Sunday, October 28, 2007

Bush: not worthy to tie Rudy's sandal?

"On foreign policy and presidential power, Rudy is Bush without the soft edges." - Josh Marshall
David Seaton's News Links
If you thought that George W. Bush was the worst that the American electoral system could come up with, you were very wrong.

Bush, at least, has the "virtue" of his mental limitations. He lacks the ability to master detail and the knack of administrative leadership that Giuliani possesses in abundance. Bush's ineptitude has saved the world from Bush's "success": Giuliani has the drive and the focus to bring Bush/Cheney to fruition.

In short, Bush in his bumbling way could turn out to be no more than Giuliani's "John the Baptist". He is also the perfect Republican candidate to defeat the probable Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Here is another "American Nightmare" in progress. America's 300 year long "winning streak" is obviously at an end. DS


David Greenberg: Rudy a Lefty? Yeah, Right. - Washington Post
Abstract: You wouldn't know it from reading the papers, but the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination is a confirmed right-winger. On issues such as free speech and religion, secrecy and due process, civil rights and civil liberties, pornography and democracy, this moralist and self-styled lawman has exhibited all the key hallmarks of Bush-era conservatism. That candidate is Rudolph W. Giuliani. As any New Yorker can tell you, the last word anyone in the 1990s would have attached to the brash, furniture- breaking mayor was "liberal" -- and the second-to-last was "moderate." With his take-many-prisoners approach to crime and his unerring pro-police instincts, the prosecutor-turned-proconsul made his mark on the city not by embracing its social liberalism but by trying to crush it.(...) To a New Yorker, the idea of Rudy as a liberal or even a moderate is unreal, topsy-turvy -- like describing George McGovern as a hawk or Pat Buchanan as a Zionist. The case for Giuliani's moderation rests mainly on three overblown issues -- guns, gay rights and abortion -- and even in those cases, his deviation from conservative orthodoxy is far milder than is usually suggested. The "social" and "cultural" issues that divide Americans encompass much more than guns, gay rights and abortion. They include state support of religion; the legitimacy of dissenting speech; the president's right to keep information secret; the place of fair procedures in dispensing justice. The Bush administration's hard-line stands on these matters have polarized the nation as much as the Iraq war has. And on these issues, Giuliani is just as hard-line as the man he'd like to succeed. If you've managed to keep liking President Bush, you'd have no trouble loving President Giuliani.(...) Those who deem Rudy a liberal might also recall his plan to fund parochial schools with city money. His goal went far beyond letting Bible groups meet after hours in public classrooms: The mayor personally phoned Cardinal John O'Connor to hatch a plan that would have placed public school students in church-run schools with overtly Christian curricula -- including catechism and excluding sex education. It was the real liberals on the school board who stopped the plan. Beyond religious issues, a second conservative trait defined Giuliani's tenure: his Cheney-esque appetite for executive power. In 1999, for example, he directed (without the City Council's permission) the police to permanently confiscate the cars of people charged with drunken driving -- even if the suspects were later acquitted.(...) When Bush ran for president, his slippery slogan of "compassionate conservatism" convinced many Washington journalists that he was a moderate. When he then pushed a right-wing agenda, they were stunned. They hadn't looked hard enough at his record. Likewise, if Giuliani becomes president, he will probably emerge as an unabashed social conservative -- as seen in his judicial appointments, his efforts to aid religious schools, the free hand he gives the government in fighting crime and terrorism, and an all-around authoritarian style. Let's not get fooled again. READ IT ALL

No comments: