THE DAILY BLADE: The Measure Of A Man
Not being as slick as the telegenic Mitt Romney, Rudy has figured out that finessing, fudging, or otherwise obfuscating his liberal positions on abortion, gun control and other issues is a losing strategy for him. His challenge now is to persuade conservatives who judge candidates on single make-or-break issues to focus instead on his track record of competence.
To that end, Rudy has been greatly helped by the release of 56 boxes of correspondence and records by the National Archives that chronicle his tenure as Associate Attorney General under Attorney General William French Smith, and by an independent assessment of his economic performance as Mayor of New York City by the Club for Growth.
As the third-highest ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department from May 1981 to June 1983, Rudy was in charge of criminal investigations, and supervised the U.S. attorneys offices nationwide. It also fell to him to give the thumbs up or down to U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal candidates recommended by Congressmen and party loyalists, and The Associated Press reports that he stubbornly refused to go along with routine patronage appointments:
Giuliani objected to a Connecticut senator's pick for U.S. marshal, telling the lawmaker his candidate "appears to have no law enforcement background." …
The papers suggest Giuliani considered the legal qualifications of the candidates and their FBI background checks, essentially screening some out and passing others on to the White House. …
Giuliani left as associate attorney general to become U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York [and] made his name fighting mob and white-collar crime, his launch pad to the mayor's office and now his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Here’s how Club for Growth President, and CEO Pat Toomey sums up Rudy’s stewardship of New York City:
Rudy Giuliani governed a locality dominated by liberal Democrats; public-sector labor unions; social-welfare activists; and a powerful local news media actively hostile to a limited-government philosophy. In the face of such tremendous headwind, Giuliani’s economic accomplishments are remarkable. …
Giuliani inherited a city crippled by high taxes, ballooning deficits, and stalled job growth. Despite these obstacles, Mayor Giuliani wasted no time in calling for $1 billion in tax cuts over the next four years, slashing city jobs, and cutting city-funded spending in real terms by more than $340 million. Over the rest of his eight years at Gotham’s helm, Giuliani reduced a slew of other taxes and kept spending at an all-time low. …
Giuliani’s record on taxes and spending displays an intuitive appreciation for the vital role tax cuts play in growing the economy and a determination to cut the fat out of government. … While Giuliani’s record on taxes and spending is not perfect, he deserves a lot of credit for tackling a municipal culture long addicted to taxing and spending itself into the ground.
Giuliani demonstrated the same steely resolve and free-market mindset when it came to taking on New York City’s welfare rolls and overbloated bureaucracy, and fighting for school choice. …
[S]ome of his local positions are worrisome and some of his federal positions are still unknown. Nonetheless, one cannot help but conclude that if Giuliani could accomplish the pro-growth record he did in the hostile environment of New York City, the potential for him to accomplish even more amid the more politically balanced federal government is great.
As voters nationwide get to know Rudy, they will see a man who has always taken his responsibilities very seriously. A genuine maverick (as opposed to McCain, the MSM’s idea of a maverick), who is not afraid of stepping on anyone’s toes (as race-baiter Al Sharpton knows all too well) to implement bold, unorthodox solutions to complex, intractable problems.
Editorial Note: The Club for Growth previously issued similar reports on Sam Brownback ("Senator Brownback's record on pro-growth, free-market policies is generally quite good with a few minor exceptions"), Mike Huckabee ("Governor Huckabee's record displays some flashes of economic conservatism, especially during his early years") and John McCain ("Senator McCain's record and rhetoric, especially in recent years, ought to give American taxpayers a long and hard pause").
Brewing Controversy At Starbucks One Cup At A Time
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues for Concerned Women for America, an advocacy group that promotes biblical values in public policy, takes on Starbucks Corporation’s "As I See It" marketing program, which prints the wit and wisdom of its customers on the sides of coffee cups. According to Barber, many of these statements are polemical and offensive to people who believe in G-d. For example:
The Way I See It # 347 – "Why in moments of crisis do we ask G-d for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure." – Bill Schell, Starbucks customer from London, Ontario, Canada
Barber suggests that conservatives fight back by offering their own "As I See It" sentiments on the Starbucks Web site, though chances are slim that the Seattle-based java jivers will deem such submissions "thoughtful" enough to be worthy of printing on a disposable cup. Still, The Stiletto thinks it’s a great idea, and submitted the headline to one of the most popular posts on this blog: Atheism Kills, Jesus Saves.
The Simpsons: 18 Years, 400 Episodes, Millions of Laughs
Congratulations to Matt Groening and the cast of The Simpsons, which aired its 399th and 400th episodes last night - a milestone reached by only other four prime-time series (Gunsmoke, 633; Lassie, 588; The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, 435; and Bonanza, 430). The Simpsons started out as an animated short on The Tracey Ullman Show, and made its debut as a half-hour stand-alone on December 17, 1989. The first episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," tells the twisted tale of how the Simpsons came to own their dog, Santa’s Little Helper.
Groening tells USA Today, "I love the style that we stumbled into, this high-velocity pacing that allowed us to do every kind of comedy we could think of, from the most high-falutin' literary references to sub-Three Stooges physical abuse."
The Stiletto has always appreciated Groening’s deft and even-handed lampoons of the left and right alike, as compared to the vulgar and relentlessly anti-conservative bent of The Family Guy, and she is willing to bet that the latter will not wear as well as the former has over the years.
Bart Simpson may be "An underachiever and Proud of It," but The Simpsons, which has won 23 Emmys, is a money-making machine. Syndication revenues, DVD sales and product licensing fees already total $1 billion or more, according to some estimates. Cash registers will keep on ringing with The Simpsons Movie scheduled to hit movie screens July 27, and a video game being released later this year.
Editorial Note: For fans of Simpsons trivia: Seymour Skinner’s real name is Armin Tamzarian. In "The Principal and the Pauper" (9th season, 2nd episode) it was revealed that Tamzarian could not bear to tell Agnes Skinner that her son, and his brother in arms, had been killed in Viet Nam, so he pretended to be Seymour. At the end of the episode, Judge Snyder makes it all legal, ordering no one to mention the name "Tamzarian" again under penalty of torture.
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