Kaplan on Rudy: What his greedy decision to quit the Iraq Study Group reveals

Talk about sleeping media. Curiously not many are talking about the fact that Rudy Guiliani quit the Iraq Study Group. Apparently raising political dough was more pressing than figuring out ways to make our country and the world safer and end the mess in Iraq. Odd. Fred Kaplan over at Slate is on it:

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.

Forced to quit for being a now-show. Good stuff. The reason he was missing meetings is because he was raising dough. Lots of it:

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.

Now. Absent from the discussion will be all the wingnuts who have been banging on President Clinton’s speaking engagements. Ahum. The President. Not candidate. The man was one. Ahum.

So what does this all reveal about Rudy the candidate and Rudy the man?

But?given a chance to elevate his standing, serve the country, and get educated on the nation’s most pressing issue?Rudy went for the money.