Giuliani Campaigning for Mitt in Florida

This afternoon, George Bennett at the Palm Beach Post looked at Mayor Giuliani’s newly released Florida TV ad, “Quotes.”

 While Governor Romney is quoted in the ad, Bennett found that the full context of the Governor’s remarks isn’t something that Mayor Giuliani would want Florida voters to hear:

About that Mitt quote in Rudy’s ad…

 The kicker to a new Rudy Giuliani ad in Florida is this quote from Mitt Romney: “Mayor Giuliani has a great record of cutting taxes.”

 Romney indeed said it on CNBC last October — but then went on to say Giuliani left “excessive deficits” when he departed as mayor of New York.

 The full context after the jump…..

 Kudlow: “John McCain says the line-item veto is essential. Mr. Giuliani I think is not sure. Where do you come out on that?”

 Romney: “John McCain’s right on that one. The line-item veto is the best tool the President has to reign in excessive spending, and Mayor Giuliani has a great record of cutting taxes and cutting spending, although, according to the Mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, that followed him, he said that he left excessive deficits for him. But he’s cut spending, he cut taxes, I cut spending, I cut taxes. But the real difference between us is that when it came to the line-item veto, I’m in favor of it. I used it 844 times, and he went all the way to the Supreme Court to take it away from the President, and it was not about a constitutional issue as he said, it was about getting more money for New York City. That’s the very reason a line-item veto should be there, is to take away the kind of special deals that certain cities get.”

 Here’s the YouTube of the quoted exchange between Larry Kudlow and Governor Romney in October 2007:

 

 

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Giulian Can’t Pay Staffers

Giuliani Can’t Pay Staffers

About a dozen senior campaign staffers for Rudy Giuliani are forgoing their January paychecks, a sign of possible money trouble for the Republican presidential candidate and last year’s national front-runner.

“We have enough money, but we could always use more money,” said Mike DuHaime, Giuliani’s campaign manager and one of those who now is working for free. “We want to make sure we have enough to win.”

At the end of December, the campaign had $12.7 million cash on hand, $7 million of which could be used for the primary, DuHaime said Friday. He disputed the notion of a cash-strapped operation and said Giuliani continues to bring in money; several fundraisers are scheduled this week in Florida.

The former New York mayor has yet to win a contest and is counting on a victory in delegate-rich Florida on Jan. 29 to prove his candidacy is viable heading into the multistate contests slated for Feb. 5, where he believes he can prevail in states such as California and Illinois.

It’s an unorthodox and costly strategy because Florida and states that follow have some of the most expensive media markets in the country. And with so many states voting in such a short time period, candidates can do little else but rely on paid media _ and news coverage _ to get out their message.

Republican strategists estimate that it will cost roughly $35 million to run one week of heavy levels of ads in the two dozen states that hold contests on Feb. 5.

Giuliani has struggled to grab his share of the spotlight from rivals Mike Huckabee, winner in Iowa, and Sen. John McCain, the victor in New Hampshire, as well as Mitt Romney. Recent polls show Giuliani, the undisputed leader in most 2007 national surveys, losing his top spot.

Read more here…

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Giuliani LOVES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

“The city of New York, quite frankly, is quite tolerant of undocumented immigration and this shouldn’t surprise you because I’ve been the Mayor for a long time and outspoken on this issue, even nationally, I happen to agree with that. I think New York City should not deal with undocumented immigrants in a harsh way, I think they make a big contribution to the life of the city and were much better off being sensible and practical about it. And the reality is that restaurants are going to have a certain number of people who are undocumented, you know people that come here to make a living trying to help them selves and their families.”– Mayor Rudy Giuliani (WABC Radio’s “Live From City Hall…With Rudy Giuliani,” 9/7/01)

