Even members of Mr. Giuliani’s own staff are appalled at how he handled the incident in which he answered a phone call from his wife, Judith, right in the middle of a nationally televised speech to the National Rifle Association.
[…] I’ve been told of many other incidents, from a California fund-raiser to a Florida speech to a gathering with top donors at Bear Stearns in New York. At the Bear Stearns meeting, Mr. Giuliani took a call from his wife and then noting the strained faces of his supporters, he sheepishly tried a joke. “I’ve been married three times,” he explained. “I can’t afford to lose another one. I’m sure you understand.” (Mr. Giuliani’s media office didn’t return a call I made to them on Friday afternoon.)
That last part should play well with conservative Christians. It is hard to describe how much I look forward to watching Rudy Giuliani sabotage his campaign with arrogant little gestures like this. The New York mayor’s hubristic nature runs too deep to ever change, making it likely that by the RNC ’08 convention America will feel about as sick of him as most New Yorkers became by 2001. He’s so personally unlikable that it doesn’t even feel like going out on a limb to predict that the GOP will secretly pay people to fill seats at the nominating convention.
On the downside, if Giuliani self-destructs too soon he could put the race within reach of a real candidate like Huckabee. Go Rudy go.
Zifnab
Yeah, Huckabee has all the financial backing of a sub-prime loan. Expect him to be bursting into front-runner status right after Dennis Kuccinich and Newt Gingrich.
The Republicans have been given their options. The flip-flopping Mormon, the elderly Hollywood cradle robber, the angry midget, or 9/11.
dingo
Well, I don’t know. Hubris and arrogance got the current president elected twice. Rudy still has hope, as being a self-centered prick doesn’t seem to preclude one from national office (left or right).
whippoorwill
Personally, I can’t wait to see the 30 second ad with Rudy in drag all dolled with pumps doin’ the Can-Can.
OxyCon
Why does a Repub Apologist like John Fund have the long knives out for Rudy?
Tricky Dick
It took George W. Bush 8 years to destroy the Republican Party… it will take Hillary Clinton 4 years to destroy the Democratic Party.
Then maybe we can have viable candidates for high office in this country who will actually do something to end the madness.
Incertus (Brian)
New Yorkers apparently still don’t like him. According to a poll over at TP Election Central, Clinton smokes him 59-35, and he only rises to 44% against Obama. I think Gore did better than that in Tennessee in 2000.
BFR
Pun intended?
Davis X. Machina
Remember the legacy of Nixon, and ask “Who’s the biggest hater in the field?” That’s who gets the nomination.
The only criterion the Party is going to look at in ’08 is the ability to piss off liberals.
At this point in the cycle, there are no ideas left for the GOP to run on — SS ‘reform’ stiffed, ‘National Greatness Conservatism’ died in the sands of Mesopotamia, any further tax cuts and the dollar gets toe-tagged — just bile.
Pissing off the liberals is even more important at this juncture than winning. I thought Brownback would be doing better. He’s a good hater, has impeccable theocratic credentials, and is not ostensibly mad, like Hunter and Tancredo.
Tsulagi
RedState had a post about a week ago on Rudy’s wife calls including a clip from the NRA speech. Actually, there were some good comments. I think “Judi whipped” was thrown out. And a good one from someone seeing the positive side: “At least the call wasn’t from his future fourth wife.” They know their Rudy.
Vote Republican for family values! The only party that could run a cross-dressing candidate for prez with more wives than the Mormon and the non-baptized neoBaptist straight talker. Thank you, Jesus!
Dreggas
The shitty part here is it makes the rest of us native New Yorkers look like the stereotype, in other words like we couldn’t give a rats ass and were rude.
Now personally, I couldn’t give a rats ass but wouldn’t be rude when I told you as much :D
Geoduck
This country’s easily crazy enough to elect Guilani, or have him installed in aother 50.5% victory. I’ll count the man out when someone else takes the oath in ’08, and not a moment before.
DougJ
Rudy would be a stronger general election candidate than Huckabee. The press loves Rudy and always will; even if they like Huckabee now, they’ll kill him in the general. He’s southern and not upper class, which is the next worst thing to being black in this country. Ask the Clintons how that plays with the DC media.
