Hurrah for Lazio
For months Rudy had been blowing kisses at the GOP regarding whether he would of would not enter the race for the Senate while Hillary! was on "listening tours" and later campaign stops as a declared candidate. While Rudy pondered the vicious smear machine was cranked up in full gear. Hillary! suggested that Rudy was too mean and nasty to be Senator and questioned his temperament at every opportunity. Race hustler and well known liar and demagogue Al Sharpton led minions into a holy war with the mayor and did the best they could to strike up racial tensions in the city. But Rudy could not fully defend himself from the smear machine, as it would only substantiate claims that he was "mean." And as usual Republicans sat back and let the Democrats lead a campaign of smearing, distortion and half-truths without even putting up a good fight. By the time Rudy departed the race he was in a statistical heat in the polls with Hillary! A better candidate would have been giving Hillary! a pounding in the polls. No matter how much the "pragmatic" Republicans tried to sell him, Rudy was never the right candidate. Rick Lazio was always a better candidate. He is young, energetic, good looking, a fighter, and has experience and a voting record in Congress. If he loses it is only going to be because of Rudy prolonging his entrance into the race up until now. Lazio who has long considered running for Senate was earlier muscled out of the race by the GOP in the same manner that Nita Lowrey was muscled from the race by carpetbagger Hillary! Had the race been between Hillary! and Guliani it would have only been a race about personalities, not issues. Some say that would have been great considering Hillary's! icy and deceptive personality and general phoniness. However, Hillary! deserves to be exposed for the left wing fraud that she is, and Rudy would have been incapable of doing that with the "mean-spirited" image he had to kick. If Lazio's performance thus far is any sign of what is to come, this is going to be a very fun race. In Lazio's announcement speech he denounced Hillary! as a far-left candidate that "has no real rationale for serving here other than as a steppingstone to some other position." It was almost like music to my ears. For years liberals have been slinging the terms "right-wing" and "far-right" to any candidate that disagreed with their extremist philosophy. The term "right-wing" is so imbedded in our terminology that nobody even thinks twice when hearing it. But how often do you hear liberals being branded as "left-wing." To allege that somebody is a member of the "far-left" will only provokes weird stares and chuckles. After all, how can the tolerant, loving and compassionate liberals who care so much about "the children" be "extremist"? Lazio went on to say, "My opponent is a liberal and a proud one, and I respect her for that, but make no mistake: she is no more a New Democrat than she is a New Yorker." The idea that Hillary! is some kind of centrist is an absolute joke unless you consider someone who wants to socialize health care, expand the size of government, take more of your tax dollars, pander to teachers unions, homosexuals, the UN, radical feminists, etc as "centrist." Forget this warm and fuzzy garbage about "the children," Hillary's! agenda is radical and is bad for America, and that is what Lazio must convey to the voters. But it gets better: "She offers the big government ideology that crippled New York in the 1980's. I do not believe we want to enter this new century pledging allegiance to the liberal ideas that so painfully failed us in the last century." Liberals have convinced many of their followers that the government is source of salvation to the masses. However the exact opposite is true. Government is the instrument liberals have used to enslave the masses, particularly the poor and minorities, to gain political power. Make no mistake; slavery still exists, only now instead of white plantation owners as the slave masters, it is the liberal politicians and government bureaucrats keeping people in bondage. Republicans have dismally failed at conveying this message and as a result, people like Hillary! are swooned over. The Clinton crowd is not stupid though. Liberals are incredibly effective at demagoguery and will do their best to savage Lazio. The story line already is this: Rick Lazio is a Gingrich Republican and too extreme to be Senator. In the Senate he will support other right wing extremists like Trent Lott and Jesse Helms. While Mrs. Clinton will be trying to serve New Yorkers by strengthening education, seeing that more New Yorkers receive health coverage and fighting for the sick, young, elderly, left handed, vertically challenged, etc; Rick Lazio will be pushing a risky right wing agenda. However this is all hogwash. Lazio is far from "extreme" and I wouldn't even call him "right wing." He supports many