Rudy Can Run, But Can He Hide?

Will Rudy run?

He hasn’t said no and he hasn’t said yes, but what he’s been saying lately sounds a lot like presidential posturing to me.

Following Bush’s escalation speech Sean Hannity asked Rudy one of his trademark stupid questions: “Has any war ever gone perfectly?” to which Rudy offered an even more stupid reply.

GIULIANI: ... I mean, you could have made those same comments at some point mid-way through the Civil War, the Second World War or the Battle of the Bulge, which was one of our great intelligence failures in the history of our country

Of course, the US Civil war wasn’t a result of Arabs invading America to steal millions of barrels of sweet, sweet whiskey: A handful of disaffected Shinto priests didn’t persuade a bunch of German Wodin-worshippers to attack the US at Pearl Harbor (or vice-versa) either. And the Battle of the Bulge was just a battle that resulted from a lack of intelligence, not the fabrication of intelligence.

But Rudy wasn’t on the show to provide a reasoned analysis; he was there to establish his bona fides as a hard-core Republican and to sound presidential:

“The new strategy will be a sufficient number of soldiers and troops, mostly Iraqi but also American, to hold areas”

“And whether Iraq turns out successfully, which we all should hope does turn out successfully, or it doesn't, we're still going to be at war because they're at war with us.”

“I wish there'd be more really sincere bipartisan support surrounding something as important as this, as getting it right in Iraq, because if you don't, the terrorists win.”

"I think it was only a month ago that many of these Democrats were talking about increasing the number of troops in Iraq...

"Americans are uncomfortable with the way things have gone. I think most Americans --- you can't speak for all Americans. Americans -- you know, we're a democracy. We have vastly different views."

"I think this strategy, which is a strategy that really comes out of a great deal of analysis and a great deal of thought, gives us a chance to accomplish that."

Sounds a lot like Bush, doesn’t it? Exactly like Bush actually; ergo Giuliani = Bush. But just before Rudy’s identity completed disappeared Hannity came to the rescue:

HANNITY: Your analogy of you battling the crime and the drugs and the prostitution in New York -- you had a low approval rating, but you stood firm.
GIULIANI: Yes, and...
HANNITY: You think in the prism of history, that George Bush...
GIULIANI: And the key...
HANNITY: ... will be viewed favorably?
GIULIANI: And the key was to analyze these areas correctly, have the right number of police. If I had kept the police department at a lower level of policing, we never could have accomplished that. And if I didn't have a COMSTAT program to analyze what we were doing, we never would have been successful.

So it looks like Giuliani will talk like Bush to appear presidential, praise him to appear solidly Republican and then leverage his much vaunted success in reducing New York’s crime rate to differentiate his candidacy. No doubt he is saving his trump card, 9/11, for later in the game.

Plenty of right-wing pundits think Giuliani would be a great GOP candidate, even though James Dobson has rejected Rudy already for his sins of being pro-choice, pro gay civil unions, and adultery, because he’s apparently regarded as moderate (according to a recent Rasmussen poll) and as we know “moderates” are supposedly all the rage these days.

In fact Giuliani is as extreme a self-serving hypocrite as any in the GOP and its base.

He lied about his management of Police and Fire coordination on September 11th .

He lied along with Christie Whitman about the health-hazards at Ground Zero.

He lied in the most nauseating fashion possible when at the 2004 RNC he claimed that his first thought when the towers were struck was “Thank God George Bush is our President!”

He’s made millions out of 9-11 by “consulting” and selling security equipment and services to corporations and government agencies along with his criminal business partner Bernie Kerik.

Once upon a time Giuliani was an effective prosecutor and a competent mayor. But just like Bush he decided to exploit 9-11 to the hilt, and to use the GOP to suit his own ambitions.

So let him run. Let him ride Bush’s coattails and exploit 9-11 for political gain if he can. That well hasn’t run dry, it’s been poisoned. And the fact that that is precisely his strategy suggests he’s almost deluded as George Bush. The public doesn’t want another George Bush.

See Rudy run. Run, Rudy run. Lose, Rudy lose.

It just might be the best thing he could do for this country