Rudy Says Fred is All Talk?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Earlier today we posted that Fred Thompson was saying that Rudy Giuliani is no conservative. After those remarks got out, Giuliani’s camp had a few words in retort:

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella tells First Read that the former New York mayor “is the only candidate who does more than just talk about the importance of Republican principles — he actually has the track record to back it up. It’s easy to throw around meaningless rhetoric, but quite another thing to stand up to a Democratic majority and successfully cut taxes, control spending, and reform welfare.”

Interesting. Rudy says his record speaks for itself, eh?

Well, then, if Rudy wants to stand on that record, let’s review it closer to see how Rudy stood on conservative principles in the past.

On the idea of running for office as a conservative, here is what Rudy had to say in 1996.

“Well, I’m a Republican mayor, but I”m really not. I’m the mayor of New York City. I ran as a Republican, I ran as a Liberal — which really confuses all kinds of people — and I ran as an Independent, as part of the Independent Party, which actually is now the party that’s supporting Ross Perot. So I ran a fusion candidacy, like my predecessor Fiorello LaGuardia. So I’m not the most partisan of Republicans.”

Yeah, his words DO speak for themselves!

Rudy was actively against running as a conservative then. Why should we believe he isn’t still?

And, here is something worse. Rudy recently attacked leftist, extremist George Sorros for being “vicious.”.

“I think that George Soros and MoveOn.org is kind of a new low in vicious, politics of personal destruction…Every campaign I’ve ever seen from them has been about personally destroying the Republican”

Soros is bad in “every campaign” he’s “ever seen” says Rudy.

But there’s that annoying record of Rudy’s standing in the way of that claim and it seems to contradict Rudy’s past distaste of George Soros. As it turns out, Rudy actually freely and publicly once worked with Soros in a coalition of groups and individuals who joined New York City to fight the Federal Government on immigration laws. And Rudy claimed his association with Soros by name in a speech in 1996.

As Giuliani said in 1996:

Today I am also announcing that my office will be working with a coalition of well-known individuals and organizations who oppose the anti-immigration forces now being seen in Washington and elsewhere.

Among the members of this coalition will be Bob Tisch, Co-chair and Co-C.E.O. of the Loew’s Corporation…

Alan Greenberg, chair of Bear Stearns & Company, Inc…

The artist Peter Max, a naturalized American born in Germany…

George Soros, international financier and founder of the “Emma Lazarus Fund,” which assists legal immigrants…

I guess Rudy has only just discovered his distaste for Mr. Soros despite his claim to have somehow always been upset with him. It seems Rudy is finding a lot of new found feelings of late.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston


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