Rudy Giuliani

Was there really a time when Rudy Giuliani was the GOP front runner? Surely that occurred in some alternate reality, right? These days Rudy is unemployed, aimless and deep in debt. To help get rid of some of that red ink, not to mention get back in the public eye, he has come up with an unorthodox idea. Rudy's offering to appear at fund raisers for Republican candidates... as long as some of the cash drummed up ends up in his coffers. That's right, he wants a percentage of the money he helps raise.

The unusual request underscores the financial predicament Mr. Giuliani finds himself in, after he ended his presidential bid this year with roughly $3.6 million in campaign debt. Traditionally, prominent party figures help lower-tier candidates by headlining fund-raising events in return for good will and future political alliances, but do not receive funds themselves.

Mr. Giuliani's debt includes a $500,000 personal loan that he made to the campaign, according to his latest campaign finance report.

Giuliani's plan is not sitting well with some GOP officials, who accuse him, anonymously, of selfishly trying to take money desperately needed by local candidates:

"In a year when our candidates are struggling to raise money, this is just another burden," said a leading Republican Party strategist, who was briefed about the mayor's request. "This is not about helping the party. This is about helping Rudy Giuliani."

Neither the GOP nor Giuliani's campaign is saying how many candidates have taken Rudy up on his cash grab. I'm betting that's because none have.

The Daily News has a rundown of some of the things the $212 million Hillary Clinton spent on her presidential bid could have bought instead. According to Celeste Katz, the Clinton campaign could have paid for the following: sending more than 76,000 New York families to Disneyland, 9,838 Toyota Priuses, 70.7 million energy-efficient light bulbs, and several other amusing and ironic purchases. The $11 million Clinton gave her campaign could buy everyone in New York City a lottery ticket. The total campaign cost could have bought everyone in the city a movie ticket. Well, that last one says more about the cost of movies than it does about the cost of campaigns.

Although Hillary Clinton's campaign spent a fortune (as did Obama, but his campaign looks good because he got the nomination), she simply played the campaign finance game as it is played in this era. In order to compete on a battlefield of this magnitude, spending an absolute fortune is simply the ante. Kicking the candidate who lost while she's down may be fun and easy, but it's the system that needs kicking, not Senator Clinton. Plenty of others spent quite a bit more than the staggering $109,823 per delegate she spent. For example, her tally is nothing compared to the $48.8 million Rudy Giuliani spent on a single delegate during his failed bid for the Republican nomination. Mitt Romney put out quite a bit of economic stimulus as well, spending $98 million for just 282 delegates, nearly $350,000 per delegate. Romney's stings a little more because $42.3 million of it was his own money.

Before the 2008 Presidential campaign, the gold standard for farcical overspending was set by the 1996 bid for the Republican presidential nomination by John McCain's current economic adviser, and former Texas senator, Phil Gramm. Gramm's campaign spent $25 million for just 10 delegates. Republican campaign insiders coined the term for the money a candidate spends per delegate won the Gramm-o-meter. That kind of wasteful spending seems quaint in retrospect.

New Jersey's very senior senator, Democrat Frank Lautenberg, is up for re-election this year. Three Republican rivals were vying for the nomination that will be decided in the state primary in June. The candidate considered to have the best chance against Lautenberg, Monmouth Co. businesswoman Anne Evans Estabrook, dropped out of the race last week due to a mini-stroke.

The NJ state GOP officials don't seem to have much faith in the chances of the two remaining candidates, state Senator Joe Pennacchio and Ramapo College professor Murray Sabrin (endorsed by Ron Paul!). Former NY Yankee and Florida resident Al Leiter and Mike Huckabee have turned down the carpetbagger-seeking GOP politicos.

Not to be outdone seeking some name-brand out-of-state panache,

Monmouth county GOP Chairman Adam Puharic today said he was calling for an emergency meeting of Republican county chairmen to discuss the party's options in nominating a candidate.

As for his own personal choice for a GOP senate candidate now that Estabrooks is out, Puharic said he would be happy joining a coalition of New Jersey Republicans calling on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to enter the race, or "other talented Republicans."

The LA Times reports that former New York mayor and former GOP Presidential frontrunner Rudolph Giuliani paid grudging tribute to Congressman Ron Paul during the announcement of the end of his candidacy.

Giuliani gave a gracious concession speech in which he listed all of his Republican competitors and called them good men.

