Giuliani's Florida Gamble

Washington Post: Aides Forgo Salaries Amid Waiting Game

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Michael D. Shear.

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For more than a month, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has been in self-imposed political exile, a virtual sideshow as he all but sat out the early primaries to wait for the 2008 presidential contest to arrive in Florida.

Now, being irrelevant appears to be taking a toll. Yesterday, Giuliani's campaign revealed that top aides are working without pay to save money, an indication that donors are growing restless as they watch the candidate finish repeatedly near the bottom of the GOP pack.

Campaign aides say that the money is still flowing in and that $7 million is on hand. But concerns have surfaced that donors may not be interested in throwing good money after bad. "Are they nervous? Sure," said one Washington donor close to the Giuliani campaign.

But the donor added: "Chaos is our friend. And right now, the Republican side is chaotic. The other candidates are in a circular firing squad."

Still, Giuliani is under increasing pressure to make sure he does not lose in Florida. He has stepped up his television advertising, beginning two new spots Thursday. He has proposed what his team calls the "largest tax cut in history." On Sunday, he will begin a three-day bus tour across Florida, complete with four or five appearances daily, a pace unheard of for the candidate in previous months.

"The field is still wide open, which is what we wanted," said campaign manager Michael DuHaime, the man behind what the team calls its "late-state" strategy to win the Republican nomination. "You want to avoid a whole lot of momentum for one candidate. The further we get into the calendar, the better it is for us."

DuHaime confirmed that he and more than a dozen other top advisers and consultants with large salaries stopped being paid as of Jan. 1. "It's about making sure that as much money as we can have, we have," he said in an interview.

But he said that most of the other campaign workers are still being paid and that the operation is financially healthy. "Most of our donors are people who believe in the candidate and believe in Rudy," he said. "This was a calculated strategy, understanding that this would be a time that other candidates would be in the news."

The past few days have been typical.

Yesterday, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee rallied with several hundred people in the small Michigan town of Birch Run, immediately returning to populist themes after a speech to business leaders in Detroit. Huckabee raised $1 million in the days after winning the Iowa primary and has set a goal of bringing in $10 million by Feb. 5 - as much in the next month as he collected in almost all of 2007 - from 40,000 donors.

Former senator Fred D. Thompson, Tenn., grabbed the spotlight Thursday night with a harsh attack on Huckabee's conservative credentials.

Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, barnstormed Michigan yesterday and released another ad in the state, in which he pledges to "work every day to change Washington and bring us back, because Michigan is personal to me."

Sen. John McCain, Ariz., began running a new radio ad in Michigan featuring a man who was a prisoner of war with him in Vietnam.

By contrast, Giuliani is letting the presidential campaign come to him, a strategy that has never been tried before and that is fraught with risks. Advisers hope he will win the Sunshine State's Jan. 29 primary and vault himself back into White House contention before 22 states hold primary contests a week later.

New York and New Jersey will vote that day, as will several other big states such as California that Giuliani believes he can win. If all goes according to plan, he will have amassed a significant lead in the hunt for delegates by the end of Feb. 5.

But Giuliani has been in a downward spiral from the first-place position he held for months in national polls. In the most recent CNN-Opinion Research survey, he had the support of 18 percent of likely Republican voters, in third place behind Huckabee, at 21 percent, and McCain, at 34 percent.

Despite those numbers, if there is a year that Giuliani's approach could work, it may be this one, when none of his rivals are running the table. Once dominant in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney is fighting for his political life. McCain, Huckabee and Thompson are battling in South Carolina, a contest that could be fatal to Thompson's hopes and highly damaging to Huckabee's.

[netscaper113]

If Giuliani loses Florida, he is finished as a candidate this year.

I still have a bone to pick with Giuliani.. he should have run for Governor of New York in 2006 and spared that state from the atrocities of Eliot "Job Killer" Spitzer.

[j-whitman]

What a Bozo,, Rudy delivers his economic packate as his staff goes without a pay check ----- I wondeer how many times he declared himself the savior of 9/11 ----

The corrupt SOB helped finiance the Mastermind of 9/11

[bluegrass101-2009]

One more Repug down , five more to go.

[prinzowhales]

The media continues to push this mass-murdering Sierra-Oscar-Bravo...this liar...this Mafiosi scum-bag...this War Pig...this betrayer of the first responders...this betrayer of his wife...this contemptible arse-licking servant of the Oligarchy!

[j-whitman]

netscaper113,,

,, The only contest Rudy should ever participate in is ---- The What''s Wrong With Americia Beauty Pagent --- He can wear his favorite dress.

[hazelknows]

Poor strategy and advice, or just someone with no clue and surrounds himself with inept personal. But with no clear top choice, he is still in the game, maybe a few more $9.11 a plate fund raiser, his exploiting of 911 is just shameful.

[tylenol6]

Rudy might not get to be president, but mabe he/she Rudy
can get to be voted for the dynamite looking TRANSEXUAL
that he appears to be. Rudy is strange......

[likeitis5050]

Imagine that....and just one month ago he was considered by so many to be the obvious candidate to run against Hillary....and just 3 months ago...McCain was in the can...washed up because of his soft-boiled attitude toward illegal immigrants. Not much has changed but now he''s the golden child. Stay tuned for more upsets....

[tylenol6]

May be cross dresser Rudy knows there is a definate win
in Florida for him. Let''s face it, Diebold Company voting machine are corrupt. How in the world do you think Hitlery won??? It''s strange that the hand counted
votes were smaller then that of the Diebold machine count for Hitlery. I think Diebold will fix the election in Florida for our crook Rudy. You watch.....If Rudy does not do good in Florida (as was with Hitlery in N.H., he is out) and we all know Rudy is not going to leave this race.

