Rudy Rakes it In
The New York Observer has some fascinating details of how wealthy Rudy Giuliani has become since leaving the Mayor's office.
Mr. Giuliani has become a tycoon. In a 2002 divorce filing, he estimated his income from paid speeches alone—unadulterated Rudy— at $8 million. His business, dismissed at first as a resting place for his political ambitions, grossed tens of millions of dollars last year with more than 50 employees and marquee clients like Merrill Lynch. A sense of the firm’s scale emerges with the fact that it recently acquired a midsize investment bank with 140 employees. On March 29, Mr. Giuliani announced that he’d also become a partner in a Houston law firm.
My favorite tidbit is that he charged $100k for giving a tsunami aid speech in South Carolina in February - forking over $20k of his fee as a chartiable contribution -- when other celebrities like Clinton, George Bush I and George Clooney donated their time. The author writes it is indicative of his lack of understanding of sensitive political issues:
The former Mayor’s decision to profit from a fund-raiser for tsunami victims in a politically sensitive state is only the most vivid example of how small a role his political ambitions have apparently played in his personal calculations. At times, he has shown a willingness to trade in political capital for, well, real capital. He has given his speeches to a wide range of organizations around the world with little apparent attention to American politics. And his firm hasn’t been shy about taking on politically unpopular clients, including the owner of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester and the pharmaceutical industry.
....“I assume that the people who gave to the charity assumed their money was going to tsunami relief, not Giuliani relief,” said Howard Wolfson, the spokesman for the New York State Democratic Party. “It raises the same old questions about Mr. Giuliani’s judgment, that somehow the same standards and rules that apply to others don’t apply to him. “It’s wrong to take money for charity appearances. Mr. Giuliani ought to know that,” said Mr. Wolfson, who is also an advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton.
I'm hoping it means Giuliani has no intention of running for dogcatcher, let alone President. I could care less how much money he amasses - he can giggle all the way to the bank - unless he's building a war chest for a national office run.
Update: Rudy says he's not ruling out a political run for NY Governor or President out. This week he announced he's going back to practicing law because he's missed it so much.
Giuliani announced Thursday that he will open a New York office for the 60-year-old Texas-based law firm Bracewell & Patterson, which has been renamed Bracewell & Giuliani. “For me it’s returning to my roots,” said Giuliani, 60, who began his career as a lawyer. “People who know me are not surprised. They know how much I enjoy practicing law and how much I have missed it.”
He was a prosecutor who loved putting people in jail and a Mayor who trounced the downtrodden. Do you really believe he'll be anything but a rainmaker who brings in clients and collects a piece of yet another pie?
The law firm, with 400 lawyers in offices in Washington, D.C., London, Kazakhstan and Houston, is among the nation’s 125 largest. It is a full-service firm handling corporate, real estate and tax law.
He also will continue to manage Giuliani Partners. Someone needs to remind him that hearses don't have luggage racks. (taken from here.)
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