Rudy Guliani for Govenor!

it would be interesting...I like Rudy but I don't think Cuomo will run for Gov.

Heil Rudy!!!

Rudy did a lot of damage to his image during his failed run for president, including his stand up comedy routine at the RNC convention about community organizers (who can forget that?). I'm not so sure he will get elected.

what I remember about Rudy is he brought crime way down and he was terrific during 9/11..went to many, many weddings, standing in for fathers who were gone and funerals, whereas Hillary went to 0 funerals and 0 weddings. He wasn't running for anything.

what i remember is that had rudy not had prostate cancer her would have been senator instead of hillary...

Cuomo wont run against Patterson and will wait his turn to run in 4 to 8 years...

Patterson will have to go through another budget nightmare before the election will allow him to break his record of lowest approval rating ever for a Government (could break the single digit mark)

Rudy wins easily at that pint, but at least Patterson gets his buddy Al's vote...

I give Patterson some credit for trying, but just a victim of circumstance....

Barf

No one here apparently has the foggiest idea of how NY Dems or Albany operates. Dems(Silver) will do anything to stay in control. Patterson will not help that. Washington also would like NY to have Dem Exec. Weak Patterson losing to a Rep. won't help dems. So off Patterson goes--ambassador to Barbados or Lithuania or something. Cuomo could very well defeat any Rep. challenger right now--or has a better shot than anyone else. So Silver will back him and the deal is done. Malcolm Smith has been told the shut the F up and enjoy being allowed to have his position, so he won't make waves.

Remember, Guiliani is better in theory than reality. He is abrasive and divisive. NY isn't in the mood for that flavor of politician lately. He's old school. He's the last century. His Presidential run was beyond bad--it was embarrassing for him and us. Bloomberg has been pretty damn good, and hasn't created much nostalgia for his predecessor. The better NY Republican gambit is to get that Senate back.

And btw: it is "GoveRnor," not "Govenor."

guiliani (noun/verb/9-11) may have cost dozens of firefighters and police their lives on 9/11 due to his pig-headedness. plenty of firefighters would beg to differ that he was a "hero." also, i believe that anyone who would have been mayor of our great city at the time would have done a fine job. the moment made the man, not vice versa. guiliani's attempt to ride that into the white house was indeed pathetic to watch and embarrassing for nyc.

too hard to choose just one:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/7/0/3/8/17538307-17538309-large.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/17538811/dickheads_of_the_year/photo/13/large&usg=__jKHiUB2_zxPi5ZSiOUpPufWWzq0=&h=423&w=510&sz=211&hl=en&start=8&um=1&tbnid=TKKdVl86WQzWwM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgiuliani%2Brolling%2Bstone%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/giuliani%20dancing.jpg

http://ablognamedsue.typepad.com/a_blog_named_sue/images/2007/11/29/giuliani.jpg

the first link

http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/17538811/dickheads_of_the_year/photo/13

sniper...i forgot about the firefighter issue they had with rudy...i'm just remembering things off the top of my head..i'm sure in an election everything will come out..rudy is not some right wing nut and cuomo/patterson are not some left wing nuts...it would be a good election.

julia - rudy may not be a right-wing nut but the fact that he has no problem pandering to the right wing nuts to try to advance his political career is downright nauseating...the speech at the convention, the recent bashing of same-sex marriage (he lived with two homosexual friends, he is caught on film/video cross-dressing a number of times). it is sad.

governor -- yes -- thanks for the typo catch

It's Guilliani Time!!!!

jerkstore - projectile

sniper...not to drag this out but hillary's replacement has flipped on every issue, guns, abortion, same-sex mariage, etc...it will be interesting if the republicans get a strong candidate against her...peter king or the previous governor (can't think of his name)

this thread isn't about hillary, her replacement or any other number of politicians. get rid of them and anyone else without any integrity. rudy is at the top of the list. party is not an issue. as scumbag is a scumbag.

kylewest and sniper nailed it. That 9/11 hagiography is over with.