“The city of New York, quite frankly, is quite tolerant of undocumented immigration and this shouldn’t surprise you because I’ve been the Mayor for a long time and outspoken on this issue, even nationally, I happen to agree with that.” – Mayor Rudy Giuliani (WABC Radio’s “Live From City Hall…With Rudy Giuliani,” 9/7/01)

 

 

A New Giuliani Campaign Ad Discusses The Issue Of Illegal Immigration:

The Giuliani Campaign Has Released A New Ad Complaining About Illegal Immigration. MAYOR GIULIANI “People are frustrated over immigration because the government has been talking about solving this for twenty or twenty-five years, and it’s just gotten worse. What we need here is leadership.” (Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee, “Rudy Giuliani Campaign Launches New Television Ad in New Hampshire,” Press Release, 12/13/07)

But As Mayor, Giuliani Was “Quite Tolerant” Of Illegal Immigration:

In 2001, Mayor Giuliani Boasted That New York City Was “Quite Tolerant Of Undocumented Immigration.” GIULIANI: “The city of New York, quite frankly, is quite tolerant of undocumented immigration and this shouldn’t surprise you because I’ve been the Mayor for a long time and outspoken on this issue, even nationally, I happen to agree with that. I think New York City should not deal with undocumented immigrants in a harsh way, I think they make a big contribution to the life of the city and were much better off being sensible and practical about it. And the reality is that restaurants are going to have a certain number of people who are undocumented, you know people that come here to make a living trying to help them selves and their families.” (WABC Radio’s “Live From City Hall…With Rudy Giuliani,” 9/7/01, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhS-Ic9JohM)

Mayor Giuliani Welcomed Illegal Immigrants To New York City:

Mayor Giuliani Actually Invited More Illegal Immigrants To Come To New York City. “[Mr. Giuliani said,] ‘If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city. You’re somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive, which is really unfair.'” (Deborah Sontag, “New York Officials Welcome Immigrants, Legal Or Illegal,” The New York Times, 6/10/94)

Mayor Giuliani Ran New York City With A Sanctuary State Of Mind:

ABC News: “Giuliani Inherited The [Sanctuary] Policy, He Reissued It And Seemed To Embrace It.” “New York became a sanctuary city, where illegal immigrants enjoy some measure of protection, through an executive order signed by Mayor Ed Koch in 1989, five years before Giuliani became mayor in January 1994. But if Giuliani inherited the policy, he reissued it and seemed to embrace it.” (Jake Tapper and Ron Claiborne, “Romney: Giuliani’s NYC ‘Sanctuary’ For Illegal Immigrants,” ABC News, 8/8/07)

A 1997 New York Daily News Editorial Blasted Mayor Giuliani For Not Supporting Federal Immigration Laws. “Mayor Giuliani is actually suing the federal government to be relieved of the requirement that city workers turn over information about illegal immigrants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. At City University, undocumented aliens qualify for the low resident tuition if they’ve lived here for a year. And just last week, the mayor announced that immigrants applying for marriage licenses couldn’t be turned away even if their visas had expired.” (Editorial, “Not All Immigrants Are Equal,” [New York] Daily News, 3/23/97)

• Daily News: Under Mayor Giuliani, “Illegal” Didn’t Have Any Meaning. “But at the same time, federal immigration laws must be enforced strictly. For no nation can allow its borders to be violated with impunity. And state and local governments must help. In New York, that means making the adjective ‘illegal’ mean something when it appears before the word ‘immigrant.’ … In other words, legal or illegal, the law makes no distinction. Then what’s the law for?“ (Editorial, “Not All Immigrants Are Equal,” [New York] Daily News, 3/23/97)

 

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How hilarious… a must see

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Giuliani’s So Desperate He Needs to Fudge the Math

Last night, Howard Nemerov at the Media Research Council’s NewsBusters blog reviewed Governor Romney’s record on violent crime and found that “the overall [violent] rate dropped 7.8% from 484.9 in 2002 to 447.0 in 2006.” He concludes, “No matter the comparison––total incidents or rates per 100,000 population––Giuliani was wrong to state that Massachusetts saw a violent crime increase while Romney was governor.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/howard-nemerov/2007/11/25/who-s-tougher-crime-romney-or-giuliani

And this morning, in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mayor Giuliani distorted Governor Romney’s record again. While Mayor Giuliani has apparently recognized his earlier error and dropped any reference to overall violent crime, Mayor Giuliani did claim that “aggravated assault … went up while he was governor.”

