The New York Sun's Josh Gerstein reports on Rudy Giuliani's trip to Southern California Tuesday when he was bombarded by media asking him his views on the Hollywood writers strike.
After Rudy stated a litany of reasons why politicians should not be involved in strike negotions, he then offered to mediate the strike.
"I don't know the issue," Mr. Giuliani replied dismissively, starting to sound not only neutral, but perhaps entirely unaware of the paralyzing walkout. Mr. Giuliani then disappeared into the building to do a radio interview and make other calls. Most print reporters left. However, the TV folks remained on stakeout and one successfully cajoled the ex-mayor into taking another shot at the question as he headed for his waiting SUV. "A public official, a candidate for office really shouldn't get involved in that. There are so many disputes. I settled several difficult labor disputes when I was the mayor and the best way I did it was to not have much of an opinion on it and not get too involved in it and then to act as kind of a mediator. I think here we've got to let them work out the collective bargaining process, wish them well, understand the tremendous impact this has, you know on the public, on all the artists that are involved, all the writers that are involved, all the owners that are involved and just wish them well on getting it resolved," Mr. Giuliani said. He added, with a chuckle, "You know. It's very unlikely, but if they needed my help, I'd be more than happy to help, as a fair-minded mediator. I can think of two big strikes in New York that I helped to settle, but I'm sure they have a lot of people that are willing to do that." And with that the ex-mayor of Gotham headed for Iowa and the Dakotas, and, presumably, a blissful escape from pesky questions about the Hollywood strike.
Read the entire story about Giuliani's conversation with the media here.
Read more about the writers strike on Huffington Post's writers' strike opinion page and writers' strike news page.
Read more about Giuliani's latest media scandal involving Judith Regan, Bernard Kerik, Rupert Murdoch and top executives at News Corp and Fox.