The Anti-Democracy Candidate

Kudos to the National Review for actually taking the time to cover what Rudy Giuliani says are his views and positions when he's out on the campaign trail. The magazine's approach is a notable departure from much of the mainstream news media, which is focused, even at this early stage, on handicapping the horses. When it comes to Rudy, lately the media seems fascinated by his incredible, uncanny, remarkable and amazing ability not to come unhinged in public (as he did regularly as mayor of New York City).

Some recent examples of Rudy's remarks alone should disqualify him for a run for president.

Ramesh Ponnuru has written for the conservative National Review that Giuliani believes he'd have the right, if elected, to imprison American citizens without any sort of judicial review. America's mayor stated he hoped to use that power only "infrequently." What a novel reading of the Constitution -- though not for an autocratic fellow like Rudy. "Freedom is about authority," he once said in a crime speech, two months after he obtained office in 1994 and not long before his administration oversaw an unprecedented wave of jail strip searches (later found constitutionally suspect, for which the city paid out $50 million in settlements) and a barrage of street arrests in order to conduct records checks for outstanding warrants ( thousands of people, predominantly low-income minorities, were locked in jail for a night or two before seeing a judge, who typically dismissed the charges as frivolous). "Freedom," Giuliani went on in the same address, "is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

Also writing for the National Review, Rich Lowry has reported on Giuliani's comments in New Hampshire last month about the Iraq supplemental. Giuliani said that George W. Bush could fund the Iraq war unilaterally, even if Congress refused to provide the funding. It's based on the president's "inherent authority to support the troops," he added.

So, let's review. First Giuliani argues for the process-less arrest of American citizens in some cases. Next he calls for a complete rejection of how our government works, a belief enshrined in our nation's democratic principles and in Article I of our Constitution. It's a perverse way to endear oneself to conservative primary voters.

"Giuliani believes that the President can ignore the Congressional exercise of the funding power and simply fund his own wars, apparently from some Presidential slush fund or by diverting the money from elsewhere," writes Glenn Greenwald on salon.com; he's the author of Tragic Legacy, a soon-to-be-published book on the Bush years.

Giuliani reportedly tempered his comments about the legality of ignoring Congress by stating, "You have to ask a constitutional lawyer."

But actually, if you're Rudy Guiliani, you don't ask for advice from anyone, and you don't need a lawyer, not counting yourself, to interpret the Constitution. Giuliani's city administration provoked some two dozen First Amendment lawsuits. The suits, nearly all successful, were filed against his administration by organizations and individuals improperly denied the right to speak or assemble. Once, Rudy sued all the way to the United States Supreme Court over a light-hearted New York magazine advertisement that poked fun at his tendency to take credit for everything under the sun. Not surprisingly, the court refused to take up the matter.

Based on his own words of late -- winging it as he goes -- he views the world in black and white, the presidency as omnipotent, the Constitution as a minor irritant to be brushed aside, and the fight against terrorism as something only he -- and he alone -- comprehends in all its utmost seriousness.

What current sitting president, and tragically ill-conceived war, does that remind you of?