Author: Yoda

Ryan Sager in the NY Sun reported that Rudy Giuliani has announced his opposition to the New Hampshire’s new law creating civil unions for Lesbians & Gay men.

Sager and many bloggers have pointed out that this is the latest change of position and pander to the right by Rudy. But nobody that I have seen has pointed out that this position by Rudy is a sharp contradiction to what he explained was his philosophy only 6 weeks ago on April 10th.

Rudy said then – “One of the great beauties of the kind of government we have, which is a national/federal government, is that we can make — on a broad range of issues — we can make different decisions in different parts of the country,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We have different sensitivities, and at different times we are going to come to different decisions, and I think that is best left up to the states.”

Regular readers of my posts and comments on this blog know that I have been a consistent critic of Al Sharpton.

And I don’t back off any of them.

But this week, Rev. Al has been getting a bum rap.

After the Don Imus controversy and the exoneration of the Duke Lacrosse players, a bunch of commentators, including Imus himself, started yapping about how Al owed the Duke lacrosse players an apology for all that he said about them.

But guess what – apparently Al didn’t say much about them.

Ellis Henican in his column in Newsday reported that Al never went down to Durham, NC to vilify players.

Sunday’s NY Post put on their front page the breaking news that an African-American doorman donated $25 to the first serious African-American candidate for President. The doorman did this despite the fact that he was so close to Hillary Clinton that he actually voted for her not once but twice!

I guess the Post will next put in the headlines New Yorkers who happen to be Mormons who gave money to Mitt Romney despite having voted for Rudy Giuliani!

Here’s a challenge for readers of Room 8.

Guess which Presidential candidate is quoted as saying the following soft-headed comments about how the US should deal with Islamic terrorists? Who is sounding like Jimmy Carter or some other appeaser?

We want to do business with them. We would love to have them all wired and part of the Internet buying American products, and then we'll buy their products. And then we'll have the kind of issues we have with China and India, like we used to have with Japan. But those are good issues to have. That's America, that's what America is about."

In the end, he says, victory in the terror war may come down to commerce. "Technology has transformed the world," he told the executives. "Part of the way we're ultimately going to win the war on terror is through that technology. We're going to win the war on terror because, yes, we have to be militarily strong, we have to consider defending ourselves, but ultimately we overcome terrorism when those parts of the world that haven't connected yet connect to the global economy."

USA Today reports the following about former Virginia Governor James Gilmore, one of the more obscure candidates for President:

Gilmore, who was governor of Virginia when the Pentagon was attacked on 9/11, appeared to take a swipe at Giuliani when he vowed that he would never send first responders into danger without proper equipment. "When I'm president, the radios are going to work," he said.

I assume nobody asked how he was going to be able to do that as President. Perhaps he will create a new cabinet Department of Appliances?

Earlier this month, an article in the New York Observer included the following:

When he ran for Mayor, political opponents called on Mr. Giuliani to account for the firm’s client list—which included the government of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega—and commitment to diversity and public service. As David Margolick wrote in The New York Times: “As far as White & Case’s public image is concerned, Mr. Giuliani has produced far more hail than rain.”

The latest argument being made by Rudy’s supporters to conservatives is essentially “the enemy of your enemy is your friend”.

This argument made be Steve Malanga, George Will & John Podhoretz is that Giuliani in office overcame the vehement opposition of liberal special interests and the left-wing media to cut crime, slash taxes, fire City workers and banish squeegee men.

They then say that the fact that these bad guys (meaning liberals) were all against Rudy means he’s really “one of us” (meaning conservatives) despite abortion, gay rights, guns, Mario Cuomo, etc.

George Will has a column defending John McCain, Mitt Romney & Rudy Giuliani against those who think they are not conservative enough.

His defense of Rudy includes the following –

The suggestion that Sept. 11 required city tax increases triggered from Giuliani four adjectives: "dumb, stupid, idiotic and moronic."

Now that may be proof of conservatism but not that either Will or Rudy were correct. The attacks of Sept. 11 did damage the New York economy and that along with Rudy’s excessive spending that began when he ran for re-election required Mayor Bloomberg to raise taxes because of Sept. 11. Bloomberg’s actions, unpopular at the time, resulted in the City’s bouncing back with a stronger economy than under Rudy’s watch.

Last week Steve Malanga, from the Manhattan Institute on this blog and in the New York Post made the case that Rudy Giuliani really was a real conservative, despite abortion, gay rights and gun control.

In the Post, Malanga wrote of Rudy:

He ran New York with a conservative's priorities – and delivered reform to a degree unprecedented in modern U.S. history.

Last week was the 10^th anniversary of the shooting spree at the Empire State Building that killed one and wounded many. The Daily News printed a story detailing that the family of the Palestinian killer now admitted that he did it because he “wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel.

 http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/498674p-420269c.html