A Change of Plans

The Common Man planned to talk today about how he had officially exceeded the number of blog posts from April already this month. But scrapped that when the President decided that someone needed to blink in this whole Iraq funding issue and graciously did so, relenting to Congress's demand of benchmarks (a concept The Common Man is still not comfortable with when they are tied into continued funding). Then he scrapped that after read a headline in the New York Post and was going to talk about The Atkins Conspiracy (which he a) made up and b) will undoubtedly get to on Monday). Then, he returned home and found this article on Rob Neyer's blog at ESPN.com that linked to this article in the Village Voice.

The Village Voice article documents a perceived string of inappropriate gifts and perks given to Rudy Giuliani by the New York Yankees while he was Mayor of New York City. Between 1996 and 2001, the article alleges that Giuliani received four World Series rings from the team, as well as front-row box seats, memorabilia, and apparel. The article alleges that the gifts given by the Yankees to Giuliani add up to more than $300,000 (though their math can be disputed). Adding to the sordid picture of Giuliani's relationship with the Yankees are the mayor's final hours in office, in which he green lit a $400 million dollar, tax-payer financed ballpark plan for the team, an effort that was almost immediately canceled by Mayor Bloomberg. If true, Giuliani's actions are particularly egregious in light of his enthusiastic campaign against city corruption, in which several prominent city employees were forced to resign after accepting gifts from city vendors. Giuliani himself was highly critical of these employees.

The article is problematic, in that it is clearly written from a biased perspective and seems to revel in the muck it is raking up. Also, the author's decision to value the rings at $200,000 is based on what the rings would be worth on the open market, not what they cost to make or that the team paid for them (in a closed market). But Caesar's wife must be above reproach, and so should Caesar. So it seems as though an investigation into these gifts is warranted, an investigation that will undoubtedly hurt Giuliani's campaign, whether it uncovers any wrongdoing or not.