The former New York City mayor regards himself and an expert on patriotism
For too many chat show windbags, patriotism is expressed though flag-fondling and mindless rhetoric. But you’d think a former leader of a great city would be able to form a more cogent description.
Rudy Giuliani doesn’t even try anymore. The former mayor once described by Jimmy Breslin as “a small man in search of a balcony,” was on the stump for Scott Walker Wednesday night, when he said this about President Obama:
“I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. . . . He wasn’t brought up the way you and I were brought up, through love of this country.”
There was more about exceptionalism and other concepts that made his audience swoon, but it’s remarkable that anyone takes Giuliani seriously anymore, because he is never more than a half-step removed from some of people he finds most contemptible.
The truth is, there is no one Giuliani won’t embrace if the circumstances benefit his wallet: His lobbying firm, Giuliani Partners, has taken money from Saudi Arabia, big tobacco, Hugo Chavez, and for-profit prisons. Remember how he’d shape public policy to suit his donors? He did big business with Bechtel, the legendary war profiteer. Remember how he used to call drug dealers murderers? Another GP client was data miner Seisint, founded by a cocaine smuggler named Hank Asher.
That’s Giuliani’s world, where outrage is selective, integrity is conditional, and patriotism is merely a cudgel. He needs to go away.
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