[prinzowhales]

Here is why Bush needed to go to Israel in such a hurry:

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Metzger_Yona.html

Since this guy is a toe-tapping rabbi and not a toe-tapping church-ite...we aren''t hearing about it here.

[denn034]

Giuliani presents himself as a Reagan Republican. Here''s what Reagan had to say about the very gay rights Giuliani supports: Said Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign: %u201CMy criticism is that [the gay movement] isn''t just asking for civil rights; it''s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.%u201D In short, Reagan opposed "recognition and acceptance" of homosexuality! Time to stop calling yourself a Reagan Republican, Giuliani.

[grazinggoat]

Rudy might not get to be president, but mabe he/she Rudy
can get to be voted for the dynamite looking TRANSEXUAL
that he appears to be. Rudy is strange......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by tylenol6 at 02:44 PM : Jan 12, 2008

-Matter of fact this Rudy looks much like my Belorussian Grandma! She had more hair though!

-Rudy stop spending all this money for your lost presidential run. Give that money to charities so ''kicked-out-of-their-homes'' fellow Americans can stay at home a bit longer. Give it back to Mafia to be given back to needy people, IDIOT! This is not what America needs. America''s richest need no more Tax cutz.

[soldat44]

The campaign that never was...

[cdfoxtrot]

This guy demonstrates again and again that he has terrible judgment and is not fit to run anything. He was the genius who chose, against expert advice, to put the emergency response HQ in the basement of the World Trade Center. This was the reason he had to walk the streets of NY on 9/11 - he had nowhere to go after the planes demolished his office. He''s demonstrating again that he has poor judgment by running this weird campaign that focuses on the late voting states.

[j-whitman]

stonebog1,,,, Keep in mind that if Bill had listened to Hillary, Rawanda wouldn''t have happened & Dafur wouldn''t be an issue.

[ontheleft]

Iowa and New Hampshire have proven yet again how critical they are to getting the nomination. Giuliani ignored them and now he''s toast.

[iceman_1960]

"Giuliani"s Florida Gamble"

Is gambling legal there ?

[iceman_1960]

Posts keep disappearing on me.

[iceman_1960]

"Sen. John McCain, Ariz., began running a new radio ad in Michigan featuring a man who was a prisoner of war with him in Vietnam."

Revisiting the Vietnam War is not going to do it for John McCain.

[prinzowhales]

McCain is a Keating Five crook. His position in the Navy was secured by his Admiral father who helped cover up the attack by Israel on the USS LIBERTY. He is married to the daughter of a Arizona organized crime family member of the Bronfman-connected Kemper Marley alcohol distribution rackets that date back to Prohibition. Bronfman--a Canadian bootlegger--part of the British Intelligence apparatus, controls the Seagrams label and others...they supplied the Capone gang with liquor during Prohibition. Bronfman is works the Zionist, Israel-first rackets of which McCain is an integral part.

In any event, from a counter-intelligence prospective, a man like McCain, who has been under opposing force discipline, should NEVER!! be allowed access to classified information...One can respect his service, but one should NOT violate basic, common sense and long standing practice---His marital and personal relations should preclude high office of any kind.

[sharncedar]

I believe the power elite would prefer Clinton or Giuliani, I think they can tolerate McCain or Rmoney. The others will die if they get too close, or a surpirse will happen to them like Gary Hart, or Howard Dean, etc. etc. etc.

Would they tolerate Edwards? He is a big phony, but I''m not sure if all the players will be happy with him. the big defense contractors prefer Hillary or McCain or Giuliani, certainly, they are the 3 dirtiest. They will any one of them continue the $500 billion yearly feedbag that is our "defense" industry (and who will defend us from them?)

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm...

I do not want to offend anyone by making this comment, however I do believe that Rudi Giuliani''s chances of getting elected president of the United States are the exact same as him becoming the next Pope or Czar of Russia...

[jsilver2th]

There''s a lot of people from NYC in Folrida huh?

[abbe91]

"It''s about making sure that as much money as we can have, we have," he said in an interview.

I guess he could get more money from his friends from Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah al-Thani and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad (the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden).

[rowdytexan2]

If Guiliani''s employed staff is giving their salaries to the campaign, that''s a donation. How much are they allowed to donate? Is the Guiliani campaign still going to pay the payroll taxes on this money?

Just wondering why he is banking so hard on Florida? Have he and his mob friend Jed cooked up another way to rob the Florida votes? Even in the primaries?

Sorry, Neocons, Rudy isn''t going to be your new stooge! Go home and play with the mob, Rudy! Find a new mistress somewhere!

[hwy71so]

Guiliani, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama could all sit down to tea and there would be no tensions raised. Why? Because they all see things in the same light.

Guiliani is a Democrat posing as a Republican.

[denn034]

"Said Reagan during the 1980 presidential campaign: ''My criticism is that [the gay movement] isn''''t just asking for civil rights; it''s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.''"
Posted by denn034

I want to restate an earlier posting on this story. Reagan''s opposition was to "recognition and acceptance" and condoning the gay lifestyle not *** personally. In other words, giving homosexuals legal protections and letting them join the military openly isn''t anti-Reagan and doesn''t promote the lifestyle, it only promotes Equal Opportunity Employment and legal protections. Giuliani goes too far in supporting the lifestyle contrary to Reagan and that means that he should stop claiming to be a Reagan Republican. Period!