Julia, not to drag it out even further; but can't you say the same thing about Guiliani about the very issues you list? And do you really think George Pataki can be a strong candidate, when you can't even remember his name?

also, it is important to point out that Rudy has a Bernard Kerik problem.

Rudy G. is a narcissistic ass, and is becoming a greater one as time marches on. Loved the time he tried to install the she-wolf, Judith Nathan, at Gracie while his children were still living there with the wife and children. And announcing that he was leaving the mother of his children publically, before informing her, that was a bit of real class.

Rudy is all about Rudy. And there's not much there.

Rudy is an awful campaigner. I agree with abourready. He's turning into a Fox network shill. He would have a better chance winning these days in Texas than he would in NY. His kids don't even speak to him.

I enjoy political campaigns when both parties have strong candidates...this is NY...personal problems, marriage, children i don't care and most new yorkers have the same problems so i don't think his kids not speaking to him is a problem..i do agree with aboutready regarding judith nathan..she seems rather strange.

"I enjoy political campaigns when both parties have strong candidates"

I enjoy politics in NY when neither party controls Albany. They are disfunctional ideologues and either party on its own will do untold damage. Witness handling of MTA right now. They are disastrous in Albany. Right now Silver is trying to figure out ways to do more damage to criminal justice and public safety than anyone realizes. The bills he's considering are horrifying. For 20 years he's wanted to throw every barrier imaginable in the way of police and prosecutors. He is dangerously close. Malcolm Smith is a non-entity in the Senate. Patterson is lost.

If the Dems in Albany, with control of all branches, cannot deliver on gay marriage, then I really don't want to hear about anything they want from an agenda that appears drawn in 1968--completely out of touch with today's NY.

I don't care if people have personal problems either, but to tell the world and your wife in public that you intend to divorce her is a bit much even for the tolerant. It was unnecessary, and worse, stupid.

He is one of the most egoistical, NASTY politicians out there. kylewest, I agree that albany is a fright show. it's embarrassing that the whole NE corridor, pretty much, can agree on gay marriage, but NY can't. but we'd be better off with better democrats AND republicans in Albany. anyone have any ideas?

i also agree regarding Silver...he represents a politically mixed bag of areas and I don't know why there hasn't be a primary fight.

Any ideas? A friend has been saying for years that what we really need in this country is at least a third party because the current parties are merely beholden to the special interests & the BIG money. For example, in 2004 we had Kerry running against Bush & both were Yale men & members of Skull & Bones.

I always thought Rudy would make a better king than a Governor. A king has less people telling him things he doesn't like to hear....like "no".

Rudy was an outstanding mayor and just what the city needed at the time when he was first elected. He was a great manager and he fought for changes that were needed. He also should be commended for his leadership after 9/11. But the Rudy that ran for President was just not the same person. He drifted from his principles in order to pander to a right wing base.

Maybe, although unlikely, Giuliani will try the trick of "go independent". He's shameless and dumb enough. Then again, the most shameless and vile of them all (Hillary Clinton) is still around. After the election, I do honestly believe that she's one of the worst persons one is unlucky enough to know of.
Sorry for the rant.

Hilary did go to several funurals and memorials, including one I attended myself. that myth just won't die.

I see it now, a sign for the campaign that both misspells the candidate's name and misspells the the office.

Quite frankly, at this point I don't see the Rudy Grandstanding Show playing very well in Patakistan, let alone downstate.

Besides, the NY mayoralty is a notoriously dead-end job (politically speaking, anyway -- you can become a film critic afterwards, but that's about it).

I love Hillary.

CUT TO: westelle's leased Tahoe, sporting a faded "W: The President" sticker.

Jerkstore, are you out of your mind?

I'm just glad Obama defanged her forever. She'll be gone in a year, and good riddance.

LIC: "a great manager and he fought for changes that were needed. He also should be commended for his leadership after 9/11"

Giuliani did NOTHING but grandstand throughout his time as mayor. 9/11 -- you're happy that he didn't give the terrorists the keys to the city? That he gave speeches saying that they're bad guys? Give the guy a cookie.

Apparently you were as taken by his PR machine as you were by the LIC condo developers' marketing machine.

