Giuliani's Big Secret

It probably doesn't matter anymore for this campaign season, but just to show that what candidates say isn't necessarily what they mean - Immigration Prof Blog found this in the Village Voice.

Giuliani ...helped craft the Gipper's first-ever amnesty bill, which was passed in 1986 and ultimately legalized three million undocumented immigrants, mostly Mexicans...
Giuliani testified at a 1982 federal trial in Florida over INS detention policies that he was "the singular individual" responsible for immigration issues at the Department of Justice and that he'd been deeply involved in drafting Reagan's immigration policy.

The question is, will voters remember this if he decides to run for office again?
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Giuliani's Immigration Problem
Much as he hates to admit it, Rudy loved (most of) those huddled masses
by Wayne Barrett
January 15th, 2008 7:01 PM

...[what] Giuliani didn't say was that, as the Justice Department official who oversaw the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and as a member of a 1981 White House working group on immigration, he helped craft the Gipper's first-ever amnesty bill, which was passed in 1986 and ultimately legalized three million undocumented immigrants, mostly Mexicans. It's that law—echoed in many ways by the 2006 bill that Giuliani opposed—that is widely seen as having spurred millions more to come to America in anticipation of future amnesties. Giuliani testified at a 1982 federal trial in Florida over INS detention policies that he was "the singular individual" responsible for immigration issues at the Department of Justice, and that he'd been deeply involved in drafting Reagan's immigration policy. Giuliani said that it "felt like" he was spending 100 percent of his time on immigration issues. A 1983 New York Times story reported that Giuliani "was active in promoting the administration's immigration bill last year, which sought to grant amnesty to illegal aliens..."

for link to complete article click title to this post

Guiliani's Spanish Language Skills

After all the nasty things he said about immigrants - his choice to do a Spanish language campaign ad is particularly comical. He must think Latinos are stupid (he is wrong, by the way)

see video below:

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January 21, 2008
Politico.com
Jonathan Martin

Rudy does ad en espanol

Rudy goes up today with his first Spanish-language ad in Florida -- "Un Plan."

It hits on what is basically his message going forward down there: taxes (to contrast with McCain and Mitt) and and property insurance (to remind Floridians that he gets their unique challenges)

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PUTVqJ41U

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0108/Rudy_does_ad_en_espanol.html

McCain Surging - Tough Immigration Stand Not Helping Giuliani & Romney

Senator John McCain


Romney is slipping in New Hampshire - Giuliani goes to the hospital. Some would say that they are not conservative enough for their fellow Republicans. Could it be their Nazi-like stance on immigration? Who would want a President that is so hateful (haven't we already dealt with enough?).

There are other reasons they are having campaign problems. McCain is surging in the polls again... it is said he lost voters because of his immigration stance. But he is back on - maybe he is showing more ethics and compassion than the others. He remains a politician and has jumped around on the issues - but at least he is not a hate-monger and he publicly states he is against torture.


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He comes out swinging in the Granite State as a poll finds McCain on his heels. Huckabee is making gains in Iowa.
By Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 24, 2007

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. -- As recently as last week, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney seemed to be holding a secure lead in New Hampshire, even as he was losing ground to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Iowa.

But a Boston Globe survey released Sunday showed that the former Massachusetts governor's numbers were slipping in the Northeast as well: Romney, the poll said, now holds a 3 percentage point lead over Arizona Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire, down from 15 points in November.


The threat to Romney's early state strategy -- which aimed for a one-two win in Iowa on Jan. 3 and in New Hampshire on Jan. 8 -- appears serious enough that Romney has started criticizing McCain by name at a time when most campaigns are trying to stay positive.

At a Peterborough town hall Sunday, Romney tried to differentiate himself by telling voters that he wanted to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent.

"Right now, Sen. McCain and I are both battling for your support and your vote. He's a good man, but we have differing views on this," Romney said. "He voted against the Bush tax cuts, he voted against eliminating the [inheritance] tax forever. . . . I believe in pushing taxes down."

In 2001 and 2003, McCain did reject the Bush tax cuts as too tilted toward wealthy Americans but now says he would make them permanent.

McCain's senior advisor, Mark Salter, fired back that Romney's remarks stemmed from his angst over McCain's gains.

"Welcome to Mitt Romney's bizzaro world, where everyone is guilty of his sins," Salter said in a statement. ". . . Give it a rest. It's Christmas."

