The skeletons keep rattling their bones in Rudy Giuliani's closet. The Village Voice reports that Rudy, who pushed the Yankees' stadium agendas, may have violated the law in accepting luxury gifts from them:
Giuliani has been seen on the campaign trail wearing a World Series ring, a valuable prize we never knew he had. Indeed, the Yankees have told the Voice that he has four rings, one for every world championship the Yankees won while he was mayor. Voice calls to other cities whose teams won the Series in the past decade have determined that Giuliani is the only mayor with a ring, much less four. If it sounds innocent, wait for the price tag.
The Yankees say that Giuliani did pay for his rings-but only $16,000, and years after he had left office. Anyone paying for the rings is as unusual as a mayor getting one, since neither the Yankees nor any other recent champion have sold rings to virtually anyone.
What's the big deal? Anyone who has worked in government knows there are strict rules about accepting gifts. In this case --
New York officials are barred from taking a gift of greater than $50 value from anyone doing business with the city, and under Giuliani, that statute was enforced aggressively against others. His administration forced a fire department chief, for example, to retire, forfeit $93,105 in salary, and pay a $6,000 fine for taking Broadway tickets to two shows and a free week in a ski condo from a city vendor.
And the fact that he paid something for the rings?
The city's Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) has applied the gift rule to discounts as well, unless the cheaper rate "is available generally to all government employees."
In fact, the article states, Rudy's case is similar to that of Bernie Kerik, who made only a small payment for a costly renovation.
The Voice also says that NYC officials must disclose gifts from anyone but relatives, but Giuliani never did so.
This is a long story with a lot of dirt flung. An example:
Giuliani's sense of entitlement about the Yankees was so deep that he frequently used a police boat to haul himself and his guests to games, using either the slip near Gracie Mansion or the Wall Street/South Street one near City Hall. In his own book, Leadership, he revealed that the first Yankee game he ever took Judi Nathan to was David Cone's perfect game in July 1999, almost a full year before he announced at a press conference that she was his "very good friend." Judi and her girlfriends became part of his stadium entourage, just as his previous very good friend, Cristyne Lategano, had been in the earlier years.
And what did the Yankees get in return? Rudy's administration, in its very last moments, made some nice presents for the Bronx Bombers:
Bloomberg quickly moved to kill the lavishly subsidized term sheets that the Giuliani administration had signed***[b]ut he could do nothing about the $50 million in stadium planning costs that another last-minute lease amendment delivered to the teams. That amendment, signed by Giuliani in the closing moments, allowed each team to deduct from the rent they paid the city any costs they attributed to stadium planning-up to $5 million a year for five years.
For example, the Yanks deducted the $203,055 they paid lobbyist Bill Powers, the former head of the state Republican party, and hundreds of thousands in other legal and lobbying fees retroactively "meaning that the city actually paid the Yankees' costs involved in negotiating, drafting, and pushing for the very lease amendment that allowed the deductions in the first place . . .".
Another example of corruption:
The goodies list seems endless. Giuliani spent $71 million on a stadium for the Staten Island Yankees, a low-level minor league team half-owned by Steinbrenner's son. So few people go to games there that the team has yet to hit the minimal attendance threshold that triggers some rental payments to the city.
This story reads like something out of The Last Hurrah or Boss Tweed. Wow. If this story is correct, Rudy is as corrupt as Bush's cronies.
This story is a MUST READ.
At the same time, Rudy is planning on clarifying his shifting positions on abortion rights by coming out in favor of them (or so it is said, by the NYT):
After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.http://www.nytimes.c...
Mr. Giuliani hinted at what aides said would be his uncompromising position on abortion rights yesterday in Huntsville, Ala., where he was besieged with questions about abortion and his donations to Planned Parenthood. "Ultimately, there has to be a right to choose," he said.
At least:
-Romney was reasonable sucessful in running large businesses.
-Romeny has some experience cleaning up corrupt scandal plagued messes like the Olympics.
-As a mormon will have been trained in disaster preparedness and relief.
-From his time as a missionary will know a lot about going to a foreign country and being surrounded by hostile locals who wish you'd just go away; and never really wanted you there in the first place.
I think I'll go throw up now. Our only hope is that Chris Matthews will think that it would be more fun to hang out with Barack Obama. After all the guy smokes, plays poker, and I hear if you press UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT B A START on your SNES during any presidential debate you get an invincible Barack Obama.
Oh well, at least it takes him down a notch. (I hope)
At an appearance at Houston Baptist University, Mr. Giuliani said that he favors abortion rights, certain restrictions on gun ownership and gay rights - he is for civil unions, he said, although not for marriage between people of the same sex.***
Today's speech was part of a concerted effort that his aides said he would be making to be more open about his support for abortion rights - a sharp departure from the usual route of Republican nominees, who during the last 30 years have highlighted their antiabortion views.
Mr. Giuliani told his audience today that he knew that some voters might disagree with him. But he urged the party to become a "big tent" that could include people with a range of views on the subject. ***
He said, as he has before, that he personally opposed abortion but believed in a woman's right to make her own decisions; that he believes in the right to bear arms, but that as mayor of New York, he favored certain aspects of gun control; and that while he opposes gay marriage, he supports protecting gay rights, something he said he did as mayor.
On abortion, he said he was open to seeking ways to limit the procedure, but he was not open to limiting the right to have it.
This is language we should pay special attention to -- it is bound to cause a frenzy in some circles:
"In a country like ours, where people of good faith, people who are equally decent and equally moral and equally religious, where they come to different conclusions about this, about something so very, very personal, I think you have to respect their viewpoint," he said. "I would grant women the right to make that choice."
Some follow up questions for the press:
Mr. Giuliani, you're an attorney. If you were appointed to the Supreme Court, would you vote to overturn Roe v. Wade?
If elected, given your stated preference for "choice," would you seek out a qualified jurist who would vote to uphold Roe v. Wade?
Will you act to permit federal funding for abortions, in, say, Medicaid?
What do you think of abstinence only or abstinence-mainly sex education?
The "Ferrets for Freedom" are not going to take Rudy's slurs against them lying down.