I voted for Hillary and would again but I always felt the Clintons were more concerned with image than anything else.

LIC...i agree with your comments... Rudy did change when he ran for president.

Hillary's PR machine makes Rudy's look like child play. Hers is comparable only to organized religion's PR.

ROFL @ "Patakistan"

He's got my vote!

Anyone who rants that Rudy did nothing as mayor and did nothing after 9/11 is just a partisan hack.

Guiliani seems to me to be a person I would not like and wouldn't be friends with. I think he engaged in some despicable things politically (e.g., using tax payer money to sue a museum over some dumb art he found offensive...and taking the case all the way through appeals!; racial insensitivity; unnecessary nastiness). That said, he reigned in out-of-control unions bilking the city for zillions and holding it hostage; he did get control over the schools to an extent; he was good on crime stuff.

He was just so mean. And horrible in public to his ex-wife. No one deserves that.

kylewest...i think you are correct..people are saying he was a terrible mayor and I think they are saying he's a terrible person..i just don't remember all the personal stuff and do remember crime went way down, the city was much cleaner, there weren't as many homeless asking for money (I don't want to think about what he did with them) and he was very warm and consoling after 9/11...we may not want to marry him or have dinner with him, but he did a good job.

I think he was a great mayor in his first term, got a bit too authoritarian in his second, was redeemed by 9/11, but even THAT brought ought his dictatorial bent (wanting to illegally extend his term), and he COMPLETELY lost me with his awkward rightward shift on social stances during the presidential campaign.

No, he was a terrible mayor.

I don't see reigned-in unions ... do you?

The drop in crime mirrored the national drop in crime, and to the extent that City policy helped it, Dinkins' police chief put in place a successful policy of putting people through outstanding-warrant checks when they were picked up for petty crimes. Giuliani canned him, and expanded that policy to racist, wholesale harrassment that overwhelmed the justice system, and ocassionally caused unnecessary bloodspill.

LIC, please specify what you think Giuliani did after 9/11 that was so extraordinarily above and beyond. Certainly it wasn't getting adequate Federal dollars for heightened anti-terrorist initiatives. That went to pig farms in Missouri and the like. julia, I didn't find him "warm and consoling" then either, but then that's a good role for a first lady. Nothing substantive.

And he wasn't so great to the first wife, who wasn't actually his ex-wife because he got the marriage annulled way after it began, on some ridiculous technicality.

alanhart...i'm surprised you're bringing up his first, second wife...Paterson had a long affair and if he were a good governor it wouldn't matter...what was so extraorinary about rudy after 9/11..look at La after Katrina what did ray nagin do...he hid in a hotel room. Rudy was out there every minute consoling people..it was such a horrible time pleae don't play down the need for comfort that most new yorkers needed at the time and he supplied it. He went to weddings he held hands of people who were emotionally shocked and out of it...put yourself back to 9/11..i remember that feeling and he did help..please don't take that away from him or us.

he went to weddings? big deal. Katrina physically destroyed a WHOLE city. There is no comparison in my mind. Rudy did what any competent CEO of a city should have and would have done.

"don't play down the need for comfort that most new yorkers needed at the time and he supplied it."

and W comforted everyone when he stood on the pile of rubble and with a bullhorn and vowed to "get the people who did this." that worked out well. he took that comfort and exploited it for his own needs and took away our civil liberties. rudy tried to ride that wave into the white house as well but everyone had already seen that movie and gave it two thumbs down.

Giuliani is a despicable person and would make a horrible Governor. The Mayor is able to have such significant influence on the lives of the residents, for the good or bad, because New York City has a "strong mayor" form of government as opposed to other municipalities that are run by city managers or have strong city councils. The New York City Council exercises very little authority as a legislative body. The Governor of New York has to compromise, cooperate and work collaboratively with the State Legislature. Giuliani would be a total DISASTER in Albany because he makes enemies wherever he goes, revels in conflict, and prefers to attack his opponents' character rather than build consensus. There would be total gridlock in Albany because neither the Republicans nor the Democrats would want to work with such an egomanic. We also happen to be living in a unique era of lessened racial tensions. Do we really need the bigoted Giuliani to bring back some of the ugly ghosts from the past ? Despite whatever faults people may find in David Paterson, he clearly is more suited to be Governor than Giuliani. God help New York if the Republicans nominate Rudy for Governor.

wow...where is this anger coming from...this will be my last posting here...sniper put yourself back to 9/11 i'm sure you remember the shock, fear and disbelief everyone felt...a warm shoulder from Rudy was the best thing we needed at the time and he supplied it..i would not have voted for him for president but he was a man who did a great job...i felt the city was cleaner, safer and he did that.

