Giuliani acknowledges ISG error

June 20, 2007

Following up on an earlier item, the AP has finally done a story about Rudy Giuliani blowing off the Iraq Study Group.

Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, whose tough talk on terrorism is the centerpiece of his campaign, said Wednesday that it was a mistake to join a bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which he later quit.

“I thought it would work, but then after a month or two I realized the idea that I was possibly going to run for president would be inconsistent with that,” he said.

The former New York City mayor said the main reason he quit was that it “didn’t seem that I would really be able to keep the thing focused on a bipartisan, nonpolitical resolution.”

He added that joining the ISG “was a mistake.” That’s true, but at the risk of nuking a dead horse, his explanation for quitting isn’t much better than it was yesterday.

Giuliani committed to the Iraq Study Group in March 2006, blew off its meetings in April, was pressured to resign, and then quit in May 2006. This is because, the former mayor said today, he realized he was “possibly going to run for president,” which would be “inconsistent” with the ISG’s work.

But here’s the catch: Giuliani knew several months before joining the ISG that he planned to run for president — he was telling reporters about his intentions as far back as October 2005. With that, we know that Giuliani committed to the ISG well aware of his presidential plans.

Today’s admission of a “mistake” is nice, but it still doesn’t explain what happened.

Political reporters should ask Giuliani a few simple questions: If you knew you were going to run for president, why did you join the ISG? Did you not expect your political activities to conflict with the non-partisan nature of the group’s work?

Perhaps most importantly, did you even understand what the ISG was?

Josh Marshall makes a compelling case that this could haunt Giuliani for a while.

[I]s it that big a deal? Certainly worse things have happened. Rudy was still in his buckraking phase. I guess the Iraq Study Group got on well enough without him. (After all, Rudy doesn’t really have any experience or knowledge about foreign policy.)

But how does Rudy respond if one of his opponents raises this in a debate after Rudy goes on one of his tough-guy-9/11 save-the-word-from-the-arabs tears?

I think this sticks to him like tar. Not because it’s the worst thing in the world. Not because it’s the most important thing about him or his campaign. But because it’s like bubble gum on the shoe of his signature issue. Pick your metaphor, a pin to his balloon. A can trailing after his car. Whatever. It will stick in people’s minds and it hits him where he’s supposed to be strongest. He cares so much about the Iraq War he couldn’t bother to reschedule a few rubber chicken speeches. It’s just a matter of which of his opponents throws the first gob.

As for earlier media criticism, I’d like to congratulate the Associated Press for finally writing an article that mentions the ISG story almost 36 hours after blogs realized the significance of the story.

We’re stuck with broken news when we deserve and want breaking news. Staying informed wouldn’t be such a challenge if the media bothered with reporting.

  • Yes the AP finally wrote a story which was simply an excuse to publish Giuliani’s excuse without challenging it.

  • I’d like to think it “sticks to (Giuliani) like tar”. But if it’s never reported in the first place in our corporate media, then how are…

    BREAKING NEWS: Paris Hilton’s neighbors fear her return!

    … people ever going to notice.

  • “Joining the ISG was a mistake”
    ———————–RooDee DooDee JooLee BooDee.

    WTF is wrong with this idiot? Did he get promised an important part on “The Sopranos” the day before the series was cancelled? Did he sort through the rubble of WTC and not find his “little black book?” Did FDNY tell him to “piss off” one too many times? This is like FDR deciding that “Germany first” was a mistake—or the GAR deciding not to force the issue at Gettysburg.

    Pick up the phone and start calling people. Start firing off emails to these lazy, haphazard, crocodile-appeasing media buffoons, and ask them if they’d prefer that “Joe and Jane America” start doing their jobs for them, since they can’t find the competency to do the jobs themselves.

    Get 50 people to write letters to the editor—and then find a radio station willing to ask why the editorial staff won’t acknowledge or print those letters. If the radio station wants to bury their head in the sand, then picket the bastages. If they get on the bandwagon, then picket the newspaper.

    You get a couple hundred one-horse dailies to start printing the same thing, and the AP will have no viable, economic alternative but to get with the program, for fear that UPI, Reuters, and yes—even “al Jazeerah”—will scoop their ugly carcasses.

    The media can be taken back—but it will have to be either by force of public pressure, or by force of arms. Before we choose the path of Jefferson (“…let them take arms….”) we should try the lesser course of action.

    However, should it come to the latter of the two choices, then America must be prepared to stand up and show the “talking heads” of the Land that she is made of a much sterner stuff than the fluff and frill that the MSM has elected to pander upon the People….

  • The confusion over the explanation is quite understandable. When one speaks English, it can be quite difficult to translate Rudy’s dialect of political Mumbo Jumbo.

  • Three somewhat random thoughts: 1) MSM could save themselves time and work by just surfing the lefty blogs to get stories. 2) If I hadn’t dropped out of “Lying to the Public 1A’ back in college, I would have more money than I do now. 3) I too am afraid of Paris Hilton.

  • Following up on an earlier item, the AP has finally done a story about Rudy Giuliani blowing off the Iraq Study Group.

    Oh, ok. After Kevin Drum and the Carpetbagger Report do blog articles saying that there aren’t really any articles, the AP does an article.

  • Oh, ok. After Kevin Drum and the Carpetbagger Report do blog articles saying that there aren’t really any articles, the AP does an article.
    ————-Swan

    You call that piece of diseased tripe an article? Did you read that thing? It wouldn’t pass muster as a first draft for a “DizNee-Wrrrrrrrld infomercial. It’s like giving Donald Duck the opportunity to say he didn’t screw up—after he wrapped the hunting rifle around a tree, drove the camping trailer off a cliff, got the water out of the leaky rowboat by drilling another hole in the bottom—while sitting in the middle of the lake—and ruined a Silly Symphony of the Willian Tell Overture by playing “Dixie” on a circa 1959 S.S. Kresge tin Christmas Elf whistle (I had one of those—it was a piece of total crap).

    A-P…the “American Phuck-up” of news wanna-be’s…..

  • I think Rudy realized he was in way over his head, especially mentally. He didn’t want to showcase his ignorance and lack of ability- after all, he’s Bernie Kerricks best bud. High-minded classy guys, you know. Birds of a feather flock together.
    Anyway, Rudy’s a jerk. Come to think of it, every GOP candidate is a jerk.

  • And as some commentators over at TPM also noted, Rudy was given the ultimatum by the ISG to begin showing up to the meetings or be kicked off the ISG. In other words, the idea of leaving voluntarily didn’t initiate with him. He was going to be canned from it and simply resigned from it instead. It would rank up there with Wolfowitz claiming that he was leaving the World Bank because he wasn’t able to promise the time commitment for the gig.

    It’s laughable.

  • You call that piece of diseased tripe an article? Did you read that thing?

    Oh, so it’s worse than I thought. No, I didn’t read it.

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