ABC's Tapper, Stephanopoulos call Bloomberg a "liberal Democrat," despite Bush endorsement in 2000

http://mediamatters.org/items/200706250010?f=h_top

On the June 24 broadcast of ABC's This Week, ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper and host George Stephanopoulos, discussing a possible independent presidential run by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, described him as a "liberal Democrat." However, Bloomberg endorsed Bush's re-election in 2004 and has expressed support for the Iraq war and tied it to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In addition, no mention was made of a significant Bloomberg controversy that undermines the assertion that he is a "liberal Democrat": the New York Police Department's (NYPD) surveillance of nonviolent anti-Bush and anti-Iraq war activists and protesters prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention -- a story that, as Media Matters for America noted (here and here), has been covered several times in recent months.

In his August 30, 2004, speech to the Republican National Convention, Bloomberg stated: "The president deserves our support. We are here to support him. And I am here to support him." Moreover, as noted by New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer in his June 23 column (subscription required), Bloomberg has "offer quiet, unambiguous support" for the war. In particular, Dwyer pointed to a statement of Bloomberg's from May 2004:

In May 2004, a year after the invasion, Mr. Bloomberg served as host to Laura Bush, who had come to New York in an effort to rally support for the war effort. Mrs. Bush visited a memorial for Sept. 11th victims. Standing next to Mrs. Bush, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, Mr. Bloomberg, right, suggested that New Yorkers could find justification for the war at the World Trade Center site, even though no Iraqi is known to have had a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks.

''Don't forget that the war started not very many blocks from here,'' he said that day in 2004.

republic operatives planted into the Democratic party. I put Romney in there because he stole the gubernatorial election in MA. With help from the national republic party, a weak democrat was nominated (instead of Robert Reich) in that race. Talk about a set up.

The people of MA fell for it. We went on to vote Romney in as Governor, and he promptly turned around and pissed on us for four years.

is this some type of electronic brainwashing, He's the Republican mayor of NY, he drops out of the Republican Party and becomes an
Independent and now he's a liberal democrat. How does that work?

Apparently he only became a Republican in 2001 because the Democratic mayoral primary field in NYC was too crowded.

I certainly wouldn't call him a liberal Democrat, but I don't think he is as far right even as Rudy.

there are not too many benchmarks to use to judge a candidate. But look at Lieberman who has no party loyalty, I think it
says something about that person. My dad lost his job because he would not switch to the Republican Party becuz they had
won the election. He said that he couldn't becuz he would not be able to belief in himself anymore.

what a shill.

:puke:

It's obvious that the current crop of Republican candidates are tacking hard to starboard to win their primaries. It'll be hard to tack back to port with all of their notable quotables, too. Plus they probably have lots of baggage that'll get exposed during the GE.

Bloomberg has the money and is socially liberal enough that he will appeal to a lot of Democrats and Indies...but he keeps the Republican business agenda intact. He's in to split the votes and will make it close enough to steal...again. Democrats best figure out how they'll deal with this threat.

liberal, but don't expect anything economically progressive from him. He is not only a part of the corporate and globalist elite but a key player. He could just as easily be a country-club Republican, a private jet riding Democrat, or a gated-mansion living Independent.

Any port in a storm. That can be forgiven when you're younger, but Bloomberg just looks like an opportunist now.