As wonderful as it was to watch HRC finally get challenged last night, we must not take our eyes off the main prize: a Democratic White House. For the sake of the country’s future, it is important to remember what we’re up against. Romney and Thompson certainly have their faults, but it is Rudy Giuliani that scares me the most. He’s as arrogant and hawkish as our current president, surrounds himself with neocon advisors, bullies anyone who disagrees with him (be it about taxes or about pet weasels), distorts the facts in his speeches, and lacks any real foreign policy experience. In case you missed it, here’s the best one-liner of last night, 25 seconds in and aimed straight at Rudy. Below the fold you’ll find the Giuliani campaign’s response—it’s the most childish statement you’ve ever seen from a campaign, so I suppose we should thank him for a good morning laugh.
I've always had a hard time wtih YouTube at DU (this is also at DK), but you can watch the video here. Here's the transcript:
I'm not running against Hillary Clinton. I'm running to lead the free world. I'm running to lead this country. And the irony is, Rudy Giuliani, probably the most underqualified man since George Bush to seek the presidency...
(Laughter)
... is here talking about any of the people here.
(Applause)
Rudy Giuliani -- I mean, think about it. Rudy Giuliani -- there's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11. I mean, there's nothing else.
(Laughter)
There's nothing else, and I mean this sincerely. He is genuinely not qualified to be president. Here's a man who brags about how he made the city safe. It was the Biden crime bill that became the Clinton crime bill that allowed him to do that.
They wipe it out. He remains silent. The 9/11 Commission comes along and says the way to keep your city safe is to do the following things. He's been silent. He's done nothing. And now he's talking about he's going to go in and he will demonstrate to Iran, he's going to in fact lay down the law.
This man is truly not qualified to be president. I'm looking forward to running against Rudy Giuliani.
The Giuliani camp’s juvenile response:
As the pundits work to figure out who won the debate tonight, its pretty clear Rudy Giuliani was the real winner. It is increasingly apparent Rudy is the one the Democrats are most worried about running against in the general election.
Senator Biden’s comments were of particular interest. The good senator is quite correct that there are many differences between Rudy and him. For starters, Rudy rarely reads prepared speeches and when he does he isn’t prone to ripping off the text from others. And, Senator Biden certainly falls in to the bucket of those on the stage tonight who have never had executive experience and have never run anything. Wait, I take that back, Senator Biden has never run anything but his mouth.
Such a desperate attack from Senator Biden is to be expected considering I — Katie Levinson — have a better chance of becoming President than he does.
The official Biden campaign response, from Communications Director Larry Rasky, was, “We are well aware that former Mayor Giuliani will attempt to drag this race into the mud where the Republicans like to wage their campaigns. It’s pretty obvious that they can’t defend themselves on the real charge that Mr. Giuliani walked away from the cops and firefighters who were waiting for the 9/11 Commission to be enacted and the Biden crime bill to be restored.”
Rasky’s press release is good, but I think my favorite response to Rudy is a comment on the New York Times’ Caucus blog from Helen in NYC, who said, “She, Katie Levinson, has a better change of becoming Giuliani’s fourth wife than a President.” But jokes aside, if Rudy has to reach back 20 years to find something to attack Biden with, and if that something isn’t even really true (the plagiarism accusations were false, see below), then you the Republicans are scared of Joe Biden. He’ll be one tough cookie come the General, and I understand why he’s looking forward to running against Rudy. BTW, this isn't the first time Biden's slammed Rudy. From
the September debate here at Dartmouth, and
a full nine months ago. (Links are YouTube; video is embedded in the DK version of this diary.)</p>
I have good things to say about all six of our viable candidates, but I think it’s clear which one has the best national security credentials and which one is best prepared to take on the Republicans. If you want to help put Biden’s experience,
plan for Iraq,
passion for Darfur, and
strong domestic vision in the White House, please add to his Iowa momentum and
support his current online fundraising drive.
Moving on from partisan politics and debate analysis, I should correct what Rudy’s child labor said about “ripping off the text from others.” Charges of 1988 plagiarism follow Biden around like stink on a mule, but the plagiarism story is proof that 2004’s Swift Boat Veterans for Lies were hardly anything new. Biden always quoted Kinnock on the stump, but forgot to make the citation during an Iowa State Fair debate because he'd spent the previous few days working on the Bork hearings instead of properly preparing for the debate. Just once, he forgot to say "As Kinnock said," and readily admits in his autobiography that he made a mistake in not gathering the reporters afterwards to say, "Hey guys, I messed up." It only became a scandal when Dukakis campaign manager John Sasso leaked a tape of the slip-up: reporter after reporter refused to print the rubbish, until Maureen Dowd took the bait and ran a hack job. The result? Dukakis *fired* Sasso, but by then most folks had already bought the MSM bull hook line and sinker. Dukakis, Sasso, Dowd, Biden, and others all confirm this story. Unfortunately, a Biden communications aide also slipped some RFK quotes into stump speeches without Biden’s knowledge (the issue was dealt with), and an old Biden law school paper that only quoted one source was dredged up (though he always cited that one source, never ripping off material; the school ethics board cleared him), so a *myth* was born. Please, don’t be gullible; don’t buy into the MSM’s drivel or Rudy’s lies. I should also point out that this “scandal” dates back almost 20 years, to before Biden’s life-altering brain aneurysms and “long slog back to credibility.” Given the challenges we face in today’s world and the fact that people change with time, a non-scandal from a different era should not be an issue. Like I say, if that’s the best Rudy’s got, then Biden’s going to be in great shape come the General Election.
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