reality-based educator

Rudy Giuliani's campaign called up a family from Iowa that had contributed money to his campaign and asked if they wanted to host a rally for him on their family.

They said sure and started prepping for the rally immediately - security checks, calls to the fire and police departments, invitations, etc. - only to get a call from Giuliani's campaign that the rally was going to be canceled because the family wasn't worth a million or more.

Here are the details:

On Tuesday Deb received a call from Giuliani’s Des Monies office and was asked to call New York.

“They wanted to know our assets,” she revealed, and added that she and Jerry have a modest 80 acre farm and raise cattle.

Later she received a call from Tony Delgado at the Des Monies location.

“Tony said, ‘I’m sorry, you aren’t worth a million dollars and he is campaigning on the Death Tax right now.’ then he said they weren’t going to be able to come,” Deb continued.

The Death Tax is a federal version of the Iowa Inheritance Tax.

The VonSpreckens then called Delgado back and told him how upset they were that the event had been cancelled, how much work they had done and that they had been expecting 75-100 people at their farm.

“I invited him into my home,” Deb said of Giuliani, fighting back tears.

She said she then got a call from New York later the same day asking her to introduce Giuliani at a rally in Cedar Rapids, also scheduled for May 4. They offered her one-on-one time with Giuliani and to have her photo taken with him.

“My feeling is that they’re trying to cover their butts,” said Jerry.

“I may go and give him a piece of my mind, but I’m not going to introduce him,” Deb included.

Preparations had already been put in place for traffic control and bleachers and Deb’s mother, sister and niece were planning to fly from Texas to meet Giuliani.

“Now they pull this,” Jerry exclaimed. “It’s really sad that we aren’t good enough because we aren’t millionaires.”

I bet they lose more votes with this horrendous story than they would have won had they held the rally.

Amateurs.

One thing more: can you imagine if John Edwards or Hillary Clinton had pulled this? Tweety Bird Matthews and the rest of the cable TV chowderheads would be all over the story as another "Elitist Dem" sticks it to Middle America.

But because it's "America's Mayor," there's only silence.

That's already - Rudy's making so many mistakes these days that his campaign ship, already listing from the poor first debate and the abortion controversies, is taking on more water by the day.

A couple more stories like these, coupled with a juicy revelation or two about his business affairs and/or Bernie Kerik, and America's Mayor can go back to pulling in six figures for his speeches.

UPDATE: Here's one of those stories:

Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisors for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges it misled doctors and patients about the addiction risks of the powerful narcotic painkiller OxyContin.

Federal officials say the company, Purdue Frederick, helped to trigger a nationwide epidemic of addiction to the time-release painkiller by failing to give early warnings that it could be abused.

Prosecutors say "in the process scores died."

Drug Enforcement Administration officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com Giuliani personally met with the head of the DEA when the DEA's drug diversion office began a criminal investigation into the company.

According to the book "Painkiller," by New York Times reporter Barry Meier, both Giuliani and his then-partner Bernard Kerik "were in direct contact with Asa Hutchinson, the administrator of DEA."

Hutchinson told the Blotter on ABCNews.com today that Giuliani asked for a meeting, "and we gave him a meeting." Hutchinson says he was aware the company was under investigation at the time, and "any time a company is under investigation I like to give them a chance to make their case."

Kerik told New York Magazine at the time that Giuliani had raised $15,000 in donations for a "traveling museum operated by the DEA."

Some officials told ABC News there were questions inside the agency of whether the donations were an attempt to influence the DEA.

Meier wrote that "with Giuliani now in the mix, the pace of DEA's investigation into Purdue's OxyContin plant in New Jersey slowed as Hutchinson repeatedly summoned division officials to his office to explain themselves and their reasons for continuing the inquiry.

Giuliani's campaign refused to comment on it.

I can see why.