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Rudy: Devalued

If anyone has any doubt as to how absurdly out of touch our Political Pundocracy is, they need only look at the front runner for the Republican nomination, and compare him to what Pundits say voters care about:

Effete Easterner:  Multi-Millionaire, Former Mayor of New York.

NASCAR Dad: Doesn't Drive, Son barely speaks to him

Girlie Men Need not Apply: Enjoys going to Parties in Drag

Country And Western Music: Opera Buff

Values Voters: Thrice Married, Pro-Abortion

Favorite Work Out: Golf

Smaller Government: Growing the number of people on the City's Payroll

Favorite Dog:  None

Name: Rudolf Giuliani

Almost all of the professional analysis of our political scene is clearly complete crap. What Republican voters want has nothing to do with their supposed fondness for values and their anti-elitism. The only issues that are important to the GOP  are much more basic. The Party's appeal is based on a combination of racism and fear. 

Rudy's racist record in New York is clear.  As mayor, he sued New York magazine when it put up ads that said it was one of the few good things about New York that Rudy had not taken credit for. His lawyers, paid for by the City, argued that such ads were demeaning to the office of the Mayor.  But when he was running for Mayor, he had no problem participating in a near riot against the then current Mayor, African American David Dinkins, where the mayor was mocked as a wash room attendant.  In another incident, after police shot and killed an unarmed African-American security guard and father of two, Rudy illegally released his juvenile record. (This little trick cost the City over $2 Million, when the family sued.)

Fear of anyone who is alien is the only other platform on which Republicanism is built. Fear of Islam. A fear Rudy appealed to his in his entirely wrong reply to Ron Paul at the recent Republican debate. Fear of the Mexican immigrant. The party remains loyal to Bush through the incompetence of 9/11, through Iraq, through Katrina - but deserts him when it comes to little brown people.  Don't believe me, play the video and listen to the right wing editorial staff at the Wall Street Journal, here, at  Powerline, via memeorandum)

Somehow the right and/or our corporate media have managed to take discussions of topics like race, like discussions of Islamic realities; off the table. But you can all look forward to seeing photos of Rudy at a (largely white) NASCAR event near you. (Although you won't see the chauffeur that brought him there.)

 

Deceptive Rudy

It's fascinating, yet frightening, to watch the media transform Rudy Giuliani. In fact, since New York is a media capital, as well as the city in which Rudy created the record the press now mythologizes, it is terrifying.

David Saltonstall, writing in the New York Daily News about former FBI Chief Louis Freeh's endorsement of Giuliani;

Even the setting for today's endorsement -Times Square- is intended to send a message. It is meant to highlight Giuliani's efforts at battling crime and cleaning up a once dangerous and tattered environment, a skill he has suggested could be just as useful in Iraq today as New Yorkof the 1990s.

Times Square was tattered before Giuliani took office. Long before. It's clean up is known to almost every New Yorker as the "Disneyfication" of the area. Because it was a development deal between Disney, Ford and the Dinkins administration, that finally changed Times Square.

The changes had been coming; as you can see from the number of porn shops:

from a high of 147 in 1975. Numbers continued to decline through the eighties. There were forty-seven in 1993--Giuliani took office in 1994--and by the end of 1996, before his zoning law even went into effect--the number had dropped to thirteen.

The memorandum of intent between Disney and the City of New York was signed during the administration of David Dinkins.  Giuliani had nothing to do with the clean up of Times Square. Nothing. Absolutely Nothing.

(h/t mememorandum)

 

Hillary Almost Always Wears Pants

It's quite possible that tomorrow we will find out that more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the last Memorial Day weekend.

So it seems only normal that the Press is dedicated to bashing a Clinton. Much more attention is focused on two new books that are coming out about Hillary than on death in Iraq.

Apparently the books are important because we learn that Hillary is ambitious, that her husband cheated on her, and that she had "occasionally skirted along the edge of the truth along the way" to power.

Wow.

Appropriately, similar attention is not being paid to Rudy Giuliani. But then, he is not ambitious. We know that from the way he has never sought a headline, and from how he dipped into the public trough to pay for his law suit against New York Magazine. It had had the temerity to run ads that teased Rudy for taking credit for the sun's spectacular rise each day.  As far as we know Rudy's spouse has never cheated on him while being married to him.  (She did cheat on each of her prior husbands.) Rudy himself cheated on both of his previous wives; but that's OK. It's being the victim of a cheating spouse that calls one's character into question. And of course Rudy never lies. He didn't lie when he said at the Republican Convention that his first words to Bernie Kerick as the World Trade Center collapsed was "Thank God George W. Bush is President!" He didn't lie when he said that he was unaware that his wife of fourteen years was a cousin of his. Blatant, constant lies are OK - it's skirting the edge of the truth that's a problem.

In fact "skirting" is the ultimate character flaw; that it, being of the gender that wears a skirt is the unforgivable flaw.

Rudy Pays Judi.

Thanks to memeorandum, I read the story in today's Daily News about Rudy paying Judi for her work as a speech writer.

