On Friday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani lambasted Senate hopeful Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin as so far to the left in her views “that she can’t think straight.”
In a conference call, Giuliani slammed Baldwin for a 2006 vote against a resolution commemorating the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Former Wisconsin Governor and Republican Senate hopeful Tommy Thompson has been running an ad attacking Baldwin for that vote.
Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York City when planes flew into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, attacked Baldwin for that vote, and said she had a history of voting against the interests of the military. He attacked her for the fact that she voted “present” a 2006 vote to condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s denial of the holocaust and advocacy of the destruction of Israel.
“To vote ‘present’ on something like that means that your left wing ideology is so extreme that you’re basically living in some kind of an unreal world,” Giuliani said.
Baldwin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she voted “present” because “she agreed with the sentiments in the resolution,” but wanted to prevent then-President George W. Bush from using the vote as a justification to go to war with Iran.
On the 9/11 resolution, Baldwin has said she voted for the resolution nine other times in congress, but voted against it that time because it contained language that she felt politicized the issue by praising controversial bills that many Democrats opposed. The Washington Post reported at the time that Democrats voting for it would likely be trapped into having to commended legislation they did not support.
Giuliani dismissed that explanation.
“It doesn’t make any difference at all,” he said. “My understanding is Nancy Pelosi voted for this resolution. If the language didn’t bother Nancy Pelosi, I’m trying to figure out what that language could be that would bothered her — except for the fact that she’s so far to the left of Nancy Pelosi that she can’t think straight.”
He also went after Baldwin for a bill she opposed that would have provided body armor for troops.
“I mean, who the heck would vote against armor-piercing protection for our troops except for someone who’s hanging so far out on the left that she can’t even think straight,” Giuliani exclaimed.
“She’s such an ideologue that she can’t think clearly,” he added.
The former mayor praised Thompson’s tenure as governor and handling of the aftermath of 9/11 as Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The call was organized by Gov. Thompson’s campaign.
