Opinion: Giuliani nabs key Bush advisor as his advisor now
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Nevermind their basic disagreement over gun control, Republican national front-runner Rudy Giuliani picked up a significant -- and very useful -- endorsement today from Joe Allbaugh.
Not everybody knows Joe, which is fine with that hulking 6-4 Oklahoman who looks like a pro defensive end. If you’re smart, you won’t mention his crew cut, which went out of style about four decades ago but if it doesn’t matter to him, who are you to notice?
Allbaugh is a no-nonsense political veteran who was Gov. George W. Bush’s chief staff in the Texas statehouse and then became part of the Iron Triangle -- Allbaugh as campaign manager, Karen Hughes as communications director and Karl Rove as political chief. They drove that 1999-2000 campaign through a stinging 19-point defeat in New Hampshire to John McCain on to the nomination, a tumultuous general election campaign, the Florida turmoil and ultimate victory and the White House.
Allbaugh was a demanding fellow, a stickler for saving campaign money (he required that fax cover sheets be printed on both sides to enable two uses and save paper) and a center of profound professional calm during the storms and crises that inevitably grip operations as long, as expensive and as large as a national presidential effort that depends so much on eager but inexperienced young people.
After the victory, Allbaugh was named head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he met Giuliani during the 9/11 crisis. He ran that agency until March 2003, exiting before the Katrina disaster and the successful assault on FEMA for not being an adequate first-responder.
Recently, Allbaugh has been running his own consulting company in Washington and serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Assn., which, it is safe to say, gun-control advocate Giuliani does not. They both had the usual yada-yada good things to say about each other today.
Allbaugh, who will serve as a senior advisor, ‘has significant experience in emergency management and I will look to him for sound advice and expertise,’ said Giuliani, who sometimes doesn’t listen too closely to advice from others. Chances are, Allbaugh will have his ear.
(UPDATE: Just as one-third of the Iron Triangle rejoins the federal political fray, the very next day another third--Karen Hughes--resigns as undersecretary of state to return to Texas, her job as an advocate for public and personal diplomacy largely unfulfilled.)
--Andrew Malcolm