At an "Ask Mitt Anything" forum Friday night in Rochester, the candidate was questioned about whether his position on the Bush tax cuts had shifted. In 2003, the Boston Globe reported that he had told Massachusetts lawmakers he would neither support or oppose the Bush tax cuts.

Romney told the audience that as governor, he did not weigh in "on federal issues."

"Sen. McCain is different. He voted against tax cuts twice. I was the governor of a state, not a senator," Romney said.

McCain, who won the 2000 New Hampshire primary, was heavily favored here going into the 2008 presidential contest. But many conservatives were angered by his moderate position on immigration, and some liberal supporters were troubled by his close association with the Bush administration's Iraq war strategy.

Romney's well-organized campaign took advantage early on, going on the air with his first television ads in February.

But McCain's campaign has gained momentum of late with several newspaper endorsements, including the conservative Union Leader newspaper in Manchester, the Portsmouth Herald on the state's coast, and the Salmon Press, which publishes 11 smaller newspapers throughout the state. He also won the backing of Romney's hometown newspaper, the Boston Globe, and the Des Moines Register in Iowa.

Romney took an unusual hit Sunday in New Hampshire from the Concord Monitor newspaper, which ran an anti-endorsement editorial calling Romney a "phony" who "most surely must be stopped."

"If you followed only his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, you might imagine Romney as a pragmatic moderate with liberal positions on numerous social issues and an ability to work well with Democrats," the Monitor's editorial said. "If you followed only his campaign for president, you'd swear he was a red-meat conservative, pandering to the religious right, whatever the cost. Pay attention to both, and you're left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core."

The Romney campaign dismissed the editorial board as "a liberal one on many issues" that disagreed with a number of Romney's conservative views.

On Sunday, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said that the "tightening at the top" was natural as election day neared and that the campaign always had predicted New Hampshire and Iowa would be "competitive."

A number of voters who turned out Sunday to see Romney said they were still undecided. Among them was Stephen Gagnon, 49, an auto body worker who decided to stop by Foodee's pizza parlor in Milford to shake Romney's hand.

Gagnon said he was deciding between Romney and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who "performed well under . . . the ultimate pressure" of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But, he said, Romney may do a better job turning around the economy.

"He gets stuff done," Gagnon said. "He turned [Massachusetts] around. The state was broke. The state is traditionally known for having problems. . . . [He] cleaned it up."

After watching Romney in Peterborough, optometrist Marilynn Ezell said she was drifting back to McCain, whom she supported in 2000. She had crossed him off her list because "he went a little too far" on the immigration issue. "I've been listening to him again, because I hope maybe he's listened to the American public and understood that we don't want amnesty" for illegal immigrants, Ezell said.

"I couldn't respect anybody more than McCain."

maeve.reston@latimes.com


Times staff writer Scott Kraft in Rochester, N.H., contributed to this report.

ttp://www.latimes.com/la-na-romney24dec24,0,7262546.story?coll=la-home-center
photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/JohnMcCain.jpg

Giuliani Says He Won't Change the Constitution on Citizenship by Birth

Giuliani finally said something that doesn't make him sound like a Minute Man... He says he wouldn't push to change the law providing citizenship to children of immigrants born in the U.S.

However, otherwise from that, he is no fun to listen to. He may have acted gallantly in response to 9-11, but he also seems surrounded by a cloud of ethically questionable behavior - not to mention his unsavory friends.

At this point in the campaign, it is extremely important for the U.S. to remember very clearly that we now have a president who has an "ethics problem" -- do we want another?

Someone interviewed for the article below said that his personal life has nothing to do with his professional life. His use of logic and system of decision making would be the same in both spheres -- If not, I would worry about his mental health.

Giuliani: Kids of Illegal Immigrants OK
By JIM DAVENPORT
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 1, 2007; 6:46 AM

BLUFFTON, S.C. -- Republican White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday he wouldn't try to change laws that make citizens of children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants, noting that it's a matter determined by the Constitution.

"That's a very delicate balance that's been arrived at, and I wouldn't change that," Giuliani said in response to a question while campaigning at Sun City Hilton Head, a sprawling retirement community down the South Carolina coast from Charleston.

In Wednesday night's Republican debate, Giuliani and nomination rival Mitt Romney traded accusations of being soft on illegal immigration, and Giuliani took pains to deny that New York was a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants during his tenure as mayor.

While New York has never used the designation, it offers protections _ allowing illegal immigrants to report crimes, send kids to school or seek medical treatment without fear of being reported _ similar to those in cities that label themselves sanctuary cities.

