At least he didn’t specify which M&Ms were to be removed from his dressing room

February 17, 2007

About a year ago, we learned that Dick Cheney, whenever he travels, makes a series of specific demands for hotels where he’ll stay, including having all hotel-room TVs tuned to Fox News.

But if you thought the VP was being a bit of a diva, wait until you see what Rudy Giuliani demands.

In addition to his $100,000 speaking fee, the former mayor insists that he be shuttled to and from any event by a private plane — and not just any plane, mind you!

“Please note that the private aircraft MUST BE a Gulfstream IV or bigger,” notes the contract, referring to a $30 million jet that can clock 600 mph.

Once there, Hizzoner demands that he be met by “one sedan and one large SUV,” and booked into a hotel room “with a king-size bed, on an upper floor, with a balcony and view,” plus four more rooms on the same floor for his entourage.

And, oh, yeah, America’s Mayor doesn’t like “candid photo opportunities,” but he will stand for posed pictures provided they are taken in a room “with sufficient light” and “without direct, on-camera flash bulbs.”

The Smoking Gun got the whole scoop, including a copy of the basic contract Giuliani requires before giving a speech.

A “man of the people” he is not.

Giuliani’s contract notes that he “reserves the right” to hold political events in the same city, but otherwise it is focused mostly on minutiae – right down to who sits next to him at a dinner (his wife, Judith, or a staffer), and how his fans will be kept at a safe distance.

“There must be rope and stanchions to assist with attendee control,” the contract states, “as well as staff appointed to push and pull.”

Perusing the contract, Giuliani’s demands appear kind of petty and small. He refuses to be photographed between grip-and-grin shots. He insists that the lighting department remember that he doesn’t tolerate any unlit areas on his stage. His aides not only have to have rooms of their own, but Giuliani wants specific aides on either side of the room in which he’s staying.

A copy of Giuliani’s contract was released by Oklahoma State University. Maybe the school didn’t care for the former mayor’s excessive demands? It’s hard to blame them.

More and more stuff coming out about Giuliani – this week there was the piece about his fundraisers in NYC and their calls to Wall Street. As people find out more about him, he’s going to be as popular in the country as he was in NYC pre-9/11.

Giuliani and a flipflopper who would have done the world a favor to have suffered a fatal ramp strike in 1966 – this is the best the thugs can come up with?

Talk about intellectual, ethical, and political bankruptcy.

  • I’m surprised he doesn’t follow the Mafia bosses’ requirement that he always be seated with his back against a corner of the room so that he can’t be shot in the back.

  • I don’t have a problem with an entertainer working out whatever deal he can with a contract.

    He’s definitely no Ralph Nader though.

  • I looked at the full contract addendum at thesmokinggun.com. The last paragraph of the addendum (on page 4) states “The conditions and compensation set forth in this agreement are to remain strictly confidential and may not be disclosed to third parties.”

    Since Oklahoma State is a public institution, that paragraph is probably unenforceable. As an Oklahoma taxpayer, I HOPE it’s unenforceable. I’d hate to see OSU get sued and have to spend even more money on this slimeball.

    It all makes me wonder about two things: why OSU spent so much to hear this clown in the first place, and why Rudy wants to keep things hush-hush.

  • with his airplane “demands” it’s a good thing that he’s running for the Executive branch and not for, say, House Speaker

  • There might be something else going on here than someone at OSU simply being taken aback by Rudy’s Rude Requirements. T. Boone Pickens, wealthy oil executive, support of Junior, backer of Rudy in2008, and OSU Alum, has made two very controversial donations to his alma mater. According to Wikipedia,

    On December 30, 2005, Pickens made a $165 million gift to Oklahoma State University. The New York Times reported that “the money spent less than an hour on Dec. 30 in the account of the university’s charity, O.S.U. Cowboy Golf Inc., before it was invested in a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens, BP Capital Management.”[4] Pickens, who is on the board of the O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, waived any management fees for the OSU monies (although this agreement was not reduced to writing), however, and all profits of the fund go to growing the OSU gift. The gift is intended to help fund an upgrade of the football stadium and construction of an athletic village, but sparked controversy because OSU planned to use eminent domain to acquire residential property for the projects. [5] The donation comes after a $70 million gift from Pickens to OSU in 2003, which was similarly structured using O.S.U. Cowboy Golf, Inc. [6] On ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Michael Wilbon said that after these gifts, Pickens “is now the owner of Oklahoma State athletics”, and remarked that “no coach should dare run afoul of Pickens now…He’s got everyone in Stillwater in his pocket, which is dangerous.”

