Finally, the most repulsive, undeniably crazy Republican candidate has faced reality.


As the Monkey Muck blog so aptly puts it:

I believe, had Gore won in 2000, Giuliani would have been the shoo-in Republican presidential candidate in 2004. Say what one will about the man (he was my boss's boss's boss in 1994 - 2001) he is anything but crazy.

Crazy in that Batman-inspired master criminal megalomaniac way! Look at it this way: his campaign staff was populated by Neocons deemed to radical and out there to be part of the Bush administration/advisers. Now that's crazy!

Rudy's the real deal you're the one w/ issues Marc

Rudy's the real deal

Anyone's the real deal; depends on what you want.
As for the title of this thread, there is no riddance since Dec. 31, 2001 to speak of.

no nonsense. what's your name oenophore?

Well, he did say recently that he might have to pay for a proposed tax cut with another tax cut. That doesn't demonstrate much fiscal sanity to me.

He also referred to the terrorist threat as "existential." Really? I can't imagine any terrorist act, no matter how horrible, that would cause an end to this country. So it's not a threat to the existence of the nation. The real existential threat is from those who would abandon what this country stands for (or should stand for) in the name of providing some speculative, marginal increase in security.

And he would unreasonably lash out at those who crossed him. And there are all those First Amendment cases that he fought and lost, which he fought anyway even though any first year law student could have told him they were losers.

OK, maybe he's not crazy. How about unreasonable (as in frequently immune to the power of reason)?

For once I agree with Marc, he was too liberal. Too many wives.

Good tax ideas though. Daniel, as everyone knows, cutting taxes increases receipts. You should know that by now.

If you live or work in New York all terrorist acts are existential - you could be blown up. It doesn't get any more existential than that. Certainly the terrorists agree with your philosophy though.

As far as being unreasonable, I'm sure you can come up with 5 quotes why you need an unreasonable person to lead. Someone that gives up in the face of adversity can't get anything done. Maybe Marc just likes unreasonable people that agree with him?

Daniel, as everyone knows, cutting taxes increases receipts.

When taxes are cut, receipts usually go up. But they also usually go up when taxes are raised. Receipts tend to go up regardless of small changes in marginal tax rates because they're outweighed by inflation, economic growth, and population growth. It's a canard to say because revenues went up when taxes were cut, the tax cuts caused the revenue growth. Plus the logical implication of a cause-effect relationship would be that receipts would be highest if taxes were zero. The Laffer Curve is obviously correct at the extremes: both zero taxation and 100% taxation will bring in no revenues. Other than that, to say that lowering taxes cause increased revenues is speculation: first, we don't know what that curve looks like between the extremes, and second, we don't know where on that curve we would be.

If you live or work in New York all terrorist acts are existential - you could be blown up.

Sure. And I could get shot and killed; does that make every gun crime an existential threat? If so, what does Guiliani have on that issue, and any other issues that might cause my death (getting hit by a car, being misdiagnosed by a doctor, that staph infection I had last summer)?

To say that any event in which you might die is an existential threat I think demeans the meaning of the phrase, and it's clearly not what Giuliani was implying. Of course the the threat of death and destruction should be taken seriously, but let's not pretend anything they will do will cause the demise of the nation.

And add to that the fact that he had no real anti-terror policy. He said we'd "stay on the offensive," and that "weakness invites attack." Well, people who are willing to blow themselves up aren't deterred just because their opponents look strong. So even in what was supposed to be his strong suit, he was an empty suit.

If one wishes to write his pre-mortem obituary, one must state all the good things he's done as well as the bad. Recall the oration of Marc Antony, via Shakespeare, on the death of Julius Caesar, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is interred with their bones."