Rudy Giuliani, Role ModelYesterday we told you about Rudy Giuliani’s business partner Hank Asher’s well-timed gift to the wife of indicted Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. One of the remarkable things about the story is how thoroughly it hits the high points of what we’ve come to expect from Giuliani muck.
Sure, it’s got bribery allegations, as with Giuliani’s chum Bernie Kerik. But it’s also got the flagrant misuse of taxpayer money on “security” matters that we’ve come to expect from the Giuliani brand.
Setting aside the hundreds of thousands in gifts and bribes outlined in the indictment, Carona was notorious in California for traveling with “a team of detectives as bodyguards.” When The Los Angeles Times asked him about “the extravagance” in 2004, sheriff officials replied, “without offering specifics,” that “Carona has received death threats and is a potential target because he serves on a federal homeland security committee and has become a recognizable figure with appearances on national TV news programs.” The Times noted that other California sheriffs didn’t seem to need the same amount of attention.
An Orange County Register piece from earlier this year suggests that at least part of the inspiration for rolling with such a posse came from Giuliani himself:
According to grand jury testimony, [Carona’s deputy sheriff George] Jaramillo ordered underlings to run his personal errands, had secretaries juggle calls from his wife and girlfriends, and said he needed an entourage because he was tired of being treated like “the gardener.”Carona got the same star treatment, using bodyguards and being chauffeured by deputies to events. After a visit to New York and a meeting with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Jaramillo and Carona decided they wanted the same kind of deputy detail and ordered it done.
Carona, of course, has endorsed Giuliani. It’s unclear whether the security detail was also dispatched to secure his longtime mistress.