YellowJournalism
He’s done that more than once?! And here I was thinking that whole call thing was a staged attempt at looking like a family man.
Cheerful Iconoclast
Shouldn’t you want the Republican whom you think would do the best job as President to win the nomination? Given the fact that the Republican might possibly win, I would think you would put the good of the country over partisan advantage.
The same applies to the Republican boosters, of course. Even if they want the Democrat to lose, they should still want the best possible Democrat to be nominated by that part.
craigie
You don’t understand – maybe taking a call in the middle of a speech was rude before. But 9/11 changed everything.
Phil
“It was bad enough when Rush Limbaugh smeared American troops who question the president as “phony soldiers.” Next, backtracking, Rush insisted that he only meant to describe people who fabricated their service like Jesse Macbeth and, not kidding, decorated Marine Jack Murtha. Never satisfied to make himself look ridiculous in only one way, Rush then defended himself by re-releasing a doctored video and transcript which spliced over a minute out of the original broadcast. Rushbots then redefined chutzpah by accusing everybody else of missing “context.” The wingnuts in this entertaining post, for example, are almost too precious.
The whole episode proves again why smart rightwingers write off Limbaugh as a blowhard with miserable control over his own mouth. Those who choose to stand behind the clown self-identify as the kind of chumps who deserve the ridicule that tying one’s credibility to Rush tends to bring.”
Over the past few months, I’ve realized this site has become a mouthpiece for the Democratic party. John Cole and Tim F are merely liberal hacks now who parrot liberal hack talking points. So I can’t say I’m surprised to read the above. Unfortunately, the following link shows how pathetic this site has become. Guess what John? Guess what Tim? There are in fact authentic “phony soldiers” (a pun, cute no?) and there are MULTIPLE phony soldiers, not just Jesse Macbeth. In fact, ABC News did a story on them a COUPLE OF DAYS before this stupid, waste-of-time Democrat resolution.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/waw/press/2007/sep/operationstolenvalor.html
The fact of the matter is that it is patently obvious to anyone with a 4th grade intelligence that Limbaugh was talking about such people. On a side note, it was patently obvious to anyone with a 2nd grade education that Bush didn’t actually think Nelson Mandela had been killed by Saddam Hussein when he said “Saddam killed the Mandelas”, but was using something that people with at least a 2nd grade education like to call a metaphor. Jeez! Liberals couldn’t get George Bush’s nuance. How pathetic is that!!!
In any case, I predicted following the MoveOn.org “Betray Us” debacle that the Right would make MoveOn.org very famous and MoveOn would be pretty much nationally reviled thereafter. Of course, the locals here mocked that notion, but a couple of campaign ads and a Senate resolution condemning the ad (and attracting the support of roughly half the Democrats) later, it appears that yours truly was right on the money.
I know the Left is desperate for its own “Betray Us” moment and it appears Media Matters is trying to invent one here. Unfortunately, “there’s nothing there there” and no reason to apologize. There’s a lot I don’t like about Rush Limbaugh, but I have no reason to apologize for him here, as he attacked phony soldiers, as any decent person should. Liberals don’t because they apparently don’t see a big deal in non-soldiers impersonating real soldiers and making up stories about how they intentionally killed innocent people to demoralize real, actual soldiers. And then they wonder why the country doesn’t like them. Go figure!
Since John and Tim are now mouthpieces for Media Matters, one wonders why they still bother to pretend to be conservatives. Full disclosure: I still don’t know who Tim F is so I’m just assuming he was a “conservative” at some point – one who has seen the light and now thinks Media Matters is a wonderful, non-partisan source and (insert conservative leaning publication or blog) is partisan and not worth reading. As for John, well John’s still not sure whether he regrets jumping on Andrew Sullivan’s “conservative with a conscience” brigade. “But Andrew told me personally it was inevitable we were going to lose the war!!!”
Good luck finding that Betray Us moment guys. Don’t hold your breath.
Phil
Meanwhile, outside the land of Democratic make believe resolutions, real live US soldiers are doing the following:
On Sept. 25, the U.S. military killed an Al Qaida chief deemed responsible for transporting foreign operatives to Iraq. The Al Qaida commander, identified as Abu Osama Al Tunisi, was killed in a U.S. air strike as he met his colleagues in Musayib, about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad.
