Giuliani quits Iraq Study Group

From Slate:

The Man Who Knows Too Little

What Rudy Giuliani's greedy decision to quit the Iraq Study Group reveals about his candidacy.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2007, at 6:44 PM ET

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.

The day after the Newsday story appeared, Giuliani explained that he'd started thinking about running for president, and his presence on the panel might give it a political spin. "It didn't seem that I'd really be able to keep the thing focused on a bipartisan, nonpolitical resolution," he said.

The more likely reason for Giuliani's no-shows is much plainer—money. Craig Gordon, the Newsday reporter who wrote the story in the Long Island paper's June 19 edition, discovered that on the three days of meetings that Giuliani missed (before quitting), he was out of town, delivering highly lucrative speeches.

On April 12, 2006, he was giving a keynote address at an economics conference in South Korea for a fee of $200,000. On May 18, he was giving a speech on leadership in Atlanta for $100,000.

At that point, Baker gave Giuliani an ultimatum: Start showing up for sessions, or quit. On May 24, he quit, noting in a letter (provided to Gordon) that prior commitments prevented him from giving the panel his "full and active participation."

Read rest of Slate story here.

theteach

Tone of the Iraq Study Group Report

Read "An Inconvenient Truth" a post on Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish posted at 12:10 PM. It's based on Matthew Parrish's opinion piece on timesonline.co.uk.

It's about the tone of the Iraq Study Group Report.

You can read the whole article and the 52 comments on the article. It's worth the read.

the teach

Iraq Study Group recommends that George W. Bush resign from office and that U.S. citizens should buy the energy efficient Toyota Prius Hybrid. No, No that's just a joke!! (Unconfirmed sources)

Here's the real thing...

NOTES FROM ABC TV Special Report 11:02 AM Wednesday morning

The Iraq Study Group Report "The Way Forward: A New Approach" has been presened by the Baker group. 96 pages long, 70 some-odd recomendations in it.

Report calls for a change of mission. Training Iraqi forces to take over the peace-keeping and security of the country.

Mr. Hamilton, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, addressed the nation:

"Situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating."
"The current approach is not working"
"We recommend a new approach"
"We recommend a new transition"
"We recommend the U.S. begin to move their forces out of Iraq responsibly."

"The primary purpose of US military in Iraq should evolve into supporting the Iraqi army."

Mr. Baker said: "We do not recommend a "stay the course" approach."

Mr. Hamilton: "The situation today in Iraq is very, very serious. We do not know if we can turn it around."

Three recommendations:
Change in primary mission. Would permit the withdrawal of primary American troops.
Getting various ethnic groups to cooperate.
Engagement with other countries in the region.

And the best of all recommendations? #41: Tell Iraqi government that the US will withdraw troops even if the Iraqi leaders do not reach benchmarks.

theteach