Portrait of Rudy — the contender from the Ridiculous Party
By
Saul Landau Read Spanish Version
“Rudy
Giuliani has defended Newt Gingrich, saying it’s okay Newt had an
affair and that no one is perfect. That’s when you know the
Republicans are in trouble — when a guy with three marriages and an
affair is defending the guy with three marriages and two affairs, so
they can team up and beat a Clinton."
–Jay
Leno
“Men
imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt
actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every
moment.”
—
RW Emerson
As
Nature sends the world warnings about its production and consumption
methods, Ridiculous Party candidates audition for voters with
promises to deport immigrants and ban gay marriages. Wars rage in
Africa and the Middle East, more than a billion people struggle
against starvation, and Ridiculous candidates pledge eternal love of
guns, the unborn and brain-dead. Disease spreads; Ridiculous Party
aspirants vow to cut social funds and spend more on war.
Education
and health systems face crises. A bridge in Minnesota and the dikes
in New Orleans collapsed; others face imminent breakdown; kids shoot
up — or shoot up in — classrooms. In a world demanding serious
attention, the Ridiculous politician has devolved into vying in a
contest of blatant attention getters, one in which the major
candidates resemble opera singers warming up: they sing “me, me,
me.”
The
Ridiculous Party and their rival, the Disappointing Party, have
fielded actors for a grade B Hollywood comedy and OUR political
reality.
The
leading Ridiculous Party candidate, self-proclaimed 9-11 hero,
invented a myth — of his own heroism. As New York Mayor, he showed
up — unlike Bush — at the scene of the tragedy after the planes hit
the Towers and spent the day there, emanating a sense of calm. Since
Bush didn’t appear, Giuliani subsequently assumed the role of “the
mayor who suffered” (albeit briefly) with the victims and their
rescuers. Then, he proceeded to take advantage of the fear atmosphere
generated by the attacks and stake his campaign on the image of the
strong and in control chief executive. He is running for President as
Mr. 9-11.
His
major rival, Mitt “the Mormon” Romney, ex Massachusetts governor,
describes himself as the candidate of optimism. And why not, with
upwards of $200 million, he believes he deserves political power
because such honor rightfully accrues to vast quantities of wealth.
He has a nice smile and, unlike Giuliani, fat hair.
Two
other Ridiculous contenders also sing their “Hey, I really want to
govern in the worst way” song. John McCain promotes more U.S.
military involvement in Iraq while voters overwhelmingly favor
withdrawal. Bush bungled the war, but he, McCain, would send in
enough (many thousands more) troops and win it. This patter has
resonated to the sound of checkbooks closing.
Where,
ask the skeptics, will McCain find these troops, given that the army
barely meets its monthly quota now and has had to resort to
recruiting criminals and “illegal aliens who can go to Iraq and
thus earn the right to citizenship.” Does McCain want to return to
the draft? Is that what parents of teenagers want to hear? Do
conservative Americans want to relive scenes of the 1960s when
students rallied and rioted against the Vietnam War and thousands
fled the country to avoid the draft?
Fred
Thompson, the actor with the hayseed accent a New York City DA on
“Law and Order,” has thus far excelled at boring his audiences.
He has yet to explain why he wants to be president since he didn’t
rerun for his Senate seat because he said it was too much work.
None
of the candidates even consider addressing issues that beset the
people of this country or the world.
Giuliani
poses as tough on “security” as a cover for mega ambition and
mean spiritedness — just ask the homeless of New York who found
themselves beaten and jailed. In fact, he did not risk his life on
9-11, and certainly not his career by showing up after the planes hit
the towers. The New York firefighters, however, blame him for causing
countless deaths because he failed to provide them with working
two-way radios, thus making it impossible for them to learn that the
Tower in which hundreds of them busy rescuing people were about to
collapse. A video shown by firefighters and their relatives claims
Giuliani exploited 9/11 only to pump up his own image so he could run
for president. They present compelling facts that Giuliani was
negligent in not dealing with the needed communication devices. Some
NY firefighters have openly called for an investigation.
http://www.rudy-urbanlegend.com/
When
Giuliani subsequently tried to mollify the families of the dead
firefighters at the 9/11 Commission hearings by praising the dead men
for staying inside to keep everyone calm, the audience booed and
hissed. Nevertheless, facts aside, Giuliani has successfully appealed
to the “order crowd” — those that say “screw civil liberties
and just stop crime” — with his “tough” pseudo philosophy. He
cheered police as they beat some poor blacks in Brooklyn’s Crown
Heights who were protesting against orthodox Jews’ behavior in
their neighborhood.
