Rudy ! Rudy ! Rudy ! and other Presidential observations
Yet another Presidential hopeful, Rudy Giuliani, will address the Alabama Legislature on Tuesday.
OK. I admit it. I’m a Rudy Giuliani fan. But not for the reasons you might think. I respect the Rudy Giuliani that fought the mob in New York as a U.S. Attorney. He was also the face of the nation’s resolve and strength in the aftermath of 9-11. However, Giuliani and I differ on many issues, with the most significant being gun control. I must admit, though, that my appreciation of a Giuliani candidacy is because of the opportunity that it presents to the Democratic Party, an opportunity to expose the hypocrisy of the Republican Party at the national level.
Giuliani seems to posses all of the qualities of natural born leadership. He is the current front runner for the Republican nomination, which to me demonstrates that the corporate (blue blood) wing of the Republican Party seems to be firmly in control of the party today. But, is Giuliani conservative enough for the religious right of the party?
The Republican Party has used abortion, guns, and gay rights, along with a plethora of other “moral” issues to win elections. However, once elected, they have failed to deliver on their campaign promises. Case in point: The United States Supreme Court. The Republican Party is responsible for 7 of the 9 appointments to the court. That’s correct; there are only 2 Democratic appointees on the high court. In fact, it was two Reagan appointees, Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor, who, at the time, voted to uphold a woman’s right to an abortion. Justice O’Connor wrote the majority opinion. In a landmark gay rights case, Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion finding sodomy laws unconstitutional, as they relate to homosexual adults.
What’s my point? Ronald Reagan stated “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, The Democratic Party left me.” Could it be that the Republican Party has left Ronald Reagan? Or was it just a shell game from the beginning?
Rudy Giuliani has publicly stated in the past that he supports gay rights, abortion rights and gun control but yet he says that he will appoint conservative judges, along the lines of Ronald Reagan, to the courts. Really?
As for the other leading Republican front runners who may possibly replace the least fiscally conservative President in modern history:
Mitt Romney says that he’s been a hunter all his life. But hunting what you might ask. Romney revealed this past week that he’s a pro at hunting, drum roll please, “Rodents”. Romney also supported abortion rights, gay rights and gun control as the Governor of Massachusetts.
Senator John McCain, strong on the environment and campaign finance reform, also at one time supported abortion rights and was attacked personally by James Dobson, Ralph Reed and others members of the religious right in 2000 presidential election. McCain was billed as “not a true conservative” by the right wing of the party. Don’t even get me started on these political hacks laundering Indian gambling money while they tried to assassinate the character of a war hero like McCain.
So pardon me if I, as a Democrat, am slightly amused to watch a field of candidates for the Republican nomination that prove conservatism has left the building. And I would be remiss if I forgot to mention our Governor, Bob Riley, rumored Vice Presidential shortlister, who was also the advocate of the largest tax (1.2 BILLION Dollars) proposal in Alabama history. Riley also defeated the darling of Alabama’s religious right, Judge Roy Moore, further proving that corporate republicanism, at the expense of so called Reagan conservatism, is alive and well everywhere you look. Assuming that the Republican nominee can convince (i.e. hoodwink) the religious right to stick with them after 25 years of phoniness, I can only assume the Republican strategy for victory in 2008 will be to, once again, call Democrats…LIBERALS.
Governor Riley, it seems to me, has exemplified what Republicans need more of at the national level: doing what one promises to do. I notice a slight softening in the standard rhetoric by calling his tax overhaul a $1.2 billion tax “program”, rather than “hike”. Bravo. In truth, it was a much needed overhaul of Alabama’s bizarro tax structure. And it was what Riley said he was going to do. Once it was rejected by the state’s reflexively anti-innovation voters, Riley quite shrewdly let the issue drop and moved on to other approaches to strengthening the general fund. (Quite a contrast to candidate Siegelman, whose answer to every question is “lottery”.) Riley may serve as a lesson to national Republicans: what the country could use right now is freedom from scandal, honesty, intelligence, and most of all, competence. Whether or not those qualities are to be found in candidate Giuliani remain to be seen.
Comment by Peter — April 9, 2007 @ 7:03 pm
Randy Hinshaw = political hack. If he’s so upset about gun control, gay marriage, abortion, then why the hell is he supporting Hillary Clinton for president?
Comment by Anonymous — April 9, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
I’m a Giuliani fan too.
Comment by Dan — April 10, 2007 @ 10:03 pm
Anonymous Commenter, you are mistaken in saying that Rep. Hinshaw has expressed any support for Hillary Clinton. Your mistake casts doubts on the credibility of your first sentence, too. :)
Comment by Danny — April 11, 2007 @ 9:42 am
Tough call as to which is worse, Randy: GOP conservative ‘hypocrisy’ versus national Democrats who are expressly opposed to your values. I don’t understand how you, as a fairly conservative person, can affiliate with a party that seeks to destroy what you believe in. The GOP might make mistakes like Justice Kennedy, but the Democrats make appointments like Justice Ginsburg. For example, I’m pretty sure that you still hold strong views about abortion (thank you). Why do you side with those who work against you and who you will never be able to influence?
BTW, your ‘name-calling’ counterattack ad was great. It exposed some your opponent’s rookie mistakes (i.e., relying too much on the state party).
Comment by Reactionary — April 11, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Danny: you are constantly with Rep. Hinshaw and know what comments he has made about the Democratic candidates for president?
Comment by Anonymous — April 11, 2007 @ 5:35 pm
Anonymous Commenter #6, I couldn’t find any public comment indicating he supported Hillary Clinton, so I asked him, and he said he had not made such a comment. If you have the means to show this is incorrect, then please do so!
Comment by Danny — April 11, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Well Randy when I talked to you on the floor today you mentioned you were interested in starting a good political discussion about the presidential race. You seem to have done that in this column!
Comment by Rep. Cam Ward — April 11, 2007 @ 11:33 pm
For Reactionary: Apparently neither party shares my values. I have made mistakes in my life that I’m not proud of, we all have, I don’t condemn people. In my view, the republican party has damn near destroyed my country. As for abortion and other “conservative” issues. I’m smart enough to know that abortion laws will never change, as I pointed out in my last blog. So I choose to begin working on adoption laws and try not to condemn, name call or put women in jail for seeking to end a pregnancy due to rape, incest or during the first trimester
Comment by Rep. Hinshaw — April 13, 2007 @ 5:21 pm