
Giuliani Firm On Payroll Of Prez Chavez Oil Company
NEWS WIRE SERVICES
Rudy Giuliani's law firm lobbies for Citgo Petroleum Corp., a unit of the state-owned oil company controlled by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, who calls President Bush a "madman" and a "devil."
Bracewell & Giuliani registered to lobby for Citgo in Texas on April 26, 2005, less than a month after Giuliani joined
the firm and became a name partner, state records show.
Citgo renewed the contract in 2006 and 2007 and pays the firm $5,000 a month to track legislation.
Giuliani doesn't lobby, the firm says.
Patrick Oxford, a managing partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, said Giuliani has no dealings with the Venezuelan-owned
oil company. "He has not seen hide nor hair of Citgo," Oxford said.
Giuliani's campaign released a statement that didn't address written questions asking whether he knew his firm did business
with Citgo and whether he considered it appropriate.
The e-mailed statement discussed his views on Chavez and energy policy.
"Mayor Giuliani has been clear and consistent - Hugo Chavez is no friend of the United States," campaign spokeswoman Katie
Levinson said in the statement. "Chief among the reasons Chavez has so much influence around the world is our ongoing dependence
on foreign oil."
Giuliani Says Repeal Of Abortion Law Would Be "OK"
To Sam Brownback, it would be "a glorious day," and to Tom Tancredo the "greatest day in this country's history." For Rudolph
Giuliani, repeal of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion "would be OK."
Republican presidential hopefuls, at their first debate on Thursday, were asked if repeal of the Roe v. Wade decision would
be a good day for America.
"It would be OK to repeal," said Giuliani, New York's former mayor, contending with his record of support for abortion
rights as he courts conservative Republicans.
"I think the court has to make that decision and then the country can deal with it. We're a federalist system of government
and states can make their own decisions," said Giuliani, who leads Republicans in the polls.
Giuliani, a Roman Catholic, maintains he personally thinks abortion is wrong but believes it is ultimately a woman's choice,
a position that goes against the grain of the social conservatives who carry big clout in the Republican primaries.
His lawyerly response contrasted sharply with some other candidates who jumped at the chance to burnish their anti-abortion
credentials.
"After 40 million dead because we have aborted them in this country, I would say that that would be the greatest day in
this country's history when that, in fact, is overturned," said Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
"It would be a glorious day of human liberty and freedom," said Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney seized the chance to explain his changed position on abortion.
"Well, I've always been personally pro-life, but for me, it was a great question about whether or not government should
intrude in that decision," Romney said.
He said he changed his position after the debate in his state over cloning. "It's a "brave new world" mentality that Roe
v. Wade has given us, and I changed my mind," he said.
Rudy Giuliani, a contender for the Presidency in 2008, is receiving an inordinate amount
of positive attention. That's quite understandable since Rudy is charismatic, did a great job on the campaign trail for President
Bush in 2004, and his phenomenal performance after 9/11 was much appreciated.
However, likeable or not, having Rudy
as the GOP's candidate in 2008 would be a big mistake. Here's a short, but sweet primer on some of Rudy's many flaws.
Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion StanceAs these comments
from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:
"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a
poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions
were illegal.
I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter
were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...
DONAHUE: Which would be to continue
the pregnancy.
GIULIANI: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice
of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion,
I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it." Worse yet, Giuliani
even supports partial birth abortion:
"I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights,Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a
ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing,"
he responded." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999 It's bad enough that
Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices.
Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas,
who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and
Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?
Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life
or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.
An Anti-Second Amendment CandidateIn the last
couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have
learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.
Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent
of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.
Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun
control nominee?
Soft On Gay Marriage Other than tax cuts, the biggest domestic issue of the 2004 election was President Bush's support of a Constitutional Amendment
to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani has taken a "Kerryesque" position on gay
marriage.
Although Rudy, like John Kerry, has said that marriage should remain between a man and a woman, he also supports civil unions, "marched in gay-pride parades ...dressed up in drag on national television for a skit on Saturday Night Live (and moved in with a)
wealthy gay couple" after his divorce. He also very vocally opposed running on a gay marriage amendment:
His thoughts on the gay-marriage amendment? "I don't think you should run a campaign on this
issue," he told the Daily News earlier this month. "I think it would be a mistake for anybody to run a campaign on it -- the
Democrats, the president, or anybody else." Here's more from the New York Daily News:
"Rudy Giuliani came out yesterday against President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.
