Tag: Rudy Giuliani (page 4)

One of the chapters in Rudy's book is titled "Surround Yourself With Great People." As the Washington Post points out today, many of his appointments as Mayor of New York turned out to be dismal choices, based on blind loyalty to his friends rather than competence.

We all know about Bernie and Rudy, but there are plenty of other examples, which taken together, show "a pattern of rewarding loyalty over competence in personnel decisions:

There's Howard Safir, whom Rudy appointed Police Commissioner after the very competent Bill Bratton:

[Safir] came under intense criticism after the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man, for failing to provide adequate oversight of the police unit involved in the shootings and for his detached response. He also came under scrutiny for, among other things, taking a corporate jet to the Academy Awards shortly after the shootings, for assigning eight detectives to his daughter's wedding, and for sending officers to investigate a woman who rear-ended his wife's car.

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Things are looking up for Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.

The WMUR-CNN poll of likely Republican voters conducted by the University of New Hampshire shows Romney with 33 percent support, up from 25 percent in the same poll in September. Giuliani has declined, slipping to 16 percent compared to 24 percent in September.

Giuliani is now third choice among Republicans, behind both Romney and McCain, in that state. The poll results are here (pdf).

I wonder if the Bernie Kerik Indictment had a bigger impact than he expected.

Last week Rudy Giuliani touted Bernie Kerik's crime record. Now, in a speech calling for wants a virtual border fence instead of a real one and in response to critics who say he turned New York into a sanctuary city, he touts his own.

"The policies that I utilized with regard to illegal immigration were in the context of overall policies that probably were the most successful in the history of the country in creating an orderly, legal, lawful society," he said.

His arrogance knows no bounds.

The New York Daily News explores Rudy Giuliani's use of his pals' private aircraft, including that of casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

The days of candidates reimbursing their pals with the cost of a commercial first-class ticket instead of the much higher cost of renting the aircraft and pilot ended in September.

Hillary and Obama never did it.

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama accept no corporate aircraft, choosing instead to rent planes at full market cost to avoid the appearance of a conflict.

Here's the list of the owners of the planes Rudy's used:

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Frank Rich has a terrific column today in the New York Times on what Judith Regan could tell about Rudy Giuliani. It's also a succinct recap of the various elements of the story to date, from Bernie and Judith to Bernie and Rudy to Fox and Rudy.

Whether Ms. Regan’s charge about that unnamed Murdoch “senior executive” is true or not — her lawyers have yet to reveal the evidence — her overall message is plain. She knows a lot about Mr. Kerik, Mr. Giuliani and the Murdoch empire. And she could talk.

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Rudy Giuliani was the only Republican presidential candidate to speak at the Federalist Society meeting today in Washington, introduced by his pal and advisor Ted Olson.

Why? Think, the loyal Rudy:

Giuliani was the only presidential candidate to speak to the group, a testament to his close ties to Olson and other prominent members of the organization. Several of them are advising his campaign and have served as a bulwark for Giuliani against criticism from social conservatives.

As for what he said: He'd appoint more judges like Alito, Thomas and Scalia. He threw in some religion:

"There are some people I think nowadays that doubt that America has a special, even a divinely inspired role in the world," he said.

And of course, some terrorism.

"It was this nation that saved the world from the two great tyrannies of the 20th century, Nazism and Communism," he said. "It's this country that's going to save civilization from Islamic terrorism."

The prospect of Rudy gets scarier every day. The Democrats need to stop their bickering and save their attacks for their Republican rivals.

The Boston Globe fact checks Rudy Giuliani's claims about his record with respect to tax cuts and the budget deficit during his mayoral tenure.

A sample:

Giuliani and his campaign often say that he "turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus." But both the Citizens Budget Commission, a probusiness watchdog group, and the Independent Budget Office, a city-funded fiscal watchdog organization, said Giuliani left his successor, Michael Bloomberg, a projected budget deficit equal to or larger than the one Giuliani inherited from David Dinkins, the previous mayor.

Rudy's first term was okay but spending proliferated during his second term.

