Giuliani and the Iraq Study Group
Rudy put personal financial gain ahead of politics and national security.[Slate]
If you don’t read Newsday, you might not know (I didn’t until this week) that Rudy Giuliani was an original member of the Iraq Study Group—the blue-ribbon commission co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton—but he was forced out after failing to show up for any of the panel’s meetings.
Giuliani missed most of the ISG meetings, and during the time the group met, collected $1.7 million for speaking engagements.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I doubt that I would have forgone six figures of easy income for the privilege of yakking about Iraq with a roomful of graybeards all day long. Then again, I wasn’t about to run for president—the highest office of public service—on a résumé bereft of a single foreign-policy credential.
Considering the image platform this guy is running on, this strikes me as an immense hypocrisy, and a great example of why I hate Rudy. James Baker eventually booted him from the group for his non-participation.
