Will Fiendish Giuliani Be Bush III?

[CatWoman]

He's cashing in on 9/11, working with Karl Rove's henchmen and in cahoots with a Swift Boat-style attack on Hillary. By all accounts, he's a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush.

Early Wednesday, May 16th, Charleston, South Carolina. The scene is a town-hall meeting staged by GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, only a day after he wowed a patriotic Republican crowd at a nationally televised debate with a righteous ass-kicking of the party's latest Hanoi Jane, terrorist sympathizer Ron Paul. A bump in the polls later, "America's Mayor" is back on the campaign trail -- in a room packed with standard-issue Adorable Schoolchildren, in this case beatific black kids in elementary school uniforms with wide eyes and big RUDY stickers pinned to their oblivious breasts.

Giuliani has good stage presence, but his physical appearance is problematic -- virtually neckless, all shoulders and forehead and overbite, with a hunched-over, Draculoid posture that recalls, oddly enough, George W. Bush, the vestigial stoop of a once-chubby kid who grew up hiding tittie pictures from nuns. Not handsome, not cuddly, if he wins this thing it's going to be by projecting toughness and man-aura. But all presidential candidates have to play the baby-kissing game, and here is an early chance for Rudy to show his softer side.

Rudy giuliani is a true American hero, and we know this because he does all the things we expect of heroes these days -- like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a "stuck pig," and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an outsize ego who doesn't even bother to conceal the fact that he's had a hard-on for the presidency since he was in diapers. In the media age, we can't have a hero humble enough to actually be one; what is needed is a tireless scoundrel, a cad willing to pose all day long for photos, who'll accept $100,000 to talk about heroism for an hour, who has the balls to take a $2.7 million advance to write a book about himself called Leadership. That's Rudy Giuliani. Our hero. And a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush.

Yes, Rudy is smarter than Bush. But his political strength -- and he knows it -- comes from America's unrelenting passion for never bothering to take that extra step to figure shit out. If you think you know it all already, Rudy agrees with you. And if anyone tries to tell you differently, they're probably traitors, and Rudy, well, he'll keep an eye on 'em for you. Just like Bush, Rudy appeals to the couch-bound bully in all of us, and part of the allure of his campaign is the promise to put the Pentagon and the power of the White House at that bully's disposal.

http://www.alternet.org/story/53356/

[spanone]

1. guiliani is symptomatic of everything wrong with America.

:puke:

[krispos42]

2. I read this article in Rolling Stone on Tuesday

God, the man is a cretin.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/14952564/giuliani_worse_than_bush/print

Whether Rudy believes in this kind of politics reflexively, as the psychologically crippled Bush does, or as a means to an end, as Karl Rove does, isn't clear. But there's no question that Giuliani has made the continuation of Swift-Boating politics a linchpin of his candidacy. His political hires speak deeply to that tendency. Chris Henick, formerly Karl Rove's most trusted deputy, is now a key aide at Giuliani Partners, the security firm set up by the mayor to cash in on his 9/11 image. One of his top donors, Richard Collins, is a longtime Bush supporter who was instrumental in setting up "Stop Her Now," a 527 group modeled on Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that will be used to attack Hillary Clinton. And the money for the smear campaign comes from the same Texas sources behind the Swift Boaters, including oilman T. Boone Pickens and Houston home builder Bob Perry.

To further emulate the Bush-Rove model, Giuliani has recruited some thirty Bush "Pioneers," the key fund-raisers who served as the president's $100,000 bagmen. In addition, he hired the woman who spearheaded the Pioneer program to be his chief fund-raiser. "Rudy definitely got some of Bush's heavier hitters, including all the Swift Boater types," says Alex Cohen, a senior researcher at Public Citizen, who tracks the president's top donors.

It's going to be a rough election year

[NewJeffCT]

3. Of all the top candidates, Rudy seems almost uniquely unqualified

I was thinking that this morning. He was an unpopular mayor in New York that really has accomplished very little over the past 15 years or so.

The WTC was attacked in 1993, and Rudy did nothing to improve security in the city between then and 9/11.

His pushing of scandal-plagued Bernie Kerik shows he lacks judgment.

And, what exactly has he done since 9/11? He's run around exploiting fear, exploiting 9/11 and exploiting that he didn't run away like a coward (like George Bush on 9/11.)

Not to mention his treatment of the NYC firefighters is downright despicable.

And, not to mention, he has a personal life that would make a lot of rock and rap stars blush...

[AzDar]

4. I am utterly baffled as to how this dootchbag is even in a position to run

for Prez.
Damn, has the bar been lowered, or what?:shrug:

[CatWoman]

7. the bar was actually lowered in 1999

........

[AzDar]

8. So very true.

[KharmaTrain]

5. Rudy...Rudy...Rudy....

This scum is another great gift to the Democrats next year...believe it or not.

His march into right wing hell has cost Rudy any cred with the "moderates" and "independents"...while no matter what he does or says, it won't be good enough for the wingnuts and fundies. The polls show his support is a mile wide and an inch thick. He just pulled out of Iowa cause he's getting his ass kicked and is just hoping his PR draws just enough votes to win. Remember...15 or 20% may be just enough to win the nomination. In the meantime he'll continue to spin into wingnut hell...creating soundbites and flip-flop positions that will be a Democratic strategist's dream come true.

Rudy's just as ruthless and feckless as boooshie, but without the braintrust and power brokers. There's no "Texas mafia" working for Rudy to scrub the latest embarassment or create diversions. If anything, a Rudy nomination will lead to a mass exit by "independents" and other parts of "the base" and "the math". I suspect we'll see many either staying home next year or going for a third or fourth party.

The side benefit of Rudy's right wing amazing adventure is it rekindled a lot of the reasons people in New York didn't like him and now amplify it around the country. It could help Democrats wipe out the few remaining GOOP pockets in the Northeast...bye bye Chris Shays...and lead to an implosion of the Repugnican party the likes that was predicted for Democrats just a few years ago.

Run Rudy Run!!!!!

[deadmessengers]

6. As much as I hate to say it...

No. For one thing, he's smarter. Yes, the standard is pretty damn low, but I think we can all agree that Rudolph Giuliani is smarter than George W. Bush. The second point I have is that he's slightly less likely to impose litmus test (Do you oppose reproductive freedom? Do you hate homos?) to every appointment he makes.

So, he'd still make a shitty President, but he would be a slightly different shade of shit.