As anyone who has heard her feeble attempts at stringing sentences together in interviews is aware, the woman is not a writer.

Talk Left knew it was ridiculous, even though they got the story wrong on two points:

Because she was an employee, I assume he also got to deduct her airline and other individual travel expenses that the paying company may not have picked up. Their suite would be covered since they shared it, but what about the meals and other related items?

The writer, Jeralyn, is clearly a bit innocent when it comes to the Giulianis and the depth of the abyss that is their greed.  Rudy's contract for speaking engagements makes it clear:

4. Client agrees to provide Mr. Giuliani with a pre-registered, large two bedroom non-smoking suite with a king sized bed, on  an upper floor, with a balcony and view if applicable. Client also agrees to reserve four (4) single rooms on the same floor as the suite for a total of 5 rooms. ...Client agrees to pay for all meals and incidental expenses incurred by Mr. Giuliani and staff during their stay.  (emphasis mine)

As to airline expense, Rudi and Judi and their entourage are flown in private jets. The contract specifies that the jet "MUST BE" larger than a Gulfstream IV (emphasis from the contract) (please double click the image at top to see how one owner configured his)

Jeralyn concludes

My take: I don't believe for a second the pay was for her speechwriting help. It sounds like a clothing, hair and makeup allowance, and the only way to deduct it was to make her an employee.

I think she's got it fundamentally right - writing is not in fact part of the job description. But I doubt the rest. If he's reporting it as an expense, then she has to report it as income. Plus he should be paying social security tax, workers comp, etc. I doubt it saves him any real money.  She probably just enjoys getting a little pocket money in her own name.  When they divorce, and both their records suggest that that just might happen, she'll get a lot more than 120,000 per year of service.

Surber is also amused by the piece, and seems to want Judi's job, which is fairly incredible after you've seen Rudy in drag.  World Net Daily is linked to, and they chose to run a piece by James Dobson on why he could never, ever vote for Giuliani. I'm always uncomfortable  in the rare situation where I agree with Dobson, but I guess if we both say Giuliani is absolutelly unqualified, he is.

 

N.Y. Does Not Heart Rudy

Reuters reports on what those who know him best think about the Rudestir.

Forty-six percent of those polled said Bloomberg would make a better president than Giuliani while 29 percent chose Giuliani over Bloomberg, according to the poll conducted for the Daily News by Blum & Weprin Associates.

By an even greater margin -- 56 percent to 29 percent -- those surveyed said Bloomberg was a better mayor than Giuliani,

The country will get to know him.

(memeorandum)

In McCain's Speech...

Thanks to Atrios, who noticed a great attack on Rudy in McCain's 48th speech announcing his intention to run for the presidency:

When Americans confront a catastrophe, natural or man-made, they have a right to expect basic competence from their government. They won't accept that firemen and policemen are unable to communicate with each other in an emergency because they don't have the same radio frequency.

He is referring to the many, many unnecessary deaths caused by the inability of the firemen in the World Trade Center to hear instructions to get out of the building before it collapsed. Rudy lied in his testimony to the 9/11 commission, and said that the technology simply did not exist that would allow the two departments to communicate. In fact, as Salon noted:

The U.S. conference of mayors found before Gillian's testimony to the commission that of 192 cities it evaluated, three-quarters had radios interoperable across police and fire departments.

Ifill and Dinkins

If you missed today's Meet the Press, please see what you can here.

Gwen Ifill was particularly impressive, but the whole conversation was shockingly good for a talking head show.

As Ifill recalled being referred to as a "cleaning woman" when she was covering the Clinton White House for NBC, I remember Rudolf Giuliani's gleeful participation in rallies where Mayor David Dinkins was called a "wash room attendant."

Imus was fired, and Giuliani is the front runner for the Republican nomination to be President. Poor Abe Lincoln, founder of the G.O.P, must still be spinning in his grave.

Is Rudy Really Just a RINO? (Racist in Name Only)

When writing about the N.Y. Times editorial that condemned Giuliani's support for flying the Confederate Flag in Alabama this week, Matt Yglesias makes the point that because Rudy is in fact a racist, the editorial was wrong to say that Rudy was "pandering to his audience." He argues that because he is a sincere racist, his behavior should not be called pandering. Yglesias has a point, but not one that's well taken.

From Rudy's participation in a police riot where Mayor Dinkins was being called a "washroom attendant," through his refusal to meet with black leaders, his indefensible conduct in the Dorismond, Diallo cases, and right up to his comments on Imus's "mistake", Rudy's behavior has been unquestionably racist. It's seems a tad silly to debate the degree to which his motivation is political calculation or is heartfelt bigotry.

Perhaps the NY Times considered it pandering because his comment was unsolicited and irrelevant in Alabama, where the flag hasn't flown over the Capital for years.

More importantly is that the leading Republican candidate is working hard to win the nomination by establishing his racist credentials. Clearly Rudy is worried that the GOP will stigmatize him as a New York style Republican, and he wants to be sure that his willingness to use Race as a divisive tool is well known.  His speaking date at Pat Robertson's college has been confirmed.  As far as I know the exact dates of his speech on States Rights in Philadelphia Mississippi and on the Confederate Flag at Bob Jones University have not yet been announced.

