The American Spectator

/p> p> AMERICA’S MAYORALTY br> Re: Philip Klein’s Rudy the Running Man : /p> p>Mr. Klein, may I take issue with one part of your campaign speech for Mayor Rudy? You take issue with Romney for stances he took when appealing to voters in the state of Massachusetts. You also take issue with some of the legislative products that he signed as Governor of Mass. Sir, I hold no particular folio for Gov. Romney, but as a resident of New Hampshire observing the scene, I wonder if these were not simply things that he had to do, given the electoral realities of the state. The electorate is overwhelmingly Democrat. Both houses of the state government is overwhelmingly Democrat. The boards and commissions within the state a controlled by Democrats The unions and the government bureaucrats are controlled by the Democrats. In short, the only offices NOT controlled by the Democrats were the Governor and Lt. Governor. br> Sir, I am not making a nominating speech for him like you seem to be for Rudy, but I am not sure that Romney had realistic alternatives to the actions that he took. Sir, I find it unfortunate in the extreme that the Republican party seems to have no one in the wings that can even hold Mr. Reagan’s coat, philosophically, oratorical, nor charismatically. br> — Ken Shreve /p> p> Philip Klein replies: br> When he was mayor, Rudy Giuliani faced a City Council made up of 46 Democrats and just 5 Republicans. Among registered voters in New York City, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a 5-to-1 margin. Giuliani was actually the first New York City mayor elected as a Republican who remained a Republican throughout his mayoralty since Fiorello LaGuardia left office in 1945 (John Lindsay was elected as a Republican in 1965, but later switched parties). If Romney is to be forgiven for liberal stances he took as governor of Massachusetts, the same understanding should be extended to Giuliani.