Children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants already are American citizens, and Giuliani said he would not try to change that.
...

for complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120100614.html

Immigration Policy: No Longer a Matter of Decency

The polls are saying that Guiliani is ahead of the other GOP presidential candidates at the moment. How could anyone vote for a man that has changed from someone who says he is concerned with "decency" to a position that demonizes an entire population? Are people that afraid of undocumented immigrants that they will let pass what would be the indication of a deep character flaw? Remember we already did that in 2000 and 2004, why do it again?
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Editorial

A Flip That's Flopped
Rudy Giuliani used to get immigration. Not anymore.
Washington Post
Monday, November 12, 2007; A20

AS MAYOR of New York in the 1990s, when undocumented immigrants were pouring into the city, Rudolph W. Giuliani extolled their contributions to the Big Apple's burgeoning economy, forbade city workers from denying them social services and benefits, bent over backward to help them navigate the path toward citizenship, and grasped the plain fact that they would never be deported en masse. As the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. Giuliani has gradually purged such ideas from his campaign rhetoric, stressing instead his plans to erect a "technological fence" to secure the nation's borders, end illegal immigration, and monitor the comings and goings of "every noncitizen" in the country by means of tamper-proof, biometrically savvy ID cards.

He has gradually deemphasized all discussion of eventual citizenship for the 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country to such a degree that when he mentions it at all, it's practically an afterthought, expressed obliquely. And he whispers not a word about the fact that the nation's employers and economic growth have come to depend on an annual influx of 500,000 or so workers, who, owing to a political impasse in Washington, are denied any legal means of entering the country.

Mr. Giuliani, himself the grandson of Italian immigrants, clearly understands the value of newcomers to this country in more than boilerplate terms. Until shortly before the immigration debate crested last spring, he spoke reasonably of the conditions by which the undocumented population might eventually be granted legal status -- paying a penalty, going to the back of the line, paying back taxes, mastering English and grasping American history. Setting the question in moral terms, he often said that fair treatment for illegal immigrants was a matter of decency...

For complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/11/AR2007111101197_pf.html


Additional editorials in this series can be found athttp://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions.

You Are Your Friends - Dime con quién andas y te digo quién eres.

Guiliani and Kerik












Dime con quién andas y te digo quién eres - translation - Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are. That's a phrase my Dad would often use when I was a teenager and was hanging around with someone he thought would be a bad influence on me. He seemed to know all about what was going on in our little town - which kids had been arrested, who drank too much, who had a bad reputation.

An editorial in today's NYT tells us the same thing about Kerik and Guiliani without the folk saying. Did most of NY know about Kerik's activities, but just didn't say?

from NYT editorial:

"Mr. Kerik’s whole troubled record raise questions about Mr. Giuliani’s judgment. The men have an extraordinarily close bond. Mr. Giuliani plucked Mr. Kerik from obscurity to make him correction commissioner. He made him police commissioner even though he may have been briefed about Mr. Kerik’s ties to the company suspected of links to organized crime. Mr. Giuliani also made him a partner in his security business and promoted him for the Homeland Security Department post."

Remember that Guiliani is one of those candidates that is trying to look tough on immigration, when he really wasn't while mayor of New York. What does it mean that Kerik is his buddy? What kind of Michael Chertoff would Kerik make? Now that is scary.


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Editorial

Indicting Mr. Kerik
New York Times
Published: November 10, 2007


Bernard Kerik’s indictment on fraud and corruption charges is disturbing on its own, but it also raises broader issues. It is sobering to think how close Mr. Kerik came to becoming secretary of the Homeland Security Department, and it is also troubling that Rudolph Giuliani, a leading candidate for president, has been so close to him for so long, as a friend, boss and business partner.

Because of Mr. Giuliani’s role in Mr. Kerik’s life, the nation has a compelling interest in learning more about the former police chief’s misdeeds.

Mr. Kerik has been accused of accepting renovations to his Bronx apartment from a company that was suspected of having ties to organized crime and was seeking a license from the city. He allegedly used his office to help the company obtain the license. Mr. Kerik also has been accused of hiding the renovation income on his tax returns, along with more than $200,000 in rent payments on an Upper East Side apartment that a developer allegedly paid on his behalf.

It is always a sad day, as United States Attorney Michael J. Garcia noted, when a law enforcement official is accused of breaking the law. That is especially true when the official was New York’s top jailer, the head of the nation’s largest police department, and nearly became the chief of a 180,000-member federal department charged with keeping America safe.

