Rudolph Giuliani

Back in June 2007, Rudy Giuliani addressed the question of whether he, as a pro-choice Catholic politician, was fit to receive communion by saying, "Issues like that for me are between me and my confessor. I'm a Catholic and that's the way I resolve those issues, personally and privately."

Today, Cardinal Edward Egan of New York, Giuliani's own bishop, essentially said that the former mayor, with his "well-known support" for abortion rights, forfeited his right to call the matter private by publicly accepting Holy Communion during a papal Mass this month.

Cardinal Egan’s scolding, in which he said he "deeply regrets" Giuliani's decision, is a result of what the prelate suggested was a violation of "an understanding" with the former candidate for the Republican nomination and the church, which Egan said teaches "that abortion is a grave offense against the will of God."  read more »

How much credit does Michael Bloomberg deserve for the relative calm that’s followed the Sean Bell verdict? It’s a question that’s more than just academic, given the potential for racially fraught episodes just like this one to have a defining impact on a mayoral legacy – and on a mayor’s political fortunes moving forward.

According to veteran New York political reporter Andrew Kirtzman, who I emailed for his take on the question, Bloomberg has been more lucky than skillful in presiding over what has been, so far, a restrained fallout.

Here’s Kirtzman’s take, from early this weekend:  read more »

Michael Bloomberg, introducing John McCain before a speech in Bay Ridge on the economy, just said, "I got elected because of you."

New Yorkers have high expectations for David Paterson, a new Quinnipiac poll shows, with 75 percent believing that he will govern effectively, 46 percent holding a favorable opinion, and only 3 percent having an unfavorable opinion. (The data was collected between March 16 and 18, and one pollster is quoted as saying opinions shifted slightly after news broke of his affairs).

The poll also shows that, given four choices, New Yorkers overall like Michael Bloomberg for the next governor. He earned 29 percent to Paterson’s 27 percent, although Paterson leads Bloomberg among Democrats. Andrew Cuomo was in fourth place, with 11 percent. The third most favored choice was Rudy Giuliani, who took first place with Republican voters.

Here's the release:  read more »

A Siena poll released this morning shows that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would win New York State over John McCain in a hypothetical general election, but only by seven points (Clinton 49-42, Obama 47-40). A Siena spokesman says the state has gone from “solidly blue” in the last five elections to “showing streaks of purple.”

Of course, McCain is a much more moderate Republican than the country has seen for the last several elections. He also took most of the support that had previously been behind Rudy Giuliani.

Not surprisingly, Obama’s favorability rating is at its all-time high for a Siena poll, this survey shows, while Clinton’s has dropped. But they are favored just about equally among Democrats—it’s Republicans and independent voters who are embracing Obama over Clinton.

Release after the jump.  read more »

The day after Rudy Giuliani dropped out the presidential campaign, the city’s only Republican Congressman says he has plenty of money on hand for his own re-election campaign this November.  read more »

Believe it or not, Mike Huckabee has a New York State campaign. And believe it or not, someone has actually volunteered to run it.

Meet M. Myers Mermel. The "M" stands for Mark, but he goes by Myers, his mother's maiden name. The Myers family, he told me, were poor farmers in Indiana. "They weren't rich, but had a lot of integrity," Mermel said.

He took Myers as his first name because, he says, "When people talk to me, I want them to know who I am."  read more »

Two reporters who covered Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor gave their post-mortem on his presidential campaign on NY1 News last night.

“You can say to some extent Rudy was the victim of the surge," said Joel Siegel, formerly with the Daily News but now at ABC News. "In a way, things are improving, or seem to be improve in Iraq.”

Siegel continued, “He lost the rational of electing somebody who is very, very strong, or who is running on the argument of being strong on national security.”

“It seems to me,” said David Seifman, City Hall Bureau Chief for the New York Post, “that coverage of Rudy in the presidential race took off, from some extent, from his years at City Hall. I mean, he antagonized so many reporters that got their chance to get even this time around.

More after the jump.  read more »

Rudy Giuliani just made the end of his candidacy and his endorsement of John McCain official at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, after much speculation.

