GIULIANI His Plea: Focus on My Record, Not the Armchair Psychology

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

GIULIANI His Plea: Focus on My Record, Not the Armchair Psychology

Rudy Giuliani thinks it's all "psychobabble."

One of his predecessors wrote a book about him titled "Nasty Man." A newspaper once dubbed him "a human hand grenade." The former head of the New York City Council described his favorite leadership technique as the "sledgehammer approach."

But in an interview Monday, the former New York mayor dismissed such concerns about his temperament as armchair psychology that should be ignored in favor of an evaluation of his record of accomplishments.

What matters, Giuliani said, is how he would manage the country's economy or respond to a terrorist attack, "rather than this touchy-feely, let-me-try-to-figure-out- how-you-do-psychobabble-on-somebody."

Giuliani also brushed aside efforts by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to portray himself as the ultimate family man by releasing a video of a family vacation filled with scenes of giggling grandchildren.

"He has a right to emphasize the things he wants to emphasize," Giuliani told The Washington Post after a speech on energy policy in San Francisco. "I never emphasize those things."

Giuliani said that voters are well aware of his personal difficulties -- his divorces, a strained relationship with his son. "Some fair, some unfair, some true, some untrue," he said of the stories. But he said he hopes that those will not be the measurements by which people judge him when they choose a Republican nominee next year.

"All of it gets tested against having been in public office for that entire time, and somehow it didn't affect my performance," he said. "At moments of great personal crises, some people perform really well, some people perform horrible. That's kinda what you gotta know."

-- Michael D. Shear

THE START-UP Operative for Non-Candidate Fred Thompson Shifts Jobs

Fred D. Thompson hasn't even announced his candidacy for president, and already he's going through a major staff realignment.

Tom Collamore, who has been serving as chief operating officer of the nascent Thompson operation, will become a senior adviser to the campaign, but without day-to-day management responsibilities.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to serve Senator Thompson in this critical stage of testing the waters and preparing an organization that will make it possible for him to make the best decision going forward," Collamore said yesterday.

Republican insiders reported that differences between Collamore and Thompson's wife, Jeri, led to the changes. Sources close to the campaign said those reports were overblown. "There's some rub, but it's not near the way it's being played out," one knowledgeable Republican said.

Collamore was brought aboard to help build the infrastructure for a presidential campaign and reportedly felt it was time for the campaign to shift to another level. But his move leaves the campaign without a manager at a critical time. Thompson advisers once talked about launching the campaign by early or mid-July. Now his advisers say it could be September before he is ready to formally announce his campaign.

Thompson has recruited several veteran Republicans to help run the operation, including former senator Spencer Abraham (Mich.), who served in several key party posts before running for office himself. Abraham will become campaign chairman. Randy Enwright, a longtime Florida-based GOP strategist who has played key roles in President Bush's campaigns there, will serve as political director.

-- Dan Balz

DEBATE'S AFTERMATH Albright Takes On Obama (Sort of)

One day after the Democrats' YouTube/CNN debate in South Carolina, the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama scrambled yesterday to exploit perceived openings on national security issues.

Clinton took aim at Obama's statement in the debate that he would meet with leaders of rogue states within a year of becoming president. Clinton said in the forum that she would not. "I don't want to be used for propaganda purposes. I don't want to make a situation even worse," she said.

The Clinton campaign rejoiced over the contrast in approaches, putting former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright on the phone with reporters yesterday to praise Clinton.

"She knows that being president is about protecting the country and advancing national security interests," Albright said. The key to the question, she said, was that it asked whether the candidates would meet with rogue leaders without preconditions. Was Obama's answer wrong?

"I can't comment on Senator Obama," Albright said. But it was clear that Clinton advocates hoped Obama's answer would be interpreted as a sign of weakness or inexperience, revealing a lack of understanding of how to manage enemies.

In a newspaper interview yesterday in Iowa, Clinton was more direct, calling Obama's comments "irresponsible" and "naive."

Obama said in an interview with the same paper, the Quad City Times, that the Clinton campaign had created a "fabricated controversy."

-- Anne E. Kornblut

CHELSEA'S SCHOOLING Blame the Media? Once It Wasn't So.

Ah, it was the media's fault. Clinton said Monday night that she sent her daughter, Chelsea, to Sidwell Friends School instead of a D.C. public school because of reporters. "I was advised -- and it was, unfortunately, good advice -- that if she were to go to a public school, the press would never leave her alone," she said. That repeated the explanation in her 2003 memoir that the decision "rested on one fact: Private schools were private property, hence off-limits to the news media. Public schools were not."

Funny thing -- that's not what the Clintons said in January 1993 when they announced the decision. "They chose Sidwell Friends because it's a good school," spokesman George Stephanopoulos said at the time. "It's an academically challenging school." And, he noted, "one of the things that was particularly attractive to the family was that Sidwell has a service component that goes along with their academic requirements."

Nothing about reporters -- who, by the way, aren't exactly allowed to waltz into public schools any more than they are private schools. And who over eight years pretty much left Chelsea alone, regardless of school.

-- Peter Baker