Shortly before he died, Al Tunisi wrote a letter that warned of a threat to Al Qaida operations in Karkh. The lettter, found by the U.S. military, sought guidance from Al Qaida leaders amid coalition operations that hampered Al Tunisi’s network.
“We are so desperate for your help,” the letter read.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2007/ss_iraq_09_30.asp
There was a time, in the days of FDR and Truman or JFK, that the Democratic Party would root for this kind of success. But this is not your father’s Democratic Party. It’s the Moveon.org party. After all, they “own it”. And its now your party too John and Tim.
Phil
Heading off to bed now, but I’m sure my comments will be deleted or I’ll be banned by morning. I’m devastating the group think a little too much around here!
John's Minions
We’ll get right on that banning thing after our pinball tournament.
John's Minions
We’re enthusiastic sure, but our check from George Soros hasn’t cleared yet. Also half the staff is out pretending to be soldiers in order to get sub-standard medical care.
Rick Taylor
When Bush one the primary back in 2000 I was delighted. It seemed to me that through some inexplicable chance, the Republicans had nominated an incompetent who couldn’t possibly win. I was half right. I don’t think that way anymore.
Edmund Dantes
Phil likes pie as much as Rush likes Oxycontin and Viagra pills on an all male excursion to the underage prostitution capital of the carribean.
Fruitbat
Let’s give it up for Phil, everybody. An amazing contortionist of mind and body. Somehow he manages to twist himself in such a manner that he can pat himself on the back, hoist his own victim effigy awaiting our flame, massage his own ego, award himself the “Agitator of the Website” certificate, abuse Gertrude Stein, and manipulate his own personal marionettes of Tim F. and John C. so they follow the script he himself has written. All while he composes two massive posts in the wrong subject thread.
The intellectual superiority of the Right in action, folks. A big hand for Phil.
chopper
jeez, all that blather and phil can’t even find the right thread to post it in. even someone with a first grade education can do that. how pathetic!
Punchy
OT–
Hey, all you Ann Coulter haters….step aside.
check “it” out
Good. Lord.
Zifnab
There was a time, in the days of FDR and Truman or JFK, that the Democratic Party would scream “OMG! We’ve been struck by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor! Quick! Invade Tibet!”
Oh, no wait. That’s just those kooky Republicans.
There was another time when a certain General MacArthur decided that it wasn’t enough to conquer North Korea, and sent his troops straight into China. There was yet another time in which a certain President Nixon dicked around for six extra years in a little country called Vietnam and achieved absolutely nothing resembling victory – just another ten thousand names to add to a war memorial.
Maybe I’m just failing to see your point, Phil. Have we turned another corner? Is the insurgency in its last throes? Just another $200 billion dollars and we’ll have this thing in the bag? Cause I think we’ve heard this line before, and it was full of just as much crap then as it is now.
The Other Steve
I didn’t realize Nazi was back in style this fall.
The Other Steve
Are you telling us you like Steely McBeam?
Tim F.
Halfway there, Phil! You managed to say something on-topic but you posted it on the wrong thread.
Ass-U-Me.
Jimmmmm
“At the Bear Stearns meeting, Mr. Giuliani took a call from his wife and then noting the strained faces of his supporters, he sheepishly tried a joke. ‘I’ve been married three times,’ he explained. ‘I can’t afford to lose another one. I’m sure you understand’.”
Something tells me that Rudy could afford to lose this one.
Cyrus
Yes and no. If you assume that the best Republican is worse than the worst Democrat, then you don’t want any Republican to win the general election, no matter what. If so, we don’t want the best Republican for the office to be the nominee, but the worst Republican for the campaign. And while that assumption might sound bad at first — ZOMG there are eeevil partisans here!!1!1 — considering the baggage that any of the likely Republican candidates comes with, and the other problems with all of them, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Also, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but Tim didn’t say he wanted Giuliani to be the Republican nominee. He only said that he didn’t want Giuliani to self-destruct early enough that it improves the odds of someone else. Let a few people get committed to Giuliani to the point where they can’t get enthusiastic about any other Republican, let him collect a large share of the donors’ dollars, let him sling mud at the other candidates, and then have him self-destruct, and get replaced by a candidate like Huckabee or Paul (hey, it could happen… somehow…), who would be worse campaigners but probably not quite as bad at actually being president.