More surprising is the news that Arnold Schwarzenegger is "in discussions" to endorse McCain, which CNN attributes to two unnamed sources. Schwarzenegger is a close political ally of Michael Bloomberg.

Here's Republican City Councilman Vinny Ignizio of Staten Island praising Rudy Giuliani and saying that “those who are having a good time dancing on his grave” don't "have the likability factor themselves.”

If these unnamed people were more likable, Ignizio says, “they’d have offices somewhere in this building."  read more »

Earlier today Michael Bloomberg praised Rudy Giuliani, who is widely expected to end his presidential campaign officially in a few hours:

“I said yesterday I respect Rudy for mounting an effort," the mayor said of his predecessor during a press conference at the Empire State Building. "I don’t know, whether he ends it today or continues, that’s his decision to make. But rather than sit around an complain, Rudy’s been out there and trying to tell people what he would do, what he thinks this country needs.”

Bloomberg, who was there to talk about a public awareness campaign to encourage paper recycling, went on, “When he was mayor of this city, he left it better than he found it. He gave us things to build on. Hopefully we will leave things for our successors to build on.

More after the jump.  read more »

On February 5th, you can still vote for Rudy Giuliani in the Republican primary here.

His name can’t be removed from the ballot because, legally, that change would have had to be made seven days before the vote.  read more »

Before he dropped me off at the Orlando airport, my cab driver, Mike, had dropped off Giuliani's National Campaign Chairman Pat Oxford.

He said that Oxford spent the majority of the ride talking on his cell phone, settling expenses and instructing his secretary to tell all reporters that he was out of the office and unreachable for the day.

Mike said, “He was not happy.”

This just came in from the McCain campaign:

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that John McCain will receive a major endorsement at a press conference in Simi Valley, California today, January 30th.

The press conference will be at 3 p.m. Pacific Time at the Reagan Library.

Rudy Giuliani’s former rivals are already pouncing on his donors.

Barron Thomas says that in the last day, he has received calls from the Huckabee, McCain and Romney camps, seeking his money, and the money of his many friends.

He says that he’s still undecided and told me, “I picked Rudy because I thought he was the best candidate.”  read more »

Although Rudy Giuliani hasn't formally dropped out yet, this just came in from the Brooklyn Republican party:

Craig Eaton, Brooklyn's Republican Chairman, announced tonight that the borough's GOP County Executive Committee was endorsing Senator John McCain in New York's February 5th Republican Primary.  read more »

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Here are some excerpts from John McCain's speech after his victory in the Florida Republican primary tonight, as prepared for delivery.

On Florida:

I have always loved this beautiful state, from the time I was a young naval aviator learning my trade in Pensacola to the time I commanded the largest air squadron in the United States Navy at Cecil Field. Most of all, I have always been indebted to Florida friends and neighbors in Orange Park for taking such good care of my family while I was away on a longer than expected tour of duty. Florida has always been a special place to me, and it is all the more so tonight.

On his opponents:

I offer my best wishes to Governor Romney and his supporters. You fought hard for your candidate, and the margin that separated us tonight surely isn't big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair. Governor Huckabee and his supporters, as always, brought to this campaign conviction and passion and something we don't always have enough of in these contests, good humor and grace. And I want to thank, my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani, who invested his heart and soul in this primary, and who conducted himself with all the qualities of the exceptional American leader he truly is.

More after the jump.  read more »

Before Rudy Giuliani formally drops out, here are two things worth noting about his failed presidential bid:

1) Contrary to what pundits told us for about three years before this campaign, Rudy's liberal social views did not sink him.  read more »

Mitt Romney has become this year's answer to Mo Udall, the Democrat who tried and tried and tried to breakthrough in the 1976 primaries but always came up just a few inches short.

Romney has had chances to claim the momentum in the Republican race in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and now in Florida. He has done well in each of them, but—like with Udall 32 years ago—never well enough to claim victory. To date, Romney's only win (not counting his uncontested and largely meaningless victories in Wyoming and Nevada) came in Michigan, where his family name and native son status yielded an easily dismissed triumph over John McCain.

