How Giuliani got very, very rich
There is a big and, according to a correspondent who has read it, very damaging
article in the January
Vanity Fair about Giuliani and his business dealings. I had been under the impression that Giuliani’s consulting business advised organizations on security issues. But that’s not it at all. Rather, Giuliani, using his fame and pull as the “hero of 9/11,” has been providing PR advice and lobbying to companies that sell security services, and getting staggering retainers in return. If Rudy’s pal and business partner Bernard Kerik had become Homeland Security Secretary, the article suggests, he would have been in a position to direct many government contracts to the companies represented by Giuliani.
Giuliani also successfully lobbied the head of the DEA, Asa Hutchinson, to drop its legal challenge to the drug company Purdue Pharma, whose painkiller OxyContin was more addictive than had been realized and had caused several hundred deaths. As a result of Giuliani’s lobbying, the DEA and the Justice department put pressure on U.S. attorney John Brownlee to stop pursuing the case, and Giuliani himself met personally with Brownlee to ask him to drop the prosecution. Brownlee persisted despite the pressure, and the next thing that happened was that his name was placed on a list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired. It was the same list that later led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, though for some unknown reason Brownlee’s name was taken off the list and he kept his job.
This is disturbing stuff, but it fits the pattern of Giuliani’s ego hypertrophy that has occurred since he left the mayoralty, which I’ve described here. Rudy is no longer the straight-arrow reformer he once was. He’s in it for himself and his third wife.
Here is Lucianne.com’s editorial comment, presumably written by Lucianne Goldberg herself:
Comments:
“Sleazy” is the only word the comes to mind.
Showing once again how the neoconservative establishment, which up to a couple of months ago was bowing at Giuliani’s feet, is dramatically moving away from him, whether as a result of his falling poll numbers, or of their own belated realization of what a flawed figure he is.
Here is a sampling of responses by the L-dotters:
Reply 4—Posted by: kiwikit, 12/25/2007 7:37:54 AM
How does he pick his wives and what does that say about his intelligence? The second one, Donna Hanover, came across as a spoiled ignoramus on shows she hostessed on TV. It was no surprise when she went after him big time… money seemed to drive her. And his first wife was his first cousin? Wierd. This new one certainly didn’t show much class when she ran after Rudy and provided for his ‘needs’ without benefit of any commitment. His selection of not only wives but police domminssioner doesn’t give me a lot of confidence about his management abilities..
Reply 7—Posted by: StormCnter, 12/25/2007 8:28:43 AM
His weakness is his lack of good judgment in his personal and now, it seems, in his business life.
Mr. Giuliani is not a man who is suitable to be the most important elected official in the world.
Reply 8—Posted by: nevernaught, 12/25/2007 8:29:22 AM
In reading this article completely through, it isn’t enough to just wave your arms and complain about Vanity Fair. Substitute the name Clinton in place of Guiliani and there would be outraged criticism. The Kerik stuff appears true and Rudy did recommend him to the President for the Homeland Security job. He has been indicted. I’d like to have been a fly on the Oval Office wall when this came out only days after the recommendation.
Reply 10—Posted by: FrznTundra, 12/25/2007 8:40:55 AM
VF just did us all a big favor. By doing this story now, instead of after Rudy’s nomination, there’s still time to make some choices on who to support. While Rudy’s just doing what comes naturally to polititians that find themselves at the end of the rainbow, his total baggage count just increased. I was on the fence, but even if only half of the VF story is true, it’s enough to make me want to look at the alternatives a little closer.
Reply 11—Posted by: woodlander, 12/25/2007 9:02:16 AM
The VF article is a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing. There is no investigatory substance in the article whatsoever, although clearly the writer was trying to find something with which to destroy a candidacy. He merely found that Giuliani built a wide-ranging business with many important corporate clients, some of whom were involved in litigation and regulatory problems. What else is new? In the past, Ford and GM have been accused of negligent homicide and GE has been blamed for polluting practically the entire Northeast watershed. This is just Vanity Fair trying to do what it always does: make disciplined, responsible politicians seem evil and corrupt, while letting evil and corrupt politicians seem glamorous and fun.
Reply 13—Posted by: fwipper, 12/25/2007 9:29:17 AM
I don’t care,,,,as long as I get the Giuliani that will protect our Nation.
the rest is all just hogwash.
- end of initial entry -
A reader writes:
The lucianne.com commenter said:
“I don’t care,,,,as long as I get the Giuliani that will protect our Nation.
“the rest is all just hogwash.”
Oh brother. This is the kind of servile thinking that you’ve been discussing. Only HE can keep us safe! It doesn’t matter what he has done in any other regard. We want to be safe, safe, SAFE, ahhhhgggggghhhhhhhh, choke, choke, cough, cough, splat.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 26, 2007 06:52 PM | Send