When Rudy Giuliani Walked Out of Trump Tower, a Big Chunk of Donald Trump's Honor Left with Him

President-Elect Donald Trump has done something that has made me pause -- to consider honor. • • • Alexis de Tocqueville, the French social philosopher who is the enduring analyst of American exceptionalism, said : "It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too." That brings me to Rudy Giuliani. Anyone who watched the horror of 9/11 unfold, anyone who saw Mayor Giuliani walking up smoke ravaged Church Street in lower Manhattan with reporters throwing questions at him as if he were somehow more knowledgeable than the rest of America about the shocking attack, anyone who heard his practical call to duty, must know that Rudy Giuliani is an honorable man. Giuliani emerged from the smoke of 9/11 as the unquestioned hero of the day : America's Mayor, the father figure we could all rely on to be tough, to be wise, to do the right thing. In that uncertain time, it was a comfort to know that he was on the scene and in control, making the best of a dire situation, the first to reassure America : "Today is obviously one of the most difficult days in the history of the city and the country. The tragedy that we're all under going right now is something that we've had nightmares about and probably thought wouldn't happen. My heart goes out to all the innocent victims of this horrible and vicious act of terrorism, acts of terrorism, and our focus now has to be on saving as many lives as possible. I don't think we really want to speculate -- the number of casualties will be more than any any of us can bear. There's no question that we lost police officers and firefighters and some that I know personally, that all of us here know personally." • • • Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) French poet and critic, said : "Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach; once we have left it, we can never return." And, for me, denying Rudy Giuliani a place in his Cabinet as Secretary of State, has put President-Elect Donald Trump in jeopardy of leaving that rugged island of honor. We learned Friday that Giuliani is no longer under consideration to serve as Secretary of State. The President-Elect tweeted Saturday morning, after his transition team announced the decision on Friday : "Rudy Giuliani, one of the finest people I know and a former GREAT Mayor of N.Y.C., just took himself out of consideration for 'State.'" If we can believe CNN, it reported that Giuliani was told he is no longer in contention for the top US diplomat post, but that the incoming administration said Giuliani had pulled himself out of the running. Giuliani had been urged to consider other positions, CNN reported, but the former mayor said he was not interested. Giuliani confirmed this to Fox Newson on Friday : "I joined the campaign because I love my country and because having known Donald Trump as a friend for 28 years and observing what he has been able to accomplish, I had no doubt he would be a great President. This is not about me; it is about what is best for the country and the new administration. Before I joined the campaign I was very involved and fulfilled by my work with my law firm and consulting firm, and I will continue that work with even more enthusiasm. From the vantage point of the private sector, I look forward to helping the President-Elect in any way he deems necessary and appropriate." Reince Priebus, incoming White House Chief of Staff to the President-Elect, said that the former Mayor “was vetted by our team for any possible conflicts and passed with flying colors." He also said "the team appreciates Rudy’s contributions to the victory and considers him a close friend and advisor." In announcing his withdrawal, Giuliani again also criticized former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who is still a possible contender for the position, saying Romney "went over the line" in statements against Trump during the campaign, and so he doesn't think Romney should serve in any cabinet position. According to Kellyanne Conway, other contenders include Alan Mulally, the former CEO of Ford Motor Co., former CIA Director David Petraeus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, and ExxonMobil Chief Executive Rex Tillerson. • • • The Trump transition team said in a statement that Giuliani withdrew on November 29. Trump said : "Rudy would have been an outstanding member of the Cabinet in several roles, but I fully respect and understand his reasons for remaining in the private sector." Trump had no more loyal -- and assertive -- ally throughout his presidential campaign than the 72-year-old former mayor and federal prosecutor. Giuliani vouched for Trump in the face of sexual-misconduct allegations, saying they didn’t ring true; he criticized the Iran nuclear deal; and he backed Trump’s claims that President Barack Obama founded ISIS. Critics raised questions about how Giuliani’s aggressive temperament would fit the role of a diplomat. Senator Rand Paul, a Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee who’s wary of foreign entanglements, raised concern about the former mayor’s work for foreign governments and companies and his history of giving paid speeches after he left the New York mayor’s office in December 2001. But, such criticisms of Giuliani did not figure in the