Tsulagi
LOL. True, and said in such a classic Republican gay manly way. No doubt Phil has his “I’m a serious adult” badge prominently displayed on his Short Bus Brigades issued tank top.
Cyrus
I forgot to mention that I share the concern that Giuliani actually could win. Both in the general sense that Bush also managed to get elected, and in the specific sense that this incident has two sides. I mean, one complaint about Giuliani is that he is an egomaniac who treats his family like shit. For further evidence of that, watch this YouTube of him taking a call in the middle of a speech from his wife. Wait, what’s the family problem again?
Zifnab
It’s also important to look down ticket. If Republicans manage to cling to a 41 Senator Filibuster-proof minority, they can still clog up the pores of government and bring about the acne of civil discontent. I think we can all agree, that’s not a very pretty picture.
However, Republicans who field a super-secret liberal infiltrator like Romney or Guiliani, or a big empty suit like Thompson, risk killing the passion in the party. One reason I would love to see a Thompson Presidential run is because I’m convinced the man wouldn’t even try to win.
Downticket, this could mean crushing Democratic victories in the Midwest, the Mountain West, and goofy places like my home state of Texas that really don’t care who’s in office so long as our state gets huge government kickbacks. Democrats could easily route Republicans and rally enough votes in the House and Senate to roll back Bush stupidity unimpeded and confine Republicans to their Southern Prison States for a generation.
In that sense, for a hyper-partisan, you want a Nixonian-style victory over the Republican version of George McGovern, or a Reagen-style victory over the Republican version of Jimmy Carter.
Satan luvvs Repugs
Funny, the only “phony” soldiers that have really turned out NOT to be soldiers was Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert. And he was/is a gay prostitute as well.
Now let me think, whose side was Gannon/Guckert working for? Oh yes, THE REPUBLICANS.
I don’t see why Romney hasn’t got the nomination locked up: he’s the only major GOP candidate who’s not a serial polygamist.
Dreggas
Of course Phil fails to mention the part where we supposedly killed this guy over a year ago. Nice try asshat.
DougJ
At the Bear Stearns meeting..
If it was a Bear Sterns meeting, that changes everything. That bank won’t be with us much longer. Of course talking to his wife was more important.
Zifnab
Wasn’t that the bank that dropped a billion or so in hedge funds tied to the sub-prime mortgage market, only to express shock and awe at the idea that some dude who walked off the street couldn’t pay off a six figure mortgage at a 9% interest rate?
Andrew
I love pinball. My favorite was the Guns N Roses unit from the mid-90s.
Bubblegum Tate
Wait, Phil = Gary Ruppert?
I wonder if “phony soldiers” are the ones who coined the General Betray Us nickname. That sure would help the wingnuts economize and focus their blather.
HyperIon
i like Kevin Drum’s take on Rudy’s behavior: (sorry, cannot figure out how to link to the specific post, site is http://www.washingtonmonthly.com)
HyperIon
who do you mean? Tancredo? McCain? just wondering…
Zifnab
Much like the Hillary Clinton Laugh, this is what those in the business refer to a “pathetic stunt to cast a phoney self-image”. Rudy is worried that wife number three makes him look like a sleaze, so he puts on a show for the audience to convince people that this one’s a keeper. Hillary reads some poll about how everyone thinks she’s a cold, emotionless, bitch so she tries to liven it up by adding maniacal to the list of adjectives.
Politicians are stupid too.
Zifnab
The big four, so that’d be McCain. I wasn’t entirely sure Tancredo was still running when he showed up to the minority speaking tour. I thought for sure his Klan rally was going to create a scheduling conflict.
DougJ
Try 25 billion.
whippoorwill
You guys ought to lay off Phil, he’s just honing his skills in alternate reality creationism. It’s all the rage in wingnuttia these days. Pretty soon they’ll be demanding it be taught in public schools and all new immigrants will have to be well versed before they can become US citizens. It’s only fair what with liberal lies destroying America and poisoning the minds of our children.