NYT: Decided or Not, Giuliani Charts a Path to 2008

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/nyregion/07rudy.html?...

Decided or Not, Giuliani Charts a Path to 2008

After four years of enjoying private life, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is taking several steps that could lay the groundwork for a presidential bid, strengthening alliances with Republicans nationwide and especially with conservative leaders of the party.

Mr. Giuliani's advisers say he will decide around the end of the year whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

...

"A lot of the events we've done have really laid the groundwork to go, if we need to, to raise money nationally," said Anthony V. Carbonetti, Mr. Giuliani's political point man, who is already planning campaign stops for July and August. "We really have a road map."

...

At a time when President Bush's approval ratings are down sharply, Mr. Giuliani is strongly defending the president's leadership and the White House's positions on Iraq and immigration. Mr. Carbonetti speaks at least once a month with Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's senior adviser, and roughly every other week with Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

[Placebo]

1. Republican primary voters will NEVER vote for someone who:

1) Appeared in drag on national TV

2) Lived with gay men after getting a divorce from his wife

No amount of 9/11 sentiment will overpower the religious right's hatred of those things.

[crispini]

2. Yeah, he's been appearing at fundraisers down here in Texas.

Workin' it, workin' it.

[progressivebydesign]

3. He creeps me out. I have no idea why ANYONE would like him.

His sainthood was grossy exaggerated after 9/11 for political reasons. He was an asshole philanderer as a mayor, he'd be the most corupt prez in history... worse than Bush, if that's even possible.

[PATRICK]

4. Pataki and the Mayor

The state GOP machine, which will be going down in flames this fall, has uprooted itself to take its battered case(D'Amato, Pataki) to what pass for the GOP establishment these days.

And then there's Rudy, the old outsider, rival, thorn in their side. Not to mention the states boiling Conservative party dragged around like a rebellious harem which would rather see both camps pack off to Alaska. This is extremely odd, a fading machine, the lone wolf rival not all that loved by the Big Apple, the shambles of this and that in the NY GOP about to be bludgeoned by Spitzer.

Whatever do they think they can offer to the national party, these exiles fleeing catastrophes of their own making? A figure of moderation and salvation licking RW boots? McCain's already there. Rudy has been on his own so much that his storied heroic mayoralty of NYC has as much connection to the real world as a tale from the Arabian Nights. Can't go home again. He is soaring among strangers in a new circle of power, a balloon without a rope, a needleless moral compass banging on the up button in the elevator.

Pataki is trudging along to be the sad default candidate in any chaos that might develop, though they may not be making that realistic grim calculation yet. His disconnect is more real, the coming loss of the state that gives him his sole claim to prestige. No legendary persona, no power political machine in its prime, no attempt to staunch the Democratic tide. Full surrender. Full disenchantment of NY conservatives.

Nothing except blandness and lack of a criminal record.

A further grotesquely humorous dimension to this bizarro land of pretension is having to compete with others for the permission of the Bush bosses, currently tanking themselves with no base except two fingered Diebold hacks.

When the stone hits your windshield, experience tells you that if is large enough, that little hole will spread and destroy the whole glass. Definitely that stone has hit the GOP and painfully slow are the diffusing cracks, relying in the end on the help of big money media for no one to come along and simply push it in. We used to think perhaps smart Dems were holding back, savoring that final coup de grace. If they don't hurry, they might not get the pleasure of having any role in this self destruction.

[NYC]

5. Thanks for the laugh.

...Rudy has been on his own so much that his storied heroic mayoralty of NYC has as much connection to the real world as a tale from the Arabian Nights. Can't go home again. He is soaring among strangers in a new circle of power, a balloon without a rope, a needleless moral compass banging on the up button in the elevator...

[PATRICK]

10. The "no way Jose" GOP candidates

all have one dream. Being picked by the ruling powers, or whatever, performing adequately when the party faithful are urged to vote for them. The Bush dynasty with Nixon holdovers is still the asserted dominance in the process. Neither the charisma of candidates, competence or beliefs, nor any other electoral advantage has precedence.

They all must beg and beg of backroom people that don't believe in them and don't want them to succeed except as temporary puppets. Then these people who are guardians of money interest must abase themselves to the fanatical constituencies never letting them have an ounce of power unless they are pure Mammonites and loyal to the plutocracy. Then they get an ounce of power and a ton of corruption and money. When the smoke clears the same old GOP personalities are in charge with an ever degraded policy, degraded in surrendering or falsely adhering to all beliefs, working by radicalized lies and runaway corruption, unable to win an honest election or to withstand the light of a fair media.

As bad as each challenger is, they must totally destroy themselves to be sitting "there" at the end of the day. It is almost awesome to behold as this process drools out of the mouth of a senile GOP establishment given legitimacy and aristocratic aura by their subservient and equally degraded and discredited lapdogs.

A trip to the Democratic camp where this dark shadow infects and reflects this power game reveals huge gaps where still, if the election and/or the MSM was fair and just any competent and dedicated candidate, and there are legions, would win and govern to the benefit of nation and democracy. The people of the party would not be used or abused or expectant that their president would be a nut or in complete servile agreement or tolerant of wrongdoing. What is wrong about the Democrats is only as the madness of the RW has corrupted a process they naively treat in an innocence equally appalling as the GOP corruption, and falling into the various allures of big media spin and big money. What is wrong is in ceding the GOP more unfair advantages and not "winning" with the massive advantages of truth and people.

[Charlie Brown]

6. I'd looove to have Giuliani as the R nominee in '08

pro-choice, pro-gay rights, he'd destroy the Republican Party.

Go Rudy Go!

[BlueStater]

7. God, I can't stand him! Why won't he go away?

His political career would be long dead by now if not for 9/11. He couldn't be elected dogcatcher without it. Because he acted in the way any competent mayor would act, suddenly his past sins can be overlooked? Arrrrgh!

[aquart]

8. An adulterous, divorced Catholic: the Republican cream.

He was actually seen leading during a crisis. That makes him the best they've got.

I can't wait till Frist and the other stalwarts are battling it out with him in the Republican primaries. They have so much they can use...gosh, it'll be fun!

[saigon68]

9. Against the FUNDIES he will be a 1 legged man in an Ass-kicking Contest

LOL