Mr. Kerik must be presumed innocent. But he has already pleaded guilty to state charges arising out of the home renovations. After he did, Mayor Michael Bloomberg stripped his name from a Manhattan jail that had been named for him. Even those charges were not Mr. Kerik’s first brush with the law. He was fined by the city for sending police officers to do research on a book he was writing. His associates have also had more than their share of troubles. When he was correction commissioner, one of Mr. Kerik’s top deputies was convicted of taking $142,000 from a charity he managed and another was convicted of using department staff to work on Republican political campaigns.

Yesterday’s indictment and Mr. Kerik’s whole troubled record raise questions about Mr. Giuliani’s judgment. The men have an extraordinarily close bond. Mr. Giuliani plucked Mr. Kerik from obscurity to make him correction commissioner. He made him police commissioner even though he may have been briefed about Mr. Kerik’s ties to the company suspected of links to organized crime. Mr. Giuliani also made him a partner in his security business and promoted him for the Homeland Security Department post.

As recently as this week, Mr. Giuliani made the remarkable statement that any mistakes Mr. Kerik made were outweighed by his success in fighting crime — presumably not including the crimes Mr. Kerik himself was committing. Mr. Giuliani has since spoken more critically of him, but the public is entitled to know more.

Two important questions are precisely what are the mistakes the former mayor thinks he made in trusting Mr. Kerik, and how can voters be sure that he would not make them again as president, when the stakes for a disastrous appointment would be so much higher.


photo: http://www.allreaders.com/pictures/rudy_giuliani_kerik.jpg

Bloomberg Sees Immigrants as Benefits to Their Community

http://www.savetibet.org/images/images/HHDLMauraMoynihanAndNYCMayorBloombergWithKeyToCity.jpg

Photo of Maura Moynihan, the Dalai Lama, and Michael Bloomberg
Let's hope Bloomberg thinks like the Dalai Lama



The Associated Press published an article on Romney and Giuliani regarding their position on immigration. The real story is at the end of the piece: Bloomberg's comment about the positive side of immigration.

Giuliani confuses with his strong anti-immigration position, since he even told the NY Times in 1994 that if people worked hard they would be wanted in New York City, regardless of immigration status. Politics does change things however. Now it looks like he forgot what he said.

Political campaigns in our country consist of entertainers, who speak the lines that they believe will bring votes. It doesn't matter if the lines are not truthful. Will American voters be aware of the entertainment factor in the campaigns?

Bloomberg has a totally different approach. I'm not saying he's the perfect guy, but these days he sounds like one of the few that is willing to say what he believes in public. Lets hope he stays on track if he pursues higher office. Thank goodness New York is a "sanctuary city." I wish there were more.

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Romney and Giuliani spar over immigration
Both now talking tougher on illegal immigrants than they've each acted in the past.
From Associated Press
Los Angeles Times
11:35 AM PDT, August 15, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney accuses former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of making his city a haven for illegal immigrants. Giuliani denies it, insisting he cracked down on lawlessness of every kind.

It's the first real clash between two leading Republican candidates who are vulnerable on immigration, a volatile issue that infuriates Republican conservatives who hold sway over primary elections.

At issue are so-called sanctuary cities, places where city employees are not required to report illegal immigrants to federal authorities. Some, such as San Francisco, have declared themselves sanctuaries or refuges. Others, like New York, have never adopted the "sanctuary" moniker.

New York's policy, issued by Democratic Mayor Ed Koch in 1988, is intended to make illegal immigrants feel that they can report crimes, send their children to school or seek medical treatment without fear of being reported.

An estimated half-million illegal and undocumented immigrants live in New York, and only a fraction are deported each year.

"What's the best thing to do about that?" Giuliani asked in 1996. "Put them in a situation in which they keep children out of school? Put them in a situation in which they don't go to hospitals? Or put them in a situation in which they don't report crimes to the police?"

...As mayor, Giuliani often spoke positively about illegal immigrants: "If you come here, and you work hard, and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city," he told The New York Times in 1994.

...Bloomberg, who may run for president himself, waded into the dispute this week. Asked Monday about the idea of New York as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, he said, "Let 'em come."

"I can't think of any laboratory that shows better why you need a stream of immigrants than New York City," he added. "I don't know what to tell anybody. If they don't believe that immigrants add a heck of a lot more than they cost, they just aren't looking at the numbers..."

For complete article:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-apgopimmig16aug16,1,4943064.story