Matt Taibbi takes an awfully dim view of Rudy Giuliani in a recent Rolling Stone article entitled Rolling Stone : Giuliani: Worse Than Bush
Taibbi is an amusing and insightful writer, so the whole thing is worth reading, but here is one of the better paragraphs:
Yes, Rudy is smarter than Bush. But his political strength — and he knows it — comes from America’s unrelenting passion for never bothering to take that extra step to figure shit out. If you think you know it all already, Rudy agrees with you. And if anyone tries to tell you differently, they’re probably traitors, and Rudy, well, he’ll keep an eye on ’em for you. Just like Bush, Rudy appeals to the couch-bound bully in all of us, and part of the allure of his campaign is the promise to put the Pentagon and the power of the White House at that bully’s disposal.
And another one:
In his years as mayor — and his subsequent career as a lobbyist — Rudy jumped into bed with anyone who could afford a rubber. Saudi Arabia, Rupert Murdoch, tobacco interests, pharmaceutical companies, private prisons, Bechtel, ChevronTexaco — Giuliani took money from them all. You could change Rudy’s mind literally in the time it took to write a check. A former prosecutor, Giuliani used to call drug dealers “murderers.” But as a lobbyist he agreed to represent Seisint, a security firm run by former cocaine smuggler Hank Asher. “I have a great admiration for what he’s doing,” Rudy gushed after taking $2 million of Asher’s money.
Uh, smarter?
Not so much…
As for Iran, Mr. Giuliani said that “in the long term,†it might be “more dangerous than Iraq.â€
He then casually lumped Iran with Al Qaeda. “Their movement has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,†he said.
Mr. Giuliani was asked in an interview to clarify that, inasmuch as Iran had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Further, most of its people are Shiites, whereas Al Qaeda is an organization of Sunnis.
“They have a similar objective,†he replied, “in their anger at the modern world.â€
Iranian, Iraqi, Saudi, Egyptian, Al Qaeda, Sunni, Shiite? What’s to know? They’re all brown-skinned Muslims. Angry, angry people, those brown-skinned Muslims.
Not at all like our modernity-embracing agents of tolerance such as Jerry Falwell (RIP), Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Randall Terry, and Tony Perkins.
Pat Robertson: Founding fathers would’ve objected to separating church from the state.
James Dobson: Sponge Bob Square Pants is gay, and tolerance pledges that include gays are unacceptable.
Tony Perkins: “The [Supreme] Court has become increasingly hostile to Christianity. It represents more of a threat to representative government than any other force – more than budget deficits, more than terrorism.”
Randall Terry: “I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good … if a Christian voted for Clinton, he sinned against God. It’s that simple. Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God to conquer this country”
Rudy seems to be the R with the most appeal across the party divide, basically because he gave some good speeches on 9/11 and because his left-of-center position on social issues can be seductive to libertarians and moderate Democrats. I agree with Matt Ygelsias’s take:
I’m not the typical Democrat in that I’m pretty far to the right on abortion, but even if I were staunchly pro-choice, given Rudy’s promise to appoint conservative judges, what’s a liberal to like about Giuliani? If you take away the social issues, which he has done, Rudy is nothing but an authoritarian, personally and professionally sleazy (I’m no prude, but at least Bill Clinton knew that his affair was wrong, whereas Rudy installed his goomah as the de facto first lady of NYC while still married to the mother of his children) bully. I would much less frightened to see Romney, McCain, or Thompson in the Oval Office.
Doug –
Interesting choice of quotes:
Pat Robertson – he may be right on this – at the very least, a debatable point.
James Dobson – okay, he’s a loon here (Sponge Bob is obviously as hetero as the sea is deep.)
Tony Perkins – again, this is a widely debated point – warnings against judicial tyranny go back a long way, and for good reason.
Randal Terry – okay, another loon – actually worse than a loon, who seems to have slept through the whole ‘love thy neighbor as thyself” and “judge not” days at Sunday school.
Still, nothing like what you can see on Al Jazeera, and while they have followings, I don’t see them as mainstream.
