Rules Don't Apply to Rudy. Or Do They?

Rudy Giuliani is a hypocrite who thinks he should live by rules different than others. He attacked MoveOn.org and the New York Times for the rate charged for a newspaper ad. Promptly, he ran an ad in response and paid... wait for it... the SAME amount.

Since the NYT says it was a mistake that they were charged the lower amount, MoveOn promptly paid the difference in an 'abundance of caution'. Rudy refuses to.

The wingnuts filed an FEC complaint against MoveOn and the NYT, but didn't include Rudy. That oversight has now been corrected:

September 24, 2007

Lane Hudson
Washington, DC

General Counsel
Federal Election Commission
999 E. Street, NW
Washington, DC 20463

Dear Counsel:

This is a formal complaint against the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee, Inc. for the receipt of corporate soft money contribution in excess of the limits established by the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971 and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The information in this complaint is derived from publicly available reports on the internet and falls under 2 U.S.C. 441 B and 11 CFR S 114.2.

In response to an advertisement purchased by Moveon.org Political Action on September 19, 2007, the Giuliani Campaign purchased an advertisement to run in the September 14 publication of the New York Times. Both Moveon.org Political Action and the Giuliani Campaign paid $64,575 for their respective ads. This ad quote is known as the 'standby rate' because the day of publication and its placement are not guaranteed.

In a September 23, 2007 newspaper column, Public Editor of the New York Times, Clark Hoyt, admitted that the New York Times made a mistake in charging MoveOn.org the standby rate:

Catherine Mathis, vice president of corporate communications for The Times, said, "We made a mistake." She said the advertising representative failed to make it clear that for that rate The Times could not guarantee the Monday placement but left MoveOn.org with the understanding that the ad would run then. She added, "That was contrary to our policies."

MoveOn.org responded to the column by saying this on September 23:

Now that the Times has revealed this mistake for the first time, and while we believe that the $142,083 figure is above the market rate paid by most organizations, out of an abundance of caution we have decided to pay that rate for this ad. We will therefore wire the $77,083 difference to the Times...

In the same column, Mr. Hoyt has this to say about the advertisement purchased by Mr. Giuliani:

In the fallout from the ad, Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a Republican presidential candidate, demanded space in the following Friday's Times to answer MoveOn.org. He got it -- and at the same $64,575 rate that MoveOn.org paid.

According to the New York Times' own policy, Mr. Giuliani should have paid the fixed-date rate instead of the standby rate. Therefore, the difference, $77,083 is an in-kind corporate contribution, which far exceeds the limits allowed by law. Now that he has knowledge that his campaign is in receipt of an illegal $77,083 contribution from the New York Times, it is incumbent on Mr. Giuliani to repay the difference. If he does not, that is not just a violation of the law but a betrayal of the public trust at a time when Americans want integrity from our leaders.

When Mr. Giuliani's campaign was called on to pay the difference, therefore avoiding a violation of law, his campaign declined to do so.

Respectfully submitted,

Lane Hudson

Comments

[Smokr]

Copy and paste the letter to [e-mail] and don't forget to replace her name with your own at the top and bottom of the letter.

[edgwynn]

Her?

[TheQuestion]

One of the curious things about this whole controvery is that here we have a guy whose job it is to dodge bullets (real ones) and everybody is all worried about a little word play. This is a big guy who has handled a lot in his lifetime. It seems that the critique was really aimed at policy & not at him on a personal level anyway.

[bloomster]

BRAVO !!!

[Cunningham]

You rock, Lane!

Keep on keepin' on. : )

[whizkid]

I recall Goober. The old Griffith show.
"Rudy Rudy Rudy".

[whizkid]

Screwed. Blued & tatooed.

Heckuva job Rudy.

[Qbear]

Rudy just looks like a cheap f*ck suffering from a serious case of G O P-ocricy


works for me.

[DixieMelody]

Bravo, Lane Hudson: A well-researched, well-written letter. Thank you for sharing it with us, and I would be very interested to know what, if any, response you receive from the NYT.

[meandmagoo]

This would make a greaty commercial to run in whatever the hell the early primary sates are now.