(P.S.

• Our current Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was not handpicked by Giuliani - who at the end of his second term did not have the political clout to pick a new dogcatcher. The biggest factor in Bloomberg's first race was his wallet.
• Rudy will be speaking at Regent University on April 17
• Mitt Romney will be delivering the commencement address at Regent on May 5)

Still Hurting the Rutgers Team

Clearly Don Imus should be fired, whether or not his good friends like Rudy Giuliani  and McCain forgive him.  It's always easy to forgive insults to another. (McCain says he is "a great believer in redemption.”)

Following in their leader's footsteps, wingnuts are trying to defend the indefensible. (Why they do so is beyond me, but if a Republican wants to shoot himself in the face, I'm all for it.) Logic is far from their side. There are some so stupid and offensive that they are easy to dismiss.

Writing about "B-Bawlers", [sick] Riehl just adds more insult:

Maybe if you weren't so practiced at being victims, you might actually have won the championship. How about thinking on that for a spell?

One of the narratives is that Imus' has always been like that - what's new? Because Jeffrey Dahlmer had already eaten seven, eating the eighth was OK? Wizbang likes this one.

The heavy hitter of course is the inimitable Miss Malkin, who says Imus' remarks are deplorable, but nothing as bad as current Rap music. She then posts a lot of the lyrics. She is outraged that the Rev's Sharpton and Jackson are upset about Imus but never criticize the Rappers. (I don't think she means the rapper named Karl Rove here.) As typical as her outrage is her dishonesty. Both Reverends have repeatedly complained of rap lyrics - Jackson went so far as to say the "N" word should be banned.  (why she feels that it is their special obligation as African-Americans to criticize Rap music is unexamined, but understood.) Atrios makes the point that this is simply an attempt at diversion:

Specifically, the fact that rap contains misogynistic lyrics has nothing to do with what Don Imus said. Absolutely nothing. Zero. Zip... It's about Don Imus calling the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team "nappy-headed hoes."

(please view the nappy-headed hoes courtesy of the General: See for yourself why Imus called them nasty and tattooed, not at all like the "cute" white girls on the other team. Yglesias points out that it's not like a lot of big shot politicians or pundits are hanging out with 50 cent, making any comparison between Rap and Imus even more ridiculous.)

Much of the Wingnut Web liked Malkin's post, but a few of the brighter bulbs realized it was lacking.  Thus Protein Wisdom decides to infer an argument that Malkin never makes. (Kurtz basically does the same) They take Malkin's "evidence" and use it to argue that in fact it was Rap's fault that Imus insulted the players . It's because the African-American community permits Rap to prosper with its horrible lyrics, that a nice guy like Imus would ever think of saying such a thing. (never mind that the biggest consumers of Rap are young white males)

Kurtz:

"what about the rappers! that's where the word ho comes from!" (h/t Atrios)

Jeff Goldstein is, as usual, more pompous about it.  First he has to gratuitously insult the editing skills and the physical size of Oliver Willis, ("who, when he’s not distracted by a box of pudding pops") also complained of Malkin's analysis. After repeating Malkin's lies about the Reverends, and Quoting McWhorter and his local newspaper, Jeff pretentiously posts:

And second, is what we are witnessing here “conservatives” engaging in a big cultural con—trying to take the spotlight off of insidious and largely hidden latent white racism?  Or is the occasion of Imus’ boner sufficient to ask pointed cultural questions like those posed by McWhorter, Malkin, and the Rocky Mountain News editorial writers?

Or to put it another way:  is it possible that Imus is less a racist than he is a product of the culture in which he lives?  Has he been “inscribed” by some “cultural dialogic”?

( It's sort of fun: In order to defend Imus, the right is actually blaming "the culture" that surrounds him - he's actually the victim)

And even that is bogus. It is true that in the 100 lines of lyrics Malkin posted the word "ho" appeared once. But I did not see a single use of "nappy headed" nor of "jiggaboo." These are words that Imus and his sidekick brought from their own hearts.

Imus' words were ugly enough. The efforts of his "friends" to excuse and defend him simply add to the cruelty inflicted on those great young women of Rutgers.

Rudy: The Next War President?

Lest there be any doubt, Rudy makes clear his intention to have 8 more years of war if he were to be elected President, via the N.Y. Times

He then casually lumped Iran with Al Qaeda. “Their movement has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he said.

Mr. Giuliani was asked in an interview to clarify that, inasmuch as Iran had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Further, most of its people are Shiites, whereas Al Qaeda is an organization of Sunnis.

“They have a similar objective,” he replied, “in their anger at the modern world.”

In other words, he said, they hate America.

Rudy - the man who was at the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11, and never tried to help a victim.

P.S. The smart folk at RBC predict that this position may help Rudy get the nomination, but would kill his chance in the general election. Let's hope that they're right - and I do think that they are.

(h/t: memeorandum)