$100 million? What for? Who from?

Giuliani Partners won’t release its client list. Hard to see how Rudy gets away with this one. But of course he gets away with a lot.

Giuliani Partners “earned” (not clear whether that’s revenues or profits) $100 million, and won’t tell us from whom or for what? I don’t think so.

John Solomon and Matthew Mosk have a nice list to start with: the company that invented the OxyContin problem and a former cocaine smuggler who wanted to get homeland security contracts from the federal government, for a program that has since been abandoned. The list of employees is also impressive, including an FBI official who “collected souvenirs” from Ground Zero (that’s technically known as “looting”), a child-molesting priest, and of course Bernie Kerik.

But the main point is that the voters ought to know to whom Giuliani has been peddling his influence. We’ve seen what happens with a Vice President beholden to a former private-sector employer; do we really want to find out what it’s like to have a President beholden to a large number of secret former private-sector clients?

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com