transition team's or Trumps comments -- and rightly so, since Giuliani's involvement with foreign governments and compaines is minor compared to Hillary Clinton's Foundation-State foreign entanglements -- Trump now seems to want to kiss-and-make-up with Hillary -- or indeed with Trump's own foreign dealings. • • • After CNN broke the story, the Trump transition team released the following statement : "President-Elect Donald J. Trump today announced that during a meeting with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani held on November 29, 2016, Mayor Giuliani removed his name from consideration for a position in the new administration. President-Elect Trump said, "Rudy Giuliani is an extraordinarily talented and patriotic American. I will always be appreciative of his 24/7 dedication to our campaign after I won the primaries and for his extremely wise counsel. He is and continues to be a close personal friend, and as appropriate, I will call upon him for advice and can see an important place for him in the administration at a later date. Mayor Giuliani will remain a Vice Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team led by Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, which is making historic progress in bringing highly qualified people into the administration." • • • Mark Twain said : "It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them." Rudy Giuliani can take comfort in that thought. His stature is evident in the remarks he has made publicly following his removal from consideration for Secretary of State. In an interview with Eric Bolling on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," Giuliani said he thought Trump had "enough choices that were good for him (and) I wasn't absolutely necessary." He added that he had "a whole life, businesses to run" but "if I thought I was the only one who could do, it, I would have stayed in." In an earlier interview Friday with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, Giuliani sounded the same theme, saying : "My desire to be in the Cabinet was great but it wasn't that great and he had a lot of terrific candidates and I thought I could play a better role being on the outside and continuing to be his close friend and advisor." Giuliani said on "The O'Reilly Factor : "I came to work for him to to save America. I felt I had done my job." • • • Consider the latest name to be added to the Trump list for Secretary of State. NBC News reported on Saturday that ExxonMobil Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson is Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of State, citing people close to the transition. NBC said its sources cautioned that nothing is final until the President-Elect makes an announcement. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Tillerson was the leading candidate. Trump has said he will announce his decision next week. Interestingly, NBC reported that John Bolton, a respected and proven diplomat, would be deputy secretary of state under Tillerson. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president and the most vicious critic of Trump during his campaign, remains on the short list of candidates, according to the unnamed sources. Tillerson moved to the forefront as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani withdrew from consideration to become Secretary of State or serve in any other capacity in the new administration, the transition team announced. One fact that would surely make Tillerson's Senate confirmation hearings lively, if not hot, is that Tillerson has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin going back almost two decades. He was awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship and as recently as 2015 visited with officials in Putin’s inner circle. That connection could make him a useful bridge between the Russian leader and Trump, who has repeatedly said he’d seek a more cooperative relationship with Moscow. Senator John McCain has a different opinion : "You have to examine it. You want to give the President of the United States the benefit of the doubt because the people have spoken, but Vladimir Putin is a thug, a bully and a murderer, and anybody who describes him as anything else is lying. We cannot have an accommodation with the Russians until they understand what Ronald Reagan taught them, and that is peace through strength. Right now we have no peace and we have no strength. I don't know what Mr. Tillerson's relationship with Vladimir Putin was, but I'll tell you it is a matter of concern to me." Under Tillerson as CEO, Russia became Exxon’s single biggest exploration theatre as the company amassed drilling rights across tens of millions of acres, dwarfing its holdings in the US, formerly its largest drilling opportunity, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings. When the Putin regime forced Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other foreign investors to cede control of a massive gas export project on Sakhalin Island in 2007, Exxon’s holdings in the same region remained intact and untouched by the government. ExxonMobil is the largest company in the world, and it has business in most of it. It also has an internal security apparatus that is highly protective and difficult to penetrate -- is this the shiny object that attracted Donald Trump?? • • • The search for a