Giuliani zeroes in on Clinton

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani stepped up his attacks this week on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), but Clinton did not fire back, despite past claims she’d “deck” anyone who hit her first.

Giuliani accused Clinton in Tuesday’s Republican debate and again Wednesday of being hostile to tax cuts and free markets.

He said Wednesday that he was merely trying to remind Republicans of what’s at stake in the election: big differences with the Democrats over the economy and the war on terrorism.

“It’s not personal. I think the people on our side, people on their side are equally worthy, equally qualified, good people, honest people, moral people,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is making sure the Republicans win in November 2008.”

A senior Clinton aide said she didn’t want to get sucked into a “food fight” that would help Giuliani win points with a conservative GOP base that distrusts him over abortion, gay rights and gun control.

When asked to react to Giuliani’s comments, Clinton said: “I didn’t see the debate.”

Giuliani seems to be reprising a strategy from his 2000 Senate run, when he used anti-Clinton mailings to raise funds.

In the debate, Giuliani apparently referred to a 1996 C-SPAN interview given by Clinton.

“We’re looking at a race here in which the leading Democratic candidate ... has said that the unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America,” Giuliani said. In the interview, she both praised and criticized free markets.

“She’s also said with regard to taxes that we have to take money from you in order to give it to the common good,” he said.

In recent weeks, Giuliani has slammed her for advocating what he called socialized medicine, and said Democrats would risk prolonging the war on terrorism by going back “on defense.”