Who is Giuliani? What is Giuliani?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Our buddy Kirk posted a link to this article about Giuliani.

Giuliani: Worse Than Bush
He's cashing in on 9/11, working with Karl Rove's henchmen and in cahoots with a Swift Boat-style attack on Hillary.
Will Rudy Giuliani be Bush III?

In his years as mayor -- and his subsequent career as a lobbyist -- Rudy jumped into bed with anyone who could afford a rubber. Saudi Arabia, Rupert Murdoch, tobacco interests, pharmaceutical companies, private prisons, Bechtel, ChevronTexaco -- Giuliani took money from them all. You could change Rudy's mind literally in the time it took to write a check. A former prosecutor, Giuliani used to call drug dealers "murderers." But as a lobbyist he agreed to represent Seisint, a security firm run by former cocaine smuggler Hank Asher. "I have a great admiration for what he's doing," Rudy gushed after taking $2 million of Asher's money.

As mayor, Rudy had a history of asking financially interested parties to help shape important government policies. At one point, he allowed a deputy mayor who was on the payroll of Major League Baseball to work on deals for the Yankees and Mets; at another point he commissioned a $600,000 report on privatizing JFK and LaGuardia from a consultant with ties to the British Airport Authority, Rudy's handpicked choice to manage the airports.

And let's not forget Bernie Kerik, Rudy's very own hairy-assed Sancho Panza, who was nixed as director of Homeland Security after investigators uncovered a gift he received from a construction firm with alleged mob ties that wanted to do business with Giuliani's administration. It is a testament to the monstrous breadth of Rudy's chutzpah that he used his post-9/11 celebrity to push his personal bagman for a post that milks the world's hugest security-contracts tit -- at the very moment when he himself was creating a security-services company.

It's clear the author doesn't like Rudy, but just looking at the claims makes me want to know more about Giulianis' dealings.

[TheMercenary]

Doesn't sound much different from most politicians, Democratic, Republican, or otherwise. It is all about the power, buying the vote, promising the moon, and taking care of donors.

[Griff]

He is a neo-con, the worst the Republicans have been able to come up with. On the question of moral compass, Paul Craig Roberts is not impressed.

Giuliani once bragged that by giving negative treatment to his targets, "the media does the job for me." Giuliani certainly had no difficulty manipulating Wall Street Journal reporters James B. Stewart, Daniel Hertzberg and Laurie Cohen or The Predators’ Ball author Connie Bruck. Milken, who had done nothing except make a lot of money by proving Wall Street wrong about non-investment grade bonds, was branded the "Cosa Nostra of the securities world."

Milken’s "junk bonds" financed such household names as CNN, Barnes & Noble, Stone Container Corporation, Time-Warner, Safeway, and Mattel. Milken provided capital to companies with promising futures that lacked investment-grade credit rankings. Milken operated out of Los Angeles, not Wall Street. His earnings and those of his upstart firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, aroused envy and hatred among the Wall Street hot shots. Milken failed to use his money to purchase political protection in Washington. Instead, he gave his money to organizations that help poor black children.

Milken was set up perfectly for an ambitious and unscrupulous prosecutor like Giuliani.

[TheMercenary]

Giuliani is hardly a "neo-con". He would never make the club with his numerous public affairs and support for Abortion. "Neo-con" is the new term for anyone conservative.

Or you can use the Wikipedia definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservative

[Happy Monkey]

Neocons have nothing to do with sex or abortion. They allied with the theocrats, but they're not the same group.

[Ibby]

I think I'd rather Giuliani get the nod than any other republican. At least he's less socially conservative, and thats what really counts in my book.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Neocons have nothing to do with sex or abortion. They allied with the theocrats, but they're not the same group.

True, but those who call themselves "Neo-cons" are a much smaller group than those who are currently conservatives in the government. I find that most Neo-cons are fairly staunchly religious, but not all people who call themselves "conservative" are the same. So my point was that true Neo-cons would not support them. He already has a conservative base of supporters.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Ibram

I think I'd rather Giuliani get the nod than any other republican. At least he's less socially conservative, and thats what really counts in my book.

Right now, being stupid on foreign policy is the Republican's biggest issue. This clown is completely aligned with the Bushies.

[Ibby]

Yeah, that's all too true, but I figure, even if we fuck up over there, at least with a social liberal we wont be as fucked up over here...

[piercehawkeye45]

Many 9/11 victim's families have protested him because they say he didn't do shit in office about anything just he went on TV to gain popularity.

[Crimson Ghost]

I, for one, welcome our new alien robotic Giuliani overlord.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Griff

Right now, being stupid on foreign policy is the Republican's biggest issue. This clown is completely aligned with the Bushies.

Clown is a good word for him. I liked him until he started talking. He uses that fear mongering language instead of straight talking. I don't trust him.

[Griff]

He turns out to be a national id guy as well.