He added Ron Paul on the end, smiling, and said after all the debates he'd go back to his hotel room and watch television and how every time, according to the texted tallies, Ron Paul won all the debates, much, he did not say, thanks to the determined voting of his many busy-fingered followers. "Ron Paul won every debate!" Giuliani said.

It seems fitting that Giuliani would bookend his campaign by tipping his hat to Dr. Paul, as his campaign trajectory seemed to have been neatly mapped out by this exchange from an early debate, in which Rudy tried to humiliate the good Doctor with a bit of "straw man" politics:

As Politico reports, the close of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid is a hopeful sign that the era of the politics of fear may be coming to an end.

"There's a paradox for Rudy," said former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who was a member of the 9/11 Commission. "One of the things he did very well on 9/11 was say, 'We've got to get back to normal.' And that's what's happened. We've gotten back to normal."

As a result, this may be the last of this type of satire that you're likely to see. From The Specious Report:

Miami, FL | Former New York Mayor and current Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani was taken into custody by Miami Metro-Dade Police late Monday evening under charges of trespassing, vandalism, and disorderly conduct. Hizzoner was picked up outside a Miami 7-Eleven sporting only a hardhat and a megaphone.

A Police Translator explained that Rudy was on top of a ladder, spray-painting a "9" over the "7" on the store's large parking lot sign...

Now, it's time for a little more sober reflection on what this means going forward, as Giuliani is expected to endorse John McCain at tonight's debate at the Reagan Presidential Library.

After the jump, some analysis of Rudy's campaign, and what his endorsement means for the Republican race.

UPDATE: Confirmed: cnn

At this time (8:50pm) the polls are too close to call with a slight edge to McCain over Romney, but what they are clear about is that Rudy's Florida strategy has completely and utterly failed. And I was wrong. In my defense, I figured that with all the money that Rudy raised early, at least he hired himself some extremely smart political strategists that told him this strategy was sound and would work.

Right?

And now the latest is that Rudy will be dropping out Wednesday (that's tomorrow) and will do it in California. So Rudy will be essentially doing his part to throw New York and California over to John McCain on his way out. In the meantime, based on my own feelings, and the feelings of a few others that I talk to, I believe that we will see a sudden "stop McCain" movement heat up with Romney as the only standard bearer left to lead it.

Will it work? It'll be tough. McCain will have won Florida and will have an inside edge on California and New York. Romney will need to sweep the South and West. It's doable, but Huckabee will need to drop out, and as I write this, he is pledging to head to Missouri. Huck has had his moment and there's enough there for several other posts.

Today's Florida primary marks another milestone in the GOP race for the nomination. By all accounts, including his own, Rudy Giuliani is poised to drop out of the contest if he finishes behind Mitt Romney and John McCain. If polls are to believed (and there's every reason not to believe them) Rudy is currently fighting it out for a third place finish with Mike Huckabee.

Of course, "America's Mayor" long ago laid out his strategy for all to see. He would fore-go Iowa, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Nevada and South Carolina, waiting ever patiently for Florida. There he'd spring his electoral trap, snag a win, and be propelled into Super Tuesday with the proverbial wind at his back. The problem, of course, is that with their wins in the early contests McCain, Romney, and Huckabee came to dominate the airwaves. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the free press generated from a victory is more than even Mitt Romney's fortune can buy.

Rudy Giuliani's latest web ad, in advance of tomorrow's Flordia GOP contest, takes a mocking approach to the mainstream media's endorsements. This :50 second spot is titled "Not Endorsed."

What's more shocking: (a) that a Greenwich Village car dealer is auctioning a 2008 Presidential candidate's car on eBay or (b) that Rudy "Nine-Eleven" Giuliani drove an aqua 1966 Chevrolet Corvair convertible in the mid-1990s? With a white top!

According to the listing, it was owned by the former New York City mayor until 1996, includes the original radio, all of its original books and manuals, in addition to the title and other paperwork "in Rudy Giuliani's name."

According to Radar Online, this is a dangerous car. Not only did the opening chapter of Ralph Nader's book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, claim that the automobile industry withheld evidence of design defects in the Chevy Corvair, but Giuliani used the car to "court" his cousin and first wife Regina Peruggi.

At the moment, the top bidder is George Hamilton.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.

Rudy Giuliani has a new :30 second spot airing in the Sunshine state in advance of next week's winner-takes-all GOP primary election. It's titled "Some."