Julia, you mean the Rudy who told everyone it was safe to go out in the noxious mess and spend, spend, spend? I followed his advice and five days later my daughter was hospitalized with her first asthma attach. And the report showing this wasn't true just "somehow wasn't noticed."

Talk to the firefighters, those who are still alive, if you'd like a different take on 9/11.

aboutready...i always respect and admire your postings so i'll take you at your word since i'm not familiar with the politics of city hall and I'm sorry that your daughter was affected.

"shock, fear and disbelief everyone felt." ... everyone who watched the TV feed nonstop for the next two days, and can't distinguish reality from soundbites, yes. The rest of us were shocked at what an asshole he was.

The city was cleaner because Giuliani failed at keeping the sidewalks clean, so Business Improvement Districts formed and cleaned the sidewalks. Where they didn't form, the sidewalks remained filthy. And then (surprise!) Giuliani developed vendettas against the presidents of the BIDs and tried to take them out.

Giuliani's the villain in an opera I don't want to see or hear again, thank you very much.

Julia, i apologize. I don't mean to be so harsh and I obviously have a personal agenda here. He just bothers me on a level that few politicians do. To the extent that he was reassuring to the masses, he can take credit for that.

Paterson is a better Gov than Rudy would be? Ha! You, sniper and alanhart are just showing your biased political minds.

NYC's crime rate decline exceeded the nation's. His administration implemented the broken windows and compstat policies that practically saved this city. He took on the social groups that had been pushing the old failed policies and made the necessary changes. Welfare rolls plummeted during his administration. He reduced taxes to help business. He did fight for fair union agreements. Did any of you live in this city in the 80s and early 90s? I did, and how this city transformed when he was mayor was nearly miraculous. Back then, you pretty much expected to get mugged at least once a year, to have your car stolen, there were areas in the city that are safe, clean and fantastic now that you wouldn't step foot in back then, like parts of Chelsea, Williamsburg, Harlem, lots of Brooklyn, and others.

NY State government now is ineffective and dysfunctional. What has all of Paterson's "consensus" skills gotten him? The Rudy who was NYC mayor could push through some positive changes for the state. If he is Gov, I hope he is the old Rudy who was a great mayor and not the new Rudy who would use it as a platform for another presidential run.

no need to apologize..during this time i had a small business in south florida so i was splitting my time between ny and fl but i understand the harshness since it affected your family.

I will admit that Giuliani is good at taking credit for things that happened while he was mayor. But let's face it, this is the guy who pushed to place the City's defense systems in the WTC, the only place terrorists had targeted in the previous 70 years. I think he did rise to the occassion after 9/11 and then shamelessly exploited it for the next 8 years. And many of us who lived here haven't forgotten what a complete ass he had turned into before that saved his legacy.

Hey everybody, who'd you vote FOR?

rufus

"The drop in crime mirrored the national drop in crime"

Uh, no. NYC's drop in crime was far more dramatic than for any of the other largest ten or 25 or 100 american cities. It was something more. Sure, some of it may have started under dinkins, but LA, SF etc used to have much lower crime rates than NYC, now its reversed.

i don't think Rudi deserves all or even most of the credit for this, but lets not kid ourselves. Realtive to other large cities, NYC's crime rate went down significantly.

Let's not forget that Giuliani thrived during an economic boom. Bloomberg has been a much better mayor during much tougher times. Someone here said Rudy should run for King. That's correct. He would have been a disaster at senator (Hillary would have beaten him anyway). Can anyone say Bernie Kerik?

what does rudy have to do with bernie kerik's not paying taxes.

