Two For The Price Of One, Redux

Rudy Giuliani told Barbara Walters in an interview that will air tonight that his wife Judi will be welcome to attend Cabinet meetings. Judi Giuliani, a nurse prior to her marriage to Giuliani, has said that she will take a special interest in health-care policy, which raises the specter of a Republican Hillary:

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani told ABC News’s Barbara Walters that he would welcome his wife, Judith, at White House Cabinet meetings and other policy discussions if he were elected president next year.
“If she wanted to,” Giuliani said in the “20/20” interview to be broadcast tonight. “If they were relevant to something that she was interested in. I mean that would be something that I’d be very, very comfortable with.”
Giuliani, who is leading the Republican field in early polling, called his wife an important adviser to him. His wife, a nurse, said that she would probably play an important role in developing health-care policy in a Giuliani administration.

Understandably, this has some Republicans annoyed. We do not elect First Ladies (or First Gentlemen, either), we elect Presidents to lead the nation. If Giuliani wants to try the Bill Clinton line about getting two for the price of one, then the Giulianis had better be prepared for double the scrutiny, both in the primaries and in a general election.
However, this really means little in practical terms. Everyone knows that spouses have a great deal of influence on the policies of politicians. After all, people don’t marry just to ignore their spouses, and if they do, they don’t stay married for long. Nancy had some influence on Ronald, Laura has infuence on George, Rosalynn had influence on Jimmy. Hillary only ran into trouble because she insisted on a formal policy role, and then used it in an ill-considered attempt to nationalize one-seventh of our economy.
If Judi sits in on a Cabinet meeting or two, it will not signal the end of the Republic. If Rudy and Judi insist on campaigning on her ability to do so, it could be the end of his candidacy.

17 thoughts on “Two For The Price Of One, Redux”

  1. IF (and I say, IF) her husband were to be elected AND she wanted to assist, how about letting her run/start a WH day-care center? A first aid station for WH tourists?
    No more 2 fer 1’s, please.

  2. I’d rather Judi attending White House cabinet meetings, than Bill Clinton as a member of the cabinet.
    This is a non-issue. Unfortunately, the media was extremely successful in depressing Republican turnout last fall, particularly among the checklist conservatives (“I’ve been a lifelong Republican but if my candidate does/doesn’t do X, I’m staying home and crying until my face turns blue!”).
    Trust that the media will come up with scores of additional reasons for why Republicans should stay home, while doing everything but driving the bus for the Democrat get out the vote campaign.

  3. Some hot links before I retreat

    I’m off for a prelude-to-the-Triduum retreat and so the pickings will be slim and the blogging quiet in these parts, but I’ll leave you with all the stories and blog entries I’ve been meaning to direct your way for the past two days:

  4. What if Judy is a full-fledged Liberal who wants to impose for example, universal health care. In this case how would electing RudyJudy be any different than electing HillaryBIll Clinton?
    NoDonkey, no doubt the media plays a big role in depressing Republicans but I have to say as a former Liberal who converted after 9/11 many a conservative is equally depressing the Party.
    It appears to me that Conservatives really love punishment. I cannot find any other reason to why conservatives engage in so many weak moves.
    I really want to support Rudy because I don’t want to see any Leftist progressive or socialist (Obama and Clinton) assume power but I know all too well that like Arnold, Rudy is a politician first then a member of the Republican Party.
    The simple analysis is, RINOs are killing the Conservative movement.

  5. Just to note, George W Bush is not a leader of the Conservative Movement. Pro-life aside, he’s a RINO which is the primary reason why so many Fiscal Conservatives are deeply disappointed in his policies.
    If Conservatives want to nominate Rudy Another RINO then I do trust you’ll keep your mouths quiet when he enacts Social Liberal policies.

  6. I could not possibly care less about any candidate who promises to enact socially conservative legislation, because 1) the President has little to do with it 2) even if he does have a small amount of control, the government has little control over the social practices of the populace.
    It’s not that simple and rather than wasting time trying to pass unenforceable legislation (we can’t even enforce most of our clear cut laws), I’d rather see the President concentrate on what the Federal Government should be doing, like defending the nation, which a Democrat President WILL NOT DO.
    Rudy will make an excellent President. I don’t care if his wife attends cabinet meetings. We had Ronald Reagan for eight years and he had no interest in making abortion illegal, so I can live with another President who is not interested in it.

