Rudy Hits the Trifecta

Weekly Standard: An Attack On MoveOn, Hillary, And The New York Times Puts Giuliani Back In The Limelight

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by Matthew Continetti.

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THE WEEK DID NOT start well for former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Media attention focused heavily on former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson's official entry into the nomination fight and Arizona senator John McCain's resurgent campaign. Meanwhile, as Thompson and McCain dominated headlines, new polls showed both candidates gaining ground. Hizzoner was missing from the news. Conventional wisdom--that Giuliani has absolutely no chance of winning the GOP nod--once again reared its ugly head, this time in an opinion piece written by Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen in Thursday's New York Daily News. "Mark my words," Schoen wrote. "Giuliani will not be the GOP's nominee."

Schoen may want to wait before placing any bets on that assumption. On the same day that Schoen's article was published, Giuliani thrust himself back into the spotlight. At a press availability in Atlanta, the former mayor lambasted critics of Gen. David Petraeus and President Bush's counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq. He attacked the antiwar MoveOn.org for an advertisement in Monday's New York Times that asked, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" He noted that the Times had sold the ad space to MoveOn at a discount rate. And he included Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton among those who question Petraeus's credibility.

More, Giuliani upped the ante. He called upon the Times to sell him ad space at MoveOn's discount rate, which would allow him to run an ad of similar size praising Petraeus's efforts in Iraq. "We are going to ask the New York Times to allow us tomorrow to print an ad that will obviously take the opposite view," Giuliani said. "We believe, unlike Hillary Clinton, that General Petraeus is telling the truth."

This bold move is classic Giuliani. Hizzoner practices the politics of confrontation, in which he chooses a position and relentlessly pursues those who hold the opposite view. In this case, Giuliani's position is support for the war in Iraq and General Petraeus's counterinsurgency strategy. And his opponents make up a trifecta of liberal bogeymen: MoveOn, the Times, and Clinton. By raising the stakes, Giuliani emphasizes to conservatives that he is on their side--something many are not quite ready to believe.

It's unclear whether the New York Times will sell the space to Giuliani as requested. But one thing is clear. Giuliani has reminded his opponents, Democratic and Republican alike, that he remains a wily and combative contender for president.

[ioweign]

Aug. 6, 2007 CBS News

The phrase "missing weapons" was so 2003.

Until now.

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon has "lost track" of nearly 200,000 AK-47%u2019s it had given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, the Washington Post reports. The inconvenience of this truth (pardon the Al Gore allusion there) is two-pronged. One, the Pentagon agrees that, indeed, these weapons are missing. Two, they also think that the erstwhile weapon contributions are also "probably are being used against U.S. forces." Hello gift horse, let me see your mouth.

Hmmm.... What was General Petraeus assigned to back then Rudy?

Or were you still "too busy" on the lecture circuit raking in the dough !!

[bluestardad]

RUDY IS A AIPAC MEMBER...DO SOME RESEARCH...HE IS IN THE POCKET OF THE ISRAELI LOBBY!

[ramos937]

As President, Rudy would be embarrassing to the USA. You would never know when he would attend a public function dressed as a woman.
Can you imagine us capturing OBL and then bringing him in front of Rudy on a day when Rudy is wearing a dress? The resulting world wide photos would cause such a sensation we could never live down. The rest of the world would wonder, "what were they thinking of".

[madmimig]

The only thing the Democrats have done wrong is not impeach this moron. What a disgrace. And What a liar!

[citizenusa-2009]

..Also, "Betrayus" can command the Iraq army and won''t have to "placate" anyone by withdrawing a tiny amount of troops, BECAUSE THEY WILL ALREADY BE THERE! BEYTRAYUS FOR GRAND POOBA OF THE ARMY....THE IRAQ ARMY! Whooo Hoooo!

[citizenusa-2009]

If Baby Bush, Cheney, Rudy and the rest of those who "claim" to be promoting Democracy in Iraq are REALLY sincere in their "humanitarian" efforts, why not send them over and let THEM be Iraq''s government! We can rid ourselves of the slimy trash, and they can run their own little kingdom. BUSH FOR PRESIDENT...OF IRAQ! Whooo Hooo!

[brianbwb-2009]

Your children are dying because of lies.

At this point it doesn''t matter if the liar was a Republican or a democrat.

So many bleeding ''rhoids from the fake neocons over a perfectly legal MoveOn anti war ad, while the children are dying.

So many Bush is an ****** comments from the fake left over a fake progress report by a paid stooge, while the children are dying.

None of you see the core point, your children are dying from corruption, and the best you do is flame and troll.

Pathetic, almost all of you...

[citizenusa-2009]

Rudy is just embarrassing...

[samthetvcat]

Oh, that last line was just babbling from my brain I didn''t end up including - lol . . .

[samthetvcat]

I checked out that site perception5, and it lists Bush''s approval ratings at 39% compared with the 33% listed at CBS a couple of days ago. With both surveys having a +/-3% margin of error, it''s possible this site isn''t entirely off the mark (actual figure somewhere around 36%. Another poll from Rasmussen found that the number of people who favored complete withdrawal of troops by early next year was 52% with 35% wanting some troops to remain, indicating that the unsure/undecided contingent in the poll you cited below are actually leaning more towards withdrawal.

As well, Rasmussen also found that just 39% of people actually think Petraeus'' report was honest and 35% do not. Over a third of Republicans did not think Petraeus was fully honest. And this is coming from a polling company whose numbers tend to run on the high side in favor of Republicans.

I think the person who''s going to benefit the most from Rudy''s ad is probably Thompson . . .





I think if anything this shows that Rudy shouldn''t hitching his campaign to the truthfulness of Petraeus -