So judjung by this thread, Bloomberg gets 4 more years.

"kylewest and sniper nailed it. That 9/11 hagiography is over with."

LOL. Not only is it over with, but it stands a good chance to be a HUGE national issue at some point in the near future. See, people generally regard Bush as a terrible president, but he did one thing. And one thing only. He presided over 7 years in which every kook in the world wanted to commit a follow-on terrorist attack on U.S. soil, and he prevented it. Now, BO has exposed himself in a way that is shocking to me: He has moved ahead with his promise to shut down Gitmo, he has changed the rhetoric of our engagement with Al Queda from war on terrorism to a "criminal activity". He's railed against, and likely will not re-authorize, the Patriot Act and other surveillance. And people will be just fine that. Until. Until the day comes that someone pulls off some event on U.S. soil. Sure, anybody can be the victim of a terrorist attack and maybe this will all be bad timing. Maybe Bush and the Republican's 7 yrs without an attack was simply dumb luck. But that's not how its going to look. It's going to look like a Democrat President with a Democrat Senate and Democrat House and a Sec'y of Homeland Security who looks like a butch biker all got caught with their pants down. Remember the "security moms" who were so vital to Bush winning in 2004? How do you think they are going to vote if a school gets shot up?

let's all hope and pray we won't get attacked and if we do, blame it on the people that did it not the president.

"let's all hope and pray we won't get attacked and if we do, blame it on the people that did it not the president."

Of course, but that's not how voters vote, at least not en masse. Did you really think the republicans were solely responsible for the credit crunch, that congressional apparatchniks like Barney Fwank had no role?

Well, dozens of posts later I haven't read anything about what would make a Guilliani gubernatorial bid especially compelling in any way or why he is the right choice for Albany or NY at this time. Between his personal affairs, stupifyingly aweful last campaign, dealings with Kerik, politically expedient and transparently disingenuous shift to the right on social issues, a NY campaign is NOT what the state Reps. need right now. It is a recipe for utter disaster.

Republicans: Look forward. Not back. Find someone for the future. Not someone from the past. Enlarge the tent--don't put a bully underneath it and act shocked when no one wants to stand there with him except his staunchest friends.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww - I hate Guiliani. Disgusting, hypocritical, piece of shit.

As a great man once said, "There's only three things he [Guiliani] mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/ 11"

And if I may add - the only thing that flashes through my mind when that overweight, waddling, POS Guiliani is mentioned in my presence is his vomit inducing Obama roast at that vile Republican National Convention in front of those those dirty extremist rednecks.

His stupid, worthless, fat, hypocritical ass couldn't even win ONE primary. LOL. Go jump off the Empire State you stupid fuck.

I would rather a corpse be the govenor.

mutu, aka, extraordinarily angry human.

Don't lose sight of the fact that there was only one thing that created and enabled Guiliani as Mayor, David Dinkins. If it wasn't for that retard, there never would have have been a Guiliani.

LOL @ patient you crzy. Why did'nt you call me angry black man? I like you patient.

Don't forget when Dinkins was in office the city council gave him a hard time b/c NYC "had no money". Guiliani used a lot of Dinkins plans and ideas that the city council rejected during his tenure.

mutu: I didn't know you were black, good for you. I'm half Chinese, half Hispanic, good for me. So what! Doesn't take away from the fact that Dinkins sucked, and Rudy was a product of opportunity.

i wish i understood where all the anger towards rudy is from...what did he do that was so bad..maybe i'm losing it because i don't remember..

So it will be Bloomberg. I thought so.
About Dinkins: pogroms, anyone? What a piece of garbage he was/is.

julia: I still think you are sexy. But we don't like him because he is an asshole and a hypocrite. No need to be PC because there is nothing wrong with that in politics. Its just slicing and dicing. Its just us vs them. One of my all time favorite political arguments has to do with the question of job growth during the late '90's. Bill Clinton took credit for NYC job growth three days after Guiliani did the same in a press conference. Good stuff, did Guiliani create jobs in NYC because he shoved a broom handle up Louima's ass or did Clinton do it because Monica blew him in the corner during recess after Hillary said it was ok if the chicks were fat and ugly, who cares.

mutombo, and you did not know I was black LOL. patient, overall, I was joking. Dinkins did not suck, what made him lose the election was Crown Heights. It was a close and historic election for NYC. Dinkins had great plans and ideas aka visions for NYC but limited to no resources too make those plans and ideas aka visions reality.

