Rudy Giuliani’s stature took a bit of a hit when he became a Bush campaign attack dog last year — going so far, at one point, to start blaming U.S. troops for the administration’s mistakes — but the former New York mayor still seems to consider himself presidential material.
But if his gutter politics on Bush’s behalf didn’t damage his appeal among the Republican faithful, I wonder if trying to profit from a natural disaster will damage his standing.
The most vivid recent example occurred on Feb. 9 in Columbia, S.C. Mr. Giuliani had initially been booked by the South Carolina Hospital Association through the Washington Speakers Bureau to speak for his usual $100,000 fee. But then a massive tsunami devastated South Asia and “we just didn’t feel that a big old party was the right thing,” said Patti Smoake, the hospital association’s spokeswoman. Instead, the South Carolinians held a fund-raiser called “From South Carolina to South Asia.”
Mr. Giuliani agreed to speak at the new event. He even wrote a $20,000 check to the Red Cross, the event’s beneficiary, according to figures cited by a South Carolina hospital official and obtained by The Observer. He batted away the inevitable political speculation that accompanied his visit to the crucial Republican primary state, telling a local reporter he was visiting “because I enjoy coming to South Carolina and because this is a worthy cause.”
Mr. Giuliani didn’t mention it at the time, but he also walked away from the tsunami benefit with $80,000 at a time when celebrities from Bill Clinton and the first President Bush to George Clooney were donating time to the relief effort. There was nothing illegal, or even particularly unusual, about his taking a fee from a charity event. But taking the money was not the move of a man whose political future depends on the good will of the voters of South Carolina, the decisive state in the 2000 Republican primary widely viewed as the immovable object between a socially liberal Republican like Mr. Giuliani and the nomination.
“It is not the gesture of someone who’s serious about running for the Republican Presidential nomination or someone who is getting sound political advice about South Carolina,” said Nelson Warfield, a Republican political consultant who was press secretary to Bob Dole’s bid for the Presidency. “If you want to be President, you have to make some sacrifices, and one sacrifice would be giving it up for free to the good people of South Carolina and the tsunami victims.”
After the event, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Hospitals Association said “she was not even sure whether the benefit’s total take had exceeded Mr. Giuliani’s fee.”
Better yet, some South Carolina Republicans, whose help Giuliani will need if he expects to be the party’s nominee in 2008, want to see the former mayor give the money back. ABC News’ The Note reported today:
From a statement bearing the name of state Rep. Tracy Edge: “I was shocked and disappointed to learn that Mayor Giuliani charged our state hospital association $100,000 to speak at an event to benefit tsunami victims. What makes this most offensive is the fact that the occasion was widely publicized as a charitable event. No where was it disclosed that Mayor Giuliani was being paid for his appearance.”
“Like all Americans, I admired Mayor Giuliani’s leadership during the 9/11 tragedy. Frankly, his service in New York makes it even more troubling that he would ask for money to appear at an event designed to benefit the victims of one of the greatest human disasters in recorded history.”
“As chairman of the budget committee that appropriates state support for health care, I can attest to the fact that funding for our hospitals and health service is becoming a serious challenge, as the cost of health care continues to rise. Knowing just how scarce health care funds are, it truly sadden me to see this type of profiteering in raising funds for a cause as important as tsunami relief.”
“Therefore, I call on Mayor Giuliani to give the $80,000 back to the hospital association, so that those funds can be used for the noble cause for which they were raise.”
This controversy has not yet caught the attention of the major media outlets, but one wonders whether Giuliani’s apparent profit from this fundraiser could further strip the shine from his halo.