Giuliani Back to Plague Us with Anti-Gay, Reagan Rhetoric

The blessed quietude of Rudolph Giuliani after his drubbing in last year's Republican primaries has come to an end, apparently. He spoke last night at the New York GOP's Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner -- yes, they added the Gipper to the traditional title, maybe to propitiate Republicans are not content to be represented by a man who freed the slaves -- where the former Mayor expectedly attacked the Democratic leadership and called for a "Reagan reorganization" of the state's finances, explaining, "He cut spending. He made government efficient."

Many Republicans now think the Mayor, who governed the city during a Clintonite boom, is just the man to bring Reaganite governance to the state during a depression. His fans include the loathsome Newt Gingrich.

This is just a way to get the national Republican organization to talk about him again and maybe send money. That's why he still insists that opposing gay marriage is a winning strategy in New York state -- even though yesterday's Siena poll shows a majority of New Yorkers backing it, and even some conservatives find his anti-gay conversion counterproductive. Having reversed his traditional anti-gun stance to run for the GOP Presidential nomination, only to lose humiliatingly anyway, he would almost certainly back off the anti-gay talk in a real race. But right now he has to stroke the rubes. And why not? It's not as if he had any real principles.