Patient, Thanksgiving dinners @ your dwelling had to be wonderful Gen Taos mixed with rice and gandules.

julia, people don't like that Rudy came in as mayor and cleaned up their messes for them, and showed that their failed social views were wrong, so they still go after him.

*Don't forget some of the worse acts of police brutality happened under his watch and he condoned it.

*Opened a sealed records of an former criminal who was killed by a cop.

*Publicly cheated on his wife and displayed his whore to the public for the world to see.

*Neglected his children after the divorce from Donna Hanover.

*Was married to a blood cousin.

Anyone care too add do I need to continue???

Dinkins is the one who started the increases in the police force that guiliani ended up benefitting from. Also, Bratton received a lot of the credit for the dropping of the crime rate in NYC - he was on the cover of Time magazine for it - and when that happened someone got vewy, vewy angwy. Bratton was forced into resigning. God forbid someone else should get some credit for their work when rudy could be stealing it all for himself.

I've already said I think Guilliani deserves credit for a number of things and I believe he was the right man for the time.

But his negatives were substantial and we paid a price as a city for the style of the guy who brought the gains.

Awful fanning of racial tensions--no skill at diffusion like Lindsey, Koch, Bloomberg.
Stupid lawsuits using untold tax payer money against Brooklyn Museum--as if anyone cared but him.
Despicable behavior in his personal life.
Current abandonment of long held liberal social beliefs to pander to hard line right and abhorrent behavior at Rep convention.
Poor handling of police/public relations in Luima case.
Doing so little to improve view of police that prosecutions suffered city-wide if police witnesses were involved. Didn't turn around fully even to this day, but Bloomberg did much to repair that.
Frightening response to Thomkins Sq. Park police misconduct.
Actually floating idea of subverting democratic process to remain in office beyond his term.

I'm sure others can add to list, but I don't mean to just bash the man. He contributed to the city. For goodness sake I supported him over the disaster Mark Green would have been! Jeesh. Green as mayor. That would have made Dinkins look like Lincoln.

Anyway, my point is Guilliani was not all roses for the city. We had to take a lot of bad with the good.

Again, his time has been. It is gone. Reps. need to look forward and stop reaching back. Is there no one else they can come up with?

muto: you bring back to light good fodder, keep up the good work. However, you havn't brought up anything that disqualifies him from public service. And thats the rub, we offer no one who can compete. When frustrated, we vote the other party, simple really. I went to a public forum on the future of NYC last week. One of the deputy mayors (I think there are 7-8 of them) Edward Skyler was there. He embarrassed himself by his inability to speak and his defensiveness on Bloomberg's views.

patient,

Would you go to a bank teller and make a deposit if you knew they did the things Rudee did?

Edward Skyler embarrassed himself according to you?

muto:

You, my black friend are being silly. Would you go a bank teller and deposit your hard earned money if you knew that Ken Lewis, Vikram Pandit, John Stumpf or Jamie Dimon were in charge of your dough? Of course not! But 74.8% of people in the U.S. do every fucking day. And so do you and me.

patient,

Thnx 4 answering my question in the leftfield.

In addition, after the buildings collapsed he told NY'ers to go out and live your lives as you normally do (spend money) because the air quality was safe. He knowingly put NY'ers in harms way and this is acceptible?

Just in case you had the good fortune to miss it, here's Rudy's speech at the RNC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da1YmYRvU6w&feature=channel_page

Rudy has more in common these days with Texas and Oklahoma than NY. Those are where his sensibilities lie.

that video is so creepy....but he does say one thing that rings true: "this is the most important election of our lives and it is more important than ever that we do the right thing." THANK GOD WE DID!

LOL @ sniper.