Rudy Drills In On Taxes

So says the Giuliani policy shop in an escalation of their campaign to drive a clean contrast with Sen. John McCain.

Brian Rogers, a McCain spokesman, responded:

Rudy Giuliani has a record of opposing tax relief. He actually endorsed liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo for governor because he opposed George Pataki’s tax cut plans, which Giuliani said at the time were too large. He also left Mayor Bloomberg with a fiscal mess, including a budget deficit of over $2 billion. That’s not fiscal responsibility.

It's hard to figure out, in an era of deficit spending and earmarks, what a fiscal conservative actually is. To the extent that John McCain opposed the first Bush tax cut and expressed mildly populist reasons for doing so, that's kind of a strike against him for those who want absolute purity on the issue. Rudy Giuliani's record is no less opaque, though, and in politics, it's not very easy to create a contrast where none really exists.

Contemplating this fight at a different level, Giuliani's playing bean-bag politics, and McCain is playing with dodgeball. Doesn't his argument right now -- I'm ready to be president -- render any specific attacks against him fairly harmless. Taxes didn't work as an argument against Mitt Romney; they haven't really hurt McCain elsewhere. Indeed, the only state where McCain's argument played against him was in Michigan, where Mitt Romney's burst of optimism trumped McCain's sociopolitical realism.

Comments

Rudy has been shown to be the best fiscal candidate by both the Club for Growth and American's for Tax Reform. Go Rudy!

Posted by Tim | January 21, 2008 4:40 PM

Interesting. When Romney exposed McCain's Liberalism, he was attacked for "dirty" campaigning. I can't wait to hear the crying of Senator Maverick.

Posted by Marc | January 21, 2008 5:18 PM

Rudy's not exactly the biggest fiscal conservative out there, but he can get away with needling McCain over opposing the Bush tax cuts. But didn't that strategy fail in SC? Moderate/fiscal con's voted for him anyway.

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Posted by matt | January 21, 2008 5:54 PM

I see the wingnuts still think tax cuts are a real political winner. In fact they lead to one of two results (or both). Either you get a reduction in govt services. Or you borrow more Saudi and Chinese money.

Terrific. Lets take THAT to the voters in Nov.

I love the GOP!!! Best clown show around.

Posted by JohnMcC | January 21, 2008 7:33 PM

Any vote for romney, mccain, giuliani, or huckabee and you climb in bed with Australian Rupert Murdoch here screwing with our elections, he knows he can't buy Ron Paul, that's why he is censoring Ron Paul's name from even being mentioned in his massive media holdings. Youtube Ron Paul and Fox, vote Ron Paul, not who Murdoch is massaging.

Posted by gseattle | January 22, 2008 9:21 AM

Ya rudy is a real fiscal kinda guy...Just ask the Firemen about the interoperable radios they needed that would work inside of big buildings... After 1993 WTC bombing they did not get new radios until spring 2001. They were never field tested and after 1 week use they failed across the board... Rudy worked a 14Million no bid contract with motorola for the failed 2700 phones...Over 400 firemens lives were lost on 9/11 because of rudy's fiscal inept skills... http://iaff.org

http://rudy-urbanlegend.com/
IAFF.orgs film about the tragedy Rudy caused from 1994 to 2001...
The rest of rudy's failures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Giuliani
Bad decision maker,choice of friends he placed in unqualified positions,liar,blame tosser...ETC....

Posted by ladiliberty | January 22, 2008 2:33 PM

The NYC Firefighters who say that Rudy was responsible for their deaths are shameless in their finger pointing especially as it had nothing to do with the tragic outcome on 9/11.

Unions are notorious for playing dirty tactics in this country and have proven to be the most corrupt of any organized labor movement.

Don't blame Rudy for the radios failing blame the terrorists. If you haven't forgotten 3,000 other people died along with the other munincipal workers which included policemen and emergency workers. It is truly a shame that the democrats would urge the NYC Fire Dept to stoop to such levels for political gain.

09/11 was a catastrophic tragedy and Rudy acted nobily in the face of such a dissaster and proved his leadership by effectively managing one of the worst act of terrors on American soil.

I suppose that Rudy should of been "GOD" on 9/11 and predicted exactly how the turn of events would have unfolded.

What polarizes our nation are factions such as unions which can only see way of their own political gain and who can never see the glass as half full because they can never be satisfied with what is best for the welfare of all Americans.

Posted by rudy iacono | January 23, 2008 12:28 PM