NY-Sen: Giuliani to challenge Gillibrand UPDATED

Oy (4.00 / 3)

Too bad he couldn't have timed this nonsense to better coincide with his former top-cop, Bernard Kerik's, prison sentencing.... now THAT would be a story with some actual substance...  

---

by: robinia @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 21:30:22 PM UTC

Sweeney Part Deux (4.00 / 2)

Kirsten Gillibrand is battle tested. The first campaign against John Sweeney was ugly, ugly, ugly. Sweeney threw everything he could think of at her including the kitchen sink.

Giuliani presents a very real challenge and a very ugly one. I take him much more seriously then I would have taken Pataki who would have had to spend the entire campaign defending his three-term administration of malaise as Governor.

Rudy, if he doesn't get lost in his ambitions to be king of the world, will spend the entire campaign on the attack.

Of course, he has a little dirty laundry in his record that he'll need to defend against as well.

Kirsten needs to prepare for Sweeney Part Deux.

---

by: Andrew C. White @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 21:37:15 PM UTC

One of the things Sweeney threw (4.00 / 3)

at Gillibrand was several appearances and a TV ad by Giuliani.

None of which had any positive effect.

---

by: devtob @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 21:56:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Would He Get Scozzafava'd? (4.00 / 2)

I've been waiting for Giuliani to announce that he has gone through a miraculous conversion and declare his hatred of gays and choice.  Get out your wooden stakes and mallets - we've got to get rid of this vampire before sunrise!

---

by: prince nekhlyudov @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 23:09:54 PM UTC

Giuliani for Senate? (4.00 / 1)

I'll believe it when I see it.  He's not really a "team player", and I don't see him fitting in (or wanting to fit in) with the clubby good ol' boys atmosphere of the Senate.  The recurring description of him as "more of an executive type" is really just a euphemism for "autocratic tyrant type with no interest in compromise or collaboration".

Frankly, I never understood why he ran in 2000 for Senate; I always saw it as more of an anti-Hillary act of aggression than an actual interest in the job.

---

by: GallatinDan @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 01:23:58 AM UTC

Giuliani didn't run in 2000 (4.00 / 1)

He dropped out early, ostensibly because of his prostate cancer.  Rick Lazio ran.

Interestingly, polls at the time showed that 40% of New Yorkers would vote for anyone over Hillary Clinton, and Lazio got all of 43%.  As I recall, the "pro-Hillary" number was around 35%, meaning of the roughly 25% of people who actually made up their mind based on the campaign, Lazio got about one-eighth of the vote.

---

by: Dan Jacoby @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:27:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yes, of course I know that... (0.00 / 0)

But the point is that he did run, in the sense of forming a campaign or at least having the obvious intention of doing so.

---

by: GallatinDan @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 13:45:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Al D'Amato (0.00 / 0)

Is not going to be happy.  Gillibrand worked for him and her Dad is in tight with D'Amato.  Rudy will be hearing hell from D'Amato if he chooses to run.  

---

by: ROSALIE907 @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 03:24:48 AM UTC

Have a TR (0.00 / 1)

Your D'Amato smear, by a newbie from the Tasini or Cooper campaign, is trollish and ridiculous.

Gillibrand's record, in the House and the Senate, is solidly center-left Democratic.

Who she interned with in college is obviously irrelevant.

BTW, you're not just a troll, you're an ignoramus -- Giuliani and D'Amato have been political enemies for 20 years or so.  

---

by: devtob @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 04:39:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

True (4.00 / 1)

but I do have to say one thing...D'Amato hates Rudy with the passion of 10,000 sons and is clearly close to Gillibrand. This could end up being fairly useful.  

---

by: nrafter530 @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 06:41:13 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't be a schmuck (4.00 / 1)

First of all, I know ROSALIE907, and she is neither trollish nor ridiculous, nor an ignoramus.  Your comment, however -- ad hominem attack on someone with whom you've never had any contact -- is, to say the least, completely uncalled for, and could be termed the "trollish and ridiculous" remark of an "ignoramus."  You are wrong on the facts -- she is not part of either the Tasini or the Cooper campaign (I'd bet long odds she has never even met one of those two, and FEC records show she hasn't contributed to the other).

Second, her comments are accurate -- witness the fact that D'Amato was standing right next to Gillibrand when Gov. Paterson announced that she was his pick for the Senate seat.  Saying that "[w]ho she interned with in college is obviously irrelevant" is obviously wrong -- a person's past is always relevant, especially since she clearly still has a positive personal relationship with her former boss.  Being on the other side of the political aisle does not mean you can't have any positive contact with someone; leave that attitude to the wingnuts.

Finally, if you had a clue, you'd be thrilled with yet another Republican split -- Al D'Amato supporting Kirsten Gillibrand over any Republican challenger should be welcome here.

---

by: Dan Jacoby @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 14:02:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

TR removed (0.00 / 0)

though I still think it's a silly comment.

---

by: devtob @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 14:23:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's Also A Silly Comment, (4.00 / 1)

Because Giuliani and D'Amato hate each other, and they cooperate only out of expediency.  D'Amato's intervention might be something that would actually impel Giuliani to run.

---

by: prince nekhlyudov @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 15:49:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks Dan (0.00 / 0)

For sticking up for me, I owe you.  It's funny but I always find those who call other posters names, are showing how immature they are.  As for Tasini and Cooper I wouldn't waste my time volunteering for either of them nor would I use my precious resources since I'm now unemployed for donations to either one of them.

As for Giuliani and D'Amato, maybe I should have said that D'Amato will now go after him more so.  After all, he was front and center at Gillibrand's swearing in, they remainded friends throughout the years since she worked for him and he's friends with her father.  

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.

---

by: ROSALIE907 @ Sun Nov 22, 2009 at 04:14:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Rudy vs Kirsten?? (4.00 / 1)

Guiliani does things to better Guiliani. The one thing he wants is to see how this will play in the polls, if not - no go. What is amazing about him is his absolute denail that his time has come and gone - the people of New York no longer (if they ever did) see him as "America's Mayor" and his own party consideres him a distance third also-ran.

This NYC villager would most definitely welcome the election of Senator Gillinbrand, but I will always be baffled by upstaters who were and are 100% against a primary against her?

The process needs to be opend up - more primary choices make for better candidates because they have to prove themselves to primary voters, instead of just representing the party line on the general election ballot. Participation makes for better democracy, not exclusion.

Gillenbrand should have been primaried, not because she's not qualified, but because she needs to tell the voters who she is. Now, the most voters will know going into the general election is she's the sitting junior Senator. I don't think that's enough.

Tax the Church.

---

by: furiousdee @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 19:30:51 PM UTC

And I don't know how to spell her name, apparently (4.00 / 1)

My apologies to the Senator from New York :)

Tax the Church.

---

by: furiousdee @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 19:33:17 PM UTC

[ Parent ]