Rudy Ditched Iraq Study Group
19 June 2007 8:41 am by Taylor Marsh
This is classic Rudy. He bailed on his responsibilities on the Iraq Study Group,
because he was too busy fundraising. I’m sure our troops will appreciate his
priorities.
Rudolph Giuliani’s membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt
end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of
the group, causing the panel’s top Republican to give him a stark choice:
either attend the meetings or quit, several sources said.
No wonder he doesn’t mention it in his “12 commitments.” He’s never
been focused on the war, because it doesn’t serve him. Obviously, he wants all
the focus to be on 9/11, because he believes the aura and facade of leadership
will take him all the way.
He cited “previous time commitments” in a letter explaining his
decision to quit, and a look at his schedule suggests why — the sessions
at times conflicted with Giuliani’s lucrative speaking tour that garnered
him $11.4 million in 14 months.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.On one day the panel gathered in Washington — May 18, 2006 — Giuliani delivered
a $100,000 speech on leadership at an Atlanta business awards breakfast. Later
that day, he attended a $100-a-ticket Atlanta political fundraiser for conservative
ally Ralph Reed, whom Giuliani hoped would provide a major boost to his presidential
campaign.The month before, Giuliani skipped the session to give the April 12 keynote
speech at an economic conference in South Korea for $200,000, his financial
disclosure shows.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. …Rudy
missing in action for Iraq panel (h/t
TPM)
Giuliani’s campaign fundraising kept him from commitment to panel studying
Iraq. (emphasis added)
Rudy thinks he can turn ‘08 into a terrorism election, turning the conversation
as far away from Iraq as possible. But it also illustrates the lack of seriousness of this man who thinks he can be commander in chief without learning the real challenges we face in Iraq and the entire Middle East, or how to solve them. Evidently Rudy thinks he already knows it all.