The
former mayor, who Vice President Cheney joked the other night is after his job, vigorously defended the President on his post-9/11
leadership but made clear he disagrees with Bush's proposal to rewrite the Constitution to outlaw gays and lesbians from tying
the knot.
"I don't think it's ripe for decision at this point," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I certainly
wouldn't support [a ban] at this time," added Giuliani..." Although Rudy may
grudgingly say he doesn't support gay marriage (and it would be political suicide for him to do otherwise), where he really
stands on the issue is an open question.
Pro-Illegal ImmigrationAs Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration
that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:
"While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is
every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O'Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a "practical
approach" to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to "regularize" illegal immigrants by providing them
with access to city services like public education to "make their lives reasonable." Giuliani did say that "a tremendous amount
of money should be put into the physical security" needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border,
but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain's." That's bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and "America's Mayor" actually
sued the Federal Government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:
"When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring
employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower
courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an
unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected
his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law." If you agree with the way
that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue
to be right down your alley.
Rudy Giuliani: A More Charismatic Version Of Arlen SpecterRudy Giuliani may have many fine qualities, but he is not a conservative, nor has he always been a loyal Republican.
For example, back in the mid-nineties, when he was actually running New York City, Rudy could have fairly been said
to have governed as a moderate at best and to the left-of-center at worst:
"The National Journal’s rating system put him at 56 percent conservative and 44 percent
liberal on economic issues in 1996 and assessed him as liberal by 59 to 40 percent in looking at his social issues votes." The New York Observer also had a very interesting selection of quotes from and about Rudy over the years that may give his
conservative supporters more than a little pause. Here are a few of those quotations:
Some ask, How can the Liberal Party support a candidate who disagrees with the Liberal Party
position on so many gut issues? But when the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern
to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party's stance on a majority of such issues.
He agreed with the Liberal Party's views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits.
As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion. -- N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement
Statement of R. Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989
Mr. Rockefeller represented "a tradition in the Republican Party I've worked hard to re-kindle
- the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition." -- Rudy Giuliani, New York Times, July 9, 1992
What kind of Republican? Is [Giuliani], for instance, a Reagan Republican? [Giuliani] pauses
before answering: "I'm a Republican." -- Village Voice, January 24, 1989
"Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election,
[Giuliani] told the Post's Jack Newfield that "most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." The Daily News
quoted [Giuliani] as saying that March: "Whether you talk about President Clinton, Senator Dole.... The country would be in
very good hands in the hands of any of that group."
Revealing at one point that he was "open" to the idea of endorsing
Clinton, he explained: "When I ran for mayor both times, '89 and '93, I promised people that I would be, if not bipartisan,
at least open to the possibility of supporting Democrats." -- Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne
Barrett, Page 459
"From my point of view as the mayor of New York City, the question that I have to ask is,
'Who has the best chance in the next four years of successfully fighting for our interest? Who understands them, and who will
make the best case for it?' Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It's a matter of choice. My choice is Mario
Cuomo." -- Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City, Andrew Kirtzman, Page 133
"[Quite] frankly, you have to understand the fact that Rudy Giuliani was a McGovern Democrat,
he was endorsed by the Liberal Party when he ran for Mayor. In his heart, he's a Democrat. He's paraded all over this country
with Bill Clinton and, in fact, he's very comfortable with Mario Cuomo. But what Rudy Giuliani wants is to be bailed out in
the city, in the
mess he's in, and everybody understands very clearly in politics that they struck a deal, that Mario's
going to continue to be the big spender, save Rudy the options of raising taxes by pouring money statewide into the City of
New York and bailing it out. Quite frankly, I predict that he will join the Democratic Party." -- Interview with Michael Long,
Chairman N.Y.S., Conservative Party, CNN Crossfire, October 25, 1994 Does this
really sound like the sort of candidate we want as a standard bearer for the Republican Party?
