Per Hotline:
It may not be a campaign manager, but ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani is bulking up on financial management experience. Next week, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management Sandra Pack will leave her post and head to Giuliani’s exploratory committee, her office confirms.
Pack was Chief Financial Officer for the Bush-Cheney ‘04 campaign, as well as the Bush-Cheney ‘00 treasury director, and has previous experience in financial management as Assistant Secretary of the Army. The certified public accountant served as a financial officer for the presidential campaigns of Bob Dole and Phil Gramm, as well.
That Pack would leave a prestigious government job for Giuliani’s exploratory committee is a sign that he is very likely to run
The last line says it all.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Yes. It also helps to get some non-new york blood on his team. Romney has got the Repbulicans to “op-resource” guy on board for the Republican party.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
For Rudy fans, he was interviewed on Dennis Prager’s show today, both at the end of the second hour and also at the beginning of the third hour. The podcast is available at http://dennisprager.townhall.com/.
Dennis asked him questions about Iraq/War on Terror and Israel as well as domestic issues like tax cuts, same-sex marriage, and campaign finance reform. He also asked Rudy about John McCain. Rudy was great– candid, much more conservative than I expected, and the way he talked about he and McCain running against each other made it clear that he is running.
Also, I think Kavon had said he supposed that Rudy might take the Reagan route and not “bash” other candidates…he’s right. When asked about McCain, Rudy played his cards WELL. I, being a Romney fan, conceded that that attitude might win him the nomination. But you gotta hear it for yourself. It’s the first interview that I’m aware of that he made after the exploratory comittee announcement.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Mr Meet the People, What did he say on the social issues? Did he make a strong judges pitch?
December 5th, 2006 at 5:44 pm
He was not asked about judges. He said that he was against same-sex marriage– “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” He conceded that he signed civil union bill when he was mayor, but compared it to domestic partnership (in a pretty disarming way). He is pro tax cuts, and cited the Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush administrations as evidence that tax cuts spur the economy.
He also said the McCain-Feingold had many loopholes, but that he was used to it because he ran for mayor under a CFR system. But he said he didn’t like McCain-Feingold, but that to McCain’s credit, Rudy thought McCain has realized some of the problems that were unforseen at the time of the legislation. He said the CFR was easily as complex as the current tax code.
December 5th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
Dear MethePeople(sorry for the prior typo):
Sounds somewhat convincing. I always thought his best social conservative gambit would be that he went into the lion’s den-cleaning up NY, fighting the cross defilers, defending the cops against the ACLU. Any push on that?
December 5th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Nope. It wasn’t that long of an interview. I think a main message I got from the interview was: “I’m not liberal like you thought.” It’s RUDY that almost sounded like the heir apparent to Bush, rather than McCain.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
I thought Rudy knocked the ball out of the park. My favorite line came when Rudy was making the distinction between his opposition for SSM and support for civil unions. He basically said that while we shouldn’t change the definition of marriage, we should give gay individuals the ability to be protected under the law as they live their lives. He then pointed out that this is consistent with his philosophy of generally *getting government out of people’s lives.*
I also thought that his Iraq response was good. Basically argued that we can’t pull out now, not for some amorphous reason like the need to establish a utopia on the Euphrates, but for the simple reason that if we do, it will likely empower Iran even more and will create a hotbed for terrorist production. I assume Rudy means that if we leave now, it won’t be long before Iraq becomes a Shia-led mini-Iran. The thing is, he’s probably right. Rudy said we must leave a *stable* Iraq behind.
December 6th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
“while we shouldn’t change the definition of marriage, we should give gay individuals the ability to be protected under the law as they live their lives”
I just love the social evolution of America. It was only four years ago that a “radical, outside the mainstram, extremist nutjob” governor of Vermont was running for president, and his position on this issue – essentially exactly mirroring the above quote, was seen as a pretty good example of his extremism. Today it is a position that a Republican can take to help win over Republicans.
Together with the news today that our hard-right Vice President will soon have a grandchild who has two mommies, I guess I do feel optomistic about our nation.