RudyWatch I: On "Venom" and MoveOn

Seeing Rudy Giuliani fulminate against Hillary Clinton and Moveon for "character assassination" and "political venom" this week was like watching Larry Craig denounce homosexuality.

Recall that Giuliani was famously abusive as a U.S. Attorney, ordering some Wall Street traders to be handcuffed in front of their shocked staff, with charges later thrown out. And since he ran his mayoralty based on reverse Lincoln -- with malice toward all and charity toward none -- his words in the Bush-Petraeus context are an unadulterated example of what psychologists call projection or average citizens call hypocrisy. But since he can't run in Republican primaries on such stalwarts as family values or on guns, gays, god and abortion, he has to overplay the war/patriot card.

Venom and assassination? When former Mayor Ed Koch, who endorsed Giuliani for reelection in 1997, titled his biography Giuliani: Nasty Man? Let's see:

• *When a black private security guard Patrick Dorismond was wrongly shot to death by police who implied he was a drug dealer, here's how Giuliani comforted a grieving family: he illegally and selectively released Dorismond's juvenile record and personally attacked him as "no altar boy." (In fact, he had been an alter boy.)



• When Brooklyn City Councilman Steve DiBrienza enacted a bill to limit the number of beds at City homeless shelters, Mayor Giuliani vetoed the measure, and then retaliated by sending an eviction notice to a city building housing a senior-citizen center and non-profit children's center in DiBrienza's district. Here's a guy who would go to that length because I beat him on passing a law that requires smaller-bed shelters,DiBrienza told the New Yorker. "Because we would not blink, he would throw kids, seniors, and the mentally ill out into the street. I mean, could I have written a better script to expose the fact of what he was?"
• When the New York City media reported in 1994 that Giuliani's newly appointed Commissioner for Youth Services had failed to pay his taxes, the Mayor's press secretary called several reporters to assert that the Youth Commissioner of predecessor David Dinkins, Richard Murphy, had engaged in a variety of financial improprieties. The Giuliani commissioner had to resign but the smeared Murphy fought back -- and a year later the city's Department of Investigation dismissed the charges against him as exaggerated and false.



• When it appeared that he would run for and possibly win a U.S.Senate seat in 2000, he pushed to change a 140 year-old rule that my office of Public Advocate was next in line in case of a vacancy because he didn't want a Democrat like me to succeed him. We fought his effort "to change the rules in the middle of the game...for political and personal reasons." He lost 76% to 24% in a public vote.

It's odd to watch the party of Joe McCarthy, Karl Rove and Swift-boaters complain about opponents who allegedly impugn the patriotism of political opponents. But it's particularly humorous to listen to Giuliani complain about MoveOn and Hillary Clinton for their criticisms of Petraeus...or protest those who raise "personal" questions about his wife and children. For when he had to, he would routinely engage in personal search-and-destroy missions against those who stood in his way.

On the venom front, Giuliani urges reporters to make Churchill analogies when he was far closer to a Nixon governing by enemies list.

Comments

[Jjc2006]

Thanks Mark, for this and as well for speaking out on MSNBC when you get the chance. You don't back down and many of us appreciate that.

Guiliani makes me (a person of Italian American heritage) want to hang my head in shame. He, Scalia, Tancredo, Alito can all be labeled BETRAYERS.

My mother and my paternal grandparents came to this country to get away from fascism and strong armed criminals.
Guiliani and his "macho phoniness (sorry I cannot really buy his act)" sickens me. His criminal tendencies scare me. I see a Guiliani presidency as the culmination of the fascist tendencies of the right wing.

Funny how none of these wingers were upset about the trashing of military men when the neocons were trashing Kerry and Cleland.

How do these people look in the mirror and not recognize their hypocrisy?

[OlongapoEd]

"How do these people look in the mirror and not recognize their hypocrisy?"

It's very simple, really. They are malicious and they enjoy being malicious. Their sense of entitlement is absolutely enormous so of course they do not hesitate to do whatever they think they can get away with to get what they want.

[lisakaz]

Hypocricy like this has a name: Bu$hit!

[certainot]

the single biggest enabler of republican hypocrisy is that they know they're riding a bandwagon of tens of millions of Americans all over the country who get the uncontested repetition of GOP talking points on the GOP talk radio monoopoly.

[yellowdogSC]

cert,

Absolutely, friend, and that’s one battle we must concede.

Liberals are, virtually by definition, free thinkers.

We’re interested in LOTS of topics, and get easily bored with repetition (as any intelligent person should.)

Conservatives are interested in ONE topic – self-interest (also know as “greed” or “selfishness” or “MONEY”. Apologies, I’m very aware that you know that w/o my help.)
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/10/65521 (different thinking - Dems vs. repubs)

As this single idea is continually pounded into their heads, we’re doing so MANY things. (You’re very aware of how l-o-n-g that list is.)

Guess we’ll have to settle for being more evolved.

[fourex]

Moveon's piece contained a mild pun and was filled with factual information. A truly hateful smear would be bigoted and full of outright lies, such as Swiftboats, Rush, Hannity or O'Reilly. If Rudy wants to protect Petraeus reputation he should respond to Adm. Fallon who called Gen. Petraeus a 'kiss ass chicken shit'.

[jashu51]

Actually, Fallon referred to Petraeus as "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that." But, I agree with let's see Rudy respond to that. Oh, the fake, self-righteous outrage!

[lisakaz]

Good call. I want to see all that fake outrage on MoveOn confronted via Adm. Fallon, not just Rudy's pot-kettle-back routine (and in his case he's far the more black).

[Fernando]

Good point, but from the beginning it's been obvious to me that this fake outrage over the Moveon ad is just a trick by the right wing to change the focus from the failed strategy in Iraq and turn it against the democrats. In other words, the issue now is not the war, or the failed strategy, it's "the ad by a left wing group".

Where were these outraged republicans when Veterans Against McCain and the SwiftBoaters for Truth smeared two decorated war heroes?

I'm sick of republican hypocrisies: if it is not Family Values gays it's draft dodgers pretending to be men of courage.

[coolkraft]

yep ole Rudy and Hillary have a lot to hide

[SensibleAmerican]

If you follow Guiliani's entire career carefully, this fella is perhaps one of the most slippery and vily politicians, who knows how to use the media and photo ops to his betterment

My point is simple: you cannot fool all the people all the time! His shenanigans worked in local NY elections. When you hit the broad canvas of a Presidential race, the intense scrutiny and digging dirt by opponents and journalists does bring out any muck a candidate is hiding and/or slipped under the rugs! My personal prediction is that RG will be toast by the time the first Primary vote is cast!

[DrPaulProteus]

This is why I don't understand Robert Greenwald and the big push against Rudy now rather than later. I would think that Democrats would want him to win the primaries against a guy like Thompson because "9/11 Rudy" is a corrupt clown who would be easily brought down in a general election.

[IMPRISONBUSH]

REMEMBER " SWIFT BOAT.COM "

[research]

Why are you surprised that the fascist, lying, NeoCon, repubs, traitors for a buck, bullies want everyone else to shut up and stop picking on them?

[Veleria29]

Great Post!
Guiliani is drinking too much coolaide. Just ask the firemen who were around during 9-11 if you want to know the real truth about the man.

[mamadeus]

Yes, many of them are in fervent opposition to Ghouliani, and are starting to dog him. The MSM ignores them most of the time. BUT, youtube has some good anti-Rudy protests. He can't stop all
of us from exposing him. We need to make a bumper
sticker with the best anti-Rudy.com site. That make help us defeat him.