Rudy Giuliani

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Rudolph William "Rudy" Giuliani (born May 28, 1944 in Brooklyn, NY) is a former two-term Mayor of New York City, former United States Attorney and Deputy U.S. Attorney General. As mayor of New York City he became a media favorite based on his liberal positions on abortion and homosexuality and his devotion to the press. As mayor he would hold almost daily press conferences, and his personal indiscretions became favorite topics for the media. Despite his shortcomings in preparation and immediate response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the media hailed him as "America's Mayor" for his frequent media appearances afterwards.

Despite originally being a Democrat who supported George McGovern,[1] Giuliani was a Republican candidate in the 2008 election for President of the United States.

Contents

[edit] Early Life

According to his official biography[2]

In 1944, Rudolph W. Giuliani was born to a working class family in Brooklyn, New York. As the grandson of Italian immigrants, Mayor Giuliani learned a strong work ethic and a deep respect for America's ideal of equal opportunity. He attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School (Class of '61) in Brooklyn, Manhattan College (Class of '65) in the Bronx and New York University Law School in Manhattan, graduating magna cum laude in 1968.

[edit] Personal Life

Giuliani has been married three times. First to his second cousin Regina Peruggi, on October 26, 1968. In 1976 the couple split. They did not have any children. His second marriage was to Donna Hanover. Giuliani filed for legal separation from Peruggi on August 12, 1982. Giuliani and Hanover started living together later that year in Washington, D.C. A Roman Catholic Church annulment (of the Giuliani-Peruggi marriage) was granted at the end of 1983[3] because, according to Giuliani, they did not have the necessary Church dispensation.

Giuliani and Hanover then married on April 15, 1984. They had two children, Andrew and Caroline. In May 2000, Giuliani admitted to an extramarital relationship with Judith Nathan and called a press conference to reveal he intended to separate from Hanover. Hanover did not know that Giuliani intended to make such an announcement and was reportedly caught somewhat by surprise [4] Giuliani then married Judith Nathan in 2003, his third marriage.

[edit] Legal Career

According to his official biography[5]

Upon graduation, Rudy Giuliani clerked for Judge Lloyd MacMahon, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. In 1970, Giuliani joined the office of the U.S. Attorney. At age 29, he was named Chief of the Narcotics Unit and rose to serve as executive US Attorney. In 1975, Giuliani was recruited to Washington, D.C., where he was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to the Deputy Attorney General. From 1977 to 1981, Giuliani returned to New York to practice law at Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler.
In 1981, Giuliani was named Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the U.S. Department of Justice. As Associate Attorney General, Giuliani supervised all of the US Attorney Offices' Federal law enforcement agencies, the Bureau of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the US Marshals.
In 1983, Giuliani was appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he spearheaded the effort to jail drug dealers, fight organized crime, break the web of corruption in government, and prosecute white-collar criminals. Few US Attorneys in history can match his record of 4,152 convictions with only 25 reversals.

[edit] Mayoral Campaigns and Service

According to his official biography[6]

In 1989, Giuliani entered the race for mayor of New York City as a candidate of the Republican and Liberal parties, losing by the closest margin in City history. However in 1993, his campaign focusing on quality of life, crime, business and education made him the 107th Mayor of the City of New York. In 1997 he was re-elected by a wide margin, carrying four out of New York City's five boroughs.
As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani has returned accountability to City government and improved the quality of life for all New Yorkers. Under his leadership, overall crime is down 57%, murder has been reduced 65%, and New York City - once infamous around the world for its dangerous streets - has been recognized by the F.B.I. as the safest large city in America for the past five years. [7]
In 2002 he published Leadership, recounting his terms as mayor.

Among Giuliani's most notable accomplishments during his mayoralty was his successful assault on pornography businesses in Times Square. The neighborhood had long been a mecca for "sexually oriented businesses", but through a prolonged campaign which included maintaining an alliance of local businesses, conservative and feminist groups and the general public, Giuliani managed to clean up the sex mart which was Times Square and replace it with legitmate theaters, restaurants and shops.

[edit] September 11 Terrorist Attacks

On Sept. 10, 2001, Giuliani was known as a crime fighter from his days as a United States attorney and as the mayor who had overseen New York's revival, including a 40% drop in crime. But at home his approval rating hovered around 50 percent. In any case, he was a lame duck, barred by term limits from seeking re-election, in a city that in any case felt increasingly worn out by eight years of combativeness and racial tension. The year before, after a surprisingly rocky re-election campaign, a diagnosis of prostate cancer had led him to reject a run for the Senate seat eventually won by Hillary Rodham Clinton. And while his supporters talked of a presidential bid, the prospect seemed a long shot for a Republican who supported abortion rights and restrictions on gun sales.

