So.. did you hear the one about Giuliani and the World Series rings?

[americanstranger]

It is only now, however, as Giuliani campaigns for president, that we are beginning to learn that this relationship went even deeper. Giuliani has been seen on the campaign trail wearing a World Series ring, a valuable prize we never knew he had. Indeed, the Yankees have told the Voice that he has four rings, one for every world championship the Yankees won while he was mayor. Voice calls to other cities whose teams won the Series in the past decade have determined that Giuliani is the only mayor with a ring, much less four. If it sounds innocent, wait for the price tag. These are certainly no Canal Street cubic zirconia knockoffs.

With Giuliani's name inscribed in the 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 diamond-and-gold rings, memorabilia and baseball experts say they are collectively worth a minimum of $200,000. The Yankees say that Giuliani did pay for his rings—but only $16,000, and years after he had left office. Anyone paying for the rings is as unusual as a mayor getting one, since neither the Yankees nor any other recent champion have sold rings to virtually anyone.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0719,barrett,76566,2.html/1

This guy makes me sick. Reading about how he 'demanded' Yankee swag every time he went to the stadium makes him sound like not only a greedhead, but the worst sort of baseball groupie as well.

on edit: What's more, it looks like Rudy traded getting these rings for letting the Yankees under-pay substantial monies they were required to pay the city. This is a huge conflict of interest, and apparently still prosecutable, should some enterprising prosecutor want to take it on.

You gots some big trouble here, America's Mayor.

- as

[rurallib]

1. Wasn't Giuliani or Kerik in charge of securing steroids?

:sarcasm:

[shain from kane]

2. Did the second Mrs. Giuliani get her proportionate share at divorce? Based on what value?

[MADem]

8. If I were Donna, I'd demand two rings. And because the fucker withheld them,

I'd ask the judge to award the 'favored' 96 ring as one of the two.

Then I'd put them up at Sothby's, posthaste, and use the cash to buy a little cottage somewhere!

[MADem]

3. This whole thing is RICH, I tell ya, RICH!!

America's Mayah??? More like America's thief!!!

What's more troubling is that Giuliani's receipt of the rings may be a serious breach of the law, and one that could still be prosecuted. New York officials are barred from taking a gift of greater than $50 value from anyone doing business with the city, and under Giuliani, that statute was enforced aggressively against others. His administration forced a fire department chief, for example, to retire, forfeit $93,105 in salary, and pay a $6,000 fine for taking Broadway tickets to two shows and a free week in a ski condo from a city vendor. The city's Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) has applied the gift rule to discounts as well, unless the cheaper rate "is available generally to all government employees." When a buildings department deputy commissioner was indicted in 2000 for taking Mets and Rangers tickets, as well as a family trip to Florida, from a vendor, an outraged Giuliani denounced his conduct as "reprehensible," particularly "at high levels in city agencies," and said that such officials had to be "singled out" and "used as examples."

City officials are also required to disclose gifts from anyone but relatives on forms filed with the COIB, something Giuliani did not do with any of the rings. Giuliani certainly used to sound serious about the need for full public disclosure. In 1989, he denounced his mayoral opponent, David Dinkins, for failing to disclose frequent-flier tickets to France given to him by a friend, even though the friend did no business with the city; Giuliani called it an example of "arrogance and disrespect for legal and ethical obligations."

And there's another, more recent, and closer-to-home example of arrogant nondisclosure noted publicly by Giuliani. When former police commissioner Bernard Kerik pled guilty last year to charges involving a city contractor's gift to him of a $165,000 apartment renovation, Giuliani said that Kerik had "acknowledged his violations." As part of a $221,000 plea deal, Kerik agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the COIB for accepting and then failing to accurately disclose the renovations. Not only are Kerik and Giuliani's concealed gifts of similar value, but Kerik, like Giuliani, made a partial payment for the renovations—$17,800, far less than full value.

More ominous for Giuliani, Kerik's prosecution came eight years after the renovation of his apartment began, an indication that the ordinary statute of limitations doesn't apply to the continuing reporting requirements of the COIB. In addition, Giuliani reportedly paid the Yankees as recently as 2004 for one of the rings, another reason why an investigation might still be timely. It is also a violation of state unlawful-gratuity statutes for a public official to "solicit, accept, or agree to accept any benefit" from a business like the Yankees, which leases the stadium from the city.

[Dr.Phool]

4. Bye-Bye Rudy!!!

Don't let the door hit you in the ass!

Fucking crook!



:rofl: :rofl:

[americanstranger]

5. And besides the illegality, it's freakin' embarrassing.

How much of a dork must you be to have yourself photographed wearing a Yankees uniform for use in a poster?

I read the part about him running into the locker room through the dugout after big games and thought, 'This guy's a goddamn baseball groupie.'

No scruples, no shame, so sense of embarrassment - I hate to say it, but he's the perfect GOP presidential candidate.

- as

[1776Forever]

6. Wow - Has Olberman seen this one? What a story!

:kick:

[MADem]

7. The last paragraph of the piece sums that sleazeball up

At the end of the day, his motto has gotta be "I love ME, who do you love?" Baaastid!!!

Those who know Giuliani well say that when he thinks he's in love, he waives all the rules of acceptable conduct. But the story of him and his team is not just a saga of disturbing infatuation and self-absorption. It is an object lesson in what kind of a president he would be, a window into his willingness to lend himself to a special interest, to blur all lines that ordinarily separate personal and public lives. It is not so much that he identified with the Yankees. It was himself that he was serving.