Robertson is most decidedly wrong about the founders’ opinions of separation of church and state. He also stated, “If you could get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that’s the answer. We’ve got to blow that thing up.” “Foggy Bottom” of course referring to the U.S. State Department. Presumably if I wrote that, I would currently be corresponding from federal prison.
The New York based TV MSM loves Rudy. They seem willing to give him a pass on just about everything. Chris Matthews and Tim Russert compete over who has a bigger man crush for Ruddy. Taibbi can dig up all the sleaze in the world on Rudy, if the MSM does not what to take a sniff then Rudy will not be hurt by it. Really can Rudy be any worse than a dry-drunk draft dodging ex-coke sniffing Ivy League educated spoiled Frat boy and Semi-Retarded twit turned phony cowboy businessman who either swindled others for or had rich ex-president daddy’s friends give him his fortune. Face it after Dubya the bar for scandal has been set pretty darn low for Republicans.
Rudy’s other big advantage should be his “law and order” profile. The Republican base is sick and tired of twenty years of essentially pro-Corporate “Open Borders” policies. This weeks’ firestorm that sank the BushCo, McCain, Kennedy, DLC backed “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” Bill is not going away. Opinion polls show Americans overwhelmingly do not favor Amnesty for Illegal Aliens and want our Immigration laws enforced and if reformed, then on along restrictionist guidelines. That would be a huge plus in Rudy’s favor. Except that on lots of websites regarding immigration issues there seems to be deep concern that, the until recently pro-Open Borders, Giuliani will only use Border Security issues to push his authoritarian streak buttons.
As far as Rudy’s personal life and liberal social views I doubt it will be as big of a factor as some might think in 2008. Most likely in the primaries, border security and immigration issues will trump Abortion and Gays.
This is due in part because the Religious Right is currently with out a TV friendly spokesperson. The heir apparent to Robertson, Falwell and now disgraced pretty boy Ralph Reed was Ted Haggard after all. Robertson is a daffy old man, Reverend Dobson is a humorless scold who beats his dog, Tony Perkins is a dull lawyer, and Randall Terry is clearly insane. The simply fact is that public opinion has swung about 15 points towards acceptance of gay unions since 2003. The Mark Foley scandal did not help the Republican Gay-Bashing cause either. I think most
Republicans will admit there are at least another dozen suspected high level closet cases in the GOP. So do Republican really want to go down that road one more time??? Likewise The acceptance of abortion is simply much higher among those under 50 of all denominations as well since 1980 when Religious Right gained power with in the Republican party. I am simply not sure if “God, Guns and Gays” has the impact it use to. I sense a fierce resentment against the Religious Right among the younger self styled libertarian crowd.
Another issues is the wide split between members of both the Catholic and Protestant churches and their leadership over support for Amnesty for Illegal Aliens and Open Borders. Lower and Middle class folks in effected areas are seeing their local and property taxes going through the roof in order to support school construction and increased public services. White Republicans fear that over night in the entire South West local politics would resemble the mess that is now Los Angeles county.
Folks we may see something we have not seen in a while a Republican base that is pissed off and some what independent minded.
In conclusion I think McCain is finished after Friday’s sinking of “CIR”. Right now I think it is between Rudy, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney with Rudy and Thompson in the lead. Thomspon’s big plus other than his acting persona is that he is also a Southerner.
llamajockey,
I keep reading assertions that most Americans don’t favor “amnesty” for illegal aliens, but on the other hand most polling I’ve seen indicates majority support for the latest, now apparently ill-fated immigration reform attempt, which did not provide “amnesty” but required payments of fines, etc. This from a CBS news poll from a couple of weeks ago:
Sixty-two percent of Americans say illegal immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S. for at least two years should be given a chance to keep their jobs and apply for legal status. Just 33% think such people should be deported.
This approach is supported by majorities of both Democrats (66%) and Republicans (61%).
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/25/opinion/polls/main2851959.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_2851959
Seems to me that Lou Dobbs-type hysteria killed this reasonable bill, (btw one of the few things I’ve agreed with W on…)