'Today': Being Tough on Crime Puts Rudy at Odds With NRA

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
September 22, 2007 - 08:22 ET

At first I thought I might have misunderstood. Lester Holt surely didn't mean to imply that befriending the NRA jeopardizes a politician's reputation for being tough on crime, did he?

Oh yes he did.

View video here.

On this morning's "Today," weekend co-anchor Holt introduced a segment on Rudy Giuliani's Friday speech to the NRA, in which Rudy tried to take some of the sharp edges off his prior anti-NRA positions . . .

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LESTER HOLT: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giulani remains the apparent GOP front-runner of his party for the White House, but his long record of being tough on crime was put to the test on Friday as he addressed one of his party's biggest supporters, the NRA. NBC's John Yang has the story.

Yang perpetutated the notion that crime-fighting and supporting the NRA are intrinsically at odds.

JOHN YANG: As a crime-fighting NYC Mayor, Rudy Giuliani called the NRA "right-wing extremists." As a presidental candidate he's asking for their votes.

A bit later, Holt began his conversation with NBC political analyst Craig Crawford by choosing an unflattering metaphor for Guliani and his softening of his anti-Second Amendment stance.

HOLT: It was almost as if you could hear the sound like from a garbage truck backing up "beep, beep, beep" as Giulani tried to explain to the NRA campaign what he said then and what he's saying now.

Later, Lester left no doubt that as far as he's concerned, being strong on law and order requires opposing the NRA and Second Amendment rights.

HOLT: Is there a bigger message [he's] sending to social conservatives, at least coming back a little bit from his [anti-NRA attitude]. I mean he's got to keep his strong law-and-order stance but obviously he has to take care of groups like this to some extent, doesn't he?

So there it is. As far as Holt's concerned, the NRA is just a bunch of "social conservatives" who Rudy needs to pacify, or "take care of" as Lester put it. And that's a problem because opposing the NRA is what's required "to keep his strong law-and-order stance."

Oh, and would people please alert me the next time anyone in the MSM analogizes Hillary Clinton to a garbage truck?

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


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With logic like that...

September 22, 2007 - 09:55 ET by c5then

It's a wonder that they aren't pushing for MADD to stop their campaign aginst the poor drunk "victims" and start pushing to ban motor vehicles.



The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Fred08.com

Ok, let's say a bulldozer's a better analogy...

September 22, 2007 - 10:28 ET by sarcasmo

Regardless, we all hear that BEEP BEEP BEEP whenever ANY of the Northeastern RINOs yammers about self-defense rights, and that's the point. Whether Mitt or Rudy, they just can't seem to keep their stories straight, and it's due to a lack of principles on the issue, IMO.

I think Thompson's approach is smarter, he's simply buying up the rights (question: what's he payin' to keep those other voices silent?) to have a booth at FL gunshows, because other Presidential candidates -- principled or not -- would take some of the pro-gun spotlight. I suspect it was a pretty penny he spent, and I'm gonna try to find FECal records that say just how-pretty because that's journalism the news media's highly-unlikely to do for me...

Face it, folks, Rudy said what he said about the NRA back then when it was politically-convenient, now he's backing off because it's not politically-convenient anymore. Period. The real question is whether or not this guy can be believed, since he's not just "law and order" to some of us; he's instead (see the Napolitano remedial ConLaw 101 lecture permalinked in my user-area) more like "an authoritarian control-freak."
JMR

Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul.

If he actually made that comment,,,

September 22, 2007 - 12:40 ET by bigpapa

that's enough to prevent me from voting for Rudy..

regardless of the intent of this article or it's implications.

Only true supporters of the 2nd amendment need apply for my vote.