Giuliani already appealing to the racists?

In Alabama, Giuliani Calls Confederate Flag a Local Issue - New York Times April 11, 2007 In Alabama, Giuliani Calls Confederate Flag a Local Issue By MARC SANTORA MONTGOMERY, Ala., April 10 — Answering a question that has become a litmus test of sorts for Republicans campaigning in the South, Rudolph W. Giuliani said Tuesday that he would leave the decision about whether to fly the Confederate battle flag over the State Capitol here to the people of Alabama. “One of the great beauties of the kind of government we have, which is a national/federal government, is that we can make — on a broad range of issues — we can make different decisions in different parts of the country,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We have different sensitivities, and at different times we are going to come to different decisions, and I think that is best left up to the states.” The Confederate battle flag has not flown over the Alabama Capitol for a number of years, and there is no current campaign to return it there. Confederate flags do fly by a memorial to Confederate soldiers near the Capitol. The question about the flying the flag, which was raised in connection to comments by Senator John McCain on “60 Minutes” on Sunday, has tripped up Republican candidates in the past, including Mr. McCain in South Carolina in 2000. Mr. McCain originally said back then the matter of flying a Confederate flag was best left to the states to decide, only to reverse himself and call that flag an offensive symbol that was more than a state matter. On “60 Minutes” he said he regretted that he had “worse than waffled” and blamed ambition for his comments. On Tuesday, Mr. Giuliani offered a window into how he will deal with divisive topics on which more conservative voters might be inclined to disagree with his personal views. Speaking earlier before the State Legislature, he began his remarks by saying that there were going to be some topics on which people would disagree with him. Licking his finger and sticking it in the air, he said he was not going to say things for political expediency. If that meant that he would lose some votes, he said, he was prepared to live with that. He volunteered his position on gun rights, saying he believes in an individual’s right to bear arms. Restrictions, he said, should be state by state and they should be reasonable. Mr. Giuliani was also asked by a local reporter if he knew the price of a gallon of milk, which seemed to catch him off guard. He said, the last time he remembered buying milk, it cost about $1.50. The United States Department of Agriculture placed the average price in March at $3.21.