We need to what we can to stir the pot in the GOP now.The sooner we start,the better.

I wanna see Ron Paul as the Republican candidate.

It'll be a slaughter,I tell ya.

[SweetJudith]

This Rudy guy is a puke.....

[Producer1]

What's the problem here? The Times can and should send him a bill for the difference. If he doesn't pay they should turn him over for collection. Meanwhile MoveOn can then issue more ads which if Rudy wants to respond he'll have to pay the back balance before they'll publish his ad. No problem. Let Rudy pay through the nose. Every penny spent chasing MoveOn is money he can't use to get elected.

[edgwynn]

You are a clever sleuth, aren't you? So, NYT admits the mistake only after giving Giuliani equal treatment, essentially giving MoveOn an equal out. Sounds straight-up to me.

[LightningJoe]

Your pretty clever yourself, to figure out that MoveOn's getting an "out," even though, in an "abundance of caution," they've already paid the difference.

Pretty clever...

[edgwynn]

You're less clever. MoveOn paid the difference - yes. THAT WAS THEIR OUT.

[Janco54]

I wish I thought this would make Rudy and his gang have a conscience and pay it but they won't. Repeat after me - Only Democrats have to play by the rules or admit a mistake. Only Democrats.......

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

So what is the import of this to the nation beyond Congress caving to the noice. Move on, Lane.

[CoolShades]

Big name newspapers don't make $100,000 mistakes. Don't be fooled.

[sej100]

GOP is constantly hypocritical.
For one, they have their own propaganda network called FOX NOT NEWS, yet cry and cry about a "liberal media". Yet no liberal media passes around the misinformation, lies and slander that the conservative media has done.
In fact under conservative corporate ownership the news has literally been destroyed. The GOP had Dan Rather fired because he dared to question a president who never owns up to his own past.

The Conservatives questioned the patriotism of Max Cleland and that was OK, The Conservatives had swift boat liars taking ads all over the place without condemnation, but with support. The Conservatives mock Obama and called him OSAMA. No condemnation again. Guiliani is a man who profits and uses the pain and suffering of others to acquire wealth and power and no one says Condemn him for the obsenity. In fact the man uses pictures of himself on the streets the day of 911. Well no one bothers to remind people that Rudy choose against the advice of advisors to put his command control in the World Trade Center and he was walking because his command center was now GONE!!!! The GOP impeached Bill Clinton because they wanted to win the White House not because he did something so horrible. In fact all his accusers have since been revealed to be in their own affairs, illicit relationships, gay relations, and involved in corruption and no one cried FOUL.

GOP are hypocrites plain and simple. This is the group that said NO FILIBUSTER (that is when they are in control) But when they are NOT that is all they do!!!!!

When will people wake up and demand honesty rather than their cheap sound bites and nonsense?

[BUSHsurvivor]

Freedomswatch too, Lane!


By, the way, remember all of those value-voters from 2000 and 2004 whose priorities were religion, family, anti-gay, anti-choice...well watch them all give Rudy a free pass this time around. The bigots are all two-faced!

[SlimChance]

Go, Lane! Go!

[laocoon]

They get away with because the press/media will cover a democratic mistake but not a republican one unless of an order of magnitude that makes ignoring it impossible.

[OtayPanky]

Rules don't apply to anybody.

I guess you didn't get the memo.

But keep up the good work anyway, otay?

[drkazmd65]

Well,... they DO apply to everybody NOT a Republican politican.

So - of course,.... the rules don't apply Rudy's campaign anyway.

[RobertPaul]

Good for you!

We all need to start holding these clowns feet to the fire for their hypocrisy.

I am making a copy of your complaint and forwarding it under my name to them today.

Let's see if this creep spends the money. Bet he doesn't!

[ZanIts1984]

Why is there any surprise?! We should all come to expect that Republicans don't play anywhere near the line of fairness. Its typical hypocrisy of the right to be the first to call foul then to be the first to take full advantage of the foul and declaring themselves absent from the repercussions that came with the foul. I do hope the New York Times brings this issue to the forefront but I am very skeptical they will.