As Matt has already pointed out, Rudy Giuliani is flip–er–taking a position on immigration as a presidential candidate that differs from where he stood as mayor of New York.

2007 Rudy: “We can end illegal immigration. I promise you, we can end illegal immigration.”

1996 Rudy: “We’re never ever going to be able to totally control immigration to a country that is as large as our’s, that has borders that are as diverse as the borders of the United States.”

If a picture can paint a thousand words, what can a video do?

Rudy Giuliani | 1 Comment »

Now that Karl Rove has announced his departure from the White House, many a pundit is assessing his accomplishments, or lack thereof. But Adam Nagourney of the New York Times has a perhaps more interesting piece titled “Rove Legacy Laden With Protégés,” which notes that Rove may still influence the race for the Republican nomination and 2008 general election even though he said he will likely not take “any formal role” in a campaign.

Nagourney writes:

To a certain extent, Republicans said, Mr. Rove will have some influence with the major Republican presidential candidates simply because he is friends with, or has worked with, so many people who are working at the senior levels of the campaigns of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney, to name a few. He talks with them frequently and has made it known, associates said, that he is ready to offer advice when asked.

[snip]

Yet it has become increasingly clear that the Republican candidates for 2008 are not competing for either the mantle of Mr. Bush or the services of his master strategist.

While more than a few Rove acolytes are running (or ran, ahem, Terry Nelson) campaigns, most Republican candidates will try to stay far away from any hint of Bush or Rove–they’re radioactive, even to the GOP base. If Turd Blossom does end up giving advice, he’ll likely do so on double super secret background.

cross-posted at Ben Weyl Blog

Advisors, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani | No Comments »

David Brooks provides some intelligent analysis in his latest column about Mitt Romney (remember, a stopped clock…). Without actually calling him a flip-flopper, he notes that Romney the governor is far different from Romney the presidential candidate. Romney the governor was a heterodox Republican–defender of abortion rights, enacter of universal healthcare. Now he rails against abortion and accuses Hillary of being a Marxist. And he sounds like a phony.

His stump speech features generic Republican lines that could be uttered by any candidate at any time, almost as if they were originally designed for someone else and implanted onto him.

[snip]

Somehow the Romney campaign seems less like an authentic conservative campaign than an outsider’s view of what a conservative campaign should be.

Brooks goes on to say that the Romney campaign would do better “if it let the real Mitt Romney out to play” but that ignores the dynamics of the modern GOP and its captivity to the Christian right and anti-tax crowd. Romney the governor would be a formidable opponent in the general election. Fortunately for Democrats, he couldn’t win the Republican nomination.

Mitt Romney | 2 Comments »

As Mitt Romney tries to manage expectations for this week’s Ames Straw Poll, he certainly isn’t taking any chances in terms of getting his message out. He’s on the air with perhaps the most obnoxious ad in political history. Ok, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but with a deadly combination of annoying background music and a smile that seems even more plastic than normal, this certainly has to rank up there.

Mitt Romney | 1 Comment »

Are all Republicans such bad spellers? It seems that the “Obama/Osama/Chelsea’s Moma” sign that Mitt Romney breezily said to “lighten up” about is being passed around. Via TMZ.com, we see South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham holding up a similar sign (this one adds “say cut & run!!!”), incidentally right next to a John McCain for president sign. Can you imagine the howls we’d hear from the right if a Democrat compared Bush to bin Laden? These guys are pathetic.

cross-posted at Ben Weyl Blog

Uncategorized | No Comments »

Michelle Cottle has a piece in The New Republic titled “Rudy and the Religious Nuts: Why He Gets a Free Pass” that just doesn’t hold water. Now maybe she didn’t come up with the headline, but that doesn’t mean it’s not false advertising.

She barely answers the question of why, ostensibly, the Christian right is giving Giuliani a free pass. She devotes a few sentences to the issue, asserting that since he’s already so ideologically heterodox, the other candidates (who, remember, are not the “religious nuts,” but are the ones courting them) are trying to become “the base-friendly non-Rudy in this race… the conservative alternative.” While that may be happening, it hardly indicates that social conservatives are letting Giuliani skate by unscathed.

Perhaps, because they aren’t. On the national stage, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson announced in May that he would not vote for Giuliani, even in a general election. “I cannot, and will not, vote for Rudy Giuliani in 2008,” he wrote. “It is an irrevocable decision.”

And Iowa social conservatives have also been sounding the alarm. “Giuliani will be an absolute catastrophe if he’s the nominee,” Iowa Christian Alliance president Steve Scheffler recently told me. “A lot of people in the movement are going to say we’d rather wander around the wilderness for eight or 10 years.” Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa GOP, also tentatively agreed. “I’m going to be honest,” he said. “I think there’s a risk there” that social conservatives would refuse to vote for Giuliani in the general election.

That a supporter of abortion rights and gay civil rights is still a front-runner in the race for the Republican nomination is, indeed, a major story. But it’s not because Giuliani is getting a free pass from social conservatives. I’d venture to guess that most strongly oppose his candidacy, but there are likely a fair amount who are attracted to his anti-terror image. If Giuliani wins the nomination, it would be a significant blow to the prestige of the Christian right, but it could also mean that the litmus test of the Republican Party has changed from abortion to terrorism. If that’s the case, then Cottle’s headline would be a bit more accurate.

Rudy Giuliani | No Comments »

Via Jonathan Martin, we see Mitt Romney “unplugged” in an interview with Iowa’s top conservative radio talk show host, Jan Mickelson. Romney, whose plastic smile never seems to fade, pretty much loses it in an argument with Mickelson over his Mormon faith. The disagreement becomes most pointed during commercials, as in, when they were off the air. But Mickelson’s show was also videotaping the whole thing, so we can see what Romney looks like when (he thinks) the cameras aren’t rolling. They go off the air about 10 minutes in.

Mitt Romney | 2 Comments »

Vanity Fair has a devastating profile on Judi–er, Judith, as she likes to be called–Giuliani. It’s the tale of a social climbing, some-time dog killing, possible pathological liar, who has finally latched on to a rising star in America’s Mayor. And that’s being kind.

Not only is this bad press in general for the Giuliani campaign, but it is just another reminder to social conservatives of his less than sterling marital history and his liberal views on social issues.

But it’s good news for political junkies, because it’s a great read!

Rudy Giuliani | 4 Comments »

The Democratic National Committee sent Fred Thompson’s “testing the waters” non-campaign campaign a life jacket out of consideration to the stormy seas he’s encountered this week. Very creative stuff, so kudos to the DNC.

Fred Thompson | 3 Comments »

At the Iowans for Tax Relief/Iowa Christian Alliance candidate forum last month, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney dodged the question of whether he would support the so-called Fair Tax, eliciting a “cool response” from the crowd. In an interview today with Iowa Independent, Romney spokesman Tim Albrecht declined to comment on the Fair Tax. But grassroots conservatives in Iowa have flocked to the issue, and Romney’s apparent opposition could become an obstacle for the state’s current front-runner. (more…)

Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney | 6 Comments »