He Can't Keep His Pants UpThere has only been
one man who has ever made it to the White House after being divorced and that was Ronald Reagan, who had been married to Nancy
for more than 25 years before his campaign in 1980. Rudy, on the other hand, is on his third wife.
Furthermore, his
second divorce from Donna Hanover was extremely ugly. Hanover accused Rudy of "open and notorious adultery." She also claimed Rudy had an affair with
a staffer, Christyne Lategano-Nicholas, which both Giuliani and Lategano-Nicholas denied. However, Rudy has acknowledged that
he started seeing his current wife, Judith Nathan, before his divorce from Hanover was finalized in 2002.
Given how
recent this divorce was, Rudy's adultery, and the fact that he married, "the other woman," the press can be expected to cover
Rudy's marriage to Hanover exhaustively if he gets the nomination and needless to say, Rudy, quite deservedly, will not come
off very well.
How Electable Is Rudy Giuliani Really?One of
the biggest selling points for Rudy Giuliani is supposed to be that he's "electable" because a lot of independents and Democrats
will vote for him. The problem with that sort of thinking is that if he becomes the Republican nominee, the very liberal mainstream
media will spend nine months relentlessly savaging him in an effort to help the Democrats. Because of that, Giuliani's sky
high polling numbers with non-Republicans are 100% guaranteed to drop significantly before election time rolls around in 2008.
That
is not necessarily a problem; after all the mainstream media is always against the Republican nominee, if -- and this is a
big "if" -- the GOP nominee has strong support from the Republican base.
The big problem Rudy has is that he isn't
going to be able to generate that kind of support. For one thing, as a candidate, he offers almost nothing to social conservatives,
without whom a victory for George Bush in 2004 wouldn't have been possible. If the choice in 2008 comes down to a Democrat
and a pro-abortion, soft on gay marriage, left-of-center candidate on social issues -- like Rudy -- you can be sure that millions
of "moral values voters" will simply stay home and cost the GOP the election.
The other issue is in the South. George
Bush swept every Southern state in 2000 and 2004, which is quite an impressive feat when you consider that the Democrats had
Southerner Al Gore at the top of the ticket in 2000 and John Edwards as the veep in 2004. Unfortunately, a pro-abortion, soft
on gay marriage, pro-gun control RINO from New York City just isn't going to be able to repeat that performance. Even against
a carpetbagger like Hillary Clinton, it's entirely likely that you'll see at least 2 or 3 states in the South turn from red
to blue if Rudy Giuliani is the nominee.
Also, the reason why George Bush's approval numbers have been mired in the
high thirties/low forties of late is because he has lost a significant amount of Republican support, primarily because his
domestic policies aren't considered conservative enough. Since that's the case, running a candidate who is several steps to
Bush's left on domestic policy certainly doesn't seem like a great way to unite the base again.
ConclusionDespite all of his charisma and the
wonderful leadership he showed after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is not a Reagan Republican. To the contrary, Giuliani is another
Christie Todd Whitman, another Arlen Specter, another Olympia Snowe. He's a throwback to the "bad old days" before Reagan,
when the GOP was run by moderate Country Club Republicans who considered conservatives to be extremists. Trying to revive
that failed strategy again is likely to lead to a Democratic President in 2008 and numerous setbacks for the Republican Party.
Giuliani Plan Pilfered From Aide's Luggage
BY DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The presidential campaign strategy for Mayor Giuliani — complete with a $100 million fundraising
target for this year — is out of the bag.
The 140-page schedule for the Republican's budding presidential bid was reported in last weeks editions of the
New York Daily News.
The paper said an anonymous source obtained the document after it was left behind on a campaign swing in 2006, but Giuliani
spokeswoman Sunny Mindel claimed it was actually pilfered from a piece of airline luggage.
"This wasn't left in a hotel,'" Ms. Mindel told the Associated Press. "This is clearly a dirty trick. The voters are sick
and tired of this kind of thing."
Ms. Mindel said that while working on the 2006 campaign trail, a Giuliani aide lost a piece of luggage containing the paper.
‘"After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside. Because
our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed
from the luggage and photocopied," she said.
She did not say exactly where or when the strategy paper was lost, or what was in it, but Ms. Mindel downplayed its importance.
