Class, Thy Name Is Rudy (Giuliani's Iowa Campaign Screws Up)

CBS News ^ | May 10, 2007 | Kevin Drum

[2ndDivisionVet]

As part of a campaign stop planned for Iowa last week, Rudy Giuliani's Des Moines office called Deb and Jerry VonSprecken to see if they'd host an event at their farm. They agreed. After several days of planning and a security check, though, Deb was told to call Giuliani's New York office: "They wanted to know our assets," she revealed, and added that she and Jerry have a modest 80 acre farm and raise cattle.

Later she received a call from Tony Delgado at the Des Monies location.

"Tony said, 'I'm sorry, you aren't worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.' then he said they weren't going to be able to come," Deb continued. The guy's just all class, isn't he?

POSTSCRIPT: So what really happened? It sounds like Giuliani's gang was playing an old time conservative game: trying to find a family farm that would eventually have to be sold in order to pay inheritance taxes. Of course, they can practically never find one, since inheritance taxes don't even start to kick in until a farm is worth several million dollars, and there aren't very many family farms worth anywhere near that. But that doesn't keep them from trying.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Since this is CBS News, we need to take it with a grain of salt, but if true, it won't please Iowa farmers. I see that Kevin can't spell Des Moines correctly, for example.

[sheana]

I believe this but don’t believe it is just true for Rudy. I think it is status quo for most politicians.

[RoseofTexas]

I wonder if cBS went after oSama will fury after his little white lie gaff?!! I passionately despise the freakin mediaWHORES to the core!!

[keepitreal]

Of course, they can practically never find one, since inheritance taxes don’t even start to kick in until a farm is worth several million dollars, and there aren’t very many family farms worth anywhere near that. But that doesn’t keep them from trying.

---

At least not until 2010 when the legislation that gave those high exemptions is sunsetted. It’s because of the Republicans that there is an exemption for assets worth several million dollars (and an eventual repeal of the death tax). If CBS News is going to talk about this they should at least tell the whole truth (yeah right).

[OKIEDOC]

CBS News is in the Crapper Ratings Trash Bin of History and they continue to trumpet Hit Piece News from fringe organizations.

The words “Giuliani’s gang was playing an old time conservative game” tells me that the author intended to hurt not only Rudy but the Republican party.

George Sorass and his funded media whores will stop at nothing with the disinformation campaign.

[GraniteStateConservative]

There is nothing at all odd about any of this story. If a politician wants to make some point about ending the inheritance tax because it hurts farmers, then they better find a farmer who actually would fall under that rule, otherwise they come off as totally foolish. The problem is that the GOP wants to have warm and fuzzy reasons for advocating some particular policy instead of just saying that the reason is because the principle of taxing inheritance is un-American.

Rudy isn’t in the wrong in how to apply the strategy he chose and CBS has a valid point in calling the GOP out for using stupid reasons for policy.

[RoseofTexas]

Oops, just saw my mistake...meant to say WITH instead of will...more java please! :)

[Rodney King]

An excellent point: The Inheritence tax is morally wrong. If Giuliani understood that, rather than finding some secondary reason why it is wrong, this fiasco would not have happened.

[The Wizard]

how come there isn’t a BEAST truth file.....you GOPers don’t get it...attack the enemy not each other

[Grammy]

" Of course, they can practically never find one, since inheritance taxes don't even start to kick in until a farm is worth several million dollars, and there aren't very many family farms worth anywhere near that. But that doesn't keep them from trying."

They didn't look very hard. I have a neigbor who bought about 300 hundred acres at $40 per acre nearly 40 years ago. He wants to leave a bunch to his kids, but it is now selling at $25000 per acre.

[Cicero]

Yes, I imagine all they needed to do was to find a farm outside of some fashionable city where the yuppies are moving in.

I don’t blame Rudy’s staff for trying to set this up, but it sounds as if they were a bit clumsy at it.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Shows how little Rudy’s people know about Iowa. If they’d have found a farm outside West Des Moines, Ames, Urbandale, Iowa City or Cedar Rapids, it wouldn’t have been a problem.

[Cicero]

Not only that, but it would have been convenient to the big donors as well. I confess I don’t know Iowa well, either, but the first thing you do is talk to someone who does. It sounds as if they went in cold and had no local connections.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Lived there from 1974 to 2000.

[newgeezer]

There is nothing at all odd about any of this story. If a politician wants to make some point about ending the inheritance tax because it hurts farmers, then they better find a farmer who actually would fall under that rule

I couldn't care less about Guiliani's campaign and I agree with you 100%.

[newgeezer]

It sounds as if they went in cold and had no local connections.

No excuse for that, since former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA1) is a high-profile adviser to the Giuliani campaign.