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Libertarians, beware the rigid reign of Rudy

By DAVID BOAZ

Posted Wednesday, May 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

Behind Rudy Giuliani's impressive lead in the polls is one fact that puzzles the pundits: Many cultural conservatives are backing a pro-choice, pro-gun control candidate. But what should be equally surprising is the strong support Giuliani is finding among libertarian-leaning Republicans, who also make up a big slice of the GOP base.

Here's why: Throughout his career, Giuliani has displayed an authoritarian streak that would be all the more problematic in a man who would assume executive powers vastly expanded by President Bush.

As a U.S. attorney in the 1980s, Giuliani conducted what University of Chicago Law Prof. Daniel Fischel called a "reign of terror" against Wall Street. He pioneered the use of the midday, televised "perp walk" for white-collar defendants who posed no threat to the community - precisely the sort of power play for which conservatives reviled former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. And Giuliani's use of federal racketeering statutes was so disturbing that the Justice Department changed its guidelines on the law.

As mayor, Giuliani had many successes. Crime came down. He cut taxes and held down spending. But his prosecutorial personality sometimes threatened personal freedoms. He cracked down on jaywalkers and street vendors. His street crime unit used aggressive tactics to confiscate guns from city residents, resulting in wholesale searches and detentions of citizens, especially young minority males, and occasional tragedies like the shooting of the unarmed Amadou Diallo.

When a police officer fatally shot another unarmed black man, Patrick Dorismond, Giuliani had police release Dorismond's sealed juvenile arrest record. The city later settled with Dorismond's family for $2.25 million.

And it should distress many conservatives that Giuliani took umbrage at affronts to his dignity, perhaps most notoriously when he tried to stop city buses from carrying a New York magazine ad saying the publication was "possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for." The First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams notes in his book, "Speaking Freely," that "over 35 separate successful lawsuits were brought against the city under Giuliani's stewardship arising out of his insistence on doing the one thing that the First Amendment most clearly forbids: using the power of government to restrict or punish speech critical of government itself."

As a presidential hopeful, Giuliani's authoritarian streak is as strong as ever. He defends the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program. He endorses the President's power to arrest American citizens, declare them enemy combatants and hold them without access to a lawyer or a judge. He thinks the President has "the inherent authority to support the troops" even if Congress were to cut off war funding, a claim of presidential authority so sweeping that even Bush and his supporters have not tried to make it.

Giuliani's view of power would be dangerous at any time, but especially after two terms of relentless Bush efforts to weaken the constitutional checks and balances that safeguard our liberty.

In 1964, Barry Goldwater declared it "the cause of Republicanism to resist concentrations of power." George W. Bush has forgotten that; Rudy Giuliani rejects it.

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trippindad82 said:I would like to see Ron Paul drop the repuke party from his name and run independent. It's the only way, IMO, that his word might stand a chance. Our "3rd" green party will unfortunately never stand a chance thanks to the press, but at least Ron Paul has been able to speak on national television to a LARGE audience. Is Ron Paul the perfect Candidate? No, but IMHO, he's easily better than the fools we have right now.

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When will Americans stop accepting a 2-party system that is inherently flawed? When will the majority of Americans realize that our 2 party system of more of a single party system?

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Just why I want Hillary Clinton to run. I think it's unfortunate that Rudy is a top contender for President. Being a New Yorker (not from the city, but the other side of the state), I have heard enough from this chauvinistic pig to make me sick. If Hillary wins, we are fucked. If Rudy wins, we are fucked.

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Annapurna1 said:

ron paul might as well be running as a socialist...

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lonestar2004 said:

Anna I keep telling you Rudy has no chance.

I like him and would vote for him, but many conservatives I know will never vote for a pro publicly funded abortion, pro gay, and anti-gun candidate.....

BTW Fred Thomson has still not officially entered the race and now LEADS in the GOP 2008 Presidential Nomination Futures Market!!!

Currently Fred leads with 25.3, narrowly leading Rudy at 25.2


http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/contractSearch/

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