A week after the 9/11 attacks, due to his almost universally acclaimed leadership in the aftermath of that tragedy, his approval rating hovered at nearly 80%. Since then he has been on almost every short list of Republican contenders. In his talks, Giuliani uses Sept. 11 to make two points. The first is that he has proven himself to be a leader, and having a proven leader in these troubled times, he tells audiences, is more important than whether you agree with everything he stands for. The other is that his handling of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks proved his competency. [8]

The International Association of Fire Fighters, America's largest union of firefighters, posted a grievence against Giuliani's November 2001 decision to reduce the number of firefighters searching the rubble of Ground Zero for the remains of some 300 fallen comrades. Their argument is that Giuliani's decisions meant that firefighters and citizens who died would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever or be removed like other rubble and garbage and deposited in landfills.[9]

According to one news report, "Giuliani's backers also released an open letter to firefighters from retired New York firefighter Lee Ielpi that calls the union's accusations 'offensive and inaccurate.' Ielpi lost his oldest son, 29-year-old New York City firefighter Jonathan Lee Ielpi, on Sept. 11.

'I was deeply disappointed and disheartened to learn of the recent partisan political activities' by the IAFF, he wrote. 'Firefighters have no greater friend and supporter than Rudy Giuliani,' Ielpi said."[10] Giuliani's campaign staff noted that the IAFF endorsed Senator John Kerry's presidential bid in 2003 when the Massachusetts Democrat was still considered a long shot.[11]

[edit] Political Views

[edit] Abortion

Rudy Giuliani supports "responsible" restrictions on abortion such as parental notification with a judicial bypass and a ban on partial birth abortion – except when the life of the mother is at stake. He holds that he and his fellow Republicans can "respectfully disagree" on this issue.[Citation Needed] However, In 1997 Giuliani said that then - President Bill Clinton made the right decision when he vetoed a ban on partial birth abortion. During his 2000 Senate campaign he said that he would "vote to preserve the option for women.” Giuliani has also given six contributions to Planned Parenthood in the 1990s. The payments, totaling $900, were made in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999. Planned Parenthood is one of the top abortion advocates and abortion providers in the United States.

[edit] Death penalty

Giuliani only favors capital punishment for murder in certain circumstances. One such example is that he has advocated the death penalty for terrorists following September 11.

[edit] Education

Giuliani supports school vouchers for lower-income students. He is also a supporter of privatizing failing schools.

[edit] Government Spending

Rudy Giuliani supports a large decrease in federal spending and a Balanced Budget Amendment to ensure responsible fiscal management. As New York City mayor, he cut the size of city-funded government bureaucracy by nearly 20% - excluding the number of cops on the street and teachers in the classroom.

[edit] Gun Rights

Giuliani has changed his views on guns over time. As mayor of New York, he was a proponent of urban gun control, but, while running for President, has stated that he thinks differently about more mid-west environments. As Mayor of New York, Giuliani became a nationally visible figure in favor of gun control measures, beginning with an appearance on Meet the Press in late 1993. He was in favor of the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. In 1995, Giuliani called member's of the National Rifle Association "extremists." And that anti-gun control positions of many Republicans are "terrible for America."

[edit] Health Care

On February 26, 2007, Giuliani said that he was against any notion of universal health care in America, which would mean a "socialization" of American medicine. "That would be a terrible, terrible mistake. [Solutions] have to be free market solutions. They have to be a competitive system." He wrote an article for the Boston Globe on his official position on health care. In it he stated that taxes should not be raised to provide more health care but instead lowered for "individual empowerment". He talked about the creation of a tax-free Health Savings Account that would allow individuals and small businesses to stock up on health insurance and in effect lower rates.

"America is best when we solve our problems from our strengths, not our weaknesses. Healthcare reform must be based on increased choice, affordability, portability, and individual empowerment." (Giuliani)

[edit] Homeland Security

Giuliani has supported President George W. Bush's tactic of using domestic surveillance.