“Freedom
is about authority,” explained Giuliani to a New York forum on
crime on March 20, 1994. “Freedom is about the willingness of every
single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of
discretion about what you do.”
This
kind of unliterary Orwellianism alongside his disdain for civil
liberties might have provoked even his supporter, Jackie Mason, to
call Giuliani “the greatest crime fighter that ever lived. He puts
you in jail whether you’re guilty or not.”
Since
leaving his post as mayor, Giuliani has made more than $15 million a
year lobbying for causes as distinct as Saudi Arabia, tobacco, oil
and drug companies, private prisons and Rupert Murdoch. He has become
a major promoter of war against Iran and, of course, backs the war on
Iraq but, like Bush and Cheney, he never served.
The
image his campaign has projected, a moralist and adoring husband,
might not coincide with some of his behavior. For example, he didn’t
telephone his second wife to tell her he was dumping her. He turned
that task over to his attorney who apparently called the woman a
"stuck pig." One cannot help recall another great
conservative moralist, Newt Gingrich, who dumped his wife just as
soon as the anesthetic wore off from her cancer surgery.
Like
the current lying, but pompous moron, Giuliani the sneering poseur
loves photo ops: “Mission Accomplished George” on the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln; Bullhorn Rudy posing at ground zero.
Boasting about his own (imagined) heroism got him almost $3 million
to write his biography: Leadership.
Rudy’s
national security based, free-market capitalism reflect his “changed
mind” on abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, all of which
he stood for as NY mayor. As Ridiculous candidate, he tries to appeal
to fundamentalists who abhor abortion, gays (out of the closet) taxes
and government?
On
foreign policy, he remains a neo con, oblivious of the failure that
group has imposed on the world in Iraq. To advise him on Middle East
policy, Giuliani hired Michael Rubin, former idea man in Doug Feith’s
Office of Special Plans. One can find Rubin’s originality and
brilliance in such statements as: "In the Islamic world,
confrontation may work better than dialogue…” Or, his urging of
"military force to disarm Syria of weapons of mass destruction.”
(http://bodypolitik.org/2007/10/11/giuliani-ramps-up-iran-hawkishness-hires-neo-con-michael-rubin/)
Scandal,
however, haunts his presidential undertaking. Former NY Police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who Rudy nominated to run Homeland
Security, made $6 million in 2001 from stock options from a stun gun
company that sold its ware to his department. Taser International, a
Soprano-like company, aspired to forge greater business ties with
Giuliani’s mayoral office. Bernie faces federal charges “that will
likely include allegations of bribery, tax fraud and obstruction of
justice.” NY Daily News Oct 12, 2007
Rudy
the hero, bullhorn at mouth, at the World Trade Center claimed "no
significant problems" existed. Tough Rudy, after his day as a
hero, went on a high-fee speaking tour while cops, firemen and
cleanup workers at the World Trade Center got sick from toxics.
The
musk of corruption emanating from Rudy’s relations to Kerik, got
stronger from the perfume of Senator David Vitter’s (R-LA). This
fervent anti-sinner endorsed Giuliani last March, before the media
outed him for using hookers.
Further
problems came after a federal grand jury indictment of South Carolina
Treasurer Thomas Ravenel — for distribution of cocaine. Ravenal
resigned as State chairman of Rudy’s campaign. Additional aromas
arise from an accused (of you know what) priest who annulled Rudy’s
first marriage and then worked for his consulting firm. Rudy leads
the Ridiculous Party in the polls and stands as the man who Hillary,
lead polling star for the Disappointing Party, must fear most.
Stay
tuned for the next act of Election Farce: a Tragi-Comedy that Affects
the World.
Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies Fellow and author of A
BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD.
His new film, WE
DON’T PLAY GOLF HERE,
won the San Francisco Videofest award for best activist film
(available on DVD – roundworldproductions@gmail.com).
