America's mayor bothers conservatives
Rudy Giuliani, "America's Mayor," has many admirable qualities. He was the right man in the right place during the Islamist mass murders of 9/11, and he provided strong leadership in the revitalization of a city that was on the road to lawlessness and economic ruin. But make no mistake — although Giuliani may be a convert to the Republican Party, he is certainly no conservative.
And that may prove to be a problem for the majority of Americans, a solid national majority comprised of Reagan and social conservatives. Rudy Giuliani is what is known in political parlance as "electable;" This energetic, charismatic fellow is already being considered for national office by party elites, and there currently exists a broad swathe of grass roots support for a Giuliani run at the presidency. He's likable and people would vote for him. If so, one might be entitled to ask, then what is the problem? Quite simply:
The conservative base may not support Rudy Giuliani for president, and without conservative support Giuliani has no chance at all.
Rudy's political history
Rudy Giuliani cut his political teeth as a George McGovern Democrat, and much of the McGovern liberal philosophy guides him to this day. According to John Hawkins in his Conservative Case Against Rudy Giuliani, The National Journal's rating system put him at 56 percent conservative and 44 percent liberal on economic issues in 1996, and assessed him liberal by 59 to 40 percent on social issues.
In fact, the Liberal Party endorsed Giuliani in 1989 in his race for mayor of New York City. The Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to "progressive" New Yorkers, finding 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. It was reasoned that as mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the arguable legal rights to abortion."
If being endorsed by the Liberal Party wasn't enough to awaken sleeping conservatives, Giuliani threw his support behind uber liberal Mario Cuomo for governor of New York State over Republican George Pataki. This dovetailed nicely with his waffling between endorsing Bob Dole or Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. Giuliani ultimately endorsed Dole, but his support was tepid at best.
So if Rudy Giuliani is not a conservative, what is he? Well, as he himself stated in The New York Times in 1992, he favors the Nelson Rockefeller mindset. Giuliani considered himself to represent "a tradition in the Republican Party I've worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition." In other words, the bad old days of unprincipled liberal republicanism and a party run by country club elites.
At best, his conservatism at the federal level would emulate that of Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter, or Olympia Snowe. At worst, he would side with the Left on domestic policy issues as well as critical judiciary appointments.
Rudy and the issues
To his credit and to the dismay of any Reagan conservative, Rudy Giuliani has been absolutely clear on his positions of domestic policy. These include:
- Pro Abortion In Giuliani's own words, "I've said that I 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."
- Pro Partial-Birth Abortion Asked by CNN whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions, Giuliani stated, "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing."
- Anti Second Amendment Rudy Giuliani is a strong proponent of gun control and avidly supported the Brady Bill as well as Bill Clinton's so-called Assault Weapons Ban.
- Pro Gay Marriage In fairness, Giuliani is on record as saying that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. However, he also supports civil unions and vociferously opposed President Bush's call for a ban on gay marriage.
- Soft On Illegal Immigration Giuliani favors the leniency and amnesty approach to illegal aliens as touted by John McCain, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. In fact, 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 federal government in 1997. He lost the suit but vowed to have city administrators ignore the laws.
It is readily apparent that Rudy Giuliani is no conservative, and that he would not garner any conservative support — especially in the South. But there is another side of Giuliani that could cause him trouble, and that is his tawdry marital history; three divorces, bouts of infidelity, and a soap opera-like series of domestic legal battles. While many today contend that a person's personal life should not have any bearing on his or her candidacy, the fact remains that it most certainly does — just ask President Bush, who has been incessantly smeared and demeaned about as much as anyone by the Drive-By Media and the Left since Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan.
Despite his national moderate appeal, the size of his media fan club, and 9/11 hero status, a Rudy Giuliani presidential candidacy would be bad news indeed to conservatives. Although he left the Democrat Party during the Reagan Revolution, his socialist roots are deep and govern his political actions to this day.
And speaking of Ronald Reagan, one cannot forget what Giuliani thought about Reagan's friend and mentor, Senator Barry Goldwater. Giuliani described Goldwater, the man who led the way and laid the groundwork for the success of President Reagan, as an "incompetent, confused, and sometimes idiotic man." Conservative indeed.
The bottom line is that Rudy Giuliani is a deeply-flawed candidate who's unlikely to capture the Republican nomination or win the presidency. He is a liberal at heart, damaged goods, and will never pass conservative muster.
However, faced with a choice between Giuliani and Mrs. Clinton, what would YOU do?