Meanwhile, McCain has scored outright victories in three fiercely contested primaries: New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now Florida. By winning Florida, where independents are barred from the G.O.P. primary, McCain has demonstrated that he can succeed even without what is perceived as his political base, and can now be declared the clear front-runner on the Republican side.

The Republican race will now move quickly. In seven nights, 22 states will hold primaries and caucuses, an opportunity for McCain to deliver a knockout punch to Romney, whose relatively narrow defeat tonight will allow him to press ahead with his campaign.  read more »

“It’s not over till it’s over,” screamed a woman as Rudy Giuliani stepped to the podium to give his concession speech.

But all indications were that it, Giuliani’s candidacy for president, was indeed over.

As he spoke in a half-filled ballroom at the Portafino hotel in Orlando, the back of the room where the press sat, and the blogosphere, were abuzz with reports that Giuliani planned to endorse John McCain, the Florida primary’s winner, the next day in California.  read more »

The votes are still being counted in Florida and it's still to close to call a winner on the Republican side--John McCain and Mitt Romney are about three points apart. But for Rudy Giuliani, the verdict is clear--he's been projected to come in no better than third place.

I emailed the ever outspoken Jimmy Oddo, Republican Minority Leader in the City Council, for his thoughts on Giuliani. Here’s what he wrote:  read more »

Mark Halperin is reporting that Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the presidential primary race and endorse John McCain as early as tomorrow, in California.

ORLANDO, Fla.—“I think I’ve opened up the analysis and broadened the scope of the party, the way people look at the party,” Rudolph Giuliani said in an interview about an hour before the results of his underwhelming, and perhaps candidacy-ending, performance in the Florida primary on which he bet everything became known.

(At press time, with nearly 24 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Giuliani looked set to finish a distant third behind John McCain and Mitt Romney, with 16 percent of the vote.)  read more »

In an interview this evening with Rudy Giuliani for a story for tomorrow’s paper, I asked him whether he would participate in Wednesday’s debate in California.

“We are going to California,” he said.

That has been what the campaign has said all day. When I asked Giuliani’s senior political analyst, Tony Carbonetti, this morning whether Giuliani would participate in the debate, he said, affirmatively, “We are going to Florida.” I took that as a yes.  read more »

Ex-F.B.I. Special Agent Ali Soufan, who the late anti-terrorism guru John O’Neill called a “national treasure,” even before Mr. Soufan’s interrogation of an Osama bin Laden bodyguard produced the names of key Sept.  read more »

Blame it on the sun. Or the heavy whiff of vacation in the air. But it’s kind of like the last day of school out here on the Giuliani trail.

Senior political adviser Tony Carbonetti, former Deputy Mayor Peter Powers, and Giuliani’s new unofficial spokesman, the actor Jon Voigt, couldn’t resist tossing around some Nerf footballs outside of a Giuliani campaign headquarters in Broward County just now, where the former mayor thanked volunteers working the phone banks.  read more »

Rudy Giuliani will debate in California tomorrow, according to his chief political adviser Tony Carbonetti.

“We are going to California,” Carbonetti told me a few minutes ago at Wolfie Cohen’s Rascal House in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida where Rudy shook hands with voters and ate cereal.

“We’re going to get out the vote,” Giuliani said as he walked out of the diner. “We’re going to urge people to get out and vote.”  read more »

Here’s what’s at stake for the candidates in today’s Florida primary:

Republicans

John McCain: A win, even if it’s by a nose, will give the media license to declare him the clear national front-runner and should send much of the Republican rank-and-file, however reluctantly, into his camp, positioning him for a decisive string of victories on Super Tuesday. Because of Florida’s closed primary, a McCain victory—unlike his New Hampshire and South Carolina wins—will not be chalked up to his support from non-Republicans and will be treated by the press as a signal from the party base that, after spurning him for nearly a decade, they are ready to close rank behind McCain.  read more »

In a quick press conference on the press plane that is taking Rudy Giuliani around Florida for some 11th hour campaigning (almost all in airport hangars or on tarmacs), the former mayor said that no matter what the result of tomorrow’s make-or-break primary is for him, he intends to participate in Wednesday’s Republican debate in California.

