It had to happen sometime: Democrats are busting former mayor Rudy Giuliani's chops over comments he made yesterday during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. The Politico's Roger Simon reports:
“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,” Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”
He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”
After his speech to the Rockingham County Lincoln Day Dinner, I asked him about his statements and Giuliani said flatly: “America will be safer with a Republican president.”
Which essentially boils down to: Democrat president in 2008 = September 11 again. Or that's how the Democrats are taking it. Senator Barack Obama criticized Giuliani and said, "Rudy Giuliani today has taken the politics of fear to a new low and I believe Americans are ready to reject those kind of politics. America's mayor should know that when it comes to 9/11 and fighting terrorists, America is united. We know we can win this war based on shared purpose, not the same divisive politics that question your patriotism if you dare to question failed policies that have made us less secure."
Senator Hillary Clinton basically concurred and said, "One of the great tragedies of this administration is that the president failed to keep this country unified after 9/11." And former senator John Edwards said, " Rudy Giuliani’s suggestion that there is some superior ‘Republican’ way to fight terrorism is both divisive and plain wrong. He knows better. That’s not the kind of leadership he offered in the days immediately after 9/11, and it’s not the kind of leadership any American should be offering now."
