Tag: Rudy Giuliani (page 6)

Rudy Giuliani, who's running for President primarily on his record as Mayor of New York City during the 9/11 attacks, takes another hit today from The Real Rudy and Brave New Films.

Watch the new video. The firefighters on 9/11 were carrying the same piss-poor radios that malfunctioned during the 1993 WTC attacks. That's why the firefighters didn't get the call to get out of the buildings. More than 100 firefighters died. As Digby explains:

Giuliani came into office in 1994, shortly after the first WTC attack. He knew then that the radios didn't work properly and yet it took him seven years to deal with the problem. And when he finally got around to it, he gave Motorola a sweetheart, no-bid contract for radios that were never tested in advance. When the NYFD got them, they didn't work and they had to be reissued the same radios that had proved inadequate in 1993.

That's why, on September 11th, the firefighters didn't hear the warnings to get out of the buildings. The cops heard them. They mostly got out. Their radios could get the right frequency. The firefighters' old radios couldn't.

Rudy's history as a Mayor who failed to provide adequate emergency preparedness needs investigation. It also needs exposure. Who needs a leader of the United States who couldn't even provide for his city's first responders as Mayor?

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Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani "offered his strongest defense yet" of Bernie Kerik.

"I mean the reality is, if we just look at Bernard Kerik's service as police commissioner, he was an excellent police commissioner," Giuliani said at a campaign stop in this key early primary state.

...."He was there on Sept. 11," Giuliani said. "He was heroic on Sept. 11."

He continues to admit his recommendation of Kerik for Homeland Security Secretary was his fault and a mistake.

Can Rudy overcome the problems with his personal life, his past positions on social issues conservatives find troubling and his lack of judgment in personnel decisions? Digby says Kerik is a disqualifying mistake for Rudy.

The New York Daily News reports that Rudy Giuliani pal Bernie Kerik, already disgraced from his failed nomination for Homeland Security Secretary and guilty pleas for state tax violations, is sending his lawyers to Washington for a last-chance meeting with the Justice Department to avoid indictment on federal tax charges:

Kerik's lawyers recently agreed to waive the statute of limitations on the tax charges until Nov. 17, which will allow them to make one last plea to try to ease the pain.

Kerik will go to the Justice Department in Washington in the coming weeks to try to get expected criminal tax charges reduced to civil fines.

Kerik still faces probable charges of bribery and obstruction of justice over a secret meeting with former Giuliani officials in Tribeca in 1999.

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Clyde Haberman in the New York Times piles on about Rudy Giuliani's wierdness, a trait he says is well known to New Yorkers and the rest of us are getting to see for the first time.

New Yorkers are well acquainted with at least one other version. That would be Rudy the loopy. The weirdness factor, as some have called it, is as much a part of the Giuliani package as 9/11, banished squeegee men and shuttered porn parlors.

After reviewing the NRA call and his comment in London about how he was one of the most famous people in America, Haberman gives some other examples.

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The Washington Post explores Rudy Giuliani's claim he is the go-to guy in the war on terror. Here's a snippet, to give you the flavor:

But for most of Giuliani's career as a Department of Justice official, prosecutor and New York's chief executive, terrorism was a narrow aspect of his broader crime-fighting agenda, which was dominated by drug dealers, white-collar criminals and the Mafia. Giuliani expressed confidence that Islamic extremism could be contained through vigorous investigation by law enforcement agencies and prosecution in the court system -- the same approach he now condemns.

The LA Times recounts his flip-flopping on immigration.

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Rudy Giuliani touted his celebrity today during a visit to Great Britain, calling himself one of the four or five most famous people in the world.

When asked who the others were, he answered "Bill and Hillary" before his aides led him out of harm's way.

Rudy is also certain that the Democratic nominee will be Hillary:

"It's not going be about George Bush. It's not going to be about Ronald Reagan. It's going to be about who does America want for their future: Rudolph Giuliani or Hillary Clinton?"

A new a new L.A.Times/Bloomberg poll shows Rudy Giuliani trailing among Republicans in three critical states with early primaries, while Hillary Clinton maintains her substantial lead among the Democratic contendders.

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, trails Mitt Romney in Iowa and New Hampshire among Republican voters, and he lags behind Fred Thompson in South Carolina. But Giuliani is only a few points behind the leader in New Hampshire and South Carolina--within the poll's margin of error--suggesting that the race in those two states is too tight for anyone to be declared a clear front-runner.

The poll also found that Republicans are only lightly committed to their favorite candidates. For example,

a sizable 72% of Iowa Republicans who favored a candidate said they might decide to back someone else.

It's a different story with the Democrats.

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Rudy's right, it's a civil offense, not a criminal violation, to be in this country without proper documentation. Many of the persons the right blasts as being illegal entered this country legally and then overstayed their visas. Their initial entry was lawful. Staying past the expiration date on their visa is not a crime.

(Note: That's why the term "illegal immigrant" is a misnomer and "undocumented resident" is the correct term.)

Deportation proceedings (which are now called removal proceedings by the way) are also civil, not criminal.

Romney was appalled by his comments. Tancredo would probably be apopletic.

Meanwhile, Fred pretty much bombed in Iowa today.

The Republicans need a viable alternative to Rudy. Who will it be?

The LA Times examines the (so far) lack of support for Fred Thompson in Hollywood.

I'd rather see Thompson or Romney get the Republican nomination than Rudy. For that reason, I'm not going to bash Thompson.

The thought of listening to Rudy from February to November of 2008 while he's on the campaign trail, should he get the nomination, is just about unbearable.

Rudy Giuliani will be speaking at the sixth anniversary remembrance of 9/11, but not everyone is thrilled, to put it mildly:

"He's cashing in on 9/11 like it's his own personal tragedy. It's a photo op on a campaign swing for him," said Jimmy Riches, a deputy fire chief whose son was among the 343 firefighters killed.

Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was also killed, said she was stunned that the city would ask a presidential candidate to speak there.

"They should have every other single presidential candidate then, because this is outrageous," Regenhard said. "This is going to be seen across the country as a blanket endorsement from us. It's totally inappropriate."

If, as the organizers say, he'll merely be reading aloud from a text, that's one thing. If he gives a speech and mentions his candidacy for President, I hope he gets booed off the stage.

There's no doubt Rudy Giuliani could benefit from a new firm to boost his image. But, did he have to hire this one?

Last year, a commercial made by Thompson's firm for Tennessee's U.S. Senate race was criticized for what the NAACP and others said were racial overtones.

Run by the Republican National Committee against Democrat Harold Ford, who is black, the ad showed a white woman saying she had met Ford at a Playboy-sponsored party. As the ad ended, the woman, her shoulders bared, whispered into the camera, "Harold, call me."

The NAACP said the commercial played to prejudices about black men and white women, and Republican Bob Corker, who won the Senate seat, called the ad tacky. The RNC denied any racial subtext but asked TV stations to stop running the commercial.

I can't wait to see the firm's New Rudy.

What is a sentence like this doing in a national news article on Rudy Giuliani's Iowa campaigning? Reporter Jill Lawrence writes:

Suffice it to say Republicans have never had a presidential candidate like this — half Woody Allen, half Rambo and 100% cerebral.

Via Media Matters which is tracking the media's reporting on Giuliani (and others).

Ms. Lawrence is also in need of a reality check.