{"id":13358,"date":"2007-10-25T11:15:21","date_gmt":"2007-10-25T15:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13358.html"},"modified":"2007-10-25T11:15:21","modified_gmt":"2007-10-25T15:15:21","slug":"giuliani-on-waterboarding-it-depends-on-how-its-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/giuliani-on-waterboarding-it-depends-on-how-its-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Giuliani on waterboarding: ‘It depends on how it’s done’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, it appears that Rudy Giuliani has changed his campaign strategy a bit. Over the summer, the former mayor positioned himself as a pragmatic choice for Republicans, billing himself as a candidate who could compete in “blue” states and win a national election. It quickly became an awkward pitch, and Giuliani frequently came across as a buffoon, but that was the strategy.<\/p>\n

More recently, however, he’s apparently lost his mind. “Buffoon” is out; “lunatic” is in. Consider his comments<\/a> at a town-hall meeting in Iowa last night.<\/p>\n

Linda Gustitus, who is the president of a group called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, began her question by saying that President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey (who happens to be an old friend of Mr. Giuliani’s) had “fudged” on the question of whether waterboarding is torture.<\/p>\n

“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?”<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Ms. Gustitus said: “He said he didn’t know if waterboarding is torture.”<\/p>\n

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.” (Applause)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the risk of sounding impolite, these are the words of a crazy person.
\n
\nRemember, Giuliani is running for president as an expert<\/i> on counter-terrorism and national security policy. And yet he told this Iowa audience that he doesn’t know whether waterboarding is torture, and doesn’t know if newspapers can be trusted to describe the torture technique. Apparently, reality continues to have a “well-known liberal bias.”<\/p>\n

Giuliani, adding to his thoughts on waterboarding, also said:<\/p>\n

“Sometimes they [journalists] describe it accurately. Sometimes they exaggerate it. So I’d have to see what they really are doing, not the way some of these liberal newspapers have exaggerated it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s like listening to Bush without the charm.<\/p>\n

On a related note, Giuliani, who used to oppose the NRA and file gun-control lawsuits, said in New Hampshire this week that blind people should be able to carry firearms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani is leaving the door open to allowing the blind and physically disabled to carry guns.<\/p>\n

During a town hall meeting in northwestern New Hampshire Tuesday night, Giuliani told a former police officer blinded in the line of duty and concerned about the former New York City mayor’s stance on guns, “You don’t have to worry.”<\/p>\n

“You have a constitutional right, that is protected, to bear and carry arms. It is the Second Amendment,” Giuliani told about 200 attendees in a high school gymnasium in Lebanon. “If someone disagrees with that, you have to get the Constitution changed.”<\/p>\n

He added that he believes in only three restrictions for those wishing to exercise their Second Amendment right — a previous criminal record, a history of mental instability and an age requirement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No vision, no problem. You want a gun, it’s yours.<\/p>\n

Breathtaking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, it appears that Rudy Giuliani has changed his campaign strategy a bit. Over the summer, the former mayor positioned himself as a pragmatic choice for Republicans, billing himself as a candidate who could compete in “blue” states and win a national election. It quickly became an awkward pitch, and Giuliani frequently came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}