[edit] Immigration

Rudy Giuliani's position on illegal immigration has changed over the years. In 1996, he said that "We're never, ever going to be able to totally control immigration in a country that is as large as ours." He went on to say, "If you were to totally control immigration into the United States, you might very well destroy the economy of the United States, because you'd have to inspect everything and everyone in every way possible." As Mayor, Giuliani said that, "There isn’t a mayor or public official in this country that is more strongly pro immigrant than I am. Including disagreeing with President Clinton when he signed an anti immigrant legislation about 2 or 3 years ago." However, now his view on Immiration is much more conservative. In February 2007, in a meeting with California Republicans, Giuliani was quoted as saying "We need a border fence, and a highly technological one." And identify every non-citizen in the country. Giuliani defends New York City's sanctuary policy. [12]

[edit] Iraq

Rudy Giuliani strongly supports completing the mission in Iraq and hunting for terrorists and insurgents. Giuliani was described by Newsweek magazine in January of 2007 as "one of the most consistent cheerleaders for the president’s handling of the war in Iraq."

[edit] Personal Tax

Giuliani is known to be a strong fiscal conservative. He cut taxes 23 times in New York and turned a $2.3 billion budget deficit into a multi-billion dollar surplus, while balancing the city’s budget. Because he turned his conservative principles into action, New York City taxpayers saved more than $9 billion in taxes and enjoyed their lowest tax burden in decades, while the economy grew and city government saw its revenues increase from the lower tax rates. Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee which supports lower taxes, school choice and free trade has said that, "it is impossible to ignore Giuliani's overall commitment to a pro-growth philosophy and his executive talent for implementing that philosophy in a hostile political environment."

[edit] Same-Sex Marriage

Although Rudy Giuliani does not support same-sex marriage, he does support "domestic partnerships" that provide stability for Americans who are in non-traditional relationships.

[edit] 2008 Presidential Campaign

Main article: Rudy Giuliani 2008 Presidential Campaign

Giuliani ran for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2008. The National Catholic Register advised Catholics not to vote for Giuliani in 2008 because he is pro-choice.[13]

Giuliani led in most national polls for the 2008 Republican nomination until December 2007, when he began to fall behind other candidates.[14] He came in sixth in the Iowa caucuses on January 3, 2008; fourth in the New Hampshire primary on January 8; sixth in the Michigan primary on January 15; and sixth in the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina primary on January 19.[15]

In an apparent attempt to appease (or mislead) conservatives, Giuliani picked libertarians (Ted Olson and Miguel Estrada) and an executive (Larry Thompson), all likely to be pro-choice, to head his panel for nominating judges.[16] Olson opposed conservative John Roberts in 1982 on limiting jurisdiction,[17] and Estrada applied RICO against abortion protesters and forced open the airwaves to profanity. The neoconservative (socially liberal) Power Line blog declared without basis, "It would be hard to come up with a group of lawyers and judges that would be more reassuring to conservatives in this regard."

He left the race after losing in Florida to Senator John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. This was a critical defeat, because Giuliani had depended on winning Florida to be launched into the lead on Super Tuesday. However, he lost momentum by losing near to last in almost all of the other early primaries. He endorsed John McCain after he withdrew from the campaign.

[edit] Endorsements for the 2008 Presidential Election

[edit] Congressional

[edit] Governors

[edit] Hollywood

[edit] Further Reading

  • Rudy Giuliani - 2008 Presidential Candidate
  • About: Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, 2006
  • Rudy! An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett, 2005
  • The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life, by Fred Siegel, 2005
  • Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City, by Andrew Kirtzman, 2000

[edit] References

  1. ↑ http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/03/13/swiftboat_rudy/
  2. ↑ "A Biography Of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani" The City of New York Office of the Mayor [1]
  3. ↑ http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0212072giuliani12.html
  4. ↑ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E7D8163BF932A25756C0A9669C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2
  5. ↑ "A Biography Of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani" The City of New York Office of the Mayor [2]
  6. ↑ "A Biography Of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani" The City of New York Office of the Mayor [3]
  7. ↑ See also "Time's 2001 Person of the Year Rudy Giuliani"[4]
  8. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/us/politics/12topic-giuliani.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
  9. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/09/giuliani.firefighters.ap/index.html
  10. ↑ Firefighters Claim Giuliani Ignored Needs After 9/11 (Update2) by Kim Chipman Bloomberg News, March 9, 2007 [5]
  11. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a8o5p2XiTQhk&refer=us
  12. ↑ Rudy: Illegal Immigration Not a Crime, NewsMax, September 7, 2007
  13. ↑ No Deal Rudy
  14. ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/republican_presidential_nomination-192.html#polls
  15. ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
  16. ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,289367,00.html
  17. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/27/roberts.documents/index.html
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