CORRUPT ESTABLISHMENT
Mr. Big Apple Goes Rotten
New exposes have shed light on one of the great overlooked
stories of recent months: the steady political devolution of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – from Man of the Year to brazen profiteer. Giuliani is poised to join forces with a Houston law firm which has close ties to
oil and gas companies, such as the Bechtel Corporation, which has used its high-powered connections to swing lucrative contracts in Iraq. (Enron used to be one of the firm's major clients, but ties were cut after the bankruptcy scandal in
2001.) An investigation published earlier this month by USA Today details how Giuliani, who made his reputation in the 1980s
as a tough prosecutor of white-collar criminals, is now himself knee-deep in a scandalous business deal that smells worse than the Hudson. Even more alarming is yesterday's profile in the New York Observer, describing Giuliani's willingness
to put profit over principle as so extreme that he actually used tsunami benefit events to line his pockets with tens of thousands of dollars.
PROFITING FROM DISASTER: Just last month, a
South Carolina Hospitals Association event that Giuliani agreed to keynote was scrapped and replaced with a fundraiser for
tsunami victims in South Asia. Giuliani decided to attend anyway, explaining that it was "a worthy cause." How worthy, exactly? Clearly not enough for Rudy to forego his five-figure speaking fee (he does, after
all, have to keep up payments on both his $5.25 million East Side co-op apartment and his $3.9 million Bridgehampton mansion). Giuliani charged the organization $80,000 for his appearance – so much that the association's
spokeswoman admitted "she was not even sure whether the benefit's total take had exceeded Mr. Giuliani's fee." And this wasn't
an isolated case. At "a fund-raiser for the Red Cross in Vancouver, Mr. Giuliani's fee seems to have roughly equaled the event's
receipts, which were announced to be $100,000 – the same amount as he was paid to help raise the money."
CRYING OVER KERIK: Giuliani is still marred
by his decision to 'cash in his chips' with the Bush administration and lobby for a cabinet position for his close friend and business partner
Bernard Kerik. Don't remember Bernie Kerik? He was President Bush's first choice for homeland security secretary, whose nomination
crashed and burned after it was revealed (among other scandals) that Kerik had long-standing ties to a firm allegedly run by the New Jersey mob and had used an apartment donated for weary Ground Zero police and rescue workers as a personal love nest for his adulterous affairs. Despite those revelations, Giuliani couldn't bear to hear that Kerik was
planning to resign from their joint firm, according to Tuesday's New York Times. "I went into his office and offered to leave,
and he kept telling me no," Kerik said. "It was very emotional. We cried together."
NO CASH, NO CUSTOMERS, NO PROFITS, NO PROBLEM!
Giuliani Partners, the ex-mayor's security consulting firm, recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal with a firm called
Applied DNA Sciences, which develops DNA-marking technology used to thwart counterfeiting of goods like clothes and credit
cards. Sounds reasonable enough, until you read the fine print: shortly before Giuliani Partners signed on, Applied DNA had
"no cash for operations and no customers," zero revenue and had suffered "$35 million in losses from 2002 through 2004," according
to SEC documents. Moreover, several of Applied's investors had been mired in scandals; the firm's co-founder, for instance, was charged "in a 1996 case involving a nationwide kickback scheme
of stockbrokers and stock promoters." Despite all that, shares for Applied DNA "jumped an astonishing 268 percent …
after the company disclosed its deal with Giuliani's firm." As former federal prosecutor Stephen Meagher noted, the deal "has
all the markings of something Giuliani himself would have looked into as U.S. attorney in the old days."
TIP OF THE ICEBERG: Michael Hess, the senior
managing director of Giuliani Partners, swears that his firm "would not rep some kind of shyster place or a company that is
doing the wrong thing or fooling the public." Which is tough to believe considering the firm's "client list often reads like
the list of witnesses before Congressional committees in some of the highest-profile corporate crises of the last few years." Of course, Hess also claims that Giuliani Partners works "to make sure that projects we represent are
good for the people and good for the economy." You mean, like the "study suggesting that imported prescription drugs may be dangerous" that "Mr. Giuliani produced" for a pharmaceutical industry trade group he represents? (Even the Bush
administration acknowledges that commercial imports from Canada are safe.)
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