Do You Want This Guy to Have WMDs?

Consider on this fine Sunday morning the consequences of Rudy Giuliani^tm getting his hands on the United States arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

The United States claims to still have 16,000 metric tons of chemical weapons and is dragging its feet in complying with an international treaty to destroy them. They have considerably more if you include duel use chemicals like white phosphorus which the United States is known to have used against civilian targets in the Iraq War. The United States have nearly 10,000 nuclear weapons.

Of all the candidates for president, Rudy Giuliani is the most unstable to have within arms length of the WMD buttons.

Lacks Impulse Control
Whether it is dressing is drag, having affairs, or controlling his anger Rudy has demonstrated an inability to control either his emotions or his urges. Do we really want to give someone who so habitually acts without thinking the power to obliterate entire nations with the flick of his wrist?

No Sense for Good Character
Bernie Kerik, the man Giuliani put up for head of Homeland Security, was Rudy's police commissioner. He is being tried for only some of his many dirty dealings. Rudy has kept an accused pedophile priest, Monsignor Alan Placa, on his campaign staff. His South Carolina campaign chair, Arthur Ravenel, has a long history of racist comments. There is no telling what sort of lowlifes Rudy will have advising him on war strategies.

Petty and Vindictive
The single adjective most often used to describe him is "vindictive." Try Googling "giuliani" and "vindictive" if you like getting overwhelmed with hits. As mayor of New York he constantly was seeking petty vengeance for political slights. His treatment of his second wife can only be described as vicious. Imagine what someone with his "I'll show you bastards" outlook can do if he is struck with a sudden urge to shove a nuke up someone's ass.

Paranoid
This is a word few journalists have the courage to use (see the above paragraph). Cintra Wilson used it in a 2006 Salon article and she hasn't mentioned Rudy's name in print since. Many rank-and-file New Yorkers have noticed Rudy's penchant for taking everything personal as the motive for his renown vengeful streak. He is the kind of guy who would believe a bellyache from some bad dim sum was an act of war by China.

Bat-Shit Insane
The words are from Matthew Yglesias but they are so spot on that conservative writer James Joyner has endorsed them. The genesis of this observation is Giuliani's stated belief that diplomacy is misguided and the only way the United States can live in peace is after the military conquest of all of her enemies. Bat-shit insane isn't a bad thing if it means holding long conversations with the flowers in the Rose Garden. But, add insane to paranoid, vindictive, and no impulse control and we have the makings of a Holocaust.

Silver-lining: Rudy wants to solve global warming. Exploding a couple thousand nukes and the following Nuclear Winter will cool the globe nicely.