“We fully intend to participate in the debate,” said Giuliani, when asked if he would attend “regardless” of how he fares in the primary.  read more »

As Rudy Giuliuni's campaign continues to deflate—he just finished speaking to less than 50 supporters at an airport in Sanford, Florida (where Jon Voight was introduced by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum as "Midnight Cowboy, National Treasure, Deliverance")--the battle between John McCain and Mitt Romney is escalating.

The McCain campaign just released a statement from the Senator saying Romney's campaign is based on "the wholesale deception of voters," calls him the "liberal governor" and even makes mention of Ted Kennedy as an ally on Romney's healthcare plan in Massachusetts.

Full statement after the jump.  read more »

In a new web video, Rudy Giuliani tries to put a positive spin on his lack of endorsements by major newspapers in Florida, most of which have gone to John McCain.

The video says that Rudy was "not endorsed" by the Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune "or any other liberal newspaper."

It also mentions, of course, his lack of endorsement from the "liberal New York Times."

According to a new Quinnipiac poll out this morning, Rudy Giuliani is still a distant third in Florida, tied statistically with Mike Huckabee at 14-13.

John McCain and Mitt Romney are also in a statistical tie for first place, with McCain up one percentage point at 32 percent to Romney's 31 percent.

Hillary Clinton maintains a decisive lead over Barack Obama, 50-30. The data was collected between January 24 and January 27, mostly before and one day after Obama's victory in South Carolina.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

If some women voters see Hillary Clinton's candidacy as an historic opportunity for gender equality, and some African Americans see Barack Obama’s bid for the White House as the same for race, at least one Italian sees an equally momentous occasion in the candidacy of Rudy Giuliani.

“We’ve got to help,” said Jack Badalamenti, 65, as Giuliani finished speaking a few minutes ago in Vero Beach's Italian American Civic Center, where small brick-framed frescos of scenes of the Venice canals and the Roman forum surrounded a small crowd.  read more »

BOCA RATON, Fla.—Rudy Giuliani, wearing a dark suit and dark yarmulke, emphasized his ties to Florida’s Jewish voters in a speech at a modern orthodox synagogue here today.

“I have a long-standing and strong community with the Jewish community here and in Israel,” said Giuliani. He told the congregants at the Hahn Judaic Campus of the Boca Raton Synagogue about a trip to Israel during which he witnessed what he called the reunification of the Ethiopian Jews.  read more »

Rudolph Giuliani is about to speak at the Boca Raton Synagogue: The Hahn Judaic Campus.  read more »

ORLANDO, Fla.—Between two campaign events at the Rosen Centre Hotel here, Rudy Giuliani held a brief press conference in which he sought to portray himself as the reasonable, positive and polite presidential candidate disapproving of the negative exchanges between John McCain and Mitt Romney.

In other words, Giuliani, once the Republican front-runner, has been relegated to the long-shot role played by John Edwards on the Democratic side: that of the suddenly awakened moral conscience tsk-tsk-ing on the front-runners’ shoulders.  read more »

ORLANDO, FL -- Curtis Sliwa, who is here with a small coterie of Guardian Angels to support Rudy Giuliani, suggested the former mayor would have a tough time winning over those Florida voters who are not from New York.

“I was in Boca,” said Sliwa. “That might be the sixth borough of New York City.”

He said he visited senior centers and told the more vigorous Giuliani supporters to literally “carry in their arms” the “bubbies” from the Lower East Side to the polls on primary day.  read more »

Not all of the women at tonight’s “Women for Rudy” event are so sure they are for Rudy.

“I’m still up in the air between him and McCain,” said Fay Bellamy, a 64-year-old retired law enforcement official from Orlando who stood on the side of the tiny ballroom at the Rosen Centre Hotel holding a Rudy sign. “I believe that they stand by their convictions.”