  7. This is a non-issue. Unfortunately, the media was extremely successful in depressing Republican turnout last fall, particularly among the checklist conservatives (“I’ve been a lifelong Republican but if my candidate does/doesn’t do X, I’m staying home and crying until my face turns blue!”).
    Egad, say it ain’t so! Surely it could not have been the war in Iraq, the drunken spenders with the (R) by their names in Congress, or the idiot who lives in the white house that kept them home this year! No, it has to be that old GOP whipping boy, the MSM.
    You are a member in good standing my friend of the “take no responsibility party”, the GOP, No Donkey!
    Just to note, George W Bush is not a leader of the Conservative Movement. Pro-life aside, he’s a RINO which is the primary reason why so many Fiscal Conservatives are deeply disappointed in his policies.
    I knew it wouldn’t take the GOP long to start blaming Bush for all their woes, even though they locksteped with him for the past 6 years, but I surely thought they would wait until at least calendar year 2008! This is exactly why anyone remotely like or supporting GWB will not be elected to the WH. Rudy had better start his distancing soon.
    Can you say “lame duck”?

  8. Just to clarify, come 2008 election I will campaign and vote for any candidate with an R be it a big spender, a ladies man, a Morman or a McCain/Feingold; they’all all superior to the candidates the opposition has to offer.
    One reason, image is everything to the Left and they are masters at driving the narrative, a D victory would only solidify their already over-inflated insane egos. That, and for some odd reason, these days when I imagine a Democrat President I cannot help but see a Hugo Chavez.
    Oh Monkei
    I am proud George W Bush is America’s president. I have long recognized his centrist positions, and know he ran as a centrist candidate not a Conservative. Though I didn’t vote for him in 2000(shamefully didn’t vote period), his platform for example on perscription drug plan, immigration and No Child Left Behind, liberal-based policies, hasn’t changed. I am addressing those Fiscal Conservatives who nominated a centrist candidate and are wondering why the surprise when they had to pay for the centrist platform. This is why I question the reasoning behind nominating another Centrist (ie Rudy) candidates who will ultimately need to spend lots of money to support social policies.
    But despite my own political differences with some of Bush’s policies (at least Conservatives engage in open-minded debate unlike my many liberal friends) I am admire his presidency. Depsite all the slams made by the opposition and sometimes by his own party at least he did not pass the hidden war with Islamic Jihad onto the next administration. Looking back over the last three decades of war I am grateful a leader came along who has the courage to at least begin to fight back. I am proud to call George W. Bush my President, the fact that despite the slings and arrows he continues moving forward; a characteristic which hold meaning to me.
    So Monkei, continue on with the bushhate it doesn’t mean a thing to me.

  9. Rudy was on Howie Carr in Boston this afternoon, and when Howie mentioned it Rudy laughed and said he specifically meant he was talking about healthcare because she is a nurse and has worked at a pharmaceutical company in the past. Howie furthe asked “…so no cabinet meetings regarding Al Qaeda?” to which he responded “no”.

  10. “We had Ronald Reagan for eight years and he had no interest in making abortion illegal, so I can live with another President who is not interested in it. ”
    Reagan did use the power of the Presidency to curtail government spending on abortion, refused to export abortion on the US tax dollar disguised as health care, and spoke out on behalf of the pro-life movement every chance he could. He did speak of working for a day when it was no longer legal. Without either house of Congress or a majority of the Supreme Court, he had no ability to achieve that goal.
    Did you think we’d forgotten what Reagan did for the pro-life movement? Why does the center-right try to “argue” with that kind of malarkey?

  11. o Monkei, continue on with the bushhate it doesn’t mean a thing to me.
    Thanks, I will do that, and please, you keep searching for the reasons to enlighten us all with your continued support of the idiot.

  12. Hey nodonkey, if your side is so worried about the “liberal press” then why don’t more young conservatives go into journalism? I asked that same question to my wifes boss, a hardcore conservative, he told me they can make more money by going into finance,etc! I am not making this up. Lets see…..go into journalism, get the conservative truth out, or go make lots of money, getting it Mr. Donkey?

  13. Monkei
    For once a two-term President will leave office and it will be the opposition who can’t imagine life without him.
    What will you guys do when Bush is gone, and radical Muslims still hate America, and Europe still refuses to get involved?

  14. Yell:
    You forget the guiding principles of Democratic governance. What is in the media is the truth.
    The Europeans will love us and any attacks on the US `will be by Arabs converted to Christianity by US Christians. So sayeth the MSM.

  15. I don’t care if a candidate has been married several times nor do I care if the spouse is not especially likeable. I do care, however, if an otherwise credible candidate for President believes that someone who was once employed as a nurse is thereby qualified to formulate national health care policy.
    It is a lot easier to accept the influence a spouse may have over a candidate when the two have been married a long time as presumably the spouse knows the candidate better than anyone else. In that instance, one would expect a great deal of trust and confidence in each other’s opinions, and a certainty that the other has one’s own best interests at heart, in a good marriage anyway.
    Since Judy and Rudy haven’t been together that long. his remarks seem like just so much newlywed cooing and gooing, making her feel important and “validating” her significance to him. That’s probably understandable and kind of sweet, but not what I would hope to see out of a Presidential candidate. And I wonder what the first two wives think of all this. Was Rudy always so adoring of them? This is not what Rudy should want me to be thinking about.

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