Today's New York Post says that key state Republican party leaders are seeking to replace Joe Mondello with Rudy Giuliani. They say he is the savior of the Party. Hmmmm. Anyone happen to see Newsweek naming Rudy one of the ten losers coming out of the 2008 campaign? Or on their chutzpah scale rating him highly for cravenly pandering to New Hampshire voters by saying that this life-long, die-hard Yankee fan would root for the Red Sox in a World Series? I think the state party is conveniently missing the message from all this. John Faso could not have stated the problem more clearly than in his piece in last week's Post. The state senate Republicans are what's wrong with the state party, not Joe Mondello. Yes, Joe Mondello was/is a poor chairman. He was a pick from a former era. But the reason the public turned so blue on Tuesday was because for years now the senate leadership has offered no alternative to the Democrats. Faso hit the nail on the head when he said that it would have been unthinkable under Ralph Marino to even consider congestion pricing let alone endorsing it. But the state party has sold their soul to Mike Bloomberg. Without his annual $500K they would have no functioning outreach apparatus. He's not a Republican, never was. Yet they take his money and endorse his left-wing agenda. I suppose it is more honorable than taking his money and opposing his agenda, but all the same they've sold out.
As for Rudy "coming home" and saving the day. Which Rudy is it exactly who will be riding that white stead? The pro-immigration Rudy who saved but one outreach liaison office when he took over in 1994, that being the Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs, or the Rudy who now believes we need to beef up the borders and re-examine amnesty? The unflaggingly pro-choice Rudy or the one who believes we need more pro-life Supreme Court appointments? The virulently anti-gun Rudy or the one who thinks we need a second look? I could go on and on. He sums up the problem in Albany and across the state party. We don't have any firm convictions so why would anyone vote for us? His or Tony Carbonetti's appointment as State Chair would only underscore the problem. Their is no quick fix to this problem - people don't trust us. Trust has to be won back over time. Trust me, I know.
Set out a clear moderate-libertarian program -pro-choice, lower taxes, smaller more efficient government, new investment in infrastructure and high-speed rail, opposition to any Bloomberg efforts to tax bridges or entry-points, a true bi-partisan plan (not ESDC corporate boondoggles) to solve the systemic economic troubles of the upstate economy, decriminalize marijuana possession and drastically reduce the prison population and wasted law enforcement resources. These are just a few ideas, I'm open to many more and a discussion of what our state party is and where it is going. More of the same will get you more of the same. Namely, a lot more counties turning blue. This 1980's experiment of turning the state Republican party into the state Conservative party failed. We've now tried turning it into the state Democratic party which the results of last Tuesday show us worked no better. Is Rudy the savior? I've written here repeatedly that old Rudy could have been. I've seen no evidence that new Rudy gets it.