    Perhaps, someone at OSU who has a problem with T. Boone owning Stillwater decided to release Rudy’s Rude Requirements to the press.

  • Rudy’s sounding awfully Nixonian before he even get to chug the ultimate power afrodisiac. If he gets to the Oval Office, how long before he starts talking to the paintings?

  • I was born in Oklahoma and lived there until age 18 (late 1970s), and this is a rare occasion when I’m pleased with a political decision made by anyone in authority in my former home state. Whoever it was at OSU who released this information should be commended. People need to know what kind of person “America’s Mayor” really is.

    I’ve lived in New York off-and-on for 25 years, and remember how I (and plenty of other people) felt about Giuliani on 9/10/2001. He was regarded as a thin-skinned, mean-spirited racist jerk with a questionable private life who’d quickly collapsed like a rag-doll during his aborted Senate run against Hillary the previous year. Trust me, he’s going to collapse under the weight of his own personality all over again, but this time the pressure will be greater and the collapse, I believe, will happen even faster.

  • It’s almost dirty how much I’m looking forward to Giuliani collapsing. Hopefully it’ll be so bad and brutal that he won’t have the juice to make insane money anymore… but I’ll take career-ending exposure and public embarrassment, and be happy with it.

  • I can understand Giuliani not wanting any candid photos taken of him. He’s a very ugly man and could easily look like an ogre in badly lit or overly lit photos. None of these items seem that petty to me. They sound like things he’s learned over time are seemingly minor details that could throw a wrench in what is basically a traveling busines. The two people he require in rooms on either side of him are his security guys which makes a little bit of sense, And people are paying him to be there under those terms, so why shouldn’t he?

    I question why OSU would spend 150,000 for some guy to speak. They need to check their priorities. Their professors would probably love to get paid that per word rate. What in the hell could Giuliani tell them that’s worth 150,000 (unless they actually take in more money than that on tickets and such).

    Having said that, I despise Rudy.

  • I’ve lived in Manhattan for the past 30 years, and Charles (#8) is right on. Rudy’s behavior is well-known to New Yorkers, including the low-down treatment of his then current wife as he was publicly courting Judith. Even so-called sophisticated New Yorkers were turned off by his tom catting around. And this behavior was not just toward his wife, but his children with her must have suffered too when his philandering was so public. I haven’t checked recently, but for a while these same two children were totally left out of the Rudy for President Web site — as if they never existed. Not even a “And Rudy has two children from a previous marriage” mention.

    As mayor, he was racist, mean spirited and a bully going after anyone or any institution that personally offended him ranging from the Brooklyn Museum of Art (where he objected to a painting of the Madonna and wanted to defund the museum because of it) to hot dog vendors. I keep thinking that Rudy will not be able to stand up to the scrutiny of a presidential run.

  • I can’t believe the Mexicans paid this guy millions of dollars a few years back to go give an “analysis” of the high crime rates Mexico City was experiencing.

    It was a sick joke to have this ridiculous assessment made by a foreigner and in particular by this sorry excuse of an expert, Giuliani.

    Any resident of Mexico City could’ve given the government better recommendations than Giuliani did, and at a much more affordable price than this buffoon.

    Unbelievable.

  • Tragically, this is probably not that uncommon of a contract. Think about Jack Welch’s a) initial retirement package, and b) the fact that he was able to re-negotiate it more than a year after leaving the company, increasing its size because some other former-CEO had gotten a bigger one. Rudy got on the gravy train after the immense post-9/11 exposure, and his agent/publicist probably just drew up a somewhat normal contract.
    The difference, of course, is that people like Welch, Trump, etc., speak almost exclusively to corporate crowds – weekend “conferences” at airport Hilton Hotels where people pay thousands of dollars a head to listen to rich people tell them they deserve to be rich too, plus maybe a few tidbits on how to avoid running afoul of the IRS, the SEC or labor unions. Hizzoner, on the other hand, is “America’s Mayor,” and thus speaks to both corporate bodies and public institutions. That he would demand these requirements from public institutions – the same institutions that many in his own party wish to cut funding from – is what makes this particularly despicable. But this contract should just make us more aware of the disparity between what the public finds acceptable and how the upper echelons of the corporate world function.