RUDY GIULIANI: Boston Herald had a big piece on this about two months ago; crime, murder, aggravated assault, burglary all went up while he was governor. In the case of robbery, it went up 12%. And those are all areas in which while I was mayor of New York, those categories went down by 70%. So there’s a big difference in his record as a governor, which in the area of these violent crimes was very poor as the Boston Herald pointed out, and my record as mayor was one of the best records from the point of view of safety and security in the country.

On the contrary, as the same NewsBusters post points out from FBI data, “aggravated assault decreased 14.8%” during Governor Romney’s term. Just another example of Mayor Giuliani’s “fuzzy math.”

Yesterday, Mayor Giuliani falsely claimed that “violent crime” went up in Massachusetts during Governor Romney’s term. According to FBI statistics, the overall violent crime rate in Massachusetts decreased by over 7% under Governor Romney. The violent crime rate was lower than the national average. Prior to Governor Romney, the violent crime rate was increasing.

http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/Romney_Record_Reducing_Crime

 

A RECORD OF REDUCING CRIME IN MASSACHUSETTS

GIULIANI’S INCREASINGLY “FUZZY” STATS

Giuliani Falsely Claims That “Violent Crime” Went Up In Massachusetts:

Yesterday, Giuliani Falsely Claimed That “Violent Crime” Went Up In Massachusetts. “‘Gov. Romney did not have a good record in dealing with violent crime.’ Giuliani pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket that listed FBI crime statistics for Massachusetts while Romney was governor. Murders were up 7.5 percent, robbery was up 12 percent, he said. ‘He had an increase in murder and violent crime while he was governor,‘ Giuliani said. ‘So it’s not so much the isolated situation which he and the judge will have to explain _ he’s kind of thrown her under the bus, so it’s hard to know how this is all going to come out. But the reality is, he did not have a record of reducing violent crime.'” (Charles Babington, “Romney Calls On Judge He Appointed To Resign After Washington State Murders,” The Associated Press, 11/24/07)

FACT: According To The FBI Statistics, Overall “Violent Crime” Decreased In Massachusetts Under Governor Romney:

Under Governor Romney, the violent crime rate in Massachusetts decreased by over 7%. The violent crime rate was lower than the national average. Prior to Governor Romney, the violent crime rate was increasing.

Violent Crime Rate Per 100,000 Residents
Massachusetts	National Rate
2002 – 484.4	2002 – 494.4
2003 – 473.1	2003 – 475.9
2004 – 458.8	2004 – 463.2
2005 – 457	2005 – 469
2006 – 447	2006 – 473.5
Source: FBI Crime in the United States Website, “Crime in the United States, 1987-2006,” http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_01.html, Accessed 10/12/07

FACT: According To FBI Statistics, The Overall Crime Rate Decreased In Massachusetts Under Governor Romney:

Under Governor Romney, The Overall Crime Rate Fell By 8% Over His Four Years In Office. “Car thefts and larcenies also were down, in line with national trends, and helped contribute to an overall 8 percent decline in crime during Romney’s four years, according to the FBI stats.” (Dave Wedge, “Crime Up During Romney Tenure,” The Boston Herald, 9/26/07)

FACT: According To FBI Statistics, Other Crimes Were Down Under Governor Romney (2002-2006):

• Assaults Down 15%. (FBI Crime in the United States Website, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr, Accessed 10/12/07)

• Rape Down 2%. (FBI Crime in the United States Website, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr, Accessed 10/12/07)

