Authoritarian Narcissist

I don't think that Giuliani's sudden love for the Red Sox controversy is going to go away; he probably just lost New York and maybe New Jersey if he makes the general election, and New Hampshire Red Sox fans really don't want some Yankee fan's support.

But that's about the least important piece of news on Rudy there is. What people are slowly coming to understand is that he's surrounded himself with the most crazed bunch of lunatics he could possibly find to set his Middle East policy.

Mr. Giuliani’s team includes Norman Podhoretz, a prominent neoconservative who advocates bombing Iran “as soon as it is logistically possible”; Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum, who has called for profiling Muslims at airports and scrutinizing American Muslims in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps; and Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who has written in favor of revoking the United States’ ban on assassination.

The campaign says that the foreign policy team, which also includes scholars and experts with different policy approaches, is meant to give Mr. Giuliani a variety of perspectives.

Yes, all the way from "Bomb Iran" to "BOOOOOOMMMMMBBBBB Iran!"

We're finally starting to see some real scrutiny of the rogue's gallery with whom Giuliani has associated. Norman Podhoretz prays for an attack on Iran daily, and while the advisors aren't running for President, there appears to be little difference between Rudy's views and theirs. (Not to mention that Rudy has the heroin kingpin vote all locked up, and they openly talk about how he made deals with "guys like me.")

And we know how this will play out: imperial adventures, more massive military projection throughout the world, unilateralism, more contempt for allies, and more moral relativism on fundamental principles of civilized societies, allowing for the worst kinds of abuses as long as he maintains power.

“I wanted to ask you two questions,’’ she said. “One, do you think waterboarding is torture? And two, do you think the president can order something like waterboarding even though it’s against U.S. and international law?’’

Mr. Giuliani responded: “Okay. First of all, I don’t believe the attorney general designate in any way was unclear on torture. I think Democrats said that; I don’t think he was.’’

Ms. Gustitus said: “He said he didn’t know if waterboarding is torture.”

Mr. Giuliani said: “Well, I’m not sure it is either. I’m not sure it is either. It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it. I think the way it’s been defined in the media, it shouldn’t be done. The way in which they have described it, particularly in the liberal media. So I would say, if that’s the description of it, then I can agree, that it shouldn’t be done. But I have to see what the real description of it is. Because I’ve learned something being in public life as long as I have. And I hate to shock anybody with this, but the newspapers don’t always describe it accurately.”

That's just transparently false. The technique of waterboarding as used by the Khmer Rouge and other totalitarian societies is extremely clear. You can talk about "fine lines" and determining what "aggressive questioning" is and joke about how sleep deprivation doesn't fall into a banned category, but it's all fully untrue. There are very specific statutes regarding torture, human rights courts around the world have included both torture and abnormal sleep deprivation, and Giuliani is simply trying to change the definition.

Rudy Giuliani is an authoritarian narcissist, the worst combination of Bush/Cheney contempt for dissent or any countervailing power, combined with absolutely no conscience that would check himself personally. He would be, as many have put it, George Bush on steroids.