 THIS PAGE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION...As Rudy Giuliani's nomination to be the Republican candidate for President becomes increasingly likely, the grim prospect of his actually winning the White House is also becoming increasingly clear. I've long suspected that it would be a short step for Giuliani from being "Mr. 9/11" to being "Mr. Neo-Con" - particularly given his weak standing with religious conservatives - and as Newsweek reported Oct. 15, he appears to have taken that step. Among Giuliani's top foreign-policy advisors now, according to Newsweek, are these scrapings from the same neo-con septic tanks (the American Enterprise Institute, the Project for the New American Century, etc.) that brought us the disaster in Iraq: Norman Podhoretz, "founding father" of the neo-con movement who has stated that he actually "hopes and prays" President Bush will bomb Iran (see video). Daniel Pipes, who has advocated racial profiling of Arab and Muslim Americans and suggested that Israel punish Palestinians collectively for attacks on Israelis by destroying the attackers' home villages. David Frum, who is credited with coining the phrase, "axis of evil"; and who with his mentor Richard Perle advocated taking regime change beyond Iraq to Iran and Syria. The list goes on, believe me: I could continue, but I'm beginning to grow nauseous at the thought of such characters as these someday sitting as members of the President's cabinet. It really would be like watching Dr. Strangelove come to life. Even some mainstream conservatives are expressing concern at this turn to the dark side that Team Giuliani has taken: "Clearly it is a rather one-sided group of people," Dimitri Simes of the Nixon Center told Newsweek, "Their foreign-policy manifesto seems to be 'We're right, we're powerful, and just make my day.' He's out-Bushing Bush." Meanwhile, Giuliani crowed this week about how in 1995 as mayor of NYC he had Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat forcibly removed from an event at Lincoln Center in honor of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations - an event to which Arafat had been duly invited, and from which Giuliani had no business ejecting him. Mark Green of The Huffington Post details Giuliani's "infantile" behavior at Lincoln Center based on eyewitness accounts; and observes even pro-Israel former NYC mayor Ed Koch's comment that in taking such action Giuliani "violated every decent obligation that he has as mayor." One wonders what price America and the world will pay if such behavior is acted out on the global stage. Giuliani has amplified the hawkishness of his pro-Israel stance of late, making a strategic move to the right of the Bush administration and casting doubt on US support for a Palestinian state: "Too much emphasis has been placed on brokering negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians," Giuliani told Foreign Affairs, "It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism." Giuliani's moderate views on certain domestic social issues may seem attractive to many swing voters and fair-weather liberals who also like the idea of a more hawkish approach to foreign affairs in the name of "keeping Americans safe." These voters should carefully consider the long term cost of attempting to enjoy social moderation at home while wreaking havok abroad and further alienating the United States from the international community. They should also consider Giuliani's record as NYC mayor of waging all-out war on the poor: In the name of "cleaning up the city," Rudy presided over the largest removal of poor and low-income residents in the city's history, using the police to sweep homeless people from the streets and aiding real-estate developers in their efforts to evict low-income renters and replace them with more upscale residents. Well worth considering is how little support Giuliani's presidential campaign has received from NYC, even on his role in 9/11 which has been so mythologized (largely by himself). For all her faults, the presumptive Democratic nominee would be far preferable to Strangelove and Co.

Mark C. Eades
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