....in the final years of his second term, as city coffers brimmed with taxes generated by the stock market boom, city spending soared well above the inflation rate and nearly all of the surplus in his last year was spent. Giuliani generated annual surpluses in part by routinely lowballing revenue estimates.

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Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice believes the first of the two unnamed senior Fox officials named in Judith Regan's lawsuit is Roger Ailes. He's said so on Countdown, Democracy Now and the Abrams Report. Salon has more.

"The funny thing about Judith Regan's complaint is that she doesn't refer to Roger Ailes by name for the first 16 pages, right?" Barrett told Keith Olbermann of MSNBC on Wednesday. "But Roger Ailes is ... clearly the person she is referring to as this senior executive who made all these suggestions to her." The next day, on "Democracy Now," host Amy Goodman opened her segment with Barrett by stating as fact that "Regan ... was talking about Roger Ailes." Barrett responded, "I'm sure you're correct."

Another Salon article adds more dates to the timeline:[More]

A McCain aide points out the problem with Rudy, Kerik, Judith Regan, et. al.

"Obviously there are some very serious charges involved for a guy who was his protégé and one of his closest friends. And for Rudy to go out and say this is not worthy of discussion when it directly involves him and his decision making, and in the case of department of homeland security, the security of our country - it's disturbing that Rudy would think it's not something he is going to have to address. "

And a Romney aide says:

"Voters grow very weary of story after story after story having to do with public officials who have not adhered to higher ethical standards," said Madden. "Right now it is very important to Republican primary voters that we have a candidate who can draw a very clear contrast between a Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton. If you have a nominee who is distracted by this type of narrative, you lose the ability to contrast yourself with Hillary Clinton and past Clinton administrations. It cancels out any advantage you would have."

Rudy Giuliani was asked today about Judith Regan's lawsuit against News Corp (details here) which alleges that Fox executives told her to lie to investigators and withhold documents about Bernie Kerik in order to protect Rudy's presidential aspirations. His response:

The candidate laughed when reporters asked for his response to one-time publishing powerhouse Judith Regan's $100 million lawsuit claiming that her former employers directed her to lie to federal investigators about Kerik because of the implications for Giuliani.

"I don't respond to the story at all. I don't know anything about it. And, it sounds to me like a kind of gossip column story more than a real story,"

That's Rudy, burying his head in the sand with an "I don't know anything about it." Will the press leave it at that?

How often does Rudy Giuliani mention September 11?

Take a look, great job by Talking Points Memo.

Here's Rudy's actual ad running tomorrow in Iowa and then in New Hampshire -- those early states the news says he doesn't need. No mention of 9/11, only that "he's been tested."

Maybe now this story will gain some traction in the media. It's been way too lenient on the connection between Bernie Kerik and Rudy Guiliani. There were headlines for one day and then no one asked the tough questions, the ones about what Rudy knew about Bernie and his alleged ties to mob associates and a company with alleged ties to mob associates and when he knew it.

The New York Times reports that publisher and former Fox News talk show host Judith Regan has filed a 70 page lawsuit against News Corp and Harper Collins in state court in Manhattan over her abrupt firing during the firestorm over her planned publication of O.J. Simpson's book about how he might have killed Nicole Brown Simpson. The text of the lawsuit is here.(pdf)

Regan alleges in the lawsuit that a Fox executive told her to lie to federal investigators about her relationship with Bernie Kerik in order to protect Rudy Giuliani. She says another Fox exec told her not to turn over relevant documents.

Among the reported details of the Regan-Kerik affair:

Ms. Regan had an affair with Mr. Kerik, who is married, beginning in the spring of 2001, when her imprint, Regan Books, began work on his memoir, “The Lost Son.” In December 2004, after the relationship had ended and shortly after Mr. Kerik’s homeland security nomination fell apart, newspapers reported that the two had carried on the affair at an apartment near Ground Zero that had been donated as a respite for rescue and recovery workers.

Fox claimed it fired Regan for alleged anti-semitic comments.

Then there's this from the December 15, 2004, New York Post: