Two weeks ago a longtime admirer and colleague of Giuliani alerted this reporter to watch for the moment in debate when the ex-mayor would do the equivalent of calling someone a moron because he just couldn't help it.
But in the many minutes before he wedged his defining 9/11 moment into the format, Giuliani had looked less inspiring, even at one point being the butt of the laughter. When challenged on whether his positions were those of a true conservative he took up former Virginia Governor James Gilmore's put-down of "Rudy McRomney" saying to McCain, "I kinda like the order here, John."
Giuliani talked about Republican commonalities and found his way into a knock on Sen. Hillary Clinton and the "liberal media" before Chris Wallace of the host Fox News asked him to take another 30 seconds -- and this time answer his question. That got strong guffaws from the spectators, at Rudy's expense.
Giuliani also made the claim that with inflation and population increases considered he'd actually reduced spending during his tenure as mayor, despite the first blush of the numbers. If he could do that in New York, he said, Washington would be easy,. (During his second term, according to city comptroller reports, NYC spending increased at three times the inflation rate. Tax collections were lifted by the dot-com boom).
Later came his clash with Rep. Ron Paul, followed by a hypothetical question from Brit Hume -- a scenario in which captured terrorists responsible for blowing up shopping malls and killing Americans know of a plan to murder more and the government needs to know what they know. What interrogation measures are appropriate?
Dan Janison
McCain, the former prisoner of war, spoke with feeling against the use of torture, as a matter of tactics and morals.. Giuliani was pressed to be specific on strategies. Three times he said that given the hypothetical, "Every method they could think of." He added: "And I would support them in doing that because I've seen (big applause) what happens when you make a mistake about this and I don't want to see another 3000 people dead."
Comments (2)
It looks like Rudy intends to talk about 9/11 no matter the subject. He says he doesn't want to see another 3000 people dead? Hey, Rudy, have you seen the mortality stats recently for the war in Iraq??
Or how about the number of abortions performed since 9/11?