MoveOn.org, the controversial anti-war group that Republicans bashed for its ad targeting Gen. David Petraeus, is hitting back against one of its harshest critics, Rudy Giuliani.
The former New York mayor has criticized his most prominent potential Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, for not distancing herself from MoveOn's "General Betray Us?" ad that ran in last Monday's New York Times. And he purchased his own ad in the Times last week responding to MoveOn.
In a new advertisement the group hopes will air soon in Iowa, MoveOn accuses Giuliani of "going AWOL" when he was picked to advise the president on his Iraq strategy, and the liberal group says the former mayor has betrayed voters' trust.
Giuliani, who is a top candidate to snag the Republican presidential nomination, was tapped to serve on the Iraq Study Group, but he was later booted from the panel when he failed to show up for meetings, choosing instead to collect six-figure speaking fees, the group alleges.
Newsday reported that Giuliani quit the group after behind admonished for failing to attend meetings -- instead appearing for paid public speeches. But Giuliani insisted his decision to withdraw from the group stemmed from his desire not to politicize its findings because he was considering a presidential run.
“It seemed to me that it should be apolitical,” Mr. Giuliani said when asked in December 2006 about his decision, according to the New York Times.
Although he has made the war on terror a central tenet of his campaign, Giuliani has scant foreign policy experience aside from serving as New York's mayor when nearly 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Giuliani left office four months later.
"After skipping important meetings of the Iraq Study Group, he quit, and gave speeches -- for money," MoveOn's new ad says.
In 14 months, Giuliani made $11.4 million speaking to audiences around the world about Sept. 11 and his time as mayor. When he quit the bipartisan Iraq Study Group in May of 2006, Giuliani was in the middle of his busiest stretch of speeches, when he gave 20 in a single month and took in $1.7 million, according to Newsday.
MoveOn.org purchased an advertisement in the New York Times timed to last week's congressional hearings featuring Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The ad asked if Petraeus would become "General Betray Us?" by cherry picking data to give a false impression of progress in Iraq. Giuliani jumped on the group and tried to tie its strident message to Clinton.
Giuliani continued his anti-Clinton attacks in a nearly five-minute long "exclusive" interview Monday morning on Fox News. He had criticized Clinton for telling Petraeus that hearing his testimony requires a "suspension of disbelief," and on Monday he continued to push the Hillary-MoveOn link.
"I thought the comments she made against Gen. Petraeus were taking politics beyond even the sort of horrible nature of politics today," Giuliani said. "MoveOn.org specializes in character assassination."
MoveOn has stood by its advertisement, and in its rebuttal refers to Giuliani's decision to abscond from the Iraq Study Group as a "betrayal of trust."
"Republican voters should ask Giuliani, 'Where were you when it counted?'" asks the narrator of the ad, which MoveOn is raising money to air in Iowa.
MoveOn posted its ad on YouTube Monday:
This video is from Fox's Fox & Friends, broadcast on September 17.
Want to get the news the media buries? 