Liberal College Kid

Rudy Giuliani is the Republican front runner nationally, but trails Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. Here is his first ad of the campaign which will air in New Hampshire. In the ad he discusses his great success as a mayor in pre- 9/11 New York.

He tells us we are not to expect perfection, which I can understand. In fact, I don’t think there’s a person in this country that has come to expect perfection from any President. Our current President is now the most hated since the advent of the Gallop Poll, and the one before that lost any chance of being regarded as one of our best Presidents because he hooked up with an intern and then lied about it. The notion that Rudy even needs to tell us he’s not perfect seems silly, so I’ll leave it at that.

The rest of his message is hard to argue with. New York really was a crime and drug ridden place when he became the mayor. Those who have read Freakonomics know there are several theories as to why crime dropped off in New York. But for argument’s sake lets just say Rudy led New York out of a dark time. He’s still a lousy candidate.

First of all, and I hate to go there but I must, is the lisp. I’ve said it on this site before, why can’t the President be the brightest and best spoken person this country has to offer? Every time he says “city” I shudder. However, that’s not a fair argument, it is not his fault he doesn’t speak well, and if the Decider has taught us anything, its that speaking well is not a requirement to be President.

Rudy, however, has many flaws as a candidate. First, his experience is in the executive realm of governance, but he was a mayor. Granted the mayor of the largest city in America, but nonetheless he was only a mayor. Now I know there isn’t a list prerequisites somewhere for President, but I would hope that the American people would not want someone who’s claim to fame is being in New York during 9/11. Being New York’s mayor at a time of crises does not make someone qualified for our nation’s highest office.

Then comes Rudy’s baggage. This recent story about Judith Regan won’t help matters much. As the Huffington Post said:

“Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed yesterday protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Bernard B. Kerik after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004.

The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.”

Just another thing in the list of Rudy’s skeletons. Here I thought marrying his cousin was going to do him in, he’s actually picked up the endorsement of Pat Robertson even though he’s been Pro-choice and Pro-gay rights in the past. He’s also supported gun control, something his party hates, and he’s pro-immigration, something the racist side of the Republican party will not tolerate. And yes, I will make the claim that the anti-immigration movement in this country is based on racism.

For a more (read SCARY!!!) conservative take on Giuliani check out this article at Human Events.

All this said one would think the Republicans would make their way to another candidate. Regular readers know my stance that the only real Republican candidate in the race is Ron Paul. The fact that Giuliani keeps hanging around does give me some hope though: if the Republicans are ready for a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control, pro-immigration candidate there’s no way the Democrats can lose in 08!

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My favorite presidential candidate, the only true progressive on every issue drafted legislation some time ago that would impeach the Vice President, Darth Cheney. Dennis Kucinich’s bill made it on to the floor Tuesday where he said:

“In his conduct while Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of Vice President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests”

Of course many thought this would be easily dismissed. Many of the Democrats in congress are from relatively moderate home states and the impeachment of the Vice President is seen by many as being too radical. Then, something rather interesting happened. Speaker Pelosi tried to allow the bill to be tabled by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. The Republicans, then, in an effort to spite the speaker voted as a bloc not to table. Kucinich’s bill already had 22 co-sponsors and as it became apparent tabling would fail other Democrats voted not to table so they wouldn’t come off looking like Cheney supporters. When it was all said and done tabling failed by 242 to 170 with 77 Dems voting not to table, in spite of the Speaker. The bill was then sent to the Judiciary committee.

Sure the bill could die there, but as the Baltimore Chronicle put it,

‘For the Judiciary Committee to sit on it now and not schedule a hearing would be a gross travesty of parliamentary procedure and custom.”

There is a bill in the House now with bi-partisan support to discuss the impeachment of the Vice President, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

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This is all coming at a time when Bush has set a new record low for the Gallop poll and its strong disapproval ranking.  He is now less popular than Nixon was, and his VP is even lower.  The people of this country are finally waking up to the reality of the Bush/ Cheney regime as exploiting their office and deliberately circumventing the constitution.  Kucinich’s bill couldn’t have been brought forward at a better time.

Now I just hope that Pelosi and the nervous Democrats in congress wake up and seize this opportunity to actually represent the people of America who want to see the Vice President removed from office for violating his constitutional duties.

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