Opinion: Staff Woes

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It’s been your basic bad day for Rudy Giuliani.

His campaign awoke to the Newsday story reporting that making money may have been a bigger lure for him than serving on the Iraq Study Group.

Early in the day, he lost his main campaign advisor in Iowa when Jim Nussle, a former House member from the state, decided to join the Bush administration as head of the Office of Budget and Management.

Then came THIS blow: his campaign chairman in South Carolina --- like Iowa, a key early-voting state in the presidential derby --- got indicted on federal cocaine charges. Thomas Ravenel, treasurer of the Palmetto State, is accused with an associate of distributing less than 500 pounds of the drug, starting in 2005.

A Giuliani aide quickly issued the following statement: ‘Our campaign has no information about the accusations pending against Mr. Ravenel. Mr. Ravenel has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities with the campaign.’

Yes, one would imagine he’ll be a bit distracted in the months to come.

--Don Frederick