  • also, giuliani demands that an emergency command center is set up wherever he goes, but it must be at least ten stories above the ground, and saturated with diesel fuel.

    Building Seven, anyone?

  • I cannot imagine paying anything to go listen to that Republican hypocrite.

    My solution for all these TV celebrities is to turn off the TV, or tune to Animal Planet.

  • “Will the liberal media give this news the same level of coverage as Pelosi’s plane?”

    You mean the round the clock, 24/7 coverage, you imbicile?

    About the “issue” that the MILITARY foisted upon a Speaker of the House, simply that Pelosi should be able to make the trip w/o refueling w/o the gas tanks running dry? The “issue” that the WH and the Sgt at Arms both stated publicly is not at all what Fox and the Conservatives were yammering about?

    Jeezus, you guys are stoooopid. Try reading a paper now and then: this issue was blown to bits weeks ago.

  • As a New Yorker who lived through the Rudy years, I just can’t believe how unreal his public personna is. He’s truly great at using the media to his advantage. I just wrote something about it on my blog if anyone wants to read more about what New Yorkers see when they look at him.

  • he doesn’t want ‘candid’ shots taken because someone will ask him why FEMA was in NYC on September 10th (look it up)…and if that is the real reason why ‘he looked so good?’ pretty convenient huh… oh, and rudy, why place your emergency bunker in a terror target (WTC)…oh, and one other thing… can you let me know why you allowed larry silverstein ‘pull’ building 7 in your grand city. wouldn’t you like to know why that happened?… oh, and again, you just happened to be in london during the bombings there. wow rudy..you have a lot to hide don’t cha?

  • Frankly is it Guilliani’s fault that people accept his demands? If he gets paid $!00,000 it’s because there are people who want to listen to him. If his contract has petty demands which get satisfied, then it’s because the guys organising the event will pander to them. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t get his way. Why blame him? Most people will try and get what they want – that’s human nature. It’s up to the rest of us to say “NO”! This is like blaming Bush for getting elected – if less people had believed him and had not voted for him, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in today! Bush, and people like Guilliani, get their way because those who give in to them should think twice before doing so…people get the govt. they deserve!

  • Bush never won in 2000. The Supreme Court decided on Bush’s win for the presidency. So no the people never got the govt they deserved.

  • Guilliani always looks to me like one in fear of his cover being blown.
    “I sure hope that stink about the air after 9/11 being hazardous doesn’t come up. Of course all the aspestos and dust was dangerous. But, how else was I going to get all that building debris carted away before becoming evidence? Hell, if it weren’t for my cleanup efforts, it would have been discovered just how the buildings fell – and since al Queda didn’t have that capability, who would be blamed? Then we wouldn’t have gone into Afghanistan or even Iraq, and the Bill of Right would have been altered. Shoot, even habeas corpus would still exist. See, it all depended on me. Too bad I can’t claim the credit.”

  • I wouldn’t walk across the street to hear this low life prick speak. Why do people look up to the likes of this charlatan? Are we that lost and misguided? Honor the real heroes like Noam Chomsky for example.

  • Giuliani was involved with 9/11 along with bush, cheney, etc.

    He’s an evil fraud along with the rest of them.

    The reason why he was so calm and in control on 9/11 is because he knew it was going to happen. It was not a surprise to him.

    Please watch this video where he says he knew the WTC7 was going to collapse long before it did…even though WTC7 was not hit by anything.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6357586375896950217

    Also watch the Google videos:
    9/11 Press for Truth
    9/11 Mysteries and Loose Change 2nd Edition
    Freedom to Fascism

  • What did Rudy do on 9/11? No,seriously!
    “He was a leader.”
    Okaaaaaay, I mean really, what did he DO?

  • I’m surprised he doesn’t follow the Mafia bosses’ requirement that he always be seated with his back against a corner of the room so that he can’t be shot in the back.

    Comment by Ed Stephan — 2/17/2007 @ 12:13 pm

    Security guys, ex-cops, and careful and effective private eyes do this too. Even computer geeks who watched the ex-cop security officers on their cruise ships do this every day out of habit have been known to make sure their back is against the wall before letting their guard down. Particularly vociferous computer geeks who realize that they might be offending some of the more volatile elements of Reich wingnut land on a regular basis…

  • that article didn’t seem to complain about the 40 mil Bill Clinton has made over the years speaking. maybe just an oversight Hum?

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