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Mitt Romney and the Veto

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The Romney Record : Governor Romney's Top Ten Line-Item Vetoes "I had the line-item veto. We ought to have that in Washington. It allows you to pick out the pork and pick out the waste and to zero in on it." – Governor Romney (Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," 4/4/07) VETO #1: More Than 800 Budget Line-Items: For All Four Of The Fiscal-Year Budgets That Crossed His Desk, Governor Romney Used The Line-Item Veto Power More Than 800 Times. Over the course of four budgets, Governor Romney made over 300 line-item reductions, 350 line-item eliminations and struck language 150 times. (Chapter 26 Of The Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Acts Of 2003, Governor's Veto Message, 6/30/ 2003 ; Chapter 149 Of The Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Acts Of 2004, Governor's Veto Message, 6/25/ 2004 ; Chapter 45 Of The Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Acts Of 2005, Governor's Veto Message, 6/30/ 2005 ; Governor Mitt Romney, Memo To The Senate And House Of Re...

The Romney Record: A Record Of Reducing Crime In Massachusetts

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GIULIANI 'S INCREASINGLY " FUZZY " STATS Giuliani Falsely Claims That "Violent Crime" Went Up In Massachusetts : Yesterday, Giuliani Falsely Claimed That "Violent Crime " Went Up In Massachusetts . "'Gov. Romney did not have a good record in dealing with violent crime.' Giuliani pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket that listed FBI crime statistics for Massachusetts while Romney was governor. Murders were up 7.5 percent, robbery was up 12 percent, he said. 'He had an increase in murder and violent crime while he was governor,' Giuliani said. 'So it's not so much the isolated situation which he and the judge will have to explain _ he's kind of thrown her under the bus, so it's hard to know how this is all going to come out. But the reality is, he did not have a record of reducing violent crime.'" (Charles Babington, "Romney Calls On Judge He Appointed To Resign After Washington State Murder...

Newsweek: "Growing Up Giuliani"

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This article helped convince me that Romney, not McCain was the best presidential candidate.   Now I have tons of great reasons not to vote for Giuliani...   This latest article from Newsweek is a must read for anyone who is following the presidential election. It is in the Dec, 03 2007 Issue and is by Evan Thomas and Suzanne Smalley of NEWSWEEK.   Here are some of my favorite parts, but you need to read the whole thing.     http://www.newsweek.com/id/72121/page/1 On Sept. 16, 1992, the police in New York City held a rally that spun out of control. The cops wanted a new collective-bargaining agreement, and they were angry at Mayor David Dinkins for proposing a civilian review board and for refusing to issue patrolmen 9mm guns. More than a few of them tipsy or drunk, the cops jumped on cars near city hall and blocked traffic near the Brooklyn Bridge. According to some witnesses, they waved placards crudely mocking Mayor Dinkins, the first black m...

Time on Donna Hanover (#2) and Judith Nathan (#3)

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It must be infuriating for Romney to be in 2nd place to such a putz: "While Giuliani was ranting at moral decay, his personal life was a shambles. In Giuliani's last year in office, Donna Hanover learned that her husband was divorcing her when he gave a press conference. Giuliani's third wife, Judith Nathan, has provided fodder for the tabloids by wearing a tiara to a charity ball and seeming to enjoy Giuliani's perks and power a little too much ."    

Time on Giuliani and Bernard Kerik

From Time : "Giuliani's loyalty to his last police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, bordered on the blind. The two men had come to know each other when Kerik, acting as an off-duty cop, drove Giuliani during his first mayoral campaign in 1989 (Giuliani lost to Dinkins). Kerik was the sort of diamond in the rough Giuliani appreciated—a tough street cop who got things done. Giuliani has insisted that he did not know about Kerik's questionable dealings with two businessmen with alleged mob connections. City hall records reviewed by NEWSWEEK suggest that the mayor may have been briefed on some of these problems just before Kerik was appointed commissioner. But Giuliani has said he has no memory, and his tight palace guard remains close-mouthed. ("There were mistakes made with Bernie Kerik," Giuliani said earlier this month, adding that Kerik's wrongdoing should not outweigh his crimefighting successes.)"

Rudy to alter boy: "your no altar boy"

Giuliani never found an equal to Bratton. The next commissioner, Howard Safir, was regarded as a "Yes Rudy" who tried too hard to please his master. ("I am very loyal to Rudy," Safir tells NEWSWEEK. "However, when I disagreed with him … I made sure I did it in private.") The police stepped up their stop-and-frisk campaign in poor, largely minority neighborhoods. A series of ugly police-brutality cases besmirched Giuliani's crimefighting record and alienated blacks and Hispanics. In 2000, when an undercover narcotics detective killed an unarmed security guard named Patrick Dorismond, who was black, Giuliani scoffed that Dorismond was no "altar boy." Actually, he was an altar boy—and had attended Bishop Loughlin high school.   From the Time article

Time: "Loyalty to Giuliani means staying out of his limelight"

More from the Time Article:   http://www.newsweek.com/id/72121/page/6 "Loyalty to Giuliani means staying out of his limelight. Police Commissioner William Bratton discovered that in January 1996, when he made the mistake of posing for the cover of Time magazine in a trench coat to tout New York's astonishing success at fighting crime. Giuliani was not pleased; he ordered city hall's lawyers to start investigating Bratton's expenses, and the commissioner was gone in a couple of months...  In truth, both men deserve credit for New York's turnaround. Bratton was a vocal apostle of the "broken window" theory of crime—that small acts of vandalism can create a lawless climate conducive to bigger crimes." But really, do you have to say anything else but:   Giuliani endorsed liberal Democrat Mario Cuomo