The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Deroy Murdock Weighs In

2.23.07 @ 12:01AM

LISTENING TOUR
Re: Greg Hoadley's letter (under "Rights and Wrongs") in Reader Mail's Rudy Go Round:

Reader Greg Hoadley of Deerfield Beach, Florida wrote in to criticize "so-called conservatives trying to sell 'America's Mayor' is [sic] the second coming of Ronald Reagan." Hoadley went on to ask: "Are you listening, Deroy Murdock?"

Yes, Mr. Hoadley, I am. Now, please listen to me.

First of all, you are totally mistaken when you write of Rudolph W. Giuliani "now he says he opposes gay marriage. His flip-flop on this issue is almost as believable as Mitt Romney's -- which is to say, not very."

In fact, Giuliani has opposed gay marriage since 1989. That's right -- 1989, well before even gay rights groups promoted the idea of same-sex marriage.

"My definition of family is what it is," Giuliani told Newsday 18 years ago. "It does not include gay marriage as part of that definition."

Agree or disagree with Giuliani on this issue, he has been totally consistent on it for nearly two decades. If you're waiting for the flip to flop, keep waiting.

Second, there was only one Ronald Reagan, and every Republican alive will struggle to be anything like him. That said, of all the Republican presidential contenders, Giuliani's mayoral record and current policy positions come closest to what made Reagan such a success.

Giuliani worked for Reagan at the Justice Department and as U.S. Attorney in New York City.

As mayor, his record was both socially conservative and Reaganesque.

Times Square, a porn mecca when Giuliani arrived, now is home to Mary Poppins and other family-friendly musicals. Giuliani chopped overall crime 64 percent, slashed homicide 68 percent, graduated 649,895 New Yorkers (58 percent of relief recipients) from welfare to work, curbed or abolished 23 taxes, sliced the tax burden by $9.8 billion or 24 percent for a family of four earning $50,000, jettisoned racial and gender quotas in contracting, delivered 25,637 children from foster care to adoption, privatized 23,625 apartments from bureaucratic control to individual and family ownership, and financed charter schools while fighting for vouchers. Meanwhile, taxpayer-funded Medicaid abortions in Gotham fell 23 percent during Giuliani's term.

Some liberal.

Based on these achievements, and his pronouncements today, it's safe to say that Giuliani is Reaganite on taxes, spending, public order, quality of life, welfare reform, school choice, racial preferences, privatization, shrinking bureaucracy, Americanization of immigrants, fatherhood, moving foster kids into adoptive families, pulverizing Islamofascism, and maintaining peace through strength.

Giuliani also says he would appoint federal judges and Supreme Court justices akin to Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Sam Alito. Former Solicitor General Ted Olson's endorsement of Giuliani last week speaks well of the ex-mayor's judicial temperament.

Finally, I say these things, not as a "so-called conservative," but as a libertarian-oriented member of the conservative movement, which I joined in 1979. I worked for Ronald Reagan's 1980 and 1984 campaigns. I also was a communications consultant to the Forbes 2000 campaign. I am a commentator and a scholar with various free-market think tanks.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Health Care, Joe Biden, Television, Medicaid, Religion, Islam, Abortion, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, Fascism