THE PLANK JANUARY 2, 2007
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Ben Smith is a fine reporter and I heartily congratulate him on his boffo scoop: a "lost" copy of Rudy Giuliani's potential 2008 White House game plan. The particulars are interesting--but given that this black book is a whopping 140 pages, it actually sounds like somewhat of a letdown: Did we really need a secret binder to tell us, for instance, that Rudy's camp is worried about his reputation with social conservatives? And no mention of any new skeletons his operatives might be trying to hide? This reminds me of an episode from when I was a TNR intern in the early Clinton years. A colleague riding the subway to work found, to his astonishment, a document-stuffed manila folder with the word "WHITEWATER" written across it. For reasons I forget, he could clearly tell the folder had belonged to a GOP congressional aide. My colleague breathlessly rushed it back to the office thinking it was the discovery of a lifetime and we all pored frantically through its contents. Yet nothing in it turned out to be new or interesting. So, a note to political professionals: When you lose secret documents, please make sure they're truly illuminating. Thank you.
--Michael Crowley
4 comments
Or does this look like an intentional plant by the Giuliani camp. You know, get all the bad news out early while you can still control the story. If there truly is nothing revelatory in the book, this scenario makes more and more sense.
- Brent
January 2, 2007 at 4:39pm
ben smith was told by a giuliani spokesman that the report was taken from a lost piece of luggage, photocopied, and returned. it would make the whole story a bit more malicious if true. from daily news: The AP quotes Rudy spokeswoman Sunny Mindel saying that the Rudy book I printed parts of today was stolen. The paper said an anonymous source obtained the document after it was left behind on a campaign swing in 2006, but Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel claimed it was actually pilfered from a piece of airline luggage. Mindel said that while working on the 2006 campaign trail, a Giuliani aide lost a piece of luggage containing the paper. "After repeated requests over the course of a few days, the bag was finally returned with the document inside. Because our staffer had custody of this document at all times except for this one occasion, it is clear that the document was removed from the luggage and photocopied," she said.
- 16272974
January 2, 2007 at 7:22pm
If this article's an accurate summary of a 140-pp campaign playbook, then all I can say is that those $250k/year political advisors have it made. Talk about cushy jobs.
- teplukhin
January 2, 2007 at 8:00pm
...when somebody steals private information and publishes it to advance their own career. If this weren't done under the rubric of "journalism" it would be seen for the low-life activity that it is. Somethin akin to paparazzi trying to get a shot of Kate Winslet with her top off.
- ChanRobt
January 2, 2007 at 10:28pm