of the liberal positions of Guliani such as abortion and gun control. In 1998 he voted against two bills that would have prohibited preferential treatments on the basis of race and gender. He voted to support Clinton's war on Kosovo and even voted no on a resolution that would have prohibited the use of ground forces in Kosovo. It is going to be quite hard to paint Lazio as an extremist considering his liberal-leaning views on certain issues. He can, however, show that it is Hillary! that is outside the mainstream as he already has with abortion. "I'm for a woman's right to choose, but I think it's not unlimited," Mr. Lazio said. "I favor the ban on partial birth. I think Mrs. Clinton takes the position to the extreme." Because of Lazio's opposition to the barbaric procedure of partial-birth abortion he will be in a better position to receive the Conservative Party endorsement. Had Rudy been the GOP nominee he would not of got the endorsement and the Conservative Party would of likely thrown in their own candidate drawing votes away from Rudy and helping Hillary! Lazio who lives outside New York City will also be in a better position to do well with upstate New York voters than Rudy. He will however have to do some heavy campaigning in the area as he has to deal with lower name recognition and the fact that Hillary! has spent quite some time their. The name recognition factor will not be as big of a problem for Lazio as some think as he is quickly getting more and more press. On Sunday he appeared on every Sunday mourning political talk show, ala William Ginsburg. Lazio also has on his side Hillary's! high negative approval ratings. In fact, Hillary! can't seem to get her numbers above the mid-forties range. And of course there is much ammunition against Clinton that Lazio can use. Of course there is the billing records controversy. Then there is the previous efforts to obstruct the Resolution Trust Corporation's investigation of the failed Arkansas thrift, Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan which involved a sham real estate deal and which RTC investigator Jean Lewis said that there was a "concerted effort to obstruct, hamper and manipulate" the Madison investigation. What about the lies told about Hillary's! investments in cattle futures where she made 100,000$ from 1,000$? Hillary! first claimed she did the trades herself and then stopped when she became pregnant. When the story was later proven to be bunk the White House revealed that most of the trades were placed by James Blair, a Clinton hack and Tyson Foods lawyer.. There is that pesky Travel office affair where after denying to investigators that she had any role in the firings of long time employees a memo is produced pointing at her direct involvement. Perhaps Mr. Lazio should employ Billy Dale as a member of his campaign team. Mr. Dale can tell us first hand of Hillary's! compassion. Mr. Lazio can also ask Mrs. Clinton what her role was in urging the White House to release personal letters by Kathleen Willey, which a federal judge has ruled was in violation of the Privacy Act. The usual suspects will denounce all of this as "old news" but whether or not the First Lady is a felon should be a concern for voters. In fact, had James McDougal not passed away in a federal prison in March of 98', it is likely that Hickman Ewing's draft indictment against Hillary! would have been issued. Prosecuters believed Hillary! had obstructed government investigators and made false statements about her legal work for McDougal regarding the Castle Grande real estate project. Rick Lazio can win this race. If he doesn't, Rudy Guiliani and the Republican Party will share much of the blame for initially keeping him out. Lazio will win if he can expose Hillary! as a liar who has a rich history in deception and who holds extremist left wing views. While I personally find some of Lazio's views goofy such as his support of globalism, Clinton's war, the WTO and abortion as examples, he will be an invaluable member of the conservative movement if he can do what no other Republican has done before him: discredit the Clintons and expose them as extremists. May 23, 2000 Bill Barnwell is a freelance journalist and co-editor in chief of www.thepotatoe.com |
Good
riddance Rudy Guliani. The Republican Party once again screwed it
up and showed their lack of principles when defending this liberal
liar by trying to keep him in the race. Rudy, we were told, was
the one and only person that could defeat Hillary Clinton, excuse
me, Hillary! Even though the mayor of New York supports gay rights,
partial birth abortion, affirmative action, and gun control, Republicans
were told that he was the only one that could save New York and
America from six more years of Clintonism. Even those conservatives
who supposedly value principle over politics were unmoved after
allegations of infidelity were attributed towards Rudy.