Rudy Giuliani's Punchline for President

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL Rudy Giuliani's Southern comfort

Republican from New York with plenty of personal baggage still draws conservatives
Feb 24, 2007 Tim Harper WASHINGTON BUREAU TheStar.com

WASHINGTON–It sounds like a lead-up to a cheesy joke and it goes something like this:

So this guy from New York who's been married three times, wed his second cousin, supports abortion rights and gun control and used to live with a gay couple goes to conservative South Carolina and asks the locals to help him become the Republican president of the United States.

And here's the punch line.

The good folks of Spartanburg meet him over at their firehall, call him an American hero, make him honorary fire chief for the day and don't bother with all that messy divorce, gay and abortion stuff.

Just how long can Rudy Giuliani keep this up?

Suddenly, America's Mayor, the man who became the face of Big Apple Resolve in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has sprinted to the front of the pack of Republican hopefuls, lapping Arizona Senator John McCain, and playing off his longstanding hero status in much of this country.

One Florida newspaper elevated Giuliani this week to the "rock star" status of Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton after he wowed adoring throngs of New York snowbirds at the deli counter of Lox Around the Clock in Delray Beach.

Whether this is a honeymoon with name recognition keeping Giuliani aloft before Republicans take a hard look at their 2008 dance card will become clear in the months ahead. But this is a party with a history of sticking with their frontrunner through the entire marathon.

However, to say the 62-year-old Giuliani drags some personal baggage into a race where he needs evangelicals and Southern conservatives on his team is to understate a colourful background that would take some proficient tap dancing from any politician seeking any office anywhere.

For starters, Giuliani had his first marriage to Regina Peruggi annulled in 1982 after 14 years, saying he'd only just realized she was his second cousin.

His break-up with Donna Hanover is the stuff of lore, including the press conference to announce the marriage was dead – without the knowledge of his wife. She learned of it on television, and then went before the cameras herself to accuse the then-New York mayor of ruining the marriage with two extramarital affairs, including one with his press secretary.

The mayor then skulked out of Gracie Mansion, his official residence, and moved in with a gay couple he had befriended.

Still, this country could yet see the heavyweight battle of Giuliani versus Clinton, a fight the mayor, citing health concerns, backed away from in the 2000 New York senatorial election.

He could do it by pitching his obvious national security strengths, his fiscal conservatism and his straight talk.

Rudy being Rudy.

"I'm a human being, much like, I think, everybody else," he told CNN's Larry King last week.

"There may be a perfect candidate in this race. I don't know which one that is. I wouldn't want to be the one that is the perfect candidate."

He also says he can make it in the South, explaining it by way of a joke that's now part of his campaign platform.

"You can never find a candidate you agree with 100 per cent of the time," he says. "I don't agree with myself 100 per cent of the time."

Still, an estimated one-third of Republican primary voters in South Carolina are white evangelicals, and their leadership has concerns with all the leading contenders in their party.

Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, an evangelical organization that seeks to "reintroduce the word of God into the public debate surrounding legislation and policy matters," told CNN this week Giuliani would never be able to connect with the core values of that constituency.

"I think he's got to look elsewhere for his support," he said.

On his radio broadcast on the National Pro Life Radio Network ("All Pro-Life, All The Time") Schenck discussed recent meetings with the other two frontrunners, McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

He generally praised Romney, but said his Mormonism put him outside the Christian faith. And he told listeners McCain came across as a "lecturing scold ... a crotchety old man" because he wouldn't answer his question about same-sex unions.

But Merle Black, an expert on Southern politics at Atlanta's Emory University, says evangelicals don't always take their cue from their leadership, and Southern voters are more sophisticated than to vote strictly on social values issues.

Evangelicals also recognize everyone has imperfections, he said, and that's how they're looking at Giuliani. "They forgive sins and they realize no one is perfect."

Giuliani has unquestioned leadership abilities, on display for the nation in the fall of 2001, and he likes to portray himself as the Brooklyn-born attorney and mayor who got tough with the Mob and cracked down on crime.

"I ran a government and I tend to be a decisive person. I like decisions," he said. "And I think one of the things wrong with Washington is they don't want to make tough decisions any more.

"Non-binding resolution about Iraq. No decision on immigration. No decision on Social Security reform. No decision on what to do about energy independence. No decision. No decision."

But Giuliani must navigate a number of contradictions to emerge from the primaries as his party's candidate.

He says he is pro-choice but hates abortion, although he is alleged to have once said he would pay for his daughter to have one.

To get around any ambiguity, he said he would appoint only strict "constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court, thought to be Giuliani-speak for justices who might someday overturn Roe vs. Wade.

He says he is a proponent of gay rights, but believes marriage is a union between a man and a woman. However, he sees no need for a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.

None of this, so far, appears to be giving pause to Southern supporters.

"I remember the first time the mayor came down here to raise money," said Katon Dawson, Republican chair in South Carolina, one of the key early primary states in 2008. "I've never seen so many police officers and firefighters lining the street to see him. He is a hero to that community."