• Larceny/Theft Down 6%. (FBI Crime in the United States Website, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr, Accessed 10/12/07)

• Motor Vehicle Theft Down 32%. (FBI Crime in the United States Website, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr, Accessed 10/12/07)

FACT: This Isn’t The First Time Giuliani Has Used “Fuzzy … Math”:

ABC News: Giuliani Uses “Fuzzy Healthcare Math” In Radio Ad. “To hear Rudy Giuliani describe it in his new radio ad, the British medical system is a scary place. ‘My chance of surviving prostate cancer – and thank God I was cured of it – in the United States: 82 percent,’ Giuliani says in a new radio spot airing in New Hampshire. ‘My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.’ But the data Giuliani cites comes from a single study published eight years ago by a not-for-profit group, and is contradicted by official data from the British government. According to the United Kingdom’s Office for National Statistics, for men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1999 and 2003, the ‘five-year survival rate’ – a common measurement in cancer statistics – was 74.4 percent.” (Rick Klein, “Rudy’s Fuzzy Healthcare Math,” ABC News, 10/29/07)

The Annenberg Public Policy Center: Giuliani Wrongly Claims He Left A Budget Surplus. “Giuliani’s radio ad also asserts that he ‘turned a 2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus’ in New York. Well, not if you’re comparing what he inherited with what he left, which would be a logical way to look at it. When he took office in 1994, Giuliani was indeed facing a $2.3 billion deficit for the next fiscal year. But Giuliani’s last budget, issued in May 2001 – before 9/11 – for fiscal 2002, projected a deficit of nearly $2.8 billion in fiscal 2003, the first budget year the new mayor would face. The IBO estimated the deficit would be even larger, about $3.3 billion.” (“Giuliani’s Tax Puffery,” FactCheck.org Website, www.factcheck.org/, 7/27/07)

The Washington Times: Giuliani Exaggerates Tax Cutting Number. “Mr. Giuliani repeated his claim that he ‘cut taxes 23 times when I was mayor of New York.’ It turns out that many of those cuts were instigated by Republican Gov. George Pataki and the state legislature. One of several glaring flaws in Mr. Giuliani’s record on taxes was, as the Club for Growth says, his 1994 ‘opposition to Republican [gubernatorial] candidate George Pataki’s proposed cut in the state income tax,’ whose rates were among the highest in the country.” (Editorial, “Romney And Giuliani,” The Washington Times, 10/14/07)

 

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Pat Robertson’s God: Money

So it has been the big question of the week: “Why would one notable person, Paul Weyrich, of the “Moral Majority” endorse Mitt Romney and another, Pat Robertson, endorse Rudy Giuliani?”

The Moral Majority was founded in 1979 on the following principles:

Some issues for which the Moral Majority campaigned included:

• outlawing abortion
• opposition to state recognition and acceptance of homosexuality
• opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
• enforcement of a traditionalist vision of family life
• censorship of media outlets that promote what it labeled as an ‘anti-family’ agenda

Not surprisingly, Robertson is even being watched by Hillary R. Clinton and her friends at Media Matters. He has a long history of making some pretty “out there” statements. Here is his famous statement regarding the assassination of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. “I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he [Chavez] thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.” [8/22/05]

But Robertson is found repeatedly on record opposing homosexuality according to Media Matters, a liberal watch dog group which monitors and attempts to squelch Right Wing Conservatives, they say, “He is noted for his particularly hateful rhetoric toward gays and lesbians.” He also says:

Gays and lesbians are “self-absorbed hedonists … that want to impose their particular sexuality on the rest of America.” [11/30/04]

Gays and lesbians are “self-absorbed narcissists who are willing to destroy any institution so long as they can have affirmation of their lifestyle.” [8/16/05]

Robertson is notorious for his “revelations” that he announces on his 700 Club program. In May 2006, Robertson declared that “storms and possibly a tsunami” would hit America’s coastline sometime in 2006. Robertson supposedly received this revelation from God during an annual personal prayer retreat in January. The claim was repeated four times on The 700 Club.