Bellamy said that Giuliani’s decision to essentially let his entire candidacy ride on Florida was a mistake.  read more »

ORLANDO, FL. -- In a very small ballroom in the Rosen Centre Hotel here some women supporters of Rudy Giuliani are starting to trickle in for a "Women for Rudy" event. Jon Voight and just about all the high-ranking officials from Rudyland are here too.

ORLANDO, FL. -- Rudy Giuliani's heavy hitters have arrived to help his make-or-break effort to win the Florida primary.

Getting off the plane here, I just ran into Representative Peter King of Long Island and Giuliani inner-sanctum stalwarts Randy Levine and Denny Young.

We're all headed to the Rosen Centre (about a 15-minute drive from Disney World and only 10 from Sea World!) where the former mayor will be speaking at a "Women for Rudy" rally.  read more »

ROCK HILL, S.C.—Hillary Clinton gave a brief press conference after her public rally here.

She began by defending her campaign's decision to try to get delegates from Michigan and Florida seated at the national convention.

"I am not violating the pledge," she said, but added, "I think it's important that we send a message to the people of Florida and Michigan."  read more »

Last night was a very good night for Mitt Romney at the Republican debate in Boca Raton. It was a solid showing for John McCain, a surprisingly good performance by Mike Huckabee, and a pretty rotten one by Rudy Giuliani.

Romney gave what was probably his best debate performance of the entire campaign, a showing that could bolster his standing in Florida, where he and McCain are vying for the lead as they head into the January 29 primary.

The former Massachusetts governor stood out because he was finally able to escape from topics that call attention to the opportunism that has defined his campaign efforts in previous states. Instead of trying to out-conservative his foes on abortion, immigration, and gay rights—hot-button social issues on which Romney sang a remarkably different tune prior to his re-christening as a Republican presidential candidate—he focused much of his airtime on economic topics, speaking with a confidence and authenticity that is notably absent when he ventures into cultural issues.  read more »

Rudy Giuliani is out with a new web video specifically advertising his support for a national catastrophe fund and drawing attention to the fact that "some" of his opponents do not favor it. The spot is complete with vintage footage of hurricane damage (not Katrina) and of Rudy in a dust mask and F.D.N.Y. hat after 9/11.

For the record, Mitt Romney said yesterday that a national catastrophe fund "makes sense" to him, but stopped short of promising one. Mike Huckabee said something along the same lines. But John McCain, seen now as Giuliani's greatest foe in Florida, opposes the fund and wants to work on national disasters from within F.E.M.A.

Giuliani's support of the national catastrophe fund is, now that he's lagging in the polls, probably one of his greatest strengths among Florida voters. Governor Charlie Crist, who has yet to give out his coveted endorsement, is a huge proponent.

As was the case in New York, John McCain is now giving Rudy Giuliani some stiff competition in New Jersey, with 29 percent of Republican voters favoring McCain and 26 percent favoring Giuliani, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

Hillary Clinton maintains a commanding lead over Barack Obama, 49-32, while John Edwards has 10 percent of the vote among Democrats.

Obama, however, leads Clinton overwhelmingly among black Democrats, 64-27. Clinton leads among women voters.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

According to the polls, John McCain is either ahead of Giuliani in New York or pretty close to it.

But the McCain campaign's New York chairman, Ed Cox says there's no need to wait for February 5.

“The nomination is over. He’s got the nomination,” Cox told me when I saw him last night at a Martin Luther King celebration event in Manhattan, hosted by the Congress for Racial Equality. “He fits New York to a tee.”

What about Michael Bloomberg?

“If John McCain gets the nomination, I would predict that Bloomberg would not run because McCain occupies so much of the space that Bloomberg would want to take up,” Cox told me.

So far, Rudy Giuliani is losing the Republican presidential race just as badly as skeptics predicted more than a year ago. But that doesn’t mean they were right about everything.

In the run-up to the 2008 campaign, pundits incessantly assured us that a Giuliani bid would be a nonstarter because of his social liberalism.