Secretary of State has divided Trump's senior advisors. Some have bluntly warned in public that tapping Romney would anger the President-Elect's loyal supporters. Trump himself has sent mixed messages about Romney in recent days, according to people who have spoken with him, suggesting in some conversations that Romney isn't getting the job and saying in others that he is still in contention. Trump is said to be intrigued by the prospect of filling the diplomatic post with an international businessman and has told those close to him that he likes the idea of an impressive-looking Cabinet stocked with generals, the business elite and the extremely successful. And while he is said to like how Romney looks the part of a statesman, he also likes how Tillerson projects success and gravitas from running a massive global corporation, according to a person not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions. • • • Trump should know that 'looks' mean nothing. The proof is that he was elected President. Some close to Trump have said he had concerns that the 72-year-old Rudy Giuliani may lack the stamina and charisma for the high-profile, globe-trotting position -- interesting coming from the oldest first-term President ever elected. There is also concern voiced about the work Giuliani has done after leaving public service -- he advised foreign political figures and worked for lobbying and security firms whose clients have had complicated relationships with the US government. He also made speeches demanding the State Department remove an Iranian opposition group from a US terror blacklist -- not a bad idea, actually. Some Trump advisors reportedly had hoped Giuliani would be interested in being nominated for Secretary of Homeland Security, where they believed his financial ties would cause less concern -- again interesting because Mayor Giuliani 's financial ties must be minor when compared to either Rex Tillerson's or Donald Trump's. • • • Dear readers, the fundamental unease I have with Trump's decision that Rudy Giuliani will not be a member of his Cabinet is the same unease I have about Trump's abandonment of his other most loyal campaign supporters, those who spoke out for him early, alienating the Republican leadership and putting their professional reputations on the line. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani have left empty-handed. Only Senator Jeff Sessions has been rewarded by being named Attorney General. • Perhaps Newt Gingrich really wanted to remain an outsider advisor; perhaps Chris Christie is too deeply tarred with Bridgegate; perhaps Rudy Giuliani was too demanding in seeking only the job at State. But, that nagging unease about all of them, and especially about Rudy Giuliani, who is a true Amerian hero, boils down to a question about honor. Machiavelli said 500 years ago : "It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles." To be clear -- there is no doubt that Donald Trump will be an outstanding US President who sorts out the regulatory and tax mess that keeps business stifled and jobs scarce. He will overhaul America's healthcare system for the better. He will give more power back to the states. He will protect the Constitution by naming conservative Supreme Court justices. And, Rex Tillerson, if nominated and consented to by the Senate, may well be a fine Secretary of State -- so would Rudy Giuliani. • In political life, there is only one thing that matters -- your honor, your word -- because those qualities earn you friends, and if you think you don't need friends in political life -- well, maybe you are in the wrong profession. Even Donald Trump will need political friends who reach beyond his family and inner Trump Tower circle. Unavoidably, watching Rudy Giuliani walk away from any hope of a position in the Trump Cabinet, I felt some of Trump's honor walked away with him. That Romney remains in contention while Giuliani is gone negates all that loyalty and friendship -- and honor -- should be about. As my old Washington insider friend and mentor, a Texan, liked to say, "You meet the same people on the way down that you met on the way up." It's an old Washington truism, but the meaning is clear. • It seems fitting that Honest Abe should have the last word on honor : "The fiery trials through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation." Donald Trump is now passing through a fiery trial, although perhaps he doesn't realize it, and he doesn't seem quite up to the challenge of remembering who his most loyal friends are and honoring them as they so fully deserve. Others may disagree, but for me Giuliani and Gingrich were seminal voices in electing Donald Trump. They, from their positions of proven personal worth and political success, assured us time after time that Donald Trump was honest, solidly conservative, interested only in rebuilding American, and honorable. It is now time for President-Elect Trump to prove they were right. If not Giuliani, then certainly, a hundred times more, not Romney or Tillerson. Mr. Trump should select a Secretary of State all Americans -- and all Republicans -- can be proud of as the person representing the United States all over the world. That person is neither the vicious character assassin that is Mitt Romney nor the crass self-interested Putin pal that is Rex Tillerson. You can do much better, Mr. Trump.