Pat Robertson’s existence swirls with controversy at every turn. An investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson “willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications” and called for a criminal prosecution against Robertson in 1999. However, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican whose largest campaign contributor two years earlier was Robertson himself, intervened, accepting that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution.^[31] No charges were ever brought against Robertson. “Two years earlier, while Virginia’s investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley’s campaign — Earley’s largest contribution.”

“Gerry Straub, a former associate of Pat Robertson and his television producer, pointed out in his book Salvation for Sale the astonishing fact that God seemed to time miracles to conform with standard television format,” and “God would stop speaking to Pat and stop healing exactly in time with the theme music.”^[20]

But the most compelling information about Pat Robertson is his amazing acquisition of money. Robertson’s extensive business interests have earned him a net worth estimated between $200 million and $1 billion [2]. Robertson is a global businessman with media holdings in Asia, the United Kingdom, and Africa. He is the nation’s number three cable operator, behind Ted Turner and HBO. He struck a deal with Pittsburgh, PA-based General Nutrition Center to produce and market a weight-loss shake he created and promoted on the 700 Club TV show.

Ever since the decline of his once-powerful Christian Coalition, Robertson has been something of the odd-man-out in the world of right-wing DC powerbrokers, eclipsed by the likes of the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. While the various cliques on the Right are willing to mingle and attend one another’s conferences and events, Robertson has never been included and it clearly irks him, especially since the joint FRC/FOF

From Gregory Palast of the Guardian UK he points out Robertson’s scary association with the communist dictator, Zhu Rongi:

His fellow evangelists are none too happy about his contacts with Zhu Rongi, the communist dictator who gleefully jails Christian ministers. Volder defends Robertson’s meetings with Zhu – and his association with deposed Congo strongman Sese Seko Mobutu – on the grounds that ‘Pat would meet with the Devil if that is the only way to help suffering people’. The fact that the connections assigted in obtaining diamond and Internet concessions is secondary.

Read more about Pat Robertson’s investigations here. There is even a connection of Robertson abusing cargo planes slated for transporting humanitarian aide were diverted, even personally flown by Robertson, to the diamond mines in Africa. Yes that’s right, one of his mega-moneymaking attempts is diamond mining with his African Development Company in which he is the president and sole shareholder of the company.

There is no doubt that Pat Robertson is one of the most corrupt exploiters of the American right. Scandal and intrigue follow his every move. His record is clear, Pat Robertson’s master is himself. The manipulation of minds and souls is disheartening. The endorsements we will see in the coming weeks will sift the wheat from the tares. What surrounds Pat Robertson is the murky cloak of greed and filth. There is the baggage of this professed conservative. The weight of which is astounding.

On the other hand, Mitt Romney has been able to use his powerful intellectual savvy to leave in his wake a goodness and virtue that has made astounding differences wherever he has had an opportunity. Whether his vitality is put to rescuing the Olympics or his friend’s daughter who had disappeared or a struggling company, Mitt makes a difference for the better. Instead of bowing to a God of corruption and sell-out, he quietly leads by an impeccable example. There is no duplicity with the Romney’s. Anne is an “elect” lady in every sense of the word. Her grace would leave a proud legacy in American history as First Lady. Mitt has the capacity elevate our country and repair erosions on every level; fiscally, socially, politically in a way that will reunite our civil war torn nation.

This country needs to stop polarizing itself and and coalesce around the person who’s record and character have shown he has the best interests of all at heart. Democrats are realizing their party has left them. Republicans are realizing their candidates and party leaders are revealing their true colors. As Laura Ingrahm pointed out in the Values Voter Summit last month that we must stand strong behind our principles and never sell out. I can guarantee that the best conservative, Mitt Romney, will be steadfast and immovable to the end.

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