Giuliani Time

The Democrats are cowardly and stupid, but the Republican base is just plain nuts. In turn, it will be interesting to see who their next Presidential nominee will be. Two-and-a-half years out, the field looks like a Warren G. Harding look-a-like contest. John McCain is the best candidate in the field, but Rush and the hate radio boys have poisoned that well for the last eight years. There is Condoleezza Rice, whose main credentials are that she sits on the President’s feet while he does his sit-ups, is one of his “mommies,” and is the architect of our wonderful foreign policy. An unmarried black female as the standard bearer of the Penis Party - not going to happen. Next up, Newt Gingrich. With 2 divorces, adultery with younger staff members, using a credit card to pay for a prostitute, drug usage, draft dodging, being a dead beat dad, financial scandals, serving his wife divorce papers while she was in the hospital, every comedian in America in on their knees praying God is that kind to them. Bill Frist? Mitt Romney? George Allen? Chuck Hagel? Tom Tancredo? If you weren’t paying attention, a person would think that I was reading a list of people up for the role of Bernie in Weekend at Bernie’s III. Still, according to several polls, the most popular candidate currently in the Republican field is Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani III.

Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger (with his dope smoking, showing little Arnold in a gay magazine, and groping), Newt, and Rush Limbaugh (3 divorces, a drug addict, draft dodger), the family values crowd is going to have to act like they do when they catch their son in the bathroom with a copy of GQ’s men’s fashion issue – like they didn’t see anything. Before September 11, 2001, Giuliani had become a joke. He was living with 2 homosexual men in an apartment after having to flee the mayor's residence because he was cheating on his wife, not only cheated, but had New York Police officers provide protection for his mistress. (The same police that had him embroiled in a scandal because they had anally raped a male prisoner with a plunger. What is with all these “straight” he-men and the backside?) His 2nd wife had refused to leave the residence and Rudy ran like a 12-year-old girl. (If Hillary takes the Democratic nomination, this could be the first election where the American people debate who looks better in a dress, Mrs. Clinton or Rudia? The Mayor donned a gown and makeup for the annual Inner Circle banquet one year. I have no problem with this as it was all good-natured fun, but I am not a right-wing nut.) I would list his numerous financial scandals, like pocketing $80,000 for speaking at a charity benefit for the tsunami victims that raised only $60,000, but taking advantage of the poor is a long Republican tradition. Like George W. Bush, His political fortunes changed due to his leadership at Ground Zero. He became America’s Mayor, the darling of Republicans, and a man mentioned as a possible future President. Still, will the Rapture Right vote for a man who believes in a woman’s right to choose, even supports government funding for abortion, opposes outlawing partial birth abortions, extended same-sex benefits to city employees, supports gun control measures, is against school prayer and tuition tax credits, and is very progressive when it comes towards science? In other words, will Republicans nominate a candidate who is more liberal than the Darth Vader named William Jefferson Clinton because he can win? Will Pat Robertson and James Dobson join Ruby under the disco ball? Will good church-going Christian turn against everything they claim to believe when they enter the polling place just because he has an R after his name?

There are a handful of Democrats that think so and the documentary Giuliani Time is trying to rally their troops before it is too late. So what does the left think is so bad with Time’s 2001 Man of the Year, the man knighted by Queen Elizabeth? What could they find wrong with the man who prosecuted Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, made New York City cleaner and safer for tourists, the man who rid Time Square of the porn shops and lap dancers, the Mayor that helped turnaround the Big Apple? As the old saying goes, you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs and Rudy’s policies were often controversial, especially his aggressive use of law enforcement. The documentary details his policing strategies of “zero tolerance” and how minorities often felt like they were being targeted and harassed. The City was hit with over 70,000 law enforcement related lawsuits during the Mayor’s tenure and was rocked by such scandals as the death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black man who was shot 19 times by plainclothes policemen, Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant, who was raped with a plunger or broken broomstick by cops, and wounding of a 16-year-old kid who was walking home after playing in one of the city’s “midnight basketball" games. Citizens were strip searched for small offenses like jaywalking and fare-dodging. Many experts are still debating whether these tactics really reduced the crime rate, giving credit for any reduction of crime to President Clinton's policy of providing new federal funding of an additional 100,000 policeman nationwide and a dramatic upturn in the economy during the 1990s. The documentary goes on to detail the problems with the public school system and his violations of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, especially when he threatened to cut off city funding for the Brooklyn Museum because of a couple of their exhibits that offended some Roman Catholics.

While many of the critiques in the film are valid, this is a hatchet job of a film that most likely is not needed. Democrats should be on the their knees praying the Republicans nominate the former mayor. Unless the left is stupid enough to nominate Hillary, Giuliani’s moderate positions on social issues will lead the Republican base to stay home. (Roughly 40 to 42 percent of the population has a strong dislike for Mrs. Clinton. The thought of Hillary as Commander and Chief is akin to the crossdressing Divine replacing St. Peter at the Pearly Gates and they will turn out in droves to stop that.) With the pro-life groups like Republican National Coalition for Life already coming out against Giuliani, I just don’t see him making it through the primary in conservative South Carolina, the same state that derailed John McCain in 2000. It has been over 60 years since the GOP has had a Northeastern standard bearer, long before they betrayed Abraham Lincoln and embraced the states' rights mantra, and I just don't see it happening now. Watching Giuliani and McCain try to show the faithful that they are one of them is like watching a fish thrash about on a bank. The only way Rudy is going to sit in the Oval Office is if John McCain and him start their own "Bull moose"-like party. Running on a campaign theme of overcoming the divisions that are crippling America, a war hero and the hero of September 11th would have the biggest grassroots support since Andrew Jackson offered people a big block of cheese. With Hillary on the left and some knuckledragger on the Right, those 2 would sew up the office for the next 16 years, especially if they could somehow talk Colin Powell out of a retirement to rescue his legacy, but that won't happen because neither of them realize how far off the deep end the base is. The American people want a change. It is in the air. Both parties are morally bankrupt, and a wise man or men could ride that wave into the White House. Both of them would easily win a general election, even in a three horse field, but they will never win the primary. While this documentary is not worth watching, watching the Republicans tear at each other’s throats for the next 2 years will be more interesting.

Verdict: Pass