| Today. Right now. Rudolph Giuliani, ex-mayor of New York City, is raking in millions of dollars and mounting a campaign for the President of the United States by exploiting the tragedy of September 11 and the people who leapt to their death from the burning twin towers.
Mr. "As I watched those towers come down, I thought, 'Thank God George W. Bush is our President,'" Giuliani has been charging $100,000 a pop to retell the awful details of that clear fall day in 2001.
According to Media Matters:
In these addresses -- for which he charges a reported $100,000 apiece -- Giuliani regularly speaks at length about his first-hand experiences during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
There is more. |
| According to the Chicago Tribune:
Since he left office, Giuliani has leveraged his image as "America's mayor" to his decided financial advantage and in ways that belie his man-of-the-people persona.
He commands $100,000 for a speech, not including expenses, which his star-struck clients are happily willing to pay. In one speech last year at Oklahoma State University, Giuliani requested and received travel on a private Gulfstream jet that cost the school $47,000 to operate. His visit essentially wiped out the student speakers annual fund.
Like other high-priced speakers in the private sector, Giuliani routinely travels in style. Besides the Gulfstream, which is a standard perk on the big-time speakers circuit, his contract calls for up to five hotel rooms for his entourage, including his own two-bedroom suite with a preferred balcony view and king-size bed, in the event of an overnight stay.
 Man-of-the-people, indeed. And what has this exploitation bought Rudy? Try a Hamptons life-style.
The couple has made a point of golfing on many of their international trips. "I will tell you how fanatical we are. We flew to an event in Singapore and arrived early in the morning. We left the plane in golf clothes, played the course, then showered at the club and changed into black tie for the event we were attending. After that we headed back to the plane."
Rudy Giuliani discovered golf as a young boy sneaking onto the Garden City Country Club at night with friends to hit balls, later buying his first set of clubs as a law student at NYU. Now the man associated with cleaning up the urban jungles of New York finds a retreat from the public eye on the bucolic green links. On a recent Saturday afternoon, he joins Judith on her HamptonStyle photo shoot, fresh from a day spent on the course and full of anecdotes from the game. For the mayor Americans see as an indelible New York institution, the transition from his native Brooklyn to the South Fork has been natural. He spent his first full summer in the Hamptons just a few years ago when he was writing his memoir and serving his last year as mayor. "The spirit of Long Island is an extension of New York City for me. When I was about 16 and learning how to drive, I can remember winding down North Fork roads; the farmland, the beaches...it's a unique part of this country."
A life-style brought about by recalling a national tragedy. Here's a bit from a speech delivered on May 22, 2005 at Middlebury College:
GIULIANI: But when I got to the site of the World Trade Center, and I got below the North Tower at the fire department command post, and the police were telling me to look up because debris was falling down, I realized in one particular moment that what I was watching was not debris falling down, but a man who was throwing himself out of the 101st, 102nd floor because he wanted to escape the awful flames.
$100,000 a pop. $100,000 x 80 speeches in 2002...and it keeps on coming. 32 falling body speechs are on tap for 2007 so far.
Some say, "Run, Rudy, Run." I say, "Shame, Rudy, Shame." |
