This Week In Rudy

Rudy Giuliani will surely be hurt by the imminent arrest and trial of his former Police Commissioner, who Rudy hyped to become Homeland Security chief despite all of the obvious flaws and illegalities in his past. Bernard Kerik was not only a Giuliani appointee, he was a business partner in his consulting firm. The Kerik issue will stick out like a sore thumb, and it speaks to Giuliani's judgment and gullibility.

But what OUGHT to be a scandal were Rudy's statements this week, which show an unwillingness to understand the basic frameworks of American government. I've already mentioned Rudy's belief that the President is an emperor when it comes to funding war, and his support for public funding of abortion has gotten a lot of ink. But what about this complete confusion over Shiite and Sunni Islam:

As for Iran, Mr. Giuliani said that “in the long term,” it might be “more dangerous than Iraq.”

He then casually lumped Iran with Al Qaeda. “Their movement has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he said.

Mr. Giuliani was asked in an interview to clarify that, inasmuch as Iran had no connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Further, most of its people are Shiites, whereas Al Qaeda is an organization of Sunnis.

“They have a similar objective,” he replied, “in their anger at the modern world.”

This is the pose that so many conservatives make, neglecting the differences between the Muslim sects. This was a major issue when House Intelligence Committee chair Silvestre Reyes got it wrong. But when someone like Giuliani says "once a raghead, always a raghead" and puts forth a policy of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out," one that makes people like Bill Kristol swoon:

This morning, Kristol again promoted the concept of war with Iran. He said Iran’s kidnapping of the 15 British soldiers has brought the world closer to another war. “We came closer to war with Iran this week,” Kristol said, complaining that the U.S. was “very passive.”

Juan Williams then questioned, “Well, what was the alternative? To go in and strike them while the hostages were there?” Kristol said “yes.”

Giuliani has the mark of this anger, the imprimatur of ignorance in him, which should serve him well in the Republican primaries. So will this discussion, wherein Rudy says universal health care is bad because then insurance companies won't be able to get PAAAIIIIDDD...

“It’s a no-risk society,” Giuliani went on. “If we continue with this idea of collective responsibility, we’ll become a society that deteriorates. And it’s a battle that has to be fought now.”

He offers health care as an example. “Democrats want universal health care, collective responsibility — honestly, it’s their version of socialized medicine.” Even the recent health care reform in Massachusetts, designed by the Republican governor Mitt Romney, was tainted with collectivity, because it required every citizen to get health insurance.

“I don’t like mandates,” Giuliani says. “I don’t like mandating health care. I don’t like it because it erodes what makes health care work in this country — the free market, the profit motive. A mandate takes choice away from people. We’ve got to let people make choices. We’ve got to let them take the risk–do they want to be covered? Do they want health insurance? Because ultimately, if they don’t, well, then, they may not be taken care of. I suppose that’s difficult.” He lets the idea sink in, though it seems to bother his audience not at all. “The minute you start mandating, you always end up with more expensive government programs.”

So. According to Rudy Giuliani, health care works in this country. See, 45 million uninsured Americans CAN be wrong! Apparently there's no Medicare or Veteran's Administration either. And apparently those statistics that "Our system is far more expensive than anywhere else, denies medical services to tens of millions of people except when they have emergencies, and by most measures produces no better outcome" are just some of those facts with a well-known liberal bias.

On a few issues, Rudy Giuliani is a much-coveted "moderate." Those issues happen to have a low salience. On the issues that matter, which involve war and peace and the sick and the dying, Giuliani literally doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Which you would think is a pre-requisite for being President in the 21st century, but probably shouldn't be.