Following up on an earlier item, Newsday reports today that Rudy Giuliani was a member of the Iraq Study Group, but he blew off the panel — and was ultimately forced to resign — because he apparently preferred to spend more time delivering lucrative private speeches. After Giuliani skipped a series of important ISG meetings, James Baker gave him an ultimatum: do the work or quit. Giuliani chose the latter.
This afternoon, the Giuliani campaign, apparently aware of the potential damage a story like this can do, started pushing back.
“Once again, the paper wrote a story with little regard to the facts,” the Giuliani campaign said. “The facts are these – as someone considered a potential presidential candidate, the Mayor didn’t want the group’s work to become a political football. That, coupled with time constraints, led to his decision.”
That may sound like a fairly coherent explanation, but given what we know, it’s almost certainly false. Giuliani wasn’t worried about the appearance of impropriety; he simply decided to put his speaking gigs ahead of the most pressing foreign policy crisis facing the United States today.
Giuliani failed to show up for a pair of two-day sessions that occurred during his tenure, the sources said – and both times, they conflicted with paid public appearances shown on his recent financial disclosure. Giuliani quit the group during his busiest stretch in 2006, when he gave 20 speeches in a single month that brought in $1.7 million. […]
Giuliani’s campaign said that the former New York mayor did participate in Iraq Study Group activities but refused Newsday’s repeated requests to explain how.
In fact, Team Giuliani’s defense is so easily debunked, I’m surprised they’d put it out there.
Consider a quick timeline of events:
* The ISG panel appointed on March 15, 2006.
* The first ISG plenary session was on April 11. Giuliani didn’t show up; he was giving a $100,000 speech in Atlanta, and was helping Ralph Reed raise campaign funds.
* The second ISG plenary session was on May 18. Giuliani didn’t show up; he was giving a speech in South Korea for $200,000.
* Giuliani resigned on May 24.
If Giuliani was worried in mid-May that his participation with the ISG may politicize its mission, why did he commit to the panel in mid-March?
Look, this isn’t complicated. James Baker’s policy assistant who helped run the ISG went on the record saying that Giuliani’s attendance was important, he didn’t attend, so he was offered a choice to quit. He took it.
Giuliani may be embarrassed about this now — he should be — but his campaign will have to do better than the “political football” defense. Maybe he can just admit that he placed a higher value on giving lucrative speeches to private clients?